Happy Release Day!
Print and e-book, 330 pages
Published August 2018 by One Sky Press
"Perhaps every woman will lie for the man she lies with."—Sarah Wakefield
August 18, 1862. On the Sioux reservation in southwestern Minnesota, Indians desperate for food and freedom rise up against whites in the region. Sarah Wakefield, the wife of a physician, is taken captive with her two babies. Their fate falls into the hands of the warrior Ćaske, with whom she has slim acquaintance. As war rages, little does she know how entwined their lives will become.
Beneath the Same Stars is the gripping story of two people, caught between worlds, who are willing to do almost anything to defend those they care about—including each other. But the drama is bigger than themselves. Tragic forces have been set in motion.…
Inspired by actual events surrounding the U.S.-Dakota War.
The e-book was only $.99 on Amazon,
the last time I checked!
My thoughts about Beneath the Same Stars ~~
(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 lines.)
First line—"'Here is where I'm to live? This is where you've brought me?'"
Beneath the Same Stars taught me so much about the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. So much of our history concerning the interactions and confrontations with the Native Americans is not discussed in depth unless you are taking a U.S. history class. This book gave me a better understanding of the hardships that were endured at the time, by both the whites and the natives and opened my eyes to the unfairness of the way the natives were treated.
I have always been fascinated with the history and stories of the Indian ways. Their world seemed to be almost perfect until the white man came along. The author does a fabulous job of taking the events of this horrible time and creating a story that is well worth reading. She brings the characters come to life and humanizes them so that the reader can empathize with the rough life that they had to live.
As I was reading, I was constantly impressed with the research that Cole-Dai had to have done in order to piece the facts together and create this engrossing story. Before reading Beneath the Same Stars, I wasn't familiar with this war. I learned so much about it and this memorable time in our U.S. history.
I received a copy of Beneath the Same Stars from the author in exchange for my honest review.
Congratulations Phyllis
on the release today of
Beneath the Same Stars!
About the author
She is perhaps best known as the co-author of The Emptiness of Our Hands: 47 Days on the Streets, written with James Murray. Bell Sound Books issued the third edition in 2018. The book chronicles the forty-seven days in 1999 that the authors spent living by choice on the streets of Columbus, Ohio, the nation’s fifteenth largest city and home to both at the time. Practicing Presence: Insights from the Streets is a free companion e-book to The Emptiness of Our Hands. In this volume Phyllis elaborates further on practicing presence while continuing to bear witness to those who are homeless. She first published this lightly edited compilation of blog posts in 2009 on the tenth anniversary of her streets experience.
An interview with Phyllis was published in 2014 as a chapter in First We Imagine: 22 Creative South Dakotans Speak on the Subject of Creativity, compiled and edited by John E. Miller.
