Charleston, November 1803. Sarah Grimké turns 11. Her birthday gift? A slave named Hetty ("Handful"). This sweeping novel tells the story—in alternating voices—of real-life abolitionist Sarah Grimké and the wholly imagined slave Handful through several decades and up and down the East Coast during a tumultuous time in American history. A can’t miss for fans of The Help or Monk Kidd’s first hit, The Secret Life of Bees. An engaging mix of fact and fiction.

I love this book and finally picked up a gorgeous copy at a used book sale because I really wanted it on my personal shelves. A good story, well told, about a girl's coming of age in rural 1964 South Carolina. For better or worse, this is a timely read.

From the publisher: "The New York Times–bestselling second novel by the author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings."

Publishers Weekly calls this Sue Monk Kidd's "journey to capture her feminine soul and live authentically . . . makes a fascinating, well-researched and well-written story."

From the publisher: "Sue Monk Kidd has touched millions of readers with her novels <em>The Secret Life of Bees</em> and <em>The Mermaid Chair</em> and with her acclaimed nonfiction. In this intimate dual memoir, she and her daughter, Ann, offer distinct perspectives as a fifty-something and a twenty-something, each on a quest to redefine herself and to rediscover each other. Between 1998 and 2000, Sue and Ann travel throughout Greece and France. Ann, just graduated from college, heartbroken and benumbed by the classic question about what to do with her life, grapples with a painful depression. As this modern-day Demeter and Persephone chronicle the richly symbolic and personal meaning of an array of inspiring figures and sites, they also each give voice to that most protean of connections: the bond of mother and daughter."

The Book of Longings requires more nuance, more explanation, and more caveats than I can squeeze into this limited space. This novel is about the wife of Jesus. When I found out this was the premise of the book, I wasn't sure this was a good idea, though it certainly was an audacious one. But I have a good bit of trust in Sue Monk Kidd, knowing that she's written historical fiction with care and sensitivity, even reverence. And so, hesitantly, I started reading. Our narrator is Anna, only daughter to a prosperous family, educated, and betrothed to another man when her attention is captured by a carpenter. Kidd imagines how they form a friendship and wed. As Jesus begins to explore and pursue his calling, let me tell you: whatever you're expecting Kidd to do, this is not it. The vast majority of the book's action takes place during the years when we have no record of Jesus' life. I went in afraid, but I found this book absolutely fascinating. If you're listening on audio, don't miss the author's note, where Kidd explains why she took creative license to make Anna his partner.