I just finished reading These is My Words by Nancy Turner.

These is My Words is amazing!  Rachel told my friends and I about the book and we all decided to read it as a group.  It’s on the library waiting lists, so each of us have read, or are reading, it at different times.  My friends that had read it before I did told me the book was one of their favorites, but I had no idea how good it really was until I read it myself.

Like I said in the post Literacy and Karaoke, These is My Words is about Nancy Turner’s great-grandmother, Sarah Agnes Prine.  It’s written in a diary format and spans twenty years.

The book follows the life of Sarah as she grows from a 17-year-old girl to a woman and a mother.  There’s romance, heartache, adventure, and humor. As I read the story, I felt like I was right in the middle.  I cheered when Sarah cheered.  I smiled when she smiled.  I laughed when she laughed.  I was mad when she was mad.  I was in love when she was in love.  And, most importantly, I cried when she cried.

The back cover says the following:

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author’s own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier.  Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon–from child to determined young adult to loving mother–she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose.

Rich in authentic everyday details and alive with truly unforgettable characters, These Is My Words brilliantly brings a vanished world to breathtaking life again.

I definitely recommend this book.  Not only do you get a little bit a history, but a heart-warming, inspiring story as well.