The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine
Book
Mma Ramotswe is not one to sit about. Her busy life as the proprietress of the No.1 Ladies'...
Shazam! (2019)
Movie Watch
Billy Batson, a troubled 14-year-old orphan, is set up to move into a new foster home - his seventh...
Sjon recommended Fish Can Sing in Books (curated)
The Silent Man
Book
A father is murdered in the dead of night in his London home, his head wrapped tightly in tape, a...
The Secret Garden: Walker Illustrated Classic
Frances Hodgson Burnett and Inga Moore
Book
Walker Illustrated Classics is a new series which brings together some of the best-loved stories...
Bayou Born
Book
Her beginning may be our end ...Deep in the humid swamps of the Mississippi bayou, a mysterious,...
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Queen's Gambit in TV
Jan 20, 2021
Looks fantastic, and Anya Taylor-Joy deserves all the accolades coming her way, but the show's real achievement for me is that it manages to capture the excitement and fascination of chess without becoming bogged down in details like the difference between the Orangutan and the Grob openings. The chess sequences are genuinely thrilling: you almost get a sense of what it feels like to have that kind of effortless talent in something. Brilliant TV aimed at people with brains.
A Girl Like That
Book
Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk...
Dark Roads
Book
The Cold Creek Highway stretches for five hundred miles through rugged wilderness. For decades,...
Hazel (1853 KP) rated The Orphan Train in Books
Dec 17, 2018
Steve Brigman’s historical novel <i>The Orphan Train</i> takes place in the Missouri Ozarks during the late 19th and early 20th century. Large groups of orphaned children were transported from New York across to the west where other families adopted them. Ten-year-old James was one of these children and this is his story.
Initially the title implied that the story would be about the orphan train itself or at least the life of James as a child however it was his adult life that the book was focused on. The novel opened with the train journey and James meeting his new parents, Clara and Joshua Crawford but this, as well as his remaining childhood on the Crawford ranch was over in a short amount of chapters. By this point both his parents had died in accidents before James had reached the age of twenty. The story goes on to show how James improved and built on the ranch with the help of friend and employee Luke as well as Henry, an older black man who he let live on the ranch with is daughter and grandchildren – something that sparked prejudices in town.
James soon finds himself a wife and the remainder of the book recounts their life together. I admit that I was a little disappointed not to read more about James’ childhood but I began to enjoy reading about the love he had for his wife and his friendships with those living on the ranch.
One issue with this novel is that it lacks much of a climax. I was forever waiting for something bad to happen as it all seemed too good to be true and slightly predictable. That said, it was a good read and it was easy to become attached to the characters.