Zeal by Morgan Jerkins

Hello my lovely readers! Sigh. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper . . .

Natchez, 1865. Discharged from the Union Army as a free man after the war’s end, Harrison returns to Mississippi to reunite with the woman he loves, Tirzah. Upon his arrival at the Freedmen’s Bureau, though, he catches the eye of a woman working there, who’s determined to thwart his efforts to find his beloved. After tragedy strikes, Harrison resigns himself to a life with her.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, the newly free Tirzah is teaching at the Freedmen’s School, and discovers an advertisement in the local paper looking for her. Though she knows Harrison must have placed it, and longs to find him, the risks of fleeing are too great, and Tirzah chooses the life of seeming security right in front of her.

Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.

When Ardelia meets Oliver, she finds his family’s history is as full of secrets and omissions as her own. Could their connection be a cosmic reconciliation satisfying the unfulfilled desires of their ancestors, or will the weight of the past, present and future tear them apart?

The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson

Hello my lovely readers! This is my fourth time re-reading this book and I still love it! Let's get into it.

BACKGROUND
I've already mentioned how I came to discover this book in my post about Koomson's other book My Other Husband.  For the TL;DR version, I saw it in 2010 at a ferry terminal in England, bought it in 2013 and finally read it in 2015 on a cruise to the Bahamas. 

Perfection

SYNOPSIS
As teenagers Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a high-profile murder. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed "The Ice Cream Girls" by the press and were dealt with by the courts-Poppy headed to prison after being convicted for murder and Serena was set free.

Years later, after having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened. The only problem is she has no one to turn to and no clue where to begin her hunt for Serena.

Meanwhile, Serena is married with children and wants no one in her present to find out about her past. Constantly looking over her shoulder, Serena knows she should come clean to her husband, however, she can't seem to find the words.

With Poppy determined to salvage what's left of her reputation, Serena may not have a choice in reopening a can of worms that may threaten both their lives . . . again.

Wasted by Marya Hornbacher

Hello my lovely readers! This was a re-read for me and part of my 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge. I started this book December 28, 2025 and I'm just now finishing it. Woof. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia -- until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side -- and her decision to find her way back on her own terms.

Diary of Anne Frank: Critical Edition by Anne Frank

 

Hello my lovely readers!

This was technically a re-read, but it's my first time reading this version of Anne Frank's diary. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
The only complete collection of writings by Anne Frank, this impressive volume contains three of the extant versions of her Diary (including pages that came to light in 1998), Tales from the Secret Annex (he lesser known short stories, fables, and personal reminiscences), and Cady's Life (her unfinished novel), along with the latest, most definitive scholarly research into Frank's life.

Anne Frank's diary has become a modern classic. It stands alone as the moving testimony of a young girl whose world collapsed around her in the nightmare of Hitler's Final Solution. Published in the United States in 1952, Anne Frank: A Diary of a Young Girl has been translated from the Dutch into nearly seventy languages, and millions of people the world over continue to respond to her extraordinary voice. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition presents the most fascinating, comprehensive study of that diary in existence.

Prepared by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, this monumental work allows the reader to compare the three versions of the diary itself: Anne's original entries; the diary as she herself edited it in the hiding place of the "Secret Annex"; and the version most popularly known, as edited by Anne's father, Otto Frank, and a Dutch publishing house after World War II, when they removed certain family and sexual references. Every aspect of the diary--including Anne's handwriting and the paper used--is meticulously examined, providing compelling proof and historical of its poignant testament. Absorbing biographical information on the Frank family enhances Anne's personal perceptions, and a summary of critical events during and after the family's arrest--including how the Nazi authorities learned about the Franks and their secret hiding places--adds a new dimension to this tragic, still resonant story.

Go Tell it On the Mountain by James Baldwin

Hello my lovely readers! I'm really making headway on my 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge  just before the year end. I only have two more books to read and I'll have completed it. This was my first James Baldwin read and wow...what a book. Let's get into it. 

SYNOPSIS
Baldwin's classic novel opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin tells the story of the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Originally published in 1953, Baldwin said of his first novel, " Mountain is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else."

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Hello my lovely readers!

Another re-read. Another book in my 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge. Another example of why I love  revisting books long after I read them as a teenager. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
Life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive, needing little to get by.

Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Hello my lovely readers! This was a re-read for me as I decided to make it part of my 10 Books, 10 Decades Challenge. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North.

Written and published in 1861 after Jacobs' harrowing escape from a vile and predatory master, the memoir delivers a powerful and unflinching portrayal of the abuses and hypocrisy of the master-slave relationship. Jacobs writes frankly of the horrors she suffered as a slave, her eventual escape after several unsuccessful attempts, and her seven years in self-imposed exile, hiding in a coffin-like "garret" attached to her grandmother's porch.

A rare firsthand account of a courageous woman's determination and endurance, this inspirational story also represents a valuable historical record of the continuing battle for freedom and the preservation of family.

Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou

Hello my lovely readers! I'm slowly making my way through all seven of Maya Angelou's autobiographies and this is book number two. It's also part of my 10 Books, 10 Decades Challenge. Let's get into it!  

SYNOPSIS
In Gather Together in My Name, Maya Angelou continues her stunning autobiography. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, passionate and mellow, she fills the pages with both wisdom and wonder as she brings us along in her struggle and dance through life.