Book Review: Blue Desert

Like the surf undulating against the shore, the sands of the Sahara ebb and flow with the wind. Alice George watches the English waters, recalling the life she left behind years ago when she roamed the desert with the Tuareg, a tribe of nomadic warriors. Separated by decades and distance, it had been easy to keep these two lives far removed from one another, that is, until circumstances cause her past and present to collide and Alice’s carefully crafted existence to crumble.

Book Review: All That We Carried

As the eldest of four females in our family, I know how fulfilling and enriching sisterhood is and how blessed I am to have these women in my life. However, I also am aware of how painful relationships with sisters can be at times. When words are wielded like weapons, they can tear the heart and scar the soul. The people with whom you are closest and share some of your earliest memories can hurt you the most.

Book Review: Something Worth Doing

One hundred years ago, American women were granted the right to vote. However, this right was not won quickly or easily.

In 1848, the women’s movement was launched at The Seneca Falls Convention with women’s suffrage being the primary demand. The movement gathered momentum through the 1850s; however, with the onset of the Civil War in 1861, women’s suffrage lost its steam. Four years later, with the end of the war, the suffrage movement began again. Unfortunately, it took 55 more years before American women were granted the right to vote.

Book Review: The Edge of Belonging

As a genealogist, I learned long ago that there is the family into which one is born, and there is the family that one chooses. The novel, The Edge of Belonging, written by Amanda Cox, is all about the family that is chosen.

Book Review: The Orphan Collector

One hundred years ago, during the final days of the First World War, a microscopic menace attacked humanity on a global scale: the Spanish Influenza. The conditions of the war (overcrowding and global troop movements) hastened the rapid spread of this disease. Because of the lack of reliable healthcare and sanitary practices in the public-at-large, this disease quickly escalated into a public health crisis.