sisters

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Guest Post – Sisterly Love by Helene Young

Sisterly Love 

Helene Young

 

Family relationships are very complex and for me the bond between sisters is one of the most fascinating. Part of the joy of writing Return to Roseglen was exploring that connection. The fact that I have a sister, and love her dearly, certainly coloured the relationship between two of the characters, Felicity and Georgina.

Return to Roseglen by Helen Young cover art

Felicity is ten years younger than Georgina and has always been the carer, working as a nurse for the last thirty years. Georgina is the trail blazer, a capable opinionated pilot who’s flying for an aid organisation in Europe. Nothing phases her until it comes time to care for their elderly mother, Ivy, an equally opinionated and indomitable woman.

 

Separated by distance the sisters have still remained close, but what will be the effect on that bond if Felicity decides it’s time to take charge? Will Georgina acquiesce or will she push back, an alpha female not prepared to give ground, even if her relationship with her mother is fraught?

 

Our patterns of behaviour are established early and can be incredibly hard to change. An older sister almost always sees her role as making decisions for a younger sister. That might be fine at first, but as they grow into adulthood and make their own way it can cause friction and estrangement. A once compliant younger sister can find a back bone of steel. How they navigate those early clashes can colour the rest of their lives.

 

Our sisters can be our harshest critics and our staunchest supporters. They can cut deep with their truths yet provide vital comfort at our lowest ebb. Being a sister is a job for life and the reward is knowing you always have someone in your corner.

 

 

Thanks Helene. Relationships are complex, again your words resonate. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

 

 

 

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Post Script: Between A Wolf and A Dog – Georgia Blain

Between A Wolf and a Dog

Between a Wolf and a Dog

 Georgia Blain

Scribe Publications

ISBN: 9781925321111

 

Description:

Ester is a family therapist with an appointment book that catalogues the anxieties of the middle class: loneliness, relationships, death. She spends her days helping others find happiness, but her own family relationships are tense and frayed. Estranged from both her sister, April, and her ex-husband, Lawrence, Ester wants to fall in love again. Meanwhile, April is struggling through her own directionless life; Lawrence’s reckless past decisions are catching up with him; and Ester and April’s mother, Hilary, is about to make a choice that will profoundly affect them all.

 

Taking place largely over one rainy day in Sydney, and rendered with the evocative and powerful prose Blain is known for, Between a Wolf and a Dog is a celebration of the best in all of us — our capacity to live in the face of ordinary sorrows, and to draw strength from the transformative power of art. Ultimately, it is a joyous tribute to the beauty of being alive.

 

 

My View:

Exquisitely painful, melancholy, reflective, poignant and yet so beautifully written you will not be able to put this book down.

 

Without doubt one of the best book I have read this year!

 

This book should have been depressing but it wasn’t, it was a celebration of life and the joy of the everyday; sitting round the table with your family as a child, holidays with family, kids playing dress ups, cooking together in the kitchen, singing out loud, art… breathing in, breathing out, being in the moment….simple joys, beautiful locations (this author can write!)  This is a celebration of life, family and a peak at complex dynamics that make a family; of the fragility of love, the durability of love and moving on.  Beautiful.

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Post Script: Girl Waits With Gun – Amy Stewart

Girl Waits With Gun

Girl Waits With Gun

Amy Stewart

Scribe

ISBN: 9781925321326

 

Description:

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation’s first female deputy sheriffs.

 

New York Times Book Review

“Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mould. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic a airs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters from the city to the country fifteen years before. When a powerful, ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their farm. The sheriff enlists her help, and it turns out that Constance has a knack for outwitting (and disarming) the criminal element, which might just take her back out into the world and onto a new path in life.

 

Through Amy Stewart’s exuberant storytelling, Constance Kopp catapults from a forgotten historical anecdote to an unforgettable historical- action heroine — an outsized woman not only ahead of her time, but sometimes even ahead of ours.

The real Constance was born in Brooklyn in 1878. According to newspaper reports, she was six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. Over the years she had tried to study to be a nurse or a lawyer but her mother discouraged it. She once told a reporter that she had no interest in marriage which, in those days, would have almost certainly meant staying home. She said, “Some women prefer to stay at home and take care of the house. Let them. Others want something to do that will take them out among people and affairs. A woman should have the right to do any sort of work if she wants to, provided she can do it.’’

 

 

My View:

A creative biography? Possibly. A historical crime fiction? The author comments in the Historical and Source Notes, Acknowledgments (p. 405) that this is a work of historical fiction based on real events and real people. And what a great read it is; it is a delightful character based narrative (the sort of narrative I really love), it has strong female protagonists (another tick of approval here) that are creating history by actively yet quietly and without fuss, leading a life that is not the proscribed for women in that era i.e. they are independent, they live without the protection of a man which defies the norm of the day (1914), and marriage is an option not likely to be discussed in their daily conversations. This are liberated women, living life quietly and respectfully, expecting to be treated as equals, an attitude that deserves an applause in any era.

 

Living quietly…until a bully makes life difficult and shooting lessons are required. Such an intriguing story, told with passion but without bloodiness or excesses but still evoking fear and tension whilst delivering threatening situations. Full of social commentary there are many lessons to be learned here. There is humour, there is life in this book and I just loved it. I think you will too. Constance, I have am very pleased to have met you, likewise Amy Stewart.