Native Americans

Publisher and Publication Date: New American Library. 2014.
Genre: Historical fiction.
Pages: 368.
Source: eBook from the library.
Audience: Readers of women’s stories, Native American, early American history.
Rating: Excellent.

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Summary:
Mary Rowlandson was a true historical person living in Massachusetts during Colonial America. She was born in 1635, and died in 1710 or 1711. She was born in England and came to America as a child. She married Joseph Rowlandson who was a Puritan minister. In 1676, during King Philip’s War, she and her three children were captured by Native Americans. Three months after she was captured her husband ransomed her back. Their two surviving children returned a month later. She later wrote her story and it was published.

My Thoughts:
Flight of the Sparrow is a story that provokes. It has conflicts that cause me to feel angry, sad, and left me with a feeling of great loss.
The conflicts:
*White people indifferent, intolerant, and abusive to Native Americans and African American slaves.
*Native Americans who out of fear and anger lash out and abuse White Americans.
*White men who are indifferent, intolerant, and abusive to females.
*People who misunderstand, slander, and gossip.
*A religion that doesn’t know Scripture or the One who is Creator of all.
*A society that doesn’t question authorities or they are afraid to do so. Another reason is they don’t realize or have been led to believe they don’t have a valid voice.
All of these conflicts makes the story very heavy. In the Flight of the Sparrow there isn’t a resting place. The entire sweeping story is one of angst.

A positive point in the book is it’s a teaching story.
*It’s a story that shows injustice and a heroine who tries to make things at least transparent about her life through a written story.
*I learned about the way of life for Native Americans. Their culture and society amongst themselves, especially their plight and resistance.
*People who dearly love one another and cannot be together, but instead are faithful and sacrificial in their love.
*To see the perspective of another people group. To take the eyes of self and towards others. To have understanding and compassion.

This is a story for such a time as this.

39344131 Publisher and Publication Date: Little A. December 1, 2018.
Genre: Fiction. Coming of age story.
Pages: 333.
Source: Kindle Unlimited program through Amazon. Free e-book/ Kindle copy.
Rating: Very good.
Audience: Readers of coming of age stories where the narrator/character is a boy to young man.

This ebook is available for free through the Kindle Unlimited program.

Summary:
Wes Ballot is in his mid-teens when his mother died. His father left soon afterwards. Wes went to live with maternal grandparents who are like strangers to him. Wes is an only child. His mother was an only child. He has lived a chaotic and poverty stricken childhood. His parents fought. His grandparents fight. And, he is a young man who has been deeply affected by the heavy weight of anger, unforgiveness, abuse, addictions, and unspoken words in the family.
The time period is the late 1970s. The place is rural Minnesota.

My Thoughts:
If the above summary depresses you the book certainly will. Of course, I feel the book is well-written; and the book shows a hard side of life that many readers can relate to.
Several reasons why I loved this book:
•Susan Bernhard writes a perfect voice and persona of a young man. I feel that writing a story about a young man is difficult from the perspective of a female writer. But, Bernhard hits it great with Wes in Winter Loon.
•Bernhard is a wonderful storyteller. The mood and setting of winter, a winter lake, and the northern state of Minnesota. The icy cold of the environment casts a perfect stage for the icy cold of the family.
•Wes is an only child. He is alone in his thoughts. He is alone in his fears. He is alone in his home. Even though he had a mother and father, they are distracted and lost in a dysfunctional world of alcohol.
•I’ve read that in living through the hard times in life we either become bitter or better. Wes’s parents and grandparents became bitter. The story will reveal what Wes becomes.
•From the first page, I became attached to Wes. I wanted to bring him home and feed the young man. I wanted to make sure he had a safe place to grow-up.
•I’m happy to state several of the characters who are (solid and dependable) friends of Wes are Native Americans. Through their stories, I understand the plight and life of Native Americans.
•A few of the quotes stayed with me long after the book was read.
“So much went unsaid between them, like words didn’t matter when their contempt for each other was clear.”
“I would come to know the cold of my grandparents house and felt it that first day.”