Before We Were Yours

Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate

30/25 | Started 10.14.21 • Finished 11.01.21 | 4 stars

October's book club pick was this disturbing yet hopeful novel by Lisa Wingate. I came into having heard that the book was worth reading but not really knowing anything of the storyline. What unfolded was a heartbreaking story of loss and family, love and belonging.

In my multifold years of life, I have learned that most people get along as best they can. They don’t intend to hurt anyone. It is merely a terrible by-product of surviving.

A transient houseboat family is broken apart by a true-life character who directed homes for orphans. Knowing that the book was based on factual events helped lend credence to the dramatic story, which definitely kept me turning the pages. I loved Wingate's descriptions of the setting, really diving in to the houseboat experience and life in the south. I could've done without the silly romantic thread, which I (and others in my book club) saw coming from a thousand miles away. Some found it heartwarming but I felt like it was too obvious and took away from what was going on. I also don't normally like books that jump back and forth through time but for some reason I found this one to be manageable and even enjoyable.

Life is not unlike cinema. Each scene has its own music, and the music is created for the scene, woven to it in ways we do not understand. No matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today, or we will always be out of step, stumbling around in something that doesn’t suit the moment.

I'm thankful that though the book has plenty of hard chapters to read, it did not take the sinister turn that I thought it would. And I really enjoyed the hopeful ending - that the ties of family and blood can be stronger than loss and time. I'd recommend this book for sure, though it's probably not for those who would have difficulty handling the descriptions of the atrocities committed at the kind of orphan home depicted. If you're on the fence, go into it knowing that there is a beautiful ending that will tug at your heartstrings.

A woman’s past need not predict her future.

Greek Myths

Greek Myths, by Olivia Coolidge

Started 10.15.21 • Finished 11.03.21

"Athens becomes Athena's city when she plants an olive bush. Random, right? Well it would give Athens all it needs. Winter and fall are when Demeter's daughter Persephone is in the Underworld with Hades. Apollo and Hyacinthus were like brothers. One day they decided to play with a discus. Apollo threw, and Hyacinthus marked where it landed. Apollo throws the discus. It flies through the air, floats high, then, out of jealousy, the wind blows it into Hyacinthus's head, killing him. Atalanta, who father was a greedy king, desire not to marry. The king demanded that she marry, so she held races, and whoever beat her, she would marry. If she won, the men would be killed. Aphrodite and Hippomenes cheated in the last race. They threw Atalanta golden apples to make her fall behind. Chimera were deadly. It was part lion, part goat, part dragon. You see why it was dangerous? Theseus is considered a good hero because he slew many monsters and robbers fighting for justice on the way to his father. Hercules had to do 12 labors because he killed his wife and three sons."

Neph, age 10

The Ides of April

The Ides of April, by Mary Ray

29/25 | Started 09.20.21 • Finished 10.15.21

"It is a story about a murder that happened that a slave and senator try to find out who did it. Hylas the slave discovers his master dead. When he sees it he hides due to soldiers rounding up the slaves for a certain reason. Camillus, a friend of him, helps try to figure out who did it before it's too late. The games were happening so the other slaves wouldn't be tortured until they were over. Camillus turns out to be a secret Christian. Hylas knows it wasn't any of the slaves. They both find out multiple people helped in the murder of Caius Pomponius. The only way to save the others was to have an audience with Emperor Nero. They got one and were able to save the slaves. Afterward Hylas becomes Camillus's slave."

Timothy, age 13

"Hylas is a slave. He ventures into the town one day and finds Amanis in the way of a man falling off a ladder. He pushes the man out of the way. The next day, Hylas's master dies. He decides to find out to prove that it wasn't a slave. If he fails, all the slaves will be killed because of an 'infection' that would spread throughout the slaves, and it must be killed. He finds an ally, who happens to be Camillus, the saved guy in my picture. They suspect Decianus, the son of Caius Pomponius, who was Hylas's master. Hylas finds a scroll that will tell them who it wasn't. Camillus used to believe slaves were lowlifes, but now knows that they are just regular people. He also wants to free Hylas now. Hylas is once called 'Hylas, son of Pycades,' when means that he is free. The murder was made by a few people."

Neph, age 10