Stealing Babies

Throughout history children have often been abused and killed at the hands of adults who should be there to help and support them. This novel brings us back to the 1930’s through the present following a fictional family and the horrific historical incidents surrounding an orphanage. Evil is interlaced with goodness as we see this gracefully told story unfold.

Lisa Wingate takes us back to 1939 on the Mississippi River in “Before We Were Yours.” Parents, Queenie and Briny have five children.  Queenie is pregnant with twins and can’t deliver the babies with a midwife.  Briny makes the decision to leave with Queenie to take her to a hospital.  What happens after that is such a miscarriage of justice that it’s hard to imagine that this actually happened to children in America. 

Wingate drew from the infamous Georgia Tann and her wretched Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis.

Queenie and Briny’s high-spirited children left on a boat in the Mississippi River while their parents leave for the hospital. They are quite poor without any resources. Rill, Camiella, Lark, Fern and Gabion are taken by the police and put into the Tennessee Children’s Home. 

Fast forward to the present, Avery Stafford, a young lawyer, working with her father’s senatorial campaign has a chance encounter with May Crandall at a nursing home, her father happens to be speaking at.  This meeting set into motion a chain of events that would change all their lives forever.

This book has to be read without a lot of information given out beforehand. Wingate wrote a story with a lot of small moments that all become one large one and the reader should see it unfold the way it’s supposed to.

Our book club loved this book.  It’s quite sad at parts, and we may have glossed over a few things we felt too bad about. The book manages to end on a high note, but it stayed with me for days. I can’t fathom hurting a child.  It goes so against everything I believe in.

We talked about the children and the how their lives unfolded. Also, about the other children that no one seems to know about. So many of them were never found. We talked about motherhood and what that really means – biological and adoptive.

Every book club should read this book.

(There are quite a few non-fiction books on the subject that Wingate offers at the end of her novel if you want to continue reading on this subject.)

Enjoy.

Rating: 9 fffffffff

Au Revoir to 2016

What a crazy year this was!  I’m not even sure I could sum it up in a cohesive way.  The one thing I’m sure of is that I read a lot of great books this year. 

Books have helped me through some tough times.  Wondering through a book store, pulling out a book, reading the flap, looking at the cover, and thinking whether this is something that speaks to me.  Sometimes they whisper, sometimes I hear a loud shout.  Some even sound like my own voice with a current problem or worry. A few will let me down, but most of the time I am glad for the journey.

As much as we need friends and people that love us, we also need quiet time.  I read in my quiet time.  Tranquil and soothing, reading allows me to float away as it de-stresses me. Sometimes I travel to places that I might be afraid to.  Reading makes me more empathic,  understanding and a better listener.

When you belong to a book club you get the best of both worlds – reading and friendship.  So, make a resolution in 2017 to join a book club.

This year our book club truly enjoyed a few books.  The first was Eric Larson’s “Isaac’s Storm.”  The hurricane that destroyed Galveston.  We couldn’t imagine experiencing a Cat 4 hurricane without warning and without all the rescue operations we have in place today.  Great read. 

Another book we enjoyed was Anthony Doerr’s, “All the Light We Cannot See.” It was the Pulitzer Prize winner in 2015.  We also truly enjoyed “The Swans of Fifth Avenue,” by Melanie Benjamin.  Damaged people with money – yikes. 

Those are the books that stood out in our book club this year.  As we turn to 2017 we are excited for the new year and all the new possibilities it brings, including some great new reads.

Happy New Year Everyone!