Before We Were Yours

Book: Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

Members Present: Denise, Linda, Marie, Karin, Christy

Venue: Carrabba's

Discussion Highlights:

Many of us had not been to book club in a while, so we spent a lot of time catching up on life, tennis, and gossip. Along those lines, Denise got a new job, I went to Indian Wells with Karen Marchand, and Marie and I are hitting the gym and will see who can lift the most at the end of the summer. Bought 25 lb dumbbells after our meeting!

As for the book, if you haven't read it, it's a thumbs up from the group. It is based on a true story of an orphanage in Tennessee in the 30's owned by Georgia Tann, who got away with kidnapping/stealing poor kids and selling them to rich and famous people looking to adopt. Her treatment of the kids was atrocious, and she had politicians, judges, police, and tons of other high profile people in her pocket so she essentially got away with murder until the 50's, when she died of cancer. Even then, adoption records were sealed until the 90's because many of the adoptive parents were politicians. The last chapter where Wingate talks about some of the history of the orphanage is worth the read alone.

In the novel there are 2 alternating stories--one of Rill and her 4 siblings, poor kids who lived on the river and were kidnapped in broad daylight by the police, after their parents are tricked into signing them off to the orphanage. The other story is about Avery, who is visiting her parents in Tennessee and being groomed for a possible senate seat that her ailing dad currently occupies. She meets the elderly Rill--now named May--on a PR visit to a nursing home and finds out that she is somehow related to her grandmother and wants to find out how. Both stories are highly entertaining, and you don't know how they are going to come together until the very end.

The book is a quick read, and although the treatment of the children in the orphanage is shocking, there are no graphic details or traumatic accounts, so even if you don't like reading negative stuff (e.g., Marie), you'll still love it. I didn't have to take a single Ativan :).

Next Book:

Our next book is "Still Me," by Jojo Moyes. This is part 3 of the series that began with "Me Before You," our favorite book. It should be a quick read, so we'll aim for end of April to stay on track.