Sugar by Bernice McFadden

Sugar
by Bernice L. McFadden
Plume (January 2000)
229 pages
Historical Fiction
Source: Received from author (thanks, Bernice!)

Summary in a Sentence:

Pearl Taylor, a church-going wife and mother in 1950s Bigelow, Arkansas, and her new neighbor Sugar, a young prostitute, form an unlikely friendship that changes their lives and the lives of everyone in their small community.

My Thoughts:

I first heard of Sugar when I read Mel's review over at Gerbera Daisy Diaries. I knew this was a book I wanted to read, and soon. Coincidentally, Ms. McFadden emailed me about 2 weeks later asking if she could send me a copy of her book. I responded with an emphatic 'yes'! Most books don't usually make me cry or elicit an extremely strong response within me, but this one most definitely did both.

The mood of the book is set immediately as it opens with the horrific murder of Jude Taylor. This murder becomes an integral part of the storyline concerning Sugar and Jude's mother, Pearl Taylor. Sugar and Pearl are probably a most unlikely pair of friends- Sugar is a rough and tumble, brash and in-your-face young woman who sells her body, where Pearl is a complacent, obedient, docile housewife who has been quietly nursing her grief over her daughter's death for well over a decade.

"Knowing each other's past helped both Pearl and Sugar. Secret pains, now told, bonded the women together tighter than anything else in this world."

Despite their differences, Pearl and Sugar develop a familial bond in which they confide in one another, much to the chagrin of Pearl's fellow church friends.Inevitably, small-town gossip ensues.

Sugar is a gritty story, full of crime, murder, sex, and secrets. Despite its sometimes graphic content, do not be put off. There is a dignity and grace in the writing that to me is reminiscent of Morrison and Hurston. McFadden has captured the feel of the 1950s Deep South and the people that inhabited it.


~ I read this book for the Women Unbound Challenge  and the What's In A Name Challenge~

You might also like:

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Push by Sapphire
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Other Reviews: 

• Gerbera Daisy Diaries
• Brown Girl Speaks 
• Baby Got Books
• Book Nut

Books by Theme: Nonfiction Art Reads

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Ross King's account of the four years that Michelangelo spent painting the Sistine Chapel frescoes, is a grand mix of history and biography. Readers learn about Michelangelo's problems with health and money, his difficult patron, Pope Julius II, and his rivalry with the young Raphael. King also paints a fascinating picture of 16th-century Rome, inhabited by such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Savonarola, and Machiavelli.

Jonathan Harr's The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece traces dual paths to the The Taking of Christ. The first follows two graduate art students from Rome, the other a restorer at the National Gallery of Ireland who is assigned an old painting of unknown origin. As the story unfolds, readers are drawn deep into the world of archival research and the life of Caravaggio.
discovery of Caravaggio's


 

Francine Prose explores the complex dynamics between the artist and his muse in The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired. In these nine profiles, she analyzes the lives of women who had the luck, or misfortune, to connect their destiny with that of a famous artist. Among the muses are Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland; Lou Andreas Salome, who fascinated Nietzsche, Rilke, and Freud; Gala, the wife of Salvador Dali; and John Lennon's Yoko Ono.

As is the case with I Was Vermeer, some real-life stories are more fantastic than anything Hollywood can invent. That a mid-20th-century artist could create forgeries that fooled the entire art world is the extraordinary story of Dutch art forger Hans van Meegeren (1889–1947). Recognizing that very few Johannes Vermeer paintings were known in his time and that there were no known early Vermeers, Meergeren realized he could create works that could not be compared to any authenticated Vermeer. Those fakes fooled everyone—art scholars, museum curators, and Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Göring included. Meegeren's deception was only discovered when he confessed it in court to save himself. London-based journalist and literary translator Wynne uses his journalistic skills to present a remarkable story that is part mystery, part adventure, part biography, and part courtroom drama. His thorough research and accomplished writing style bring this unique event in art history to the general public. 

What are your favorite nonfiction books about art and artists?

~ For more themed book lists, check out Listless by One Librarian's Book Reviews and Listed by Once Upon a Bookshelf ~

The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Day:

"Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors."

—John F. Kennedy

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Today in Literary History:

On this day in 1967 Alice B. Toklas died, at the age of eighty-nine. Toklas spent her last twenty-one years without Gertrude Stein, but with the same idiosyncratic devotion to Stein's genius as she had throughout their thirty-three years together. This did not protect her from those managing Stein's estate, and at eighty-seven she was evicted from the flat which the two had shared for decades.

For more literary history, please visit Today in Literature.

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Literary Pic:

 

© 2008 Wilbur Pierce

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Book on my Radar:

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

Book I: The Mysterious Howling

by Maryrose Wood

Balzer + Bray (February 23, 2010)

272 pages

Children's Fiction (Grades 4-6)

 

Summary in a Sentence:

Fifteen-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley, a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is hired as governess to three young children who have been raised by wolves and must teach them to behave in a civilized manner quickly, in preparation for a Christmas ball.

Read the reviews: A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy | Welcome to my Tweendom

5 Minute Factoids: The Boston Massacre

On this day in 1770, a tense situation because of a heavy British military presence in Boston boiled over to incite brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually led to troops discharging their muskets after being attacked by a rioting crowd. Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting, eleven were injured, and two died after the incident. The legal aftermath of the Boston Massacre helped spark the rebellion in some of the British American colonies, which culminated in the American Revolution (Wikipedia).

Fascinating Facts:

• It all started from a wig! The Massacre started when young wigmaker's apprentice named Edward Gerrish called out to a British officer on duty, Captain Lieutenant John Goldfinch, that he had not paid his master's bill.

• Another fatal incident occurred just few days before the Boston Massacre. Christopher Seider was shot dead on February 22, 1770 in a fight between the mob and the British loyalists that started from throwing rocks at the shop of a Loyalist merchant.

• After the Massacre many believed that Captain Preston was the one who gave the order to fire on the crowd. But the subsequent trial decided that Preston could not have ordered to fire, as he was standing in front of the guns, between his men and the crowd of protesters. 

• John Adams wasn’t the only defense counsel. Another member of the team, Josiah Quincy, Jr, conducted questioning of some witnesses. Yet another counselor, Robert Auchmuty, carried out parts of the summation for the jury.

• During the trials, under British law, the defendants weren’t allowed to speak as witnesses on their own behalf. This was because they had an interest in the case.

Still interested? Check out this book: 

As If An Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of the Revolution
by Richard Archer
Oxford University Press, 2010
304 pages

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Fallen Angels
by Walter Dean Myers
Scholastic, 1988
309 pages
Young adult historical fiction
Library Copy

Summary in a Sentence:

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

My thoughts:

"...For all the angel warriors who fall."

Richie Perry is the face of so many young men who fought in the Vietnam War. Raised in Harlem, Richie joins the army in 1967, hoping for a better future. With no money saved for college, Richie finds foreign jungles more palatable than the streets of Harlem.

Richie and his fellow soldier friends are extremely unprepared for the harsh realities of war. They find that the definition of 'enemy' is not as cut and dried as they once pictured and chaos ensues during much of Richie's stay in Vietnam.

"We spent another day lying around. It seemed to be what the war was about. Hours of boredom, seconds of terror."

In one of the more terrifying scenes of ambush, so many American soldiers are killed that the remaining boys are forced to burn the bodies rather than body bag and carry them back to the pick-up point. Richie sees the dead boys being burned: "They were me. We wore the same uniform, were the same height, had the same face. They were me, and they were dead." Although this book obviously doesn't glorify war, it doesn't make the judgment call of condemning it, either. Myers presents facts and raw emotion in this narrative, and the language isn't for the faint of heart. Although this book was marketed for young adults, I think I appreciated it even more as an adult.

~ Read for the Vietnam Challenge ~

Bonus: I met Walter Dean Myers at the ALA annual conference last year! Here's a pic:

Also Recommended:

• Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers (a sequel of sorts)
• Full Service by Will Weaver
• Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

Other Reviews:

• A View from a Librarian  
• Page Pals 
• TeenReads

Books by Theme: Autism in fiction

In light of the fact that April is Autism Awareness Month, I thought I'd feature some great reads that focus on the autism spectrum and feature autistic characters so you guys can run out and put them on reserve for next month : )
    

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon 

Christopher John Francis Boone, 15, lives in England and has autism. He likes his world to be neat, orderly, routine, and predictable. Then his neighbor’s dog is found dead, which upsets the balance. As Christopher works to solve the mystery, he discovers a secret that his father has been keeping. As Christopher faces the deception, readers see how Christopher processes information and the feelings that the betrayal bring to the surface. He is truly courageous in this singular mystery/coming-of-age tale.


Al Capone Does My Shirts 
by Gennifer Choldenko

"Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water." So narrates 12-year-old Moose in this School Library Journal Best Book of 2004 set in 1935 on Alcatraz Island when gangster Al Capone is an inmate working in the prison laundry. Readers learn how Moose and his family ended up on Alcatraz—his father took a job as a prison guard so that Natalie, Moose’s sister, could attend the Ester P. Marinoff School for students with autism. The story addresses how having a sister with autism affects a sibling’s life more than autistic Natalie herself; Choldenko portrays both aspects of the story well. A humorous treat for siblings of people with autism and an entertaining read for all.

Rules
by Cynthia Lord

If the bathroom door is closed, knock! Say "thank you" when someone gives you a present (even if you don’t like it). No toys in the fish tank! These are just a few of the rules that 12- year-old Catherine has written for her autistic brother David to help him navigate the world and look "normal." Yet having a brother with autism takes a lot of "normal" out of life. Catherine loves David but is embarrassed by him and resents the amount of time and energy he requires of her parents. Befriending a boy with a different disability helps Catherine work through her feelings. An honest look at life in a family touched by autism from a rarely-heard-from perspective; an excellent read for siblings affected by autism.

Daniel Isn't Talking
by Marti Leimbach

The challenges of parenting are many; so are the joys. When a child is diagnosed with autism, both the challenges and the joys are doubled. Melanie fears there is something dreadfully wrong with her son, Daniel. He doesn’t talk, he doesn’t play with toys, and he screams for hours. Melanie tries to talk to her husband, Stephen, about her fears, but Stephen is sure that Daniel will be fine. This is the story of Melanie’s fight to diagnose Daniel and to help him, with or without Stephen. An intimate, wrenching look at how autism can bring out the best and the worst in people and how they survive and triumph.

~  For more themed book lists, check out Listless by One Librarian's Book Reviews and Listed by Once Upon a Bookshelf ~