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Tania's Book Circus

I adore reading and have very wide and varied taste.  Some of my favorite genre's include historical fiction, memoirs, fantasy and non-fiction.  Some of my best-loved titles are Sandcastle girls, Poisonwood bible, Daughter of the forest, Knife of never letting go, The snow child, The glass castle and Wolf Hall.  I love Juliet Marillier, Jodi Picoult, Philippa Gregory, Deon Myer and Bill Bryson.  I read approximately 120 books a year, and I try to keep my reviews short and to the point, so you can spend less time reading them and more time reading the books you'll enjoy.  Happy reading!

Amity & Sorrow: A Novel - Peggy Riley

Amity & Sorrow: A Novel - Peggy Riley

 

"Two sisters sit, side by side, in the backseat of an old car. Amity and Sorrow. Their hands are hot and close together. A strip of white fabric loops between them, tying them together, wrist to wrist."

This was a beautifully written debut novel about the ties that bind. It’s a story of God, sex and farming. Amaranth and her two daughters, Amity and Sorrow, flees from a religious sect, where she was the first of 50 wives to Zachariah, a self-proclaimed prophet. They end up in rural Oklahoma, where they live on a farmer's porch. Through flashbacks we also find out how Amaranth got involved in the sect, and how things slowly started falling apart, to the point where they find out that Sorrow is pregnant.

Although this is an easy read, it is quite a complex book. It focuses on so many different issues. For me the individual issues were the ones that really affected me. As a child it must be so difficult to condemn a way of living if this is the only life you've ever lived. What about if you were an oracle, very special and revered in your previous life, and now people expect you to be happy with being a normal teenager. And the thing is you can't even act like your normal, because you’re illiterate, and know nothing at all about the world. And worst of all your father, the mouthpiece of God, is suddenly seen as worse than evil. There is so much more to say, but I think the author says it best. I highly recommend this to everyone who enjoys a story that stays with you long after you’ve closed the book.

"Not everyone wants to be saved."
Source: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/596020439