The Invention of Wings

"Loved this story and its personal perspective on slavery. The combination of historical characters and fictional characters was wonderful. I find myself in tears at the ending."

"Such an amazing author!!"

"My favorite book of all time- about the relationship between a slave girl and a girl who grows up to be an abolitionist and her path toward freeing her. Cunning, humbling, eye opening, witty "

"4.5 stars<br/>I usually don't like books where each chapter is a different characters perspective but it works for this book. It was well written and it captured the feel of life in charleston in the 1800's.<br/><br/>at the end of the book in the author's note she told us that this book was based on the true grimke sisters. I wish I had know that when I started the book I would have enjoyed it more."

"I couldn’t stop once I started! This story brings into sharp focus the sacrifice and bravery of those early abolitionists and feminists that forged the path for change. I knew nothing about the life of Sarah Grimke before I started, and now I am astounded that we haven’t all heard of her the way we know about Rosa Parks. I am recommending this book to my friends. This is my favorite book so far this year!"

"I enjoy her style of writing. "

"Amazing!!! Sue has such a unique and beautiful writing style that makes it so easy to finish a book of hers in day or two. This book goes back and forth between a slave and her masters daughter. While In the beginning they are close and their stories take place on the same plantation, each chapter is unique to their own separate lives. As time goes on they take their own paths far from each other. #historical #fiction "

"This is a good book and the real-life Grimke sisters are fascinating historical women that more should be written about. However, I feel like the author tried to bite off more than she could chew with this particular tale. Too many characters over too long a timespan. It felt flat and like a Lifetime movie too often and I just wanted it to end."

"I forgot to find the correct version to list on my bookshelf--I actually listened to the audiobook version of this on a long road trip. I'd started it a few months before but had problems finding good concentrated chunks of time to listen, so I didn't really engage with the story until I was alone with it in my car for the remaining 10 hours of the book. Being able to listen to it straight through made a big difference to how much I was feeling the story, as it were. I thought the author's choice to juxtapose the two voices was an excellent one. Yes, it's not a particularly original device, but in this case it was exactly the right way to compare/contrast two lifestyles while also seeing how the two women connected (or disconnected) through the years. She was also quite good at having the breaking point from one voice to the other feel natural rather than jarring. After awhile, I could tell when she was probably leading up to the end of one voice and getting ready to change to the other. Rather than that being a sign that things were too predictable, it's a sign that there's a good flow to the narrative. There were only a couple of places that I felt it could've been truncated a bit, as if the author had so much information she'd found in her research that she wanted to follow as many threads as possible. However, that was the exception rather than the rule. Even though I know enough of the story of Sarah Grimke (if less familiar with her sister) that I knew "the end of the story" in regards to her history, I couldn't entirely tell how the author was going to end the fictional story. There were enough possibilities that it could go in several directions that I didn't want to settle into a single expectation.<br/><br/>The narrators did a fantastic job with the stories, although I found myself more drawn to Handful than Sarah. There was something about the warmth of her voice that made me want to keep listening.<br/><br/>The audio version includes an addendum by the author about her research and what points of her novel were based in fact versus which were fictionalized; I found this part interesting as well. <br/><br/>Altogether, I do recommend this either as a regular book or an audio book--both versions are moving and enjoyable."

"I have mixed feelings about this book. I think what bothered me most was the liberties the author took with the two Grimke sisters. Since they were actual figures whose lives were pretty well documented, I think it would have worked better for me if she had just fictionalized them and given them different names since the other character of Handful (a slave) was completely fictional. The authors note at the end explained why she did that, but for some reason, I had a hard time connecting with the book. Don't get me wrong, it was very good but it didn't grab me as much as it could have. I just kept wondering as I was reading which parts were actually true and which were not."