Shelf Control #27 – 18/03/2021
It’s officially Friday and welcome to my first Shelf Control post in about three months! It has been such a long time since my last post that I’ve had to go digging through the previous posts I’d written just to work out where I was up to with this series.
Shelf Control is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up!
For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out Lisa’s introductory post.
Today’s featured book interests me because I have very literal knowledge when it comes to American history. In school, I learned about the roaring ’20s and the following depression in the ’30s. We didn’t touch on anything like the civil war or deal with topics such as slavery. Reading this book will, I hope, fill that gap.
Want to find out more?
The Floating Theatre – Martha Conway
The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway | Goodreads
In a nation divided by prejudice, everyone must take a side.
When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles in to life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more …
But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the ‘free’ North is fraught with danger.
For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad.
But as May’s secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her.
And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own …
A gloriously involving and powerful read for fans of Gone With The Wind and Tracy Chevalier’s The Last Runaway
My Thoughts…
I haven’t read any books by Martha Conway to date and I’m intrigued by how I’ll take to this novel. It has good reviews from other readers and the subject matter is unlike anything I have ever read before.
Although the book has some heavier content, namely slavery and people-smuggling, I am hoping I’ll also enjoy the theatrical aspect of the setting. I studied performing arts for the last four years of school and I loved it! It was the thing I looked forward to in amongst all the boring exams and revision. I am optimistic that just like for me, the theatre is the life and colour in an otherwise dark and strenuous setting.
If you want to learn more about The Floating Theatre, I featured the opening lines of the novel in a First Lines Friday post. If you are interested, please check that out!
Have you read The Floating Theatre? What did you make of it? Let me know in the comments!
