Search results matching tags 'fiction' and 'historical fiction'

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:04:00 GMT

When I went home a little while back, I saw a copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in my little sister's room. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I went home and started reading the battered copy on my bookshelf. I don't know how many times I have read this book (almost as many as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird), but I always come away feeling like I have just read it for the first time.

Betty Smith published A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943 and it was an immediate success. The story focuses around Francie Nolan, a young girl growing up in the early twentieth century with a fun-loving, but alcoholic father, realistic mother, and younger brother. Struggling against poverty and isolation from her peers, Francie finds solace in the library where she plans to read every book in the collection. The story continues over the next five years of Francie's life. Her struggle to gain her mother's love, her desire to better her own life, and finding love are all issues that Francie encounters growing up in Brooklyn.

I don't want to give away too much of the story for those of you that haven't read it because A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book that I believe everyone should read at least once. Francie and her family have struggles that many people can relate to, and you can't help but wish to be the friend Francie so desperately needed. If you are wandering around the library one day searching for something to read, remember to grab a copy of this book.

Elementary, my dear Peabody ...

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:37:00 GMT

There are some books you read to stay current and informed, and some that you read because you "should" or you "have to". Then there are the books you read simply for the pure enjoyment of reading them.

One of my favorite fun reads is the Amelia Peabody mystery series by Elizabeth Peters. This series features intrepid Egyptologist Amelia Peabody Emerson (aka "Peabody") and is set between 1884 and 1923, mostly in Egypt. Our heroine is a wry, progressive woman, madly in love with her husband Professor Radcliffe Emerson (aka "Emerson," or the "Father of Curses" to the native Egyptians), and ever-watchful of her precocious son Ramses. What makes this series so appealing is the interplay between characters, the witty dialogue, and the realistic way Peters paints turn-of-the-twentieth-century archaeology.

I have not read this series in order but have gone back to the beginning to pick up some of the first books. My most recent read was Lion in the Valley. This story has Peabody, Emerson, Ramses and their entourage excavating pyramids, accompanied by a companion for Ramses and a wayward young woman in Amelia's care. The latter come with their own troubles, and when you add a couple of kidnappings, a couple of murders, and the return of Amelia's arch-enemy, the "Master Criminal," the Emersons (and readers) are in for quite an adventure.

Think Things Are Tough? Try Being in Gettysburg During the Civil War.

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:26:00 GMT

LIzzie is very excited when her cousin Rosanna, a year older than her, moves to Gettysburg to live with Rosanna's sister. Lizzie's father and her twin brother have enlisted in the Union army, even though her twin, Luke, is only old enough to be a drummer. The two girls become best friends, and then Virginia-born Rosanna goes back to Richmond and her parents. It's almost impossible for the girls to keep in touch, since only smuggled messages can travel between the two sides during the Civil War. But news of Rosanna 's marriage to a man who joined the Confederate army does reach Gettysburg. When Rosanna learns that her husband has been injured in battle, she travels to the Confederate army to nurse him. Both girls get swept up in the affairs of the times, as Lizzie must quit school to manage her father's butcher shop, and Rosanna learns to treat all sorts of battle - related ailments of the men of the Confederate army.

In Two Girls of Gettysburg, Lisa Klein has included much that is historically accurate, including details of the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln's trip to deliver his now-famous speech. But what she also does very well is make the reader feel right there in the thick of things, experiencing the hopes and fears of any kid growing up at that time, along with the life-and-death situation of being in the midle of a battleground where people know and love participants on both sides.