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The Bird Sisters A Novel Rebecca Rasmussen 9780307717962 Books

Download As PDF : The Bird Sisters A Novel Rebecca Rasmussen 9780307717962 Books

The Bird Sisters A Novel Rebecca Rasmussen 9780307717962 Books

"It was a warm spring morning in early May, the kind that led to afternoon picnics, plates of baked chicken and wax beans. The crocuses had given way to the tulips, which surrounded the chapel like a yellow collar." ~ from The Bird Sisters

When I read that passage, I fell in love with Rebecca Rasmussen's debut novel. Set in Spring Green, Wisconsin, The Bird Sisters opens with a visit from a stranger and unfolds into a recollection of the summer of 1947, when Milly and Twiss discovered truths about their priest, their parents, and their cousin Bett. What unfolds is a bittersweet story about Twiss and Milly, about their fractured family, their broken hearts, and their devotion.

By crafting such powerful images like the one in the quote above, Rasmussen grounds her main characters and her readers to a sacred place and time. Her story reminds us how that strong sense of place can carry us back and forth through our memories and anchor us to our lives.

Rasmussen's story flows seamlessly between the past and present, and her characters appear in vivid form. Her novel is simply wonderful.


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The Bird Sisters A Novel Rebecca Rasmussen 9780307717962 Books Reviews

There's a little hint of witchcraft or wizardry in this book about two sisters who live together. An improbably story, but endearing. Not especially memorable, but fun to read. A little gardening, good setting.
Rebecca Rasmussen's book The Bird Sisters is a deep look into the lives of two sisters. Both Milly and Twiss, remained unmarried and although lived contentedly nurturing animals and people, they had a secret that continued to haunt them. The author does a splendid job of moving between time frames enabling this reader to gain an understanding of these two women and what made them the way they were.

For in all of us the past begets the future.

Highly recommended.
I've read a lot of novels this year, and most have been forgettable. The Bird Sisters, thankfully, is an exception. Rasmussen's touching tale of family, sacrifice, and the poignant disappointments of life rings true from beginning to end. Truly a stunning story that made me laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. I hope we hear a lot more from this author.
I loved this book so much that by page 11 I was rereading sentences for the beauty of the way the words were put together. I don't want to give the plot away to those who have not read it but I cried over Asa. Asa, with his blond hairs in the sun as he mowed the field for Milly. Milly is much more giving than I would ever be. I had to read this book twice for the sheer joy of it. I loved Twiss but felt sad for her too. And those parents! How selfish can a set of parents be? I think this is one of the best books I have read in a long time.
In the beginning pages of this novel, we meet two elderly women, sisters Twiss and Milly, living alone in the house where they grew up in Spring Green, Wisconsin. They spend their days tending to injured birds and roaming their land, lost in memories.

For Milly, there is the constant reminder of what could have been. While in their childhoods, Twiss happily trailed after their golf-pro father, and Milly dreamed about a family and children that never happened.

When an unexpected accident derails their father's golf-pro career and leads to his retreat into the barn, their mother sinks into her own kind of retreat, filled with a gunny-sack full of regrets. A cousin's visit to the farm seems like a respite from the family drama, but instead it sets in motion a series of events that are complicated by family loyalty, rivalries, and unfathomable sacrifice. In the end, the two sisters are alone, sustained only by the strength of their bond to one another and to their memories and dreams of the past.

From the beginning of this character-driven novel, Milly and Twiss tugged at those parts of my emotion and memory that took me to points in my own life when choices turned my life in one direction or another. I could feel and connect to the losses, the sacrifices, and then I pondered how one goes on after these kinds of disappointments. At this point in my own life, with much of it behind me, I find myself doing what these characters did in the book...traipsing backward on memory pathways, reexamining events with the perspective of time and perhaps seeing it all in a more positive way. As if things happened the way they were supposed to. There was a moment in Milly's latter years when she sees Asa, the man she dreamed about in her youth. They share a walk across the street, a moment or two of silence, and a few words, described in this passage

"The two of them walked together only a hundred yards that day, out the front door of the general store and across the street to the car, where Milly had left Twiss reading the Farmers' Almanac and drinking a cream soda. That walk was the happiest of Milly's life. She and Asa didn't say anything to each other until they got to the car, which Twiss had abandoned momentarily for the hardware store. The almanac lay open on the passenger seat, and the empty bottle of soda lay on the floor.

"Milly and Asa walked along the sidewalk as if they had always done so; their pace was slower since they were old now, but it was still synchronized the way it was when they'd walked through the meadow. This time, there were no black rat snakes, no reasons to jump onto Asa's back or for Asa to hold her....

" 'It was good to see you,' he said. 'You're as lovely as I remember.' "

These are just a few of the heart-felt moments that litter this tale that can be summed up in words like betrayal, disappointment, rivalry, and sacrifice; it can also be described as picking up the pieces of what is left behind. The Bird Sisters made me feel all of my own moments in my life and pierced them with the prism of perspective and acceptance.

Five stars!
Literary fiction is my favorite type of fiction, so this book immediately caught my eye. It wasn't as powerful as I expected, but it did have some lovely writing.
Twiss and Milly are the protagonists. They are the two characters who drive the story forward, with Bett, their cousin being a kind of catalyst during one particular summer that changed all their lives. Twiss was well written, her contradictions and issues nicely explored, so that we got a good sense of who she was. Milly was a bit more vague, though we still got a bit of knowledge about what made her who she was. Bett, and the two sisters' parents didn't fare quite as well, leaving the reader wanting to know more about them, about their lives.
The writing had a beautiful flow to it that made it easy to read even though we alternated between the past and the present. The imagery was lovely and we could really picture ourselves there, right on their farm.
I would have liked a bit more resolution in the stories. Their parents' deaths weren't explained as fully as I would have preferred, and I think a bit more about Bett would have added more oomph to the ending.
I do recommend it, though. It's a lovely book.
"It was a warm spring morning in early May, the kind that led to afternoon picnics, plates of baked chicken and wax beans. The crocuses had given way to the tulips, which surrounded the chapel like a yellow collar." ~ from The Bird Sisters

When I read that passage, I fell in love with Rebecca Rasmussen's debut novel. Set in Spring Green, Wisconsin, The Bird Sisters opens with a visit from a stranger and unfolds into a recollection of the summer of 1947, when Milly and Twiss discovered truths about their priest, their parents, and their cousin Bett. What unfolds is a bittersweet story about Twiss and Milly, about their fractured family, their broken hearts, and their devotion.

By crafting such powerful images like the one in the quote above, Rasmussen grounds her main characters and her readers to a sacred place and time. Her story reminds us how that strong sense of place can carry us back and forth through our memories and anchor us to our lives.

Rasmussen's story flows seamlessly between the past and present, and her characters appear in vivid form. Her novel is simply wonderful.