It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that I completely fell in love with. Most of the books I read are fiction, most leave me with a feeling of wanting more, even if the story and characters are strong. I’ve gotten to the point in my reading that if I am not captured within the first two or three pages, I put the book down, never to return again. There are a stack of books in the corner of my bedroom that fit in this category.
Sugar is not one of those books.
I took this beautiful book along with me on my trip to Atlanta, and from the moment I opened it up and read the first two paragraphs, I was hooked:
“Jude was dead.
On a day when the day held a promise of summer and people laughed aloud, putting aside for a brief moment their condition, color and where they ranked among humanity, Jude, dangling on the end of childhood and reaching out toward womanhood, should have been giggling with others her age among the sassafras or dipping her bare feet in Hodges Lake and shivering against the winter chill it still clutched. Instead she was dead.”¹
From there, you are introduced into the lives of Sugar, the mysterious new resident of Bigelow, Arkansas; Pearl, the neighbor who befriends her despite discovering her shady past; and Jude, the daughter that Pearl lost, and who serves as the glue that binds Pearl to Sugar. There are other characters of course, and they all play a well-read role in defining the story which holds both suspense and heart-wrenching truth.
Sugar is no saint; in fact, she is a gutbucket trollop who invades the town of Bigelow and makes it her business to lay on her back for every man in town. Her story is not that simple, though…there are peaks and valleys that Bernice McFadden guides you through almost effortlessly. I will concede that there were times when I wanted the words to be stop and the story to continue…it seemed that at times Ms. McFadden got a little carried away with prose and “filling in the blanks.” Usually, I’m bothered by someone needlessly trying to create a picture when I’ve got it; I didn’t mind it here. Perhaps it is because the story is so beautiful and captivating that it begged for a few extra words to get the point across. The best compliment I think you can give an author is to tell them that you want to know more about their characters and the story. I understand Sugar; I don’t judge her for what she is, but I want to know more about what made her that way.
Overall, this was a book that I dove into and couldn’t climb out of until I was at the last word. I was upset that the book cut off the way that it did, but now that I know there is a sequel (This Bitter Earth), I am off to seek it out. My expectations are high; I would bet money, however, that I won’t be disappointed.
Blessings…
¹Bernice McFadden, Sugar (New York: Penguin Group, 2000), 3.
First, an admission: I have only read one, maybe two, Eric Jerome Dickey novels prior to this one. And I didn’t like them. They just didn’t hold my attention like I feel a book should.
I am an avid reader, and have been for the majority of my life. When I sit down to read a book, it is an expectation of mine to not put the book down until I am finished. I am reading the book to get completely lost in the characters, the story, the world that presents itself…needless to say, some books disappoint me. Resurrecting Midnight, the latest offering from Eric Jerome Dickey, is not one of those disappointments.
From the Barnes & Noble Web site:
From the Publisher
International assassin Gideon spilled blood for the first time when he was seven years old, with a single shot to the head of a man who was attempting to kill the woman Gideon had known as his mother. The victim was none other than his own father, a man of unspeakable evil. This pivotal event shaped Gideon throughout his life, made him who he is, one of the fiercest, most feared hired guns in the world.
And one of the most hunted.
After nearly losing his life in Antigua during a mission that went terribly wrong, Gideon trusts no one. But when a former lover and grifter, Arizona, resurfaces in need of his skills, she reminds him he was indebted to a man who had once saved his life: the son of the legendary con-man Scamz. Gideon is forced to take on an assignment which will lead him to Argentina in pursuit of a briefcase containing one part of a larger puzzle. The “package” contains material that another group of assassins – the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – will kill to obtain and protect. One of the leaders of the Four Horsemen has a connection to Gideon that neither man is aware of – a connection that will be exposed when they meet face-to-face and gun-to-gun. Each member of The Four Horsemen is a world-class killer, each with a dark and dangerous past, and nothing will stop that team of renegades from completing their mission.
As Gideon struggles to keep promises and uncover information about his past, he finds himself at the center of the ultimate double-cross and he is forced to do what he must to protect himself and those closest to him. Set amidst the exotic and vibrant streets of Miami and Buenos Aires, Resurrecting Midnight is an action-filled, pulse-pounding thriller from bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey.
This is my first introduction to Gideon, the hired international assassin at the center of the book. And it will not be my last encounter with him. I have already put the other Gideon books on hold at my local library…because he is a character that you want to know more about. There are so many mysteries still to be learned about him, and that has me intrigued.
There are so many twists and turns in this book that you have to pay attention to them. I like that. A story should be complex, but not so that you feel lost. EJD does an excellent job of laying out the story and defining the characters so you believe you can see them, hear them, feel their emotions…and you bear witness to all of the exploits as if you were there firsthand. I am resisting giving away the story, because this is a book you simply have to read.
This is definitely one of those “curl up with a glass of wine and get comfortable” kind of books. Once you start reading it, you will not be able to put it down. It is fast-paced, and pulls you in from the very first scene. Add to that, it is just plain old sexy as hell. Not sexy = trashy, but exotic and lush and passionate.
Hey, it made me actually enjoy my insomnia. That is saying a lot.
Peace and blessings…
One of my goals for this year is to get back to reading books. I am a reader at heart; I started reading at 3 and I was always the girl who had her nose in a book at all times. I’m that person who used to carry a book with her anywhere she went…and somewhere along the way, I lost that. Life happened, I guess.
But I am back to my love of reading and discovering new books and reading interesting stories. My first book of the year is A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. It is the story of Ishmael’s experience as a child soldier during a civil war in Sierra Leone that began in 1991. The book is very well written and sometimes haunting in its visions of these children being trained to kill during a war, all the while being fed cocaine and other drugs to numb their minds to what was really going on around them.
Ishmael became a soldier at the age of 13. His vivid memory captures all of the images and encounters he experienced and he retells them in a very forthright voice. One of the reasons that I liked this book is that it is very conversational. It feels as though you are sitting and listening to him tell you the stories of how he was in the forest, shooting at the opposing gang, trying to take over the village so his gang could get their ammunition and food. You feel as though you are right there as he recounts the experience of being separated from his family, and not knowing if he is to ever see them again. You can feel the love between him and his brother, and the love that he feels when he is reunited with his uncle before he is taken to the States. You understand and know why he loves rap music, and feel the joy he gets from it.
The only thing I didn’t like about the book is that it just ended. There was no winding down, as I think is normal in books. It just stopped. I was looking for more, I guess…more of where his life was headed, what he was going to do after he arrived in the states to live with his foster mother, but those details were not provided.
Upon further research, I found that there was/is some controversy as to the accuracy of Ishmael’s account of the facts of his time as a child soldier. There are questions about the amount of time he spent as a child soldier (he says it was three years; the folks countering his account say it was more like 3 months)…what is important here is the fact that he was tossed into an environment where his childhood was snatched from him. He was taken from his family, and thrust into an adult world at the age of 13, and then pumped full of drugs so that his adolescent mind couldn’t process the right and wrong of it. There is no disputing that fact.
I found this video of a recent interview with him talking about the book and his experience. Looking at him now, soft-spoken and calm, you would never believe that he has seen the things that he has seen. But I believe, no matter the timeline, that he has endured and come through the hell he went through with a resounding appreciation for all that he has been given.
video credit: originally uploaded to YouTube on May 1, 2007 by TheHour
I’m hoping to not read a lot of dark, sad stories. But I will not read anything like Payback With Ya Life, or Desperate Hoodwives, or Payback Is A Mutha. I don’t do ghetto fiction (I have nothing against it; I just don’t find it interesting). Otherwise I’ll pretty much read anything.
Next on my list is A Piece of Cake. It is the tale of Cupcake Brown who lost her mother and watched her life spiral out of control, including drugs, prostitution, gangs…you name it, she did it. Sounded interesting, so I picked it up. We’ll see.
Anyway, pick up A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. It is a worthy read.
Rating: 7.5
A labor of love…a book of inspiration…words of encouragement…all these phrases describe “Steppin’ Out Of The Darkness,” a book by Roderick O. Solomon, otherwise known as Manchild to us in the blogosphere.
I “met” Manchild through his site, When Least Expected, last October. Stumbling across this site came at a point in my life when inspiration was needed. But his book has sealed my belief that there is a reason that I found his site, and so I am passing that blessing on to all of you.
“Steppin’ Out Of The Darkness,” in Manchild’s words:
“…contains a message meant to inspire good people who are destined to become great to unearth the forgotten dreams buried beneath the abandoned visions still littering a cluttered valley filled with sun-dried bones.”
While reading this book, I was encouraged by the imagery and motivation that was ingrained in me to “step my game up,” so to speak. It is within the pages of this book that I discovered that it is my choice to live by faith, or to continue to try to control how my life turns out. When faced with Adversity, Failure, and Rejection (and Lord knows that I have had my share of these over the past year), what do you do? You can either lay down and accept things as they are, or you can get up and keep pressing forward. Staying in the arena of being okay with living your life below the level that you know you are capable of living it is not okay. Settling for less than better is not what God has planned for you.
It is with the utmost respect and love that I recommend this book. It has opened my eyes to what I can become…to what I already am. Realizing that your dreams can become reality just by working hard and having faith is empowering and freeing. I thank Manchild for delivering this gift to the masses.
You can purchase “Steppin’ Out Of The Darkness” by visiting Manchild’s site…you can also read the prologue to the book by clicking here.
I found this list over at Black Perspective, and being the avid book reader that I am, was instantly intrigued…how many of these books have you read? The ones that I have read are bolded and in color:
#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
#11 Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne
#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
#29 Candide by Voltaire
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#31 Analects by Confucius
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal
#36 Capital by Karl Marx
#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
#38 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys
#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 Color Purple by Alice Walker
#58 Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
#60 Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
#69 The Talmud
#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
#75 A Separate Peace by John Knowles
#76 Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 Red Pony by John Steinbeck
#78 Popol Vuh
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
#80 Satyricon by Petronius
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
#98 Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
#102 Émile by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#103 Nana by Émile Zola
#104 Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#108 Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Some of these I read during high school; some just on my own, and I’m sure that I’ve forgotten most of them. The reality is that most of these books are true masterpieces and the reason for their “ban” is ludicrous. The reasons for banning include troubling ideas regarding race relations, man’s relationship to God, unfavorable depiction of people, unfavorable depictions of governments, etc. The Bible is included in this list, people…Thank God we have come a long way since the days of banning books to the freedom to read what we like, regardless of the subject matter…
Looks like I’ve got a list of books for the summer; I’m hitting up the library! What about you? Let me know what you are currently reading…
