Rattlebone by Maxine Clair

 

Hello my lovely readers! Another PHENOMENAL read this month. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
Irene Wilson knows that a “no-name invisible something” has settled over her parents’ marriage and suspects her glamorous new teacher is to blame. Irene is not alone in her suspicions. In the town of Rattlebone, a small Black neighborhood of Kansas City, secrets are hard to keep and growing up is a community affair.

As Irene is initiated into adult passion and loss, her family story takes its place in a tightly woven tapestry of neighbors whose griefs and joys are as vivid as her own. Capturing an entire world through the eyes of its unforgettable heroine, Rattlebone is a one-of-a-kind triumph of American fiction.

QUICK REVIEWS pt. XVI

Hello my lovely readers! Let's get into some more quick reviews!

You Deserve Good Gelato by Kacie Rose
In her inimitably funny and feel-good way, social media star Kacie Rose offers a refreshingly honest take on navigating a new life abroad in You Deserve Good Gelato, covering everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the shit that scares you. Because life is too short not to.

*I finished this in a day. Cute little memoir for the unseasoned traveler, but for someone like myself who has been to more than 30 countries, nothing in this book truly "wowed" me. A bit too much social media speak that doesn't translate well when published in a book. If you're a seasoned traveler, skip this book and go for something with more depth. 3 out of 5 stars

Lakewood by Megan Giddings
When Lena Johnson's beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed, the black millennial drops out of college to support her family and takes a job in the mysterious and remote town of Lakewood, Michigan. The discoveries made in Lakewood, Lena is told, will change the world--but the consequences for the subjects involved could be devastating

*The premise sounded interesting and promising, but ultimately, this novel was a complete let down. 2 out of 5 stars.

Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker

 

Hello my lovely readers! This was the last book in The Color Purple Series and I admit, I have to eat my words from my last review:

"I still plan on reading the third book in this series Possessing the Secret of Joy, but I don't have high hopes for it."

Boy, was I wrong! Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
In Tashi’s tribe, the Olinka, young girls undergo female genital mutilation as an initiation into the community. Tashi manages to avoid this fate at first, but when pressed by tribal leaders, she submits. Years later, married and living in America as Evelyn Johnson, Tashi’s inner pain emerges. As she questions why such a terrifying, disfiguring sacrifice was required, she sorts through the many levels of subjugation with which she’s been burdened over the years.

Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson

 

Hello my lovely readers! I'm finally catching up on the books I chose for the 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
This seminal autobiographical novel, originally published in 1859, is believed to have been the first by an African-American woman. Harriet Wilson's compelling story describes the life of a mulatto girl who, after the death of her mother, is exploited first by a terrifying Northern family for whom she worked and then by an opportunistic husband.

A classic of African-American literature, Our Nig has made an enduring contribution to understanding the lives of free blacks in the nineteenth century. A fascinating combination of slave narrative and sentimental novel, the story traces the hardships and suffering of Frado, who grows up as an indentured servant to a white family in Massachusetts and spends much of her destitute life wandering through New England.

A clear and accurate account of race relations and perceptions of race in the antebellum North, Our Nig is essential reading for students of African-American history and culture.

QUICK REVIEWS pt. XV

Hello my lovely readers! It's time for some quick reviews!

With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee
A group of Harvard alums have played a secret game for decades but as the stakes rise, deadly consequences emerge from old lies.

*This book was incredibly boring and didn't really pick up until the last two chapters. Nothing really happened throughout the book so it didn't feel like an academic thriller at all. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Mothers by Genevieve Gannon
What if you gave birth to someone else's child? An emotional family drama about two couples, one baby, and an unimaginable choice.

*I found this novel extremely interesting and thought provoking however the ending felt a bit rushed. 3 out of 5 stars.

Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr by Michael Vinson Williams

 

Hello my lovely readers! Finally making headway on the 12 Lives Challenge. This is my fifth biography!

SYNOPSIS

Civil rights activist Medgar Wiley Evers was well aware of the dangers he would face when he challenged the status quo in Mississippi in the 1950s and '60s, a place and time known for the brutal murders of Emmett Till, Reverend George Lee, Lamar Smith, and others. Nonetheless, Evers consistently investigated the rapes, murders, beatings, and lynching's of black Mississippians and reported the horrid incidents to a national audience, all the while organizing economic boycotts, sit-ins, and street protests in Jackson as the NAACP's first full-time Mississippi field secretary. He organized and participated in voting drives and nonviolent direct-action protests, joined lawsuits to overturn state-supported school segregation, and devoted himself to a career that cost him his life.

This biography of a lesser-known but seminal civil rights leader draws on personal interviews from Myrlie Evers-Williams (Evers's widow), his two remaining siblings, friends, grade-school-to-college schoolmates, and fellow activists to elucidate Evers as an individual, leader, husband, brother, and father. Extensive archival work in the Evers Papers, the NAACP Papers, oral history collections, FBI files, Citizen Council collections, and the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission Papers, to list a few, provides a detailed account of Evers's NAACP work and a clearer understanding of the racist environment that ultimately led to his murder.

Selfless dedication marked the life of Medgar Evers, and while this remains his story, it is also a testament to the important role that grassroots activism played in exacting social change during some of America's most turbulent and violent times.

Mazywood by Tananarive Due

Hello my lovely readers!

SYNOPSIS
When Johnny—a filmmaker and grandson of the famous Black actress Mazelle Washington—brings his family to Mazywood, the secluded California mountain lodge left behind by his grandmother, he expects a quiet retreat. Instead, he uncovers a legacy of rage, secrets, and terror that has haunted his family for generations.

Set primarily in the present day, with haunting flashbacks to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Mazywood explores three generations while following Johnny as he pieces together the true story of his grandmother. As a young Black actress whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s, Mazelle brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel. But beneath her public appearance, she carried a secret she had kept and nurtured since she was a child, when a dark wish came true and changed the course of her life forever.

Now, fifty years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny finds himself confronting the truth she buried—and the consequences she left behind. For a monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds.