The Indigo Girl

 

I just finished one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.  A member of my book club recommended I read The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd.

The story takes place in colonial America before the Revolutionary War. The novel is based on the true character of Eliza Lucas, the daughter of a plantation owner who is tasked with caring for her father’s property while he is serving in Antigua. 

She becomes determined to grow indigo as a crop. Her determination knows no bounds as her crop fails time and time again.

Boyd takes some liberties with the characters, as this is historical fiction, but she does an excellent job of portraying Eliza Lucas's courageous spirit. 

The story includes a love story and addresses slavery. I have often thought that reading a book like this should be the way to teach history, as it brings to life a period that is often reduced to a name, date, and place memorized for a test. 

In reading  A Note From the Author, I learned that Eliza’s story had been pretty much wiped from the pages of history because she was a woman. Her determination to make indigo a viable crop in South Carolina led to a crop that rivaled the indigo produced in France. She depended on enslaved people who had learned the complicated process in Antigua. 

I'm grateful that Eliza’s story inspired Boyd to write The Indigo Girl, a tribute to a remarkable woman and the hard-working enslaved people who assisted her. 

Sadly, at my first attempt, I stopped midway through my reading of the novel. This has become more common in my reading habits as I've succumbed to the fast pace of the internet, and my attention span has greatly waned. However, I'm so glad I picked the book back up, because it's honestly become one of my favorites. 

The Words Between Us

 

I think I’m on a bookstore theme when it comes to the last few books I have read. 

The Words Between Us by Erin Bartels is a dual-timeline novel about a young woman trying to live anonymously due to her parents' past crimes. 

As a teenager, she moves in with her grandmother and meets a boy named Peter, whose mother was the town’s high school English teacher. 

Together, they read a series of classics from his mother's collection. After the death of her grandmother, Robin leaves town, but not before she drops off a large box of books on Peter’s front porch. 

Years later, she returns to her riverside town and opens a used bookstore. 

Mysteriously, each one of the books she and Peter shared begins to arrive at her bookstore. Each book includes a poem written by teenage Robin. 

As family mysteries begin to unfold, Peter and Robin’s paths cross again. 

The words of Robin’s poems bring back the two years later. 

The bookstore, a cantankerous old parrot, and a former classmate all add to the suspense of the story.