Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 2025
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
Genre:  Black and African American Historical Fiction

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “GOOD DIRT”

This book has been on my TBR, and it became available in the Libby App. I really was not familiar with the premise of the book, but I heard it was beautifully written. I am always looking for new writers and their writing style, so I was happy to get this book. However, right from the beginning, it felt really heavy, and I wish I had known that the story was centered on the tragic death of Ebby’s brother. I lost my brother, too… this was going to be a hard one. I initially put the book down, but after giving it some thought, decided to try it out. It was absolutely beautiful. I am so glad I read it. 

The book centers on the tragic murder of Baz, who is Ebby’s 15-year-old brother. The book moves on to how grief has usurped everyone’s lives after Baz’s death. His parents, Ebby, his grandparents, and the secondary characters that through the trauma caused, have also had repercussions in their lives: Henry, Avery, the neighbors, the robbers, and even the 911 phone attendant.

The second part of the book is the history of the family jar, “Old Mo”, which is beautifully narrated throughout the story. As we learn to live with the pain of losing someone so close to us, we draw straight from our own ancestors’ pain, and most importantly, from their courage and hope.

Oh, what a beautiful, patient, loving book. It is hard to read in the most beautiful way.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well.

The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby’s high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that’s exactly what they get.

So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what’s happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family’s history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.

MY RATING: 4.4

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK

“The Mind Cannot Be Chained”  

“Maybe all you can do is give yourself permission to embrace the rest of your life. To play, to love, to risk. To take the beauty that someone brought into your life and share it.”

“If life had taught them anything, it was that a person’s path still could be lit by moments of joy, even after unspeakable loss.” 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charmaine Wilkerson is an American writer who has lived in Jamaica and is now based in Italy. A graduate of Barnard College and Stanford University, she is a former journalist whose award-winning short stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Black Cake is her first novel.

Bibliography:

• Black Cake