Books I Ordered & Days Of Old

I ordered four paperback books yesterday that I thought some of you might be interested in reading.

All The Little Hopes

“Will break your heart, but Leah Weiss’s beautiful writing will sew it back together again” ―Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author

A Southern story of friendship forged by books and bees, when the timeless troubles of growing up meet the murky shadows of World War II.

Deep in the tobacco land of North Carolina, nothing’s been the same since the boys shipped off to war and worry took their place. Thirteen-year-old Lucy Brown is precocious and itching for adventure.

Then Allie Bert Tucker wanders into town, an outcast with a puzzling past, and Lucy figures the two of them can solve any curious crime they find―just like her hero, Nancy Drew.

Their chance comes when a man goes missing, a woman stops speaking, and an eccentric gives the girls a mystery to solve that takes them beyond the ordinary. Their quiet town, seasoned with honeybees and sweet tea, becomes home to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. More men go missing. And together, the girls embark on a journey to discover if we ever really know who the enemy is.

Lush with Southern atmosphere, All The Little Hopes is the story of two girls growing up as war creeps closer, blurring the difference between what’s right, what’s wrong, and what we know to be true.

***

I am in the mood to read a book that reminds me somewhat of the time my childhood. Cornbread and milk for an evening snack. My grannies used buttermilk, but I couldn’t abide the smell, much less taste it.

For some reason I seem to remember them calling it something like “clobbered milk.” Does that sound remotely familiar to anyone who grew up around the time I did?

One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow

From the bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of survival and sacrifice on the American frontier.

Wyoming, 1876. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival.

But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.

Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family―to share the duties of working the land and raising their children.

There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde―no longer a boy, but not yet a man―who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.

Bound by the uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to trust each other―or else risk losing everything they hold dear.

***

Difficult Times:

This book foretells what kind of situations people had to endure during a time of great difficulty. Putting their feelings aside just to get through things.

Can you imagine that occurring now?

The women would probably kill each other. And there are plenty of high powered guns now for them to do it without having to get their hands dirty.

Working the land…

Those are magic words to farmers. It speaks of milking cows and bringing in crops and hoping the weather works in your favor.

If The Creek Don’t Rise

“An immersive and deeply emotional reading experience―especially satisfying for readers who love richly drawn characters and a strong sense of place” ―NPR

He’s gonna be sorry he ever messed with me and Loretta Lynn.

Sadie Blue has been a wife for fifteen days. That’s long enough to know she should have never hitched herself to Roy Tupkin, even with the baby.

Sadie is desperate to make her own mark on the world, but in remote Appalachia, a ticket out of town is hard to come by and hope often gets stomped out.

When a stranger sweeps into Baines Creek and knocks things off kilter, Sadie finds herself with an unexpected lifeline…if she can just figure out how to use it.

***

October In The Earth

In Depression-era Kentucky, a defiant wife embarks on an impulsive and liberating journey in a powerful novel by the bestselling author of One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow and The Ragged Edge of Night.

Del Wensley, wife of the most celebrated preacher in Harlan County, tries to mind her place. Until her husband’s infidelity pushes an already strained marriage to a breaking point. Clinging to her last hope for self-respect, Del turns her back on the rigid life she’s known. A coal train is rolling through the valley. With her eyes wide open to the unfamiliar, and to the freedom she craves, Del takes to the rails.

Rumbling across America, Del is soon drawn into a transient community among outcasts―and finds a special friend in Louisa Trout. A nomadic single mother, Louisa teaches Del the ways of the boxcars and promises to help her reach a migrant enclave where Del can learn the skills she’ll need to survive. But as they move forward together under desperate circumstances, even the closest of bonds threatens to break.

With the Depression taking its toll, Del must gather her strength and faith. As she carries on toward one unknown after another, her life becomes a fulfilling, sometimes dangerous, and exhilarating adventure. But no matter the risks, it’s a life that she alone controls.

***

I’m always interested in stories involving young single mothers because I was one myself. How I managed to keep a baby alive when I was so ignorant of how to do it amazes me to this day.

A Yearning For A Simpler Time:

I can’t explain what drew me to these books. Maybe a yearning for a simpler time. Before cell phones and “smart” everything, and whatever you needed was just a few typed words away.

I appreciate all that helps me lead a good life without having to go places. No worrying about how I’ll get groceries or kitty litter or medication. It will all come straight to me door.

But sometimes I think back to the olden days, when life was simpler. When you had to use your own brain to figure things out that Google now serves up for us in seconds.

And something in me gets a hankering to go back in time and ponder those days.

Back when there was a form of communication called telegrams, and people still bought stamps. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t bought stamps in ages.

If you mentioned telegrams to the younger generation, I doubt they’d know what you’re talking about.

When Bonanza would be on TV on a Sunday evening. I can’t recall which day Gunsmoke came on. But I sure thought Marshall Dillon was a handsome fella. That Miss Kitty was one lucky woman.

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