From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

Before We Were Yours

Lisa Wingate

Start date: January 1, 2019

Finish date: January 28, 2019

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Before We Were Yours

January: Free-For-All
[close] Before We Were Yours

January: Free-For-All

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 74 topics — 1,387 comments total

Monthly Group Reads

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (June 2021)
By Mariah Roze · 7 posts · 65 views

last updated Feb 12, 2024 09:45AM

The Help (March 2023)
By Mariah Roze · 4 posts · 22 views

last updated Mar 06, 2023 09:46AM

What Members Thought

Oct 16, 2017 Nanci rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, rereads, team-shoe-challenge

I am torn between 4 and 5 stars on this one. The remarkable historical fiction story is about a horrific time period in our US history. Similar to The Orphan Train, it is a gut-wrenching account of the treatment of orphans and those who weren't orphans between 1920-1950. There are two alternating points of view in the novel; present day with the protagonist Avery and late 1930s timeframe with May's POV. Avery's chapters I found to be a bit flat and shallow. May's chapters more than made up for t ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2018 Marcela rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, historical-fiction

I’ve wanted to read this book since the day I saw that it won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award in the historical fiction genre and how it was inspired by Orphan Train and Nightingale, which are two of my favorite books. I can now see why it won -what an outstanding book! I was quickly hooked from the very beginning and could not put it down. This book is told from two perspectives and years apart. Rill is a 12-year-old young girl living with her family aboard a shantyboat on the Mississippi River I’ve wanted to read this book since the day I saw that it won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award in the historical fiction genre and how it was inspired by Orphan Train and Nightingale, which are two of my favorite books. I can now see why it won -what an outstanding book! I was quickly hooked from the very beginning and could not put it down. This book is told from two perspectives and years apart. Rill is a 12-year-old young girl living with her family aboard a shantyboat on the Mississippi River in Memphis, 1939. Her parents have to rush to the hospital leaving Rill in charge of her younger siblings when they become “rescued” and taken to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. Based on real facts about Georgia Tann, the Memphis branch operator, and her involvement with the kidnapping and illegal adoption of children. Then there is Avery Stanford, a young wealthy lady, living in Aiken, South Carolina in the present. Avery is attending a public event as she meets an old lady by chance which starts to unravel a series of events that will lead Avery to her Grandma’s past and secrets. This book was beautifully written and I look forward to reading more books by Wingate. Recommend 100%. These were my favorite quotes:
”Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. Take time with them, teach them to have faith in God. Be a person in whom they can have faith. When you are old, nothing else you've done will have mattered as much.”
“The hardest thing about the road not taken is that you never know where it might have led.”
”Sometimes we must try to view the actions of those around us with forgiveness. We must realize that they are going on the only road they can see. Sometimes we cannot raise our chins and see eye to eye, so we must bow our heads and have faith in one another.”
”The love of sisters needs no words. It does not depend on memories, or mementos, or proof. It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as ever present as a pulse.” ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 02, 2019 Susan Bazzett-Griffith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: great-fiction-and-not-great-fiction, politics-economy-history, favorites

I'm late to the party on this book because I'm always hesitant to read things people twll me I HAVE to read. Add in a general "meh" feeling about historical fiction and this one wasn't a book I was in a hurry to pick up. Once I DID, though, I couldn't put it down. It's a genuinely gripping story based on real history that I'd never known much about, and it will rip your heart up and spit it back out. It legitimately gave me a nightmare when I read the first half before bedtime. The story of Rill ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

May 03, 2020 Kara Ayers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow-I had no idea about the awful history and legacy of Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home. This book also provided a cool glimpse into the Mississippi river culture in the 30's and 40's-which was new to me. I have always been intrigued by adoption and feel this drive and obligation to learn all that I can about the trauma it can cause and whatever we can do to lessen those harms. This was a fictional story but had enough connections to reality that I appreciated the needed education ...more

Like · see review