We Discuss Before We Were Yours and Create a List of Happy Books

Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate, was about a horrendous chapter in history and relayed a lot of sad stories. Cindy suggested our Book Club read a happy book! Here is a list we compiled of happier books, some of which we have discussed. You’re welcome to nominate from this list on November 1! 

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah (describes some difficult circumstances, but Noah, as a good comedian, turns sad into happy)

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, by Phaedra Patrick

Cozy mysteries

School of Essential Ingredients, by Erica Bauermeister (We discussed in Feb. 2022)

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson (We discussed in Jan. 2022)

My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell (We discussed in Mar. 2022)

On Division, by Goldie Goldbloom

Queen Bee, by Dorothea Benton Frank

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, by Deborah Feldman

For Before We Were Yours, the author provided an unusually large number of discussion questions, so we chose just a few. Shirley chose the question, "Did you wish all seven of the Foss siblings could have found one another in the end? As Shirley read Before We Were Yours, she kept hoping the Foss siblings would all find each other, even though she knew that would be unrealistic, given the situation in the book. She also held out hope that Camellia would be found and would re-enter the story. Dennis said that Camellia had died, and that was my understanding, too. Carla agreed. She mentioned that Queenie’s last baby, the boy twin, also wasn’t found by anyone in his original family. The family thought he had died, but the book indicated that he had lived.

Cindy chose the question, “Did you have a favorite between the historical story of the Foss children and the modern-day story of Avery Stafford?” Cindy particularly enjoyed the beginning of the book about the kids on the Arcadia, because as a child, Cindy’s family cruised the Tombigbee river (Alabama and Mississippi) every summer. She fondly remembers the beauty of the river. Cindy mentioned the 1961 movie “Tammy Tell Me True,” starring Sandra Dee. Tammy lived on a houseboat on a river, and there was a whole community of houseboat residents. When Tammy was away from the riverboat, she contrasted with most “normal” people her age, because she had an accent, didn’t speak grammatically correctly and was uneducated. Dennis said the riverboat part of the book made him so angry that he preferred the modern-day parts of the book. Several readers agreed!

I found the riverboat parts of the story to be particularly interesting because of the way the kids and their thoughts and emotions were featured. I asked whether other readers like reading books that have children as main characters. Carla said that stories like this one about children can be difficult to read, because of the abuse the kids suffered. Carol said that she prefers to not focus on those aspects of life, to “…think life isn’t like that.” Then Cindy reminded us that the modern-day story highlighted elder abuse as an issue. Flo noticed the way the adults in the modern story were uncomfortable because they didn’t want to publicly admit to their family background and hid it for as long as they could. Joanne noted that reading about kids can make you realize how powerless and helpless kids are. Dennis mentioned that he likes fantasy literature, in which kids often begin as helpless and grow into superheroes…fantasy! Joanne said that writing from a child’s point of view offers an author lots of possibilities.

We also talked about adoptions in general and specifically among people we have known.