Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : ‎Park Row
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 2022
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
Genre:  Black & African American Historical Fiction

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “The Two Lives of Sara” by Catherine Adel West.

I got the book from Barnes and Noble during a sale celebrating Black History Month last year. I DNF this book, not because I did not like it, but because I was going through a rough time, and this book, well, is sad. So I picked it up again, and it was one of the most touching books I have read in a while.

The book is definitely sad, and the ending, although it gives hope, it is not the hope of a happy ending. Is the hope of going through life and living it the best we can kind of hope? Sara is strong, weak, funny, serious, mysterious, brave, and deeply hurt.

I really enjoyed the main characters, especially Mama Sugar and Jonas. The characters felt real, the narrative felt real, the way the author writes is soul touching. I was so very moved about the words, the lives of these hard working people making it through with dignity on a moment in which racism was brutal.

I totally recommend this book and would be a book I re-read as times goes on. To remind of hope, sadness, endurance, and love. Love of all kinds, from family to friends, love is strong as we build it.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

Sara King has nothing, save for her secrets and the baby in her belly, as she boards the bus to Memphis, hoping to outrun her past in Chicago. She is welcomed with open arms by Mama Sugar, a kindly matriarch and owner of the popular boardinghouse The Scarlet Poplar.

Like many cities in early 1960s America, Memphis is still segregated, but change is in the air. News spreads of the Freedom Riders. Across the country, people like Martin Luther King Jr. are leading the fight for equal rights. Black literature and music provide the stories and soundtrack for these turbulent and hopeful times, and Sara finds herself drawn in by conversations of education, politics and a brighter tomorrow with Jonas, a local schoolteacher. Romance blooms between them, but secrets from Mama Sugar’s past threaten their newfound happiness and lead Sara to make decisions that will reshape the rest of their lives.

MY RATING: 5 STARS!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bibliography:

• Saving Ruby King