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The Bird Sisters
Love is timeless. So too is heartbreak. Whenever a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds' heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can't, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who've brought them. The two sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health. .........................................................................................But back in the summer of 1947, Milly was known as a great beauty with emerald eyes and Twiss was a brazen wild child who never wore a dress or did what she was told. That was the summer their golf pro father got into an accident that cost him both his swing and his charm, and their mother, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, finally admitted their hardscrabble lives wouldn't change. It was the summer their priest, Father Rice, announced that God didn't exist and ran off to Mexico, and a boy named Asa finally caught Milly's eye. And most unforgettably, it was the summer their cousin Bett came down from a town called Deadwater and changed the course of their lives forever.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2011
About the author
Rebecca Rasmussen
6 books245 followersI am the author of the novels Evergreen (forthcoming from Knopf) and The Bird Sisters (Crown), but I am also a mother, wife, teacher, pie baker, nature swooner, birder, lover of all things old...
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Visit rebecca-rasmussen.com for more info!
Thank you for visiting me on Goodreads!
Visit rebecca-rasmussen.com for more info!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 774 reviews
August 14, 2010
Since this is my book, I thought I'd be a little bit cheeky and rate my effort in writing it. I was in graduate school and had just given birth to my lovely daughter Ava Lily. Wow! What a year that was. Thank you everyone for supporting me and The Bird Sisters! I have met such wonderful people along the way who have shown me such kindness. I never realized that it takes a village worth of people to produce a book. That's a lot of pies for me to bake to thank people properly!
August 28, 2014
Don't be fooled by the pretty cover. This book is depressing as can be. I'm really shocked that it's getting such glowing reviews. Here's how it goes:
When the book opens, sisters Milly and Twiss are old spinsters with the reputation for repairing injured birds. They flashback to their miserable childhoods in which we get a chance to see why they ended up alone.
There's basically no one to like in this book. The girls' father is a golf pro and completely selfish. Example: he buys his wife a club she will never use for her birthday (yes, it's really for him) and he leaves his little daughter out alone in a bad rainstorm while he finishes a game. And this is his charming side.
The mother is a pathetic mess. She apparently fell in love with the father and gave up the money she grew up with to marry him. Now she completely regrets her decision and is not shy about showing this in front of her daughters. She's too proud to accept a sandwich even though she doesn't have money to buy food, and she still tries to do her best to keep up with the latest fashions. At one point, she collapses at a table and in front of her girls bemoans the realization that she'll never go to France again. (Thanks, author, btw, for not trusting us to figure out her unhappiness without making it so blatant. :P) I'm sorry but I just can't sympathize with this woman. She chose to marry for love, she's got to live with her decisions even if it turns out she married an idiot. And so what if she can't get to France again, she has two little girls to love and take care of now.
I suppose the girls are a little more sympathetic, at least when they are young and have less control over their lives. But I'm not completely buying that one terrible summer would forever make them give up any chance of happiness or realizing their dreams.
So what happens? The father gets into a car accident and loses his mojo. He can't golf anymore and moves out of the house into the barn. The girls' cousin Bett comes to stay. She's obviously troubled, too, and in her introduction she dramatically drains some blisters and then sticks her arms into a bunch of bees. Refined Milly is horrified, tomboy Twiss is captivated. (Um, didn't this bee-charming stuff happen in Fried Green Tomatoes?)
It was about at this point that I tuned out and started skimming to see what happened. The sad story apparently continues this way: Stupid situations all around. (Maybe I missed something big in my skimming; there was another recurring bit about the priest who left the church and town and then corresponded with Twiss. But honestly, I didn't care at all about him.)
While I liked the Wisconsin setting (I love Madison and Spring Green) I didn't feel like the book really did it justice. I also don't think it captured the 40s very well. It only seemed to be set back then to mathematically match when these old Bird Sisters would have been younger. I found the transitions from one time to another jarring instead of smooth, and the flashbacks were also confusing. Like at the start of going back, I was not sure how old the girls were supposed to be. And then the second flashback happened before the first one, and I think it kept going out of order like that. The present day stuff was rather slow and just sad and I suppose was only there to reinforce the inevitability of an unhappy outcome.
But it's the plot and characters and themes that I really didn't like. I suppose the grand point or moral of the story is about people who can't change, how one decision can make you miserable and you can never recover from it. Yuck. Come on, people, adapt already. Also, I suppose the idea of the girls' becoming the bird sisters (which we hear very little about, actually, despite the title) is that they've spent their lives trying to make things better the way they tried to make their family better. Again, just yuck. Can you tell I wouldn't recommend this?
When the book opens, sisters Milly and Twiss are old spinsters with the reputation for repairing injured birds. They flashback to their miserable childhoods in which we get a chance to see why they ended up alone.
There's basically no one to like in this book. The girls' father is a golf pro and completely selfish. Example: he buys his wife a club she will never use for her birthday (yes, it's really for him) and he leaves his little daughter out alone in a bad rainstorm while he finishes a game. And this is his charming side.
The mother is a pathetic mess. She apparently fell in love with the father and gave up the money she grew up with to marry him. Now she completely regrets her decision and is not shy about showing this in front of her daughters. She's too proud to accept a sandwich even though she doesn't have money to buy food, and she still tries to do her best to keep up with the latest fashions. At one point, she collapses at a table and in front of her girls bemoans the realization that she'll never go to France again. (Thanks, author, btw, for not trusting us to figure out her unhappiness without making it so blatant. :P) I'm sorry but I just can't sympathize with this woman. She chose to marry for love, she's got to live with her decisions even if it turns out she married an idiot. And so what if she can't get to France again, she has two little girls to love and take care of now.
I suppose the girls are a little more sympathetic, at least when they are young and have less control over their lives. But I'm not completely buying that one terrible summer would forever make them give up any chance of happiness or realizing their dreams.
So what happens? The father gets into a car accident and loses his mojo. He can't golf anymore and moves out of the house into the barn. The girls' cousin Bett comes to stay. She's obviously troubled, too, and in her introduction she dramatically drains some blisters and then sticks her arms into a bunch of bees. Refined Milly is horrified, tomboy Twiss is captivated. (Um, didn't this bee-charming stuff happen in Fried Green Tomatoes?)
It was about at this point that I tuned out and started skimming to see what happened. The sad story apparently continues this way: Stupid situations all around. (Maybe I missed something big in my skimming; there was another recurring bit about the priest who left the church and town and then corresponded with Twiss. But honestly, I didn't care at all about him.)
While I liked the Wisconsin setting (I love Madison and Spring Green) I didn't feel like the book really did it justice. I also don't think it captured the 40s very well. It only seemed to be set back then to mathematically match when these old Bird Sisters would have been younger. I found the transitions from one time to another jarring instead of smooth, and the flashbacks were also confusing. Like at the start of going back, I was not sure how old the girls were supposed to be. And then the second flashback happened before the first one, and I think it kept going out of order like that. The present day stuff was rather slow and just sad and I suppose was only there to reinforce the inevitability of an unhappy outcome.
But it's the plot and characters and themes that I really didn't like. I suppose the grand point or moral of the story is about people who can't change, how one decision can make you miserable and you can never recover from it. Yuck. Come on, people, adapt already. Also, I suppose the idea of the girls' becoming the bird sisters (which we hear very little about, actually, despite the title) is that they've spent their lives trying to make things better the way they tried to make their family better. Again, just yuck. Can you tell I wouldn't recommend this?
February 8, 2020
I was intrigued by the beginning of the book jacket blurb:
Whenever a bird flies into a window, sisters Milly & Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds' heartbeats, assessing what she can fix & what she can't; while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who've brought them. These spinster sisters have spent their lives nursing people & birds back to health.
That is a story I'd like to read, that is not this story. So I was disappointed. It was a very sad, depressing story. I have enough of that in real life, that is not what I seek out in a book. The writing was good. It did have some poetic paragraphs and a few thoughtful quotables and that is why it got two stars versus one. I am definitely an outlier when it comes to rating the novel. It just wasn't for me.
We see the unfolding of their lives one fateful summer in 1947 when they were teenagers. As the lives they envisioned for themselves, slipped away.
Whenever a bird flies into a window, sisters Milly & Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds' heartbeats, assessing what she can fix & what she can't; while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who've brought them. These spinster sisters have spent their lives nursing people & birds back to health.
That is a story I'd like to read, that is not this story. So I was disappointed. It was a very sad, depressing story. I have enough of that in real life, that is not what I seek out in a book. The writing was good. It did have some poetic paragraphs and a few thoughtful quotables and that is why it got two stars versus one. I am definitely an outlier when it comes to rating the novel. It just wasn't for me.
We see the unfolding of their lives one fateful summer in 1947 when they were teenagers. As the lives they envisioned for themselves, slipped away.
April 22, 2011
I was asked to read and review this novel for a cover blurb, and though I was incredibly busy and tempted to decline because of my schedule, something told me to accept.
And I am so glad I did.
Rebecca Rasmussen writes with evocative prose and a sense of place that is exceptional. THE BIRD SISTERS is a delightful, highly original novel that explores the bonds, wounds, and tender complexities of the human heart. This book is vivid and heartbreaking and wondrous. And it's a bit magical too.
And I am so glad I did.
Rebecca Rasmussen writes with evocative prose and a sense of place that is exceptional. THE BIRD SISTERS is a delightful, highly original novel that explores the bonds, wounds, and tender complexities of the human heart. This book is vivid and heartbreaking and wondrous. And it's a bit magical too.
April 25, 2011
If you were to strip away the lovely prose, the larger-than-life characters, and the exquisite rural Wisconsin setting of Rebecca Rasmussen’s debut novel, you’d find a simple theme at its heart: a story of truth and consequence.
But THE BIRD SISTERS is not simple; it is so much more. A book that chronicles the lives of two elderly spinster sisters in alternating chapters between the past (1947) and present, the story illustrates the power of choice – that even the smallest decisions can have the largest repercussions.
Each chapter draws a new layer of complexity to the sisters, Milly and Twiss, and to the overall story. I found myself wanting to know, with each page, just how these remarkable women ended up alone. Rasmussen artfully weaves a tale of pain, but also one of ultimate acceptance for the paths taken in life.
I was most impressed with the author’s ability to sprinkle stories-within-stories into the narrative – parables that will leave you thinking about this novel well after you’ve turned the last page. The symbolic meaning of so many passages is delightful; I found myself rereading portions of the book after I completed it, looking for (and finding) masterful symbolism, expert foreshadowing, and that ability of the author to draw so many parallels between characters and circumstance. It was like participating in a literary treasure hunt!
The story does leave unanswered questions. But they are ones that the reader can tumble around in the mind for days, weeks – even months to come. Because, after all– as THE BIRD SISTERS illustrates – life does not offer such cut-and-dry answers.
But THE BIRD SISTERS is not simple; it is so much more. A book that chronicles the lives of two elderly spinster sisters in alternating chapters between the past (1947) and present, the story illustrates the power of choice – that even the smallest decisions can have the largest repercussions.
Each chapter draws a new layer of complexity to the sisters, Milly and Twiss, and to the overall story. I found myself wanting to know, with each page, just how these remarkable women ended up alone. Rasmussen artfully weaves a tale of pain, but also one of ultimate acceptance for the paths taken in life.
I was most impressed with the author’s ability to sprinkle stories-within-stories into the narrative – parables that will leave you thinking about this novel well after you’ve turned the last page. The symbolic meaning of so many passages is delightful; I found myself rereading portions of the book after I completed it, looking for (and finding) masterful symbolism, expert foreshadowing, and that ability of the author to draw so many parallels between characters and circumstance. It was like participating in a literary treasure hunt!
The story does leave unanswered questions. But they are ones that the reader can tumble around in the mind for days, weeks – even months to come. Because, after all– as THE BIRD SISTERS illustrates – life does not offer such cut-and-dry answers.
May 6, 2011
I just finished The Bird Sisters. I'm not sure what to write without giving away the plot. The book was moving, sad, funny. I'm in awe of Rebecca Rasmussen - she is a wonderful writer. Milly and Twiss are old ladies who take care of wounded birds. Since you know that they end their lives living together, the author makes you wonder, "What happened?" How did they end up this way? Their story takes you back, chapter by chapter, to the story of the summer when they were 16 and 14 and their cousin Bett came to visit. Milly and Twiss reminded me of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus; Milly the stay-at-home Martha, and Twiss the adventurous Mary. Their story moved me and made me think about life and the consequences of our decisions. What comes to mind is the saying 'For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!" (John Greenleaf Whittier). I think of this quote often and it is very appropriate to this story.
April 13, 2016
Milly and Twiss are known throughout Spring Green, Wisconsin as “the bird sisters” – two elderly spinsters who minister to broken birds and make them whole again. And, in many ways, the birds are a metaphor for who they are. Early on, Milly reflects, “The smartest birds built their nests high up in the trees. Some birds, namely the wood pigeon, the clumsiest architect of all, began building their nests but never finished them.”
The sisters would fall into that latter grouping. At one point in their lives, they were eager to take wing until the summer of 1947 changed everything. Since the story is told as a flashback, we, the readers, are charged with the task of finding out how – and why.
It was, indeed, a pivotal summer. Their long-time trusted priest, Father Rice, pronounces that God doesn’t exist and leaves an astounded congregation for Mexico. Their father, a golf-pro, who loves the lifestyle more than he loves their mother, is in a car accident while coming home from buying ice-cream sundaes; his game, both literally and metaphorically) is forever altered. Milly develops her first real crush with a boy named Asa.
But perhaps most important of all, their older cousin Bett arrives for an extended stay from her small town. Rasmussen writes, “While other girls planned their future weddings down to the kinds of cakes they thought they might like to serve, Bett had Twiss running around without her underwear on, hanging from trees in the moonlight invoking spirits who took joy in menacing young girls. She had Milly giving up her secrets only so she could make fun of them.”
As dad retreats to his barn and shuts the door to the marriage and Bett becomes an unlikely rival, we know that things cannot end well, although the chain of events is only gradually revealed. We learn, for example, that these sisters realized that summer that they no longer possessed the power to change the future; they took an ordinary wounded starling back to their farmhouse, hoping it would recover from its injuries and take flight for them.
But why? That’s part of the journey of discovery waiting for the reader. In heartbreaking detail, Ms. Rasmussen describes the loss of innocence and the tough decisions and sacrifices that will have far-reaching effects. As with many important moments in life, trades have to be made and none of it is easy.
And through it all, the setting becomes a “character” in its own right. Ms. Rasmussen expertly recreates the life of a small farming town where townspeople gather and from time to time, dreams are shattered. Using descriptions of a town fair, home-baked pies sitting on checkered tables, and a goat named Hoo-Hoo, Spring Green becomes a little touch of Eden before the fall.
Achingly authentic, filled with the loss of girlish dreams and the embracing of what is left, Rebecca Rasmussen weaves a portrait of two sisters who realize that for humans as well as birds, “You couldn’t fiddle with even the tiniest bones without repercussions in the larger ones.” The Bird Sisters is particularly recommended for female audiences who enjoy talented debut authors such as Beth Hoffman, Randy Susan Meyers, Eleanor Brown, and Ellen Meeropol.
The sisters would fall into that latter grouping. At one point in their lives, they were eager to take wing until the summer of 1947 changed everything. Since the story is told as a flashback, we, the readers, are charged with the task of finding out how – and why.
It was, indeed, a pivotal summer. Their long-time trusted priest, Father Rice, pronounces that God doesn’t exist and leaves an astounded congregation for Mexico. Their father, a golf-pro, who loves the lifestyle more than he loves their mother, is in a car accident while coming home from buying ice-cream sundaes; his game, both literally and metaphorically) is forever altered. Milly develops her first real crush with a boy named Asa.
But perhaps most important of all, their older cousin Bett arrives for an extended stay from her small town. Rasmussen writes, “While other girls planned their future weddings down to the kinds of cakes they thought they might like to serve, Bett had Twiss running around without her underwear on, hanging from trees in the moonlight invoking spirits who took joy in menacing young girls. She had Milly giving up her secrets only so she could make fun of them.”
As dad retreats to his barn and shuts the door to the marriage and Bett becomes an unlikely rival, we know that things cannot end well, although the chain of events is only gradually revealed. We learn, for example, that these sisters realized that summer that they no longer possessed the power to change the future; they took an ordinary wounded starling back to their farmhouse, hoping it would recover from its injuries and take flight for them.
But why? That’s part of the journey of discovery waiting for the reader. In heartbreaking detail, Ms. Rasmussen describes the loss of innocence and the tough decisions and sacrifices that will have far-reaching effects. As with many important moments in life, trades have to be made and none of it is easy.
And through it all, the setting becomes a “character” in its own right. Ms. Rasmussen expertly recreates the life of a small farming town where townspeople gather and from time to time, dreams are shattered. Using descriptions of a town fair, home-baked pies sitting on checkered tables, and a goat named Hoo-Hoo, Spring Green becomes a little touch of Eden before the fall.
Achingly authentic, filled with the loss of girlish dreams and the embracing of what is left, Rebecca Rasmussen weaves a portrait of two sisters who realize that for humans as well as birds, “You couldn’t fiddle with even the tiniest bones without repercussions in the larger ones.” The Bird Sisters is particularly recommended for female audiences who enjoy talented debut authors such as Beth Hoffman, Randy Susan Meyers, Eleanor Brown, and Ellen Meeropol.
April 12, 2011
"Whenever a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds' heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can't, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who've brought them. The two sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health."
Known to most, in the small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin, as "The Bird Sisters", life for these spinster sisters, destined them to always be together. As young girls, Milly, was a beautiful girl, who was in love with Asa; she dreamed of marriage and children. Twiss, was somewhat of a fun-loving, wild spirit who enjoyed her freedom. Life, as we know, does not always turn out as we planned, and for Milly and Twiss, the summer of 1947, when the sisters were teenagers, was the turning point in their lives that carved out what would be their future--- growing old together in their childhood home.
The story moves from present time back to that summer of 1947, and it is told in alternating chapters. The reader gets a glimpse into the sister's parents troubled marriage, their mother's frustrations and regrets, their father's downward fall from his job as a respected golf pro, and also what transpired the summer older cousin Bette came to visit. Bit by bit the reader understands the events that determined the course of their adult lives.
From the very beginning I was anxious to find out what happened that was so horrible to cause the lives of Milly and Twiss to turn out the way they did. The sister characters are so finely honed, so much so that I felt emotionally invested in them early on. Although their lives made me sad, I admired how devoted they were to one another. There is so much more that I could say, however, I want to be careful not to say too much. The Bird Sisters was a terrific debut novel. It's written in a style that worked well for me: a character driven novel with memorable but flawed characters, a story that hooks you early on and keeps you turning the pages, and just one of those stories that will keep me talking about this book for a long while.
In some ways this book made me think of (2) other books I read and loved as well over the last several years: Tomato Girl; Jane Pupek and Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt; Beth Hoffman. As with The Bird Sisters, these books left a lasting impression, each were debut novels, and each in their own way moved me deeply. Three MUST READS for your summer reading list.
I loved reading what the author says, inspired her to write this story -----
From the Author
I grew up in Spring Green, Wisconsin, but I also grew up in Northfield, Illinois--sadly, when I was a baby, my parents divorced. Because my life was split between the two places, I never really felt that either belonged to me and I still don't today. I suppose that's why in my fiction, I pay very close attention to place; I'm constantly searching for a way to make home feel like home. My stories tend to come out of the swollen look of a river, or an iced over fishing hole, or a bird on a winter branch. The idea for The Bird Sisters came out of two things: my curiosity about my grandmother and her family history, and my devotion to finding the answer to the ongoing question in my life: what does it mean to be home? For Milly and Twiss, I extended the question a little bit further: what does it mean to stay there? My grandmother Kathryn--Kit, she liked to be called--lost both of her parents when she was seventeen, her mother by way of Scarlett Fever (although the people who knew her best said she died of a broken heart) and her father by way of a broken leg and then a fatal blood clot. Her father, my great grandfather, was a wonderfully talented golfer who gave lessons to wealthy members of whatever golf course he was working at. Unfortunately, my great grandfather turned out to be a wonderfully talented philanderer, too. Those are the facts; what interests me is what came between them. My grandmother lived her life with questions about her parents that she couldn't bring herself to ask. "They were the best parents ever," she'd say one day, but then another she'd say, "I don't know if they really were." She carried a loneliness around inside of her that she couldn't bear to share with anyone because talking about what had happened made her more and more uncertain about whether or not she was loved. My grandmother had a sister named Virginia, whom she wrote a card to a few times a year and visited even less frequently. I've always wondered what might have happened if she and Virginia had been able to hold onto each other when everything else was slipping away from them. I've always wondered if my grandmother might have then found happiness in her life. Milly and Twiss are my gift to her, my proof of love. The book is a gift to myself, proof that I have a home in the hills of Spring Green, in the green of the rivergrass and the brown of the fields beyond. Writing the book, which I completed during my tenure in the MFA Program at the University of Massachusetts, has taught me that home doesn't always translate to four sturdy white walls. The Bird Sisters is my first novel.
Known to most, in the small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin, as "The Bird Sisters", life for these spinster sisters, destined them to always be together. As young girls, Milly, was a beautiful girl, who was in love with Asa; she dreamed of marriage and children. Twiss, was somewhat of a fun-loving, wild spirit who enjoyed her freedom. Life, as we know, does not always turn out as we planned, and for Milly and Twiss, the summer of 1947, when the sisters were teenagers, was the turning point in their lives that carved out what would be their future--- growing old together in their childhood home.
The story moves from present time back to that summer of 1947, and it is told in alternating chapters. The reader gets a glimpse into the sister's parents troubled marriage, their mother's frustrations and regrets, their father's downward fall from his job as a respected golf pro, and also what transpired the summer older cousin Bette came to visit. Bit by bit the reader understands the events that determined the course of their adult lives.
From the very beginning I was anxious to find out what happened that was so horrible to cause the lives of Milly and Twiss to turn out the way they did. The sister characters are so finely honed, so much so that I felt emotionally invested in them early on. Although their lives made me sad, I admired how devoted they were to one another. There is so much more that I could say, however, I want to be careful not to say too much. The Bird Sisters was a terrific debut novel. It's written in a style that worked well for me: a character driven novel with memorable but flawed characters, a story that hooks you early on and keeps you turning the pages, and just one of those stories that will keep me talking about this book for a long while.
In some ways this book made me think of (2) other books I read and loved as well over the last several years: Tomato Girl; Jane Pupek and Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt; Beth Hoffman. As with The Bird Sisters, these books left a lasting impression, each were debut novels, and each in their own way moved me deeply. Three MUST READS for your summer reading list.
I loved reading what the author says, inspired her to write this story -----
From the Author
I grew up in Spring Green, Wisconsin, but I also grew up in Northfield, Illinois--sadly, when I was a baby, my parents divorced. Because my life was split between the two places, I never really felt that either belonged to me and I still don't today. I suppose that's why in my fiction, I pay very close attention to place; I'm constantly searching for a way to make home feel like home. My stories tend to come out of the swollen look of a river, or an iced over fishing hole, or a bird on a winter branch. The idea for The Bird Sisters came out of two things: my curiosity about my grandmother and her family history, and my devotion to finding the answer to the ongoing question in my life: what does it mean to be home? For Milly and Twiss, I extended the question a little bit further: what does it mean to stay there? My grandmother Kathryn--Kit, she liked to be called--lost both of her parents when she was seventeen, her mother by way of Scarlett Fever (although the people who knew her best said she died of a broken heart) and her father by way of a broken leg and then a fatal blood clot. Her father, my great grandfather, was a wonderfully talented golfer who gave lessons to wealthy members of whatever golf course he was working at. Unfortunately, my great grandfather turned out to be a wonderfully talented philanderer, too. Those are the facts; what interests me is what came between them. My grandmother lived her life with questions about her parents that she couldn't bring herself to ask. "They were the best parents ever," she'd say one day, but then another she'd say, "I don't know if they really were." She carried a loneliness around inside of her that she couldn't bear to share with anyone because talking about what had happened made her more and more uncertain about whether or not she was loved. My grandmother had a sister named Virginia, whom she wrote a card to a few times a year and visited even less frequently. I've always wondered what might have happened if she and Virginia had been able to hold onto each other when everything else was slipping away from them. I've always wondered if my grandmother might have then found happiness in her life. Milly and Twiss are my gift to her, my proof of love. The book is a gift to myself, proof that I have a home in the hills of Spring Green, in the green of the rivergrass and the brown of the fields beyond. Writing the book, which I completed during my tenure in the MFA Program at the University of Massachusetts, has taught me that home doesn't always translate to four sturdy white walls. The Bird Sisters is my first novel.
March 24, 2011
The story gracefully moves between the present and haunting memories from their childhood. The bulk of the memories take place in the span of the summer of 1947 when Milly and Twiss are teenagers and becomes the turning point to paving the path that leads to where they are now as spinsters. Immediately I was invested in the lives of Milly and Twiss and had such a desire to know how they ended up so alone when it seemed like they had a lot going for them. I think that was the most heart-wrenching part-- knowing how they ended up and needing to find out why. The details of the events that summer were revealed ever so carefully and evenhandedly that it kept you reeling until you are given the answers to what had happened. And let me tell you-- it was shocking, heartbreaking and beautiful -- simultaneously. I had goosebumps as we finally learned what happened in the most pivotal moment that summer.
Milly and Twiss are two of the most quirky and unforgettable characters that I've encountered in a while. They were developed so finely and with great precision and I just fell completely in love with them. I found a lot of the other characters to be interesting as well. Cousin Bett was that character that you just wanted to slap silly yet I kept wondering what her story was. The characters personalities were so perfectly melded together with the plot that I just kept thinking of how perfect of a book this was. Milly and Tilly are definitely the shining stars but what I loved is that they aren't always brave, or always right or strong...they were so real and were perfect in their own ways.
For the most part I can honestly say this book was flawless for me, but I must confess, there were a few parts where it took me a little bit to figure out if we were back in the past or in the present although I was able to deduce after a page or so. The parts in the present, in the heads of the older Milly and Twiss, were a little slower moving for me but it definitely balanced out the story well.
My Final Thought: I would recommend this to anybody looking for the perfect combination of unforgettable characters, a carefully crafted and revealed plot with a layer of surprises and undeniably beautiful prose that you find yourself savoring with each page. Seriously, this book charmed the socks off of me, broke my heart and had me mentally shelving this book under "books that remind me why I love the written word." It wasn't overwrought in emotion or drama nor was it the type of book that was trying too hard to BE something profound. It felt real and was definitely a breath of fresh air for me.
Milly and Twiss are two of the most quirky and unforgettable characters that I've encountered in a while. They were developed so finely and with great precision and I just fell completely in love with them. I found a lot of the other characters to be interesting as well. Cousin Bett was that character that you just wanted to slap silly yet I kept wondering what her story was. The characters personalities were so perfectly melded together with the plot that I just kept thinking of how perfect of a book this was. Milly and Tilly are definitely the shining stars but what I loved is that they aren't always brave, or always right or strong...they were so real and were perfect in their own ways.
For the most part I can honestly say this book was flawless for me, but I must confess, there were a few parts where it took me a little bit to figure out if we were back in the past or in the present although I was able to deduce after a page or so. The parts in the present, in the heads of the older Milly and Twiss, were a little slower moving for me but it definitely balanced out the story well.
My Final Thought: I would recommend this to anybody looking for the perfect combination of unforgettable characters, a carefully crafted and revealed plot with a layer of surprises and undeniably beautiful prose that you find yourself savoring with each page. Seriously, this book charmed the socks off of me, broke my heart and had me mentally shelving this book under "books that remind me why I love the written word." It wasn't overwrought in emotion or drama nor was it the type of book that was trying too hard to BE something profound. It felt real and was definitely a breath of fresh air for me.
March 31, 2011
I was first introduced to The Bird Sisters (Rebecca Rasmussen), by a very talented NYT Bestselling author: Beth Hoffman. Beth set my expectations high with her comment, “the prose are some of the best I’ve ever read.”
I had been excited to read to novel for months, the anticipation built with readings from the Author and when UPS delivered the novel I opened it, intending to read ‘only a page or two’ and 100 pages later I realized I had banished the world, dinner would be sandwiches, things left undone so I could finish it undisturbed.
I want to be completely honest: I can’t relate to some of the thinking of the characters. I find them to be too quirky. Yet, that’s a testament to the beauty, grace and poetry of the novel, the dissimilar nature of the characters to anything I know didn’t dissuade me in the slightest bit.
What awaits the reader, regardless of taste and sentiment is a buffet of prose as rich and as decadent as the worlds best chocolate:
“If in marriages disagreements were like roots, their mother and father’s were like the roots of the oak tree in the backyard that had grown into the house instead of away from it, cracking the foundation and setting the floors aslant.”
“all these years she’d been walking into that barn trying to make things right and all these years that barn had neither resisted nor yielded to her.”
“you’re good at finding…words that cover up how you really feel”
I haven’t figured out how to write a review without saying ‘what happens’ So I leave that to others.
I know I’m going to regularly re-visit The Bird Sisters, my mind watering like the mouth, in anticipation of the juicy morsels I know will be served at this buffet.
I had been excited to read to novel for months, the anticipation built with readings from the Author and when UPS delivered the novel I opened it, intending to read ‘only a page or two’ and 100 pages later I realized I had banished the world, dinner would be sandwiches, things left undone so I could finish it undisturbed.
I want to be completely honest: I can’t relate to some of the thinking of the characters. I find them to be too quirky. Yet, that’s a testament to the beauty, grace and poetry of the novel, the dissimilar nature of the characters to anything I know didn’t dissuade me in the slightest bit.
What awaits the reader, regardless of taste and sentiment is a buffet of prose as rich and as decadent as the worlds best chocolate:
“If in marriages disagreements were like roots, their mother and father’s were like the roots of the oak tree in the backyard that had grown into the house instead of away from it, cracking the foundation and setting the floors aslant.”
“all these years she’d been walking into that barn trying to make things right and all these years that barn had neither resisted nor yielded to her.”
“you’re good at finding…words that cover up how you really feel”
I haven’t figured out how to write a review without saying ‘what happens’ So I leave that to others.
I know I’m going to regularly re-visit The Bird Sisters, my mind watering like the mouth, in anticipation of the juicy morsels I know will be served at this buffet.
March 18, 2015
Oh my, this was a Wonderful book!! It was the perfect book that came along at the perfect time. I am So Happy that I traded this from the audio that I truly was not enjoying, to the hard copy. I would have missed out on reading so many beautiful parts and being able to reread them, savour them... A beautiful story!!
August 4, 2010
The Bird Sisters tells a tale of how the people you love the most in the world are the ones who can most surely destroy you. This is the summer of 1947, when Milly and Twiss try to stitch their parents’ relationship back together again, when their local priest runs off to gamble Church funds in Mexico, when their reckless cousin Bett comes to visit. It is also the summer when their young lives fall apart. The Bird Sisters weaves visual poetry with fierce and lovely language, like young Bett, sticking her pale arms deep into a beehive and walking away unstung, or a starling, assumed dead, suddenly launching itself out a front door into freedom. Witty and wise, with a multilayered plot and characters so real you’ll want to invite them to dinner, The Bird Sisters will both enchant and haunt you. A gorgeous, one-of-a-kind, riveting read.
October 9, 2013
I think the title made me believe there would be magic in this book, something to do with birds. And that is why you don't assume content based on cover.
I enjoyed about half of this story. I liked little Milly and little Twiss, I liked that one summer their asthmatic, insecure, and bullying cousin Bette (is that her name? Bed? Bet? I couldn't tell with the smug-cat-voiced reader)(who also made all the women sound sleepy or stoned, by the way) came to visit while there was also a problem between Milly and Twiss' parents.
I assume this took place sometime after World War II? There seems to be some rationing going on but cars are prevalent so I didn't think this was during the Great Depression. Maybe I was told the timeframes - both the girls as girls and the girls as old women - and just didn't catch it. At any rate, Milly and Twiss are used to doing without, though their France-traipsing mother is not and the fact that she must make do with whatever paycheck is left unsquandered by her golfing husband pisses her right off. So, I felt we were off to a good start with lots of things going on - pride and poverty, first love, disruptive visiting relatives, growing up and finding your parents are human, summertime adventures, small towns, all that fun stuff.
I liked Bette/Bed/Bet best because I understood why she was the way she was, why she hated Milly, why she loved Twiss, why she made the decisions she did, why she was so desperate and how that shaped her being. I understood Twiss and Milly, not so much because all their complex parts created a whole, but more because they are characters with whom readers are already familiar. You can see Tom Sawyer and Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pippi Longstocking in Twiss while there are remnants of every good girl you can think of from favorite childhood stories in Milly. They're respins of the pre-made and there's a comfort in that, in picking up new versions of characters you already like. I was good to go with the girls.
What I didn't quite understand was the parent's relationship.
When the big turning point came, I lost all hope. It was if the story went from Girls Grow Up to Victorian Women Do Their Duty At All Personal Cost. If I wanted to read about girls sacrificing everything for the good of their family/society/what have you, I'd go read some Gothic romance novel where everyone ends up miserable in the end and those have never appealed to me; similarly, this ending also did not appeal to me.
To sum up: I though it started out strong and fun and with lot of potential but it ended in a way that was just not to my taste.
I enjoyed about half of this story. I liked little Milly and little Twiss, I liked that one summer their asthmatic, insecure, and bullying cousin Bette (is that her name? Bed? Bet? I couldn't tell with the smug-cat-voiced reader)(who also made all the women sound sleepy or stoned, by the way) came to visit while there was also a problem between Milly and Twiss' parents.
I assume this took place sometime after World War II? There seems to be some rationing going on but cars are prevalent so I didn't think this was during the Great Depression. Maybe I was told the timeframes - both the girls as girls and the girls as old women - and just didn't catch it. At any rate, Milly and Twiss are used to doing without, though their France-traipsing mother is not and the fact that she must make do with whatever paycheck is left unsquandered by her golfing husband pisses her right off. So, I felt we were off to a good start with lots of things going on - pride and poverty, first love, disruptive visiting relatives, growing up and finding your parents are human, summertime adventures, small towns, all that fun stuff.
I liked Bette/Bed/Bet best because I understood why she was the way she was, why she hated Milly, why she loved Twiss, why she made the decisions she did, why she was so desperate and how that shaped her being. I understood Twiss and Milly, not so much because all their complex parts created a whole, but more because they are characters with whom readers are already familiar. You can see Tom Sawyer and Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pippi Longstocking in Twiss while there are remnants of every good girl you can think of from favorite childhood stories in Milly. They're respins of the pre-made and there's a comfort in that, in picking up new versions of characters you already like. I was good to go with the girls.
What I didn't quite understand was the parent's relationship.
When the big turning point came, I lost all hope. It was if the story went from Girls Grow Up to Victorian Women Do Their Duty At All Personal Cost. If I wanted to read about girls sacrificing everything for the good of their family/society/what have you, I'd go read some Gothic romance novel where everyone ends up miserable in the end and those have never appealed to me; similarly, this ending also did not appeal to me.
To sum up: I though it started out strong and fun and with lot of potential but it ended in a way that was just not to my taste.
July 7, 2011
Rebecca Rasmussen came to Columbia, MO to give a reading at the start of May this year, just after her wonderful debut novel was published. I had been speaking with Rebecca for some time on twitter and invited her to make the trip down I-70 from St. Louis to visit. Her reading was exquisite – understated, funny, and full of charm. I bought a book that evening but only got around to reading it some weeks later.
The novel tells the story of two aging sisters, Milly and Twiss, who live in the small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin, in the house they grew up in. Much of the story is told in flashback, relating the story of an eventful summer decades previously when the girls’ cousin, Bett, comes to stay. It is a summer that changes the girls’ lives for ever.
As a middle-aged male I was probably not the publisher’s imagined audience for this novel, and I will be honest – I wasn’t sure if the story would be entirely my kind of thing. But how wrong I was. I simply adored this book.
For a start, the prose is just exquisite. The language glows. Rich, honeyed phrases roll off the page, one after the other, a procession of beautiful sentences. Rasmussen writes with unflashy brilliance, perfectly capturing the lilting rhythms of a just-bygone age. It is the sort of book that constantly makes you want to tap the shoulder of your neighbor to share a particularly delicious morsel.
The two principal characters, Milly and Twiss, are drawn with brilliant clarity. Twiss, the younger, more impulsive and flamboyant of the two, is a joyful whirlwind of youthful exuberance, but I liked Milly more, intrigued by those still waters, and wondering how deep they ran. Both have stayed with me long after the final page. The attendant cast of secondary characters are equally memorable, pitch-perfect and rendered with flawless economy – and often hilarious. I particularly loved their mother, with her French pretentions, and their doomed, golf-pro father.
But, in the end, it’s the story the counts. This one is a heart-breaker. I won’t give anything away, save to say that Rasmussen reels the reader in almost imperceptibly, and then refuses to let go, relentlessly but ever-so-gently ramping up the tension, page after page. The denouement is perfect. It left me pondering the nature of love, loss, and sacrifice, and considering what might have been, and how tenuous are the threads that tie our lives together. It did, in other words, what all good books should do: it made me feel, and it made me think.
So, highly, highly recommended. My book of the year so far.
The novel tells the story of two aging sisters, Milly and Twiss, who live in the small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin, in the house they grew up in. Much of the story is told in flashback, relating the story of an eventful summer decades previously when the girls’ cousin, Bett, comes to stay. It is a summer that changes the girls’ lives for ever.
As a middle-aged male I was probably not the publisher’s imagined audience for this novel, and I will be honest – I wasn’t sure if the story would be entirely my kind of thing. But how wrong I was. I simply adored this book.
For a start, the prose is just exquisite. The language glows. Rich, honeyed phrases roll off the page, one after the other, a procession of beautiful sentences. Rasmussen writes with unflashy brilliance, perfectly capturing the lilting rhythms of a just-bygone age. It is the sort of book that constantly makes you want to tap the shoulder of your neighbor to share a particularly delicious morsel.
The two principal characters, Milly and Twiss, are drawn with brilliant clarity. Twiss, the younger, more impulsive and flamboyant of the two, is a joyful whirlwind of youthful exuberance, but I liked Milly more, intrigued by those still waters, and wondering how deep they ran. Both have stayed with me long after the final page. The attendant cast of secondary characters are equally memorable, pitch-perfect and rendered with flawless economy – and often hilarious. I particularly loved their mother, with her French pretentions, and their doomed, golf-pro father.
But, in the end, it’s the story the counts. This one is a heart-breaker. I won’t give anything away, save to say that Rasmussen reels the reader in almost imperceptibly, and then refuses to let go, relentlessly but ever-so-gently ramping up the tension, page after page. The denouement is perfect. It left me pondering the nature of love, loss, and sacrifice, and considering what might have been, and how tenuous are the threads that tie our lives together. It did, in other words, what all good books should do: it made me feel, and it made me think.
So, highly, highly recommended. My book of the year so far.
June 25, 2012
Twiss and Milly will break your hearts. This is one of the saddest books I've read in a long time.
We start with two old sisters who are known for healing and tending to birds in rural Wisconsin. Alone except for each other, they are the kooky old neighbors the local kids probably think are witches. But how did they end up that way?
We flash back to the girls childhood and teen years and learn about their younger days. A father with big dreams, a mother with arguably bigger dreams, and a life not quite lived by either of them. Enter a cousin from up north and we complete the stage.
As the story unfolds, love becomes the driving force of this novel- love between childhood sweethearts, forbidden passion, and finally love for a sister that no one else loved quite so much. Love shapes every second of this book and that love can be felt through the authors words.
This book teaches us not to judge those kooky old neighbors- they were once young and in love and sometimes that love doesn't quite land them where they thought they'd end up.
We start with two old sisters who are known for healing and tending to birds in rural Wisconsin. Alone except for each other, they are the kooky old neighbors the local kids probably think are witches. But how did they end up that way?
We flash back to the girls childhood and teen years and learn about their younger days. A father with big dreams, a mother with arguably bigger dreams, and a life not quite lived by either of them. Enter a cousin from up north and we complete the stage.
As the story unfolds, love becomes the driving force of this novel- love between childhood sweethearts, forbidden passion, and finally love for a sister that no one else loved quite so much. Love shapes every second of this book and that love can be felt through the authors words.
This book teaches us not to judge those kooky old neighbors- they were once young and in love and sometimes that love doesn't quite land them where they thought they'd end up.
May 29, 2011
It has been a while since I read a book that made me truly sad to see I was nearing its finish. Like some of the classics I read in school, the characters of The Bird Sisters have become a part of the literary landscape of my heart and promise to stay in my thoughts for a long time to come. Their story is filled with hope and sorrow, but also with a resolution that, whatever choices we make in life, it is the choices we make for love that have the potential to make the most impact.
The people of Spring Green, Wisconsin, look at Milly and Twiss as the strange old maids that live out in the country and have a way with injured birds. They bring their broken finds to the sisters for help, and while Twiss attempts to save the birds, Milly tries to do the same for the people who come. They aren't always successful, but they do their best. On one such day the sisters are unsuccessful in both attempts and while trying to get back to the ordinariness of their typical day they both begin to reminisce on what lead them to who they have become. Both seem to realize that, while their family had been disintegrating for sometime, it isn't until their cousin, Bett, arrives on their doorstep from sad and destitute Deadwater, that all they held dear finally fell apart for good.
In the summer of 1947, sixteen year old Milly is beautiful, young and the perfect daughter any parent would be happy to have. Fourteen year old Twiss is wild and obstinate for the sake of being so. Their cousin, Bett, is being sent by her mother under the guise of being helpful to her sister (Milly and Twiss's mother) and in hopes that if she is, the two girls can go stay with Bett the following summer to do the same. Both Bett and Milly and Twiss's mothers married their husbands for love and both, it would come to be seen, where highly disappointed in the outcome. Milly and Twiss's father, a selfish and single-minded pro golfer, had recently had an accident and, when he realized that his swing was gone, abandoned his family for the barn and has become of little help to his family.
When Bett arrives their home begins to take on an interesting new dynamic. Bett and Twiss enjoy teasing Milly and exploring the outdoors and their mother begins to feel like she has a friend in this young and slightly odd new addition. Bett, for her part, seems to be hiding something and interested in little more than convincing others that she is sick, unloved and from a place no one would want to go back to.
As Milly begins to fall in love with a boy named Asa and Twiss works to hold on to her absentee father and Bett's affections everyone does their part to hold together a "happy medium" that threatens to burst apart. When a devastating betrayal involving two of these characters is revealed, everyone must sacrifice something they love in order to keep from destroying all of them.
The Bird Sisters seeks to remind us that what we do for love doesn't always illicit a happy ending. Loving someone else often means sacrificing who we are and the happiness we might deserve. One person will usually have to give more to the one they love then they will get in return. Every action has a consequence and it is how we handle these consequences that truly show the makeup of who we are.
Reading this book kept reminding me of the first time I read To Kill A Mockingbird and elicited the same sorts of emotions. I am on pins and needles to see what Rebecca Rasmussen has next to offer!
The people of Spring Green, Wisconsin, look at Milly and Twiss as the strange old maids that live out in the country and have a way with injured birds. They bring their broken finds to the sisters for help, and while Twiss attempts to save the birds, Milly tries to do the same for the people who come. They aren't always successful, but they do their best. On one such day the sisters are unsuccessful in both attempts and while trying to get back to the ordinariness of their typical day they both begin to reminisce on what lead them to who they have become. Both seem to realize that, while their family had been disintegrating for sometime, it isn't until their cousin, Bett, arrives on their doorstep from sad and destitute Deadwater, that all they held dear finally fell apart for good.
In the summer of 1947, sixteen year old Milly is beautiful, young and the perfect daughter any parent would be happy to have. Fourteen year old Twiss is wild and obstinate for the sake of being so. Their cousin, Bett, is being sent by her mother under the guise of being helpful to her sister (Milly and Twiss's mother) and in hopes that if she is, the two girls can go stay with Bett the following summer to do the same. Both Bett and Milly and Twiss's mothers married their husbands for love and both, it would come to be seen, where highly disappointed in the outcome. Milly and Twiss's father, a selfish and single-minded pro golfer, had recently had an accident and, when he realized that his swing was gone, abandoned his family for the barn and has become of little help to his family.
When Bett arrives their home begins to take on an interesting new dynamic. Bett and Twiss enjoy teasing Milly and exploring the outdoors and their mother begins to feel like she has a friend in this young and slightly odd new addition. Bett, for her part, seems to be hiding something and interested in little more than convincing others that she is sick, unloved and from a place no one would want to go back to.
As Milly begins to fall in love with a boy named Asa and Twiss works to hold on to her absentee father and Bett's affections everyone does their part to hold together a "happy medium" that threatens to burst apart. When a devastating betrayal involving two of these characters is revealed, everyone must sacrifice something they love in order to keep from destroying all of them.
The Bird Sisters seeks to remind us that what we do for love doesn't always illicit a happy ending. Loving someone else often means sacrificing who we are and the happiness we might deserve. One person will usually have to give more to the one they love then they will get in return. Every action has a consequence and it is how we handle these consequences that truly show the makeup of who we are.
Reading this book kept reminding me of the first time I read To Kill A Mockingbird and elicited the same sorts of emotions. I am on pins and needles to see what Rebecca Rasmussen has next to offer!
February 25, 2011
There's something really thrilling about finding a book set in the Midwest--this one in Wisconsin--and finding that the author can treat the situations and characters with both respect and a sharp eye toward truth. In "The Bird Sisters" the author does so with grace and authority. I was willingly pulled into Twiss and Milly's modern world and then their past, a past full of secrets and desires and of young girls witnessing their parent's irrevocably flawed marriage.
The sisters are elderly at the beginning of the book, and are trudging through the minefields of old age, both physically and mentally. The narrator uses the present to frame the past, and the point of view moves seamlessly between both sisters and their histories. So how did they get here? What happened so long ago to set this in motion? Why are they living together, not married?
We meet young, beautiful Milly, a pleaser, and Twiss, the tom-boy little sister who tries desperately to fix what's broken. And here comes the cousin for a summer, Bett, from Deadwater, who brings with her her ailments and her history.
There's some terrific narrative tension going on here. I kept reading, wondering --is what's going on here really going on here? I like that--I like reading a book and being able to trust the narrative tone as I wade through the scenes. You can't help but like the girls, you can't help but feel something for a mother who has lost out on what she dreamed of, a dream that is untenable at best. A mother who favors a cousin over her girls, who takes out her disappointment on a child. And there's something quite compelling about the father, too, with his foolish dreams and his unfathomable weaknesses.
I think often times the Midwest, especially the Midwest of the first half of the last century, is recalled incorrectly by many as a place of wistful innocence. The author is aware of this, and instead uses as a paradox to to mask the subtext to thrilling effect.
The sisters are elderly at the beginning of the book, and are trudging through the minefields of old age, both physically and mentally. The narrator uses the present to frame the past, and the point of view moves seamlessly between both sisters and their histories. So how did they get here? What happened so long ago to set this in motion? Why are they living together, not married?
We meet young, beautiful Milly, a pleaser, and Twiss, the tom-boy little sister who tries desperately to fix what's broken. And here comes the cousin for a summer, Bett, from Deadwater, who brings with her her ailments and her history.
There's some terrific narrative tension going on here. I kept reading, wondering --is what's going on here really going on here? I like that--I like reading a book and being able to trust the narrative tone as I wade through the scenes. You can't help but like the girls, you can't help but feel something for a mother who has lost out on what she dreamed of, a dream that is untenable at best. A mother who favors a cousin over her girls, who takes out her disappointment on a child. And there's something quite compelling about the father, too, with his foolish dreams and his unfathomable weaknesses.
I think often times the Midwest, especially the Midwest of the first half of the last century, is recalled incorrectly by many as a place of wistful innocence. The author is aware of this, and instead uses as a paradox to to mask the subtext to thrilling effect.
May 9, 2011
This book is worth far more than five stars!!! It was imaginative, touching, written with such poignancy that it completely enraptured my heart. A FULL review coming soon! :D
March 22, 2015
Well written debut novel that is emotionally honest, has some quirky humor, well drawn characters, but is at heart a sad tale about two dysfunctional women.
July 7, 2021
3.5 stars ✨
July 31, 2012
This novel was very readable and quite compelling. I enjoyed the narrator's tone and the girl's wit throughout. Overall, though, it wasn't remarkable. There were a few minor problems with plot/timeline and utimately, I did not feel that Milly would have given Asa to Bett (or that Asa would have taken her). Yes, Milly's character is to never think of herself; but we do see her think of herself on fair day when she pushes Twiss and spends the day under the bleachers. I understand why she didn't think she could leave Twiss at that time, but she is only 16...certainly she could accept Asa's proposal, but wait two years for the wedding. I also wasn't sure why everyone was so interested in Bett. I understood Mr. Peterson's attentions to be amorous; wouldn't he have been interested in a young, if not so beautiful wife?
Certainly, part of the reason Milly relinquishes Asa is out of fear of romantic love. Both her mother and her aunt puportedly married for love and both are miserable as adults. Milly would not have to give up anything (in fact Asa is quite above her social standing), but I would have liked to see Rassmussen explore this aspect of Millly's character more: does she put Bett and Asa together because she thinks they will have a better chance at happiness (or at least contentment), if they are not in love?
On a note slightly more petty, I was frustrated by a few conveniences (as always). I thought that Milly saw the tonic bottles in the attic and then lead back to the fair story was unnecesary. She had been thinking of that summer and the day of the fair all day as she did her chores. We (the reader) did not need a reason for her to go back to the story. THEN, in describing the fair day, it turns out that Twiss sold all the jars (yes she then had to return some, but those jars would have been opened and would not have been kept in the attic). Sloppy and convenient. I was also absolutely furious when Milly and Twiss find Father Rice on the river on the day of the wedding. OMG such a stupid ploy. He has no right to be there and if Rassmussen wanted to give us some of his wisdom, Milly could have found a packet of letters up in the attic that she had not previously read in which Twiss and Rice discuss the whole episode.
There were, however, a few good truthful moments: "It isn't a sweet as it used to be, they'd say, when what they really meant was I'm almost used to being unhappy." and "'Everything we do is for ourselves,' their father said. 'That doesn't take away the goodness of the act, though.'"
Decent entertainment for a summer day, but nothing really noteworthy.
Certainly, part of the reason Milly relinquishes Asa is out of fear of romantic love. Both her mother and her aunt puportedly married for love and both are miserable as adults. Milly would not have to give up anything (in fact Asa is quite above her social standing), but I would have liked to see Rassmussen explore this aspect of Millly's character more: does she put Bett and Asa together because she thinks they will have a better chance at happiness (or at least contentment), if they are not in love?
On a note slightly more petty, I was frustrated by a few conveniences (as always). I thought that Milly saw the tonic bottles in the attic and then lead back to the fair story was unnecesary. She had been thinking of that summer and the day of the fair all day as she did her chores. We (the reader) did not need a reason for her to go back to the story. THEN, in describing the fair day, it turns out that Twiss sold all the jars (yes she then had to return some, but those jars would have been opened and would not have been kept in the attic). Sloppy and convenient. I was also absolutely furious when Milly and Twiss find Father Rice on the river on the day of the wedding. OMG such a stupid ploy. He has no right to be there and if Rassmussen wanted to give us some of his wisdom, Milly could have found a packet of letters up in the attic that she had not previously read in which Twiss and Rice discuss the whole episode.
There were, however, a few good truthful moments: "It isn't a sweet as it used to be, they'd say, when what they really meant was I'm almost used to being unhappy." and "'Everything we do is for ourselves,' their father said. 'That doesn't take away the goodness of the act, though.'"
Decent entertainment for a summer day, but nothing really noteworthy.
September 11, 2016
Really, this is 4.5 rather than 5 stars and would be five were it not for a tiny quibble I'll mention at the end of my review.
This is one of the most assured debut novels I have ever read - there is not one false word, not one false step. Most of the book alternates chapters of sisters Milly and Twiss in the present day and when they were children growing up in rural Wisconsin, although the alternation gets less strict as the novel proceeds. Milly is the pretty one and Twiss, the younger by two years, is the feisty one. In their old age their claim to fame results from their willingness to attempt and skill at healing injured birds, which people drive for miles to deliver to their old farmhouse.
The two sisters lead the tiniest and most circumscribed of lives for a variety of reasons, not least of which is their complicated parents. In their entire lives, they never leave the state of Wisconsin, never even visit Madison, and probably meet fewer than a thousand people. Their mother has been to France and has 'married down' as they used to say. She's also married neither wisely nor well, to a man who is almost Gatsby-ish in his fervour to climb the social ladder by exploiting his natural talent for golf, a man who is selfish to the core and stubborn about it, yet somehow manages to be hard to hate, perhaps because he's so weak as to be supremely vulnerable.
The novel is a splendid meditation on the nature of love and sacrifice and the inevitable linkage of those two things. It is also a profound exploration of the drama even those who appear to lead the tiniest of lives experience.
Ah yes, my tiny quibble: while the author does explain how the sisters are able to hang onto the family farm due a neighbour's (and their dad's former employer's) generosity, there is no explanation of how they actually manage to survive financially with absolutely no income, even though their survival is of the subsistence variety and of course they're able to grow some of their own food. I hated myself for wondering who was paying the electric and heating bills and the taxes on the farm, but it is a valid question....
Oh - and on the blurb front - the people who *should* be blurbing this book? Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, Marilyn French, Gloria Steinem are a few who spring to mind. And yes, I know some of them are prevented by no longer being with us from blurbing....
This is one of the most assured debut novels I have ever read - there is not one false word, not one false step. Most of the book alternates chapters of sisters Milly and Twiss in the present day and when they were children growing up in rural Wisconsin, although the alternation gets less strict as the novel proceeds. Milly is the pretty one and Twiss, the younger by two years, is the feisty one. In their old age their claim to fame results from their willingness to attempt and skill at healing injured birds, which people drive for miles to deliver to their old farmhouse.
The two sisters lead the tiniest and most circumscribed of lives for a variety of reasons, not least of which is their complicated parents. In their entire lives, they never leave the state of Wisconsin, never even visit Madison, and probably meet fewer than a thousand people. Their mother has been to France and has 'married down' as they used to say. She's also married neither wisely nor well, to a man who is almost Gatsby-ish in his fervour to climb the social ladder by exploiting his natural talent for golf, a man who is selfish to the core and stubborn about it, yet somehow manages to be hard to hate, perhaps because he's so weak as to be supremely vulnerable.
The novel is a splendid meditation on the nature of love and sacrifice and the inevitable linkage of those two things. It is also a profound exploration of the drama even those who appear to lead the tiniest of lives experience.
Ah yes, my tiny quibble: while the author does explain how the sisters are able to hang onto the family farm due a neighbour's (and their dad's former employer's) generosity, there is no explanation of how they actually manage to survive financially with absolutely no income, even though their survival is of the subsistence variety and of course they're able to grow some of their own food. I hated myself for wondering who was paying the electric and heating bills and the taxes on the farm, but it is a valid question....
Oh - and on the blurb front - the people who *should* be blurbing this book? Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, Marilyn French, Gloria Steinem are a few who spring to mind. And yes, I know some of them are prevented by no longer being with us from blurbing....
March 17, 2011
I finished The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen a few days ago and I've been thinking about it ever since and what I would write in my review.
I used to know of two old sisters that lived together in their house until they were in their nineties and no longer able to take care of themselves. Their early lives fascinated me and for years I have wondered and imagined how they ended up together and alone. The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen reminds me of those two ancient sisters.
Milly and Twiss have been saving the injured birds in their hometown of Spring Green, Wisconsin for years. Neither sister has ever married. Never had children. Except for each other they are alone. But they do have a story and through memories, their story is told in this novel.
Milly is beautiful and sweet. She lives to please others and to bake cookies for Asa, the boy she day dreams about. Twiss, just a few years younger than Milly, is untamed and uncultured. She prefers to talk to the turtles living in the pond or play golf with her father.
Their mother gave up her inheritance to marry for love. Their father loves golf but an accident has messed up his swing and he moves into the barn. The family continues day in and day out in a fragile disharmony until their eighteen year old cousin Bett comes to visit for the summer.
The ensuing drama will change their possible futures and the sisters will stay exactly the same. I ached at the love between the sisters and their willingness to give up their futures for each other. At the same time it is literally painful to read of the loss of their girlish dreams.
Rasmussen expertly describes life in a small town. Her characters are eccentric but believable (especially if you have lived in a small town full of eccentric characters). Within the lovely setting and mixed with unique characters, there is a well developed and intriguing story too. Well written and engaging, I enjoyed this piece of literature.
The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen is being published by Crown Publishers and will be released on April 12, 2011.
I received an ARC of The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen from FirstReads in exchange for an honest review of the book. I received no additional compensation.
I used to know of two old sisters that lived together in their house until they were in their nineties and no longer able to take care of themselves. Their early lives fascinated me and for years I have wondered and imagined how they ended up together and alone. The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen reminds me of those two ancient sisters.
Milly and Twiss have been saving the injured birds in their hometown of Spring Green, Wisconsin for years. Neither sister has ever married. Never had children. Except for each other they are alone. But they do have a story and through memories, their story is told in this novel.
Milly is beautiful and sweet. She lives to please others and to bake cookies for Asa, the boy she day dreams about. Twiss, just a few years younger than Milly, is untamed and uncultured. She prefers to talk to the turtles living in the pond or play golf with her father.
Their mother gave up her inheritance to marry for love. Their father loves golf but an accident has messed up his swing and he moves into the barn. The family continues day in and day out in a fragile disharmony until their eighteen year old cousin Bett comes to visit for the summer.
The ensuing drama will change their possible futures and the sisters will stay exactly the same. I ached at the love between the sisters and their willingness to give up their futures for each other. At the same time it is literally painful to read of the loss of their girlish dreams.
Rasmussen expertly describes life in a small town. Her characters are eccentric but believable (especially if you have lived in a small town full of eccentric characters). Within the lovely setting and mixed with unique characters, there is a well developed and intriguing story too. Well written and engaging, I enjoyed this piece of literature.
The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen is being published by Crown Publishers and will be released on April 12, 2011.
I received an ARC of The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen from FirstReads in exchange for an honest review of the book. I received no additional compensation.
April 28, 2011
Read This Book!!Enough Said!
Oh ok I’ll add more
You will love these sisters, so close yet so different Twiss has a smart mouth and always seems to speak her mind and Milly is demure and shy and always puts everyone’s needs above her own no matter the cost to herself. Then there is their parents the mother who dreams of Paris and wanting more than her lot in life has given her, and the father who is a golf pro until “the accident” and can’t play golf anymore and moves to the barn. Then there is cousin Bett who comes for the summer, the summer that changes everything.
We first meet the elderly spinster bird sisters Twiss is still a curmudgeon and Milly is still sweet however, once you meet the teen sisters you know something drastic happened that caused these girls to become the elderly never married Bird Sister. Of course Twiss has vowed to be the world’s most interesting spinster and looks on it with a kind of affection (as Milly puts it). But teen Milly has hope of a marriage and children.
I can’t say anymore on the story without spoiling it. What I can say is this is a beautifully written book there is no skimming here you will want to read every word, savor it, chew on it and thoroughly enjoy it. You will fall in love with Twiss and Milly smile with them and cry for them. This book has risen to the top of the best reads of the year and it will take a powerful book to knock it off of its perch. Like I said at the beginning Read This Book!
Rebecca Rasmussen is a new author to watch out for her writing is so beautiful I look forward to much more from her!
5 Stars
Oh ok I’ll add more
You will love these sisters, so close yet so different Twiss has a smart mouth and always seems to speak her mind and Milly is demure and shy and always puts everyone’s needs above her own no matter the cost to herself. Then there is their parents the mother who dreams of Paris and wanting more than her lot in life has given her, and the father who is a golf pro until “the accident” and can’t play golf anymore and moves to the barn. Then there is cousin Bett who comes for the summer, the summer that changes everything.
We first meet the elderly spinster bird sisters Twiss is still a curmudgeon and Milly is still sweet however, once you meet the teen sisters you know something drastic happened that caused these girls to become the elderly never married Bird Sister. Of course Twiss has vowed to be the world’s most interesting spinster and looks on it with a kind of affection (as Milly puts it). But teen Milly has hope of a marriage and children.
I can’t say anymore on the story without spoiling it. What I can say is this is a beautifully written book there is no skimming here you will want to read every word, savor it, chew on it and thoroughly enjoy it. You will fall in love with Twiss and Milly smile with them and cry for them. This book has risen to the top of the best reads of the year and it will take a powerful book to knock it off of its perch. Like I said at the beginning Read This Book!
Rebecca Rasmussen is a new author to watch out for her writing is so beautiful I look forward to much more from her!
5 Stars
May 11, 2011
Well, it wasn't a bad book. It really wasn't. It kept me reading at an even and enjoyable pace throughout the tale. The sisters were quite endearing, and the description of their home and their small town life rang quite true to me.
But I just don't "get" all the five star reviews I found on Amazon. The fact of the matter is...nothing really happened. I mean, yes, there was a problem the family faced at the end of the book (that's giving nothing away...the dust jacket makes it clear that something happened to turn these sisters into 'spinsters' and make them obsessed with saving birds), but nothing that really blew me away or changed my opinion of the book as a whole. It's enjoyable. Really it is. It just goes nowhere and doesn't stick with you. Or at least it hasn't stuck with me.
I was also disappointed by just how infrequently the fact that the sisters saved birds...something I thought was quite endearing and attracted me to the book in the first place...was discussed in the story. I would have preferred to have the story of their youth told more succinctly, and to have found out more about their years of living together and building up their reputation as the women to go to if you have an injured bird. To me, the older Twiss and Milly are far more quirky, magical, and interesting characters, and yet their story only takes place over one afternoon of their lives.
One thing I did enjoy about this story was the symbolism. It was applied with a light and subtle hand, but several minor incidents are shown later to be representative of the narrative as a whole. It was really well done.
But I just don't "get" all the five star reviews I found on Amazon. The fact of the matter is...nothing really happened. I mean, yes, there was a problem the family faced at the end of the book (that's giving nothing away...the dust jacket makes it clear that something happened to turn these sisters into 'spinsters' and make them obsessed with saving birds), but nothing that really blew me away or changed my opinion of the book as a whole. It's enjoyable. Really it is. It just goes nowhere and doesn't stick with you. Or at least it hasn't stuck with me.
I was also disappointed by just how infrequently the fact that the sisters saved birds...something I thought was quite endearing and attracted me to the book in the first place...was discussed in the story. I would have preferred to have the story of their youth told more succinctly, and to have found out more about their years of living together and building up their reputation as the women to go to if you have an injured bird. To me, the older Twiss and Milly are far more quirky, magical, and interesting characters, and yet their story only takes place over one afternoon of their lives.
One thing I did enjoy about this story was the symbolism. It was applied with a light and subtle hand, but several minor incidents are shown later to be representative of the narrative as a whole. It was really well done.
July 22, 2012
I found this book predictable. And for those of you who have read this you might be thinking "Oh come on! You did not!" but honestly, I saw the whole plot unfold before my eyes before I finished the 3rd chapter. I don't want to be a spoiler (really! I do try ;)) but it was like "yeah... read it before. Not surprising." And while it was dramatic and very "real" in ways, it was also, like I said - just not surprising enough for me to be more than "eh" at the end.
Also, I found it pretty long-winded at times. And not the good kind of long-windiness where you feel like you're really getting to know the characters. Quite to the contrary, I found the descriptiveness muddled and even confusing at times! I never clearly pictured either Twiss or Milly in my mind! Which is a key for me to really connect with the book.
This is merely my personal opinion. The story was well thought out. Even though I guessed the major parts of the story, they manner in which they were carried out was well done and very well written. While overly descriptive at times, at other times it was appropriate!
Truth be told - I read so much that I don't have time to read every book I pick up. I am not above just putting a book aside within the first few chapters - I get a feeling or sense for the style and quality of the book quickly - so any book that can maintain my interest for several hundred pages deserves a hand! And I did read this book in its entirety and for that reason I can't be too hard on Ms. Rasmussen. Loved the cover, loved the concept, just a little to out there for me ;)
Also, I found it pretty long-winded at times. And not the good kind of long-windiness where you feel like you're really getting to know the characters. Quite to the contrary, I found the descriptiveness muddled and even confusing at times! I never clearly pictured either Twiss or Milly in my mind! Which is a key for me to really connect with the book.
This is merely my personal opinion. The story was well thought out. Even though I guessed the major parts of the story, they manner in which they were carried out was well done and very well written. While overly descriptive at times, at other times it was appropriate!
Truth be told - I read so much that I don't have time to read every book I pick up. I am not above just putting a book aside within the first few chapters - I get a feeling or sense for the style and quality of the book quickly - so any book that can maintain my interest for several hundred pages deserves a hand! And I did read this book in its entirety and for that reason I can't be too hard on Ms. Rasmussen. Loved the cover, loved the concept, just a little to out there for me ;)
May 17, 2011
Ever eager to try my hand at new authors I quickly snatched up the opportunity to check out the debut novel from author Rebecca Rasmussen and am pleased to report that the story inside is just as lovely as the cover outside.
The Bird Sisters tells the story of two spinster sisters, Milly and Twiss, known as the Bird Sisters in their small town. Their twilight days pass quietly, mostly spent in reflection that old age summons, with the odd person bringing them an injured creature. Twiss tends to the birds while Milly tends to the humans – hearing their problems and feeding their souls. Told in chapters that alternate between the present and past, Milly reminisces back to the summer of 1947 - the summer when their fearless and bewitching cousin Bett visits and their world gets turned upside down.
Readers can’t help but be charmed by the sisters, who share a special bond despite their differences in personality and aspirations. Milly is the pretty, amenable sister who daydreams of love, a husband and children. And Twiss, the stubborn tomboy who prefers playing golf with her father and rebelling against her mother. The summer of 1947 is a time of great change for them both as they deal with events that will shape their futures.
Sweet and thoughtful, The Bird Sisters is an exquisitely written novel that will pull at the heart strings and keep you up late into the night reading. Rasmussen’s talent shines in her debut and I am eager to see what her next project will be!
The Bird Sisters tells the story of two spinster sisters, Milly and Twiss, known as the Bird Sisters in their small town. Their twilight days pass quietly, mostly spent in reflection that old age summons, with the odd person bringing them an injured creature. Twiss tends to the birds while Milly tends to the humans – hearing their problems and feeding their souls. Told in chapters that alternate between the present and past, Milly reminisces back to the summer of 1947 - the summer when their fearless and bewitching cousin Bett visits and their world gets turned upside down.
Readers can’t help but be charmed by the sisters, who share a special bond despite their differences in personality and aspirations. Milly is the pretty, amenable sister who daydreams of love, a husband and children. And Twiss, the stubborn tomboy who prefers playing golf with her father and rebelling against her mother. The summer of 1947 is a time of great change for them both as they deal with events that will shape their futures.
Sweet and thoughtful, The Bird Sisters is an exquisitely written novel that will pull at the heart strings and keep you up late into the night reading. Rasmussen’s talent shines in her debut and I am eager to see what her next project will be!
December 6, 2010
I loved this book and for so many reasons. I love the bond between the two sisters, Twiss & Milly. (I also love the choice for the names, extremely unique and it fits them both well, because they both are unique!) This novel wasn't just about the bond the two sisters share, I feel like the main lesson to be learned here was about family & how they have their problems but are sometimes to stubborn to really do anything about them. The book goes back and forth between the past and the present of the sisters' lives, and you are opened up to their different, unique personalities. Milly was the more liked one while Twiss was the wild child with an attitude that usually got her in trouble. When Milly has the chance to be with the man she loves, her actions will surprise you but at the same time, will make you fall in love with her even more than you already have. Sometimes husband and wife have problems (well, a little more than sometimes) and they do stupid things, they make mistakes. I feel like this novel was the perfect example of that, and trust me, this book was FAR, FAR from predictable and I loved every minute of it. You will be shocked from chapter to chapter, but that's the beauty of this novel! Great job Rebecca, you are an excellent author!
August 7, 2013
This certainly is *not* a feel good summery read--it's depressing!
This story is told through a series of flashbacks. Usually there's a story line on both timelines, the current and the past, but here the current "story" is just two old ladies thinking. Boring. And very few things made sense in the 'past' storyline, especially the ending which took forever to finish.
Examples:
How are the older sisters surviving since neither worked ever? Yes, one neighbor pays the mortgage, but how do they get food, clothing, etc? It's as if they stayed frozen in time from age 16/14 and never met another person. How can that be?
The whole fair story--right, a local 14 yo is going to make and sell "tonic", and people actually bought it. There's no money, but Millie makes 7-8 cakes to practice. Twiss is missing and the family goes anyway.
How does the bird book ever figure in? or the way they supposably fix birds?
Why do they take Bett in and why all the fuss when she's "sick" (and what was all that about)? All the girls were extremely immature.
What was the point of Harry the parrot? I kept guessing he was the bird the bird sisters were named after.
And as for the main decision Millie makes--love doesn't transfer like that.
This story is told through a series of flashbacks. Usually there's a story line on both timelines, the current and the past, but here the current "story" is just two old ladies thinking. Boring. And very few things made sense in the 'past' storyline, especially the ending which took forever to finish.
Examples:
How are the older sisters surviving since neither worked ever? Yes, one neighbor pays the mortgage, but how do they get food, clothing, etc? It's as if they stayed frozen in time from age 16/14 and never met another person. How can that be?
The whole fair story--right, a local 14 yo is going to make and sell "tonic", and people actually bought it. There's no money, but Millie makes 7-8 cakes to practice. Twiss is missing and the family goes anyway.
How does the bird book ever figure in? or the way they supposably fix birds?
Why do they take Bett in and why all the fuss when she's "sick" (and what was all that about)? All the girls were extremely immature.
What was the point of Harry the parrot? I kept guessing he was the bird the bird sisters were named after.
And as for the main decision Millie makes--love doesn't transfer like that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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