{"id":1418,"date":"2018-12-31T17:09:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2018-12-31T17:09:05","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:09:05","slug":"bird-daughter-of-a-daughter-of-a-queen_082618","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1418","title":{"rendered":"Bird, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen_082618"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HISTORICAL FICTION<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah Bird<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

St. Martin\u2019s Press<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-1-2501-9316-2 (also available as an e-book and an audiobook), 416 pgs., $27.99<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

September 4, 2018<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cGirls want marvelous adventures just as much as boys do.\u201d \u2014L. Frank Baum, author of <\/em>The Wizard of Oz<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the first thing you should know about Miss Cathy Williams,\u201d Sarah Bird writes. \u201cI am the daughter of the daughter of a queen and my mama never let me forget it.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Williams was born a captive prisoner of war \u2014 never a slave \u2014 on a Missouri tobacco farm. Her mother raised an intelligent, resilient, fierce warrior-woman, nurturing Williams with tales of an African grandmother who was a warrior-wife of the Leopard King.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the waning days of the Civil War, Williams is plucked from the farm by Maj. Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan to be a helper for his cook. Traveling with and feeding the Army of the Potomac\u2019s Cavalry Corps engenders a sense of purpose in Williams, and she sees joining the Buffalo Corps at the end of the Civil War as the only option for a life of independence and honor. Although the trials and tribulations of hiding her gender are many, myriad, and dangerous, Williams is lifted and transported by \u201cthat feeling of being part of something fine and strong and a whole lot bigger and more important than [she].\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen<\/em> is new fiction from Austin\u2019s Sarah Bird. She is the author of ten previous bestselling, critically acclaimed, and award-winning books: nine novels and one book of autobiographical essays titled A Love Letter to Texas Women<\/em>. Bird has written for NY Times Sunday Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Salon, Texas Observer, <\/em>and Texas Monthly<\/em>, among other outlets.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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She was also a screenwriter for ten years, working for Paramount, CBS, Warner Bros, National Geographic, ABC, TNT, and independent producers. In 2015 she was selected for the Meryl Streep\/Oprah Winfrey Screenwriters\u2019 Lab. In addition, Bird has the splendid distinction of having been disinvited to speak to the Texas Lege.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, <\/em>described as a \u201ctribute in fiction,\u201d is a creative and immersive imagining of the life of Cathy Williams, the first woman to enlist in the peacetime U.S. Army, and the only woman to serve, from 1866 to 1868, with the Buffalo Soldiers. Written in first-person narration, Williams is determined to set the record of her life straight after a reporter insinuates that her claim of having served with the Buffalo Soldiers was quite the fib.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The pace is quick and steady, with plot twists aplenty packed into cleverly constructed architecture. The amount of research required for an epic of rich historical detail is daunting and Bird has performed rigorously. A multifaceted talent, she had me variously chuckling, gasping aloud, rubbing the chill bumps on my arms, and holding my breath.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bird\u2019s characters come alive on the page, especially Williams, who has a sharp eye for the absurd and a righteous sense of injustice, and is unafraid to call a thing by its name. Referencing her little sister who, Williams tells us, \u201cif she had a scrap of cloth and a walnut, would turn it into a baby doll and glue moss to if for hair. Me? I\u2019d blow my nose on the scrap of cloth, crack the walnut open and eat it.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Williams\u2019 mother told her she was \u201cmeant for better than to be a brood sow for some short-weight plowboy.\u201d Bird obliges, imagining a singular voice, life, and love for a historical figure about which little is known. I fervently hope most of it could be true.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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  HISTORICAL FICTION Sarah Bird Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen St. Martin\u2019s Press Hardcover, 978-1-2501-9316-2 (also available as an e-book and an audiobook), 416 pgs., $27.99 September 4, 2018   \u201cGirls want marvelous adventures just as much as boys do.\u201d \u2014L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz \u201cHere\u2019s the first thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}