Bookish Thursday - Don't Let Me Keep You by Kathie Giorgio

Just in time for the holiday season (not that this is a holiday book), another book review for WOW-Women on Writing.  This time it is Kathie Giorgio's book, Don't Let Me Keep You. 

Let's get the business out of the way...

Book Summary

Motherhood is a symphony, from the first movement, through crescendo after crescendo, to the finale.

 

Hildy Halverson, a genius in math and science, is pushed by her parents to step into a male-dominated field and change the world for women. But Hildy, enamored of the scientific force of the human body, and her own body’s ability to create and sustain life, decides to go against contemporary expectations. She marries young and raises a houseful of kids.

 

Hildy wants her children to choose their own life paths. As each child is born, she tells them, “You can be whatever you want to be, and whatever you want to be will be great.” Despite her efforts to not influence her children, Hildy does so, often in unexpected ways. Each child is introduced in that first private moment between Hildy and her new baby. This is followed by a chapter revealing that child’s life, years later. Woven throughout is an underlying grief over the death of the sixth baby soon after birth. That grief is more pervasive than any of them expect.

 

In this ambitious novel, the struggles and joys, fatigue and exhilaration of motherhood, are captured in the full panorama of family life. Hildy lovingly raises her children, then lets them go, finding herself along the way.

 

Publisher: Black Rose Publishing (October 3, 2024)

Print length:  230 pages

 

Purchase a copy of Don’t Let Me Keep You on

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Me-Keep-You/dp/1685134882

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dont-let-me-keep-you-kathie-giorgio/1145428066

Black Rose Publishing: https://www.blackrosewriting.com/womens/p/dontletmekeepyou

 

You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list: 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211567748-don-t-let-me-keep-you

 

About the Author

Kathie Giorgio is the author of a total of fifteen books: eight novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her poem “Light” won runner-up in the 2021 Rosebud Magazine Poetry Prize, and her work has also been incorporated into many visual art and musical events.  Kathie is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio. 

 

She lives with her husband, mystery writer Michael Giorgio, and their daughter Olivia, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Three of her adult children, Christopher, Andy, and Olivia, live close by, along with her solo granddaughter, Maya Mae. One adult child has wandered off to Louisiana and lives among the mathematicians and alligators.

You can follow the author at:

Website: http://www.kathiegiorgio.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathiegiorgioauthor/

X/Twitter: @KathieGiorgio

Instagram: @kathiegio1

Now for my opinion...

This book resonated with me. In school I was in Honors Math. I could have been in Honors Science, but declined the opportunity. 

Anyway, despite being the editor of the high school paper for two years, my parents pushed me into accounting in college. They said since I was good at math, I needed to follow a career path which would give me a good living. I tried, but ditched it when I got to Intermediate Accounting and away from actual working with numbers. 

Therefore, I identified with Hildy in that aspect - giving up the path her mother wanted her to follow.

That being said, the book is filled with interesting number information she thinks about. I happen to doodle in equations and like numerology. Then she starts writing. I write. 

However, I stopped much, much earlier than she did having kids. And I understand her feelings when she got little digs from her mother. 

The book is a quick read. Tea and a rainy afternoon and you can make it through the book nicely. Go give it a try.

But for other opinions, check these out...