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DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Women biography, United States history
Human-narrated audio
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed…
down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY • &“Deeply layered and insightful . . . [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness.&”— The Washington Post &“A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.&”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley&’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley&’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language— including Rose&’s wish that &“It be filled with my Love always.&” Ruth&’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley&’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose&’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women&’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose&’s, Ashley&’s, and Ruth&’s full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women&’s and families&’ stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley&’s sack— a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, &“my Love always&”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley&’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Women biography, Family and relationships, Nature
Human-narrated audio
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK THE PERFECT AUDIOBOOK FOR NATURE LOVERS, BIRDERS, AND GARDENERS * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER…
* AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK * INDIE NEXT PICK From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a "howling love letter to the world" (Ann Patchett): a luminous book that traces the passing of seasons, personal and natural.℗ In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons-from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring-what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.℗ Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author-and from us. For, as Renkl writes, "radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world."℗ With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world