2015 A-Z 'Deuces Wild ' Reading Challenge of African American Authors discussion

lets do a mini book review

title of book
three or more sentence summary
favorite character name and why
least favorite character and why
Why moment in the book, good or bad
rating A B C D or F.

The Arrangement by Shay Gray

A man (Terrance) is dying from lung cancer and comes up with an arrangement for his wife and the 2 mothers of his children to live in one house together for a period of time in order to have money left to them after his passing. Despite the woman not really caring for one another, he is adamant about this arrangement. The women all have their personal drama going on which weighs on their decision to go along with the arrangement.

Favorite character was Tanya, I felt for her being the current wife and she just seemed like a sweet person (until pushed). She seemed to want to avoid drama, I could relate.

Least favorite character was Amber's mother (her name escapes me), her racist demeanor irked me and when you find out why it doesn't make you feel better about her.

The "Why" moment for me was finding out 2 people who had a another plan going to try to get a piece of the pie from Terrance's money. It was a good why because it added another twist to the story. But there were more why moments in this story.

Rating: B-

Devout by Takerra Allen

I'm glad I read this for myself. Very touching story, that I and so many others could relate to. Although the ending was not bad close to the story, I feel that Tekerra should consider a book two.

Favorite Character was D-Rock, because he had a crazy, but sex swag that all the women loved.

Least Favorite Character: Celeste...I couldn't stand her. She would do anything to be with D-Rock.

Loved the ending and the authors reference to the song Brave by Jhene' Aiko.

Rating: A+

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

A story with several narrative voices, the main one being Bride, a young successful black woman who had previously been rejected by her mother due to the darkness of her skin. She was able to gain a measure of her mother's love by (falsely) testifying against an accused child molester. Bride is in a relationship with Booker, who is nursing hurts stemming from the rape & murder of his younger brother when they both children.

My favorite character would either be Sofia, the victim of Bride's false accusations or Booker. Booker because we have similar tastes in music and literature, I guess.

Least favorite character would be Brooklyn, Bride's white dreadlocked friend. She's a phony and it's quite clear the author is portraying her as such. She tries to hook up with Bride's boyfriend just to "test" him--yeah, right.

Why moment: When Booker and Bride get together later in the book, they have a love squabble that ends up with Bride hitting Booker over the head with a bottle, briefly knocking him unconscious. And they still get back together. Yeah, I'm passionate too but that's domestic violence and not cute in any way. This isn't Looney Tunes--you hit someone over the head with a bottle in real life you can kill them. In no way should that stuff ever be normalized.

Rating: I feel bad for doing it, but I'd give it a C. It has moments of beautiful description but I felt no emotional connection to the story or the characters, and the main character didn't seem real to me at all. Unless she's really that self-involved, which doesn't really appeal to me.