I absolutely 2nd your recommendation of Ann Fessler’s The Girl’s Who Went Away.
Such a powerful & painful book that impacted me deeply as an adopted person trying to understand my own mother (whom I’ve never met) and what her experience might have been.
The Girls Who Went Away totally gutted me when I read it years ago. Such a powerful book, and I'm so glad you're recommending it here—maybe it'll reach a wider audience now, when it's especially needed.
Back in December a friend and I were discussing our recently lost pregnancies. She recommended two books that spoke to her experience of choosing to abort a wanted pregnancy.
On her advice, I read Tess Of The Road by Rachel Hartman almost immediately. It’s the third book set in this fantasy land, and so a lot of the world building is already assumed. It does a beautiful job of describing the grief of pregnancy loss.
My local library didn’t have her other suggestion (and has not added it despite my suggestion). It wasn’t until May that I purchased Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, edited by Annie Finch. As advertised, it’s a collection of poetry, essays, short stories that broadly speak about abortion. I’m doing the pick up and flip open to random page selection method, and have only read a few selections so far. I have, however, cried more than once. Highly recommended.
I absolutely 2nd your recommendation of Ann Fessler’s The Girl’s Who Went Away.
Such a powerful & painful book that impacted me deeply as an adopted person trying to understand my own mother (whom I’ve never met) and what her experience might have been.
(We read this book in the AdopteesOn podcast bookclub in March this year: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ca77U8yl01K/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=)
✨Thank you for recommending it, I hope it finds a broader audience now that it’s frighteningly relevant to today.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is a real page turner.
The Girls Who Went Away totally gutted me when I read it years ago. Such a powerful book, and I'm so glad you're recommending it here—maybe it'll reach a wider audience now, when it's especially needed.
Back in December a friend and I were discussing our recently lost pregnancies. She recommended two books that spoke to her experience of choosing to abort a wanted pregnancy.
On her advice, I read Tess Of The Road by Rachel Hartman almost immediately. It’s the third book set in this fantasy land, and so a lot of the world building is already assumed. It does a beautiful job of describing the grief of pregnancy loss.
My local library didn’t have her other suggestion (and has not added it despite my suggestion). It wasn’t until May that I purchased Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, edited by Annie Finch. As advertised, it’s a collection of poetry, essays, short stories that broadly speak about abortion. I’m doing the pick up and flip open to random page selection method, and have only read a few selections so far. I have, however, cried more than once. Highly recommended.
Love these reviews! More for my TBR, yay... and a few new “I want to write about this” ideas too. 👍🏻
On recommendation I've been avidly listening to and quite enjoying The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. https://www.elisabethtovabailey.net/