The House Girl by Tara Conklin

Virginia, 1852. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. 

New York City, 2004. Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career: she must find the “perfect plaintiff” to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.

It is through her father, the renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers Josephine Bell and a controversy roiling the art world: are the iconic paintings long ascribed to Lu Anne Bell really the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the reparations lawsuit—if Lina can find one. While following the runaway girl’s faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina finds herself questioning her own family history and the secrets that her father has never revealed: How did Lina’s mother die? And why will he never speak about her?

Moving between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing, suspenseful and heartbreaking tale of art and history, love and secrets, explores what it means to repair a wrong and asks whether truth is sometimes more important than justice.

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published February 12th 2013 by William Morrow 

"Let your heart lead you, do not be afraid, for there will be much to regret if reason and sense and fear are your only markers"

Tara Conklin has written short stories and this is her debutl. This was another audio read for me, which I really enjoyed.  Beginning in 1852 with Josephine Bell and her story as a slave required to care for ailing mistress, artist Lu Anne Bell.  Then jump to 2004 and we meet Lina Sparrow, whose father is also an artist.  One of the things that struck me was the way the author presented the class action lawsuit. As I began to read about it my mind automatically started to believe that it was not possible and seemed a little far fetched.  But the author presented it in such a way that made the law suit not only believable but possible.  That is something I love with reading, present an unrealistic situation and convince the reader that it is imaginable and plausible. 

It was interesting going back in forth in time, especially as the story moved along and branched out with intertwining stories. Very easy to follow the jumps, especially while trying to figure out the connections.

I really enjoyed this story.   The author was able to bring alive the treatment of slaves and the underground railway. The reader of the audio book read the different time periods in ways that reflected there times.

Definitely an author I will be reading more of.

“Over the years she had learned to fold down rising emotion just as she would fold the clean bedsheets, the sheet growing smaller and tighter with each pass until all that remained of that wide wrinkled expanse of cotton was a hard closed-in square.”

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

New York Times bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier makes her first fictional foray into the American past in The Last Runaway, bringing to life the Underground Railroad and illuminating the principles, passions and realities that fueled this extraordinary freedom movement.

In New York Times bestselling author Tracy Chevalier’s newest historical saga, she introduces Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker who moves to Ohio in 1850, only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape.

Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality.

However, drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, Honor befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.

A powerful journey brimming with color and drama, The Last Runaway is Tracy Chevalier’s vivid engagement with an iconic part of American history.

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published January 8th 2013 by E.P. Dutton

I am new to Tracy Chevalier and this was an impulse purchase.  Just look at the cover, I love it and of course,  the summary drew me in also.  Being a quilter and  my interest in history, well this book was just calling my name.

The story was enjoyable, it was interesting to learn more about the Quakers and the Underground Railroad, the role that quilts and other little items played, as well as the treatment of women, their rights, or lack of.  Though the book didn't go into great details about the Underground Railroad, it was still an eye opener and did show enough to pull at some heart strings here.

I enjoyed how each chapter ended with a letter, whether from Homer to her family back in England or from them to her.  I can't imagine the wait of months and months to hear any news.

This was what I would call a 'quiet' book.  Meaning it didn't grab me and take me for a ride until I was finished.  It was easy to pick up and put down, I was in no rush to finish, just enjoyed the quiet ride. I gave this book 4 stars because I did enjoy the ride and will be back to read more by Tracy Chevalier.