Botanical mysteries and emotional catharses help heal the deep scars of a vividly drawn Indigenous community.
In Woodard’s novel, a scientific investigation brings change to an Indigenous community in Oklahoma.
In present-day Oklahoma, Jake, a member of the Choctaw nation, is in a deep depression: His family farm has dried up, his young daughter, Hailey, has died of leukemia, and he is struggling with opioid abuse. After a botched suicide attempt, Jake begins his long progress of recovery, helped by his wife, Jessica; she copes with their daughter’s death by growing a vegetable garden. Jake strikes up a friendship with an oncologist, Mark, who grows interested in the relationship between the soil quality and the health of Jake and other members of the nation. As Mark continues his research, he reconnects with his family and his own Choctaw roots. Jake and Jessica slowly repair their relationship and reconnect with Jake’s estranged brother, Adam, who has also been struggling with opioid addiction. Eventually, Mark’s discoveries lead Jake to revive his farm land, and the lonely characters start to form a small community. The contemporary narrative alternates with chapters about Jake’s ancestors, with stories detailing the lives of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. These chapters provide illuminating context and texture and reveal much about the increasingly exploitative relationships that Choctaw people have had with the American government (“He stood unmoving, creek water pooling at his feet, earth ground into the fabric of his skin, yet separate from his loved ones, in the eclipse of the white man’s machines and laws”). Sympathetic characterizations and realistic dialogue give a human face to many of the challenges facing the Indigenous communities depicted here. Mark’s investigation is intriguing and page-turning, and the author manages to keep the technical scientific details clear and comprehensible for the average reader. Even if the conclusions of some plot lines feel a little too abrupt, it’s impossible not to root for these suffering people as they labor to improve their lives and relationships. Woodard’s evocation of the slow, bumpy manner in which human bonds reform feels authentic and endearing.
Botanical mysteries and emotional catharses help heal the deep scars of a vividly drawn Indigenous community.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2023
ISBN: 9798886451047
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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