Three New Books for February
Valentine’s Day is only one week away. Want to read a book about love? Not romantic love, but the love a mother has for a child, a librarian has for books and a farmer has for the land. Want to read a book that came out in February, the month for love? Choose one or more of the books featured in this article to not only read about love but to meet strong women whose love propels each plot.
The first book to highlight is a non-fiction written by Anna Malaika Tubbs. The Three Mothers is Tubbs’ first book, but she has written articles on and spoken about the subjects of feminism, mass incarceration and racial identity. In The Three Mothers, Tubbs chronicles the lives of Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin, the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin. The author stresses the struggles these women faced and the amazing commonalities among them. The strengths they modeled in their daily lives influenced each of their sons to become the influential figures they were in the fight for racial justice. Tubbs’ scholarly approach leads the reader to recognize and appreciate the importance of these three Black mothers.
Elsa Martinelli is a mother who finds herself in Texas during the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression. Kristen Hannah, an author we respect for her meaningful novel The Nightingale, has written The Four Winds as a fictional tribute not only to Elsa but to the the many ‘real’ men and women who exhibited heroism during one of the most trying times of American history. Elsa has to decide whether to stay on the land she loves or, because of her love for her family, strike out to find a new life further west. Echoing themes from The Grapes of Wrath, the protaganist faces the Dust Bowl with a courage and persistence that promises to inspire and awe the reader. If you are not sure if this new book can compare to The Nightingale, read it and let us know what you think!!
The last of the three featured books is The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles. If you think you have read one too many books about World War II, lose that thought. You don’t want to pass this one up. Charles takes a very different approach here as she writes a fictional story about the real life librarians at the American Library in Paris who worked to protect the library’s books during the Nazi occupation. A second story takes shape in Montana, years after the war, when a young girl discovers that she shares her love of literature with an elderly neighbor whose past is somewhat mysterious. Critics note that The Paris Library is a ‘must read’ for people who love libraries, cherish books and believe in the power of literature to connect people.