Family



Each chapter is prefaced by a very short passage from an earlier time which, in themselves, tell a parallel story of overcoming prejudice. || Barbara B. || I have yet to find a Joy Dettman title that has disappointed me- and this trilogy is no exception. I could not wait for the next one to be published! Dettman has a way of writing that brings the hot, dry parts of VIctoria to life in a way that no one else does. //Henry's Daughter, One Sunday, Jacaranda Blue, Yesterday's Dust// - all unputdownable and highly recommended. ||  || Strangely it doesn't appear to be available as an eBook at the moment. I actually downloaded and read it on Kindle for iPad. __Amazon Review__ //"In this gripping novel of motherhood gone awry, Lionel Shriver approaches the tragedy of a high-school massacre from the point of view of the killer's mother.In letters written to the boy's father, mother Eva probes the upbringing of this more-than-difficult child and reveals herself to have been the reluctant mother of an unsavory son. As the schisms in her family unfold, we draw closer to an unexpected climax that holds breathtaking surprises and its own hard-won redemption. In Eva, Shriver has created a narrator who is touching, sad, funny, and reflective. A spellbinding read, We Need to Talk About Kevin is as original as it is timely."// http://www.amazon.com/We-Need-Talk-About-Kevin/dp/006072448X || Bronwyn McLeod || __Amazon Review__
 * **Title** || **Author** || **Synopsis** || **Recommended by...** ||
 * **The Buffalo Soldier** || Chris Bohjalian || A young African-American boy is placed in a foster home in a 'white' town in Vermont in a family whose two young daughters were drowned in a devastating flood. Alfred has a tough time settling in particularly as the effects of the loss of their daughters comes to a head between his foster parents. Inspired by a cap and a book about buffalo soldiers he manages to maintain his dignity and sense of self and finally finds a place to call home.
 * **Pearl in a Cage **
 * Thorn on the Rose **
 * Moth to the Flame ** || Joy Dettman || On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman – foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant – is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. Try as she might the town midwife, Gertrude, is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
 * We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel || Lionel Shriver || An amazing book, just released as a movie. Very compelling, although I was almost reluctant to keep reading because I felt a deep unease about how the story would unfold.
 * We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel || Lionel Shriver || An amazing book, just released as a movie. Very compelling, although I was almost reluctant to keep reading because I felt a deep unease about how the story would unfold.
 * The Brave || Nicholas Evans || This was recommended at a Professional Development Course I attended. Enjoyed reading it and found it a great story. It took me a while to realise that the action jumped from era to era and wasn't cronological in order (it became cronological towards the end). Available as a Kindle edition.

From Publishers Weekly
//As a student at the Ashlawn Preparatory School in 1959 England, eight-year-old, cowboy-crazy Tommy Bedford, the hero of Evans's latest outdoor soap opera, is teased for being a bed wetter and gets the shock of his young life when he learns that his sister, glamorous "Next Big Thing" actress Diane Reed, is really his mother. Soon afterwards, she and Tommy move to L.A., where Diane falls for TV cowboy Ray Montane, and their tortured relationship leads to a horrifying act of violence that has lifelong repercussions for Tommy. In a parallel, present-day plot, 50-ish Tom, now a writer and documentary filmmaker who specializes in the American West, lives in Montana, is divorced and estranged from his adult son, Danny, who has been accused of committing an atrocity while serving in Iraq, for which he will be tried in a military court. Alternating past and present, Evans expertly juggles his twin narratives until they come shatteringly together as father and son yield to the combined weight of the secrets they hide. Combining elements of the prep school drama, the Hollywood novel, the western, and the war story, Evans (The Horse Whisperer) skillfully mixes genres to create a real crowd-pleaser.// //Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved//. ||  ||
 * Bluefis || Pat Schmatz || An American novel that I could not put down. Luckily it is fairly short as it was written as a young adult novel. Tha main character Travis is illiterate and 'Bluefish' mostly centres around his learning to read, but on a broader level, learning to trust. There is a wonderful female character Velveeta who is fascinating too. A very emotional read. I had the hanky out on many occasions. Could be paired with 'The Book Thief' for senior English students but I just loved it as an inspiring story. Not sure that it fits in family but unsure where else to put it. || Chris Lloyd ||
 * The poison wood bible || Barbara Kingsolver || A majestic novel, which at over 600 hundred pages, takes some commitment. However, you will be rewarded! This story is told by the wife and four daughters of a fierce evangelical baptist who rather naively takes his family from Georgia, America to the Belgian Congo in 1959 with the aim of converting the "natives". The family slowly unravels amongst religion, politics, race, sin and redemption, and gradually reconstructs over the course of three decades. It is a dark tIme in the Congo, and Kingsolver's handling of this time is well researched, with a bibliography provided at the end of the novel. The characters are endearing and I loved experiencing the Congo through the eyes of each of these remarkable women. || Zarina Fleming ||
 * With a name like Love || Tess Hilmo || A family with five daughters and a father who is an itinerant preacher find their way to Binder in Arkansas; a small town with some narrow-minded characters. Here Ollie (the eldest daughter), meets a boy whose mother has confessed to murdering her husband and is awaiting transfer to prison without a trial. Ollie decides that justice is lacking and sets about to solve the crime. [] || Rebecca Crawley ||