The Reading Room

It's that time of year

It’s that time of year…

Over the years I have read a self-help book here and there but I recently found that this was not effective for me. I needed to read with intention so last year I researched and selected books that had a common theme (I choose a word for the year), all chosen to help me reach a goal.

This year my word/goal was “overcome.” I chose books to help me better understand the “why” of my past. I’ll share this post in my stories.

Book Notes

2022 #read Announcement…

I’ll be continuing my Read to Learn series in 2022. Here’s the schedule with short summaries of each book:

January - The New Jim Crow The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class statusdenied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.

Picture this

Picture this…

It’s night time. Everyone in my house is asleep. It’s completely quiet. I reading Camilla’s Roses and got to a part that made me gasp so loud I thought I woke everyone up! Fortunately I didn’t so I kept reading because I couldn’t stop there! I read this book in one sitting, something I rarely do.

Bernice L. McFadden can write, y’all. If you’ve been following me for a bit you know that a small group of us have been reading through her backlist and not a single book so far has disappointed. Even in a short novel I connected to her characters and they ripped my heart out.

Voices in Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher

Pilcher perfect…

Summary - Newly married but convalescing after an operation, Laura Haverstock is forced to stay behind when her husband, Alec, departs on his annual sojourn to Scotland. So it is to Tremenheere–his family’s cottage on the Cornish coast–where she goes to rest. Secrets brought to light about Alec’s daughter, about jealous rivalries spawning malicious rumors and about Tremenheere’s power dispel her fears and bring her to understand the source of true love.

Praise Song for the Butterflies

After two DNFs, Bernice saved me!

My first two August books weren’t working for me so a little early for our chat next week, I decided to pick this trusted author

Summary - Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas i lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeos father, following his mothers advice, places her in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as religious atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is enslaved within the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again.

If Oprah says to read a book

If Oprah says to read a book…

Many of Oprah’s picks have been some of my favorites over the years, here’s a few:

Cane River The Poisonwood Bible Hidden Valley Road Caste Becoming

So when The Sweetness of Water popped up I looked it up and immediately put it on hold! It’s also on Obama’s summer reading list!

Here’s a brief summary: With candor and sympathy, debut novelist Nathan Harris creates an unforgettable cast of characters, depicting Georgia in the violent crucible of Reconstruction. Equal parts beauty and terror, as gripping as it is moving, The Sweetness of Water is an epic whose grandeur locates humanity and love amid the most harrowing circumstances.

Libby for the win

Libby for the win…

I was having some serious fomo on this one but fortunately the audio became available super quickly

Summary: It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”–the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

The Book of Harlan

Starting my third McFadden book…

Sugar was a book in my readtolearn series and it sparked something in a group of us. Once we finished we knew we needed to read the follow up book, The Bitter Earth. Well, spoiler alert, we loved that one as well so we decided to just continue reading her amazing backlist. Next up is The Book of Harlan.

Summary - During World War II, two African American musicians are captured by the Nazis in Paris and imprisoned at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Book Review

Baby, everybo got their own reasons for doing things they do in life.

Brief summary: The novel opens when a young prostitute comes to Bigelow, Arkansas, to start over, far from her haunting past. Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the daughter who was murdered fifteen years before. Over sweet-potato pie, an unlikely friendship begins, transforming both women’s lives–and the life of an entire town.

The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan

Happy Pub Day to The Arsonists’ City…

“A house divided cannot stand.”

This is first and foremost a generational famaily saga BUT with Hala Alyan writing it it becomes something more…something unique and special. Alyan knows how to write characters that resonate and leap off the page. What amazes me about her writing (she also did this in Salt Houses) is she allows her characters to drive the plot with insight on geographical and political issues in a way that anyone can understand.