When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
This is the ultimate 3 vs. 4 star test for me. In a rare instance of compromise, I decided to sleep on the review, rather than post right away as is my habit. I finished it late last night and didn’t want to stare at the computer before bed. When I went to bed, it was a 4. I woke up (heh), thinking it was a 3. And now, as I sit down, nearly 24 hours after finishing it…I’m giving it a 4. With major […]
cbr10bingo The Book Was Better The novel Mudbound was a Pen America Literary Award winner and was turned into an award winning film starring Mary J. Blige. It’s a powerful and tragic story about land, love, friendship and racism in post-WWII Mississippi, told from multiple points of view. Both the novel and the film are excellent, but I must give the nod to the original novel as being better. The novel (and film) open with brothers Henry and Jamie McAllen burying their Pap while Henry’s […]
Best for: Those interested in fiction told from multiple viewpoints. In a nutshell: Post-WWII Mississippi. A white family takes over a farm that includes Black tenant farmers. Worth quoting: “I simply got up and went on. I bathed my sour body, combed my hair, put on a clean dress and took up my roles of wife and mother again, though without really inhabiting them. After a time I realized that inhabiting them wasn’t required. As long as I did what was expected of me — […]
