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.

 

 



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.

 

 



Review: Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Publication Date: July 14th, 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins
278 pages

Synopsis

From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience.

Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision--a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.

 

What Did I Think About the Story?

As soon as I heard a "new" novel by Harper Lee was coming out I instantly pre-ordered it. This is unusual for me as I tend to wait until closer to publication to order books by favorite authors or even wait until well after publication for those I know I will eventually want to read, but being that To Kill A Mockingbird is in the top five of my favorite novels of all time I knew I wanted it in my hands as soon as possible. After ordering it I began to read all the negative hype and backlash towards the book (I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about) and saw many fellow readers declaring they would not buy or read this novel that turned one of the iconic perfect fathers in literature into a racist. While I can completely understand their hurt and anger (I also grew up feeling Atticus was a shining example of what a man should be) I have never been one to shy away from reading something just because the subject matter might be hard to read or others seem against it. Without reading it I wouldn't be able to form my own opinion on its content or really know how it would affect my appreciation for To Kill A Mockingbird. So I dug in and devoured it at every free moment I had. Am I happy I read it? 100%. This is a wonderful companion to Harper Lee's classic work of art and, as the synopsis states, adds depth to those characters we all grew up loving.

When the novel opens, Jean Louise Finch is returning home to Maycomb, Alabama for her yearly two week visit. She's grown used to the big city and, while she has fond memories of the small town she grew up in and grudging respect for this place that never seems to change, from the get-go she seems almost ready for the visit to be over. There are things that pull on her to come home and stay - her father, her beau - but she's not sure if that's the life she wants. Then she discovers that none of the people, including the father that she's always kept on a pedestal of righteousness, are who she thought they were. I really don't want to give away too much about the actual plot, but suffice it to say that what she discovers regarding the opinions and beliefs of those she has cherished are not what she thought they were and she goes on the warpath to let her great indignation and disgust be known before she plans to leave for good. This isn't the end of the story and I won't give away how it ends but this is the main focus.

What I loved most about Go Set A Watchman was the way that everything Jean Louis was experiencing, every burst of shock, anger and disbelief, so well mirrored what I was feeling. How could these people not be who they had always been? Why had they changed? What has happened to bring about this great shift in reality? The answer, simply, is that nothing has actually changed other than the rose-tinted glasses of youth (which was what To Kill A Mockingbird was viewed through) have been removed and in the light of maturity and understanding this is the actual reality it has been all along.  Jean Louise, and we readers, are faced with the fact that no one is perfect and everyone is human and therefore flawed. This might be hard to swallow but it is true. The real test of maturity, and what Jean Louise comes to realize, is that we are each responsible for our own beliefs, opinions and actions and, while we can do everything we can to influence other people and try to show them the "correct" way to be, each individual is responsible for themselves and must face the choices and consequences that brings.  The overall theme I was left with after turning the last page is what is written in the Serenity Prayer: you must have the serenity to accept the things you cannot change (other people's beliefs), the courage to change the things you can (change the laws governing our society and punish those that break those laws) and the wisdom to know the difference. We shouldn't change our beliefs for anyone else and we shouldn't expect the reverse either. The key is to try to present information and reasonable arguments to influence those around us and, by doing so, illicit the changes that are needed. Burying your head in the sand or screaming your disgust and running away from a problem is never going to give you the results you want, but by rationally presenting your opinions and valid solutions to the issues you at least stand a chance at making a difference. Easier said that done, I know, especially when faced with views and opinions many of us find disgusting and heinous, but there you have it.

Do I think Go Set A Watchman is as good as To Kill A Mockingbird? No, not at all but I don't think that is necessarily a fair comparison either, especially given the fact that the latter  novel is such a treasure to me. However, I did enjoy seeing so many of these beloved characters again, even if I wasn't happy with all of them, and there were many lines I read over and over because they were beautifully written. This is an accurate depiction of many small Southern towns during the Civil Rights movement and presents a realistic view of the good and the bad that you would have found there. Harper Lee is a remarkable writer and I can only hope that she did intend for this  novel to be published (another one of those rumors floating around). I'll be thinking about this one for a while to come.

 

What Do I Think About the Cover?      

I like the sort of vintage style but other than that it doesn't really do anything for me. The author's  name is what would draw me to this one, no matter what the cover looked like.


My Rating: 4.0/5.0

What do you guys think? Have any of you read Go Set A Watchman yet? If so, what are your opinions about it? If not, do you plan to? Now that I've read it I'm really curious to hear what other people think! No spoilers please and be respectful of everyone's opinion (I wanted to add that just in case...I've read some pretty heated arguments about this one!).