Rhonda's Doings !

Review of A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read–as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him. Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply in love with her husband that she knows she will follow him anywhere–even when the trek exacts a terrible cost. Betsy is a Kalapuya Indian, the last remnant of a once proud tribe in the Willamette Valley in Oregon territory. She spends her time trying to impart the wisdom and ways of her people to her grandson. But she will soon have another person to care for. As season turns to season, suspicion turns to friendship, and fear turns to courage, three spirited women will disc...

 Review of   The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick The Daughter's Walk left me feeling sad at so many times as I read it.    Clara Estby is forced to walk cross-country with her Norwegian mother, Helga, in 1896, in a valiant effort to save the family's farm after the father is unable to work.    They must wear the new "reform dresses" which, shockingly show ankles of the shoes/boots, as they walk.  They are not allowed to take any rides and must raise their own money, in hopes of the prize money of $10,000.    They do in fact walk from Spokane, Washington, to New York, but they are 10 days late and are refused a penny of the prize money.    Along the way, Clara's mother reveals to her that she is not Ole Estby's true daughter.    Clara is the illegitimate child of the rich young man whom her teenage mother, Helga, worked for the family.    Her mother refuses to reveal to her the name of her fathe...