Mama

Mama by Terry McMillan        352 pages

Another beautiful story by Terry McMillan.    Mama, Mildred Peacock is a strong black woman who raises 5 children, kicks her trifling husband out and pursues her life as best she can, taking care of her kids in the mix.    She endures so much, 4 girls and 1 young man all growing into teens then adulthood.   Everyone in the family endures twists and turns, smart people do dumb things, quiet children and a child who's eyes are crossed grow up to surprise the family.   Drugs eat away at the easy and the educated no one is safe and it is only a matter of is your drug of choice heroin, cocaine or alcohol?   Funny and sweet, sad and melancholy just like the mixed bag we all receive in life.    Beautiful story.   The reader may get angry at Mama but her humor and widom will make you love her.   Who says there is a right way and a wrong way?   There is a way and we all have to find our own way.   Beautiful.   I recommend this to mature teens (for the drug situations and sexual situations) on up to adults and seniors.   Great story.

 - Shirley J.

Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother's Suggestions

Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother's Suggestions by Patricia Marx,  Roz Chast (Illustrations)    112 pages

Just in time for Mother's Day coming up in a few weeks!!

Patty Marx' mother knows better than other mothers.  Patty has never been able to shake her mother's one-liners from her mind, so she collected them into this book, illustrated by Roz Chast (one of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists).  These witticisms include gems like If you feel guilty about throwing away leftovers, put them in the back of your refrigerator for five days and then throw them out.

 This is a funny little book and it made me think of some of the things my own mother has said over the years.  She's never said "Write my eulogy now so I can correct it," but she has given plenty of advice over the years.  

Baby teeth

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage    320 pages  Read an e-galley -- book due to be published 7/17/18

Hanna's such a sweet child. It's such a pity that she doesn't speak. Her father knows she's a good girl. Her mother knows better.

In this disturbing (yet wholly compelling) story, we get the alternating viewpoints of both Hanna and her mother, Suzette. Suzette loves her daughter but she's exhausted. Home-schooling Hanna because she's not able to stay in other schools for long, Suzette finds her precarious health and sanity are starting to weaken. She wants to believe Hanna's not a monster, but increasingly, it's becoming clear that something's wrong with her daughter. Complicating everything is the fact that her husband doesn't seem to believe that Hanna's anything but a sweet, misunderstood girl.

Of course, Hanna loves her father. In fact, she loves him so much that she would be happy if her mother was out of the picture. In fact, she'd be happy if Suzette was completely out of the picture, buried six feet underground.

Having the alternating viewpoints of both Suzette and Hanna is fascinating, especially since you start to wonder if Suzette is perhaps going a little mad. With her Crohn's disease already making her unwell, Suzette's strained by being home all day with Hanna, all the while feeling more day by day that Hanna's a monster.  Hanna's inner dialogue is pretty sophisticated, which makes things feel even more unreal. She's quite aware of what she's doing, thank you very much, and doesn't appreciate that people think she's stupid because she doesn't talk. And she's sure that if she could just get her Mommy out of the picture, she and Daddy would be so, so happy.

This kid is chilling.  Suzette's not necessarily going to win Mother of the Year award, but her unraveling is something that Hanna's been working on, bit by bit (a little like pulling a thread slowly but surely).

I feel this is definitely going to be one of those divisive reads --- either people will love it or hate it. However, no matter what, I think it's the kind of book that people won't be able to stop talking about.

P.S. Be Eleven

P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia                    
274 pages
 

This book is the sequel to One Crazy Summer but could be read without reading the first book.  Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are back home in New York after spending the summer with their mother in Oakland.  All summer they were involved with the Black Panthers and listening to their mother’s ideas about independence.  However, not much has changed in their father’s household.  Their grandmother, Big Ma, still expects Delphine to keep order and be extra polite to white people.  One big thing has changed though.  Their father has a girlfriend.  Delphine is worried about sixth grade, especially the sixth grade dance.  She wants to be grown up but her mother keeps writing her letters telling her to “be eleven”.  Delphine doesn’t understand what her mother means but keep on doing her best.  This is a good story about three African American girls growing up in the late 1960s.  Kids who like true-to-life historical fiction will probably like this story.