One of the things I have learned is that history told by the powerful, the winners and the the dominant is not a complete history. Unless we hear from the losers, the subjugated, or the powerless, we do not get the full picture of what happened.
There have been a number of books that I have reviewed that tell this kind of history: The Moor’s Account by Lalami about the exploration of the Central and South America, The Investigation by Lee about the incarceration and medical experimentation on Korean and US POWs by the Japanese during WWII, The Sympathizer by Nguyen, a Vietnamese perspective on the Vietnam War, and The Glass Palace by Ghosh about the British invasion of Burma in 1855. Most of these books are about foreign places, but in Beheld, Nesbit takes us to the roots of our own history; the fledgling colony of Plymouth.
It has been ten years since the pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and formed the colony of Plymouth. Although the colony was supposedly founded on the idea of religious freedom, Puritans have imposed strict rules that restrict the settlers from trading with whom they choose, living the way they choose and worshipping the way they choose. Out numbered, the Anglicans in the colony have been marginalized by the more zealous Puritans, so it is with some anticipation and hope that they welcome a new ship bringing more colonists and new directives concerning the management of the colony. Instead the ship and the new colonists bring even more tension and when a murder occurs, the trial reveals the true depths of the moral decrepitude in this seemingly God fearing colony.
The story is told from the perspective of two women-one a woman of some social standing with a pliant deferring personality and the other the wife of the town troublemaker and drunk, who has had to find an inner strength and hardness in order to survive. These two women offer us insights into the lives of women in the colony, the precariousness of life, the trials of motherhood and their powerlessness. As the story unfolds Nesbit explores the ways in which people justify acts that are morally reprehensible or promote injustice. In the process the book raises some important questions: Whose stories get told and become “History;” and what stories are discarded, dismissed or forgotten, and does it matter?
Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Out of 5 Stars)
Recommend this book to: Marian, Sharon, Ken and Keith
Books study worthy? Yes!
Read in ebook format.
Nora Seed is very unhappy and disappointed with her life and wonders if she might be more happy and fulfilled if she had made different choices. Suddenly she finds herself in the Midnight Library, a place where you can check out the volumes of your life where you made different choices than the life you are currently living. When she check out these volumes she begins living those lives, trying them on and seeing if she might want to change her current life for this new one.
Omeir, a farm boy, was conscripted by the invading army, along with his beloved oxen, to carry the machines of war to the walls of Constantinople. In the aftermath, his oxen dead and traumatized by the horrors of war, Omeir begins his journey back to his village. Along the way, he literally runs into Anna, a thirteen year old orphan fleeing the city. He soon finds that she is carrying with her pages from an amazing book about Atheon who longs to be turned into a bird so he can find utopia in the sky. Omeir is entranced by the story, but knows that the villagers who do not know how to read will not understand such magic. Fearing for Anna’s life, they hide the book carefully in the an old tree and only get it out occasionally to share with their children.
This book is set in 1779, during the revolutionary war. Claire and Jamie have been reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger and their children after they made the perilous journey through the stones and away from dangers they encountered in the 20th century. Although Frasers Ridge, where Jamie and Claire have settled, is located in the back country of North Carolina, the winds of war are sweeping closer and closer. Meanwhile, not too far away, William Ransom, Lord John’s heir, is trying to come to terms with the knowledge of his real father’s identity.
Hannah Hall had almost given up on love and then she met Owen Michaels. They quickly fell in love and got married and although Owen’s, teenage daughter, Bailey, was not thrilled with her as a stepmother, Hannah felt that in the last year they had made some progress or at least had entered a detente in their relationship.
New life is also the topic of Jane Smiley’s new book Perestroika in Paris. This is a lovely book-almost a novella at just 270 pages, but she packs in so many thoughts and ideas in those pages that it feels much longer.
Nanao, nicknamed “Lady Bird,” has been hired to do a simple job. Get on the Tokyo to Morioka bullet train, find and steal a specific suitcase and then get off at the first stop. Simple, easy and fast, his booking agent insists, but Nanao is not so sure, because for the self proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world,” things always get more complicated than they should. And that is exactly what happens. No sooner has he boarded but he realizes that the suitcase is also being sought by deadly killer duo named Tangerine and Lemon. Not only that, there seems to be other strange and potentially dangerous passengers on board, like the young teenager called “the Prince,”whose youthful, innocent demeanor hides psychopathic tendencies. Then there is the recovering drunk who is intent on confronting “the Prince.” In fact, most of the passengers on the eerily empty train seem suspicious.
a horse named Perestroika who gets loose and wanders around Paris. What a quirky and fun premise! It was a must read for me just just based on that plot line and with a writer like Smiley it has to be good!
refugees and the terrible and difficult journey they make to start a new life. My husband’s family are currently helping an Afghani family adjust to their new life in the US, so this seemed like a perfect way to learn more and to understand the difficult transitions so many immigrants must make when they leave their own countries.
has written some notable books, like 
The is book 9 in the series which I have reviewed 
Laura Dave’s book is about a wife whose husband suddenly disappears and his boss is arrested by the FBI. With her world turned upside down all she has left is her husband’s last words: “protect her.” Dark Horse 
is book 7 in the Orphan X series which I have reviewed 
It was to be a celebrity wedding held on a remote island off the coast of Ireland between two rising stars: the bride, an ambitious and gifted magazine publisher and the groom, a rising reality TV star. The wedding was planned as if for a magazine shoot, with the luxurious designer dress, the beautiful linens for the tables, and massive bouquets of flowers all set against the rugged natural beauty of the remote island location. The lack of reliable cell phone service eliminated the worry of unauthorized pictures being released and the fact that guests had to be ferried to the island by boat kept prying paparazzi and uninvited guests from showing up.
Brenda's Bookshelf 