I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Some of it is for simple joy, and some is for research for my next book.
I’ve read a number of journals of Southern women prior to and during the Civil War, but this was mainly to acquire details about life style. The most interesting pre- Civil War journal I have read to date is that of two sisters from New Hampshire who moved to Florida in the early 1830s. Their point of view is so much broader and emancipated than that of their Southern counterparts, that the difference is quite glaring.
The book is called ‘Echoes from a Distant Frontier’ – and is correspondence betwen the Brown sisters and their artist brother.
I just finished reading this book:
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
To me this book was exquisitely, skillfully written. I often wonder if the author of a work set out to create characters that juxtapose or if they evolve that way as the story emerges.
At any rate, the contrast of the options of the two main characters of the story are striking. The book progresses rapidly and the ends brings the reader up short, wishing that it had ended differently and knowing that it could not have.
