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Maternal Threads
Maternal Threads is a compelling story that weaves one woman's search of her childhood with the secrets that have been kept from her since birth. While researching her family, Frances Brown finds herself unearthing stories of flappers, prohibition, and strangers that seem to never quite materialize. It isn't until the death of her mother that she's driven to explore the details of her maternal heritage.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2015
About the author
Frances S Brown
3 books31 followersAuthor of stories where the impossible meets reality.
I braid science with the supernatural.
Also writing fiction under the pseudonym "Claire Gem," Ms. Brown writes award-winning titles in several genres: romance, supernatural suspense, and womens' fiction.
If you love emotionally driven stories featuring strong heroines that are set in haunted places, you will love my books.
I braid science with the supernatural.
Also writing fiction under the pseudonym "Claire Gem," Ms. Brown writes award-winning titles in several genres: romance, supernatural suspense, and womens' fiction.
If you love emotionally driven stories featuring strong heroines that are set in haunted places, you will love my books.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 3, 2015
Catch all of my reviews on CJLeger.com I'll start by saying that from the moment I opened the book, the first line hit me so hard that my curiosity spiked, tripling my initial interest. Frances S. Brown introduces us to her book, "Maternal Threads". with the following line:
"Somewhere wedged into Prohibition and the Jazz era, in early 20th century America, an un-girdling of the Gibson girl birthed a new breed of bitch.The flapper."
By then, the book was almost constantly on my mind. Throughout lectures, other compromises, and the daily to do's, I found myself jogging back to my Kindle reader for more. But before I go into detail, here's a bit more about Maternal Threads and its fresh approach to storytelling.
Impression: Venturing into this book was like catching a compelling episode of "Who Do You Think You Are" on TLC where the preview glues you to your couch, leaving you running to finish up your chores before the next segment begins. Well, that's what I felt like when I read the first page. I remember having a stack of review requests in my hand and an unfinished slice of desert cheesecake; by God, by the time I flipped to page two, I had discarded the stack to the side, poured myself some tea, and retreated to my reading chair in my office. This is what my journey was like.
Brown describes the life of her aunt Charlotte and the neighborhood in which she grew up alongside her mother, a neighborhood that has all since been absorbed by neighboring communities. Her tale reminded me of the time I opened up Google Maps, and showed my grandmother the house in which she had raised her children in New York, while everything else had changed, that house still boasted the same tan and green paint that brought a bounty of memories flushing back. If a book could ever capture feelings of this magnitude, it would be this one. I felt as if I was living, experiencing the memories of her family myself.
The author talks about her life as a wife and mother, letting us into her personal thoughts - thoughts that I found to be comfortingly real and ones you'd only experience with a life-long friend.
Highlights: This theme of comforting intimacy transports itself throughout the entire book, making me feel as if this incredible story, was being told to me from across a chair in my dim-lit office. One of my favorite sections of the book was the beginning of Chapter 4 - where the author describes experiencing one of the very first self-aware moments in her life when she entered public school. Before then, attending Catholic school, Brown's identity had been dormant, hidden behind structured uniforms and vague, almost general adornments, that is until she reaches public school and realizes she has absolutely no idea how to dress, how to be, or who she really was in the sense of individualism.
She describes this in a way that pierces the senses, stripping back our "idea" of what we know and making us reevaluate what we "thought" we knew when we were twelve; how something as simple as uniformity could dig away at our own selves. I could go on about this book; it's enchanting. But I'll say that I never once felt so loved before, that an author could write this way - so immersive and open for a reader like myself to enjoy.
Quality: In terms of quality, this book met the expectations a reader has when they pick up a memoir. Dedicating hours of reading to the story of another person's life requires that the book to be written by an author with unsurmountable skills, taste, and flare. Frances S. Brown has all of those things, her physical aura alone, reads of an author classically born into the publishing world with a seemingly inherited ability to capture one's soul.
Before I go, we want to let the readers know that the author agreed to do an online reading of this book, which will be publishing this week on CJLeger.com. We also did an interview with the author, which is included in this feature as well at Review of Maternal Threads by Frances Brown.
"Somewhere wedged into Prohibition and the Jazz era, in early 20th century America, an un-girdling of the Gibson girl birthed a new breed of bitch.The flapper."
By then, the book was almost constantly on my mind. Throughout lectures, other compromises, and the daily to do's, I found myself jogging back to my Kindle reader for more. But before I go into detail, here's a bit more about Maternal Threads and its fresh approach to storytelling.
Impression: Venturing into this book was like catching a compelling episode of "Who Do You Think You Are" on TLC where the preview glues you to your couch, leaving you running to finish up your chores before the next segment begins. Well, that's what I felt like when I read the first page. I remember having a stack of review requests in my hand and an unfinished slice of desert cheesecake; by God, by the time I flipped to page two, I had discarded the stack to the side, poured myself some tea, and retreated to my reading chair in my office. This is what my journey was like.
Brown describes the life of her aunt Charlotte and the neighborhood in which she grew up alongside her mother, a neighborhood that has all since been absorbed by neighboring communities. Her tale reminded me of the time I opened up Google Maps, and showed my grandmother the house in which she had raised her children in New York, while everything else had changed, that house still boasted the same tan and green paint that brought a bounty of memories flushing back. If a book could ever capture feelings of this magnitude, it would be this one. I felt as if I was living, experiencing the memories of her family myself.
The author talks about her life as a wife and mother, letting us into her personal thoughts - thoughts that I found to be comfortingly real and ones you'd only experience with a life-long friend.
"I was fifty-two years old and had raised three reasonably normal children, a daughter and twin sons. I remained happily married to the same man who fathered them for over half my life."
"We were living in Massachusetts, which placed twenty-one years and thirteen hundred miles between my only daughter and me. But thanks to the modern conveniences of a cellular signal and hands-free devices, we commuted together every morning. We both rose and began our workdays early, in certain seasons before even the sun was awake."
Highlights: This theme of comforting intimacy transports itself throughout the entire book, making me feel as if this incredible story, was being told to me from across a chair in my dim-lit office. One of my favorite sections of the book was the beginning of Chapter 4 - where the author describes experiencing one of the very first self-aware moments in her life when she entered public school. Before then, attending Catholic school, Brown's identity had been dormant, hidden behind structured uniforms and vague, almost general adornments, that is until she reaches public school and realizes she has absolutely no idea how to dress, how to be, or who she really was in the sense of individualism.
She describes this in a way that pierces the senses, stripping back our "idea" of what we know and making us reevaluate what we "thought" we knew when we were twelve; how something as simple as uniformity could dig away at our own selves. I could go on about this book; it's enchanting. But I'll say that I never once felt so loved before, that an author could write this way - so immersive and open for a reader like myself to enjoy.
Quality: In terms of quality, this book met the expectations a reader has when they pick up a memoir. Dedicating hours of reading to the story of another person's life requires that the book to be written by an author with unsurmountable skills, taste, and flare. Frances S. Brown has all of those things, her physical aura alone, reads of an author classically born into the publishing world with a seemingly inherited ability to capture one's soul.
Before I go, we want to let the readers know that the author agreed to do an online reading of this book, which will be publishing this week on CJLeger.com. We also did an interview with the author, which is included in this feature as well at Review of Maternal Threads by Frances Brown.
August 29, 2015
Alex Haley once wrote: "In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage—to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning and the most disquieting loneliness." And so it was with Frances Susanne Brown. She was happily married, had children, and a full life, yet she couldn't pinpoint what caused the sense that something was missing.
On a morning commute, she had an epiphany when she spied a winter-ravaged tree. As she wrote: "Half of the tree's usual symmetry was gone, carved out as though a hungry giant had plundered through and taken a bite. That lovely May morning in 2009, more than halfway through my life, I finally recognized what was missing. I was half a tree."
Those who know their ancestry are indeed fortunate. But many of us, like Frances, have gaps in our family history, or the history may be largely unknown. She knew a great deal about her father's side of the family tree, but her mother's side was nearly blank. In Maternal Threads, Frances tells the story of how she set out to fill in those huge gaps, saying: "How could I possibly feel whole if my mother either didn't know her own family history, or was hiding some dark secret about it? The lack of details, the subtle smudging over of my maternal history, was responsible for my feeling of being incomplete."
As a child and youth, whenever she asked questions, her mother was either reluctant to discuss her family or gave vague answers. The only one of her maternal relatives Frances knew was her Aunt Charlotte, the older half-sister who had raised her mother after the death of their parents. And by the time Frances launched her search for the maternal side of her family, even Charlotte had died.
It was like a puzzle with most of the pieces missing. And as she began to piece together the few she had, she found even they didn't fit. Every avenue she pursued seemed to be a dead end until she stumbled onto the possibility that her grandfather's name had been misspelled. Suddenly, thanks to a typo, she found a clue, and that led to more and more clues.
As her search progressed, she learned that much of what she'd been told were fabrications or half-truths. But as more pieces began to fall into place, she was able to figure out a truer version of her mother's and Charlotte's lives which, in turn, helped her to better understand herself and her own daughter, who was more like Charlotte than either she or her mother.
Frances was also able to come to terms with the disconnect between how she had perceived her mother, as a child, then as an adult looking back. She gained a better understanding of her mother's struggles, and why she kept so much of her history hidden. Today, although her family tree is not fully symetrical, it has become more balanced. She no longer feels like half a tree—she feels whole.
From the very first paragraph, Frances drew me into her personal story, only in my case it is my father's side of the family tree that is sparse. Maternal Threads is well-written and tells a fascinating story with which many of us can identify. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in exploring their own ancestry and how those ancestors may have influenced their own identity, or in preserving the "tenuous threads" that connect the generations and the importance of preserving those ties for future generations.
by Donna B. Russell
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
On a morning commute, she had an epiphany when she spied a winter-ravaged tree. As she wrote: "Half of the tree's usual symmetry was gone, carved out as though a hungry giant had plundered through and taken a bite. That lovely May morning in 2009, more than halfway through my life, I finally recognized what was missing. I was half a tree."
Those who know their ancestry are indeed fortunate. But many of us, like Frances, have gaps in our family history, or the history may be largely unknown. She knew a great deal about her father's side of the family tree, but her mother's side was nearly blank. In Maternal Threads, Frances tells the story of how she set out to fill in those huge gaps, saying: "How could I possibly feel whole if my mother either didn't know her own family history, or was hiding some dark secret about it? The lack of details, the subtle smudging over of my maternal history, was responsible for my feeling of being incomplete."
As a child and youth, whenever she asked questions, her mother was either reluctant to discuss her family or gave vague answers. The only one of her maternal relatives Frances knew was her Aunt Charlotte, the older half-sister who had raised her mother after the death of their parents. And by the time Frances launched her search for the maternal side of her family, even Charlotte had died.
It was like a puzzle with most of the pieces missing. And as she began to piece together the few she had, she found even they didn't fit. Every avenue she pursued seemed to be a dead end until she stumbled onto the possibility that her grandfather's name had been misspelled. Suddenly, thanks to a typo, she found a clue, and that led to more and more clues.
As her search progressed, she learned that much of what she'd been told were fabrications or half-truths. But as more pieces began to fall into place, she was able to figure out a truer version of her mother's and Charlotte's lives which, in turn, helped her to better understand herself and her own daughter, who was more like Charlotte than either she or her mother.
Frances was also able to come to terms with the disconnect between how she had perceived her mother, as a child, then as an adult looking back. She gained a better understanding of her mother's struggles, and why she kept so much of her history hidden. Today, although her family tree is not fully symetrical, it has become more balanced. She no longer feels like half a tree—she feels whole.
From the very first paragraph, Frances drew me into her personal story, only in my case it is my father's side of the family tree that is sparse. Maternal Threads is well-written and tells a fascinating story with which many of us can identify. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in exploring their own ancestry and how those ancestors may have influenced their own identity, or in preserving the "tenuous threads" that connect the generations and the importance of preserving those ties for future generations.
by Donna B. Russell
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
August 2, 2015
This book proves you don't have to have an extraordinary life to have an extraordinary story to pursue and share. The author artfully illuminates how a family secret and the absence of knowledge can impact not just a few individuals but generations of them. It is easy to relate to the writer and see a piece of every female in the story within her. A provocative read for daughters, mothers, grandmothers and sisters who have ever questioned who they are, why their lives are what they are and how things may have been *if only* something had been different. Forces me to reflect on my own mother and grandmother with curiosity, looking now at the old photographs in my home and wondering if I might be more like the sepia-toned women than I realize, intrigued to find out which personalities emerge in my own daughter as she grows up. MATERNAL THREADS surely reads like an all-night conversation with a girlfriend.
March 1, 2016
The book “Maternal Threads” by Frances Susanne Brown was a very interesting read. The author, Frances Brown, discovers a hidden family secret after her mother’s death. Brown goes on to talk about her own relationship with her daughter.
I thought the secret that Brown found out came out rather slow. At times it seems Brown goes off track with her other little stories. Despite the slowness of the secret, I still liked “Maternal Threads”. I completely identified with Brown when she said she had “half a tree”. I also grew up with a mother that refuses to talk about her past or family. I have always wanted to know who and where my family came from. This book has only increased that desire. I also really liked that Brown included actual photos. I love it when I can put a face to a name. The little stories that Brown threw in the book were nice. I thought that choosing to bury the statues in the yard was hilarious! I also admire Brown for following her dream and becoming a fashion designer for a short time. The secret that Brown found out was amazing. It is too bad that no one can ever confirm it.
If you like reading about uncovered family secrets or have ever been interested in genealogy then you should read this book. Brown not only tells the secret that she finds but she tells how and where she found the information. Thus giving an idea on where to start looking for answers for people like me who have no clue.
*I reviewed this book for Readers' Favorite.
I thought the secret that Brown found out came out rather slow. At times it seems Brown goes off track with her other little stories. Despite the slowness of the secret, I still liked “Maternal Threads”. I completely identified with Brown when she said she had “half a tree”. I also grew up with a mother that refuses to talk about her past or family. I have always wanted to know who and where my family came from. This book has only increased that desire. I also really liked that Brown included actual photos. I love it when I can put a face to a name. The little stories that Brown threw in the book were nice. I thought that choosing to bury the statues in the yard was hilarious! I also admire Brown for following her dream and becoming a fashion designer for a short time. The secret that Brown found out was amazing. It is too bad that no one can ever confirm it.
If you like reading about uncovered family secrets or have ever been interested in genealogy then you should read this book. Brown not only tells the secret that she finds but she tells how and where she found the information. Thus giving an idea on where to start looking for answers for people like me who have no clue.
*I reviewed this book for Readers' Favorite.
September 8, 2015
I couldn't put the book down. Love the way it is written. I recommend this for all to read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews