The Book of Lost Friends includes actual ads that were published in Southern newspapers and read to black congregations by their preachers, ads searching for relatives of former slaves. The last time many of these people saw their families was in sale pens and auction yards, as they were being sold off to new owners, one or two at a time, dividing families forever with no way of ever finding each other again. The words are so heartbreaking, so heartfelt, and some of the ads in the book even tell...

4.5 stars rounded up. “Dear Editor — I wish to inquire for my people. My mother was named Mittie. I am the middle of nine children and named Hannie Gossett. The others were named Hardy, Het, Pratt, Epheme, Addie, Easter, Ike and Rose and were all my mother had when separated....My brothers and sisters, cousins and aunts were sold and carried from us...and finally in Powell town, Texas, where my mother was taken and never seen by me again...I am well, but my mother is greatly missed by me, and an...

4.5 starsTo tell a tale of loss is never an easy task. The heartbreaking moments are many, and the realization hits the reader that these things so well related in a fictional setting did indeed take place in our country. These are things never to be forgotten, never to be relegated to the back pages of history. These are things in which a living nightmare was experienced.I have been having a bit of a time lately with the historical fiction genre. I have found it to be more on the fiction end of...

The Book of Lost Friends is a novel inspired by historical events. The " Lost Friends" were advertisements that appeared in Southern Newspapers after the Civil War as freed slaves searched for family and loved ones who had been sold off. We can’t change our histories, but we can own them, learn from them and educate our children Having really enjoyed Lisa Wingate's I was really looking forward to this novel as the premise is so interesting. What an engaging and compelling novel this was,

4.5 Stars History has much to teach us. At the beginning of this book, there are notes from Lisa Wingate, about Dialect and Historical Terminology, which is where the above quote is taken from. She goes on to say: ”That was one of the reasons for the inclusion of the real-life Lost Friends ads in this book. They are the stories of actual people who lived, and struggled, and who almost inadvertently left these small pieces of themselves for posterity.”Told in two different time frames, this be...

At the outset, it is clear that I am in the minority here since everyone seems to love this book. However, I found it boring, tedious, and repetitive. Lisa Wingate knows how to find a great story - she just doesn't know how to make the novel compelling and compulsive.Lisa Wingate sure can write a summary on the book jacket that is intriguing and interesting. But like BEFORE WE WERE YOURS, the book jacket is much more exciting than the book itself. For both BWWY and THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS, Wing...

Told in dual timelines, Hannie is an 18 year old slave living during the Reconstruction Era in Louisiana in 1875. Having been taken from her family before slavery ended, Hannie joins the plantation owner's daughters on an odyssey of sorts to find the two girls father while Hannie herself quests to find her own mother and siblings. Benny is a first year teacher in 1987 who wants to make a difference in the lives of her Louisiana students. Benny is working on a school project about local family li...

5 just right starsThis dual storyline book drew me in right away! I found both storylines interesting and the characters fascinating. They connected in a fantastic way and the conclusion of this book was done just right.The storyline from the past features Louisiana and Texas post-Civil War and still a very tumultuous time in this country. We have three unlikely characters thrown together on a quest to track down the head of the Louisiana plantation. One character is Lavinia, the spoiled daughte...

***NOW AVAILABLE***This is a wonderful story based on true facts and records. I felt the beginning was a bit slow but this book is very much worth sticking to it. It can’t and shouldn’t be rushed. There is a lot of humanity and history here. Each chapter is begun with an ad from the original “Lost Friends” newspaper columns. This story takes place in post civil war Louisiana and Texas, although the ads in the “Lost Friends” column will take us back years earlier. It’s Louisiana in 1875 and we fi...

Colored Tennessean (Nashville), Oct. 14, 1865information wanted of Caroline Dodson, who was sold from Nashville Nov. 1st 1862 by James Lumsden to Warwick, (a trader then in human beings), who carried her to Atlanta, Georgia, and she was last heard of in the sale pen of Robert Clarke, (human trader in that place), from which she was sold. Any information of her whereabouts will be thankfully received and rewarded by her mother,Lucinda Lowery,Box 1121, Nashville, Tenn.***Real Ad posted by a family...

An amazing historical story based on real articles written in the late 1800’s by former slaves searching for members of their families whom they were torn from.Three women- as different as they can be - a slave, a mulatto and a white - are brought together in a perilous journey to Texas for their own truths.Simultaneously, Benny, a teacher who has just recently moved into Augustine a century later, finds ledgers of these slavers of who they were sold off to. Searching to bring some history to th...

Note to future self: books starting with "the book of" and especially "lost" aren't your kind of reads.I really wanted to enjoy this book since Before We Were Yours was one of the best books I've read this year. but I wasn't invested in the story at all and honestly? I couldn't focus whatsoever on the past part (even though it was clearly stated when we switched timelines). I didn't have a difficult time following the "present" timeline so I don't think it was completely my fault. We also had di...

Lisa Wingate has woven together two wonderful stories to make this absorbing historical novel set in 1875 and 1987. Following the abolition of slavery in America, many freed slaves had no idea where there families were as they were previously sold off and dispersed by their owners. In 1875 young Hannie is the last of her large family left on the Louisiana cotton farm where they were slaves. Accidently forced to accompany her previous owner's daughter, Lavinia and half daughter, Juneau Jane on a

2.5 STARS rounded up! So it's with a heavy heart that I leave this not so favorable review and by the looks of it I am definitely in the MINORITY so far. I am heartbroken and disappointed that I didn't take more away from this book than I hoped to. This is my third novel by Lisa Wingate and I have absolutely adored her previous books. "Before We Were Yours" will forever be a favorite of mine. I commend these types of authors for putting in the work and research it takes to make a book like this

3.5 stars, rounded upThank heavens for other GR reviews that mentioned that this book starts slow and to stick with it. Because it definitely was a slow start for me. But I’m glad I stuck with it. It’s an interesting story with enough historical facts to be educational. I loved the premise of this story. It’s so obvious that after the civil war, freed slaves would look to find family, no different than the Holocaust survivors 80 years later. But this is the first book I know of that has tackled

I am so disappointed. I loved "Before We Were Yours" so much, and I struggled so hard to even finish this book. I think the Hannie chapters, in particular, were difficult to get through. It was endlessly descriptive about unnecessary details, and while of course I understand the use of dialogue true to the time and place, it really made it hard to follow. Especially since you were back and forth between the two time periods every single chapter - you couldn't settle in to a particular time perio...

Contrary to other readers I just couldn’t finish this. The story line did nothing for me, the characters were flat, and the writing was mediocre. That’s too many flaws for me to move beyond the halfway mark. I have other complaints but I’ll just move on rather than rant.

When still a child Hannie had seen her complete family sold to other plantation owners, leaving her alone on the Gossett plantation, filling her days with work from dawn to dusk. Hannie had kept Miss Lavinia, daughter of the plantation owner, company as her slave when Lavinia was a baby. In 1875, at eighteen years old, Hannie accompanied Miss Lavinia and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s free-born Creole half-sister on a journey the three of them took in search of answers.After encountering ruthless men at...

“Dear Editor—I wish to inquire for my people.” After the Civil War ended, many former slaves were desperate to find family and friends from whom they had been separated when they were sold. The Southern Christian Advocate newspaper provided a space to publish letters (some of which are quoted in this book) from the seekers asking for any information as to the whereabouts of the missing. These letters were a brilliant idea. This book is written in dual time periods. Generally, I find that to be a...