#IReadsYou Book Review: STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC: A Test of Courage

STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC: A TEST OF COURAGE
DISNEY/Lucasfilm Press

[This review was originally posted on Patreon, and visit the "Star Wars Central" review page here.]

AUTHOR: Justina Ireland
ILLUSTRATOR: Petur Antonsson
COVER: Petur Antonsson
ISBN: 978-136805730-1; hardcover-reinforced binding (January 5, 2021)
256pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN

Ages 8-12

Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage is a 2021 Star Wars novel from author Justina Ireland. Star Wars: The High Republic is an all-new storytelling initiative set in the world of Star Wars that will be targeted at multiple age groups of readers.  A Test of Courage focuses on a new Jedi Knight whose first assignment finds her and a small group of survivors shipwrecked on a strange moon.

Star Wars: The High Republic's saga takes place 200 years prior to the events depicted in the film, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), in an all-new time period.  The High Republic is set in an era when both the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order are at the height of their power, serving and protecting the galaxy.  This is a hopeful and optimistic time, and the Republic and the Jedi are noble and respected.

Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage introduces Vernestra “Vern” Rwoh, a newly-minted Jedi Knight.  At the age of sixteen, she is one of the youngest ever, and she may be the first Padawan to pass her Jedi trials on her first attempt, as she did at the age of fifteen.  However, her first real mission for the Jedi Council, her first tasking as a Jedi Knight, feels an awful lot like babysitting.

Vernestra is at Port Haileap, where she has been charged with supervising 12-year-old aspiring inventor, Avon Starros.  The powerful Senator Ghirra Starros is also Avon's mother, and she sent her daughter to Haileap, which to Avon feels like a banishment.  Soon, Rwoh, Avon, and J-6 (Avon's droid) will leave Haileap on the “Steady Wing,” a cruiser headed to the dedication of a wondrous new space station called Starlight Beacon.

Soon into their journey, bombs go off aboard the cruiser. While the adult Jedi, Master Douglas, tries to save the ship, Vernestra, Avon, and J-6 join Imri Cantaros, Douglas's 14-year-old Padawan, and Honesty Weft, an ambassador’s son, and make it to a maintenance shuttle.  They escape the Steady Wing, but communications are out and supplies are low in the shuttle. They decide to land on a nearby moon, Wevo, which offers shelter but not much more.  And unbeknownst to Vernestra and company, danger lurks in the forest; the Steady Wing's saboteurs are also on the moon; and the darkness calls to some of them....

THE LOWDOWN:  Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage is one of the three novels that are part of Star Wars: The High Republic.  I have already read Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, the “adult readers” novel of the three.  As much as I enjoyed Light of the Jedi, I find myself utterly thrilled by Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage.

The main reason for that is that I think that author Justina Ireland focuses more on character development and on the personalities of the characters.  Ireland uses her characters' thoughts and internal dialogue to reveal their inner turmoil.  For instance, readers know how much his home planet of Dalna and its culture mean to Honesty Weft and how that brings him into conflict with others and especially with himself.  Ireland makes us feel Honesty's grief and guilt, which makes his heroic arc engage the readers.

Ireland makes the readers feel the doubts and struggles of the Jedi, especially in the case of Imri Cantaros, although even the Jedi prodigy, Vernestra, still questions her own methods and the decisions she makes.  Ireland also makes young Avon Starros the kind of curious and inventive explorer of science and tech that could star in her own science fiction series.  I hope to see all these characters again.

I am decades older than A Test of Courage's target age group, but I had a blast reading it.  Once I got into it, I could not stop.  I wish I had Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage to read when I was a teen reader, but I can enjoy it now.  Author Justina Ireland has written a Star Wars novel that captures all that is the light that draws fans to the many worlds of Star Wars.  I hope to read more High Republic stories written by Ireland.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Young Star Wars fans will want to read Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage.

10 out of 10

[This book contains a 12-page preview of the upcoming novel, Star Wars: The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower by Daniel José Older.]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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Book Review: WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS

WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS: A DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT MIGRATION RECLAIMS HER ROOTS
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Morgan Jerkins
ISBN: 978-0-06-287304-0; hardcover (August 4, 2020)
304pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots is the new nonfiction book from Morgan Jerkins, magazine editor and writer, cultural critic, and bestselling author of the book, This Will Be My Undoing.  In Wandering in Strange Lands, Jerkins journeys across the United States in order to understand her roots, the Great Migration, and the displacement of black people across America.

At the center of Wandering in Strange Lands is the fact that between 1916 and 1970, six million black Americans left their rural homes in the South for jobs in cities in the North, West, and Midwest.  This movement is known as The Great Migration, and it was an event that transformed the complexion of America.  The Great Migration brought black people to new economic opportunities, but Morgan Jerkins argues that this massive movement also left African-Americans disconnected from their roots, their land, and their sense of identity.  Both sides of Jerkins family made the Great Migration, but to what extent?  Who were the family members left behind?  Who are the founders of her family lines?

Jerkins decided to fill in the gaps in her own personal story and in the gaps in the history of both her mother and her father's families.  She decided to do this by recreating her ancestors’ journeys across America, following the migratory routes they took from Georgia and South Carolina to Louisiana, to Oklahoma, and to California.

Jerkins follows in her people's footsteps, backwards and forwards, as she seeks to understand not only her own past, but also the lineage of her family and of the entire group of black people who have been displaced, disenfranchised, and disrespected throughout our history as a nation.  Jerkins conducts interviews with family, with friends, and with new friends who might be family.  She takes photos and collects hundreds of pages of transcription – all of this to gather those loose threads of her family’s oral histories that she might make something whole and hopefully complete.  Along the way, she is disabused of some of her notions, and she starts to wonder – who controls our stories?

THE LOWDOWN:  My paternal grandmother supposedly had American Indian heritage.  Her and her siblings were of so many different skin tones that when I met some of them, I did not realize that they were her siblings.  Three of my grandmother's brothers were part of the Great Migration, heading to Detroit for jobs in the automobile industry a long, long time ago.  I met them at my grandmother's funeral decades ago.

My maternal grandmother turned out to be the child of former slave, which means my mother was the grandchild of a former slave.  Also “the old white man” who came to play with me whenever I visited my maternal grandmother was actually her wayward husband and my mother's father.  My mother, who died a few years ago, was the keeper of detailed histories of both her and her husband's families.  Mama always had a story.  I never recorded them, and now, that she is passed, I feel helpless as I try to rediscover the stories from which I will regrow the family tree.

Wandering in Strange Lands is the story of someone, in this case, a young woman named Morgan Jerkins, who wants to braid the loose threads of the oral histories of both sides of her family.  She backtracks across the Great Migration to learn about the Gullah Geechee.  She plumbs the mystery of water, of root work, and of root doctors in the Lowcountry of Georgia and South Carolina.

Jerkins heads to Louisiana and visits Natchitoches and Cane River to meet the “Creole” people she once dismissed.  She travels south to the Louisiana cities of Lafayette and St. Martinville and discovers her connections to Voodoo.  Then, it's on to Oklahoma where threads of her family lead back to North Carolina and Florida and to the stories of the “Freedmen,” “by-blood Indians,” and the “Dawes Roll.”  Finally, Jerkins returns to California and to Los Angeles where the Great Migration took black people to a place where things were supposed to be much better than in rest of the racist United States... or so they believed.  But it wasn't.

I have been steadily writing reviews for almost twenty years, yet I don't have the words to describe the epic scope of Morgan Jerkins deeply personal story.  I can't describe the power this book has; sometimes, I thought it put some hoodoo on me.  Jerkins' journey to connect the disparate parts of her family history and their origins is her own story.  Somehow, she connects me with and into her story, and I think that she will do that to everyone who reads her book.

Morgan Jerkins makes Wandering in Strange Lands a nonfiction work of black history and of American history.  It is a book of religion and of culture, and it is an indictment of America's systemic white racism and pernicious white privilege.  The lens through which Jerkins tells this story is a microscope for her family's history and a telescope gathering in the star fields of black history.

In the awful year that is 2020, Wandering in Strange Lands might seem to be the book that was meant to be here.  It is not a prophetic work, but the prophets wanted it to be here now.  So...yeah... I'm saying it's a must-read.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers interested in the stories and oral histories of African-American families will find an essential book in Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://twitter.com/MorganJerkins


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: SURRENDER, WHITE PEOPLE!

SURRENDER, WHITE PEOPLE!: OUR UNCONDITIONAL TERMS FOR PEACE
WILLIAM MORROW/HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHORS: D.L. Hughley and Doug Moe
ISBN: 978-0-06-295370-4; hardback; 5.5 x 7.25 (June 30, 2020)
256pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S., $34.99 CAN

Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms for Peace is a 2020 non-fiction, humor, and social commentary book written by D.L Hughley and Doug Moe.  Hughley is an actor, comedian, and longtime social activist, and Moe is a writer and an actor and performer associated with the “Upright Citizens Brigade.”

Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms for Peace works under the premise that America is about to become a majority-minority nation, and Hughley has a warning for White people.  White people are not only going to be a minority themselves, but they are also going to face a reckoning.  It is time for White people to sue for peace, and have some fun while D.L. holds them for accountable and lays out the details.  Have a laugh and Surrender, White People!

Hughley says that in a browner America black and brown people are not going to take a backseat anymore.  Thus, it is time for White people to surrender their unjust privileges; face their history, put aside all their visions of superiority, and open up their institutions so they benefit everyone in this nation.

Luckily for America... and for White people, D.L. has a plan.  If White people go along with it, the might actually get Black people (finally!) to stop talking about oppression, discrimination, and their place in America

THE LOWDOWN:  I have never read any of D.L. Hughley's books, including How Not to Get Shot, but after reading Surrender, White People!, I feel that I need to do so.  I am a longtime fan of Hughley's stand-up comedy and especially of his political and social commentary. He is one of the sharpest and most honest commentators on race relations, race awareness.  He is especially good speaking and writing on the inequalities in the United States and of the historic and systemic oppression of African slaves and their descendants at the hands of White people in America.

The premise of Surrender, White People! is that we need a peace treaty between Black folks and White people.  However, D.L. says there can only be peace and reconciliation if White people give up their “White privileges” and renounce “White supremacy.”

D.L.'s treaty is a kind of new constitution that has a preamble and six articles.  Hughley and Moe fill the articles with facts, history, and examples of why each article is necessary.  There is triple truth, Ruth, and genuine, even uproarious humor.  Laughs aside, the first two articles, “White People Shall Consider Reparations” and “History Books Shall Be Aligned,” unleash a savage broadside on White privilege and on the history of the United States of America... which is essentially a White (washed) story.

It would be too easy to say that Surrender, White People! is the perfect book for our troubled times.  The truth is that the time is always right for what D.L. Hughley has to say about racism in America.  Surrender, White People! is an opportunity to laugh, to learn, and to move us a little closer to real, substantial change.

But considering what has happened in the year 2020, we will need more books from D.L. Hughley and Doug Moe... and probably some amendments to this peace treaty.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of D.L. Hughley cannot and must not miss Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms for Peace.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.


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#IReadsYou Book Review: ON THE CORNER OF HOPE AND MAIN

ON THE CORNER OF HOPE AND MAIN (A Blessings Novel)
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Beverly Jenkins – @authorMsBev
ISBN: 978-0-06-269928-2; paperback (March 3, 2020)
304pp, B&W, $15.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN

[On the Corner of Hope and Main is available in a trade paperback edition and a “hardcover library edition.”  This review is of the paperback.]

On the Corner of Hope and Main is a new novel from bestselling author, Beverly Jenkins.  This is the tenth novel in Jenkins' “Blessings” series (following 2018's Second Time Sweeter).  Set in the fictional small town of Henry Adams, Kansas, the book follows the lives of its citizens who never know a dull moment in their historic little town.  On the Corner of Hope and Main finds Henry Adams caught up in a mayoral election, while a former trickster returns with new tricks.

On the Corner of Hope and Main opens with Trent July, mayor of Henry Adams for the past four years, ready to stop being mayor, so it's time for a new mayoral election!  Right from the beginning, two slightly unsavory candidates throw their hats into the ring, including the town's perennial pariah, Riley Curry.  Barrett Payne, a former Marine who directs the town's security infrastructure, decides he wants the job.  When a surprise candidate also enters the ring, however, Barrett is shocked, offended, and thrown for that proverbial old loop that shakes him down to the core of his being.

While the town has opinions on who would be the best candidate, Leo Brown, the ex-husband of Henry Adams' owner and savior, Bernadine Brown, is back in town... with a new scheme.  He hopes to make inroads with his new employer, Mega Seed; gain some closure with his former employer, Salem Oil; and get a measure of revenge against his ex.

The election and Leo Brown's schemes are not the only drama in town.  Malachi “Mal” July continues to make reparations for the damage he has caused and to the people he has betrayed, but his biggest reclamation project will be restoring some kind of relationship with the love of his life, Bernadine.  Is she finally ready to forgive him and let the past go?  It will be a blessing if she does.

THE LOWDOWN:  I had heard of author Beverly Jenkins, but had never read her work until I read her 2016 novel, Stepping to a New Day (the seventh “Blessings” novel).  I immediately fell in love with the characters and with the town of Henry Adams, the kind of small town that Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney could have loved.  Unlike a Disney small town idyll, however, Henry Adams has a diverse, but predominately African-American population and was founded by freed slaves.

On the Corner of Hope and Main is the fifth Blessings novel that I have read.  I've read the previous three novels, and last year, I went back and read the first book in the series, Bring on the Blessings.  Although On the Corner of Hope and Main has a few dark moments, it is radiant, hopeful, and positive, a sharp contrast to 2018's Second Time Sweeter, which I found to be a very dark, but hugely enjoyable read.  I think the new novel also encapsulates author Beverly Jenkins' theme of “blessings.”

Jenkins' characters in this series can work toward, gain, and find blessings if they deal honestly with other people and especially with themselves.  In the “Blessings” series, a blessing isn't just getting some material satisfaction, nor is it always manifested physically.  A blessing can be spiritual and mental, or it can be a personal enrichment that comes indirectly to a character when his or her family, friends, co-workers, etc. directly get a blessing.

Invariably, characters who embrace wickedness and selfishness and those who trade in hubris win curses instead of blessings, sometimes with devastating, even tragic consequences.  When one cannot love others as one loves oneself, what seems like a blessing will eventually turn out to be a disaster... or even a curse.

The struggle between getting what you want with good intentions and getting what you want at the expense of others is a winning formula for storytelling.  That is because the struggle is played out by the vibrant characters that Beverly Jenkins creates.  The good, the naughty, and the just-plain-bad are the kind of great characters that everyone says a successful novel needs.  There are no duplicate characters in Jenkins' “Blessings” novels.  Each character is unique, and no matter where he or she measures on the hero-villain or protagonist-antagonist scale, you will love reading about that character even when you can't exactly love the character.  These characters have literary depth and weight because Jenkins has fitted them (each and every one) with wants, needs, fears, and motivations.

On the Corner of Hope and Main exemplifies that.  I wanted to know more about what was happening in the lives of every character and player, even the ones that only appeared in a scene or two.  There may be no better small town in modern fiction than Henry Adams, Kansas.  If you need a good book to get you through this crazy time, you will find it On the Corner of Hope and Main.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Beverly Jenkins and of stories set in wonderful small towns will want On the Corner of Hope and Main.

10 out of 10

The paperback edition of On the Corner of Hope and Main contains the following William Morrow “P.S. Insights, Interviews & More...” extras:

1. About the author:  “Meet Beverly Jenkins”

2. About the book:  “Author's Note” and “Book Club Discussion”

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https://www.harpercollins.com/


Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and  syndication rights and fees.


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Book Review: THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON

THE CONFESSIONS OF FANNIE LANGTON
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins @HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Sara Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-285189-5; hardcover (May 21, 2019)
384pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is the debut novel of author Sara Collins.  This 2019 historical novel and murder mystery, which is set largely in the 1820s and in Georgian London, focuses on a servant and former slave accused of murdering her employer and his wife.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton opens on April 5, 1826 in London, at “The Old Bailey” (the common name for the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales).  Frances “Frannie” Langton, a mulatto Black woman, is accused of double murder.  London is abuzz with this scandalous case in which renowned scientist, George Benham, and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite “Meg” Benham (the former Marguerite Delacroix), were murdered in their home, Levenhall.  Huge crowds pack the courtroom to hear the tawdry details of two White people brutally, repeated, and savagely stabbed by this mysterious Negress to whom the late couple gave a home and a job after she was turned out by her previous master.

But there is always more... more... more to such stories.  For that, we travel back in time to the period of 1812 to 1825.  Frannie Langton was once a slave on a plantation in Jamaica, called “Paradise.”  Her owner, John Langton, had scientific ambitions, and he was determined to prove his theories about race, particularly about Black people and about Black Africans.

Frannie may claim that she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening of the Benhams' deaths – even if remembering could save her life.  However, she does have a tale to tell, and it begins with her childhood on that Jamaican sugar plantation.  It continues to her apprenticeship under John Langton, cruel master turned debauched scientist, stretching all bounds of ethics.  Then, the story moves into the Benhams’ London home, where Frannie finds a wannabe scientist who may be as bad as Langton and where she also finds a passionate and forbidden relationship.  The newspapers say Frannie is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, and a whore, when she may simply be a Black woman trying to make her own way in a racist world.

When HarperCollins offered a galley review copy of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, I jumped at asking for a copy, especially after reading the cover copy.  However, The Confessions of Frannie Langton turned out to be one of the most difficult reads that I have encountered in well over a decade.

The depiction of slavery and of forced servitude in The Confessions of Frannie Langton is so vivid and horrifying.  It's like combining the screenplays for 12 Years of Slave and Birth of a Nation (2016 version, of course) squeezed into one heartbreaking novel.  What Sara Collins offers in The Confessions of Frannie Langton is certainly a brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression.  This novel, however, offers even more; it is a historical thriller and literary indictment with ambitions to be as entertaining as any other literary thriller.

Collins offers wisdom and insight into the way both the oppressors and the oppressed are forced to live their lives.  Such perceptiveness is revealed in lines like “... 'cause you got white hopes. I got Negro expectations.” (as said to Frannie by Sal, her friend and fellow sex worker) or “The very woman who'd spit in your porridge in the morning could be fornicating with your husband at night.”  As if she were a venerable, elderly Black woman storyteller, Collins has uncanny insights into the perilous and fraught lives of Black woman who are property or who are technically not property, but are really property for all intents and purposes.

Perhaps, we love people because we view them through a lens of being people who make us feel a certain way.  Frannie becomes attached to or falls in love with people who view her as being property that makes them feel a certain way.  In order to convey that stark and sometimes subtle difference, a writer needs to be a superior storyteller and also needs to have a command of prose.  With her first novel, Sara Collins' mighty storytelling and command of prose take her to the summit of literary heights.  I would be surprised if The Confessions of Frannie Langton did not become a staple of college literature courses within five years.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an incredible novel with a kind of terrible power.  This is the power needed to convey the horrors experienced by Africans enslaved in the Western Hemisphere and also by those forced to inherit the status of their enslaved parents, grandparents and ancestors.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: BRING ON THE BLESSINGS (Blessings #1)

BRING ON THE BLESSINGS (A Blessings Novel)
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins; @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Beverly Jenkins – @authorMsBev
ISBN: 978-0-06-168840-9; paperback (January 27, 2009)
384pp, B&W, $13.99 U.S., $17.50 CAN

Bring on the Blessings is a 2009 novel from bestselling author, Beverly Jenkins.  It was the first novel in what became known as Jenkins' “Blessings” novel series.  Bring on the Blessings introduces the fictional small town of Henry Adams, Kansas, which is largely the setting of all the following “Blessings,” books, including the recent (as of this writing) ninth novel in the series, Second Time Sweeter (2018).  Henry Adams is a fictional town established by freed slaves after the Civil War.  [Henry Adams is based on a real town founded by freed slaves, Nicodemus, Kansas.]

Bring on the Blessings introduces Bernadine Edwards Brown.  Two days after her thirtieth wedding anniversary and a day before her fifty-second birthday, she walks into her husband, Leo's office and finds him having sex with his secretary on top his desk.  One divorce later, she ends up with a $275 million dollar settlement.  Having been raised in the church, Bernadine believes that when much is given, much is expected, so she asks God to send her a purpose.

That purpose turns out to be a town: Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War.  The town is failing and has put itself up for sale on the Internet, so Bernadine buys it.  To the town's mayor, Trent July, Bernadine Brown is a savior.  After he meets Bernadine, Trent is even impressed by her vision and strength, and especially the hope she wants to offer to the town and its few remaining residents.  Bernadine also wants to offer hope to a handful of foster kids in desperate need of a second chance, changing their lives and the lives of the people who will become their foster parents.

But not everyone is down with Bernadine Brown and her vision for a promising future.  There will be bumps along the road – for her, for the residents, both old and new, and for the children.  In Henry Adams, Kansas, there is never a dull day.

As I have written in previous reviews, I had heard of author Beverly Jenkins, but had never read her work.  Then, I received a review copy of her 2016 novel, Stepping to a New Day (the seventh “Blessings” novel).  I immediately fell in love with the characters and with the town of Henry Adams.  I went on to read Chasing Down a Dream (2017 – #8) and Second Time Sweeter (2018 – #9).

Over a few exchanged tweets, Jenkins suggested that I go back to the beginning and read the series in order.  I was able to squeeze in the first “Blessings” book, Bring on the Blessings.  It was worth setting aside time to read this book, which I really love, and it may be my favorite.  That is difficult for me to decide because I have thoroughly enjoyed all the “Blessings” books that I have thus far read, especially Second Time Sweeter, which has some dark and edgy moments, belying its title.

Jenkins is an excellent character writer, creating a cast that the reader wants to know intimately.  I am exciting about all of the characters, even the detestable Riley Curry, and I must say that even the ill-fated Morton Prell is worthy of his own story.  I think that people who like Jenkins' books can't wait to get back to the characters, which is the case with me, dear readers.

Bring on the Blessings isn't all cozy and comfort.  Jenkins depicts the suffering of abandoned and abused children in stark terms.  My late aunt and uncle were foster parents to numerous children, and one of the many things that Jenkins gets right is the horrid situations from which many children in foster care came.  Even when foster children are placed in better situations, a whim or act of fate can threaten whatever good fortune... or blessings they found.  Jenkins is known as a romance writer, but readers should not underestimate the sense of verisimilitude that permeates her novels when it comes to depicting real-world dilemmas.

Bring on the Blessings is one of the best novels that I have read this past decade.  If the books that come after this first novel also keep it real, I say bring on more “Blessings.”

10 out of 10

http://www.beverlyjenkins.net/web/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: SECOND TIME SWEETER

SECOND TIME SWEETER (A Blessings Novel)
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins; @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Beverly Jenkins – @authorMsBev
ISBN: 978-0-06-284617-4; hardcover (August 28, 2018)
302pp, B&W, $19.99 U.S., $24.99 CAN

Second Time Sweeter is a new novel from bestselling author, Beverly Jenkins.  This is the ninth novel in Jenkins' “Blessings” series (following 2017's Chasing Down a Dream).  Set in the fictional small town of Henry Adams, Second Time Sweeter focuses on a too-proud man seeking forgiveness and redemption and a single-father hoping that he can get a second chance with an old high school flame.

In Henry Adams, Kansas, there is never a dull day, especially when someone is trying to resolve events that occurred when we last visited our friends in Henry Adams.  Malachi “Mal” July betrayed the town by stealing $70,000 (and promptly losing it in an investment scheme) and also the woman he loves, Bernadine Brown, the owner of Henry Adams.  Now, Bernadine has dumped Mal and refuses to talk to him, and Mal's son, Trent, is both furious and hurt as a result of his father's actions.  Even Trent's sons (and Mal's grandsons), Amari and Devon, are disappointed and exasperated with their grandfather.  Mal knows that he needs to make restitution, but he has prideful notions that everyone should simply forgive him and move on from his... indiscretions.  However, the revenge of another woman he spurned will force Mal to reconsider his uppity attitude.

Meanwhile, single-father, Gary Clark, is looking forward to his thirtieth high school reunion.  Although he deeply loves his two daughters, Leah and Tiffany, Gary feels that his life is in a rut.  He hopes a reunion with Elanor “Nori” Price, the high school girlfriend he was forced to give up, will prove that there is still a spark between the two of them.  However, the woman he did end up marrying, his ex-wife, Colleen Ewing, is demanding a reunion of her own.  Is the second time sweeter?  Witness all this and more, plus the arrival of a mob hit-woman...

I had heard of author Beverly Jenkins, but had never read her work until I read her 2016 novel, Stepping to a New Day (the seventh “Blessings” novel).  I immediately fell in love with the characters and with the town of Henry Adams.  Adams is the kind of small town that Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney could have loved.  Unlike a Disney small town idyll, however, Henry Adams has a diverse population.  Henry Adams' predominately African-American population is descended from slaves, freemen, Native American, and assorted rascals

Second Time Sweeter is the third Blessings novel that I have read.  It is also the darkest of the trio, as several characters are confronted by the consequences of their actions and/or by their troubled pasts.  Jenkins also references some violent and troubling incidents from Henry Adams' past that I really do not remember her doing (or doing as much) in Stepping to a New Day or in Chasing Down a Dream (Blessings #8).

But damn, in Second Time Sweeter, every word of the good times, the bad times, and the ugly times is a joy to read.  Jenkins' prose is efficient, but also elegant and is straightforward, but also evocative and emotive.  In articles and courses that try to teach and guide budding authors on writing, creating engaging characters is emphasized.  Jenkins offers the most lovable protagonists and the most engrossing antagonists.  Jenkins captivates her readers with good guys and gals and bad folks alike, as always, especially in Second Time Sweeter.

Beverly Jenkins is a fantastic teller of tales of the heart.  I recommend her novels without hesitation, and Second Time Sweeter is a sweet read times three.  If Ms. Jenkins stopped writing “Blessings” novels, I might have to act like that crazy-ass woman in Stephen King's Misery.

9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: BARRACOON

BARRACOON: THE STORY OF THE LAST “BLACK CARGO”
HARPER/Amistad – @HarperCollins @AmistadBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Zora Neale Hurston
EDITOR: Deborah G. Plant
ISBN: 978-0-06-285508-4; hardcover – 5 1/2” x 8 1/4” (May 8, 2018)
208pp, B&W, $24.99 U.S.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and playwright, who may be best known for her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of her four novels.  Hurston was and still is noted for her contributions to African-American literature, for her portrayal of racial struggles in the American South, and for her research on Haitian voodoo.

Hurston was also an anthropologist and folklorist and authored two books of folklore, Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse (1938), and her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road (1942).  There was one work by Hurston that mixes anthropology, folklore, and biography.  It is the story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade, a story Hurston told in the vernacular in which that survivor spoke.

It was unpublished... until this week (May 8th, 2018).  Now, in a hardcover from Amistad Books (a HarperCollins imprint), comes the book entitled Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.”  This is the story of a man who was help captive aboard the last slave ship, the Clotilda, to come from Africa and deliver African captives into slavery in America.

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, an African-eccentric community just outside Mobile, Alabama, to interview an 86-year-old African man named Cudjo Lewis.  Lewis' birth name was Oluala Kossola, and he was one of millions of men, women, and children who were transported from Africa to America as slaves.  By 1927, however, Cudjo (born sometime around 1841) was the only person still alive who could tell the complete story of being captured, transported across the Atlantic (the “Middle Passage”), and forced into slavery.

Hurston recorded Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid on his African hometown (Bantè) by the Fon of Dahomey, who were among the African people who resisted the British-led effort to end the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  [Up to the beginning of the Civil War, some Americans still sailed to Africa to get slaves that they smuggled into the United States.]  In this raid, Cudjo was captured and transported to Ouidah, a town along the West African coast, where he was held prisoner in the “barracoons.”  A “barracoon” was a hut or structure where captors detained Africans who were to be sold and exported to America or Europe as slaves.  In 1859, Cudjo would leave Africa for America, where he would spend five-and-half years in bondage as a slave in Alabama until he was freed in 1865.

In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, which had been founded by Cudjo and the other former slaves that had been transported to America in the Clotilda.  Hurston spent more than three months with Cudjo, talking in depth about the details of his life.

During this time, Hurston, the young writer, and Cudjo, the elderly former enslaved man, talked about Cudjo’s past.  He recounted the memories of his childhood and young adulthood in Africa and then,  the horrors of the raid in which he was captured.  He narrates the story of his time being held in a barracoon and his eventual selection by American slavers.  Cudjo recalls the harrowing experience of the “Middle Passage,” packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda.   He finally reveals the years he spent in slavery and his troubled life after helping to found an Alabama town for Africans like himself.

Based on those interviews, Hurston tells the story mainly from Cudjo's point of view, transcribing Cudjo’s unique vernacular diction.  Although she wrote the text from her perspective as she heard it, Hurston spelled the words as she heard Cudjo say them, using the former slave's rhythm, expressions, and phrases.  Rejected by publishers in the 1930s, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” sees the light of day thanks to the bold vision of Amistad Books and HarperCollins.

Amistad Books is proving to be a year-round “Black History Month” celebration, thanks to publications such as the recent, brilliant non-fiction tome, Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires, by Shomari Wills.  It is best not to underestimate the importance of Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.”  In the literary world, there are people (like Alice Walker) who worked to restore Zora Neale Hurston, who died in obscurity (more or less), to a place of honor in American literature.  Deborah G. Plant is among those people, and Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” is important to the ongoing restoration of Hurston.  It is also a fantastic book and a riveting read.

Hurston's text, which includes the body of Cudjo Lewis' story, an introduction, and appendix, makes up 112 pages of this book.  By the time I finished reading, I was not sure what part of the story impressed me most, but by recording Cudjo's recollections of his life and trials in Africa, Hurston informs today's readers of her place as an anthropologist.  The tale of the raid on Cudjo's village and the forced march from his captors' village to the barracoons is harrowing.  I think that this part of the narrative will be imprinted on my memory for a long time, but I found every part of this book fascinating.

Hurston's decision to keep the story in Cudjo's vernacular was the right choice, and potential publishers to whom she hoped to sell this book apparently did not agree with this.  Cudjo's story is so powerful and unforgettable precisely because of the manner and language in which Hurston committed it to text.  I think Hurston's decisions regarding this text assure her place as a hugely important twentieth-century contributor to American history and culture.

Hurston's appendix contains some folktales Cudjo related to her, the recording of which testifies to Hurston's place as a folklorist.  Deborah Plant's introduction is a must-read for readers before they enter Hurston's text.  The glossary and notes will help readers grasp many of the terms, phrases, names, and words included in Hurston's text.  At 200+ pages, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” is a slim text, but it packs a wallop of a punch both as history and as a document of a particular facet of American slavery.

Readers looking for great tales of “Black History” and for books that reveal an untold corner of American history must have Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.”  And no Zora Neale Hurston library or collection can be without it.

[This book includes an introduction by editor, Deborah G. Plant, and a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Alice Walker.]

9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: BLACK FORTUNES

BLACK FORTUNES
HARPER/Amistad – @HarperCollins @AmistadBooks

[This review was posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Shomari Wills – @ShoWills
ISBN: 978-0-06-243759-4; hardcover (January 30, 2018)
320pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires is a non-fiction book written by journalist Shomari Wills.  Black Fortunes tells the story of the first six African-Americans who were born into slavery and then went on to become millionaires

According to Black Fortunes, there are an estimated 35,000 black millionaires living in the United States.  That includes celebrities like Beyoncé, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.  Some are billionaires (Oprah Winfrey) or are near billionaires (Michael Jordan, Jay-Z).

However, these rich folks are not the first black people to become the “one percent.”  Between the years of 1830 and 1927, there was a small group of people among the last generation of blacks folks born into or during slavery.  Smart, tenacious, and opportunistic, these daring men and women broke new ground for African-Americans by attaining the highest levels of financial success.

These are the first six to escape the holocaust of American chattel slavery of African-Americans and find wealth:

1. Born in Philadelphia in 1814, Mary Ellen Pleasant built her wealth in California during the “Gold Rush” and used that wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown

2. Born in 1939 on a cotton plantation outside Memphis, Tennessee, Robert Reed Church was the child of a slave who was a fair-skinned black woman and a married white man who owned a fleet of steamships.  Church would go on to become the largest landowner in Tennessee and a man of such political influence he was acquainted with President Theodore Roosevelt.

3. The daughter of a respectable professional family in Philadelphia, Hannah Elias, was the “Black Cleopatra” who “exhibited a peculiar influence over white men.”  She became the mistress of a New York City millionaire and used the land and money her lover gave her to build a real estate empire in the city, and in Harlem, in particular.

4. Born in Illinois in 1969, Annie Turnbo-Malone was an orphan who dreamed of making a business of doing people's hair.  She became a self-taught chemist and went on to develop “Poro,” the first national brand of hair care products and a franchise of beauty shops.

5. Initially an employee of and salesman for Annie Turnbo-Malone, Madam C. J Walker began her journey to riches by stealing her employer's hair care formulas to start her on hair care business.  She would go on to earn the nickname America’s "first female black millionaire,” and she openly flaunted her wealth.

6. The son of slaves, (Ottawa) O. W. Gurley was born in Huntsville, Alabama on Christmas Day 1868.  He moved to Oklahoma during the “oil boom” and using his business acumen and political savvy he developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a “town” for black craftsmen and tradesmen and wealthy black professionals.  Named “Greenwood,” this unofficial town that would become known as “the Black Wall Street,” before jealous white racists looted and destroyed most of it.

The astonishing untold history of America’s first black millionaires is now told in the new book, Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires.

We need books like Black Fortunes, and by “we,” I mean Americans in general, and black Americans specifically.  American history as taught to me at the elementary and high schools I attended was piss-poor.  Every school year, we began with Christopher Columbus and had barely began studying the 19th century by the time the school year ended.  I think we only once got anywhere near the Civil War, and slavery was touched upon only a few times.

Luckily, I had Black History month and African-American teachers who had graduated from Southern University and A&M College (in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and legendary Grambling State University who were determined that we ''learn about our ancestors and the people who came before us.”  In spite of their best efforts, I found that white kids from pricey private and parochial schools knew more about “Black History” than I did.

I have learned a lot from books like Black Fortunes, which are both history and story books.  And the truth is that Black Fortunes and books like it tell stories that are as much American as they are specifically African-American.  In the case of these six individuals here, their lives are often in the center of the maelstrom that was the time period from the administration of President Andrew Jackson to the 1920s (the “Roaring Twenties), a time of great change and growth for the United States of America.  You cannot read this book and understand these six individuals and the scope of their achievements without grappling with the larger context of a turbulent 100 years.

On an individual level, the thing that surprised me most about these men and women is how much they hustled.  The term “hustler” has a negative connotation, being related to black criminals and male sex trade workers.  But the stars of Black Fortune were always hustling more jobs, investments, and opportunities.  Mary Ellen Pleasant was a rich woman in California, and she was still catering on the side.  Robert Reed Church was a real estate magnate, a rich landlord, and he still operated his bar/jook joint from behind the counter.  The black women chronicled here built mansions and took in tenants to earn some extra cash?!

There is a lot to learn from Black Fortunes.  The history of black Americans is America's history.  The most important thing that one can learn from this book is this:  always hustle, grab that extra job, snatch  every opportunity, embrace a helping hand, and don't stop – even when the racists and haters are trying to hold you down.

I will also go so far as to say that every black high school student in America should have a copy of Black Fortunes.  It should be required reading for incoming freshmen at all HBCUs and at many other American universities and colleges, especially the ones that benefited from slavery and the oppression of black folks.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: CHASING DOWN A DREAM

CHASING DOWN A DREAM
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins; @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Beverly Jenkins – @authorMsBev
ISBN: 978-0-06-241265-2; paperback (July 4, 2017)
336pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $18.50 CAN

Chasing Down a Dream is a 2017 novel from bestselling author, Beverly Jenkins.  A William Morrow paperback original, this is the eighth novel in Jenkins' “Blessings” series (following 2016's Stepping to a New Day).  Set in the fictional small town of Henry Adams, Chasing Down a Dream welcomes two newcomer children, finds a prodigal son leaving town in a huff, a sudden family gathering, a death in two families, and a wedding.

In Henry Adams, Kansas, there is never a dull day, even if you are just passing through.  Ten-year-old Lucas Herman and his sister, 8-year-old Jasmine “Jaz” Herman, are passing through Henry Adams, on the way to their new home after the death of both their parents.  Tragedy strikes again, and single-grandmother, Gemma Dahl, finds Lucas and Jaz walking on the side of the road.  She takes them home and eventually hopes to be a foster parent to the orphaned children, taking care of them along with her grandson, Wyatt, the child of her daughter who died in Afghanistan while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.  However, the Kansas Department of Social Services may put an end to that dream, which will then put Lucas and Jaz into a dangerous situation.

Meanwhile, Tamar July, Henry Adams' town matriarch, is having strange dreams, filled with symbols and spirit totems related to her African and Native American ancestry.  Is someone in the family going to die?  Well, Tamar could just die when her despised cousin, Eula Nance, shows up needing a place to stay and bearing terrible news.

In the midst of that drama, college professor Jack James and his girlfriend, Rochelle “Rocky” Dancer, are planning their wedding, but even they have issues.  Rocky, co-owner of the local favorite restaurant, the Dog & Cow, clashes with her suddenly obstinate and secretive business partner.  Plus, an irritating relative of Jack's ex-wife shows up to cause trouble.

I had heard of author Beverly Jenkins, but never read her work until 2016.  That is when the marketing department of Jenkins' publisher, William Morrow, offered a copy of Jenkins' 2016 novel, Stepping to a New Day.  I immediately fell in love with the characters and with Henry Adams, the kind of small town that Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney could love.

This year, William Morrow marketing has been acting funny with me, not sending books I request and sending me books about which I have never heard.  I picked up a copy of Chasing Down a Dream from Amazon, and while I did not know if I would like more of Henry Adams, I did expect that at least some of the new novel to appeal to me.

Turns out, every word of it appealed to me.  Like Stepping to a New Day, Chasing Down a Dream, could be one of those holiday movies on Lifetime or Hallmark, but with much better writing and storytelling.  Because Jenkins is African-American and considering the kinds of stories told in the “Blessings” novels, her stories could be compared to the films of Tyler Perry.  The difference is that Jenkins' eschews favorite Perry tropes like crack addiction, incest, and female characters who were raped as teenagers.

The two main themes of Chasing Down a Dream are family and dreams, but both of those are braced on a foundation of love.  Love renews a family (Tamar and Eula), and love can build a family (Gemma and Jack and Rocky).  Love moves dreams into reality, both the metaphysical (Tamar's dream visions) and the professional (town owner's Bernadine Brown's dreams to grow the town and Gemma's dream to better herself professional and personally).

These themes of dreams, family, and love in all shades and types would wither on the story vine if not for Beverly Jenkins' strong character drama and development.  Henry Adams could be just a name on a book cover, but because Jenkins offers strong, characters whose hopes, dreams, and melodrama seem genuine, then Henry Adams stops being just a name on a book.  It becomes a place, the idealization of small town America – so much so that the reader might believe or hope that Henry Adams is real.  And with so many middle American small towns in crisis, it is good to have a Henry Adams.

Previously, I wrote, “It's a wonderful life in Henry Adams, which is kind of like Mayberry, but with Black people.”  The truth is that Beverly Jenkins' characters are just fine without the reader knowing the color of their skin.  They are likable in so many ways that I start to forget that I want to know what color their skin is.  Something I do want you to know:  Chasing Down a Dream is a wonderful book, and yeah, you should be chasing down your own copy, print or digital.

A
9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You'


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: Stepping to a New Day

STEPPING TO A NEW DAY
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins; @WmMorrowBks

AUTHOR: Beverly Jenkins
ISBN: 978-0-06-241263-8; paperback (June 8, 2016)
302pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $18.50 CAN

Stepping to a New Day is a 2016 novel from bestselling author, Beverly Jenkins.  A William Morrow paperback original, this is the seventh novel in Jenkins' “Blessings” series.  Set in the fictional small town of Henry Adams, Stepping to a New Day welcomes a newcomer, finds a prodigal son creeping back into town, and witnesses a good-woman-done-wrong find a good man.

In Henry Adams, Kansas, you cannot start over without stirring things up, and that is what Genevieve “Gen” Gibbs has done.  She is a new person with a new attitude, and that irritates her soon-to-be ex-beau, Clay, who prefers the doormat version of Ms. Gibbs.  Gen would like to find someone who appreciates the “new” her; then, Terrence “T.C.” Barbour appears in her life.

T.C. discovers that this tiny Kansas town is so vastly different from his native Oakland, California.  However, helping his divorced nephew, Gary Clark, work through single fatherhood with his two teen daughters, Leah and Tiffany, is just the change T.C. needs.  Driving a limo for the most powerful woman in Henry Adams, Bernadine Brown, brings T.C. into contact with Genevieve.  When the two find themselves connecting, they become the talk of the town, but the return of Gen's ex-husband, Riley Curry, could ruin everything.

I had heard of author Beverly Jenkins, although I had never read her work.  When William Morrow offered a copy of Stepping to a New Day to reviewers, I picked it up because I love stories set in small towns that Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney could love.

Stepping to a New Day could be one of those holiday movie on Lifetime or Hallmark, but with a dash of Tyler Perry.  Why do mention Tyler Perry?  Beverly Jenkins is African-American.  Henry Adams is based upon the small townships founded in Kansas in the 1880s by freed slaves.  The town has African-American, Latino, and White citizens, and some of this novel's subplots resemble melodrama one can find in a Tyler Perry movie.  [See Reverend Paula's trip home.]

It's a wonderful life in Henry Adams, which is kind of like Mayberry with Black people.  The characters in Stepping to a New Day are endearing and the storytelling goes down like comfort food.  A kind of non-denominational Christian God is regularly called upon by many of the characters.  Redemption and forgiveness are served in big bowls.  No, this isn't William Faulkner small town, but prose fiction pot roast can be as enjoyable as great American novel filet mignon.  I can't wait for the next Blessings novel, and I hope to share the good news with you.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE

WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

AUTHOR: T. Geronimo Johnson
ISBN: 978-0-06-237763-0; hardcover (February 17, 2015)
384pp, B&W, $25.99 U.S.

An slightly different version of this review appeared at the website, ComicBookBin.

Welcome to Braggsville is a 2015 novel from author T. Geronimo Johnson.  A PEN/Faulkner finalist, Johnson is the acclaimed African-American author of the novel, Hold It 'Til It Hurts.  Welcome to Braggsville focuses on four college students, their plan to stage a dramatic protest during a Civil War reenactment, and the resulting fallout.

Welcome to Braggsville, Georgia – population 712.  For the better part of two centuries, Braggsville's denizens have called it “The City That Love Built in the Heart of Georgia.”  D'aron Little May Davenport is a son of Braggsville, and his name, “D'aron” is really Irish and is pronounced like “Daron,” or so say his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Davenport.

D'aron is currently attending the University of California-Berkeley, better known simply as “Berkeley.”  Although he had few close friends in Braggsville, D'aron has found three kindred spirits in college.  There is Louis Chang a/k/a “Loose Chang, who is Malaysian, but tells people that he is Chinese.  A jokester, Louis wants to be a stand-up comic –  the “Lenny Bruce Lee” of comedy.

Next, there is Charles “Charlie” Roger Cole, the former football star and Black friend from Chicago.  Like the former Senator Barack Obama, Charlie is “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”  Finally, there is Candice Marianne Chelsea, an Iowa blonde who claims Native American roots.  D'aron is in love with her, but so are Louis and Charlie – maybe.  This quartet comes together as the “4 Little Indians.”

One day, in alternative history class, D'aron lets slip loose that Braggsville hosts an annual Civil War reenactment that has recently been re-branded as “Patriot Days.”  Candice suggests that the 4 Little Indians travel to Braggsville and crash Patriot Days in an act of “performative intervention.”  The journey to Braggsville provides plenty to laugh at, but things turn decidedly unfunny.

William Morrow sent me an advance reader's edition of Welcome to Braggsville.  In a letter posted on the very first page of the book, Jessica Williams, the editor of this novel, describes it as “Alternatively poignant and provocative, hilarious and devastating...”  Yes, yes, yes, and yes; Welcome to Braggsville is all that.  Williams says that this novel is “a brave and necessary portrait of contemporary America....”  That's sho-nuff true.

You see, Welcome to Braggsville is not really like many novels that fill bestseller lists and store bookshelves.  It's plot might seem simple – kids protest a Southern Civil War reenactment.  However, that truly only scratches the surface of this ambitious novel that plumbs the depths of both the human heart and the troubled racial and racist history of the United States.  There are probably potboiler novels that can be described similar to this:  say something like:  star police detective tracks a mysterious new spree killer whose crimes are uncannily similar to murders committed by the Ku Klux Klan a century ago!  But Welcome to Braggsville is not about plot.

At its center, Welcome to Braggsville tackles an act that may be racist or have racial overtones.  This complex, messy, and beautiful novel is both surprisingly readable and stubbornly difficult.  T. Geronimo Johnson digs into the lies and deceit about racism, discrimination, exploitation, and even about America's most recent imperialist adventures.  He deconstructs it all and tries to get at the human heart of the matter.  Perhaps, that is where the answers and solutions are – in the yearning, confused, and troubled human heart.  This is the kind of novel that is both a necessary read and a good read.  Welcome to Braggsville is the modern satirical novel, but its pedigree is Southern-fried and Southern Gothic.  We need more fiction like this.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

I Reads You Review: L.A. Banks' MINION

MINION (Book 1 of The Vampire Huntress Legend Series)
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS – @StMartinsPress

AUTHOR: L.A. Banks
ISBN: 978-0-312-98701-5; mass market paperback (May 4, 2004)
320pp, B&W, $7.99 U.S., $9.99 CAN

Minion is a 2003 dark fantasy and vampire novel from the late author, L.A. Banks (the penname of Leslie Esdaile Banks).  A paperback original, Minion was first published in a trade paperback edition (2003) and later, in a mass market edition (2004).

Minion is the first book in Banks’ series, The Vampire Huntress Legend Series (VHL).  This twelve-book series centers on a young woman born to fight in a never-ending struggle between good and evil, the most constant and dangerous evil being vampires.

Twenty-year-old Damali Richards is a spoken word artist and the top act for Warriors of Light Records, but there is more to both Damali and her record company.  Damali hunts vampires and demons, and Marlene Stone, the owner of Warrior of Light Records, is Damali’s mother-seer, protector, and part of Damali’s Guardian team.

At night, Damali and the Guardians do their best work, but lately, times have been difficult.  A new group of apparently rogue vampires have been killing Guardians and artists associated with Warriors of Light, and Damali and her team know that these killings are out of the ordinary.  Instead of neat puncture marks on the neck to show where blood was drained from the body, these bodies have been mutilated, with the throats ripped out.

Blood Music, a rival organization, has also seen some of its artists killed.  Blood Music’s owner, Carlos Rivera, a rising young crime lord, comes to believe that the attacks are personal when some of the people closest to him are found savagely murdered.  Damali decides that she must infiltrate Blood Music in order to get more answers about the attack, but her mission is complicated by the fact that she and Carlos were once engaged in a serious romantic relationship.  The force behind these attacks, however, is a seductive vampire with a connection to Damali’s past.

I was walking around a local Dollar General store when I saw a spinner rack of paperback books.  Dollar General and other discount stores sell “remaindered books,” which are books steeply marked down from their original cover price by the publisher, distributor, and bookstore as a way of liquidating them.  I was shocked to see a mass market edition of Minion.  I had first learned of L.A. Banks several years ago in an article about African-American authors of fantasy (or fantasy authors of color), and since then, I wanted to read something by her.

Well, a dollar store bargain gave me my chance, and I’m glad I read Minion, although I was sad to learn that Banks had died since the time I had first heard of her.  Minion is more than simply an imaginative story.  Banks practically creates a new mythology of the vampire, connecting that monster of our nightmares to a larger evil called The Dark Realms.  Considering the well-worn sub-genre that is vampire fiction, Minion comes across as fresh and new.  It is probably one of the most inspired vampire novels since Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire was first published in 1976.

However, Minion is not a self-contained novel, so much as it is a primer into the world of Damali Richards (who is “The Neteru,” a human who is born every thousand years to fight the Dark Realms).  In a way, Minion is the first chapter in a dark fantasy serial.  There are many fantasy book series, such as the Harry Potter books, but each Potter novel is a self-contained story with a beginning, middle, and end, while also being part of a larger narrative.  Minion is the novel as an out-sized first chapter in a serial that happens to be comprised of books rather than episodes.

That makes Minion kind of strange.  It has a beginning, but after that, the story just moves along, with Banks introducing all these crazy, but interesting ideas.  After awhile, I got the idea that Minion was entirely about the beginning, and no middle, let alone ending was in sight.

But I’m ready to read more.  Banks’ colorful prose, peppered with “urban” idioms and sparkling African-American sass and vernacular, is a candied treat.  Her inventiveness, however, takes Minion beyond being a “Black thing.”  Banks seems to have taken New Line’s Blade movies, the Buffy the Vampire television series, and Anne Rice’s gothic fiction and blended them into a new thing.  This new thing takes place on the streets, in the back alleys, and in clubs and other venues of live music (like raves).  Minion opens a new place for lovers of vampire fiction to play, and I want to be there.

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http://www.vampire-huntress.com/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

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