My Name Is Resolute (Turner)

My Name Is Resolute 
Nancy E. Turner, 2014
St. Martin's Press
608 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250060976


Summary
Nancy Turner burst onto the literary scene with her hugely popular novels These Is My Words, Sarah's Quilt, and The Star Garden. Now, Turner has written the novel she was born to write, this exciting and heartfelt story of a woman struggling to find herself during the tumultuous years preceding the American Revolution.

The year is 1729, and Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family in Jamaica, and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister are sold into slavery in colonial New England and taught the trade of spinning and weaving.

When Resolute finds herself alone in Lexington, Massachusetts, she struggles to find her way in a society that is quick to judge a young woman without a family. As the seeds of rebellion against England grow, Resolute is torn between following the rules and breaking free.

Resolute's talent at the loom places her at the center of an incredible web of secrecy that helped drive the American Revolution. Heart-wrenching, brilliantly written, and packed to the brim with adventure, My Name is Resolute is destined to be an instant classic. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1959
• Where—Dallas, Texas, USA
• Reared—in Southern California and Arizona
• Education—B.F. A., University of Arizona
• Currently—lives in Tuscon, Arizona


Nancy E. Turner is the author of several works of fiction, including My Name is Resolute (2014), Star Garden (2006), Sarah's Quilt (2004), The Water and the Blood (2001), and These is My Words (1998). She has been a seam snipper in a clothing factory, a church piano player, a paleontologist's aide, and an executive secretary.

She lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband and dog Snickers. She has two married children and three grandchildren. (From the publisher and author's website.)

Book Reviews
Turner has drawn a character whose trials, loves, losses and achievements Turner fans will happily follow.
Tuscon Weekly


Every page of Turner's engrossing and fascinating work is better than the last. Not only historical fiction fans will love this beautifully written and compelling novel.
Library Journal


[T]he author convincingly conveys a pivotal time in American history and provides a rewarding reading experience. A fitting story about resiliency, ingenuity and heroism.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. What are the major themes of the story and how are they used in the context of women’s role in any war?

2. How is the beginning of the book mirrored in the ending?

3. Why would Patience hide her suffering from Resolute while they are onboard the ships?

4. With the exception of the actions of fictional characters, what elements of American History did you learn that you had not known before?

5. What use of Resolute’s house do you see for the future?

6. Could you have understood Resolute’s convictions as a woman without knowing her life as a child, assuming the author had made the story begin farther along in her life?

7. Since the history of America is so interwoven with the history of Great Britain in that time, what hints do you find in the story that a separation from the "mother country" was inevitable in the eyes of many Colonials? Why would some have preferred to remain subjects of the Crown?

8. Throughout the novel, Resolute faced dangers, sometimes unaware. Discuss how the different aspects of her life were at risk and how it changed over time.

9. Why would Resolute have sought out the help of Lady Spencer when she had no place to turn?

10. Why do you think Resolute made Cullah return the chairs to the Governor?

11. Without speaking a word about it, Alice became an accomplice to Resolute’s treason. What drew the two women together?

12. What elements of Resolute’s life caused her to be both stubborn and open-minded?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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