This book starts at a plantation in the mountains of western Virginia where the members of three white families and their black slaves will soon find themselves transformed by the Civil War. The whites are all Confederates, although their dedication to the cause shifts and refocuses through their experiences. The blacks too find their world-views transfigured by personal experience as well as historical events. McCaig keeps an eye to the racial divide throughout the book. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean.
Orchids are ugly plants with fantastically beautiful blossoms.
In a way, this is a book all about the links between the ugly and the beautiful. It's also about what the fantastic beauty of orchids means to a collection of ordinary people. Or maybe they're not so ordinary. July 2000 Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. Let me start by saying that I think this book is really creepy.