The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

What do people from Montana, North Dakota, Canada, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota and Rhode Island have in common???They are all members of Big Sandy’s Book Club! We have a core membership of ladies from Big Sandy but have an amazing diversity in other member’s origins. We are so lucky to have the opportunity of multifaceted discussions and perspectives derived from our many different backgrounds and experiences.

We met February 7 in the new library. The new building was inspected and praised by everyone attending. Of special note is the fact we now have four ladies travelling from Havre to attend.

This month our book was “The Invention of Wings” by Sue Monk Kidd. This is a tapestry of stories embracing the wealth and privilege of Charleston’s aristocracy, from which emerged two sisters who became crusaders for the emancipation of slaves. The author then intertwined the sister’s stories with the life struggles of two slaves. This is an historical novel retelling the stories of the Grimke sisters who did leave their comfortable lives to pursue what they believed to be justice for blacks. The author has created original stories of the slaves, Charlotte and Handful, but has remained true to actual facts of the era. It was a fascinating, educational read, bringing to life many aspects of this time in history of which we had not been aware.

Discussing this book’s message would have been intriguing on its own but we were very fortunate to have even more to mull over. One of our members had ancestors who had a plantation with slaves. Her studying of family documents and letters shed a different light on our views including the fact some plantation owners went against the law and educated their slaves. Our member’s family had a school house on the plantation which educated both the owner’s children and slave’s children together. At the time of emancipation, slaves were free to leave but in the case of her ancestors , the freed blacks chose to stay and became” adopted” by the plantation owner, now using his last name. Another interesting departure from common beliefs is that there were free blacks who owned slaves. One such person was mentioned in the book and this fact was corroborated by our member. In fact, one of the slave owners deemed one of the very worst was a free black in Mississippi.

Part of the book tells of the sisters living with Quakers and essentially living as one of that religion. One of our members has lived amongst Quaker’s groups. So again, we had information at our fingertips which the book did not supply.

Also discussed in depth was what the people in the book and those of us studying the book do to counteract the hardships and grief that enters all our lives. As it is in Las Vegas, so it is in Book club. Meaning, what is divulged in our Book Club, stays in our Book Club.

In short, it was an interesting, thought provoking evening I know we were all glad to share. We meet again at the new library, Tuesday April 4.The book for April is, “ Lost Lake “, by Sarah Addison Allen. We are always keen to welcome new members! Do come out and join us !