Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (Scribner, 2019) is the story of questioning fate tied into friendship, war, survival, betrayal, and ultimately forgiveness. Two girls from different backgrounds, Mi-ja and Young-sook, become friends in the 1930s, and their friendship story alternates between their growing-up years and 2008 “modern-day” Young-sook, who is a bitter
Because of inheritance law, Major Hugh Darracott is now the heir of the Darracott home in The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer (published 1959), even though his domineering grandfather Lord Darracott has never met him. After the recent death of his oldest son and oldest grandson, now Lord Darracott must invite this unknown grandson into
When I was younger, I read the first six (or so) books from The Work and the Glory series by Gerald Lund, which tells a fictionalized account of one family who lived during the first years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now the series is complete with nine books, and I
The titular character in the Regency novel Frederica by Georgette Heyer (published 1965) is not looking to get married. Ever since her father died, Frederica Merriville has been the guardian of her family, and even beforehand she was the principal person to run the household, since her mother has been gone for years. Now she
Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary (published 1961) is a funny semi-autobiographical historical novel about a girl in the 1920s living in rural Oregon, written by the esteemed and well-beloved Beverly Cleary. I hadn’t know Cleary had written any historical fiction books; I’d only been familiar with her Ramona and Henry Huggins books, some of
Mary Bennet finally gets her own story and happiness in The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow (Henry Holt, 2020). Mary the easily ignored middle daughter of the family at the center of Pride and Prejudice, and I’m sure many readers of the classic novel skim over her role. She’s annoying and reflects badly on
The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (published posthumously in 1971) is the author’s “rough draft” of one more book about her early life, in this case the first four years of her marriage. Because it was only discovered after her death and was published in essentially the same form it was found it,
Little Blacknose: The Story of a Pioneer by Hildegarde Swift (published 1929) is a story for a young child about the creation of the first steam locomotive in New York State. The steam locomotive, eventually called the DeWitt Clinton Steam Engine, ran between Albany and Schenectady beginning in 1831. (Although that’s less than 20 miles,
A cotillion is a formal dance in which couples change partners, like a quadrille. It can also mean a general ball, specifically one for a debutant as she enters society for the first time. So, a cotillion can also be a kind of a training dance as well, one in which young children practice together
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (published 1933) was the author’s second historical fiction children’s novel. As with her first (Little House in the Big Woods; see review), Wilder has written a concise book detailing the daily life and experiences of a child in 1800s America. It differs from all the rest of Wilder’s book
In the Regency romance novel Arabella by Georgette Heyer (published 1949), our titular heroine, the young daughter of a humble reverend, gets a chance to bloom in city society, especially after a rumor spread that she is a wealthy heiress. Robert Beaumaris, a wealthy dandy that sets the city standard of chic, is amused when
I don’t remember having read These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder before (first published 1943). I believe that when I read through the series, my oldest daughter got “bored” because Laura was no longer a girl. This month my nine-year-old and I did enjoy it. While it isn’t a favorite of mine and
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