#BookReview: THE KITCHEN HOUSE by Kathleen Grissom

This review previously appeared on the site in December 2010. In anticipation of the release of its sequel, Glory Over Everything, I'm re-posting it.

I think sometimes we, or at least I, forget that in addition to slaves toiling in America's early years, there were also indentured servants.  The Kitchen House is the story of Lavinia, an Irish servant, brought to America to work off the debt her family incurred in exchange for their voyage.  Traumatized by the death of her parents on the trip over, and the separation from her brother, Lavinia arrives at the Pyke plantation as a young child.

Lavinia is immediately thrown into the family of slaves that work the plantation and becomes especially close to Belle.  Belle's birth mother is long deceased, but Mama Mae and Papa George head her extended family.  Having been promised freedom, Belle continues to bide her time until her manumission papers are signed and freedom becomes a reality.  As Lavinia moves toward the end of her servitude, it becomes clear that she's hesitant to leave the safety of the only family she's known and move into a world where the color of her skins affords her the freedom her family will never know.

What did you like about this book?
Told from the points of view of both Lavinia and Belle, The Kitchen House is an absolutely fascinating read.  It's interesting to watch Lavinia grow into a young woman and see how she repeats the cycle of those that have come before her.  The whole time I was reading it, I wondered if she had a light bulb moment where she realized that she had become what she pitied most.

As a first time author, Kathleen Grissom hit it out of the ballpark.

What didn't you like about this book?
 I really wanted Lavinia to end up with one character and I kept holding out hope that eventually it might work out that way but, unfortunately, it didn't.

What could the author do to improve this book?
Not a thing

368 p.
Published February 2010


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#BookReview: A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHRISTMAS by Alex Haley

Originally posted Dec. 24, 2009

A visit to Philadelphia his sophomore year at Princeton, and an unlikely friendship with three Quaker brothers, starts the young man on the path to question the morality of slavery. Though he's managed to avoid facing his parents, returning home for Christmas can't be avoided. Agreeing to assist with the Underground Railroad proves to be the biggest challenge he's faced in his 19 years, especially when he finds out that his assignment places him in direct conflict with his family. With assistance from an unlikely source, Fletcher works to right the wrongs that his family has perpetuated for generations.

At just 112 pages, this is a very quick read. I received this as a gift in 1991.  The detail given to characters like those that appear in other Haley novels is not as evident here. I suppose if it had been, the story would have been more memorable without re-reading it. Nonetheless, it was fairly enjoyable.

112 p.
Published: November 1988

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#BookReview (Audio): Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill

In America we tend to have a romanticized view of Canada and what it meant to runaway slaves.  Canada was the "promised land," but have we overlooked their own history of slavery?  Before you tune in to BET's The Book of Negroes this Monday, take a listen to my review of Any Known Blood from the same author and hear my perspective on why I think it's a story that's just as important as The Book of Negroes, if not more.

#BookReview: The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden

It was common for slave masters to see their offspring with enslaved women as property and not as their actual children.  So it's no surprise when Sarah, the daughter of house slave Emmeline, is trained to be a personal maid to her sister, the daughter of the master and mistress of the estate.  And when Clarissa is married off later on, Sarah is given to her so that she may continue her role.

In their younger years, Sarah and Clarissa were playmates and it's because of this that Sarah learns to read.  Clarissa's mother, Theodora, isn't the typical plantation mistress, in that she's more educated than most.  While she knows that it's illegal for Sarah to know how to read and write, she teaches her anyway at Clarissa's insistence that she won't attend lessons without Sarah.  This sets the stage for Sarah to escape later and this is really the problem I have with the book.  It seems so formulaic.

The author is determined to give Sarah's story an atypical ending and get her to the place she wants her to be by story's end.  Instead of letting the story fall into place naturally, she manipulates it to give the outcome she wants.  So much time is spent focusing on the story that she's trying to tell, that she forgets to develop her characters.  For example, the story is Sarah's, but she is never fully developed.  Readers don't get invested enough in her story to care.

On the flip side, Bodden has Theodora narrate the other side of the story.  Not only do we know much more about her, we also empathize with her character.  She becomes someone we could like because the author takes the time to humanize her.

I think it was important to Bodden to tell this story.  It should have been just as important to develop her characters.  The Wedding Gift is a valiant first time effort.  I can only hope that the author learns how to better narrate and create multidimensional characters the next time around.

320pp
Published: September 2013
Disclosure: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.

#BookReview: The House Girl - Tara Conklin

As a "twenty-first century white girl from New York," what does Lina Sparrow, a first year litigator at New York's most prominent law firm, know about slavery?  By her own admission, slavery and its legacy never crossed her mind.  When a reparations case lands on her desk, she wonders why she doesn't know the names of the faceless and forgotten individuals that built America, why there's no monument to them and what they wished for, worked for and loved.

Even though her law firm really does not have an appetite for taking on reparations for descendants of slaves, a wealthy client does.  To appease him, the firm brings in Lina and Garrison, an African-American second year associate, to do the research and find the perfect plaintiff.  In this case, they would prefer a plaintiff that can show indisputable evidence proof of familial ties to a slave.  And this is where it gets good.

The House Girl shifts between present-day New York and 1850s Virginia, between Lina and Josephine.  As a slave at Bell Creek, Josephine serves as the house girl for the Bells, Missus Lu in particular.  Prone to dizzy spells and forgetfulness, Lu fancies herself an artist, but Josephine is the real artist.  Raised, as it were, in the Bells' home, she has been Lu's faithful servant and confidante from an early age.  As Lu has learned how to draw, so too has Josephine.  But Josephine is a much better artist, and while Lu's works focus on scenic landscapes, Josephine draws the children and adults of the plantation, capturing their faces as no one else can.

Josephine knows no other life than that of the plantation, but she knows there's something better and longs to escape north to a better life.  In present-day New York, Lina is still searching for the perfect plaintiff when a conversation with her father leads her to an exhibit of Lu Anne Bell's work.  It's always been rumored that Lu Anne's work was actually that of her house girl, Josephine.  With help from her artist father, Oscar, and her own due diligence, Lina sets out to prove that Josephine is indeed the artist.

I was much more fascinated with Josephine's story than I was with Lina's, though I can appreciate that Lina's research brought me Josephine's story.  Equally as fascinating was Garrison's lack of desire to work on the reparation case, believing that the African American population in the U.S. is in a far better position today in comparison to those who stayed in Africa.  I also got the feeling that he believed that since he had achieved a certain level in life, there was no need to entertain the thought of reparations for those that had not been as fortunate.  In a speech from Dresser, the client who has tasked them with the case, comes a compelling argument for why reparations may be necessary.

"Let me ask you something else.  You walk down the street here, outside this building, Midtown Manhattan, center of the world in many ways.  People coming, going, important people, people with money, people with power.  Now how many black people do you see... How many black men driving cabs, selling hot dogs, hauling garbage or furniture or what have you?  how many black women getting off the night shift, or pushing a stroller with a white woman's child inside?  How many do you see? And then step inside this building, how many black men and women do you see in here?  How many are wearing suits?  How many are giving the orders?  How many are emptying the garbage?  How many are dishing out the macaroni?  Now multiply your little life by forty-one million, and is there a need for some acknowledgement that the deck is stacked?  Of course there is.  This case, the reparations idea, won't lift those men and women out of their disadvantage, but it will cause the whole rest of the world to take notice, to do some counting on their own.  An not just the Caucasians, but you too, boys like you who have achieved success in this world easier than you thought you would. Easier than your parents thought you would.  We're talking about a conversation here, not a public whipping.  It's just that money is the quickest way to get people's attention.  You call in the legacy of slavery and nobody bats an eye.  You call it six point two trillion dollars and it's a different story."

Regardless of where you stand on reparations, if you even have a stance on it, The House Girl is an interesting read and take on the topic.

336pp
Published: February 2013

Theme: Black Gold by Esperanza Spalding featuring Algebra

#BookReview: Freeman - Leonard Pitts, Jr.

How far would you walk to be reunited with your loved one? Following the end of slavery, countless men and women set off across the country looking for mothers, fathers, husband, wives, sisters, brothers and children.  Because slaves were given the last names of their owners, it was often difficult for families to be reunited, especially if they didn't know to what plantation and where their loved ones had been sold.

Was this what they were to be now?  Once a slave people, now a wandering people, rootless and itinerant, searching for one another and for connections that used to be.  It was as if forever incomplete was the Negro's awful destiny.

When Sam Freeman sets out from Philadelphia to find the love of his life, all he knows is that when he last saw her, she was living on a plantation in Mississippi.  Unsure of whether the 15 years of no contact have softened her heart, Sam is determined to find her if it's the last thing he does.  Having lived a number of years on a plantation where the mistress taught and encouraged the slaves to read, Sam is an educated man, working at a library in the north, but such an education can be detrimental to a person that's forgotten the rules of the south.

Tilda was once a proud woman, but the years have been unkind to her.  Losing her son and her husband, then being sold to a master that treats her more like chattel than a human, has worn her down.  Even with the emancipation of slaves, she continues on with her master because she's unsure of where to go and what life holds for her.  Given a chance to run, she doesn't, and the shame eats away at her.

A daughter of white privilege, Boston and an abolitionist, Prudence Cafferty Kent plans to keep the promise she made to her father to open a school for the recently freed slaves in Buford, Mississippi.  And while that may be noble, it's also self-serving.  Prudence asks Bonnie, a free woman that has grown up with Prudence and is so close to her that they call themselves sisters, to go with her.  And this is where I began to hate Prudence.  You want to fulfill your father's mission, fine.  You want to take someone out of their comfortable environment and subject them to a life where people that look like her are treated inhumanely and expect her to just deal with it? Ma'am, tuck your privilege all the way in.

I loved, loved, LOVED Sam's story line.  I tolerated Tilda's, because though I couldn't understand why she behaved the way she did, I could empathize. But Prudence? Ugh.  She danced all over my nerves on more than one occasion.  At the same time, I applaud Pitts for adding her story line because it was certainly different from anything I've read in any other works of historical fiction set during this era.  And obviously I got over my dislike of Prudence enough to give the book five purple armchairs.







432pp
Published: May 2012

Theme: I Will Get There by Boyz II Men

#BookReview: The Healing - Jonathon Odell

I can admit when I'm late to the dance.  I've had the ARC (advanced reader's copy) of this book since October...2011.  Right, so for almost 10 months, this book just sat on my Kindle waiting for me to get around to it, but as Polly Shine would say, "I can pour water on your head, but you got to wash yourself."

Who is Polly Shine, you ask? She's the healer and giver of sight to those around her.  Things on the Satterfield plantation surely changed for the better the day Polly Shine arrived.  Prior to her arrival, Granada, the teller of The Healing, only thought she knew who she was.

Born on the same day that the mistress of the plantation's daughter died, Granada was taken from her mother and given to the mistress as a play thing.  Now normally a slave of Granada's complexion would not have been allowed to step foot in the big house.  House slaves tended to be light-skinned and were considered more favorable as their appearance was closer to white.  As the daughter of a field slave, Granada should have been out in the fields, but grief is a powerful thing and the mistress was willing to overlook the norms.

Granada takes great pleasure in dressing up in the gowns of the deceased daughter of the mistress annually for Preaching Day.  Standing at the side of the mistress in the fancy clothes and ribbons gives her such joy that she's willing to ignore the laughs and horrified looks of those around her.  Her place is firmly in the big house, next to the mistress.

All of that changes the day Polly Shine arrives.  What kind of slave is worth $ 5,000?  One that can heal.  When slaves on his plantation begin to fall ill, Ben Satterfield, who has never brought in outside slaves, brings in Polly Shine to heal them.  Not only that, he has a hospital built for her and gives her Granada as an assistant.  Of course, this doesn't sit well with Granada.  She belongs in the big house, everyone knows that.  But in becoming Polly's assistant, Granada begins to learn and remember what and who she is and to whom she belongs.

Odell touches on so many points with The Healing.  There's the constant reminder to and from house slaves that they're better than those that live in the swamps and the fields, simply because of the complexion of their skin.

 "Remember, Granada," Sylvie said, "what is bred in the bones will be in the marrow.  You ain't like them out in the swamps that got no behavior.  You been brought up around white folks and learned their manners.  Don't forget that, you hear?  You a proper house-raised girl, and you pretty as a pea, even if you is black as the bottom of a pot."

Then there's the slave mentality exhibited by Old Silas, who had been with the master since he was a boy, and resented any thought of freedom.  He even goes so far as to tell the master how to keep the other slaves in line by keeping them afraid, rendering them unable to hope.

'Mark my words,' I said, 'when a man's not afraid, then he's hoping.  And that's when all hell brakes loose.'

Odell bravely takes on a topic and time period that would normally send white authors running.  But he does so respectfully and definitely did his research.  Using words of former slaves as recorded in the WPA Slave Narratives, the Fisk Collection of Slave Narratives and oral histories of midwives as his guide, he is dedicated to telling the story accurately.  It shows in his work.

352pp
Published: February 2012

 

Theme: Time After Time by Cassandra Wilson

#BookReview: Nowhere is a Place - Bernice McFadden

Sherry has drifted from place to place for most of her adult life in search of something.  Though we're told initially that Sherry has spent her life wondering why her mother, Dumpling, slapped her one day, we know that there has to be a deeper reason for Sherry's restlessness.  As she and Dumpling set off on a journey from Nevada to their family reunion in Georgia, you have to believe that she'll find answers along the way.

More than just the story of one woman's wanderlust, Nowhere Is A Place is a family history, the story of how their family homestead came to be.  Told through the words of Sherry, as she imagined it from research and conversations with Dumpling, it's a journey back to slavery and to present day Georgia.  Beginning with the story of Lou, an Indian girl sold into slavery, right up to fast-tail Lilly, Dumpling's mother, who couldn't take another minute in that small town and sought the bright lights of Philadelphia, Bernice McFadden's words pull you in quickly.

One aspect of the book that I really loved was that as Dumpling was reading Sherry's words, and observing her during their long drive from Nevada to Georgia, she began to gain a better understanding of who her daughter was.  Often parents only know their children as the person they remember growing up in their house, not as an adult.  Dumpling has no idea why Sherry is the way she is or why she does the things she does until she spends time with her and gets to know the adult Sherry.  Prior to their road trip, she always thought of Sherry as her strange child or the child that didn't tell her anything about herself.  I feel like by the end of their journey, Dumpling found her to be extraordinary and learned that while Sherry had been telling her about herself all along, Dumpling hadn't necessarily been listening.

As I go back and listen to McFadden books that I've previously read, I'm reminded of works by J. California Cooper.  This book, especially, made me think of Cooper's The Wake of the Wind.  And though I enjoyed this book when I read it, the narration of  Myra Lucretia Taylor really brought it to life.

304pp
Published: February 2006
Listening time: 9 hours, 7 minutes

 

Theme: Sentimental by Alexander O'Neal

#BookReview: SONG YET SUNG by James McBride

I did not expect to like to this book.  As a matter of fact, it sat in my "to be read" pile for three weeks before I even picked it up.  Even then, I only did so because it was due back at the library soon.  Out of all of the books in my stack, it's the one I should have picked up first because I absolutely loved it.

With Song Yet Sung James McBride has managed the perfect blend of historical fiction with just a little touch of the paranormal.  In reading it, I'm reminded of Octavia E. Butler's Kindred.  Song Yet Sung follows the lives of slaves and slave catchers along Maryland's eastern shore.  In an area full of abolitionists, free men and oysterman, Amber and Wiley live a peaceful existence with their widowed mistress and her son. The peace on their farm is interrupted the day "the Dreamer" comes into their lives.

Captured by the notorious slave stealer, Patty Cannon, and her gang, the beautiful Liz finds herself locked in the attic with fourteen other slaves.  Injured during her capture, she's nursed back to health by "the woman with no name."  When a turn of events frees the captives, the elderly woman with no name knows that freedom is not in her future.  Instead, she gives to Liz the code that will lead her to freedom. Today, most have heard of the codes that were quilted into blocks during slavery to guide runaways along their journey.  These codes would tell slaves in the area if it was save to move, if someone was on the run, in which direction they should go, etc.  Though she doesn't understand the code, Liz makes note of it and starts her quest to freedom.

Liz dreams of a future that includes yellow, brown and white people standing on a large campground listening to a brown man singing the song yet sung; brown people in moving machines shooting other brown people; and children losing themselves in front of a talking box.  With the help of the mysterious Woolman who lives in the swamp, the blacksmith, an oysterman and Amber, Liz's dreams are realized.

What did you like about this book?
It was so unexpectedly good.  You definitely have to be a thinking person to understand the dreams of which Liz speaks.  The addition of Patty Cannon, a real person, made the story that much more captivating.

What did you dislike about this book?
I was unclear on maybe two or three paragraphs right at the end of the book.  I'm sure re-reading them may bring some clarity.

What could the author do to improve this book?
Nothing.  James McBride seems to hit it out of the ballpark each time.

368pp
Published February 2008


Originally posted June 28, 2010

#BookReview: All Different Kinds of Free - Jessica McCann

First time novelist Jessica McCann skillfully brings the story of Margaret Morgan and her family to life in the historical novel All Different Kinds of Free, based on the Supreme Court case Prigg v. Pennsylvania.  Though the author takes creative license in some parts, it is done to fill in the gaps in an effort to bring the reader a complete story.

There are conflicting stories about whether or not Margaret was indeed a free woman, manumitted by her master upon his death; or an escaped slave from Maryland living in Pennsylvania, a free state.  According to several public records, including the county sheriff's census, her family was listed as "free blacks."  What is known for sure is that Margaret was married to a former slave that bought his way out of slavery and that they had three children, two boys and a girl, all born free. Finding herself in financial distress, the widow of Margaret's former owner sends a slave catcher into Pennsylvania to retrieve "her property," in hopes that they can be sold and bring her enough money to pay her debts.

McCann does an excellent job of capturing not only Margaret and her family's story, but also that of the widow Ashmore.  She brings the case, which really became less about Margaret and her family and more about state's rights versus federal law, to the forefront and magnifies the showdown between the North and the South.

What did you like about this book?
Before starting this book, I had never heard of Margaret Morgan and was clueless that she sued Mrs. Ashmore for her freedom 20 years before the famous Dred Scott case.

What didn't you like about this book?
Not a thing.

What could the author do to improve this book?
The author's publishing house should do a much better job of promoting it.  It's an absolute must read and very few people I've spoken with have heard of it.

Published: April 2011
274pp

Theme: True Friends and Family by Naturally 7

Guest Post: Time and the River by Zee Edgell

Published in 2007, Time and the River is by far the most intriguing and enlightening work by the Belizean author Zee Edgell, author of highly acclaimed novel Beka Lamb. In the literary circles of United States, the slave narrative is an established form of writing that is read and discussed in the academia as well as in the popular sphere. What makes Time and the River an amazing tour de force is the complex thematic foci mobilized to enlighten us about the nature, functioning, and consequences of the Belizean slave economy.  Based on real-life figures from Belizean history, the novels three main characters–Leah, Will, and Sharper–teach us not just the nature of human existence under oppression but also about the destructive power of slavery as an institution and its undeniable connection to the rise of early mercantile capitalism.

Leah, the main character, is probably the most complex character in the novel: she grows up as a slave and eventually, through her marriage to a slave owner, ends up inheriting more than three hundred slaves. Edgell, using court records and other archives, reconstructs for us the experiences of a female gendered subject who does earn her freedom but is not free enough to exercise her full agency as she does not free her slaves until after her death. Leah perplexes the readers as she defies our basic hope that when the oppressed are free of oppressors, they will not become oppressors themselves. But through her we learn the all-important lesson: slavery does not end simply because it is abolished or if one has gained one’s freedom. Instead, true human freedom arrives only when the structures of the material culture that underwrite slavery are altered and restructured.

Another important aspect of the novel is that it teaches us about a different kind of slavery: that of timber extraction instead of plantation slavery. The entire edifice of Belize’s colonial economy was built around the extraction and export of mahogany. The slaves were employed to locate, cut, and move the trees to the harbor for export to Europe. This mechanism involved housing slaves in forest encampments and created a hierarchy of jobs performed by the slaves: highest on this graded scale was the role of the spotters who located suitable mahogany trees in the thick forest. Thus, the slaves were not as closely monitored as their counterparts in the Caribbean cane economy or as those in the cotton fields of American south. The slaves were also free to move about in the towns and could also learn a trade and purchase their freedom. None of this implies that their experience of slavery was any less dehumanizing than that of their counterparts elsewhere.

Will and Sharper are two characters whose real historical names are used in the novel. Edgell’s reason, as shared with me in an email: “I kept the names Will and Sharper because a number of young people would know about them from one of their elementary history books, in which Will and Sharper are listed as Belizean heroes of the last known slave revolt in Belize, in 1820.” Will and Sharper also represent two different slave subjectivities: that of a captured slave and of the one who was born as a slave respectively. Will, the perpetual fighter, was captured in Africa when he was twelve and thus retains a part of his cultural memory of his free life. Throughout the novel, during all his revolts, he struggles with the loss of his cultural memory as he slowly starts forgetting the faces of his family, even that of his mother. His story then is also a personalized account of loss of a self through the process of slavery informing us what happens when a people are deracinated and thrown into a new world without any connection to their primary culture or a bank of narratives and stories essential to articulating an individual and collective identity.

On the whole, Time and the River is a fascinating exploration of selfhood, heroism, and traumas of slavery and a fitting tribute to the resilient spirits of those who never gave up their quest for freedom no matter what the circumstances. The novel also teaches us another important lesson: slavery is not over and continues in the form of wage slavery all over the world and that like Will and Sharper, we all must come together, even when the odds are impossible, to fight oppression wherever it exists.

About the reviewer:

Author of Constructing Pakistan (Oxford UP), Dr. Masood Ashraf Raja is an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Literature and the editor of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies. Dr. Raja can be found at http://postcoloniality.org/

Live Discussion of "Wench" by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

#BookReview: Wench - Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Rarely does a book leave me speechless.  I've sat down to write about Wench no less than four times and each time had to get up and walk away because there's so much to say and yet, I'm not sure of how to say it.  Make no mistake about it, I absolutely loved this book.  So many of you told me you couldn't wait for me to read it so that I could share my thoughts with you.  Now I have to wonder if you all set me up.  Did the book have the same effect on those of you that read it?

For those that have not, Wench is the story of four women that meet annually at Tawawa House, an Ohio resort that caters to white slaveowners and their slave mistresses.  The eldest slave, Reenie, is mistress to her brother who sold their only child at a young age.  Sweet has three sons and a daughter by her master and is pregnant with her fifth child.  Lizzie has born a son and daughter for her master, Drayle.  The women seem to have accepted their lots in life until Mawu joins them.  A rebellious slave from Louisiana, Mawu hates her master and longs for the day when she will be free. 

Though the book touches on each woman's story and circumstances, a great portion deals with Lizzie and her perception of her relationship with Drayle.  In her heart of hearts, she loves Drayle and believes that he loves her as well.  On the outside looking in, it appears that their relationship is based on tit for tat.  If you do this for me, I'll do that for you. Starting with cool drinks of water on hot nights, teaching her to read, bringing her extra food, Drayle slowly works his way into Lizzie's heart and by the time Drayle comes for her, she truly believes theirs is a mutual love and admiration.  Lizzie's belief in Drayle is so great that she risks the lives of the women around her at Tawawa House and finds herself excluded from the small group. 

So what was it that made these slaveowners think that they could bring their slaves into a free state without risking escape?  Fear.  With the exception of Reenie, each of the women had children back on the plantation.  Knowing that any action taken by them could result in their children being sold away was more than enough to keep these women in their place.

What did you like about this book?

I loved how the author developed the women.  While the men did play roles in their lives, they were secondary to who the women were as people.

What did you dislike about this book?

It wasn't a dislike, but I wanted to know more of the back story for all of the women, not just Lizzie.

What could the author do to improve this book?

I don't think any improvements need to be made, but I would love to see a sequel.

So now I really, really want to discuss this.  There's so much that I want to say here, but won't because I know that while quite a few of us have read it, several have not.  Are we up for a book discussion in the near future?  Should I ask the author if she's willing to chat with us about it?

#BookReview: Guest Post: The Book of Night Women by Marlon James

Today's guest blogger is Yolonda Spinks.

Imagine yourself on a sugar plantation in Jamaica during the late eighteenth century. You are forced to endure the stronghold of slavery but you feel out of place, peculiar and different. Something deep inside is telling you that you don’t belong here but you have no where to run and no where to hide. All you have is a dream that someone will see past your black skin into your green eyes and rescue you. I know it seems crazy but this is the life of Lillith, the main character in The Book of Night Women.

Lillith, the daughter of a teenage slave girl and the plantation overseer, is raised in a home with a man and woman that she calls mother and father but she shares no resemblance. Deep in her heart she knows that she is different. Not only does Lillith know that she is different but the Night Women also know as they secretly keep an eye on her. As Lillith matures and comes face-to-face with her “darkness,” she is rescued by Homer, the leader of the Night Women. Homer is sure that Lillith just may be the one that will make their plot of a slave revolt successful.

I must admit, I have never read a book written with the eloquence, detail and imagery used by Marlon James to bring the Night Women to life. James not only created characters that I could relate to but he created women characters that any woman could relate to. The Night Women possessed strength, gumption, skill and a desire for freedom and they were willing to get it at any cost. These women led by Homer, a house slave, were not fazed by the absence of men in this plot. They carried the load as they strategically used their plantation jobs to work for them so they could have eyes everywhere at once.

I must add, in the beginning I wasn’t sure about this book because the patois/dialect frustrated me initially but I endured and it was well worth my time. I would recommend this book to anyone as a must-read and I nominate James for the Pulitzer Prize (if he is an American citizen that is.) However, for now, Marlon James is the 2009 award winner of the Spinks Prize for literary fiction.

P.S. I will be re-reading this book. It was just that good!

Yolonda Spinks is new to the blogging world, but loves reading books and sharing her opinions. A senior in college majoring in journalism, she also gives community presentations on infant mortality and its affect on African Americans.

For more reviews by Yolonda, please visit her at Notorious Spinks Talks or follow her on Twitter @NotoriousSpinks.

#BookReview: A Different Kind of Christmas - Alex Haley

If you're looking for any of the familiar characters from Roots or Queen, you'll have to look elsewhere. This is also not the made-for-tv Roots: The Gift. First published in 1988, A Different Kind of Christmas is set in 1855 and is the story nineteen year old Fletcher Randall. A native of North Carolina, and son of a prominent senator, Fletcher is the heir apparent to his family's impressive plantation.

A visit to Philadelphia his sophomore year at Princeton, and an unlikely friendship with three Quaker brothers, starts the young man on the path to question the morality of slavery. Though he's managed to avoid facing his parents, returning home for Christmas can't be avoided. Agreeing to assist with the Underground Railroad proves to be the biggest challenge he's faced in his 19 years, especially when he finds out that his assignment places him in direct conflict with his family. With assistance from an unlikely source, Fletcher works to right the wrongs that his family has perpetuated for generations.

At just 100 pages, this is a very quick read. I received this as a gift in 1991 and this is the first time I've picked it up since I first read it back then. The detail given to characters like those that appear in other Haley novels is not as evident here. I suppose if it had been, the story would have been more memorable without re-reading it. Nonetheless, it was fairly enjoyable.