The thread collectors, by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman

I enjoyed this historical novel, based loosely on the two authors' family histories, that tells the story of a Jewish Northerner, Jacob Kling, and his wife, alongside the story of an enslaved woman in New Orleans and her lover, an enslaved man who runs away to join Northern forces camped nearby. The story alternates between the four narratives. Jacob is a musician who befriends William, a classically trained flutist. Lily is Jacob's wife, a fervent abolitionist who sews quilts and rolls bandages to support the Union war effort. Stella is an enslaved woman kept as her owner's mistress in the French Quarter in New Orleans; she is in love with William. She uses her embroidery skills to provide maps on fabric for men leaving bondage and seeking the Northern army encampments to volunteer for the Union army. The plot bogged down a little in the middle, but when Jacob is injured and stops writing to Lily, she decides to travel across country to find him, and the book picks up for the second half. The stars align and eventually all the main characters meet. The ending is not without tragedy, but is hopeful.
 

James, by Percival Everett

 

I really liked this retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the enslaved man Jim's viewpoint. I found the story to be alternately funny and devastating. Written by the author of Erasure, the novel that the film American fiction was based on, you can imagine that James will be provocative and challenge the reader's perspectives about the events that took place in Huck Finn. Everett doesn't disappoint with this book. Telling the story from an adult's perspective and leaving out the many swaths of the original book in which Jim and Huck were separated, the result is a shorter book, but one that is piercing in its insight. I found James both riveting and unforgettable; I couldn't put it down. I read this over the summer for my September book club meeting. We chose to re-read Huck Finn first, which I think was a good approach, given that I hadn't read Huck Finn in 40 years. Reading them in order (Huck Finn, then James) draws your attention even more strongly to the way the stories are told and the emphases placed on specific events by the respective authors.

The cure for women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever, by Lydia Reeder

 

Review to come.