Feature and Follow Friday #9

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme that allows book bloggers to interact with each other and find new blogs! It has two hosts, Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The rules are... 

• (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
• (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
• Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
• Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
• If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
• Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
• If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
• If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog.
•  

This week's question is...

Bookselling Time: Go to your biggest bookcases. Go to the second shelf from the top and pick out the sixth book from the left. Handsell that book to us - even if you haven’t read it or if you hated it. (if you don’t have bookcases, done have six books on one shelf, etc, pick a book at random) 

 

The book I grabbed was...

 

Synopsis

 

After losing her parents, fifteen-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm.  As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give.

When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she doesn’t realize just how much her help is needed.  She quickly becomes emotionally invested in her clients' lives, causing tension with her boss and her new husband.  But as Jane is drawn in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small farm—secrets much darker than she would have guessed.  Soon, she must decide whether to take drastic action to help them, or risk losing the battle against everything she believes is wrong.

Set in rural Grace County, North Carolina in a time of state-mandated sterilizations and racial tension, Necessary Lies tells the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy.  Jane and Ivy are thrown together and must ask themselves: how can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it’s wrong?

I absolutely loved this book. It is told from the perspective of both Jane and Ivy during a time of state mandated sterilizations determined by a Eugenics Board. The sterilizations were performed at times without the knowledge or consent of the person involved and usually involved people of low class, intellect, mental capacity and health issues. Although this is a fictional story, the sterilizations and eugenics programs were real and happened during this time frame. I work in the Developmental Services field and was aware of these programs in my country from my schooling so I already had an understanding of what went on before reading this book. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much but I think for people who were not aware of what happened it is a real eye opener.

I don't want to say too much about the story for fear of giving too much away but I will say that it is a great read. As with all of Diane Chamberlain's books it is a very easy book to read and get lost in. It is probably my favourite of her books and I have read them all.

What do you think? Have I sold you on the book?

 

That is my Feature and Follow Friday for this week! Comment down below if you're a new follower of mine with a link to your blog and I will make sure to follow you back. You can follow us via gfc, bloglovin, facebook and twitter.