|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Wishing all of my old friends a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you don't celebrate Christmas, then I wish you a HAPPY HOLIDAY! If you don't have a holiday, then I wish you a HAPPY DAY!
| | |
| Harry McAllan buys a cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta before he tells his wife Laura. The house is primitive and Laura is not used to such conditions.When it rains, the bridge near by is covered and there is no way to get to town. Laura goes along as a dutiful wife and soon begins to lose herself. Harry's cantankerous dad, Pappy, belittles Laura continuously.
Hap and Florence are a black couple who are tenant farmers for Harry. Sometimes Florence helps Laura at the house and Pappy is nasty to her also. He invites hate wherever he goes.
Harry's brother Jamie and Hap's son Ronsel come home burdened by the horrors of war. They become friends and often drink together in an old sawmill.
When Jamie gives Ronsel a ride home from town, and has Ronsel sit in the cab of the truck with him, people in town take offense and racial tension mounts.
Jamie has always been kind and tender toward Laura and loving to his little nieces. Laura realizes that she's slowly falling in love with her brother-in-law.
Because of a secret Ronsel has from the war, things come to a head and lives are threatened and terrible things happen.
This is a wonderfully-written book about a bad period of time, during the Jim Crow era.
Hillary Jordan's characters are so well developed that I feel as if I know them and didn't want to let them leave me. I give this book five stars. | | |
|   A beautiful book that reminds me of Under the Tuscan Sun because a house is an important character. In this book, the house appears to be enchanted. Love happens there.
This writer writes bereavement as though she has been there. A young widow goes back to the house in Provence where she spent her summers as a child. She's accompanied by her young son who has become obsessive/compulsive since his dad's death, and her sister's teenage step-daughter who has major issues of her own.
The house seems to work its magic once again and you don't want to miss watching it unfold. I gave this book four stars. Bridget Asher also writes under the name Julianna Baggott. | | |
|  
TINY SUNBIRDS FAR AWAY by Christie Watson This book will be on my list of all-time favorites. When Blessing's mother finds her husband with another woman, she takes her two children and goes back to her parents' home in the Niger Delta. No modern conveniences that they were used to having. Blessing becomes a midwife assistant to her grandmother when she is very young. The descriptions of the birthing scenes are some of the best I've ever read, similar to the foot binding scenes in Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. We see the damage done in Nigeria by the big oil companies, the warring groups of young men, the poverty, the lack of education, interracial relationships, and we marvel at the fortitude of these people. What a wonderful cast of characters. I will never forget Blessing. I can not do a review that does the justice this book deserves, so please watch Christie's youtube video and read the review posted there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJc4or6eAiI I give this book five stars and two thumbs up. | | |
|  Anna Michaels is the author of this wonderful novel about a young female rodeo rider who is murdered. Pony was a bull rider who won the title in the men's division and one of the men wasn't very happy about it. Her mother was half Cherokee and died at childbirth. Pony was kept at home and raised by her father on his farm on the mountain. Her spirit is one of the main characters, but you can't limit this book as some kind of fantasy. It is so much more. With Native American folklore, family secrets, learning to let go of regrets, and a cast of believable characters that you will love, it will offer you much more than you expect. Pony's grandfather was a white man from a prominent family. The family hated having the Cherokee blood connected to their name. It is so lyrical and has just enough mystery to keep you guessing. The writing is so beautiful you will go back to read passages again and again. I stayed up all night to read it through. At times I was sure I could smell the Cherokee roses myself.  Anna Michaels is the pseudonym for Peg Webb, the prolific author who has written many light comedies, including the Elvis series. "Elvis is alive ... and he's nothing but a hound dog." I give The Tender Mercy of Roses five stars! | | |
|
True