The Library of Legends by Janie Chang

                                                            

 Title: The Library of Legends

Author: Janie Chang

Genre: Historical fiction, Legend, Magical Realism


Synopsis: 1937, China is at war with Japan and the students and faculty at Minghua University must evacuate. In addition to saving the lives of people of those at the university, they carry with them important and historical volumes from the school's library. Lian, a second-year student with a complicated family history, and the students in her group are tasked with each carrying a book from the Library of Legends. This the only surviving portion of an ancient encyclopedia and the stories encompass the legends of Chinese Gods and immortals. In their walk to travel thousands of miles, Lian becomes close with a fourth-year student, Shaoming, who comes from a wealthy family, and his servant, Sparrow. Lian, Shao, and Sparrow travel together to save the Library of Legends and to reunite with their families, encountering danger and mystical occurrences along the way.

My Thoughts

First of all, how beautiful is the cover of this book? And you can totally judge THIS book by its cover, that is for sure.

I haven't had this much fun reading a war novel in a long time. The story does detail the difficulties, danger, and losses of those living in the affected areas of China and the refugee crisis as people evacuated their cities, but it is done so well. 

Chang brings the subjects of the Library of Legends to life through the eyes of those people with the ability and gift to see them. The patrons of the cities are leaving as they are recalled from Earth, leaving the people who pray to them unprotected. It is a beautiful metaphor for the abandonment felt by those in times of war. For Lian to become part of the story she carries, The Prince and the Willow Star, is a stroke of genius. Bringing the mystical to the novel helps to lighten a historically inspired story about a time of tragedy and loss.

This is also a story of resilience, hope, and perseverance. Carrying the Library of Legends gave the students something to focus on other than their own safety and the long and difficult journey they had to make, mostly on foot, across China. Chang shows how many privileged students evolved through this journey and how those who did not know one another before evacuation became bonded by their experience.

This novel encompasses so much I had to categorize it in several genres; there is a love story, war, mystery, history, and some fantasy aspects that make this a book that many people would enjoy reading. I was so very sad when I came to the last page, but look forward to reading more from this author! 

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Love and Hate in Jamestown by David A. Price

                                                                

 Title: Love and Hate in Jamestown

Author: David A. Price

Genre: Nonfictions


Synopsis: 

This book chronicles the founding of Jamestown by the Virginia Company and the efforts (or lack thereof) of the people who lived there to build and maintain a city in the New World. 

My Thoughts

I am really intrigued by pre-American Revolution colonial America, especially in what is now the United States. It is strangely difficult to find information about this period outside the Salem Witch Trials, and the Pilgrims, that is accurate, not a textbook, or written in a SUPER boring manner. 

This book is less than 250 pages and I feel really highlights what life was like for people living in Jamestown. The use of primary sources that Price includes helps the reader to understand the perspective of the founders of Jamestown, especially John Smith. Price works to debunk the Smith/Pocahontas myth and to accurately describe the relationship between the indigenous people of Virginia and the colonists. While I think it is the author's intent to speak write from a non-biased standpoint and give the facts about the colonists and Pohatans, because the book is written about the founding of the colony and the only contemporary writings are from the colonists, it can feel like he depicts the Powhatan culture as primitive aggressors. 

The book is written in a manner that is easy to read and doesn't feel like a cumbersome list of facts. While its main focus is the Jamestown colony, the life of John Smith is followed even after his return to England. John Smith's contributions were a main component of the primary sources used in the research for this book. It also includes a brief look at the beginnings of the African slave trade on the American continent as well.

If you are looking to learn about the Jamestown colony, the Powhatan tribe, and pre-revolutionary America in under 250 pages, then this is the book for you! 

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That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron

Title: That Churchill Woman

Author: Stephanie Barron

Genre: Historical Fiction


Synopsis: Growing up with new money in the United States on the brink of the American Civil War, Jennie Jerome has been encouraged by her mother to meet and marry an aristocratic husband while the Jerome women are living in Europe. When young Jennie meets Lord Randolph Churchill, she admires how he seems more interested in her intelligence and opinions than her beauty, and in three days they are engaged. After they marry, Jennie realizes her marriage is not what she expected it to be, and that Randolph carries secrets of his own. In an effort to find fulfillment and happiness Jennie becomes infamous for her 'flirtations' with men in the aristocracy, while still being devoted to her marriage and the raising of her children Winston and Jack. 

My Thoughts

I was excited to find that this novel did not just encompass Jennie's adult life in England, but also shared about her young life in the United States. It was interesting to see how her upper-class family reacted to increasing unrest as the United States was on its way to civil war. 

This novel also highlights the inequity for all women in the standards society sets, but especially for women, like Jennie, who was under close scrutiny and was likely to end up in tabloids for every move she made. Seeing the difficulty of trying to maintain status but also wanting to be present for her children and support her husband makes Jennie a sympathetic protagonist, despite her infamy. 

I also enjoyed seeing a young Winston Churchill through the eyes of his mother. It provides the reader with an understanding of how the famous leader came to be the man that history remembers.  

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Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

 

Title: Washington Black

Author: Esi Edugyan

Genre: Fiction


Synopsis: "Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.

 
But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again." - Back Cover

My Thoughts

After I finished reading my last book, I used my Christmas and birthday gift cards to go on a book buying spree and purchased 7 books that were on my TBR list, this was one that had been on my list for a while.

I loved Wash's story, especially his transition from enslaved field worker to young artist while assisting Titch. Having his passion for art lead him to the Goff family and allow him to renew his passion for drawing wildlife as a young adult was an inspired choice by the author, and I enjoyed his transition to life in England.

In the end, I felt let down by the last section of the book when Wash travels to Morroco. This portion of the story felt rushed and at odds with the rest of the writing. I felt the ending was unresolved, not in a good way that keeps you wanting more, instead, the reader feels like, 'Oh, that's the end?' I think an epilogue may have been appropriate, if not another chapter, to make the novel feel complete.

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Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini

                                                            

Title: Resistance Women
Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Historical Fiction


Other books that I have read by this author:
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker: A Novel, The Spymistress: A Novel, Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule, Fates and Traitors, Mrs. Lincoln's Rival, Enchantress of Numbers

Synopsis: "After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships, and rewarding work—but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate.

As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid, and their friends resolve to resist. Mildred gathers intelligence for her American contacts, including Martha Dodd, the vivacious and very modern daughter of the US ambassador. Her German friends, aspiring author Greta Kuckoff and literature student Sara Weitz, risk their lives to collect information from journalists, military officers, and officials within the highest levels of the Nazi regime.

For years, Mildred’s network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences." - back cover

My Thoughts

I loved everything about this book. The story was gripping, the characters realistic and relatable, and it's a WWII novel unlike any I have read before. It is set in Germany and is told from the perspective of different women living in Germany during Hitler's rise to power and during the war.

 I have often read WWII novels set in concentration camps or in England, highlighting the plights of the people being persecuted and attacked by the war. It is really intriguing to read about people living in Germany who did not condone or understand the support that the Nazis were receiving from so many of the German citizens, or why the League of Nations did so little to stop their rise to power. It shows just how easily a democratic country can slip into a fascist dictatorship if people stand by and let it happen. 

The four main women depicted in the story are all working to overthrow the Nazi regime. Mildred is an American ex-pat living in Germany with her antifascist German husband. Greta is a german-born student who studied in Wisconsin, having met Mildred and her husband during her time there. Sara is a native German whose family loses everything as the rights of Jewish people are taken away one-by-one. Finally, Martha is the daughter of the American ambassador living with her parents and brother in Germany while their father performs his duties. Three of the women are based on actual historical figures, and Sara is based on many Jewish women living in Germany at the time.

Reading about their resistance efforts in a time when being caught was treason and almost certain death is unbelievable. They believed in the good and beautiful Germany of their youths and were fighting against the horrific actions of the barbaric group allowed to take over the government.



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The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

                                                              

Title: The Fiery Cross

Author: Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Fiction, SciFi, Historical, Fantasy

Other books I've read by this author: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn

Synopsis: 
"The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser’s wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveler’s certain knowledge.

Born in the year of Our Lord 1918, Claire Randall served England as a nurse on the battlefields of World War II, and in the aftermath of peace found fresh conflicts when she walked through a cleftstone on the Scottish Highlands and found herself an outlander, an English lady in a place where no lady should be, in a time—1743—when the only English in Scotland were the officers and men of King George’s army.

Now wife, mother, and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander, out of place, and out of time, but now, by choice, linked by love to her only anchor—Jamie Fraser. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead—or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes....

Grand, sweeping, utterly unforgettable, The Fiery Cross is riveting entertainment, a vibrant tapestry of history and human drama." - Back Cover 

My Thoughts

Approximately 1,400 pages later, The Fiery Cross got me through most of December and into the new year! This is the first review of 2021, and the fifth in the Outlander series that I began in 2020. 

This novel really starts to step away from the television series, while some of the main events still occur, most of the novel and specifically the small details of how the main events come about really starts to change.

Brianna and Roger really start to settle in to living in the 1770s and raising their son Jeremiah with the help of Claire and Jamie. Claire's role as a healer has been firmly established in the area, and Jamie has firmly cemented himself as the leader of the community on Fraser's Ridge. 

Many of the storylines started in Drums of Autumn are continued and resolved in this novel and start to set up new ones for the next installment in this series.

Can't wait to continue reading this series! 

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Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

                                                        

 Title: Island Beneath the Sea

Author: Isabel Allende

Genre: Historical Fiction


Synopsis: 

Zarite, or Tete, is born into slavery on the island of Saint Domingue in the 1700s. She is sold to Toulouse Valmorain as a young girl and works in the house on his sugarcane plantation. Through the years she becomes a nursemaid for his wife and child and a mother to her own. When the Haitian Revolution begins Valmorain flees with his family to New Orleans, and Tete begins a new life with the family just as the United States obtains new land in the Lousiana Purchase.

My Thoughts

I have never read anything about the Haitian revolution before and this is such an interesting read. Some chapters are told from Tete's perspective, but most is written in third person. 

Getting to understand what life was like on the island during French Colonialism and how the revolution started is very intriguing. Especially the hardships of the slaves who had the completely exhausting work of cutting sugar cane and creating molasses on the plantation. 

It was also fascinating to have a look into life in New Orleans before it became a part of the United States. French and Spanish colonial rule gave it the more European feel it still has today. In both locations, Tete has to deal with strong political and social boundaries based on skin color. Not just between those considered Black and White, but the variations in between of those who are mixed race, including her own daughter.

This novel is very well done and I would recommend that everyone take the chance to read it.

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