Audacity

Have I mentioned how much I love historical fiction? It's the best genre because I actually learn some good stuff while being entertained.

This is a gem. It's a great book about Clara, a Jewish immigrant / refugee from Russian in the early 1900s. She arrives in New York with her family and has to get a job in a sweatshop while her brothers and father study the Torah all day. She has always had ambitions of becoming a doctor and loves to learn. Audacity is about her dreams to make a better life for women (especially Jewish women) in that time. She eventually becomes involved in the making of a union.

It tells of her life in the form of poetry and is absolutely beautiful. The way the word form pictures on the page is stunning and each line is full of more meaning than the words themselves.

This is perhaps the most beautifully written book I've read in a really long time. If you don't love poetry (like me), it takes a little while to get used to the style. But, once you do, the depth it adds to the story is astounding.

And an added bonus - I'd let my 4th grader read it.