A Piece of the World: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

(Thank you the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World.

“Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden.”

To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.

As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.

Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.

This edition includes a four-color reproduction of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World.

my thoughts:

Wow.  Talk about a beautifully written story.  I absolutely LOVED A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline.  The writing was top notch, the characters were unforgettable, and the story was spellbinding.  I enjoyed the mix of art, history, and fiction - it blended together so perfectly.

Set in Maine during the early 1900s, this is the story of Christina Olson, the subject behind artist Andrew Wyeth's painting, Christina's World.  How cool is that?  A painting with a history that inspired Kline to write her own version of the story - pretty exciting, eh?  I just love the idea of being so inspired by art or music and having/needing to create something about it.  With this novel, Kline transports her reader to a different world, time, and place with her vivid imagery and crisp details. She paints a gripping account of friendship, history, life, and art.  Her writing is so engaging and picturesque - you can smell the country air and feel the weathered wood of the dilapidated farmhouse.  Its truly an intoxicating read.

A Piece of the World takes us through Christina's past, where we learn about her childhood, her crippling illness, her failed romantic life, and her decision to remain self-sufficient and live in her family's old home.  We learn about a determined, strong, and independent woman.  I will admit that she is unlikeable in so many ways - her attitude and demeanor are less than civil.  Yet, she finds a connection with Wyeth and the two share an unlikely friendship - he's introduced to her via his future bride, Betsy (Christina's neighbor).  Wyeth pays attention to the simple life the Olson's have chosen to live - one without any modern conveniences.  He's mesmerized by their lives and their homestead, so he paints them and their home.  And in the end he gives us, Christina's World. 

I absolutely LOVED this book! I enjoyed learning about the Olson's and Wyeth's friendship.  I found the characters to be unforgettable and their stories to be unputdownable.  I just loved this book in every which way.  Such a great read!

I would most definitely recommend A Piece of the World to fans of Christina Baker Kline and fans of Andrew Wyeth's art - you will fall in LOVE with this story.

Here's the link to the TLC Book Tour schedule for: A Piece of the World

Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!

Bird In Hand: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

(Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train comes a novel about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how they can change them forever.

Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: Everything is about to change.

It was dark. It was raining.  It was just an accident.  On the drive home from a rare evening out, Alison collides with another car running a stop sign, and—just like that—her life turns upside down.

When she calls her husband from the police station, his accusatory tone reveals cracks in their relationship she’d never noticed were there. Now she notices everything.  And she begins to realize that the life she carefully constructed for herself is as tenuous as a house of cards. Exquisitely written, powerful, and thrilling, Bird in Hand is a novel about love and friendship and betrayal, and about the secrets we tell ourselves and each other.

my thoughts:

Christina Baker Kline books are my vice.  They are dramatic, emotional, thought-provoking and unputdownable.  The writing is always superb - its rich, detailed, thematic, and chock full of relatable, flawed and realistic characters that you can't help but fall in deep with.  These books are women's fiction at its very best.  They draw you in and keep you glued to your seat with their deep exploration about relationships (family, friends, marital, etc.).  I absolutely love getting lost in her words.  And, I've been lucky enough to read all of her books - Bird In Hand is the last one on my Kline TBR list.  Its also turned out to be my favorite of hers.

This is the story of two couples whose marriages completely unravel after a horrible accident - or at least it seems that way at first.  Alison finds herself driving home alone at night after attending her best friend's book launch party.  Its dark, she's doesn't like driving and suddenly she's involved in a car accident that results in the death of a child.  Shocked, upset, and horrified by what has happened, she withdraws into herself.  Her husband Charlie seems to find the whole event to be an annoyance and doesn't provide his wife with any sort of emotional support.  Turns out he'd been planning on leaving her for another woman - Claire, who happens to be Alison's best friend.  Yep, this is a story about infidelity at its most cliched, but Kline manages to write about it in such a way that leaves you feeling discomfited by all the lies and cheating.  Its terrific!

Through flashbacks we learn about Alison and Claire's best friendship and how they met their respective husbands.  Ben and Claire are THE couple to love and everyone wants to be their friends. Charlie meets them and quickly falls in love with Claire, but decides to settle for marrying her best friend Alison.  Pretty awful, eh?  I must admit that I couldn't stand Charlie or Claire when I realized this, especially since they could have dated before they got married and ruined so many lives.  Anyhow, the couples remain friends and eventually veer away from one another as they settle into their adult lives - work, family, home, etc.  Except, Charlie never stopped loving Claire and she's always been curious about him.  So, the two embark on an affair and wind up falling in love. Anyhow, following Alison's accident everything crumbles - friendships end, marriages fall apart, homes are torn apart, families are broken, lies and deceit are revealed.  Its pretty hellish for everyone as one would expect.  Kline captures the hurt, bitterness, anger, humiliation, regret, betrayal in such candid terms that you can feel the emotions reeling through Alison and Ben as they learn about their spouses infidelities.  I could go on and on about what all happens, but truthfully this is a book you must read and experience for yourself.  You need to get caught up in these couple's lives and lies to understand their history and their present state of mind - its captivating.  I would definitely recommend Bird In Hand by Christina Baker Kline - you will fall in love her writing and become addicted to her books ( I promise!). 

Here's the TLC Book Tour schedule for: Bird In Hand

Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!

Sweet Water: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

about book:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train comes a novel about buried secrets and the redemptive power of forgiveness.

Cassie Simon is a struggling artist living in New York City. When she receives a call from a magistrate telling her she has inherited sixty acres of land in Sweetwater, Tennessee, from her grandfather, whom she never knew, she takes it as a sign: it’s time for a change. She moves to the small Southern town where her mother, Ellen, grew up—and where she died tragically when Cassie was three.

From the moment she arrives in Sweetwater, Cassie is overwhelmed by the indelible mark her mother’s memory left behind. As she delves into the thicket of mystery that surrounds her mother’s death, Cassie begins to discover the desperate measures of which the human heart is capable.

my thoughts:

As a fan of Christina Baker Kline's novel, Orphan Train, I was excited to read her first book, Sweet Water.  I knew that I would be in for an uputdownable story filled with fascinating characters and oodles of family drama.  Well, I was right.  Sweet Water is the story of Cassie, a big City gal, who decides to embrace country living in Tennessee and winds up finding out more about her family than she bargained for.

Life in NYC is not going all that well for Cassie, so when she inherits her grandfather's house in Tennessee, she thinks its the perfect opportunity to start fresh somewhere new and finally meet her mother's family. Of course, life in Tennessee is not at all what Cassie expected.  From suspicious relatives to dark family secrets, every one and every thing seems to be pushing Cassie to head back to NYC.  Except, she doesn't want to leave her new home just yet.  Inspired to create, Cassie begins to sculpt and envision a new life for herself.  Her new job at a local dive bar introduces her to some new friends and a new love.  Life is inching toward livable, when gossip, family squabbles, and burglary occur.  Cassie realizes that her mother's family is not one for embracing new relatives. 

Kline's debut novel is engaging, well written, and unputdownable.  I was hooked!  I found myself following Cassie's big move to Sweet Water with excitement.  I wanted to see her enmeshed with her mother's family and embarking on new adventures.  Of course, I wanted a little family drama to spice things up a bit.  Well, I certainly got what I wanted - in spades!  Cassie's family is not too happy with her relocation to their family home - why did she get the house?  Her grandmother, Clyde, is not welcoming and tends to look through Cassie instead of at her.  No one seems to really want her around, well, except for her cousins.  Although one of them happens to be her new love interest and that just about put me off reading the rest of the book.  Why Cassie had to fall for her cousin is beyond me, but that's what Kline wrote.  I didn't like this pairing and found myself rather disturbed by it.  However, that is my only quibble with the story.  I really enjoyed reading everything else, especially Clyde's musings at the beginning of each chapter.  I liked learning about this unhappy woman - we get to learn about her past and present state of mind.  Plus, we get to learn more about how/why Cassie's mom died and the dark, horrible secret that Clyde has kept buried for much too long.  This is one entertaining read!

I really loved Sweet Water and would recommend it to fans of Christina Baker Kline and fans of women's fiction.  This is a terrific book filled with family dramas and secrets.  If you want to find out what everyone else is saying about this book, check out the TLC Book Tours schedule for: Sweet Water.

Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!

Orphan Train: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

(Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book:

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.

my thoughts:

Orphan Train melted my heart.  It made me sad; it made me mad; and it made me smile.  This book took me from the present day worries of a foster kid trying to stay out of juvenile hall, to an older woman recounting her life's journey on an orphan train in the 1930s and the unhappy, unwelcoming homes she was forced to live in.  Molly is the seventeen-year-old pseudo-goth who stole a library book and is working off her punishment by helping an old woman sort through her cluttered attic.  Vivian is the old woman who is reluctant to get rid of anything in the boxes that she has Molly has unpacking.  As they spend hours together sharing their stories, they wind up helping each other in some truly unexpected ways.

Christina Baker Kline has written a terrific story about a part of American history that is often overlooked - the orphan trains.  Immigrant children who came to America with their families were sometimes abandoned due to unforeseen circumstances (in the case of Vivian, her father and brothers died in a fire and her mother was put in a mental ward, whilst her baby sister was given up for adoption - although Vivian was told her baby sister had died) and they wound up getting taken in by organizations that ran orphan trains.  Basically, these children were given meager belongings, barely enough eats, and were taken to different cities and paraded in front of people in the hopes that they would be adopted.  Some families genuinely wanted children, whilst others wanted free labor, or worse.  In Orphan Train, we learn all about Vivian's experience on the train and afterward.  Its pretty difficult at times to read about what she went through - it just makes your blood boil that any child would have to endure the horrible things she did.  As for Molly, she's had a tough life as well, but for some reason her story didn't really affect me as much as Vivian's did.  I just found myself more interested and affected by the character of Vivian - her story was just fascinating. I wound up zipping through this book during lunch and enjoying it immensely.  I even recommended it to a co-worker, because I am convinced she will just love this book. 

I have to admit that I actually found myself thinking of the Hallmark channel when I read this book, because it reminded me of the film, Love's Unending Legacy (one of the films of the Love saga that is always playing on Hallmark).  Anyhow, in the movie, an orphan wagon comes to town and the kids are lined up so that the town's folk can check them out and decide if they want to adopt a kid.   Its pretty heartbreaking watching these kids get picked over and then its even more upsetting to find out how some of them fare after they get adopted.  Anyhow, as I read Orphan Train, the characters from the film kept flitting through my head as I imagined Vivian standing in line with all of the other orphaned children waiting to see if she will get adopted or not.  I swear I had tears in my eyes. This book just really tugs on the heart strings, and makes you think about our country's history.  It also makes you think about the ways in which our pasts plays a huge role in influencing our futures.  This book definitely provides a lot of food for thought.  I would recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, women's fiction, and fiction in general - this is one book you won't want to miss! 

Here's a link to the TLC Book Tour page for:  Orphan Train .  Check out what everyone else had to say about this fantastic book!

Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!