Book Review: Something Worth Doing by Jane Kirkpatrick
Every now and then I need a good historical novel. Not just one in a historical setting, but one actually based on an actual event.
Jane Kirkpatrick is one of the best at writing that type of story. Her book One More River to Cross was very moving.
Her newest book, Something Worth Doing is also a very moving, powerful story. And one we need in our current times.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Summary
Abigail “Jenny” Scott watched her mother pay the price for being a woman. She gave birth to twelve children, even when her body was too weak to do so. She followed her husband across the country to settle in Oregon Territory against her wishes—losing her life in the process.
Jenny was determined to be stronger than her mother. She got a job as a schoolteacher, planning to earn money and make her own way. But then she fell in love and married Ben Duniway.
Life was hard for women in 1852. They were treated as second-class citizens, and often had no choice in even who they could marry.
When Ben was injured, Jenny became the breadwinner for their family. She saw even more of the appalling way women were treated.
She determined to devote her life to improving conditions for women and earning them the right to vote. It wasn’t easy, and she suffered for it. But she believed it was something worth doing.
Something Worth Doing Review
I will say honestly as I write this review I haven’t finished Something Worth Doing yet. So, these are just my thoughts on the first part.
I think we’ve come so far as women, we forget where we started. Jenny and her sisters were forced to get married in order to protect their reputations–when they’d done nothing wrong.
Other women were married simply because a man with a wife was entitled to receive more land from the government. The woman had no choice.
It saddens me to think that the women who came before us were treated basically like property. When Jenny’s first child was born, she hoped it would be boy, since his life would be easier than a girl.
In our modern days many women believe we still aren’t treated as equals with men. I disagree. Reading Something Worth Doing has opened my eyes to what life was really like for women before the suffragists.
We owe our thanks to women like Jenny Duniway and Susan B. Anthony. They fought a courageous fight for us.
I love Jane Kirkpatrick’s novels for this reason: she opens my eyes to things I didn’t know before. She makes me think about things in a different way.
Something Worth Doing isn’t high-action or filled with romance. But it’s an important story. I hope you, like me, will find it educating and interesting.
I hope it will make us all more thankful for the lives we have. And thankful for those before us who made them possible.
