Expand your horizons with a good book

Greetings, friends and neighbors. Welcome to spring.

There are plenty of rainy days when you can make time for a good book, so let us talk literature.  I have read two books recently that are “period pieces”.

 The first, called “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline, is about a time in American History when hungry homeless children roamed the streets of New York City. It was not a pretty time.

 

I understand homelessness, since it is in my history as well. Social Welfare Agencies rounded up these children, packed them in trains, and delivered them to families mostly in the mid western states.

 

Our state of Minnesota received many of these children. They were lined up and handed over to families who wanted them, many to work as laborers on farms and so forth.

 

This book is factually based and follows an Irish girl who was ill received because of her red hair. This is a compelling read.

 The second, “The Invention of Wings” by Sue Monk Kidd, is a chronicle based on the lives of the Grimke sisters from South Carolina.

 

This missive dates to the early 1800’s when “...by law, a slave was three-fifths of a person.” Women were not allowed to have an opinion and certainly not allowed to vote.

 

It follows the journey of these real life sisters, girls and then women of gentry in the South, on their mission to right social wrongs. It is historically interesting. It is hugely depressing in part. The treatment of slaves in the south was utterly appalling.

 

Still, it is beautifully written, and well worth your time.

Expand your horizons with a good book.

Browser, the library cat