Release Day! The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate ~ My Thoughts #NetGalley #TheBookOfLostFriends

Happy Release Day!!

Congrats Lisa

on the release today of

The Book of Lost Friends!

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate 
Paperback and e-book, 400 pages
Published April 7th 2020 by Ballantine Books

A new novel inspired by historical events: a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students' lives.

Lisa Wingate brings to life stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold off.

Louisiana, 1875 In the tumultuous aftermath of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now-destitute plantation; Juneau Jane, her illegitimate free-born Creole half-sister; and Hannie, Lavinia's former slave. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following dangerous roads rife with ruthless vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and eight siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage westward reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the seemingly limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.

Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

   

My thoughts about The Book of Lost Friends ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"Prologue - A single ladybug lands featherweight on the teacher's finger, clings there, a living gemstone."

The Book of Lost Friends is a beautiful, yet heartbreaking story about a time in our history that is not talked about very much. As slaves were freed, they tirelessly searched for the family members who were torn from their lives. This book of lost friends was a way to get names out there to try to reconnect with them. Personally, this information was all new to me and not something I had learned about in my history classes.

Set in alternating timelines, over one hundred years apart, the reader follows the lives of Hannie, a former slave and Benedetta, a new teacher in a poor rural school. Lisa does an amazing job with the dual timelines and brings the story together at the end of the book in very creative and satisfying way. I love stories like this one, where two or more seemingly unrelated story-lines all come together in the end.

Just like with Before We Were Yours her previous book, The Book of Lost Friends, Lisa takes a piece of our little known history and brings it to our attention so that we don't forget. She is a wonderful writer and the story is beautifully written with words of wisdom all throughout. I love this line in particular—"Stories change people. History, real history, helps people understand each other, see each other from the inside out."

I am definitely a fan of anything Lisa writes. This was a fantastic read and I highly recommended it!  

I received a copy of The Book of Lost Friends via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion. 

About the author

Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, an inspirational speaker, and the bestselling author of more than thirty books. Her blockbuster Before We Were Yours was on the NYT best seller list for over one year. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Utah Library Award, the Carol Award, the Christy Award, and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award.

Lisa believes stories can change the world. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Lisa

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

*********************

Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate ~ My Thoughts #BeforeAndAfter #NetGalley

Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate

Print and e-book, 320 pages
Published October 22nd 2019 by Ballantine Books

The compelling, poignant true stories of victims of a notorious adoption scandal--some of whom learned the truth from Lisa Wingate's bestselling novel Before We Were Yours and were reunited with birth family members as a result of its wide reach.

From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents--hiding the fact that many weren't orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died.

The publication of Lisa Wingate's novel Before We Were Yours brought new awareness of Tann's lucrative career in child trafficking. Adoptees who knew little about their pasts gained insight into the startling facts behind their family histories. Encouraged by their contact with Wingate and award-winning journalist Judy Christie, who documented the stories of fifteen adoptees in this book, many determined Tann survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families.

Before and After includes moving and sometimes shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. Christie and Wingate tell of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace better-late-than-never brothers, sisters, and cousins. In a poignant culmination of art meeting life, many of the long-silent victims of the tragically corrupt system return to Memphis with the authors to reclaim their stories at a Tennessee Children's Home Society reunion . . . with extraordinary results.

My thoughts about Before and After ~~

Before and After was a book that was hard to read but also hard to put down. Hard to read because it told the stories of some of the children who lived at the Tennessee Children's Home Society and the hard lives that they lived there. But it was also hard to put down because I became so involved in those lives that I had to find out what happened to them as they got older. 

I read Lisa' book, Before We Were Yours and loved it! Before and After touches on some of the real-life stories of the children who were affected by living at the Tennessee Children's Home Society—stories that are both heartbreaking and touching. It was amazing to me, and I'm sure to Lisa Wingate as well, the response her book got from the children, now adults, who lived in this home, sometimes wrenched away from their families. 

Before and After brings some of those children and their families together so they can get some closure on that time in their lives and move on. What a beautiful thing it would have been to witness these reunions. This truly is an amazing story! 

I received an ARC of Before and After from NetGalley and this is my honest review.  

Before We Were Yours

About the authors

Judy Christie is an author and consultant who lives in Northwest Louisiana.

She writes inspirational fiction and nonfiction. Her popular Green series chronicles the goings-on in the small Louisiana town of Green and is part of Abingdon Press’s new inspirational fiction line.

Judy is also the author of the popular Hurry Less, Worry Less nonfiction series, published by Abingdon Press.

Wreath, published in October 2011, is Judy’s first young adult book. Look for it and a free download on her books page!

Judy was a journalist for many years and is a frequent speaker at retreats and workshops. She works with clients around the country on how to slow down and enjoy each day more and how ~ Goodreads

Connect with Judy

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

********************

Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, an inspirational speaker, and the bestselling author of more than thirty books. Her blockbuster Before We Were Yours was on the NYT best seller list for over one year. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Utah Library Award, the Carol Award, the Christy Award, and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. Lisa believes stories can change the world. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Lisa

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

*********************

Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Release Day! Before and After by Judy Christie & Lisa Wingate #BeforeAndAfter

Happy Release Day!

Congrats Judy and Lisa

on the release today of

Before and After!

Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate

Print and e-book, 320 pages
Published October 22nd 2019 by Ballantine Books

The compelling, poignant true stories of victims of a notorious adoption scandal--some of whom learned the truth from Lisa Wingate's bestselling novel Before We Were Yours and were reunited with birth family members as a result of its wide reach.

From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents--hiding the fact that many weren't orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died.

The publication of Lisa Wingate's novel Before We Were Yours brought new awareness of Tann's lucrative career in child trafficking. Adoptees who knew little about their pasts gained insight into the startling facts behind their family histories. Encouraged by their contact with Wingate and award-winning journalist Judy Christie, who documented the stories of fifteen adoptees in this book, many determined Tann survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families.

Before and After includes moving and sometimes shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. Christie and Wingate tell of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace better-late-than-never brothers, sisters, and cousins. In a poignant culmination of art meeting life, many of the long-silent victims of the tragically corrupt system return to Memphis with the authors to reclaim their stories at a Tennessee Children's Home Society reunion . . . with extraordinary results.

I read Lisa' book, Before We Were Yours and loved it! Before and After touches on some of the real-life stories of the children who were affected by living at the Tennessee Children's Home Society. I started reading Before and After yesterday and I've read half of it already. I love it—the stories of the children are heartbreaking but so touching. 

About the authors

Judy Christie is an author and consultant who lives in Northwest Louisiana.

She writes inspirational fiction and nonfiction. Her popular Green series chronicles the goings-on in the small Louisiana town of Green and is part of Abingdon Press’s new inspirational fiction line.

Judy is also the author of the popular Hurry Less, Worry Less nonfiction series, published by Abingdon Press.

Wreath, published in October 2011, is Judy’s first young adult book. Look for it and a free download on her books page!

Judy was a journalist for many years and is a frequent speaker at retreats and workshops. She works with clients around the country on how to slow down and enjoy each day more and how ~ Goodreads

Connect with Judy

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

********************

Lisa Wingate is a former journalist, an inspirational speaker, and the bestselling author of more than thirty books. Her blockbuster Before We Were Yours was on the NYT best seller list for over one year. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Utah Library Award, the Carol Award, the Christy Award, and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. Lisa believes stories can change the world. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Lisa

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

*********************

Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!