loopyker's #CBR4 Review #06: The Angry Earth: A Story of the New Madrid Earthquakes by Sally Watson

This is one of the newer books from one of my favourite authors, Sally Watson.  Sally is well-known for her juvenile fiction published through 1954-1971 (my favourite, Jade,   among them), but she began self-publishing new books in 2006 - present .

The Angry Earth  is one of Sally's more recent adult-level books, but it is still without the explicit violence or sex that you find so often in other historical fiction.  I much prefer Sally's style. 

I read this a few months ago, coincidentally just past the bicentennial of the main event inspiring this story -  the start of the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811.   The New Madrid Seismic Zone is in the U.S.A. along the Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee border, but also goes into Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.  (more info. on Wikipedia: New Madrid Seismic Zone )  Even though these were massive earthquakes, and they could happen again, very few of my American friends seem to have heard about it!  Certainly when we think of earthquakes in the U.S.A., we think of the west coast, not the south/mid-west.

The Angry Earth follows the immigration of a privileged family from France, who due to a change in circumstance end up in a small frontier town in the U.S.A. of French and English.  Their poor, twelve year old maidservant, Fleur, is left with most of the responsibility of getting them started in this new place, becoming one of the strong and independent heroine's that are Sally's specialty.  In this already challenging setting, the family and town then all face the total upheaval of their lives and homes when the earthquakes begin. 

As with all of her historical fiction books, Sally has researched this thoroughly and includes many real historical figures in the town of New Madrid and beyond.  As a Canadian, growing up with the War of 1812 history all around my area and even reading this during the bicentennial of the War of 1812, I was interesting in the little bits of history mentioned leading up to that war.   I also appreciated the musings and debates of the characters about still very relevant topics.  In today's current American and Canadian political climate where it is popular to insult intelligence and many feel they are sufficiently educated more by FB one-liners and comedic satire than even attempting to really learn about the issues, the thoughts of a character pondering the goals of this new country to rule themselves through the democratic process stuck with me:

"Yet how could men who know no history rule intelligently?  Europe sensibly educated its ruling classes.  But if all men should rule--and even possibly women one day: who knew?--then all must be educated, and well-educated, or such a democracy would destroy itself by its own ignorance. "  

Overall, I felt that the story took a little longer to get going than most of Sally's books, but that once it got going it was as compelling as her others and I couldn't put it down.   I felt for the characters' loss and terror and confusion and was pulling for them to come together.  And as so often happens with Sally's books, I didn't want it to end and when that inevitably happened, I immediately started looking up some of the historical references to continue the story for myself.  Google and Wikipedia make that so much easier now.  :)


This is an entertaining read for those interested in historical fiction, strong female characters and/or natural disasters.

More of Sally Watson's books centered around American history:
The Hornet's Nest (Scotland and America - Virginia, 1774)
The Delicate Pioneer (Seattle, 1852)
The Haunted Schoolhouse (California, 1892)

(Full Disclosure: I am the web designer for booksbysallywatson.com and received a free copy of The Angry Earth from Sally as payment.  It is treasured!  But, I do not receive any compensation for sales of her books, or for my review.  I'm just a big fan!)
 
The Angry Earth: A Story of the New Madrid Earthquakes
Author: Sally Watson
Versions available:
    Paperback 242 pages, 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
    Kindle Edition e-book
    NOOK Book e-book  
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc. (October 28, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1601459998
ISBN-13: 978-1601459992

loopyker's #CBR4 Review #04: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Original Hardcover cover

I've held on to my copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond since I was about 11 years old and have re-read it many, many times. In a time when the word “witch” brings up images of Harry Potter-type stories, it might be helpful to clarify - this book is historical fiction, NOT fantasy. :) “Witch” refers to the Puritan colonist ideas of what a witch was in the 1600's. Generally, anyone who was a little different, especially a different religion, might be accused of being a witch in league with Satan. For this review I decided to listen to this old favourite in the audiobook version for the first time, to compare it to the experience of reading it myself. 
 
The Witch of Blackbird Pond starts with a 16 year old, free-spirited girl named Kit, traveling on a ship from Barbados to Wethersfield, Connecticut - a Puritan colony up the Connecticut River, in 1687.  Kit was raised by her wealthy grandfather in Barbados in a completely different lifestyle from the Puritans. But after his death, she is now on her way to live with relatives who she has never met before. Kit struggles to fit into her new life and to understand the Puritans, but, while her relatives try to be welcoming, they make little effort to understand her in return. It is quite the culture shock for her to go from having wealth, status and slaves to being poor and an outsider having to learn daily household chores.

Kit does her best to become friends with her cousins, Mercy and Judith, while they are all getting to know each other and are developing romances with the very few eligible young men around. But eventually, she rebels against the intolerance of the community and finds comfort by becoming friends with the lonely, old Quaker women who lives at Blackbird Pond.

The book ends with an old-fashioned Puritan witch hunt and Kit finds out who will really stand up for her and for justice when it counts.

While I've always thoroughly enjoyed it when I read this book, I found the audiobook, narrated by Mary Beth Hurt, lacking something.  As it started, I was initially disappointed with some music competing with the narrator's voice, but that soon ended and only recurs briefly again at the end. But it is completely unnecessary and detracts from the reading. Then, my second disappointment was that the narrator's voice did not suit what I had in my mind for Kit's voice. I was afraid that it would ruin the whole book for me, but it eventually grew on me enough to go unnoticed most of the time. Mary Beth was good at doing both a young girl's voice and an older woman's voice - it was the main character's teenage voice that didn't seem right to me. 

And a little side-note - there were a few scattered technical glitches, of voice skips. I don't know if that was just my download, or if it would be in other library audio versions too.

I've very seldom thought a narrator had the “wrong” voice before. A few have just been bad in all respects, but the good ones, are usually good all around too. So this problem was a new experience with audiobooks for me. I've also both read and listened to the same books before, but I'm not sure if I've done it in this order since at the moment I can only recall buying a book after enjoying the audio version. So perhaps it is just harder for an audiobook to live up to my own imagination. I hope to find more library audiobooks to compare to other printed favourites to better determine this.

This book will appeal to readers who enjoy juvenile historical fiction books with feisty, young heroines. It is recommended for ages 8 -10 and up, although the younger readers may have a little difficulty following the politics of the time. But anyone may enjoy looking up the real historical figures and places, such as Wethersfield and the Buttolph-Williams House.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
Young Adult Historical Fiction
 

Audiobook cover

Audiobook (unabridged)
Narrator: Mary Beth Hurt
Duration: 6 hours, 33 minutes
ISBN:  9780739330289
Release date: Oct 31, 2006

Hardcover:
Pages: 249 
Publisher: Houghton Miffline Company (December 1, 1958) 
ISBN-13: 978-0395071144
Awards: Newbery Medal in 1959