Stranger Here Below

By:  Joyce Hinnefeld

Publisher:  Unbridled Books

In 1961, when Amazing Grace Jansen, a firecracker from Appalachia, meets Mary Elizabeth Cox, the daughter of a Black southern preacher, at Kentucky’s Berea College, they already carry the scars and traces of their mothers’ troubles. Poor and single, Maze’s mother has had to raise her daughter alone and fight to keep a roof over their heads. Mary Elizabeth’s mother has carried a shattering grief throughout her life, a loss so great that it has disabled her and isolated her stern husband and her brilliant, talented daughter.

The caution this has scored into Mary Elizabeth has made her defensive and too private and limited her ambitions, despite her gifts as a musician. But Maze’s earthy fearlessness might be enough to carry them both forward toward lives lived bravely in an angry world that changes by the day.

Both of them are drawn to the enigmatic Georginea Ward, an aging idealist who taught at Berea sixty years ago, fell in love with a black man, and suddenly found herself renamed as a sister in a tiny Shaker community. Sister Georgia believes in discipline and simplicity, yes. But, more important, her faith is rooted in fairness and the long reach of unconditional love.

This is a novel about three generations of women and the love that makes families where none can be expected.

A few weeks ago I read In Hovering Flight also by Joyce Hinnefeld.  My review is here.  I really loved that book, so I was excited to read this one as well.   Stranger Here Below, was pretty good, but it didn't grab me the same way as In Hovering Flight did. 

This book was told through a variety of flashbacks of various characters.  It focused on the women in the lives of Maze and Mary Elizabth and their histories.  It was generally an easy to follow method of telling the story, but I'll admit at times I'd get a little lost and have to backtrack to figure out who I was reading about. 

Joyce Hinnefeld has a very lovely writing style and she is excellent with her descriptions.  It was so easy to picture the college and the Shaker village in my mind.  I wanted to go visit and check it out myself.  I was surprised to learn so much about the Shakers reading this book.  I guess I didn't know as much about them as I thought. 

This book was recently released on September 28th.  I'd recommend reading it, maybe with the word of caution to pay attention to the chapter beginnings so you don't get confused like I did.  This would make a very good book club book.  I think it would spark a lot of discussion.

In Hovering Flight

By:  Joyce Hinnefeld
Publisher:  Unbridled Books

Summary:  At 34 years of age, Scarlet has come home for the passing of her famous mother, the bird artist Addie Kavanaugh. The year is 2002. Though Addie and her husband, the world-renowned ornithologist Tom Kavanaugh, have made their life in southeastern Pennsylvania, Addie has chosen to die at the home of her dearest friend, Cora. This is because their ramshackle cottage in Burnham, Pennsylvania, is filled with so much history and because, in the last ten years or so, even birdsong has seemed to make Addie angry, or sad, or both. These are the things that Scarlet needs to understand. Cora and Lou (the third woman in Addie's circle) will help Scarlet to see her mother in full. In addition, Scarlet carries her own secret into these foggy days-a secret for Addie, one that involves Cora, too.

I received this book from Unbridled Book in anticipation of Joyce Hinnefeld's new book, Stranger Here Below, coming out next month.  I was unfamiliar with this author so I really didn't know what to expect and I certainly didn't expect to love this book as much as I did.

First off, the cover is so pretty!  It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's really lovely in person.  We're a bird family, which may contribute to why I liked this book so much.  We have 5 Hummingbirds and a new Mourning Dove that call our yard home, not to mention all the other birds that swoop in and out to snag some food.  In Hovering Flight is a perfect book for a bird lover!  My girls and I thought the bird on the cover was beautiful!

I enjoyed the way this book was written going back and forth in time to tell the story of this family's life.  Oftentimes this technique can become confusing, but the writing in this book was always very clear.  She also had a wonderful way of telling the same story from a differing point of view.  I loved seeing how a different character felt about a certain event. 

While this book was dealt with the death of a wife and mother, it wasn't always terribly sad.  There were a few teary eyed moment though. 

I'm generally not big on activist causes, but I do admire people who have that level of passion.  However, unless their family participates they get left out, which was the case in this book with Addie who becomes quite a radical activist.  Tom and Scarlet were often left behind and it was very interesting reading about their reactions and feeling and ultimately Addie's feeling. 

***slight spoilers ahead***


You learn in the book that Scarlet is pregnant, but I won't say who the father is because that's part of the secret.  I will say that I was really pleased with who the father is though.  I was pregnant during that same time that Scarlet got pregnant and I remember how emotional that time was, in terms of being pregnant while everything was going on.  I could relate to that part of the book.

***End Spoilers***

I hope to get to Stranger Here Below soon.  It looks like another good one!