REVIEW: MOTHERS AND OTHER LIARS by Amy Bourret

When she was 19, Ruby Leander, on her way from Iowa to California, stopped at a gas station in Oklahoma and found a baby in a trash can. Assuming she has been abandoned, Ruby, with no experience in taking care of babies, nonetheless takes the baby who she named, Lark, and after a wrong turn, ends up settling in with her "daughter" in Santa Fe. After nine years she has made a life for the two of them, Ruby has a great boyfriend, a job, and Lark who has no idea that she isn't Ruby's biological daughter. Ruby is also pregnant with her first biological child and her boyfriend, Chaz, has asked her to marry him.

But it all is about to come crashing down on her when she reads an article about a baby who was kidnapped during a carjacking nine years before. There can be no mistake. The baby in the picture is definitely Lark. Everyone who is dear to her will soon know her entire life has been a big lie. Ruby's worst fears have become a reality.

Philip and Darla Tinsdale have been grief-stricken ever since the day nearly 10 years ago when they lost their daughter. Now the miracle they've prayed for has come – their daughter is to be returned to them. But things aren't going well at the Tinsdale house. Before one of the court appearances Ruby is able to see Lark for a short visit. As they are about to say goodbye, Lark whispers, "Do something." It's then that Ruby concocts a plan that will not only make the Tinsdale's happy but will bring Lark home.

I loved this book! Once I got into it I absolutely could not put it down until I finished at 3:45 early Sunday morning. There wasn't a slow spot in the book. I loved the short chapters (from one page to five or so each). It made it such an easy read. This was so well written I would never had believed it was a first novel. The characters were well-drawn, the plot unpredictable and the prose lyrical. Although my copy was an ARC and did not have the extras, including reader group questions I am glad to see that the finished copies will include these as this is the perfect reader's group selection. I can imagine it would lead to a rousing discussion.

 

 

REVIEW: I AM HUTTERITE

I AM HUTTERITE

By Mary Ann Kirkby

Rating 8 out of 10

As a descendant of the the first group of Hutterites coming from Russia to Dakota Territory in the 1870s I try to read anything I can regarding this little-known religious sect. I was thrilled to see this book by Mary Ann Kirkby and even more to see many of the surnames in my own family tree mentioned, particularly that of my paternal grandmother (Wipf). These people of German lineage who immigrated first to south Russia to colonize land under Catherine the Great, eventually came to the American plains in the 1870s. Many of these people are part of the "Germans from Russia" who populated the prairies of the Great Plains during this time.

The author, then Ann-Marie Dornn, chronicles her life in a Hutterite Colony in Manitoba in the 1960s and 70s, as well as her mother's experiences a decade or so earlier. Life in a colony is very different from life as most of us know it. Living communally in a Hutterite Colony means that men and women are separated during meals and worship. The residents all eat in a large hall, the meal being cooked by the middle-aged women. The children knew very little of the outside world, only what they have seen in rare trips to the nearby town or from a schoolteacher who comes from the outside to teach the children. Although life in a secluded colony seems odd to many, the families never went hungry, and the children certainly had little worries.

The first 2/3 of I AM HUTTERITE deals with life in the colony, the author's family specifically. But this isn't just a list of facts, Kirkby manages to tell a good story along the way. The last 1/3 of the book deals with the Dornn family's struggles after they leave the colony to live on their own. The children are forced to go to public school where their old-fashioned clothes, hair, and even lunch set them apart from the other students.

Kirkby is a marvelous writer. I probably enjoyed the book more than someone not directly related to the Hutterites will, but a good story is a good story and this book should appeal to anyone wanted to read a well-written, compelling memoir. It is hoped that readers will be compelled to read more about the Hutterites including MY HUTTERITE LIFE by Lisa Stahl and HUTTERITE SOCIETY by John Hostetler. It is hoped more of my former Hutterite cousins, now scattered across the USA, will find this book and learn more about their heritage. This book is very highly recommended.

REVIEW: THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DuPREE

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DuPREE

By Ann Weisgarber

Rating 9 out of 10

It's the early 19 C. and 25-year-old Rachel Reeves has been cooking at Mrs. DuPree's boarding house for eight years, sharing her wages with her parents. She's had her share of potential suitors but they have all been "slaughterhouse men" like her now-crippled father. She knows from experience that killing animals could turn a man mean and bitter or lead him to drink and that's not the life she wants.

When handsome, light-skinned Isaac DuPree, the son of the boarding house proprietor arrives to visit his mother, Rachel is immediately smitten. Even though his mother wants a wife of higher means for her son, he wants to homestead and since the best land is all claimed, he ends up in the Badlands of South Dakota and wants all the land he can lay his hands on. He eventually makes an agreement with Rachel. If she will turn over the 160 acres she can get as a single woman to him, he will marry her if she agrees to stay one yea. It's mainly just a marriage of convenience for Isaac but Rachel wants to get out of dirty, smelly Chicago and marriage and homesteading is her ticket. She has no idea how desolate and lonely her new home will be.

The book then fast forwards 14 years. Rachel is still toughing it out in the Badlands with Isaac and their children. But a drought has enveloped the area leading to the death of many cattle and the family having to resort to perilous means to get the little water they can from their well.

Although over the years Rachel has impressed Isaac with her ability to stick it out and not only that become quite the help to him on their ranch, after several tragedies, the drought, and Isaac needing to go to Rapid City, 70 miles to the west, to find work in the winter, leaving Rachel and the family alone, she begins to wonder if enough is enough.

Ann Weisgarber's debut is a doozy of a novel. Having already won several awards, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DuPREE is a novel readers will have trouble putting down once started. It is a testament to the author's writing skill that this reviewer stayed up into the wee hours reading two nights in a row and finished the book in two days. This is, simply put, an outstanding novel about pioneers not much has been written about – those of the Negro families trying to tame the western frontier. Rachel isn't perfect, but she is admirable with the strength to deal with more than anyone could dare imagine. This book is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a well-written story that isn't predictable. Although women will likely enjoy this the most, there's a lot in the book that will even have men reading it. I very much enjoyed the story and would love to read more about Rachel and her family in a sequel. Thanks, Ms. Weisgarber, for a terrific read.