For a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die–Pope Joan, the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Now in this riveting novel, Donna Woolfolk Cross paints a sweeping portrait of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept. from barnesandnoble.com
Great historical fiction. A fun read.
This novel kept me engaged till the very end. I could hardly put it down!
Book Summary
On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a baby’s life. She performs an emergency cesarean section on a mother she believes has died of a stroke. But what if Sibyl’s patient wasn’t dead–and Sibyl inadvertently killed her?
As Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
Synoposis:
Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle was “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.
“Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town — riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car (“I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn’t need to be fed if they weren’t working, and they didn’t leave big piles of manure all over the place”) and fly a plane. And, with her husband Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle. from bookbrowse.com
My mother was raised in southern Mississippi but moved to Arkansas when she was 18 and has been here ever since. She occasionally talked about
the ladies that worked in her house and took care of her family. I’ve always felt that I was brought up juxtaposed to that culture, but never really understood it. After reading The Help, I understand the culture much better and I understand her better. I never thought of her as the baby growing up in that culture or a teenager coming into her own. This book has helped me see her from a different perspective. It was like getting to peer into her childhood.
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town…
from http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Help/Kathryn-Stockett/e/9780399155345
One of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White was a phenomenal bestseller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Dickens, Collins’s friend and mentor. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall readers today.
The story begins with an eeriemidnight encounter between artist Walter Hartright and a ghostly woman dressed all in white who seems desperate to share a dark secret. The next day Hartright, engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie and her half sister, tells his pupils about the strange events of the previous evening. Determined to learn all they can about the mysterious woman in white, the three soon find themselves drawn into a chilling vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue.
Masterfully constructed, The Woman in White is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction—Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant “Napoleon of Crime.” from Barnes and Noble website
This was a fun book to read. I recommend it, especially if you like the language of Victorian England.
Hagar
Who was the first person visited by an angel in the entire Bible?
(Nope. Not in the garden. It was a cherubim that was put at the entrance to the garden with a flaming sword.)
Hagar. How ’bout that! I would not have guessed her. Hagar encountered the angel of the Lord before anyone else. It had never happened before.
I have always thought of Hagar as a glitch in the beautiful love story of Abraham and Sara. To me, she was an insignificant character in this monumental story. To God, she mattered. She had God’s attention.
Now, I can’t get her off my mind.
When Hagar discovered she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. (Gen. 16:4) In Gen. 15, we learn that Sarai mistreated Hagar terribly once Hagar became pregnant. Some translations say that she was abusive. The tension in that household was high. Even though Sarai had given Hagar to Abram for the purpose of having a child, Sarai couldn’t stand the sight of her servant. Hagar, whose name means “wanderer” or “flight” eventually runs away. Wouldn’t you look for a way out?
Hagar, the Egyptian, possibly picked up from the household of Pharaoh during the time that Sarai was a member of his harem, heads for home.
So we find Hagar fleeing across the desert toward Egypt. She is pregnant, alone, and running away from Sarai when God comes looking for her. Gen. 16:7, “The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert…” The angel of the Lord met Hagar by “a fountain of water in the wilderness” (KJV)
She has broken free from her slavery to Sarai, but God tells her to “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” (Gen. 16:9) She would have most likely died in the desert. She and her baby probably would not have survived the harsh surroundings. God sends her back to safety. He cares for her and for the seed of Abram.
God doesn’t leave it at that. He has more to say to Hagar:
Hagar has something for God in return. She names God. She named him. “You are the God who sees me.” Gen. 16:13
God saw Hagar in the fullness of the word: looked at, recognized, called by name, understood, visited with, provided for.
“I have now seen the One who sees me.” Gen. 16:13 (Makes me think of ‘Stands-With-Her-Fists’ from Dances with Wolves.)
“The name she gave the Lord became attached to the place where they met, a spot where both water and mercy flowed in abundance. ‘That is why the well is called Beer Lahai Roi.’ Genesis 16:14 Literally’ a well to the Living One Who sees me’.” Liz Curtis Higgs in Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible
Hagar returned to Sarai with the full knowledge that the One who sees her is far greater than Abram and Sarai.
God saved Hagar because he loved her. His love saw beyond gender, race, nationality, class, religion. (Higgs) He saved her in the desert. God saw her alone and vulnerable and he saved her.
God saw her. God sees you. God is “One-Who-Sees-Me”. This is the God we serve and honor. He will find you in the desert. He will save you.
What an awesome God!
