The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West (A Book Review)

Sara King, an expectant mother, appears in Memphis under the cloak of hidden truths to start life anew. She arrives at a boarding house ran by a fiesty but warm matriarch named Mama Sugar. Shortly after Sara arrives, she gives birth to a son she names Lebanon.

They’re embraced as family by Mama Sugar, her husband Mr. Vanellys, their grandson William, the boarders and some of the people in community. Sara’s hard exterior starts to soften. It all but vanishes when she starts a romance with William’s teacher, Jonas.

Sara’s embraces her newfound joy. But when the past collides with the present, it brings with it the possibility of forever altering the future for Sara and the people in her life both now and in the future.

There were so many profound moments in this story. The writing was impeccable and poignant. This story will stay with me always. Some of the quotes that both moved me and gave me pause were as follows:

“Well, what’s done is done but I found out when people go through hard places, they don’t need tough’ an they don’t need coddling. They need mercy.” ~Mr. Vanellys

“Friendships are strange evolving collections of laughter and fights and secrets, this rarified brew of humanity you choose to share with another person. And I want that again. To feel close to someone. To share with someone.” ~Sara

“So if you struggle or see someone struggling, seek understanding. You don’t know the wars people fight on the inside. No one save the Lord knows about those inside battles.” ~ Sara’s mother.

“No one likes to own the harm they did to others, it makes them hurt in a forever kind of way.” ~ Sara

“Everything we go through reshapes us, makes us new.”~ Cora

Rating: 10/10

Crazy Faith by Michael Todd (A Book Review)

This book is about the different facets of faith. It expounds on how to start our faith walk by having childlike trust and taking baby steps to accomplish that. It even speaks about how to walk in faith when we”ve lost hope to do so.

There were many concepts that spoke to different places that one can experience in their faith walk. The book explores what to do if our “faith has been hijacked.” It also touches on how to move through disappointment when we hope for something great but it doesn’t happen right away and how this can be accepted through God’s timing and through patience. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. It explains what active faith looks like and even what it’s like to have crazy faith. There are many more deep gems that the author shares.

This is a book that is meant to be absorbed and meditated on. I don’t normally reread books, but this is definitely one that requires a reread and then some.

Rating 10/10

Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe (A Book Review)

Maggie Franklin grew up in a family of ill-repute. Her mother was a former prostitute, while her father was the town drunk. She becomes really fast friends with Hubert Wiggins. Hubert, comes from a prominent family in their community of Lexington, Alabama. Both Maggie and Hubert knows deep things about each other that solidifies their friendship.

As they grow up, Hubert becomes one of the most eligible bachelors in their town. Maggie, on the other hand is not so lucky. Both of their parents however, are pressuring them to get married. Neither of them are interested in marriage at the time. However, in an attempt to stop the parental pressure, they make a pact to marry one another. Their family is complete when their son Claude is born.

The Wiggins become the most revered family in Lexington. Maggie now has a charmed life. She’s the daughter-in-law of a pastor, her husband runs the family funeral business and works part-time at the turpentine mill, and she’s the doting mother to a wonderful son.

All is going great until her son grows up and becomes involved with a young woman named Daisy. Daisy proves to be a very challenging person. Claude’s relationship with Daisy sets a domino effect of events in Mrs. Wiggins life that threatens all that is good in it.

I enjoyed this story a lot. It showed how life can turn out, depending on how the person living it perceives the circumstances that they’re faced with. It was a story loaded with life lessons. I was hooked from start to finish.

Rating 9/10

Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West (A Book Review)

Ruby and Layla’s lives are woven intricately together by destiny. The fabric of their friendship begins to tatter when Ruby’s mother Alice is murdered in her own home. The murder sets off a chain of events where fierce loyalty intersects with underestimation between two friends. Layla goes into protector mode to save Ruby from what she believes is the beginning of a downward spiral. Ruby is internally fighting to stay alive. Mired in the destiny of generational strongholds, will they walk on the path of the past? Or will a newness spring forth and change the course that they are on? Will a freedom unknown abound?

What impressed me most about this book is the beautiful and artful way West grafted subtext into the story. I identified with both Layla and Ruby at times. In a moment of weakness, Layla comes to Ruby’s rescue. As a result of that, Layla holds Ruby so tight that she underestimates Ruby’s ability to make sound decisions for her own life. Layla’s tenacity and Ruby’s struggle to be understood was the driving force behind the story. But this story has a depth that offers so much more.

Outside of Ruby and Layla, the other characters were fleshed out really well. I could feel and see the characters’ hearts. I felt sympathy for Jackson who was simply existing while holding his breath for what seemed like his entire life. When Jackson declares ” I can’t fake normal anymore”, that statement alone brings a lot of things into focus. Lebanon was complex and layered. His friendship with Jackson mirrored that of Ruby and Layla at times but with a unique twist. Sara had a unique perspective on how she operated in the world with the cards life dealt her.

This is a dynamic debut novel written with painstaking intensity. It is peppered with just the right amount of nuance that captures the human spirit in all of its splendor.

Rating: 10/10