Review: A Piece Of The World

A Piece Of The World

by Christina Baker Kline

Why I chose this book? I enjoyed Orphan Train by the same author

When I read this book? February 2018

Who should read this book? Fans of character driven stories

Source: TLC Book Tours

My Rating:   ✰✰✰    3 Stars

Here is a synopsis of A Piece of the World from TLC Book Tours

• Paperback: 352 pages

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (January 30, 2018)

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Exquisite. A must-read.” –Kristin Hannah

“This paperback edition includes a color reproduction of Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World, along with a Q&A with bestselling author Kristin Hannah and a bonus short story, “Stranded in Ice.”

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World.

“Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden.”

To Christina Olson, the entire world is her family farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. The only daughter in a family of sons, Christina is tied to her home by health and circumstance, and seems destined for a small life. Instead, she becomes Andrew Wyeth’s first great inspiration, and the subject of one of the best-known paintings of the twentieth century, Christina’s World.

As she did in her beloved bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction to vividly reimagine a real moment in history. A Piece of the World is a powerful story of the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, her complicated relationship to her family and inheritance, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.

My Review

I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed Orphan Train by the same author very much! Unfortunately, my experience with this one did not match my experience with Orphan Train.

This historical fiction, a behind the scenes story of the Andrew Wyeth painting, Christina’s World. Christina Olson is the only daughter in a rural Maine family. Early in her life, she is struck with an ailment that leaves her crippled, and her condition worsens as time goes on, to the point that she is unable to live a normal life.

This is very much a character-driven story, thus the book is slow paced, which probably contributed greatly to my less than stellar experience with the book. In addition, some of the characters are not very likeable, including Christina and her father. I understand that Christina had a hard life, full of disappointments, and this left her frustrated and somewhat bitter. But she was also, in my opinion anyway, selfish and unforgiving. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into the details here, but I think book clubs will have plenty to discuss regarding Christina and some of the decisions she made.

I have to admit, I was totally unaware of the painting Christina’s World, and was only familiar with the name Andrew Wyeth, but not familiar with his work. I imagine anyone with an interest in art, or who is a fan of the painting, will enjoy this story very much!

I also think it will make a great book club pick. I’ll let you know, because my book club is reading it next month. Often I find that i book that I didn’t enjoy very much just after finishing it becomes a favorite after I’ve had a chance to discuss it with my book club. So check back—even though it is only a 3-star read for my right now, that could change next month!

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Christina Baker Kline

Christina Baker Kline is the author of six novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train as well as A Piece of the World. She lives outside New York City and spends as much time as possible on the coast of Maine. Learn more about Christina at www.christinabakerkline.com.

Connect with Christina on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

This book review is included in a tour by TLC Book Tours. I was provided a copy for review purposes.

Christina’s Tour Stops

Wednesday, January 31st:: Stranded in Chaos

Thursday, February 1st: Dwell in Possibility

Friday, February 2nd: Instagram: @Novelmombooks

Monday, February 5th: Instagram: @a_tad_bit_bookish

Tuesday, February 6th: 5 Minutes For Books

Wednesday, February 7th: BookNAround

Thursday, February 8th: Instagram: @jackiereadsbooks

Friday, February 9th: Peppermint PhD

Monday, February 12th: Openly Bookish

Tuesday, February 13th: Staircase Wit

Wednesday, February 14th: Life By Kristen

Thursday, February 15th: Man of La Book

Monday, February 19th: Book by Book

Tuesday, February 20th: Rockin’ and Reviewing

Friday, February 23rd: Instagram: @jackiereadsbooks

Sunday, February 25th: Instagram: @lavieestbooks

Monday, February 26th: Time 2 Read

Wednesday, February 28, 2018 Caryn, The Book Whisperer

Tuesday Memes: Orphan Train

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where you can share the first paragraph, or a few, of a book you are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Today I am spotlighting Orphan Train by Christine Baker Kline.

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.

Opening Paragraph

    I believe in ghosts. They’re the ones that haunt us, the ones who have left us behind. Many times in my life I have felt them around me, observing, witnessing, when no one in the living world knew or cared what happened.

    I am ninety-one years old, and almost everyone who was once in my life is now a ghost.

My Teaser

    The morning that we arrived in New York harbor was so foggy and overcast that though my brothers and I stood at the railing, squinting into the drizzle, we could barely make out the ghostly form of the Statue of Liberty a short distance from the docks. We were herded into long lines to be inspected, interrogated, stamped, and then set loose among hundreds of other immigrants, speaking languages that sounded to my ears like the braying of farm animals.

page 25 of 271

Review: Orphan Train

Orphan Train

by Christina Baker Kline

Why did you choose this book? I have heard so much about this one and it really sounded interesting

When did you read this book? July 2013

Who should read this book? readers of contemporary fiction with a historical link
Source: TLC Book Tours

Here is a synopsis of Orphan Train from Goodreads.

The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

My Review 

This book has received a lot of hype this year and has been getting great reviews, so it really caught my eye. I wanted to read it, but as with many books that get so much hype, I was prepared to be disappointed. Fortunately for me, that did NOT happen. This was a very quick (it took me 2 days, including the 4th of July holiday) and a very good read.

This is not what I usually think of as ‘historical fiction’ although it does have a strong historical component. I would think of this more as ‘period’ fiction since much of the story takes part in an earlier period, but it doesn’t really tell a lot of ‘history’ or weave historical events and people into the story.

The story is told from alternating viewpoints in alternating periods of history. Vivian is an elderly widow who was orphaned at a young age, with a lifetime full of memories stored in her addict. Molly is a contemporary teenage, half Indian and growing up in the foster care system, and is on the verge of going to ‘juvie’. The alternative to juvie is to do 50 hours of community service, which she agrees to do by helping Vivian clean out her attic.

Vivian and Molly have a lot in common, having both been orphaned at a young age and bounced from home to home. Because their stories were so similar, at the beginning of the book I had trouble keeping their stories straight and remembering who was orphaned under what circumstance. But I think this was the whole point, to demonstrate how much they had in common, and it straightened itself out pretty quickly. Once I got a few pages into the story, I had trouble putting the book down, and probably would not have if I hadn’t been interrupted by the Fourth of July festivities!

There were really some sad moments in the story, and some frustrating moments, particularly in Vivian’s story. There were a couple of big twists near the end that added to the sadness and made you wonder about the ‘could have beens’. I had never heard about the orphan trains, so this was a great introduction. It is also an interesting way to compare the ‘orphan train’ system to the foster system of today, and to consider how much things may have improved and how much more is still needed. I really enjoyed this story and was sad to have to leave the characters behind!

You can visit the author's website here, where you can access audio book samples, find a reading group guide and learn more about orphan trains. You can also view a book trailer, shown below.

My Rating:  ★★★★1/2   4-1/2 Stars

This book review is included in a tour by TLC Book Tours. I received a copy of the book in return for an honest review, which you can read above.

Below is the complete schedule for the tour.

Tuesday, June 25th: BoundbyWords

Thursday, June 27th: Bibliophiliac

Tuesday, July 2nd: Turn the Page

Wednesday, July 3rd: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Thursday, July 11th: Tina’s Book Reviews

Tuesday, July 16th: A Patchwork of Books

Tuesday, July 23rd: Time 2 Read

Thursday, July 25th: bookchickdi

Thursday, August 1st: Life in the Thumb

Friday, August 2nd: West Metro Mommy

Thursday, August 8th: Literary Feline

Tuesday, August 13th: A Bookish Way of Life

Monday, August 19th: nomadreader

Teaser Tuesday: July 9

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

        

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here’s my teaser!

Mrs. Scatcherd knows as little as we do about whether we'll be chosen by people who will treat us with kindness. We are headed toward the unknown, and we have no choice but to site quietly in our hard seats and let ourselves be taken there.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, page 45