Single Wife by Nina Solomon~★★

Author: Nina Solomon
Title: Single Wife
Release Date: June 12, 2003
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Genre: Fiction

Book Jacket: "Grace Brookman is in a most unusual marital crisis. Her husband of five years, Laz, is prone to disappearing for days at a time. It's just the way he is. And Grace has always dealt with it silently and in stride. But when he doesn't return for several weeks, she begins to wonder if he'll ever come back. Her solution? She decides to pretend that he's still around---to convince everyone that Laz is still home and her marriage is still intact, it seems easier than explaining. 
Grace quickly realizes that fabricating a husband is all in the details---the things left out, half-done, out of order; each morning, a pair of his socks in the hamper, a toilet seat up in the bathroom, cabinet doors open, crumbs on the kitchen counter. All the little signs that show a husband is around. She learns that the pretense of a marriage can be reduced to a few timely excuses and well-placed props---a presence conjured by smoke and mirrors. 
But as Grace masters the art of deception, she finds herself the one most deceived. She begins to realize that perhaps her marriage---and her husband---were not what she'd believed them to be. 
Meanwhile, taking on the role of a single wife becomes excessively complicated when Grace's own life starts to spin out of control. She discovers that she's being stalked by a Russian detective, and people from Laz's past appear on her doorstep. She can't get her kvetching parents to stop running her life. Her favorite shade of lipstick has been discontinued. And she can't figure out why she's angry at Laz's best friend for being in love. Grace's life is a New York mess."

Taryn's Review: It took 300 pages in this book to reveal the outcome of the story it told. To say the story dragged is a colossal understatement. There were so many little details in this book that ultimately failed to tie into the bigger picture of the story and those details left me scratching my head in confusion. 

Grace was either blinded by love or totally dense. The book doesn't really explain why Grace kept the charade of Laz's presence going for such a long time or why she felt the need to lie to her family and friends. Previously, Grace also apparently never questioned why her husband would need to abandon her for days at a time without contact.

I'm not sure if the ending of the book was supposed to lead me to believe that Grace had some sort of self-awakening while Laz was gone. Nothing she did while he was missing made me think she was becoming wiser. In fact, I'd say the way the story ended was due to secrets which were revealed because of convenience, not because Grace searched for answers.

I was really bored while reading this story and admit to skipping pages because I was sick of the limbo I was trapped in while reading the book. This limbo has worked for other books, but the "suspense" of this story was not pleasing. I really disliked this book and didn't find the author's writing style particularly unique or fantastic. I'm not sure if I'd try another book by this author; the book would have to already have rave reviews for me to consider spending time on another Soloman book.

Speed Shrinking by Susan Shapiro~★★1/2

Author: Susan Shapiro
Title: Speed Shrinking
Release Date: August 4, 2009
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Genre: Fiction

Book Jacket: "In Susan Shapiro's laugh-out-loud funny fictional debut, Speed Shrinking, Manhattan self-help author Julia Goodman thinks she's got her addictive personality under control. Then her beloved psychoanalyst moves away at the same time her husband takes off to L.A. and her best friend gets married and moves to Ohio.
Feeling lonely and left out, Julia fills the void with food, becomes a cupcake addict, and blimps out. This is a huge problem---especially since she's about to go on national television to plug her hot new self-help book about how she conquered her sugar addiction. 
Navigating her insurance network, Julia desperately sees eight shrinks in eight days, speed-dating for Dr. Replacement---or any other new guru---to help shrink back her body and anxiety in time for her close up." 

Taryn's Review: Disappointingly, this book was not really about "speed shrinking" as the book jacket described. Julia's eight-shrinks-in-eight-days was covered in a few brief pages in this nearly 300-page book. I didn't laugh once while reading this book, either, like the jacket said I would.

The book focused on Julia's coping mechanism after the loss of her "three pillars of support." Her coping mechanism was sugar in any form (not just cupcakes), and she indulged at every opportunity and gained roughly 35 pounds. Julia also began seeing a new therapist, who she called Dr. Cigar, while still seeing her old therapist via iChat and emails.

There were annoyances in the book that pushed the storyline too obviously. Julia's best friend since childhood, Sarah, tells Julia she's moving to Ohio with her soon-to-be-husband because he won a contract for the Cleveland Museum. At brunch the day after the wedding, Sarah's husband tells Julia he hates the city and is a Midwestern boy at heart. I have a hard time believing that during Sarah's courtship with him that he never once would have mentioned this preference. Julia even touted before this point in the book that she was the one who helped Sarah see what a great guy he was, yet she had no clue he wanted to move back home? Sarah also quickly became stereotyped in her marriage, making her exit in Julia's life quite easy. The complexity of a lifelong friendship fizzled out rather smoothly, yet Julia's relationship with her therapist seemed to be at the core of her worries.

By the last third of the book, it had taken turns that really hurt the overall enjoyment of the story. The ending was not good. I really don't understand what exactly I was supposed to take away from it other than noting that Julia was still neurotic and self-centered about her weight. Julia wasn't always a likeable character; I'm not really sure that Julia suffered from an illness in the way she so desperately wanted to suffer. Ironically, after reading about Julia, she would be the last person I'd want to write a self-help book. Julia is obnoxious, noisy, dramatic, and selfish, but she's a great publish speaker, confident, charming, and expressive, which made her a hit with the public. Julia is hard to empathize with, and it only gets harder to do by the end of the book.

Shapiro showed promise in this book, but the story was flat and missing that pull that makes you fall in love. Shapiro has written other books from what I can tell; I wouldn't seek them out necessarily, but I wouldn't turn my nose at one, either.  A great book about someone dealing with an addiction and the plight to overcome and accept such issues is Toni Jordan's Addiction. Ultimately, Shapiro's first attempt at fiction was not a favorite for me and the story was too long, too bland, and the main character was too unlikeable.

Atonement by Ian McEwan~★★★

Author: Atonement
Title: Ian McEwan
Release Date: First published in 2001; this edition published in 2007
Publisher: Seal Books
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Jacket: "On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives., a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century."

Taryn's Review: One book review in April?! Oops! I'm already doing better in May by kicking off with a book! More is to come thanks to a trip to the library.

Now to Atonement. I wanted to love this book; I tried to love this book. Ultimately, I struggled to get through this book. I was really surprised at my distaste for the author because a friend highly recommended this book. Normally we have similar tastes in books, but I could not get into McEwan's style of writing. He was very descriptive, but to me, it wasn't pleasant in the same way Hemingway's descriptions were. Normally I can read a few chapters of a book nightly, but after each chapter of Atonement, I wanted to quit.

The story that McEwan told was thought-provoking. In an off-beat way, it reminded me of the Salem Witch Trials of 1492. At the center of each drama, a young teen's testimony determined the fate of an adult's livelihood. The teens believed what they were saying, swore under oath what they said was true, and their words ruined the lives of others.

Justice played a strong theme in the book and it was interesting to read Briony's take on what happened at the end of the tale. After reading the work, I thought about justice again, contemplated what exactly justice is, and if it is really ever "served."

I probably will avoid McEwan's books in the future because I really disliked his writing style. He was overly descriptive which caused my attention to wane repeatedly. Skipping pages was all I could think about at points because I so desperately wanted some movement in the book. I think the actual tale is rather good, but not good enough to persuade me to try another book of the author's writing.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis~★★★

Author: Ayana Mathis
Title: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Release Date: December 6, 2012
Publisher: Random House Audio; Unabridged edition; read by Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin, and Adam Lazarre-White
Genre: Fiction

Audio Book Cover: "A debut of extraordinary distinction: through the trials of one unforgettable family, Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration, a story of love and bitterness and the promise of a new America.
In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointments and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them. 
Captured here in twelve luminous threads, their lives tell the story of a mother's monumental courage and the journey of a nation. Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis's The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life." 

Taryn's Review: I listened to this book and it was eight CDs long. In other words, it took a long time to complete because I haven't been in the car very much! The book was written so Hattie, the main character, was described from the perspective of her children.  Early in the book it was explained that Hattie's mother had died after the family moved from Georgia to Philadelphia, and how Hattie's mother disliked August, who would become Hattie's husband. The chapters in the book range in years from 1925-1980 and discuss the children: Jubilee, Philadelphia, Floyd, Six, Cassie, Belle, Alice, Billips, Franklin, Ruthie, Ella and Hattie's granddaughter, Sala. (Since I did not have the text, I am guessing regarding the spelling of names.)

While reading the book, it reminded me of the way tragedies tend to plague particular family lines. Each child was affected differently because of Hattie's harsh mothering; what the children could not realize was that their mother's behavior was correlated to her own troubled marriage and past hurts. In a way, Hattie passed down her hurts to her children, who manifested their pain in varying outlets. Of all the children's stories, I think Belle's stuck out the most for me because it involved a twist that was painful for all parties involved, and Belle did not recognize the magnitude of what her actions did to her mother.

My heart did hurt for Hattie. I cannot imagine being fifteen-years-old, having a mother die, marrying a man who left you once already, and bearing twins, only to have them die months after their birth from a curable illness. August turned out to be a womanizer who left Hattie and the children at night while he wasted money on alcohol and other women as Hattie scraped to pay the bills and put food on the table.

The story was bleak. Near the end of the book, Hattie's thoughts reflected that her coldness and lack of tenderness toward her children was conscious, and that she did it to protect her children from the harsh realities of the world. The world would not love them, and she felt was preparing them for such pain. However, Hattie was responsible for some of the pain in her children's lives.

I wasn't pleased with the main reader of this book at first, but later it felt like she settled into the role and had a better grasp on the characters and their distinct voices. She read almost all of the book, but for some reason Franklin's story was read by a man and Cassie's story was read by a different actress. I don't know why the shift for just those two characters. I wasn't overly impressed with the male actor's reading of Franklin, but I did enjoy the actress who read Cassie's story. She captured the frightening nature of what was happening to Cassie perfectly.

Mathis is a strong author, but I really disliked the lack of closure in the book. A brief snippet of each child's life created a disjointedness that was not rectified at the end of the book. I would read/listen to another of Mathis's books, but the main storyline of this book wasn't my favorite. I appreciated her attempt to have alternative viewpoints in the book, but in this case, it was too many. For example, Floyd and Six had their chapters and then they were barely mentioned again in the book. An ambitious idea, yes, but I don't think the execution was a great use for this particular story. The overarching theme of the Great Migration and the realization that hope and dreams were not within reach for all in the North was interesting, but it was very latent in the book. That notion did not stay in my mind as I read the book, so it was hard for me to remember to connect that to each child as I made my way through the story. I wouldn't deter someone from reading the story, but I don't think it is one of those books that will stay at the forefront of my mind.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash~★★★★

Author: Ron Rash,
Title: Nothing Gold Can Stay: Stories
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Publisher: Ecco
Genre:  Fiction

Book Jacket: "Pen/Faulkner Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash turns again to Appalachia to capture lives haunted by violence and tenderness, hope and fear, in unforgettable stories that span from the Civil War to the present day.
In the title story, two drug-addicted friends return to the farm where they worked as boys to steal their former boss's gruesomely unusual war trophies. In "The Trusty," which first appeared in The New Yorker, a prisoner sent to fetch water for his chain gang tries to sweet-talk a farmer's young wife into helping him escape, only to find that she is as trapped as he is. In "Something Rich and Strange," a diver is called upon to pull a drowned girl's body free from under a falls, but he finds her eerily at peace below the surface. The violence of Rash's characters and their raw settings are matched only by their resonance and stark beauty, a masterful combination that has earned Rash an avalanche of praise." 

Taryn's Review: I feel like I am the worst short story reader. I don't always "get" them. I would have loved to major in English in college, but as my classmates discussed the overarching themes and foreshadowing in English class, I felt so left out. I don't read stories that way. It's not necessarily wrong not to, but I often wish I was able to. I mean, if you completely overlook phallic images in a story while everyone else immediately recognized them, you aren't meant to be an English major, ha!

This is one of those books where I probably overlooked some themes. I really enjoyed Rash's writing style and although half the time I didn't know what I was suppose to take away from the story, I still liked them! Rash wrote the stories in a very point-blank fashion, which I tend to favor. A couple of the stories were a little darker than what I encounter in my normal readings, but none were dark enough to cause me to stop reading. The stories listed in the book jacket were some of my favorites in the book, along with "The Magic Bus."

Short stories are great when you're busy and don't have time to get wrapped up in a single story. I can't speak for everyone, but it's great for me to know the ending to short stories quickly because otherwise I know I'd want to stay up late to continue reading a novel, which I don't have time to do! I wouldn't have any issue selecting another Ron Rash book to read.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin~★★★★

Author: Kate Chopin
Title: The Awakening
Release Date: First released in 1899; this edition released in 1999
Publisher: First published by H. Stone & Co.; this edition published by Recorded Books, LLC, Unabridged edition; read by Alexandra O'Karma
Genre: Fiction

Audio Book Cover: "Born in 1851, Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin led an unconventional life. A great beauty, she married a French plantation owner in Louisiana and bore six children. After she was widowed at 32, Chopin managed the plantation, continued to raise her children, and started to write short stories.
The Awakening, published in 1899, was immediately banned from public libraries for being indecent. The story of a young wife and mother, it shocked readers by portraying a growing awareness of passion and desire---and the woman's decision to act on those emotions. 
Narrator Alexandra O'Karma's performance conveys the young woman's new-found spontaneity and her growing frustration with the constraints of society. Now hailed as a classic of American literature, The Awakening is an exceptional work by an intelligent and sensitive writer." 

Taryn's Review: This is one of those books that is best read and appreciated if you understand the time period in which it was written and in the context of what life was like for women. The book was published in 1899; women didn't have the right to vote, women were not considered to be able to make rational decisions because of their "passions," and many women found themselves resolved to a life of being a housewife and mother, even if that is not what they wanted. Today women in the U.S. are very lucky to have rights, rights that were withheld from women of the past. I read this book as a teen and it completely went over my head. It's one of those books that expects you to have a bit of life experience under your belt before reading it.

In the book, Edna Pontellier was the wife of Mr. Pontellier, mother of two boys, Raul and Etienne. As time passed, she realized that the life she was living was not the life she wanted. However, her options were quite limited as to what she could do to change that. The book spoke of how much Mr. Pontellier loved Edna, but she was also crucial to his facade in both his public and private life. He expected Edna to want to do her "wifely duties" of calling on other women and making rounds to keep up good appearances within the social group. He alone selected what type of house the family would live in, how it would be decorated, and where his family would live, vacation, and act daily. I don't think Mr. Pontellier necessarily mistreated his wife; he lived his life according the social norms of the time. But when Edna did speak out and tried to make changes according to her wants, he quickly made the decision to mask Edna's willfulness with lies to the neighborhood via the newspaper (this seems so strange today!). Edna did not have a say in the matter. There was a point in the book where Edna wished to divorce her husband; her confidant said he had head of some men who allowed their wives to be "released" from the martial contract in divorce, but it was rare. As a divorced woman, I cannot image being trapped in a marriage I did not want anymore without the option of leaving it, nor can I image not being able to make choices regarding my education, my career, my home, and, well, my life. 

There were some great quotes in this book. One that struck me was, "I would give up the unessential; I would give up money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give up myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me." I find this quote to be really telling not just in the context of the book, but even today for women. How many women have I heard say they have no time for themselves; they lose themselves to work, husbands, children, school, etc. I would say I was guilty of having done so in the past. We often willingly give up ourselves thinking that it is useful to do so, or even a loving gesture to do so, but perhaps we err in that thought. Just something to think about; feel free to disagree.

The book was quite scandalous when it was published in 1899 and went onto many banned-book lists.  Chopin was an elegant writer and I loved her word choices. There were parts of the book that were vague and I wasn't sure what Chopin had hinted at, but overall her writing ability was grand and enviable. I wasn't thrilled with Edna's moral choices at points in the book, but I also cannot imagine the burden of not having control over your own life. It doesn't excuse her choices, but it does lend some perspective as to why she made them. O'Karma (what an awesome last name) did a beautiful job reading the book. The story was set in Louisiana and O'Karma sounded divine when she spoke the little French in the book or accentuated the French accent. I don't think this book is one that can be universally enjoyed by all, but it is a story of self-discovery during a time in which self-discovery was prohibited for women and the book showed the crushing effects such restriction can have on a person.

The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward~★★★★1/2

Author: C. Vann Woodward
Title: The Strange Career of Jim Crow
Release Date: Originally released in 1955; this edition released in 2001
Publisher: Oxford University Press (2001 edition)
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Jacket:  "C. Vann Woodward, who died in 1999 at the age of 91, was America's most eminent Southern historian, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Mary Chesnut's Civil War and a Bancroft Prize for The Origins of the New South. Now, to honor his long and truly distinguished career, Oxford is pleased to publish this special commemorative edition of Woodward's most influential work.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow is one of the great works of Southern history. Indeed, the book actually helped shape that history. Published in 1955, a year after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ordered schools desegregated, Strange Career was cited so often to counter arguments for segregation that Martin Luther King, Jr., called it 'the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.' The book offers a clear and illuminating analysis of the history of Jim Crow laws, presenting evidence that segregation in the South dated only to the 1890s. Woodward convincingly shows that, even under slavery, the two races had not been divided as they were under Jim Crow laws of the 1890s. In fact, during Reconstruction, there was considerable economic and political mixing of the races. The segregating of the races was a relative newcomer to the region. 
Hailed as one of the top 100 nonfiction works of the twentieth century, The Strange Career of Jim Crow has sold almost a million copies and remains, in the words of David Herbert Donald, 'a landmark in the history of American race relations."

Taryn's Review: I'll keep this short and sweet since I'm furiously reading for my upcoming exams (eek!). C. Vann Woodward's argument  in this book is that Jim Crow laws were not enacted during Reconstruction in the post-Civil War South, but after Reconstruction ended, about 1877. He argued that fear, jealously, proscription, hatred, and fanaticism had always been there, but the forces or authorities that kept those feelings "in-check," so to speak, were weakened after new authorities moved into power after 1877 (chapter 3). Woodward pointed out that blacks voted in large numbers up until 1900, when threats against blacks from whites made it dangerous for blacks to cast their votes.

Another aspect that Woodward talked about WWII's influence on the eventual breakdown of Jim Crow laws and rising of the Civil Rights movement. How could America in good faith liberate a group of people who were horrifically mistreated, abused, and slaughtered in Europe only to ignore the atrocities that were also being acted out against a segment of American society? Amazingly, the book was written in 1955 with such great clarity it doesn't feel like the book was written during a time when Jim Crow laws were enforced in many areas of the South. And to boot, C. Vann Woodward was a Southerner himself. This book revolutionized how historians viewed Reconstruction and Jim Crow laws and to this day is still relevant and required reading for many students of history.

If you are really interested in the post-Civil War South and race relations, give this book a try. The book is not the easiest to read, but if you take your time while reading to understand what Woodward's overall messages are, you'll be happy you did.

Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 by David E. Kyvig~★★★★★

Author: David E. Kyvig

Title: Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans Lived Through the "Roaring Twenties" and the Great Depression
Release Date: September 30, 2004
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Cover: "The 1920s and 1930s witnessed dramatic changes in American life: growing urbanization, technological innovation, cultural upheaval, and economic disaster. In this fascinating book, prize-winning historian David E. Kyvig describes everyday life in these decades, when automobiles and home electricity became common place, when radio and the movies became broadly popular. Major national developments from the adoption of woman suffrage and the coming of national prohibition, to the economic collapse of the early 1930s and the subsequent rise of the New Deal are considered in terms of their effects on the daily lives of Americans. The book concludes by examining daily life in six American cities, large and small, in Indiana, New Mexico, Iowa, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The details of work life, domestic life, and leisure activities make engrossing reading and bring the era clearly into focus, on a level we can call understand. With 53 black-and-white photographs."

Taryn's Review: Grad school is kicking my butt. I have lots of reviews in draft mode, but haven't had time to complete them. After April things should slow down, thankfully!

This book was one I read for my exams and I loved this book. I devoured this book. It answered so many questions I've thought to myself about the transition to a world with electric lights and horseless cars. Kyvig is a great writer and you definitely do not need a history background to enjoy this book.

Kyvig focused on automobiles, electricity, radios, movies, culture, religion, politics, and labor (off the top of my head). I learned so many fun, random facts from this book. For example, library circulations grew exponentially after people were able to light their homes from electricity; it was much easier to read near a light bulb than an open fire or dim lanterns; that's also about the time the symbol of the light bulb over one's head emerged and was equated with knowledge or new ideas. The term horsepower was derived to explain the amount of power that was exerted and equaled as compared to a draft horse. Soap operas derived their name because the shows were acted out on the radio and were sponsored by soap companies, thus soap operas, and the name carried over to televisions. These types of facts delight me!

The book was so interesting and so readable. It explained the direct relation as to how and why our present lives are they way they are. The book can be a bit statistic heavy in parts, but math-oriented people should enjoy that inclusion. The pictures were really fascinating and a great addition to the book. A great exercise for the reader is to imagine those in your family line who experienced life as during this period. My great-grandmother was born in 1914 and she grew into adulthood during 1920s and 1930s; how wonderful it is that this book gave me an overview about some of the bigger themes and issues present during her lifetime.

If you like U.S. history, read this book. Whether your interest lie in early or modern American history, the book is an essential read. Kyvig picked a lively topic to discuss and the book reflected as such. Give it a try!

Worse Than Slavery by David M. Oskinsky~★★★★★

Author: David. M. Oshinsky
Title: Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice
Release Date: April 4, 1996
Publisher: Free Press
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Jacket: "'Worse Than Slavery' is an epic history of race and punishment in the deepest South from emancipation to the civil rights era---and beyond. Southern prisons have been immortalized in convict work songs, in the blues, and in movies such as Cool Hand Luke and The Defiant Ones. Mississippi's Parchman Penitentiary was the grandfather of them all, an immense, isolated plantation with shotguns, whips, and bloodhounds, where inmates worked the cotton fields in striped clothing from dawn to dusk. William Faulkner described Parchman as "destination doom." Its convicts included bluesmen like "Son" House and "Bukka" White, who featured the prison in the legendary 'Midnight Special' and 'Parchman Farm Blues.'
Noted historian David M. Oshinsky draws on prison records, pardon files, folklore, oral history, and the blues to offer an unforgettable portrait of Parchman and Jim Crow justice---from the horrors of convict leasing in the late nineteenth century to the struggle for black equality in the 1960s, when Parchman was used to break the spirit of civil rights workers who journeyed south on the Freedom Rides. In Mississippi, the criminal justice system often proved that there could be something worse than slavery.
The "old" Parchman is gone, a casualty of federal court orders in the 1970s. What it tells us about our past is well worth remembering in a nation deeply divided by race."

Taryn's Review: My youngest sister is in college and is taking a history course. She asked me what I knew about convict leasing in the South after the Civil War. My answer to that was that I knew absolutely nothing about it. Zilch. Zip. Nada. My area of study ends around 1840, but her question had me interested. I wanted to know more.

David M. Oshinsky not only has thorough and engaging research material in his book, but his writing style had me hooked immediately. It is a history book, but it is not one that is unreadable to the general public. In fact, the book was incredibly reader-friendly. Oshinsky's book was phenomenal because he began with the years after emancipation, building up the background with the years that eventually led to the creation of Parchman Farm (1904). He easily could have discussed Parchman Farm as an isolated topic, but the context Oshinsky set up made the book so much more riveting than a simple focus on Parchman Farm would have been.

The situations and outcomes that Oshinsky discussed will nauseate your stomach, bring tears to your eyes, and have you shaking your head at the unimaginable horrors blacks endured during these years. The legal system of the South after Reconstruction, especially in Mississippi, was designed to subject blacks to perpetual states of legal bondage that also upheld white supremacy. In many ways, blacks were more vulnerable to severe punishment than they had been in slavery because it wasn't a master they were susceptible to anymore, but state punishment and white mobs. As slaves, there was a monetary value attached to each person, so the master had a motive to keep the slave alive. Punishment for slaves was brutal, but ultimately the master didn't want his slave to die because it was money lost. Convicts did not have that protection (for lack of better word); a dead convict could be replaced with a new convict. And Oshinsky provided an abundance of atrocious and grisly sources that discussed exactly what these men suffered through as leased convicts and at Parchman Farm. Many of the convicts had participated in petty crimes that resulted in obnoxious sentencing because they were black. The youngest convict I read about in the book was a black boy; he was sentenced to a two-year term for stealing from a dry-goods store. He was four feet, five inches tall, weighed 70 pounds, and was just eight-years old. Frighteningly, these disgusting acts against human beings didn't happen all that long ago.

I wish this book  or a portion of it was part of American history curriculums because it was so profound and highlighted a huge aspect as to why the Civil Rights Movement was so, so important. I strongly encourage anyone with any interest in American history to read this book. So many Americans know that the enslaved population of the United States was freed during the Civil War, but many know nothing of the ghastly aftermath that emancipation carried for many blacks.

While this book received a glowing review, I will admonish Free Press, however. The book jacket opened by both italicizing and using quotation marks around the title, Worse Than Slavery. No quotation marks were necessary! Come on Free Press! That's a grade school mistake!

The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli~★★★

Author: Tatjana Soli
Title: The Forgetting Tree
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Fiction

Book Jacket: "When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days, and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her. Not even the tragic, senseless death of her son Joshua at kidnappers' hands, her alienation from her two daughters, or the dissolution of her once-devoted marriage can pull her from the ranch she's devoted her life to preserving. 
But despite having survived the most terrible of tragedies, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: an illness that threatens not only to rip her from her land but take her very life. And she's chosen a caregiver, the inscrutable, Caribbean-born Minna, who may just be the darkest force of all. 
Haunting, tough, triumphant, and profound, The Forgetting Tree explores the intimate ties we have to one another, the deepest fears we keep to ourselves, and the calling of the land that ties every one of us together." 

Taryn's Review: This book was a hard book to rate because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to feel when I closed the book. Minna's betrayal was hurtful, but would Claire have recovered and felt rejuvenated the way she did if it wasn't for Minna?

While the book began with the tragedy of Joshua, the story mainly focused on Claire's later years in life. Claire's reflection on the land, her children, and her marriage were slow to me as the reader, but the book gained momentum when Minna entered Claire's life. Minna was as magical to the reader as she was to Claire. I best related to the book when it was seen from Claire's perspective; I questioned Minna's answers along with Claire, but I was also enchanted along with Claire regarding Minna's attitude, Minna's thoughts, and Minna's voodoo. Like Claire, I'm not sure I wanted to know the truth about Minna.

I was surprised when Soli revealed Minna's past to the reader, going back to Minna's childhood in the Caribbean and rehashing it to the point when Minna found herself in Southern California. This knowledge made me sympathetic toward Minna, but it also made me hate her treatment of Claire. Yet, it felt like Claire needed Minna. Was it better that Claire never know the truth?

The ending was a complete shock to me. I honestly don't know what I think about the way the story ended or if I found it plausible. I'm still wondering what I was supposed to take away from it. The book had so many layers to it and I'm not sure how I was supposed to interpret the stories in regard to the bigger story of the book. I feel flabbergasted when think about the storyline and the way it ended. So again I go back to the point that I don't know what to feel. I wouldn't read this book again, but I wouldn't necessarily try to stop someone else from reading it. Perhaps confusing is the best way for me to sum up the book. Soli's writing didn't jump out to me as some other writers have, but I wouldn't mind giving her first novel a chance, either. 

Putting Meat On the American Table by Roger Horowitz~★★★★★

Author: Roger Horowitz
Title: Putting Meat On the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation
Release Date: November 16, 2005
Publisher: The John Hopkins University Press
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Cover: "Engagingly written and richly illustrated, Putting Meat On the American Table explains how America became a meat-eating nation---from the colonial period to the present. It examines the relationship between consumer preference and meat processing---looking closely at the production of beef, pork, chicken, and hot dogs. 
Roger Horowitz argues that a series of new technologies have transformed American meat. He draws on detailed consumption surveys that shed new light on America's eating preferences---especially differences associated with income, rural versus urban areas, and race and ethnicity. 
Putting Meat On the American Table will captivate general readers and interest all students of the history of food, technology, business, and American culture."

Taryn's Review: In the past I have worked summers at an 1820s living history farm. The farm provides visitors with the opportunity to witness life as it was in the 1820s (minus the gross parts, ha!). Food is a popular subject the visitors bring up and they often ask what sorts of meats people on the 1820s frontier ate. According to historical documents, wild game and fish were prevalent as well as pork products, but beef and chicken seem to have been rare eats saved for special occasions. While the reasonings behind this are too numerous to list here, a question I wasn't very good at answering was, "What changed? Why do we eat so much beef and chicken now?"

Enter Roger Horowitz and his book. This book went beyond my expectations in its explanation of the transition to a nation that can eat beef, pork, and chicken at every meal if we so desire. The vast technological advances changed the way animals could be slaughtered and preserved and transportation technologies could move frozen foods quickly and easily. An eating revolution took shape and is still seen on our tables today. Horowitz wanted readers to really ponder over the idea if producers truly dominated nature with the new technologies since producers celebrated their conquest over natural processes. Another book that discusses this in great depth is Nature's Metropolis by William Cronon. 

This book is useful not just because it provided the history of why the changes occurred and how they were accepted, but also because it touched on concerns from the turn of the century about the artificial additives added to foods, which mirror the concern over processed foodstuff today. The book also contained some awesome pictures (some of which could be a bit gory for the weak-stomached person) and Horowitz's discussion of advertising was very enlightening, too. Did you know there used to be bacon girls who cooked and served bacon to the public as to ensure the public conjured up a positive image of the food...but only white women could be bacon girls? This book has so many interesting and thought-provoking facts!

As a history student I enjoyed this book so much and there are so many groups of people who would enjoy this book and benefit from reading it. As a foodie the book helped me to understand why I have the selection of meats in front of me at the supermarket and it also made me realize how products like ham and bacon most likely do not taste the same way as they did 150+ years ago. People who are interested in local food movements could use this book to explain why modern tablescapes appear as they do today and how the nation moved from eating locally to nationally. Horowitz did an amazing job researching this book and it's one I highly recommend to all.

Perfection Salad by Laura Shapiro~★★★★1/2

Author: Laura Shapiro
Title: Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century
Release Date: First released in 1986; this edition released October 2, 2008
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Cover: "Perfection Salad presents an entertaining and erudite social history of women and cooking at the turn of the twentieth century. With sly humor and lucid insight, Laura Shapiro uncovers our ancestors' widespread obsession with food, and in doing so, tells us why we think as we do about food today. This edition includes a new introduction by Michael Stern, who, with Jane Stern, is the author of Gourmet magazine's popular column 'Roadfood' and the book Eat Your Way Across the U.S.A.."

Taryn's Review: Food and history are two of my biggest interests. Luckily for me, one of the sections I'm studying for is about Food and Culture in modern America and this book fit the bill. It takes place mainly between the late 1870s up to the Great Depression (1930s).

This book answered so many questions I've had about women's role in the kitchen and how that identity evolved. There were a lot of changes going on in the U.S. during this time period with the predominant changes coming as offshoots from the Industrial Revolution. Thanks to a group of women who deemed themselves domestic scientists, the kitchen, cooking, and women's domestic sphere changed dramatically. Cooking became a science and kitchens were often referred to as cooking laboratories, measuring cups emerged to ensure precise accuracy, and recipes aided women in perfecting food to the teaspoon.

The idea that eating was to help one live and people were not supposed to "live to eat" was the stance the domestic scientists advocated. They focused on recipes that would aid in digestion versus taste and white bland food because very popular, especially when covered in the infamous white sauce. Cooking schools sprang up and at different times had various goals, but one famous face you may have heard about today was Fannie Farmer. Shapiro dedicated a section to Farmer and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Discussions in the book regarding women's moral role to protect the family's home and how that tied into religion were particularly fascinating. Shapiro wrote about why the hearth became the symbol of the home in modern life and how the domestic scientist carved out a role for themselves in the changing world around them. And the salads! Who hasn't heard of jello salads, or pink salad, or carrot salad? Shapiro let us know why all these exist.

The book is full of so many interesting ideas and thoughts that you really should read it. Fun fact: it was edited by Ruth Reichl, author of Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise. The book is great and it filled in the gap of history between the hearth and stove. It explained so much about the ideology behind the movement and how those ideas still reflect and impact women's role in the kitchen today. My complaints were the distraction by the overuse of the word "however" and the abundance of commas to the point they interrupted the flow of the text, but Shapiro's great research produced a superb book. 

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker~★★★★

Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Title: The Age of Miracles
Release Date: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Fiction

Book Jacket: "Luminous, haunting, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, an unforgettable story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty.
On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life---the fissures in her family, the loss of friends, the hopeful anguish of love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather, who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.
With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world." 

Taryn's Review: I was in a hurry during this past trip to the library, so it was one of those "grab-as-you-go" trips. I went over to the New Releases shelf and hastily threw two books into my bag; I am so glad this random book turned out to be such a delight to read.

Julia was the protagonist in the story and the second storyline in the book was that the Earth's rotation kept slowing down. The story about the slowing rotation was honestly a fantastic story in itself; what a great and unique twist to this tale.  Even with the catastrophic slowing, people still fell in love. People still dreamed of what they wanted to be when they grew up. People still laughed and cried and hoped for miracles. Julia was coming-of-age; of course it was scary as the days crept longer and longer, but that didn't mean Julia should stop living. My heart ached for Julia as she struggled with many of the experiences we all know are painful from our own first-hand accounts, but Julia's predicament was compounded by her friendship conflicts, the secret she had to keep, and the constant adjustment to a new normal.

The one thing that threw me off about the book was how young Julia was. I sincerely thought she must be around 12- or 13-years-old and figured her friends were roughly the same age. I was shocked to discover one of Julia's more sexually-provocative friends was just 11-years-old! Both of the girls turned 12 in the course of the book.

I don't think I'd call this work a happy or uplifting book, but it is thought-provoking. This was the author's debut novel and it was a stunning debut. The idea that Thompson Walker came up with was refreshing and her research on the subject was evident in the book. She's also a great writer; she has an elegance to her writing style that I don't come across too often. The only reason I gave it four stars was because the age thing really threw me for a loop. Julia talked and acted like someone a little older and I'm hard-pressed to accept her as an 11-year-old. Still, a great book and I definitely look forward to Thompson Walker's next book!

The Coal Tattoo by Silas House~★★★

Author: Silas House
Title: The Coal Tattoo
Release Date: September 24, 2004
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Genre: Fiction

Book Jacket: "Two sisters can't stand to live together, but can't bear to be apart. One worships of the flashy world of Nashville, the other is a devout Pentecostal. One falls into the lap of any man, the other is afraid to even date. One gets pregnant in a flash, the other desperately wants to have a child.
This is what's at the heart of Silas House's third, masterful novel, which tells the story of Easter and Anneth, tragically left parentless as children, who must raise themselves and each other in their small coal-mining town. Easter is deeply religious, keeps a good home, believes in tradition, and is intent on rearing her wild younger sister properly. Anneth is untamable, full of passion, determined to live hard and fast. It's only a matter of time before their predictions split their paths and nearly undo their bond. How these two women learn to overcome their past, sacrifice deeply for each other, and live together again in the only place that matters is the story of The Coal Tattoo.
Silas House's work has been described as compelling, seamless, breathtaking, heartbreaking, eloquent, stunningly beautiful, and exquisite. In The Coal Tattoo, he raises the bar once more."

Taryn's Review: The book jacket spoiled the pregnancy storyline in the book for me. It wasn't until I was reading some other reviews that I realized this book was a prequel to House's book Clay's Quilt. I don't know if the person who wrote the blurb for the book jacket assumed people would have already read Clay's Quilt, but I hadn't and this affected my reading of the book. I'd also argue that the blurb embellished the sisters' qualities, because the one afraid to date marries rather quickly and the one who supposedly worships Nashville isn't there too long because she missed home so much. None of these irritations were the authors fault, but the publisher's fault and it impacted the story for me.

Silas House is a great writer, but this story wasn't captivating for me. The beginning of the book was but once the sisters split ways, it was harder for me to stay interested. The story of the wild sister versus the tame sister is a time-old story, so the contrasts between the two wasn't anything new. House added the discussion of the girls' grandmothers and mother, as well as the constant feature of the coal mines tearing up the land despite the residents' protests. While these layers to the story did add some dimension, they weren't strong enough to really enrich the storyline for me. Again, maybe if I'd read Clay's Quilt first I'd feel differently, but it is what it is.

If you are interested, I'm going to go ahead and say to read Clay's Quilt first even though I hadn't. Had I known this book was a sequel I would have, but it 's too late to go back now. I really like Silas House's writing style and I have a soft spot for books set in Kentucky (the author sets the story here and he also lives in Eastern Kentucky). I'll most likely give another one of his books a try since House is a strong writer, especially given the fact that he wrote the book from the perspective of women and it was believable. While this book wasn't a favorite, I do look forward to reading another book by the author.

In the Devil's Snare by Mary Beth Norton~★★★★

Author: Mary Beth Norton
Title: In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Release Date: October 13, 2003
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Cover: "Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study.
In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear, and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many traumatized refugees---including the main accusers of witches---had fled to communities like Salem. Meanwhile the colony's leaders, defensive about their own failure to protect the frontier, pondered how God's people could be suffering at the hands of savages. Struck by the similarities between what the refugees had witnessed and what the witchcraft "victims" described, many were quick to see a vast conspiracy of the Devil (in league with the French and the Indians) threatening New England on all sides. By providing this essential context to the famous events, and by casting her net well beyond the borders of Salem itself, Norton sheds new light on one of the most perplexing and fascinating periods in our history." 

Taryn's Review: This book is not written for your average Joe to pick up and read. This book was written specifically for academics and the history community. As I read reviews others' had written, they often lamented about unreadable and dry Norton's work was. If I didn't love history and research, I'd agree with them. However, since I adore what I do and am passionate about research, I loved this book. I did cut a star because Norton is wordy. She can write, no question about that, but there are bloated areas in the book that could have been cut down.

Karlsen's book, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, had posed the question in passing about the Indian wars affecting the people and the wars' role in witchcraft accusations. Norton answered the question with meticulous research; her thesis was that the governor of Massachusetts, councilmen, and judges were the same men who had led unsuccessful campaigns against the Wabanakis Indians, which resulted in a huge loss of life, property, livestock, and goods. The men who failed in the war attempted "to shift the responsibility for their own inadequate defense of the frontier to the demons of the invisible world, and as a result they presided over the deaths of many innocent people" (308). Norton also examined the intricate connections the accusers had to the Maine frontier during the Second Indian War and the personal networks involved in the accusations. Norton explained that the Salem witchcraft trials should be more fittingly called the Essex County witchcraft trials since both accusers and accused came from outside Salem, especially once an outbreak occurred in Andover, the town next to Salem.

Again, this book is crammed with information and is intense. The notes regarding the sources are almost 100 pages long. If you are wanting a book that discusses an overview of the Salem witchcraft trials, look elsewhere. Ideally, this book fits well in a trio with Boyer and Nissenbaum's book and Karlsen's book, with Norton's being the last addition. I admire this book tremendously as an historian, but I can also understand why many people would be turned off by the magnitude of this work.

The English American by Alison Larkin~★★

Author: Alison Larkin
Title: The English American
Release Date: March 4, 2008
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Fiction

Book Jacket: "When Pippa Dunn, adopted as an infant and raised terribly British, discovers that her birth parents are from the American South, she finds that "culture clash" has layers of meaning she'd never imagined. Meet The English American, a fabulously funny, deeply poignant debut novel that sprang from Larkin's autobiographical one-woman show of the same name.
In many ways, Pippa Dunn is very English: she eats Marmite on toast, knows how to make a proper cup of tea, has attended a posh English boarding school, and finds it entirely familiar to discuss the crossword rather than exchange any cross words over dinner with her proper English family. Yet Pippa---creative, disheveled, and impulsive to the core---has always felt different from her perfectly poised, smartly coiffed sister and steady, practical parents, whose pastimes include Scottish dancing, gardening, and watching cricket. 
When Pippa learns at age twenty-eight that her birth parents are from the American South, she feels that lifelong questions have been answered. She meets her birth mother, an untidy, artistic, free-spirited redhead, and her birth father, a charismatic (and politically involved) businessman in Washington, D.C.; and she moves to America to be near them. At the same time, she relies on the guidance of a young man with whom she feels a mysterious connection; a man who discovered his own estranged father and who, like her birth parents, seems to understand her in a way that no one in her life had done before. Pippa feels she has found her 'self' and everything she thought she wanted. But has she? 
Caught between tow opposing cultures, two sets of parents, and two completely different men, Pippa is plunged into hilarious, heart-wrenching chaos. The birth father she adores turns out to be involved in neoconservative activities she hates; the mesmerizing mother who once abandoned her now refuses to let her go. And the man of her fantasies may just be that...
With an authentic adopted heroine at its center, Larkin's compulsively readable first novel unearths universal truths about love, identity, and family with wit, warmth, and heart."

Taryn's Review: I was really excited when I found this book on the library shelf. The premise of the book seemed to promise a captivating read ahead. And the cover was cute, too (yes, I judge books by their covers!).

Lackluster is probably the best word to describe this book. All the elements to create a delightful book were there, yet the story was very predictable. I became extremely bored with the book at times and the book also elicited some serious eye rolls from me. For example, Pippa returns to England and her parents confront her about her credit card bill, which they opened "by mistake" and saw she owed over £3000, or nearly $5000. Once Pippa explained her monetary situation to her parents, her father promptly wrote her a check for the amount. Pippa told the reader over and over in the book how proper the English are and that they don't talk about major issues; yet her parents obviously brought up the touchy subject of Pippa's credit card bill and bailed her out. Oh, and the eye roll-inducing relationship Pippa had with Jack. Anyone who has ever read a book can probably figure out Jack's role in the book after Pippa met him. Pippa's inability to recognize Jack's feelings made her appear rather dense. And Pippa's play, Womb Mate, and its role in opening up a secret nearly made me want to quit the book since it created such an unbelievable connection (and pointless to the story, really).

The "Pandora's box" Pippa opened when she met her birth mother and birth father was again, predictable. Of course they are going to fail when it came to meeting the dream-version of themselves Pippa created her mind. Larkin didn't do the characters any favors by making them so unlikeable, but Pippa's mindless approach to the situation wasn't helpful, either. 

Pippa was the product of an adulterous relationship, coupled with the fact she was given up for adoption. This in itself could have created a fascinating novel to play out the emotions that come with facing that sort of discovery, especially with the cultural contrasts between her two sets of parents. The story was muddled with extras that weren't necessary and created a book that was a disappointment, to say the least.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn~★★★★★

Author: Bernard Bailyn
Title: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Release Date: Originally released in 1967; this edition released in 1992
Publisher: This edition published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Enlarged Edition
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Cover: "To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, 'Fulfillment," as a Postscript. Here he discusses the intense, nation-wide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between the struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution. This detailed study of the persistence of the nation's ideological origins adds a new dimension to the book and projects its meaning forward into vital current concerns." 

Taryn's Review: This book came out in 1967 and completely altered the way historians studied the American Revolution. Bailyn used pamphlets from the period to engage his research and what he found was that previous interpretations of the period didn't match his findings. Bailyn examined the pamphlets thoroughly and discovered that words like "liberty," "power," and "constitution" had a very different meaning for those living the 1760s and 1770s than they do today. Even in the years before and during the Revolution, the radical changes in the definitions of the words was evident in the pamphlets.

Bailyn concisely pointed out that the Anglo-Americans living in America were not looking to create a brand-new form of government. In fact, many felt that England had become corrupt and no longer respected the political and constitutional system that had governed England for ages and was considered by Britons to be the best in the world. On page 19 Bailyn wrote, "For the primary goal of the American Revolution, which transformed American life and introduced a new era in human history, was not the overthrow of even the alteration of the existing social order but the preservation of political liberty threatened by the apparent corruption of the constitution, and the establishment in principle of the existing conditions of liberty. The communication of understanding, therefore, lay at the heart of the Revolutionary movement, and its great expressions, embodied in the best of the pamphlets, are consequently expository and explanatory...."

This is the kind of book I wish those people who go around spouting out bad information about the Revolution would read. The book explained the fear Americans had of standing armies, especially after witnessing the fall of Denmark through standing armies' involvement. Fear of an ecclesiastical conspiracy also motivated the Americans to demanded a purer government that truly embodied their understanding of liberty and power. Bailyn did a fantastic job explaining the mixed government in England comprised of estates to balance each other, which included the royalty, the nobility, and the commons, and how this was later translated by the Americans when they created their own federal government. Bailyn also discussed how the truths of liberty became focal points when discussing slavery, established religion, and other areas of social life.

To be honest, this is a difficult book to read for the non-historians. But, if you take time and dedicate ample study to what Bailyn has said, you'll have a better, more enriched understanding of the American Revolution. This book was and still is a pioneering work for historians to appreciate and changed the way historians create a frame of reference for their audience. And a fun bonus, Bailyn included a 1774 town decree from Connecticut that used the word "pimps" to describe those who sought to steal liberties from the people!

The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol F. Karlsen~★★★★

Author: Carol F. Karlsen
Title: The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England
Release Date: First released in 1987; this edition released April 17, 1998
Publisher: This paperback edition published by W.W. Norton & Co.
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Cover: "Confessing to 'familiarity with devils,' Mary Johnson, a servant, was executed by Connecticut officials in 1648. A wealthy Boston widow, Ann Hibbens was hanged in 1656 for casting spells on her neighbors. The case of Ann Cole, who was 'taken with very strange Fits,' fueled an outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Hartford, a generation before the notorious events at Salem.
More than three hundred years later, the question 'Why?' still haunts us. Why were these and other women likely witches vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession? In this work Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society."

Taryn's Review: It seems that today everyone knows there were witches in Salem at some point, but few people know anything beyond that. Often when I tell people I have done some reading on the Salem witch trials, someone inevitably mentions the burning of witches at Salem. No witches were burned to death at Salem and most were hanged or died in jail, although one was suffocated to death by having stones stacked upon him. 

A majority of accused witches were women and Karlsen asked the question of why women? Her book was broken down in chapters to explore New England's history of belief in witchcraft; she included lengthy discussions of the demographic, economic, religious, and sexual characteristics of the accused. The study also depicted what colonial life was like for an Anglo-American woman living in New England in the seventeenth-century, what was expected of her, and the influences that shaped the society she lived in.

Karlsen's book was written in response to other historians who had worked on the topic. She pointedly replied to historians Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum and their work, Salem Possessed. The men had argued that outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Salem had stemmed from a class conflict between the mercantile class and the people tied to the land (like farmers). They also argued that economic, political, and ecclesiastical elements were the primary causes and that the strife between the two groups had been going on for two generations. Boyer and Nissenbaum claimed the accusers were persons with a stake in maintaining the traditional social order of a farming community, while the accused were people who had values and material benefits with the mercantile class. The two men also relied on psychoanalysis to discuss the power struggle within the communities. Karlsen felt that this explanation did not provide answers as to why women were the targets of the accusations. On page 216 Karlsen wrote, "My research does not support the idea (as Boyer and Nissenbaum's argument about Salem suggests) that these women were beneficiaries of the new economic order. Some witches clearly were, but most were not. And in a more fundamental way, all witches stood symbolically opposed to---and were therefore subversive of---that order, in that they did not accept their assigned place within it."

Karlsen used some interesting primary sources that easily captured my attention. The book's review of witchcraft in New England began in the early seventeenth-century and ended in 1692. The time frame was useful in helping the reader understand the complexities that created the society which allowed witchcraft accusations to come to fruition. I don't think you have to be well-versed in history to enjoy this book. Karlsen explained other historians' arguments clearly and she outlined her thesis and evidence in a straightforward manner, too. If you have an interest in witchcraft accusations in New England, definitely give this book a read.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath~★★★★★

Author: Sylvia Plath
Title: The Bell Jar
Release Date: First released in 1963; this book is the First Perennial Classics edition published in 1999
Publisher: Originally published by Heinemann; this edition published by HarperPerennial
Genre: Non-fiction

Book Jacket: "The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under---maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic."

Taryn's Review: Depression is scary. Depression is not always explainable, especially to those who haven't suffered from its terrifying grips. The ability to slide into a world that makes no sense but makes absolute sense is mystifying and can be tragic.

Esther Greenwood's conflict with her life's course was rectifiable, but that doesn't matter to depression. Readers who haven't had an encounter with depression might grow angry with Esther for what appeared to be her lack of interest to remedy the situation; other readers might become bored with Esther because she didn't fight for herself. Esther submitted herself to the darkness that smoothly crept in. For those who have dealt with depression personally or with loved ones, the harsh reality of depression outlined in this book can be hard to read.

I was gone from this blog for well over a year, and I wish I could say it was because I was having the time of my life, but that would be a lie. Esther hit a nerve in me, a nerve so raw that I began to tremble as a I read the words on the pages. One might be reading this saying, "Esther didn't get into a writing class..that shouldn't have caused the reaction it did in her!" That's precisely the point. It wasn't the class. The depression was there, as can be seen by Esther's New York experience, and it was triggered to move into a deeper place. For Esther, it was the rejection of the class that was to be her escape from societal expectation and supposed to be the start of the life she'd envisioned for herself that did her in. That rejection coupled with other issues was the moment that tipped off her descent into the deepest, hollowing part of the depression.

The book was semi-autobiographical and Esther closely mirrored Plath's own life. At one point in the book Esther asked, "How did I know that someday - at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere - the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again?" For Plath it descended again in 1963; she was separated from her husband, poet Ted Hughes, as he'd had an affair in 1962. Plath committed suicide on a Sunday morning in London. She died of carbon monoxide poisoning after sealing herself in her kitchen away from her children and turned on the gas her oven; she was found with her head in the oven. Plath's son Nicholas also committed suicide in 2009.

My inclusion of Plath's death is not to disturb you, but to emphasize the existence that the place Esther and Plath and countless others have found themselves in is a very real place. It's a place we often want to brush aside in others; the healthy certainly can say, "But look around, look at all there is to live for!" Sadly, that's not how depression works and Esther is representative of that actuality. Depression can be situational, yet it can also be passed down genetically; either way, it's nothing to brush off. The book is phenomenal, but in a slow, agonizing sort of way and I believe that's how Plath intended it to come across. I could ramble on and on about the themes, the emotions, and societal consciousness in the book, but I prefer to do that in person. Read the book; it's written in a reader-friendly format and while it may not at this moment be relatable to you, I predict (rather sadly) that someday it will have more relevance for you, either from personal or second-hand experiences.

Ar'n't I a Woman? by Deborah Gray White~★★★★

Author: Deborah Gray White
Title: Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South
Release Date: First released in 1985; this book is the Revised Edition, February 17, 1999
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Genre:  Non-Fiction

Book Cover: "Living with the dual burdens of racism and sexism, slave women in the plantation South assumed roles within the family and community that contrasted sharply with traditional female roles in the larger American society.
This new edition of Ar'n't I a Woman? reviews and updates the scholarship on slave women and the slave family, exploring new ways of understanding the intersection of race and gender and comparing the myths that stereotyped female slaves with the realities of their lives. Finally, this groundbreaking study shows us how black women experienced freedom in the Reconstruction South---their heroic struggle to gain their right, hold their families together, resist economic and sexual oppression, and maintain their sense of womanhood against all odds." 

Taryn's Review: A book for school! I bet you can't even contain your excitement over historical books, right? There might be a small few who are excited, but maybe I can lure a few you over to the dark side, ha! There will be an assortment of books that I have read for my program (M.A. in history) in the coming months, so I apologize to anyone who is bored with that. Personally, I like to have the book listed here; it helps me remember what I've read when trying to tell someone about it! I'll have other non-history books, too, so hopefully it will be a nice mix of books through May at least.

Deborah Gray White (I love that she has two color names!) was/is a pioneer in history for giving agency to a group of people previous overlooked in historical scholarship: black enslaved women. There had been many books that discussed slavery in the South, but those books mainly focused on men. It wasn't all that along ago that many topics we openly talk about today weren't discussed or even studied in the history. It was only in the 1960s and 1970s that subjects like women, gender, race, and ethnicity were acceptable topics of study. This book came out in 1985 and was a direct response to historians like Stanley Elkins, Eugene Genovese, John Blassingame, and others. Not necessarily a bad response, but she disagreed with some historians and elaborated on other historians' works. It was one of the first books on the specific subject of black enslaved women and it's still relevant today.

As White pointed out, these women had two issues facing them: sexism and racism. She focused on the discussion of the myths and stereotypes given to enslaved women like the Jezebel (woman governed by her libido), Mammy (woman who did things better than anyone and lots of emotion attached to this character), and Sambo (slave reduced to child-like perpetual dependency) characters, which was a really enlightening chapter. White included primary examples to highlight her arguments, which brought great depth to the work. She relied heavily on WPA interviews and rightly so, since there aren't many surviving documents pertaining to black enslaved women nor were many written by that specific group for a variety of reasons. She also studied the nature of female enslavement, the life cycle of the women, the network/community of the enslaved, the nuclear family, and Reconstruction. I learned so much from the chapters, but my least favorite was the Reconstruction. I think that section would be best suited for a book that discussed life after slavery with more focus on the Reconstruction South. The change in status for the enslaved, the post-war South, the convict workers, sharecropping...all that needs addressed when discussing life after the war, even in the context of ex-slave identities and attitudes toward the free blacks.

This book is not difficult to read, necessarily, but it incorporates terminology from various disciplines. White has a great vocabulary and a moderately-read person should be able to read the book without a struggle. I sincerely liked this book and I think people interested in the antebellum South, slavery, women, or gender might find it to be an illuminating read.