Rating: 
Summary: An absorbing story about an exceptional woman
Review: One doesn't have to be avidly interested in the early pioneers of the Old West to become emotionally involved in this based-on-real-life story of Marie Dorion. Marie was a contemporary and perhaps even a friend of Sacagawea, the Indian woman who helped guide Lewis and Clark.
As the series begins, Marie, a young Ioway Indian woman, is married to Pierre, a hard-drinking and sometimes abusive mixed-blood man who is an interpreter for the Wilson Hunt Astoria expedition of 1811. Marie refuses to be left behind with her two small sons, Jean Baptiste and Paul. As the expedition makes its westward way through incredible hardships, we come to deeply appreciate and admire Marie's strength and courage along with her tenderness and vulnerability.
While intimately involving us in Marie's life, as well as that of her family and her fellow travelers, Jane Kirkpatrick paints a fair and balanced portrait of the conquering of the western part of our nation. It's a complicated mix of courage, greed, injustice and bravery--and Kirkpatrick's gifted pen brings it to vivid life.
As the story progresses, we see Marie being drawn inexorably closer to the Provident God that her former mother and mother-in-law told her about in her youth--the God who has given every fixed star a name, and loves each soul individually.
As I read A Name of Her Own, I found myself marveling both at the character and courage of the people who formed the backbone of our country in its early days, and at the talent of the author who has made it so real in these books. I can't wait to read the next book in this remarkable trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: A Name of Her Own
Review: SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Good!!!!! I have read most of Jane Kirkpatrick's books and this is by far my favorite! Just when I think I have read her best she surprises me with another great read. Do as I did, buy this book, find a comfortable spot, get a cup of tea and go with this extremely talented writer to a long ago place in history and time.It is well worth your travel. I can't wait to continue the journey with her next book, Every Fixed Star.
Rating:
Summary: A Man Gives His Vote...
Review: This is fiction for females, right? Men don't read sagas of Indian women struggling for survival. Men don't understand the emotions of a mother fighting for her children, of a wife absorbing a drunken husband's abuse.Ah, but Jane Kirkpatrick is a writer capable of changing all that. Her words have the power to change, the ability to open blind eyes and stubborn hearts. Even this man can be touched by her story. On the surface, the story is simple. In the early 1800s, Marie Dorion, her children, and her abusive mixed-breed husband Pierre, trek across the plains and the mountains, aiding a party of adventurers intent on establishing new territory for rich men on the east coast. They encounter snow, icy rapids, Indians, and starvation along the way. They inch closer and closer to ultimate defeat. But the story is so much deeper, really. This is a nuanced account of a marriage. It is a rich tribute to the strength and humility and determination of women in a man's world. It's heartbreaking at times, life-affirming at others, and never anything but honest in delivery. Jane Kirkpatrick, a master at her craft, continues Marie's trek with another book in "The Tender Ties Historical Series." I am compelled to follow. Oh, what a trek this is!
Rating:
Summary: A Name of Her Own
Review: This was a wonderful history lesson come to life. Jane is very talented in weaving a story around historical facts. The subject of the story was a courageous, strong woman who stepped out in the early 1800 when the western U.S. was being discovered and settled and did what she had to do to keep her family together.
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