Brown Bag Lunch Book Group: The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

Bring your lunch and join an afternoon book discussion group at the Library. Titles are now being chosen by group members. Books for loan will be available one month in advance. Led by Melinda Greenblatt, Library Director. Book Summary: In a small Cape Cod village in 1761, one woman is about to engage in the struggle of her life, defying her family, friends, and neighbors in a fight for her freedom that resonates even today...Married for twenty years, Lyddie is used to the trials of being a whaling wife --her husband's sudden departures, when whales are sighted in the bay; his long absences at sea, when she must run the house herself; the constant fear that one day Edward will simply not come home. But when the unthinkable does happen and Edward is lost at sea, Lyddie finds that she must bear not only the grief of losing her husband but also the insult of losing her autonomy. As a widow, she finds herself cast into society's cellar, her property and rights now at the whim of her nearest male relative, who happens to be her daughter's husband...While conjuring the hearths and salt air of eighteenthcentury colonial America, The Widow's War captures a timeless human longing. (From the Westchester Library System catalog description. Please register in advance by email to mgreenblatt@wlsmail.org or call Melinda Greenblatt at 941-7072, ext. 6.