The Invention of Wings

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

One-sentence summary: The true story of Sarah Grimke makes up the core of this historical fiction that follows two young girls, one white, and one a black slave, as they grow up together, but separate.
B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 8

Our favorite thing about it: This story was fantastic and very well written.

Our least favorite thing about it: It is hard to pick something, but there were some points about the story that we thought were not as believable.

Main Topics of Discussion: Slaves, Women, Evil, Human Nature, Greed, Dignity, Subversion, Struggles, History, Stories

Our favorite quote: “History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another’s pain in the heart our own.”

Notes: All of us love a good historical fiction and this book can definitely be described that way. This was not our first time to read Sue Monk Kidd and we appreciate her writing style. Her characters are well defined and fleshed out as well as being well-rounded and multi-faceted. Her interesting and realistic characters make the story that much more compelling. We found this story heartbreaking, enlightening, and inspirational all at once.

We spoke a lot about the human capacity for evil and how that was plainly manifested in slavery. We thought it was interesting that women’s rights also became a topic in the book, which was true to Sarah’s real story. The parallels of women being slaves, but not to the law like the black slaves, was really well done.

The author’s insight into the minds of the main characters showed how motivations factor into their actions and their convictions was wonderful. Even when Sarah despised slavery, she made a selfish choice to return Hattie/Handful to her mother thereby making Hattie’s life more miserable than if she had kept her and carried the burden of owning a slave.

One point we specifically discussed was the oral tradition of passing down stories among the slaves and how Hattie’s mauma took that one step further and recorded her story in the only way she knew how…in her quilt. We thought it was a beautiful symbol of creating something beautiful out of awful conditions as well as a different way of maintaining her story and significance.

Memorable Meeting Moments: We met at Burger Island again, this time Stephanie’s treat! And it was her birthday month!

What We Ate: Various burgers, sweet potato fries, regular potato fries, and fried green beans. Lindsay also brought cheesecake and salted caramel topping for dessert.