Papa's Wife

Papa's WIfe
by: Thyra Ferre Bjorn
1955
hardback, 305 pages

I found Papa's Wife to be a refreshing story. It is a step back into time before I was born and yet because "Mama" is the main character and I am a mom, there are lots of points of interesting connection for me.
As a housekeeper at age 16 Mama knew she loved Papa, who was a minister and 21 years her senior.  But it took a while for Papa to know he loved Mama.  The daily life of marriage make up the the bulk of the 300 page story.  They add eight children to their happy household, one after the next, and in time the family take a long voyage by boat from Sweden to America, the land of education and hope.  For Papa, who loved his little Swedish church in the land of the midnight sun situated in beautiful mountains, it was a big sacrifice to leave all that was familiar to move to America, even if it was Mama's dream.  The peppering of Swedish words throughout gave flavor to the story as did the mini-sermons that were not always preached from a pulpit.   Although at times there are patches of predictability, the slow-paced account of life, season upon season, felt comfortable and I'm tempted to look up recipes for some of the Swedish foods that filled Mama's kitchen with tempting odors. Thanks Chriss for your recommendation and I'm thankful to Height's Library that did a fine job in tracking down this hard to come by book.  I liked Mama and her dedicated life to her husband and children, she was an inspiration of hope and strength.  The dedication page reads:
To My Mother
Maria Wickman Ferre
This Is Lovingly Dedicated
I recommend Papa's Wife to those that would enjoy a glimpse of motherhood from another time.   A few lines from page 187 when Papa goes fishing makes me wish for a less electronically dependent society.  "The trees were faintly green against the silver-blue sky, and along the path wood violets lifted their delicate heads.  Birds twittered a hymn of joy that winter had passed. "   

Until We Reach Home

Until We Reach Home

By: Lynn Austin

428 pages paperback

2008

Russell and I were living at a condo on at least 11 non-stop lanes of Houston highway and excitedly just signed a rental agreement for a charming home built in 1894 and nestled near a park in Brenham, TX… then the deal fell through and I knew on that rainy, sad day a good book would help.  The title, Until We Reach Home, caught my attention in the church library and I recognized the author from the first novel I read in 2011 so I gave it a go.  The story begins in rural Sweden in January of 1897 and concludes in busy Chicago, IL about nine months later.  Three sisters go through noticeable individual change as they journey together, leaving the familiar for the unknown.  The novel had several twists and turns that one can expect to make up a 400 plus page story, and when the last page was turned I was thankful that there was not a sequel as I have read enough of the three of them.  To be fair, there is a good deal of description (and I like how the author threw in some words in Swedish here and there) among the sappiness, preaching and silver- lined clouds.  It did hold my interest as a decent distraction and it was hopeful to read of other sojourners and how they made it.  Maybe one day Russell and I will reach home too.  “We’re going to trust God, just like Mama did.  Even when she was dying, she trusted Him and never doubted His love, remember?  Things might still be a mess right now, but He can make everything right.  He is already making it right.  We thought everyone in our family was gone and that it was just the three of us, but now our family is starting to grow again….”  This optimistic outbreak from the youngest sister is worth holding on to.    If you are looking for a light, journey kind of story, reading about Elin, Kirsten and Sofia could be the book for you. 

The Help

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
530 pages; Paperback
2009

Many gals have recommended this book to me, so I was really excited when Mint came for Christmas break she had nearly finished the story and said i could read it next (I'm sure Hannah found a day to read it too during the holidays).
This story is written with such wonderful description that I’m not sure I ever want to go back to Mississippi again, but I do hope that many changes for good have taken place since the 1960’s when The Help took place. Set in a very volatile time in US southern history, this novel draws the readers in from the beginning as you meet in the first few chapters three women whose lives intermingle throughout the course of 500 plus pages. Abileen is who I like best as she is kind, honest and brave. She has a wonderful way with children and although her only child, a son, died as a young adult, she has raised nearly 20 children over her life-time as a maid for various families in Jackson, Mississippi. Minnie, also a maid (and a sassy one at that) is a friend of Abileen’s and her tenacity and spunk jump right off the pages. Skeeter, young, single, white and desiring to be an author, embarks on a project that changes her life and the lives of many in Jackson forever.
Richly told in the vernacular and from the point of view of these three women, readers gain insight into the values, fears, families and friendships of those who live on both sides of a very definite line, a line that seldom was crossed. Early on in the story, Abileen describes the woman she works for and concludes with the statement, “But the help always know.” And that is exactly what we discover in the story that turns out to be a book inside of a book and an insightful look at the day to day realities of those that live in a society that was on a brink of important change.
I loved how the ending of this book offers fresh beginnings for each of three main characters and how they grew closer to each other and grew in confidence and courage to face the new unknowns before them. I generally do not like sequels, but I feel like I know the women in this story so well, that I would enjoy reading the next chapter in their lives. Or maybe better yet, to hear from their perspective as they look back to these days from the 60’s when each of their lives is at its end. I would love to hear the difference they saw (and lived) due to their heroic contribution.
First time novelist, Kathryn Stockett has earned the praise of many for her #1 New York Times Bestseller book. She has offered a glimpse into the past with genuine and courageous openness. The fact that she as a child was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, with the help of a maid, adds to the authenticity from which she writes, and I agree with what she sees as the point of the book: “We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”

Beloved

In 1988 Toni Morrison's novel Beloved won the Pulitzer Prise for Fiction and is on Hannah's book list for an American Literature class at Baylor.  So when we saw the paperback for sale in a book barn after picking blueberries in Michigan, I paid the 4 dollars then in need of a story to captivate me during a migraine I began to read it, from the beginning, not looking at the back cover for hints of what I was in store for.  


After the first chapter I did not want to go forward nor did I want to put the story down.  Its poetic writing and convincing language took me in even as the pictures it painted were on a canvas of something I did not wanted to see.  The story was the story of a woman, and those in her family, both one generation older than her and one generation younger and it moved abruptly from past to present (post Civil War) and back again with most of the pages anchored in Cincinnati,  Ohio. There is not a whole lot of romance in this love story but the love is thick.


I have to agree with those that praised the extraordinary talent expressed in this novel. It took you right back to where you could taste, see and feel what was going on, to places i did not want to be, nor did i want anyone to have to experience, but to know that many did have lives like those in this story gives me much to think about.   Near the end of the book, a minor character makes on observation that I feel does a good job at summing up the story.  "The future was sunset; the past something to leave behind.  And if it did not stay behind, well, you might have to stomp it out.  Slave life; free life-everyday was a test and a trial."

this novel was indeed a trial for me to read.


Beloved
Toni Morrison
275 pages paperback
1988

Eve's Daughters

Here it was several weeks into January and I still had not read a book this year..i was craving a good read.  I remembered a post on facebook from my friend Donna D (our friendship began in our post-married, pre-baby days of living in Dallas) and her status was something like curled up on these cold days with a good book.  when i questioned what she was reading lately, she replied, she loved the historical fictions by Lynn Austin.  Our school's library had one Lynn Austin book on the shelf, so that made the choice easy :) and without even reading the back cover of the book, i delved into the life of Louise, a newly married woman living in pre-world war one Germany.  
pages turned easy as the story took you forward and backward over an eighty plus year span into the life of 4 generations of woman, all with choices to make. The preface was from Exodus 20:5 ...I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me....so that was a clue that not all these choices were easy or good ones.
Getting involved with the lives of Louise, her daughter Emma, her daughter Grace and her daughter Suzanne (who also had two daughters) continues to cause me to ponder who am i in this chain of generational daughters... daughters that go back to the first woman Eve...how did the choices of the daughters before me effect me and what are the effects of my choices on the daughters that come after me....Needless to say, I enjoyed the book and toward the end found myself reading until after 3:00 am (what was I thinking having coffee before bed?). Thank you, Donna, for helping me to start out new year 2011 with good perspective from a well written story.

Eve's Daughters
author: Lynn Austin
paperback;  428 pages
1999