Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke

July 15, 2023

Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke

It's really hard to write a description of this book since there is so much going on. Set in 1863 in the Louisiana bayou country outside New Orleans, on the surface, this is a story about a group of people in the middle of the American Civil War and how they are affected by the war. Wade Lufkin is recuperating from his war wounds at his uncle's plantation; Hannah is one of his uncle's slaves, accused of murdering another plantation owner, but her only goal is to find her son, separated from her at the battle of Shiloh; Pierre is the local sheriff, drawn to a free woman of color named Darla; Darla wants to locate the treasure hidden by the murdered plantation owner so that she can escape to another country; Florence is a New England abolitionist determined to do whatever it takes to free slaves; the colonel is the head of a renegade Confederate unit, interested only in protecting his own people and land.

OMG, this is a fabulous book! This is a stand-alone historical novel by the author of the Dave Robicheaux mystery series. JLB considers it to be the best book he ever wrote and I agree. I read it in two days - my head hurt when I finished because there was so much to think about. Great characters, especially the three women in the story. Wonderful writing, beautiful language - I found myself going back to re-read certain passages because of the beauty of the words. A number of the characters are seeking redemption for past offenses. Although it's set during the American Civil War, the themes are as old as history: good vs. evil, greed, jealousy, revenge, honor, guilt, redemption. There is even some dark humor. Loved the ending. Highly recommended - I will remember this book for a long time - if you are a fan of historical or literary fiction, read this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Louisiana bayou country

The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan

May 10, 2023

The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan

Follows the lives of three families living in Springfield, IL, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, and their different experiences. The Lincolns are Abraham Lincoln's family; the Donnegans are a free black family who assist escaped slaves to freedom; and the Ferreiras are a family of Portuguese immigrants who left their home seeking religious freedom and settled in Springfield. All are affected by Lincoln's presidency and assassination, the Civil War, and emancipation and restoration following the war. 

I enjoyed Horan's previous books so I was looking forward to reading her latest novel. While well-researched, the author tried to cover too much territory historically, and there are too many characters for good character development. She tried to include too many important topics, such as slavery, the Civil War, Lincoln's presidency, the race riots in the early 20th century, Mary Todd Lincoln's life as First Lady. I think the title is also incorrect - I went into the book thinking it was about the Lincoln family, but they really play only a small part. There is much more about the Donnegan family and slavery than either of the other families. Needed a good editor - disappointing.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Springfield's main street and business district, mid-19th century

Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly

July 15, 2021

Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly

A girl from a wealthy Northern family isn't content to sit home and knit socks for the Union soldiers, so she finagles her way into a nursing program. She finds out that nurses are treated like shit by the doctors and orderlies at the Army hospitals. She ends up starting her own nursing program. Meanwhile, a slave escapes from a brutally cruel owner and winds up hiding out at the rich girl's fmily's house up north. The owner sends a bounty hunter to recapture the slave while the rich family does their best to help.

The story is told from three POV's: the plantation owner, the slave, and the nurse.

Nothing new here - inhumanly cruel plantation owner with absolutely NO redeeming qualities whips and tortures her slaves. Female slave is brutally abused and escapes when she gets the chance. Plantation owner will stop at nothing to find the slave and drag her back to the plantation. Pretty typical depictions of both slave and plantation owner.

The stark descriptions of Army hospitals and the way nurses were treated were more interesting than the rest of the book. This is the third book in the author's Woolsey-Ferriday series, following the women from an actual family. It was WAY too long - at over 500 pages, it needed a good editor to chop out about 200 pages. Not nearly as good as the previous two books.

Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

February 10, 2021

Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

At the age of 16, Eliza Lucas' father left her in charge of the family's three South Carolina plantation while he went to pursue his dreams of military glory. As her father drains the family's funds, Eliza realizes that it's up to her to save the family. When she learns how much the French are willing to pay for indigo dye, she decides that growing indigo is the way to salvation. But no planters will share the secrets of growing indigo, so Eliza is forced to find other allies. Her most dangerous alliance is with a slave who is willing to teach her the process in return for Eliza teaching the slaves to read.

I enjoy historical fiction where I learn about something that I didn't know. Indigo Girl is based on historical documents, including Eliza's own letters. Eliza's dye proved much superior to English indigo and indigo dye became one of the South's largest exports and was the foundation for many Southern families' fortunes. 

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King

 July 11, 2020

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King

Thrasius is a Greek slave, purchased by patrician Marcus Gavius Apicius to be his new cook.  Apicius is a gourmand, and also ambitious - he wants to be Caesar's gastronomical adviser for his banquets.  He is blocked by rival gourmand Octavius Publius, Caesar's current adviser, who is threatened by Thrasius' extraordinary cooking skills.  Thrasius unexpectedly finds a home, friends, and a family in the Gavius household, but his happy life is threatened when the entire household including the slaves is caught up in Roman politics and intrigue.

I love books set in ancient Rome, also about food and cooking, with well-developed characters, so this one checked a lot of boxes for me.  It was why I enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's lukewarm mystery Bone in the Throat - the mystery itself wasn't that great, but the descriptions of food and cooking were wonderful.

Apicius is the first known gourmand from ancient times, although there were undoubtedly others when you consider the scope of the banquets that the patricians held.  He left a collection of recipes (that his slave chef undoubtedly developed) that are the first known cookbook, dating from the 1st century C.E.  While there is no record of any of the slaves, there are a number of historical characters throughout the book.  For a look at life in ancient Rome, you may want to watch the PBS series I, Claudius, based on the two novels by Robert Graves, I, Claudius and Claudius the God.  The series is available on Acorn TV (subscription is around $6/month).

I needed a change after reading two mediocre books, and this fit the bill nicely.  Great cover art, too.  Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction set in the ancient world.

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

June 16, 2020

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

As the Civil War rages, slaves Hannie Gossett, her mother, and siblings are sent by their owner from Louisiana to his property in Texas, as a way to protect his assets.  But the relative sent to safeguard the slaves on their journey begins selling them off at the Texas towns they pass through.  Ten years after the end of the Civil War, Hannie still lives at the Gossetts’ Louisiana plantation, but as part of a group of sharecroppers who have worked to gain ownership of their land.  But the plantation owner has gone missing, and the sharecroppers fear that if he dies, his wife will burn the deeds to the sharecroppers’ property.  Hannie breaks into the main house, determined to find the deed, only to find that Mr. Gossett’s mixed race daughter Juneau Jane is there as well, searching for documents that will protect her and her mother (Mr. Gossett's mulatto "fancy woman").  Determined to track down Mr. Gossett or his business partner, Hannie disguises herself as a boy and travels with Gossett’s two daughters from Louisiana to Texas to try and locate one of the men, or at least find out what happened to Gossett.

Along the way, the girls discover a newspaper column called Lost Friends, which prints letters for people (mostly former slaves) seeking lost family members.  They begin to collect more stories from the people they meet on their quest, and Hannie vows to help as many of them as she can, while searching for her own lost family.

In a parallel story, Benny Silva takes a job as an English teacher in Augustine, Texas, the town founded by the Gossett family.  The school is woefully short of supplies, and she contacts Nathan Gossett, the heir to the Gossett house, about donating books from the Gossett library to the school.  Little do either of them suspect that they are opening up a long-sealed chapter of local history.

Like her previous novel (Before We Were Yours), Wingate shines a spotlight on a hidden or forgotten piece of history.  The newspaper excerpts printed between the chapters really humanize the true horror of slavery even among those who treated their slaves "well":  of men owning other people and selling them off with no more thought than they would their cattle, often being sold repeatedly; of the separation of families; of the lifelong desire and need to find those families again, with the search sometimes lasting over 40 years; and of the injustices that former slaves continued to suffer, even after freedom.

Moving and at times gut-wrenching, I highly recommend this historical novel to anyone who wants to learn more about unknown history and injustices that last to this day.