The fast moving dance of the yellow, gold, scarlet leaves and Autumn is one foot out this season's door. I couldn't think of a better novel to curl up with then my October 2011 book review: The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller.The civil war has always been a favorite thing to read about and this book delivers. It's 1867 and it's where the red-headed main character Katie Calloway is first introduced to the reader. She is living in the deep Southern State of Georgia on a burned out plantation with her younger brother and her brooding husband Harlan who has just returned from the civil war. Katie's existence is a lonely one and she walks on egg shells never knowing when or what will set off her half-crazed husband. One day, when her husband is away, she takes her brother Ned and runs for their lives as it would seem.
She lands in one of the most unexpected places a Southern girl could end up, a logging camp in the north in Michigan where she finds a job as a camp cook. Everything about the place makes Katie doubt her decision to work from the hardened loggers she first meets, to the owner of the camp Robert Foster who harbors his own deep hurt and secrets he'd just as soon keep close to self.
Katie Calloway early in the book doesn't recognize that she has a voice and that she has power and choices. True to the times, most women would have been subservient it's the way things were. As the story moves forward she learns to know the loggers as men and they in turn learn the soul of a woman isn't just made of cleaning and cooking it's a reflection of the lives around her. The fights, the struggles that go on in her and around her make the soul of a woman or man stronger. Katie Calloway is feisty and finds a way through the strife. She cries sometimes, and that's good it frees up space in us for the good feelings that anchor us to come rolling on back. I know exactly how it feels when I made the decision to return to school this past Fall for Business Management I didn't know if was the right decision. When I have to struggle with the occasional math question or have a lot of homework to do I wonder about my choice.
Katie also learns about matters of the heart. The camp owner Robert Foster teaches her through his actions that there are kind men that can be trusted. It's a wonderful gift they give each other. In the giving they both open up in such pleasing ways, the reader can become part of. And isn't it like that in life too when someone is good for you, I do believe you become more of who you are meant to be. You're deeper, funnier, certainly wiser, the smile on their face tells you that the same thing is happening to them. This book is funny, it's smart you will learn technical things about log-rolling should you ever decide to do it! One can't ask for better then this for a cold weather read, and you're going to want to snuggle with someone after you put this book down. It makes you thankful for all the blessings in your life and yes even for the struggles that bring you unseeing into better places. It's the trust factor here at work on a practical level, another word if you like is 'faith'. Life really is a wilderness, but finding your way isn't just putting one foot in front of the other it's also letting the wind blow the voices of loved ones into your hurt places and knowing you'll pull through. It's letting the happy times take hold and knowing that another sunny day is just around the corner. I recommend this book to anyone who loves believable characters and empowerment with some history thrown in. Oh and for the record, for every other wrong answer I may get sometimes in my homework, I find the answers to a whole bunch more! Which means my spirit is being stretched a whole lot right now mathematically speaking!
"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".
http://grafmartin.com/
http://amazon.ca/
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/
