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Dirt Don't Burn: A Black Community's Struggle for Educational Equality Under Segregation by Larry W. Roeder, Larry Roeder, Barry Harrelson
5.0
This took me a while to finish because honestly, with everything going on in this country right now, and the recent election, I just didn't want to read something that is still an ongoing issue in the Black community.
I met the authors at an event this last year and they were lovely to talk to and had some great artifacts on hand to discuss their book.
Overall, this is a great book that recounts the history of Black enslavement in Virginia all the way up through 1968. It's broken into separate parts of Virginian history which were: The Age of Enslavement; 1865-70 Resistance and Evolution; 1870-1901 From Hope to Jim Crow; 1902-20 Battling Health and Education Disparity; 1920s Progress through Darkness; 1930-50 A Twenty-Year Sprint; 1950-68 Change and Fear, and then finally a epilogue.
Some great facts that I did not know that I love reading about.
-George Washington was the only founding father that manumitted his enslaved people and provide for their education. [Yeah, I didn't know this. Most of my history courses in college and grad school showed the founding fathers were all kinds of mess and trash.]
-That by 1867, approximately 12.5 million Africans had started their journey to the Americas; fewer than 11 million survived. About 5 percent arrived in the British colonies of North America, often going directly to Virginia. [Seeing stats like that over and over again in this book threw me.]
I did know most of the things the author talked about, such as the whole deport Black people back to Africa movement which yeah, history repeats itself. And how the Quakers and the Freedman's Bureau in Loudoun started erecting schools for Black students. [Another aside, why are the Quakers always on the right side of history?]
Also, it would not shock some of you to know that many of the white supremacists of the day back then didn't want Black children educated and didn't want any Black people to have access to health care.
Honestly this was great and I really want to hug everyone who fought for a better day in Virginia for Black people. It makes me sad we are once again here.
I met the authors at an event this last year and they were lovely to talk to and had some great artifacts on hand to discuss their book.
Overall, this is a great book that recounts the history of Black enslavement in Virginia all the way up through 1968. It's broken into separate parts of Virginian history which were: The Age of Enslavement; 1865-70 Resistance and Evolution; 1870-1901 From Hope to Jim Crow; 1902-20 Battling Health and Education Disparity; 1920s Progress through Darkness; 1930-50 A Twenty-Year Sprint; 1950-68 Change and Fear, and then finally a epilogue.
Some great facts that I did not know that I love reading about.
-George Washington was the only founding father that manumitted his enslaved people and provide for their education. [Yeah, I didn't know this. Most of my history courses in college and grad school showed the founding fathers were all kinds of mess and trash.]
-That by 1867, approximately 12.5 million Africans had started their journey to the Americas; fewer than 11 million survived. About 5 percent arrived in the British colonies of North America, often going directly to Virginia. [Seeing stats like that over and over again in this book threw me.]
I did know most of the things the author talked about, such as the whole deport Black people back to Africa movement which yeah, history repeats itself. And how the Quakers and the Freedman's Bureau in Loudoun started erecting schools for Black students. [Another aside, why are the Quakers always on the right side of history?]
Also, it would not shock some of you to know that many of the white supremacists of the day back then didn't want Black children educated and didn't want any Black people to have access to health care.
Honestly this was great and I really want to hug everyone who fought for a better day in Virginia for Black people. It makes me sad we are once again here.
All by My Elf by Olivia Dade
3.0
Cute but slow. Full RTC.
Full review: This was cute, but just so painful. The whole point of these Amazon collections are supposed to be short stories based on a central theme. This one is obviously Christmas and I assume romance. The whole story though just didn't grab me. Everyone involved was way too old to be acting like this. And I just really wanted to laugh at the notion of just traffic standing still on 395/495 in VA anywhere at that point for as long as it did.
Full review: This was cute, but just so painful. The whole point of these Amazon collections are supposed to be short stories based on a central theme. This one is obviously Christmas and I assume romance. The whole story though just didn't grab me. Everyone involved was way too old to be acting like this. And I just really wanted to laugh at the notion of just traffic standing still on 395/495 in VA anywhere at that point for as long as it did.
Deeper Than the Dead by Debra Webb
1.0
So slow and just a mess of a thriller. Full RTC.
Full review: Honestly nothing to root for in this one. It's slow and the character development is minimal. I just didn't really care who did what to who 20 years ago but the plot points to explain things just did my head in. I am hard passing on reading the second book in this series.
Full review: Honestly nothing to root for in this one. It's slow and the character development is minimal. I just didn't really care who did what to who 20 years ago but the plot points to explain things just did my head in. I am hard passing on reading the second book in this series.
A Lady's Lesson in Scandal by Meredith Duran
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
Loved this! Full RTC.
Doing this as part of a buddy read, so going to wait for my fellow readers to catch up before I post a full review.
That said, I really need to read more of Meredith Duran's historical romance books. I loved this one and the other one I read last year too.
Full review: Loved every minute of this book. Duran really writes great historical romances with a heavy emphasis on the historical part of things. She doesn't just have women or men of the time get random notions about things when society in England was set the way it was. I loved how this played a lot into the class system at the time as well as the lack of women's rights. The love scenes didn't hurt either. I absolutely loved both Simon and Nell.
"A Lady's Lesson in Scandal" follows Nell Whitby who breaks into an Earl's home believing he may have assaulted her mother and left her pregnant with her. However, when Nell finds out that she's been stolen away by the woman she thought was her mother and is the rightful heir to a fortune, things for her turn on their head. The current Earl (Simon) proposes they marry. He has the title, but needs money, and she has plenty of it.
Most of the book follows as Nell gets her "lessons" in how to be a lady and falls for Simon and he starts to see a different side of society because of Nell.
Honestly, this was lovely. There's no big mystery going on. This isn't some bad undercover mystery that has been what I have been reading lately. It's just two people falling in love and driving each other up the wall. There is some side plot, but it's towards the end and it doesn't take away from the book at all.
Doing this as part of a buddy read, so going to wait for my fellow readers to catch up before I post a full review.
That said, I really need to read more of Meredith Duran's historical romance books. I loved this one and the other one I read last year too.
Full review: Loved every minute of this book. Duran really writes great historical romances with a heavy emphasis on the historical part of things. She doesn't just have women or men of the time get random notions about things when society in England was set the way it was. I loved how this played a lot into the class system at the time as well as the lack of women's rights. The love scenes didn't hurt either. I absolutely loved both Simon and Nell.
"A Lady's Lesson in Scandal" follows Nell Whitby who breaks into an Earl's home believing he may have assaulted her mother and left her pregnant with her. However, when Nell finds out that she's been stolen away by the woman she thought was her mother and is the rightful heir to a fortune, things for her turn on their head. The current Earl (Simon) proposes they marry. He has the title, but needs money, and she has plenty of it.
Most of the book follows as Nell gets her "lessons" in how to be a lady and falls for Simon and he starts to see a different side of society because of Nell.
Honestly, this was lovely. There's no big mystery going on. This isn't some bad undercover mystery that has been what I have been reading lately. It's just two people falling in love and driving each other up the wall. There is some side plot, but it's towards the end and it doesn't take away from the book at all.
The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
The book just goes on and on and on and it's just not very interesting. I was actually rooting for a murder or something to just liven things up.
Full review: Honestly this was awful. I don't want to spend a lot of time on a full review except to say skip this. There were too many things going on and you end up not really caring for any of the characters at the end. Apparently anything can be forgiven if you just go family enough at the end.
Full review: Honestly this was awful. I don't want to spend a lot of time on a full review except to say skip this. There were too many things going on and you end up not really caring for any of the characters at the end. Apparently anything can be forgiven if you just go family enough at the end.
Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I honestly liked most of this book, but at one point you hit a plot point that just had me going really and it just never really regained it's mojo to me. I gave this four stars because as I said, the one plot point had me going but why a few thousand times and I just tossed my hands up. Also, I really needed a better epilogue than what we got. Sorry, I know that I am one of those annoying readers that likes things wrapped up and spelled out, but I do.
"Missing White Woman" follows Breanna. She's in New York City for the first time with her new boyfriend Ty. Breanna has a bad case of arrested dreams (not development, dreams) because of something from her youth that continues to cause her mother to harp all over her. She's feeling a bit stressed about Ty, and the fact he seems obsessive and stressed over work. Staying at their AirBnB has her stressed though, because a local woman, named Janelle Beckett (the missing white woman of the title) has gone missing and many in the AirBnB neighborhood knew her. Breanna feels like the neighbors are hostile (outside of one). And when she's about to leave, she goes downstairs and finds a dead body in the rented home and her boyfriend missing.
Things I loved, I absolutely loved us slowly finding out what happened to Breanna and why she's reluctant to trust anyone and why she does not want to give up on Ty. Also, it was great to see her establishing a....friendship I guess we can call it with someone she has not spoken to since college. Watching Breanna doing her own investigation into the neighbors, Ty, and even Janelle Beckett was great. Garrett tosses in a podcast host who was one of the first to sound the alarm on Janelle missing into the mix and plays with how social media makes every white woman out there to be a victim. I loved how this all came together.
The flow of the book really does work there until we get towards the 90 percent point of the book. I also thought the development of Breanna into someone that has to learn fast about social media and how to make it work in her benefit was great.
That said, as I said earlier, towards the end, I hit a hard stop period, went back and went, um what a few times. It just took me a bit out of the story. And as I said above, the epilogue was a letdown. I really needed it told from Breanna's point of view.
"Missing White Woman" follows Breanna. She's in New York City for the first time with her new boyfriend Ty. Breanna has a bad case of arrested dreams (not development, dreams) because of something from her youth that continues to cause her mother to harp all over her. She's feeling a bit stressed about Ty, and the fact he seems obsessive and stressed over work. Staying at their AirBnB has her stressed though, because a local woman, named Janelle Beckett (the missing white woman of the title) has gone missing and many in the AirBnB neighborhood knew her. Breanna feels like the neighbors are hostile (outside of one). And when she's about to leave, she goes downstairs and finds a dead body in the rented home and her boyfriend missing.
Things I loved, I absolutely loved us slowly finding out what happened to Breanna and why she's reluctant to trust anyone and why she does not want to give up on Ty. Also, it was great to see her establishing a....friendship I guess we can call it with someone she has not spoken to since college. Watching Breanna doing her own investigation into the neighbors, Ty, and even Janelle Beckett was great. Garrett tosses in a podcast host who was one of the first to sound the alarm on Janelle missing into the mix and plays with how social media makes every white woman out there to be a victim. I loved how this all came together.
The flow of the book really does work there until we get towards the 90 percent point of the book. I also thought the development of Breanna into someone that has to learn fast about social media and how to make it work in her benefit was great.
That said, as I said earlier, towards the end, I hit a hard stop period, went back and went, um what a few times. It just took me a bit out of the story. And as I said above, the epilogue was a letdown. I really needed it told from Breanna's point of view.
The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Child. No.
I can't believe how bad this was. And honestly there was a lot there that would have made for a gripping thriller/horror. Foley I swear needs to go back to basics. Please just write one character. One. Develop them. Do first person point of view. The many characters and the journal entries were just so bad. And the ending. I just went...that's clever and that's all I had. The very very ending I am talking about it. I wonder if she wrote that last line and worked backwards from there.
"The Midnight Feast" starts with a fire. Someone or something started a fire at the newly opened uber rich hot-spot called "The Manor". There's a body that is bashed upon the rocks. Locals feel vindicated (we don't know why) but then the book jumps back to a few days before solstice and then we do a countdown to the day/night of the fire and the so-called "Midnight Feast" and we also get some way way flashbacks to a journal that a mystery guest has found and reads.
The characters we follow are:
THE FOUNDER (Franchesca) she's a long hot mess that you can see coming a mile away.
THE HUSBAND (Owen) who is exhausting in so many ways.
THE MYSTERY GUEST (Bella) a guest at The Manor who is drawn back to this place for mysterious reasons.
THE KITCHEN HELP (Eddie) a local who works in the kitchen and wants to keep it from his parents.
Honestly, I don't want to waste my time with any of the above outside of saying that Foley does not know what to do with any of them really. Bella's mysterious reasons takes so long to unpack you just don't care in the end, and I had a real hard time with the gaping plot holes and the deus ex Machina we get in the end with that whole thing. Eddie is written way younger than he is. Owen and Franchesca at one point had me going, what in the world was even the purpose of this whole thing? Outside of coincidences or something I guess.
The setting of The Manor would have worked better if we actually got more into the lore around the woods surrounding the place. The journal entries didn't do it for me. And speaking of the journal, why would someone need to dig up a journal that would "reveal all" when it's something they already knew? I think the worst scene from me was when one person gave it to another person and was like just keep reading. How about you just tell them?!
The ending as I said was a hard shrug. But the clever line reading and the tie back to some mysterious things and wording came into play. Honestly, maybe she should have just written this a as a short story, that may have worked better.
I can't believe how bad this was. And honestly there was a lot there that would have made for a gripping thriller/horror. Foley I swear needs to go back to basics. Please just write one character. One. Develop them. Do first person point of view. The many characters and the journal entries were just so bad. And the ending. I just went...that's clever and that's all I had. The very very ending I am talking about it. I wonder if she wrote that last line and worked backwards from there.
"The Midnight Feast" starts with a fire. Someone or something started a fire at the newly opened uber rich hot-spot called "The Manor". There's a body that is bashed upon the rocks. Locals feel vindicated (we don't know why) but then the book jumps back to a few days before solstice and then we do a countdown to the day/night of the fire and the so-called "Midnight Feast" and we also get some way way flashbacks to a journal that a mystery guest has found and reads.
The characters we follow are:
THE FOUNDER (Franchesca) she's a long hot mess that you can see coming a mile away.
THE HUSBAND (Owen) who is exhausting in so many ways.
THE MYSTERY GUEST (Bella) a guest at The Manor who is drawn back to this place for mysterious reasons.
THE KITCHEN HELP (Eddie) a local who works in the kitchen and wants to keep it from his parents.
Honestly, I don't want to waste my time with any of the above outside of saying that Foley does not know what to do with any of them really. Bella's mysterious reasons takes so long to unpack you just don't care in the end, and I had a real hard time with the gaping plot holes and the deus ex Machina we get in the end with that whole thing. Eddie is written way younger than he is. Owen and Franchesca at one point had me going, what in the world was even the purpose of this whole thing? Outside of coincidences or something I guess.
The setting of The Manor would have worked better if we actually got more into the lore around the woods surrounding the place. The journal entries didn't do it for me. And speaking of the journal, why would someone need to dig up a journal that would "reveal all" when it's something they already knew? I think the worst scene from me was when one person gave it to another person and was like just keep reading. How about you just tell them?!
The ending as I said was a hard shrug. But the clever line reading and the tie back to some mysterious things and wording came into play. Honestly, maybe she should have just written this a as a short story, that may have worked better.
The Last Week of May by Roisin Meaney
5.0
Updated June 25, 2024: Great re-read. You can see my original review below. I was in the mood for some comfortish reads because I have a lot going on personally right now.
Updated review January 28, 2021: Just did a nice re-read of this one. Still really enjoyed this one and enjoyed it. Though as I said in another review I have noticed that most of Meaney's characters are kind of dealing with similar circumstances across books. We have May dealing with being cheated on which a lot of her characters deal with in her books. We have Marjorie who is similar to a lot of her older female characters that is dealing with an ungrateful child. It's not a bad thing, I just didn't see it until I did my re-reads.
Original review:
Wow. I can see why many are calling Roisin Meaney the new Maeve Binchy. I really enjoyed this one a lot.
We get to follow a cast of characters through one week taking place in the Kilpatrick, Ireland. Not everyone gets a happy ending, and some people still seem to be obtuse as hell at the end of the book, but I really enjoyed this one.
The main characters are:
May, dealing with heartbreak, moved to Kilpatrick and doing odd jobs to support herself and her father.
Pam, takes care of May's father while she is out at work and is dealing with some things with her husband Jack which are causing her to be worried about their future.
Bernard who is the local florist and scared that someone is out to get him and his live in lover are a couple who are dealing with someone who is focused on hurting them because they are gay.
Paddy who is in love with May though he's never formally met her.
Paul who is ready to throw away his life due to a fling.
Carmel who is obsessed with Paul.
Marjorie who doesn't know how to talk to her daughter anymore.
There are some other characters that we get to see in this one, but I don't want to spoil too much. I really did enjoy everyone (even the characters who were doing terrible things).
The writing was really good and I got a kick out of following these characters for a full week. I loved the ins and outs of everyone and how everything ends up being connected in the end around a single event.
The flow actually is good in this one even though we go back and forth between characters. Meaney does a good job with everyone's voices so no character sounds exactly like the other one. She also helpfully makes sure she calls out who is "speaking" when the passage switches between people. I didn't find that necessary though to include due to how different everyone sounds.
The setting of Kilpatrick felt small at times, but I think it was supposed to due to us following about 10 characters (here and there) throughout the book.
I loved how the ending we get leaves things up in the air, but we can guess what happens next. I would love to read about this group in a sequel someday.
Updated review January 28, 2021: Just did a nice re-read of this one. Still really enjoyed this one and enjoyed it. Though as I said in another review I have noticed that most of Meaney's characters are kind of dealing with similar circumstances across books. We have May dealing with being cheated on which a lot of her characters deal with in her books. We have Marjorie who is similar to a lot of her older female characters that is dealing with an ungrateful child. It's not a bad thing, I just didn't see it until I did my re-reads.
Original review:
Wow. I can see why many are calling Roisin Meaney the new Maeve Binchy. I really enjoyed this one a lot.
We get to follow a cast of characters through one week taking place in the Kilpatrick, Ireland. Not everyone gets a happy ending, and some people still seem to be obtuse as hell at the end of the book, but I really enjoyed this one.
The main characters are:
May, dealing with heartbreak, moved to Kilpatrick and doing odd jobs to support herself and her father.
Pam, takes care of May's father while she is out at work and is dealing with some things with her husband Jack which are causing her to be worried about their future.
Bernard who is the local florist and scared that someone is out to get him and his live in lover are a couple who are dealing with someone who is focused on hurting them because they are gay.
Paddy who is in love with May though he's never formally met her.
Paul who is ready to throw away his life due to a fling.
Carmel who is obsessed with Paul.
Marjorie who doesn't know how to talk to her daughter anymore.
There are some other characters that we get to see in this one, but I don't want to spoil too much. I really did enjoy everyone (even the characters who were doing terrible things).
The writing was really good and I got a kick out of following these characters for a full week. I loved the ins and outs of everyone and how everything ends up being connected in the end around a single event.
The flow actually is good in this one even though we go back and forth between characters. Meaney does a good job with everyone's voices so no character sounds exactly like the other one. She also helpfully makes sure she calls out who is "speaking" when the passage switches between people. I didn't find that necessary though to include due to how different everyone sounds.
The setting of Kilpatrick felt small at times, but I think it was supposed to due to us following about 10 characters (here and there) throughout the book.
I loved how the ending we get leaves things up in the air, but we can guess what happens next. I would love to read about this group in a sequel someday.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
1.0
Did Not Finish-40 percent
I really could not get into this. I know it's because of how Evaristo chose to write the book. It just felt like a lot of words were coming at me with no end in sight. I really only got up to 40 percent before I just gave up.
I get that each chapter was supposed to follow a different woman, but I just had no sense of who anyone was. Once again, the wall of text didn't help. And then we were thrown into another character. I just feel badly that I did not like this at all. I do love to read Black authors and support their work, but the writing style and lack of development just was not a winning read to me.
I really could not get into this. I know it's because of how Evaristo chose to write the book. It just felt like a lot of words were coming at me with no end in sight. I really only got up to 40 percent before I just gave up.
I get that each chapter was supposed to follow a different woman, but I just had no sense of who anyone was. Once again, the wall of text didn't help. And then we were thrown into another character. I just feel badly that I did not like this at all. I do love to read Black authors and support their work, but the writing style and lack of development just was not a winning read to me.