Women Authors

Hello Everyone,

I hope that your reading month was well last month. Mine wasn’t bad, I managed 19 books but still slumped by the end. February I hope to change that, though to be fair last month at the end got busy in cleaning house. House now looks much nicer so yay for that. Let’s cross our fingers that February will be a kinder reading month.

Focusing on these subjects for February I noticed lots of books being banned so why not go ahead and read them? I’m all for reading banned books and there’s certainly lots of options!

I also want to start reading more translated works, or works by foreign authors. I find some of those books fascinating and unique and I really want to support more authors in the book community.

Finally we have women authors. Most of my tbr will contain women authors. I am a woman so I therefore feel that I should support my own gender but more than that women ought to be heard. I hope to get through a lot of amazing books by women this month.

Let’s get to the tbr shall we?

Banned Books On My TBR:

I haven’t read a single one of these, though I have read Laurie Halse Anderson before. I’m really hoping to get to these I just need to wait for my library holds to get in.

Translated Works:

I doubt that I’ll get to all of these and these are potential books for my tbr for next month. The ones that are highest on my list are the Vegetarian, Vita Nostra and Mouthful of Birds.

Women Authors:

I threw in a handful of romances as I really want to read romance for the upcoming Valentine’s day holiday. After all that’s the tradition isn’t it? I’m hoping to be doubling my goal from 19 books last month to 38 but that’s highly unlikely lol. What’s on your tbrs? Let me know if I need to add in anything more.

Until next time,

-Pass Me That Book

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donatti. This is described as a ambitious sequel to one of my favorite classics The Last of the Mohiacns, though you don’t need to read that to read this. Written back in 1998, after Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, this is one of my top five historical fiction romance books. Unlike Outlander, this doesn’t feature a time travel element, however it is directly linked to the series, as within the halfway point of book one, Clair Fraiser is outright mentioned for at least six pages as ‘the White Witch’. Its a nod to one of the biggest romance series of all time, that’s so well known it became a hit series on Hulu a few years back.

The story begins with Elizabeth, a spinster wishing to teach school in Paradise. But there’s problems. For one thing, her family is cash poor thanks to her brother’s gambling debts. For another, her father-the Judge-wishes her to marry Dr. Richard Todd. But she’s firm in remaining a spinster…until she meets Nathanial Bonner, direct descendant of Daniel (Dan’l) Boone. She is wary around him, unsure of what to expect of him-or this new land so rife with both bounty and troubles. Slavery is still legal. No one’s at first eager for a schoolmarm, worried more about cost and that what she teaches will not be useful to the students, apart from math or geography, reading or writing. She fights for her school, as well as her freedom in not to marry.

There’s lots of other problems scattered throughout the book. Someone attempting to run Nathanial and his people off of Lake in the Clouds, as they don’t want Indians on their territory. Rougher weather than usual settling in. A dangerous threat looming. And the potential for marriage in Elizabeth’s future, despite her wishes being made clear to her father. She struggles to grow used to her new home in Paradise, while the people struggle with the fact she’s not the spoiled princess they thought she’d be.

The story spans eight hundred plus pages, and evolves for at least six more books. I’d read book one at least ten times throughout the last fifteen years, and I’m still drawn in to the whole of it. Its one of my most favorite historical romances that I’d read in my life, and I am sincerely hoping it gets its own television series being linked with Outlander so. I cannot rate this highly enough, if you want fiction with depth, history, and romance as well as adventure, then I recommend picking up this book. You won’t regret doing so.

Final Rating: 6/5 stars