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jansbookcorner's review against another edition
4.0
Another good historical fiction book from Lisa Wingate. The parallel stories worked well with an interesting thread connecting them. As it states in the book, it is a reminder that while history may not be pleasant, we can't change it. We can only learn from it and try to do better.
scigeek22's review against another edition
2.0
I was a fan of Wingates’ previous novel "Before We Were Yours".. For some reason, I just couldn’t get into this one. I love the research she does in her books and how she manages to make history alive. The beginning was just too dry/slow for me and I almost quit. I found useless description and very repetitiveness throughout the book. Honestly, I was bored to death and I struggled to finish this for a book club meeting coming up. I will chalk this up as one of Wingates' less than favorable books. I will give her another read in the future.
kirstin9609's review against another edition
5.0
Loved, loved, loved! I want another book about Hannie and Benny. I balled by page 12 and couldn’t put this book down after that. So well written and the character development was fantastic.
pam2375's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book! The Book of Lost Friends will be hard to beat for 2020. I suspect that it will be my favorite for the year.
Each chapter is written in alternating timelines. In 1875 we meet Hannie, a former slave and 1987, Benny a new school teacher, trying to get through to her kids, in a very rural area of Louisiana.
Sometimes reading books with alternating timelines like this can be very confusing and you simply wonder how they are going to intersect, WELLLLLLLLL, Ms Wingate did a wonderful job of tying the two together. I loved everything about this book.
I knew nothing about post Civil War and the "Lost Friends" newspaper article. Apparently, the freed slaves would post family names in the hopes of reconnecting with family members that had been ripped from their lives. These posts would circulate through the Black churches to be read by the pastor. The chapters that begin with the "lost friends" adds were heartbreaking.
I rarely (almost never) quote from books that I read, however, this is a quote that has stayed with me: "We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name."
Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine Books for this advanced readers copy. This book is due to release in April 2020.
Each chapter is written in alternating timelines. In 1875 we meet Hannie, a former slave and 1987, Benny a new school teacher, trying to get through to her kids, in a very rural area of Louisiana.
Sometimes reading books with alternating timelines like this can be very confusing and you simply wonder how they are going to intersect, WELLLLLLLLL, Ms Wingate did a wonderful job of tying the two together. I loved everything about this book.
I knew nothing about post Civil War and the "Lost Friends" newspaper article. Apparently, the freed slaves would post family names in the hopes of reconnecting with family members that had been ripped from their lives. These posts would circulate through the Black churches to be read by the pastor. The chapters that begin with the "lost friends" adds were heartbreaking.
I rarely (almost never) quote from books that I read, however, this is a quote that has stayed with me: "We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name."
Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine Books for this advanced readers copy. This book is due to release in April 2020.
jlp75's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
hlipman22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
**Spoilers**
Hannie’s story was much more compelling than Benny’s. Her story was full of true emotion and shared a part of history I wasn’t familiar with through the lost friends letters. The relationships between her, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane, were complex and well developed. Benny’s story on the other hand was a classic white savior teacher, coming in to an underserved rural southern school from CA after being dumped by her boyfriend, looking to make a difference in the lives of her poor black students and connecting with the black sheep son of the ruling class. Her role in the story could have been filled by any number of people already in the community. Towards the end I was finally starting to tolerate her, until the final sentences bringing in her teenage pregnancy and comparing willingly giving up a child for adoption to the plight of freed slaves, separated from their loved ones by being sold away and war. If I could give Hannie’s story a 4 and Benny’s a 1, I probably would. All together it was an ok read but not one I could recommend.
Hannie’s story was much more compelling than Benny’s. Her story was full of true emotion and shared a part of history I wasn’t familiar with through the lost friends letters. The relationships between her, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane, were complex and well developed. Benny’s story on the other hand was a classic white savior teacher, coming in to an underserved rural southern school from CA after being dumped by her boyfriend, looking to make a difference in the lives of her poor black students and connecting with the black sheep son of the ruling class. Her role in the story could have been filled by any number of people already in the community. Towards the end I was finally starting to tolerate her, until the final sentences bringing in her teenage pregnancy and comparing willingly giving up a child for adoption to the plight of freed slaves, separated from their loved ones by being sold away and war. If I could give Hannie’s story a 4 and Benny’s a 1, I probably would. All together it was an ok read but not one I could recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Pregnancy
cindy_f's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed reading this well written, well researched book about survival and hope during post Civil War Louisiana. The story is told from the point of view of Hannie in 1875, who searches for her family, all sold into slavery. The other POV is Bennie, in 1987, a teacher who makes some discoveries related to her students’ lives.
book_concierge's review against another edition
4.0
Audiobook performed by Bahni Turpin, and Sophie Amos, with Lisa Flanagan, Dominic Hoffman, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and Lisa Wingate
For this work of historical fiction, Wingate was inspired by actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, wherein newly freed slaves search for family members from which they’d been separated. She uses the ubiquitous dual timeline for this story.
Hannie, still sharecropping on her former master’s Louisiana estate, tells her tale from 1875-1876. While Benedetta (Benny) Silva, is a first-year teacher at a poor rural school in a tiny Mississippi River town in 1987-88, trying to engage and inspire her students with a project to look into their own family histories. Wingate moves back and forth from chapter to chapter between these two settings, leading to an eventual convergence of the stories.
I’ve come to really dislike the dual timeline, but I thought Wingate did a marvelous job in this case. And while I thought Hannie’s tale was the more compelling of the two, I also appreciated the “modern” story of poor, Southern blacks and how the system continued to enslave and impoverish them. I did think Wingate tried to hard to make Benny an empathetic character – drawing some nebulous comparisons with her background and those of the children she was teaching. And I didn’t think the nascent love interest did anything to serve the main story.
Still, I was interested and engaged from beginning to end, and I really appreciated learning about the “Lost Friends” advertisements; examples of actual “Lost Friends” articles are sprinkled throughout the book.
The audiobook is masterfully performed by a cast of talented voice artists. Bahni Turpin, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators, brings Hannie to life, while Sophie Amos narrates Benny’s chapters. I did think that Benny came off sounding WAY too young and naïve, especially at the beginning. The other actors fill in the many characters, in both 19th and 20th centuries. Finally , Wingate narrates her own author notes describing how she came to this story.
For this work of historical fiction, Wingate was inspired by actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, wherein newly freed slaves search for family members from which they’d been separated. She uses the ubiquitous dual timeline for this story.
Hannie, still sharecropping on her former master’s Louisiana estate, tells her tale from 1875-1876. While Benedetta (Benny) Silva, is a first-year teacher at a poor rural school in a tiny Mississippi River town in 1987-88, trying to engage and inspire her students with a project to look into their own family histories. Wingate moves back and forth from chapter to chapter between these two settings, leading to an eventual convergence of the stories.
I’ve come to really dislike the dual timeline, but I thought Wingate did a marvelous job in this case. And while I thought Hannie’s tale was the more compelling of the two, I also appreciated the “modern” story of poor, Southern blacks and how the system continued to enslave and impoverish them. I did think Wingate tried to hard to make Benny an empathetic character – drawing some nebulous comparisons with her background and those of the children she was teaching. And I didn’t think the nascent love interest did anything to serve the main story.
Still, I was interested and engaged from beginning to end, and I really appreciated learning about the “Lost Friends” advertisements; examples of actual “Lost Friends” articles are sprinkled throughout the book.
The audiobook is masterfully performed by a cast of talented voice artists. Bahni Turpin, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators, brings Hannie to life, while Sophie Amos narrates Benny’s chapters. I did think that Benny came off sounding WAY too young and naïve, especially at the beginning. The other actors fill in the many characters, in both 19th and 20th centuries. Finally , Wingate narrates her own author notes describing how she came to this story.