Cover Crush: Treeborne by Caleb Johnson

Hello, my name is Colleen and I am a cover slut. I know, I know....you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover. I just can't help myself! A beautiful cover draws my eye every single time and I can't help but pick up the book it's dressing and see if the inside seems as intriguing as the outside. Sometimes it does, and sometimes a pretty cover is just a pretty cover. Either way, I love getting an eyeful!

One of my favorite bloggers, Erin at Flashlight Commentary, created a weekly blog post called Cover Crush and she and some other blogger friends are sharing their favorite covers each Thursday. You'll find my Cover Crush selection below and I'll link to everyone else's at the end of the post.

So, without further ado, my Cover Crush this week is.....

 

 

 

 

I've got some more gorgeous flowers for you! Look at the detail on the petals and how they flow down the branch. I love how the title of the book mirrors the flow of the flowers and seems to twist around the picture, making it almost part of the organic nature of the image. The colors are also so soft and inviting! This is the kind of cover I'd want to frame and put on my wall!

 

Read on to see what the book is all about....

 

In the tradition of Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish and Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist comes a debut novel of an unusual family who have made their home at the margins of an unusual place.

Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked, and where the peaches they left behind now grow, Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms, and frantic change—and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta’s legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death throws the town into chaos; of her lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time when Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart.

As the world closes in on Elberta, Caleb Johnson’s debut novel lifts the veil and offers one last glimpse. Treeborne is a celebration and a reminder: of how the past gets mixed up in thoughts of the future; of how home is a story as much as a place.

Don't forget to check out what covers my blogger buddies are drooling over this week (updated as they become available):


Magdalena at A Bookaholic Swede
Erin at Flashlight Commentary
Heather at The Maiden's Court
Stephanie at Layered Pages
Holly at 2 Kids and Tired




Created by Magdalena of A Bookaholic Swede

 

 

 

Audiobook Review: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Publisher: Random House Audio
Pub. Date: June 6th, 2017
Length: 14 hours, 28 minutes

Genre: Historical Fiction / Dual Timeline

Synopsis

Two families, generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice in this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, for fans of Orphan Train and The Nightingale.


Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility's cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family's long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.


Based on one of America's most notorious real-life scandals - in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country - Lisa Wingate's riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

What Did I Think About the Story?

It's been a number of weeks since I finished listening to this audiobook and it's taken that time to fully wrap my head around everything that happened within this story and my feelings towards it. Having not read anything by Lisa Wingate before I'm not really sure what I was expecting, other than knowing it had really good reviews and, from the synopsis, sounded like it would be a dual timeline story much like I've enjoyed before. What I discovered was an unbelievably heartbreaking story told with sensitivity and care and expressed through two remarkable narrators.

As with many dual timeline stories my heart lies with the storyline taking place in the past. Rill is a remarkably compelling and sympathetic character and there were a number of times while listening to her story that I nearly broke down in tears. It was absolutely devastating listening to the loss, abuse, dashed hopes, and separation from those she loved that Rill experienced again and again. These children, forcefully removed from everything they had ever known and loved, had to live in constant fear of being attacked and abused, going without proper food, clothing, and hygiene, and were forced to lie to those they came into contact with on the off chance that the lies being told to them - that they would be reunited with their parents - might come to fruition. I kept saying to myself "no way, this cannot have actually happened", but, as I discovered when reading the wonderfully informative author notes at the back of the book, it in fact did. It is so hard for me to wrap my head around someone (multiple people actually) who are sadistic enough to put children through what these children went through in this story. Truly, truly heartbreaking and so tenderly told in Lisa Wingate's capable hands.

Avery's story was wonderful as well, but for completely different reasons. Trying to figure out exactly how, and through whom, the two stories were connected kept an air of mystery flowing as the story progressed. Seeing Avery balance her need to find out the dark secrets in her family's past with her need to protect her family's good name was commendable and, it seemed at times, something that might not be possible. I also enjoyed seeing her transformation from the perfect daughter who always did exactly what was expected of her into a strong woman able to make decisions based on what she wanted out of life, including who to love. It is also through her storyline that we see a loose connection drawn between what happened to these poor children in the past and the very real and horrible treatment of the poor elderly in nursing homes today. In both instances we see the rich getting what they want or need and the poor forced to suffer what is given to them by those that just don't care. Avery's story was the driving force pushing the reader to discover these atrocities and, somehow, also a way to bring closure and hope for a better future for all involved (or at least those still living in Avery's storyline).

The narrators were truly amazing! Both narrators (Emily Rankin and Catherine Taber) made you feel what the characters were thinking and feeling and wholly brought the separate worlds of Rill and Avery alive. I think they, as much as the writing, made this such a beautiful story.

Before We Were Yours is both heartbreaking and heartwarming fiction. I'm not sure that I will ever forget these fictional characters, nor will I forget the very real atrocities they represented. I would recommend this to everyone. This is a devastating part of history everyone should learn about and no one should forget.

What Did I Think About the Cover?

This cover is so soft and sweet and tender that it nearly breaks my heart! Before reading the story I thought it was very cute - with the beautiful pastel coloring, cute towheaded little girls, one clutching the teddy bear, the soft-focus background - but now, having finished the story, I can't help picturing Rill and one of her sisters staring longingly at the water that, somewhere, has to hold her family. It really is just a beautiful, heartbreaking cover.


My Rating: 5.0/5.0

I borrowed a copy of Before We Were Yours from my library's Overdrive account. All opinions are mine alone. To find more information about the book, including other reviews and links to where you can purchase a copy, please see Goodreads HERE.

 

 



Spotlight on ONE GOOD MAMA BONE by Bren McClain + Giveaway!!

Publisher: Story River Books / The University of South Carolina Press
Pub. Date: February 14, 2017
Pages: 280

Foreword by Mary Alice Monroe


Set in early 1950s rural South Carolina, One Good Mama Bone chronicles Sarah Creamer’s quest to find her “mama bone,” after she is left to care for a boy who is not her own but instead is the product of an affair between her husband and her best friend and neighbor, a woman she calls “Sister.” When her husband drinks himself to death, Sarah, a dirt-poor homemaker with no family to rely on and the note on the farm long past due, must find a way for her and young Emerson Bridge to survive. But the more daunting obstacle is Sarah’s fear that her mother’s words, seared in her memory since she first heard them at the age of six, were a prophesy, “You ain’t got you one good mama bone in you, girl.”

When Sarah reads in the local newspaper that a boy won $680 with his Grand Champion steer at the recent 1951 Fat Cattle Show & Sale, she sees this as their financial salvation and finds a way to get Emerson Bridge a steer from a local farmer to compete in the 1952 show. But the young calf is unsettled at Sarah’s farm, crying out in distress and growing louder as the night wears on. Some four miles away, the steer’s mother hears his cries and breaks out of a barbed-wire fence to go in search of him. The next morning Sarah finds the young steer quiet, content, and nursing a large cow. Inspired by the mother cow’s act of love, Sarah names her Mama Red. And so Sarah’s education in motherhood begins with Mama Red as her teacher.

But Luther Dobbins, the man who sold Sarah the steer, has his sights set on winning too, and, like Sarah, he is desperate, but not for money. Dobbins is desperate for glory, wanting to regain his lost grand-champion dynasty, and he will stop at nothing to win. Emboldened by her lessons from Mama Red and her budding mama bone, Sarah is fully committed to victory until she learns the winning steer’s ultimate fate. Will she stop at nothing, even if it means betraying her teacher?

McClain’s writing is distinguished by a sophisticated and detailed portrayal of the day-to-day realities of rural poverty and an authentic sense of time and place that marks the best southern fiction. Her characters transcend their archetypes and her animal-as-teacher theme recalls the likes of Water for Elephants and The Art of Racing in the Rain. One Good Mama Bone explores the strengths and limitations of parental love, the healing power of the human-animal bond, and the ethical dilemmas of raising animals for food.

Praise for One Good Mama Bone

A Pulpwood Queen May 2017 Book Club Pick

A Southern Independent Booksellers’ Association Okra Pick


“First-time novelist McClain draws on her family’s history in the rural South to create a cast of deeply relatable characters, both human and animal, who readers will find themselves rooting for until the very last page.”—Booklist, starred review

"Emotional bonds between humans and animals have long been written about, but never has the bond between a woman and a mother cow been placed front and center. It’s about time. The world is ready for this true portrait of a mother cow’s compassion and the lessons she has to teach us all. This is an important story whose time has come."—Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary

“In spite of being an animal lover all my life and feeling the centrality of that love in how I see the larger world, I have never directly addressed that theme in my writing. I no longer have to. Bren McClain’s brilliant and ravishingly moving One Good Mama Bone speaks eloquently for all of us who find our deepest humanity intimately connected with all the sentient creatures around us. Humane and universal, One Good Mama Bone is an instant classic.”—Robert Olen Butler

“McClain’s first novel resists predictability and instead weaves together questions about poverty, class, violence, and religion. . . . A thought-provoking story about families and the animals who sustain them.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Bren McClain writes of elemental things with grace, wisdom, and power. One Good Mama Bone speaks with a quiet authority that comes through on every page."—Ben Fountain

“With One Good Mama Bone, McClain captures the rich heritage of her Southern roots. Drawing deeply from the well of her childhood memories she sculpts this story of love, loss, and unexpected redemption with the chiseled precision of a true artist. Mama Bone is a living Epistle of how deeply a mother loves and the sacrifices she will be forced to make to save her child. The perfect novel companion for a chilly day, to read by a cozy fire.” —River Jordan, Parnassus Books

“I LOVED THIS BOOK. I haven’t been so immersed in a place and time since…I dunno, Serena by Ron Rash. Also, thank you for the ending. Bittersweet to be sure, but sweet nonetheless. I can’t wait to get this in the store and hand-sell it. It was heartbreaking and beautiful and so very real.”—Angel Schroeder, Sunrise Books

“I didn't want to put it down.”—NetGalley reviewer
"... southern fiction at its best."—Bookstalker

"Unexpected characters populate this compelling tale about Mama Red, a mama cow, whose maternal instincts toward her own calf influence a human, Sarah Creamer, to become a better mother to her son. Poignant and enjoyable!"—Steph Crowe, Page & Palette Bookstore

Buy the Book

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books A Million | Indiebound

About the Author



Bren McClain was born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, on a beef cattle and grain farm. She

has a degree in English from Furman University; is an experienced media relations, radio, and television news professional; and currently works as a communications confidence coach. She is a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project and the recipient of the 2005 Fiction Fellowship by the South Carolina Arts Commission. McClain won the 2016 William Faulkner –William Wisdom Novel-in-Progress for TOOK and was a finalist in the 2012 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Award for Novel-in-Progress for ONE GOOD MAMA BONE. This is McClain’s first novel.

McClain will be touring throughout the South as well as in other parts of the country. To learn more, please visit her author website, her FaceBook page, or connect with her on twitter.

It's Giveaway Time!!!



Thanks to Caitlin Hamilton Marketing I have one paperback copy of One Good Mama Bone to giveaway today (US only)! All you have to do is enter your name and email address on the giveaway form HERE. Please be sure to leave both your name and your email on the form so I can contact you if you are my winner (no email address, no entry!). For extra entries you can follow the blog in various ways (links are on the right hand sidebar) and leave the name/email you follow with on the form. That's it!

I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner on February 22nd, 2017 and will announce the winner here as well as email the winner. The winner will then have 48 hours to respond to my email with their full mailing address. If you have already won this giveaway on another site please let me know so I can pick a new winner and give someone else a chance to win a copy of this great book.

Good Luck!!

Audiobook Review: Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter

Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Pub. Date: April 26th, 2016
Length: 10 hours, 1 minute

Genres: Historical Fiction/Mystery/Southern Fiction

Synopsis

Althea Bell is still heartbroken by her mother’s tragic, premature death—and tormented by the last, frantic words she whispered into young Althea’s ear: Wait for her. For the honeysuckle girl. She’ll find you, I think, but if she doesn’t, you find her.
Adrift ever since, Althea is now fresh out of rehab and returning to her family home in Mobile, Alabama, determined to reconnect with her estranged, ailing father. While Althea doesn’t expect him, or her politically ambitious brother, to welcome her with open arms, she’s not prepared for the chilling revelation of a grim, long-buried family secret. Fragile and desperate, Althea escapes with an old flame to uncover the truth about her lineage. Drawn deeper into her ancestors’ lives, Althea begins to unearth their disturbing history…and the part she’s meant to play in it.

Gripping and visceral, this unforgettable debut delves straight into the heart of dark family secrets and into one woman’s emotional journey to save herself from a sinister inheritance.

What Did I Think About the Story? 

I have really been lucky lately with my selection of audiobooks! The last few I've listened to have all been exceptional, and Burying the Honeysuckle Girls is no exception. In this exhilarating Southern Gothic story, the reader gets to learn, along with its main character, Althea, the secrets that generations of her family have fought to hide. There's intrigue, murder, suspense, some mysticism, and so much more all wrapped up in a deceptive package of Southern charm.

The chapters of the story go back and forth in time between Althea in the present time trying to piece together the missing and disconnected threads of her family in order to hopefully forestall the devastating lunacy that seems to befall all women of her family on their 30th birthday, and her great-grandmother, Jinn, in the past as she nears her own 30th birthday and begins to question the life she's been living. Hearing these two women telling their own stories in their own timelines, I couldn't wait to see how the threads would come together. When they did I have to admit I wasn't quite prepared for the shocking revelations and hauntingly sad realizations unearthed.

One of my favorite aspects of the story was the Southern Gothic/mysticism interlaced through this very real and dangerous search for why the women in Althea's family all seem to go crazy - and often die - on their 30th birthdays. There is a good amount of reality-based issues going on - drug use, infidelity, racism, murder - but there's also this delicious other-worldly feeling and element that was both beautiful and intriguing as it tried to fit into the homegrown beliefs and practices of the old South.

The narrator, Kate Orsini, had a wonderful Southern accent, although she spoke pretty fast at times until it almost felt that Althea was manic (which might have been the point, now that I think of it). She did an excellent job of keeping the pace building with excitement, especially as it rounded the corner to the surprising end. I was also impressed at how well she did differentiating the voices of the various characters, both female and male, so that it was easy to know who was speaking, which can't be easy. I'd be interested to listen to more books she narrates, but it doesn't appear she has done too many to date.

In the end I was completely satisfied with Burying the Honeysuckle Girls.  Althea's search unmasked not only her family's dark secrets but overarching questions for society at large, such as where the line between sanity and insanity falls and who gets to decide where that line is, how a patriarchal community,  made up of good ol' boys, can damage a society for generations, and how far political ambition and power can go before the crimes committed by those with power are unearthed. With a tight and exhilarating mad-dash for truth leading to a satisfying if bittersweet conclusion, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls was a surprise hit for me. I'm in awe that this is Emily Carpenter's debut novel and I'm really excited to see what she comes up with next!  

What Did I Think About the Cover?

I think it's beautiful! I'm from the South and there are few things I find more tranquil and sentimental than a dirt road overhung with a canopy of trees. There is something about that dappled light that gets me every time! I also remember having honeysuckles near my home growing up and they give off one of the most enticing smells I know. So, probably needless to say, the cover comes to life for me! And of course we have the young woman on the cover, who I think is probably Althea but could be Jinn or a number of other women. Her staring off down that road makes me wonder at all the secrets and possible horrors that might be hiding around the corner for her (I only mention the horrors now that I've read the story...I didn't think this initially). I would easily be drawn to this book, even without reading the description, due to this cover.


My Rating: 4.5/5.0

I purchased a copy of Burying the Honeysuckle girls for my own collection. You can find more reviews and links to where you can purchase the book on Goodreads HERE.