we want to discuss in 2016-2017?
Are you aware of the 1929 to 1975 North Carolina's Eugenics Sterilization Program? This program sterilized thousands of men and women. The program impacted the "mentally defective" and the people with low IQ
scores, inmates of mental institutions and epileptics. Author
Diane Chamberlain weaves together a story based on these historical facts.
Description: Caring for her family on their mid-twentieth-century tobacco farm after the loss of her parents, Ivy connects with social worker Jane Forrester, who strains her personal and professional relationships with her advocacy of Ivy's family.
According to a Library Journal review: "...at age 15, Ivy Hart does
her best to hold together family life with her diabetic grandmother,her older sister, Mary Ella, who is mentally challenged, and Mary Ella's
baby. They live and work as tenants on a tobacco farm in rural North Carolina in 1960. Jane Forrester marries a doctor and , against his wishes, takes a job as a social worker with the Harts as clients. She's idealistic and shocked to learn that social workers have the power to petition to have clients sterilized....By allowing Ivy and Jane to tell their stories, Chamberlain humanizes the survivors. This is a troubling account, considering how recently involuntary sterilization occurred in in this county. Book groups and fans of Jodi Picoult should appreciate this work."
The Invention of Wings is inspired by the true story of early 19th century abolitionist and suffragist Sarah Grimke and the imagined character of Handful, a slave. Told in first person, the chapters alternate between
Sarah and Handful, as we follow their friendship from childhood to
middle age. Sarah strives for freedom from a male dominated society
and Southern bigotry, and Handful from the inhumanity of slavery. These women support each other as they grapple with religion,
family drama, slave revolts and the abolitionist movement.
Description: Traces more than three decades in the lives of a wealthy Charleston debutante who longs to break free from the strictures of her household and pursue a meaningful life; and the urban slave, Handful, who is placed in her charge as a child before finding courage and a sense of self.
From the Library Journal: "VERDICT This richly imagined narrative
brings both black history and women's history to life with an unsentimental story of two women who became sisters under the skin..."
We meet this Thursday to discuss Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross - a journey to the Middle Ages,
a possibility of what if......
Voting on Historical Fiction will follow the discussion. Again, we are not limited to these titles, Bring
your book suggestions with you.