A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a book signing taking place at one of my local bookstores and the author was a native of the city. When I read the description of her debut novel, I knew I'd attend and have to read the book.

Wench is a story of historical fiction set in the mid-1800's mostly in Ohio at Tawawa House, a summer resort popular among Southern white men for getaways with their enslaved Black mistresses. First, to learn the existence of such a place caught me by surprise. This is one piece of slavery's history I don't think I expected to ever learn about. The four women who inhabit Perkins-Valdez's debut novel are all very different and pretty well developed. Sweet's name is befitting her mostly soft disposition. Reenie is deemed the wise elder among the ladies, yet she's terrified of water. Lizzie seems to be the most complacent and comfortable with her relationship with her master, Drayle. Mawu is the newest mistress and comes in as intriguing with her African name and non-Christian beliefs. It doesn't take long for Mawu to instigate the idea of the ladies escaping to freedom.

At about a quarter into the book, we get some back story on the development of the relationship between Lizzie and Drayle on their Tennessee plantation. This is an important section as it reveals the complexities of Lizzie's feelings towards her master and how those feelings cause a tug-of-war for her when it comes to the idea of her being a free woman. Perkins-Valdez does a very nice job of incorporating this portion without it disrupting the story's flow and seeming unnecessary. The dynamics of Lizzie relationship with her children and Drayle's wife, Fran, are also revealed. It's Lizzie's role as a mother/ child-bearer, and that of the other women, that is almost paramount to their feelings toward seeking freedom. The last summer that all of the women are together at Tawawa House brings a number of tragedies that catapult them into various directions away from each other, but not in spirit.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez writes very clean and, sometimes, lyrical prose. Her characterizations are not as fully realized as I would have liked for other characters besides Lizzie, but ultimately this is Lizzie's story. I did, however, feel invested in these four women.  Though, I've not done any research on Tawawa House, I'm confident the essence of the setting have captured beautifully. Wench is an exciting debut as it's filled a widely unknown void in the history of American slavery and I'm looking forward to Dolen Perkins-Valdez's future writings.

Challenges:
African Diaspora
POC Reading

Up From Slavery is Washington's autobiography chronicling his life from his childhood spent in slavery in Virginia to his being the famed orator and driving force of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Unsure of the year of his birth, Washington always had a strong desire to improve his life through education. He struggled to put himself through Hampton Institute where he cultivated a stern belief in hygiene, agriculture, and trade skills.   Booker T. Washington's brilliance is easily displayed in his idea that the institution of slavery harmed both slaves and slave owners' families. Labor was forced upon one group while the other had little to no training in trades altogether and that lack of self sufficiency became most evident during Reconstruction. This also fueled his desire to have the students of Tuskegee educated in agriculture and trades like brick making with as much emphasis as traditional school subjects. This was so much a focus that the first students, literally, helped to build the school brick by brick. This was also due to very little funding which eventually changed once much wealthier admirers took notice of Washington's work with southern Blacks. He was an unshaken, organized, and disciplined man who wholeheartedly believed in each person's need to be competent in some trade and be the best one could possibly at it. Today, as we try to climb out of this economic depression and see our fellow man and woman in dire need in Haiti, we can still take heed to his words of wisdom delivered in his famous Atlanta Exposition Address: Cast down your buckets where you are. Do what you can- with full effort - with what and who you have around you.

Challenges:
African Diaspora
Black Classics
POC Reading

Gut-wrenching. Moving. Heartfelt. Truth. Those are just a few words I'd use to describe Bernice McFadden's novel, Sugar. This year is the tenth anniversary of its publication and it's taken me all that time to finally read it. Once I finished, I stopped regretting not reading it sooner. I think I was supposed to read it now, where I am in my life. Only now can this story bring tears to the brink of spilling forth. Only now can I empathize with the title character, a prostitute, who begins to realize there is more for her in this world than a piece of a life. Sugar's story unfolds when she returns to Bigelow, Arkansas, a town near where she was born, to start over. But since she knows only one way of life, she falls easily back into it and much to the delight of most of the men and the chagrin of the women of the town. The women want her gone and she's a tough, defiant woman who, initially, can't be moved. She slowly develops a friendship with her neighbor Pearl who lost a daughter, who Sugar seems to bear quite a resemblance to, fifteen years earlier. While Sugar is learning secrets of her own past, the secrets of some of the other townsfolk are revealed who share a link to her. McFadden does an excellent job of exploring morality and judgment through a number of startling back stories involving some of the same women who gossip about Sugar. A real testament to the author's storytelling abilities is the nuanced friendship that blossoms between Pearl and Sugar that allows Pearl to truly begin healing from the loss of her daughter. The story reads like it will be one of redemption for the protagonist, but McFadden keeps it real and doesn't tie everything up nice and neat at the end. McFadden's writing is accessible and a bit haunting. It has a foreboding tone that didn't allow me to put my guard down. Sugar has a very open ending that I'll hopefully find resolution to in the follow-up, This Bitter Earth.

Challenges:
African Diaspora

This collection of nine short stories is my introduction to literature by a Sri Lankan author and about the island country south of India. In this collection, Gunesekera paints vivid pictures of life for Sri Lankans at home and abroad, namely those in London.

In "Batik", husband and wife, Tiru who's Tamil and Nalini who's Sinhalese, are living in London during the civil war between their respective ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. The strain of the horrific events happening thousands of miles away still have strong emotional affects on them individually and as a couple. This is probably my favorite story because there's a quiet intensity to the characters as Tiru becomes consumed by the news coverage of the civil unrest.

"Ullswater" has one of the best examples of Gunesekera's poetic descriptions: "In the evenings, in the afterglow of sunset, when parrots darted across the sky, her face would absorb light and slowly become luminous like the moon. She was a lovely girl in those days." Yet, it's a sad story of a man filled with regret over his brother's death.

"Carapace" fetures an unnamed woman who is in like with a beach cook, a man opposite the well to do one, now living in Australia, her mother has chosen for her. It, too, comes off as a story of regret.

Regret or loss seems to be what binds these stories together. I recommend it for whetting the appetite for more reads about Sri Lanka. My interest is definitely piqued.

Challenges:
South Asian Author Challenge

Children of the Waters is the story of two sisters separated by racism at its finest. One sister, Trish, is raised by her white grandparents after her mothers death. The other sister, Billie, is adopted by a Black family and unknown to Trish until years after her grandmother passes but begins to speak to her in a unique way. Billie has never known she was adopted and Trish was told her sister and mother were both dead. When Trish discovers Billie, she finds her to work through the truth of their separation and to, hopefully, develop the type of familial relationship she never had with her grandparents.

With well developed characters and writing just right in tone and pace, Brice has really tackled the issue of race in a no nonsense manner. Everyone clearly and boldly states their ideas on the subject. Even Trish does not shy away from her thoughts on race. But sometimes, I wonder could her opinion be afforded to her by white privilege. It's easy to say to heck with skin color when it never adversely affects you. But it was still nice to see that characterization was fair and not the "strong Black woman" v. the "wimpy white woman." Not just race/ism but colorism (light skin v. dark skin) is examined as well. There is also much debate on religion that could be unsettling to those of a certain faith but is resolved intelligently in the end. Meanwhile, there is a strong reverence for ancestral spirits.  The good pacing is in regard to the relationship of Billie and Trish. It's not some magical reunion with these two sisters accepting each other immediately (at least not on Billie's end). And last, but not least, no Black men are vilified, though one's intentions are still questionable.

This novel will leave you mulling over the idea of a post-racial America, what it means to be of mixed race/ethnicity, and the definition of family. Can American society ever move beyond skin color?

Stay tuned for an interview with Carleen Brice.

Woman At Point Zero is a classic novella by Egyptian doctor and feminist writer, Nawal El Saadawi. She tells the story of an Egyptian prostitute, Firdaus, sitting on death row for murder. Firdaus endures a cruel childhood and sexual abuse by an uncle. She desperately wants to do something with her secondary education, but the prospects for women are few. When her uncle and his wife try to marry her off, she runs away and here begins her journey of self discovery. Firdaus' life remains mired by an abusive relationship and then, prostitution. She's your typical woman scorned one too many times and driven to the ultimate vindication. The story focuses on how she arrived at death row and why she chooses not to appeal her sentence. She views her actions as truth, "and truth is savage and dangerous."

Woman At Point Zero is well written in accessible language and sometimes gut punching truths: "That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another." Nawal El Saadawi paints a vivid picture of the marginalization of women and how the legal system can often perpetuate violence against women.

I was so glad to finally read this book. At once I felt disgusted and angry then, empowered to, like Firdaus, raise my hand to smash against the face of those who brutalize women.

Challenges:
November Novella
Women Unbound
Reading Africa

Yesterday, my son and I hung out at the library to do school. While he worked independently, I grabbed Jacqueline Woodson's If You Come Softly. I had recently been recommended this author by Susan of ColorOnline during a discussion on "problem novels" in YA fiction. So, I started reading it there and had to check it out so I could finish it at home.

If you Come Softly is first a teenage love story. Jeremiah Roselind, son of a famous filmmaker and a novelist, and Ellie Eisen, daughter of a doctor and SAHM, have one of those instantaneous love stories. One brief and awkward encounter leave them both with lingering thoughts about each other. At first, the most prevalent thought is that he's Black and she's white/Jewish.  Although they get over this difference quickly, strangers don't and whether their families will is questionable.  What unfolds in this story is a sometimes naive, yet sweet, youthful romance that explores racial identity and stereotypes with an unexpected ending.

I was so engrossed in this fast paced read and not sure of what I wanted to happen in the end. What did happen, I was so not prepared for. Of course, in retrospect, I do recall a bit of foreshadowing that was very subtle. This is a testament to Woodson's narrative skills. She gives hints that don't make things predictable. However, the ending still pissed me off. Woodson, why'd you have to break my heart like that?

This is a story that, for its implications of race, adults might actually learn more from. Today's young people are growing up in such multi-ethnic/multicultural societies that they have already gotten over it. It's the adults that seem to still carry the burden. What young people will get from this book, though, is that "time comes to us softly, slowly. It sits beside us for a while. Then, long before we are ready, it moves on." Carpe Diem!

Note to Susan: Thanks for the recommendation. I'm looking forward to reading more by Jacqueline Woodson. I got a copy of From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun for the read-a-thon.

In Atlas of Unknowns, first time novelist Tania James, tells the funny and honest story of two sisters trying to find their places in this world amidst betrayal and haunting secrets. The older sister, Linno, is scarred by an unfortunate accident and the truth behind her mother's death. She's a gifted artist, yet does not shine the way her younger sister, Anju,  does academically. Anju is so successful in school that she applies for and receives a scholarship to attend an elite private school in New York. Though she wins the scholarship under false pretenses, she thinks this will be her opportunity to improve her family's situation. There's also a good supporting cast of characters. These include Anju's Hindu host family, the Sankalis, whose matriarch is a cohost on an American talk show that seems to be a caricature of a real life four woman hosted show and a son who defers college to pursue documentary film making. Then there's Bird, who brings Anju some semblance of comfort in the midst of culture shock and has a secret tie to her. Set in Kerala, India and New York, we see two sisters navigate issues like marriage, family, post 9/11 immigration, and self-discovery.



"For such a small world, the space from person to person can span a whole sea."
This describes the relationship between Anju and Linno both emotionally and physically. However, the emotional divide lessens once the spatial divide becomes a factor.

I absolutely loved this book! At first, I thought this was going to be a story about one fortunate, scheming sister and the other talented and woeful. But, this isn't the case. Even though Linno lacks self-confidence early in the story, when Anju stabs her in the back, Linno calls her out. And like you would hope sisters would do, Linno still supports Anju's temporary success and she desperately tries to get to her when everything falls apart. I cheered Linno on through her self discovery and all but spewed venom at Anju, even after she loses everything. I did, however, sympathize with their father Melvin once he finds himself working for the wealthy man who was once betrothed to his deceased wife. James has a keen sense of narrative. Her characters are well developed, relative, and recognizable. She handles the issues of immigration in a post 9/11 America and a young Indian woman challenging marital customs with honesty. I felt very satisfied once finished with this. A small part of me didn't want it to end, and that's when you know you've read something really special.

Paul Beatty has written a really scathing and hilarious tale about a Black guy, who goes by DJ Darky, on his journey of creating the perfect beat. The most significant part of this journey involves him going to Berlin to get validation from his musical hero, jazz musician Charles Stone, who he and his friends- The Beard Scratchers- have affectionately dubbed "The Schwa". This novel presents ideas of race, culture, and music with language that's lyrical and cheeky. From the opening page, DJ Darky declares that Blackness is over and while reflecting on years of tanning says: "My complexion has darkened somewhat; it's still a nice nonthreatening sitcom Negro brown, but now there's a pomegranate-purple undertone that in certain light gives me a more villainous sheen." Brilliant!

I was laughing out loud from just the first few pages. This is rare that a book invokes emotion in me that's evident. This has to be my favorite book thus far for the year. That this book's focal point is music and the level of music snobbery by the host of such thoughtful characters was so on point for me as I can be quite a music snob. Slumberland is like your favorite movie from which you love to quote every other line. Yes, this book has too many lines I want to quote. I'm glad I held on to Beatty's White Boy Shuffle even though I couldn't get into it on my first attempt many years ago. I think I have more appreciative eyes towards his writing now.

Megan Taylor is an artist full of so much spirit, seems to be the centerpiece of an intimate group of friends, and has a teenage daughter with whom she has a true empathic connection. But, her cozy world starts to unravel when she learns that her cancer is no longer in remission. Longtime secrets begin to haunt her and her best friend, Holly. Secrets that could destroy their close-knit foursome of friends. And as Megan deteriorates, her daughter, Olivia, begins to act out her frustrations.

Melissa Foster's novel is a lovely debut. She explores the mother-daughter bond in such an intense manner. It's the kind of relationship, I think that all daughters want with their mothers. And the circle of friends! They are such a loving and supportive bunch. Foster has given us a set of very realistic characters that are regular people. Also, she presents ideas of spirituality in a way that's not obnoxious but is unapologetic. Everything is set against a picturesque Cape Cod. This makes even the toughest moments in the book a little more palatable than had they occurred anywhere else. It adds to the warm and fuzzy feeling that much of the book presents. At its core, I would say that this is a story that depicts love transcending everything.

I really appreciate the author's simple language and real characters. All the imagery was wonderful without being weighty. And including a scene that brought a level of discomfort was very smart. Megan's Way is a great read and a solid debut for Melissa Foster.