My Pick of the Week!

The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor: The First Woman Settler of the Miramichi is a tribute by Canadian journalist and author Sally Armstrong (Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of Afghan Women) to her great-great-great-grandmother, Charlotte Taylor Blake Wishart Heirlihy. Known as the "Mother of Tabusintac" for her many descendants in northeastern New Brunswick, Charlotte was a remarkable woman who, in 1775, ran away from her upper-class English home with the family's black butler to start a new life in the West Indies -- only to find herself, some months later, in New Brunswick, as the first non-native woman to settle there. In researching her ancestor's history, her several marriages and many children, Sally Armstrong found that the bare facts alone didn't tell enough of Charlotte's story, so she created a patchwork of genealogy, family lore, historical research and a bit of informed speculation to create this fast-paced narrative, which reads more like a novel than a biography, filled with vivid descriptions of early New Brunswick and the traditional life and medicinal lore of the native Canadians who befriended Charlotte. Charlotte's adventures, trials and triumphs and Armstrong's exhaustive research make this an interesting read for anyone with an interest in Canada's early history and for family history buffs, who will be inspired by Armstrong's creative way of fleshing out the "dash between the dates."