Oprah's Book Club (Official) discussion

Have you gotten your copy of "The Invention of Wings?" and have not been able to put it down? What are your thoughts as you read this compelling novel?

Just this minute finished it! What a story!

Read all day yesterday while my husband watched football. Couldn't wait to get home from work tonight!!!

I just started and am only 20 pages in but already am taken in .

May - that sounds like a typical Sunday in winter at our house , too .

It makes me so sad that these girls had to live like this. Neither one of them really free.

Got it and can't wait to start.

May wrote: "Just this minute finished it! What a story!

Read all day yesterday while my husband watched football. Couldn't wait to get home from work tonight!!!"

Love to hear that! Hope you enjoyed it!

Lorrea(Threein3) wrote: "It makes me so sad that these girls had to live like this. Neither one of them really free."

Exactly! They are so different yet so similar! The struggle for "freedom" was a common theme between them although in different ways!

Dari wrote: "Got it and can't wait to start."

We can't wait to hear what you think!

Angela wrote: "I just started and am only 20 pages in but already am taken in .

May - that sounds like a typical Sunday in winter at our house , too ."

We must agree. Sounds like a typical Sunday with men in the house.

Angela we are so glad the captured you. We hope you continue to enjoy!

Picked it up yesterday and am about 50 pages in. Just settling down to read some more!

Finished it a couple days ago. Really enjoyed it. I think the thing that sticks with me most is when Handful told Sarah that her mind is free even if her body isn't, while it's the other way around for Sarah.

Absolutely! In my opinion, That is a base line of this story.

Stacey wrote: "Picked it up yesterday and am about 50 pages in. Just settling down to read some more!"

Really hope you enjoy! Keep us posted!

Cathy wrote: "Finished it a couple days ago. Really enjoyed it. I think the thing that sticks with me most is when Handful told Sarah that her mind is free even if her body isn't, while it's the other way around..."

So glad you enjoyed the read! There was so many things that resonated! Such a powerful statement!

May wrote: "Absolutely! In my opinion, That is a base line of this story."

Exactly May! They were so different but so much alike. Fighting the same struggle in different ways!

Absolutely love the novel!
I'm on the third section within the novel. It's amazing that such violence and incredible cruelty to negroes occurred during our short history. I'm enthralled with listening to the audio version and reading along in my kindle fire . It's so well characterized, you'd think you've interviewed them "back then". This is so well casted that I have to say I must read it this way because my mind couldn't conjure up such authenticity within Hetty or "Handful" and the decadent "Sarah".

Kidd really did a marvelous job writing the novel and again, with the audio in the Kindle, the negresses sound like they are uneducated and speak like true slaves did. Amazing work casted.
My favorite character, thus far , is Hetty or aka handful. She is honest, forthright and raptures the emotions of a slave serving Sarah so well, with the wings of her determination, faith and history from her mother to fly above the fetters she is so enraptured with a sail across the way to integrity and dignity stripped so readily by " white people" , yet doesn't hate back. True character of a Phoenix!


I feel that both characters are alike in the one way thus far in my reading and that lies in their ability to recognize that slavery is wrong and the brutality of cruelness toward blacks violates humanity and decency wether they wanted to reenact English aristocracy or not.
(view spoiler)[



But Sarah is her mothers daughter and as they say, the apple doesn't fall from the tree. Shown with her thoughts in the
Tub incident. It was "Handful's baptism" from slavery to right living. Sarah s thoughts un coiled like her mother's when she saw "her" tub being used by a Negresses.


However, the author isn't finished with the girls yet! I hope they remain friends and to see the angst of the civil war set to free the slave states within the U.S.

Great historical read. Everyone needs to read this novel because it makes something inert and pathetic in our history , alive and breathing to flesh out the shame and road these people before us led. (hide spoiler)]

I finished the book today and I am in awe of what Sue Monk Kidd has done in the amazing novel. I have written a review, pretty much an overview of how I felt about the book. There are no spoilers.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am really looking forward to more discussion .

Still on the list.

25% done. I'm reading two books at once. I like it so far and wish I could listen to it but my library doesn't have it yet. By the time I finish it, they will probably get it! LOL

Lisa wrote: "Absolutely love the novel!
I'm on the third section within the novel. It's amazing that such violence and incredible cruelty to negroes occurred during our short history. I'm enthralled with liste..."

Lisa your insight is amazing! We definitely want to keep this conversation going! Please keep us posted on your progress and thoughts!

Angela wrote: "I finished the book today and I am in awe of what Sue Monk Kidd has done in the amazing novel. I have written a review, pretty much an overview of how I felt about the book. There are no spoilers.
..."

Angela so glad that you finished it. We are going to keep this conversation going. We hope it's resonating on a global level!

Kim wrote: "Still on the list."

Great Kim!! Please keep us posted on your reading progress! We would love to hear your thoughts!

Finished this book last night on the plane ride home from Las Vegas, and just couldn't believe how amazing it was. I got to the last page and it still wasn't enough for me... I wasn't ready for Sarah and Handful's story to end there...

What a powerful nod to our country's history and how wrong the thinking was back then. Every time someone told Sarah to back down, I was pushing for her to stand tall.

My unjustifiable review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Great review , Britany . I thought it was a wonderful story of these amazing women!

Thanks Angela! I couldn't agree with you more :)

I am 70% done; just fixed a cup of tea and will finish reading tonight. So far, I am enjoying the story and alternating points of view between Handful and Sarah. They are so alike, yet different.

Home, sick with a cold....yay, time to finish reading! Really liking this one

I finished the book a couple of days ago...I Absolutely loved it!!!
Such a tumultuous and very ugly time in America's history, but magnificently and mastetfully written. Two girls/woman with one parallel destination freedom one physically and the other mentally.

I've got about 60 pages to go. There's the common theme of the women wanting to escape, and I think maybe even Missus is trying to escape into old Charleston society when recognizing that times are changing and/or her girls are, as well. (watch the spoiler...LOL)

I recently bought a copy of this book and I'm looking forward to getting started.

Kathy , I read it a few weeks ago and I keep thinking about how good it was . An amazing story based on the lives of some amazing women . Enjoy !

I finished this powerful novel last week. My review as follows: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finally found this discussion web. Thanks, Angela.

Somehow I also lost the thread for this discussion. Thanks for leaving the comment Lorrie, it helped me connect again!

Amazing, finished it in two sittings :)

Anne wrote: "Somehow I also lost the thread for this discussion. Thanks for leaving the comment Lorrie, it helped me connect again!"

How far into the book are you, Anne?

Lorrie wrote: "Anne wrote: "Somehow I also lost the thread for this discussion. Thanks for leaving the comment Lorrie, it helped me connect again!"

How far into the book are you, Anne?"
I finished it sometime ago. I just love following the discussion to see what others think about the novel.

You know I am almost done with it and even though I put it down for several weeks because it started as many other slavery suffering books do that I kinda lost interest, but I am enjoying the invention of wings much more now that Sarah is being brave and serious about her desires to make a difference..

It's good to hear you say this, Rita, because I began it about a week ago and found it sort of same ole....also. I'll keep going.

I didn't know until after I finished it that it was based on real the lives of real people and that made it even more powerful for me .

I was taken in from the beginning and thought this was amazing story .

Rita, I think that is often the case... a life story changes dramatically once a woman gets serious and brave about who she is and who she wants to be!!!

finished this a little while ago - have read 3 or 4 books since. it was good, but that was it. this one didn't strike me as much as other Oprah picks have and was much harder for me to get into. part of it was the back and forth styling of it, since i find that can get confusing. well written, but nothing that gave me any earth shattering feelings. maybe next time.

I finished this superb novel back in January.

My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I enjoyed this read very much

How come there hasn't been a new book since January?

Good question! Look how long we had to wait for the January book!

Shouldn't there be at least one new book every month? No point in having a book club otherwise...

I agree there should be something more frequent here . It makes for not very much activity here except for people saying what they are reading . Come on Oprah!