SKY FULL OF ELEPHANTS
Cebo Campbell
One day in the near future every white person walks into the water first feet deep, then knee-high, waist deep, shoulder high until their head goes underwater and they are no longer breathing. Not one, not a few, not a cult or colony, all of them. In this world, only the brown survive.
Charles is a free man, who once wasn’t. A black man convicted of a crime he says he didn’t commit. He works as a professor, living a life of servitude. One day his estranged daughter calls him out of the blue. She asks him a favor he has no will to decline. She received a letter from a pocket of surviving relatives, and she would like to go there to see them in the new state of Alabama.
Their relationship is complicated. She resembles him in the parts of herself she tries to deny. Meeting him is like being introduced to the other side of herself. Meeting her is confirmation that the life he traded in the name of others was more valuable than he realized and not his to give.
Traversing these new United States will take more than either of them have to give. For him, it will take an acknowledgment of things he keeps hidden. For her, it will require a new way of thinking about everything she has come to know about the world, her father, and herself.
Things about this story connect to me on a deep level. Sharing all of that is a little more than I’m willing to give. Suffice it to say this story touched me. The parts of myself that are soft and vulnerable, the parts I don’t talk about—the parts I don’t share.
There are questions raised within the text that need to be asked. That we need to answer. There is a world out there calling our names and we need to f*cking remember who we are.
“Let them inherit the earth by inheriting themselves.”
Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for putting this on my radar and for the complimentary arc in exchange for a review!
SKY FULL OF ELEPHANTS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you liked this review…you might like:
No Road Home by John Fram
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LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER
Susan Rieger
This is my first time reading Rieger. I enjoyed my time reading LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER. I found it to be both timely and prescient with us being on the dawn of this election season.
She being Grace, her being Lila, are daughter and mother.
There is no one she would rather be less like, and no one she resembles more. Their relationship is complicated. Full of disappointment and broken promises never given. Part of her is blood let to strangers that others interpret more as a willing donation.
There is a comfort in the river that runs between them. And loneliness resides in the current. Abandonment flows underneath. Constant and enduring.
She is reading the teleprompter and missing the message of the speech. The intention behind it, the driving force, is something she has never had the pleasure of knowing. For her, there is a lack of sincerity. A little bit of do as I say, not as I do. Her words do not match her walk; her heart ungiven. Because it was never hers to begin with.
I recommend this to those of you who found a home with the characters of SUCCESSION. It shows that women are as varied as their male counterparts. Men do not own the drive for success, and women have a place on boards other than the PTA. But nothing is without sacrifice.
The writing is smart, and the unflattering angles of Lila’s life are a reflection we can see ourselves in. Life is messy and we are intricate, delicate creatures. Splashing around in the mud and muck, trying to stay clean.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Random House | The Dial Press for the advanced copy!
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you liked this review…you might like:
Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight
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HOUSE OF GLASS
Sarah Pekkanen
We’re reading HOUSE OF GLASS this month in our Amazon Book Club called UNDER THE RADAR BOOK CLUB.
This is my summary and review of the book.
Stella is a court-appointed advocate for children of families going through a dispute over where and who the child should be placed with upon the dissolution of a marriage.
She just received a new client named Rose. Rose is younger than the clients she normally takes on, in fact, Stella has a hard and fast rule against working with younger clients because of her personal trauma when she was younger that left her temporarily mute.
But her childhood experience is exactly the reason Stella’s supervisor thinks she would be a perfect advocate for Rose. Rose also suffers from traumatic mutism and he believes Stella is just the person to bring out a fair decision in Rose’s case.
Who is the most appropriate primary guardian for Rose?
And can Stella help Rose without hurting herself?
I had a good time reading HOUSE OF GLASS. I’ve read Pekkanen before and my reading experiences have varied in enjoyment.
I always appreciate that her thrillers are psychology-heavy and often talk about the masks people display outwardly and how it doesn’t always match what’s going on underneath.
I like Stella as a character and would read further books featuring her either as a main or side character.
We’re having so much fun discussing HOUSE OF GLASS over on Amazon Book Clubs. Join us!
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy!
HOUSE OF GLASS…⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you liked this review…you might like:
You Know What You Did K.T. Nguyen
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