Letter R on The A to Z April Challenge 2014

Today’s letter on the April A to Z Challenge is R. My Book is Red Clay and Roses by S. K. Nicholls. Genre: Historical, Life & Relationships.

Red Clay and Roses by S.K. Nicholls

Book description-

A fictionalized true story of life in the Deep South during the time of Jim Crow Law, and before Roe vs. Wade. Women were supposed to keep quiet and serve, abortion was illegal, adoption difficult, and racism rampant. The discovery of an old ledger opens a window into the dynamics of the 1950s-60s. Unspoken secrets are shared between Beatrice, The Good Doctor’s wife, and Moses Grier, their black handyman. The Grier’s daughter, Althea, suffers a tragedy that leaves her family silent and mournful. Her brother, Nathan, a medical student, looks for answers from a community that is deaf, blind, and dumb. A summer romance between Nathan and Sybil, an independent, high-spirited, white woman, leaves more unresolved. Nathan is thrust into the centre of the Civil Rights Movement. Sybil is torn between living the mundane life of her peers, or a life that involves fastening herself to a taboo relationship. Witness social progress through the eyes of those who lived it!

You can read my review of the book here http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4Ge and find out more about the author from her guest post. http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4Hp

Find a copy of this book here;

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Find out more about S.K. Nicholls here;

Blog: http://redclayandroses1.wordpress.com/

Facebook author site:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/SK-Nicholls/352131918230990

Here are some links to other bloggers who are taking up the A to Z Challenge, please find the time to visit them too.

http://authorsusankoenig.wordpress.com/

http://alex-hurst.com/

http://www.claredavidson.com/blog/

During the challenge we are asking people to leave as many comments as possible on blogs, and supportive comments are much appreciated, thank you.

Red Clay and Roses by S.K.Nicholls

Red Clay and Roses by S.K. Nicholls

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Red Clay and Roses steps back in history to Georgia and the deep south at a time where people struggled to survive and where changes to segregation and inequality faced fierce resistance.

The stories within are written around an old accounting ledger, found many years later, after it was hidden away. Hannah Schmidt pieces together the events and lives of the characters who were associated with The Good Doctor. She interviews relatives and follows leads from which she tells the reader of the everyday lives of a group of people whose destinies became entangled. There is passion, love, fear and survival written over several decades during which the American nation was forced to change laws and move into a new direction.

We meet the Good Doctor who ran a double accounting system and provided a much needed, but illegal, abortion service. Mrs Bea, his wife, who was left alone after he died to face her own guilt about what the doctor did. Moses and his family are the black help who live in a shack on the Good Doctors land. The Good Doctor goes on to sponsor Nathan, Moses’ son, through school and sets him up to train as a doctor. Then there is Sybil, a young, independent white women who wants to start her own business running a salon in town.

The lives of the characters show some great hardships. There was such prejudice and fear of stepping over the acceptable line. This book is like a window in time which lets us peek at history in the making.

Find a copy on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews on Goodreads

S.K.Nicholls will be our guest on the blog tomorrow, do come back and read more about her and her book.

One Woman’s choice by Karen Whitaker

One Woman’s Choice by Karen Whitaker This book had a place in my 2013 April A to Z Challenge. Karen then invited me to read and review her work, which I have the pleasure of providing for you below.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Karen Whitaker’s book reveals her life from its start in the 1960’s in America, it was a challenging life at times, filled with struggles including; prejudice, single parenting, step children, half-brother and sisters. We feel Karen’s pain as she grows up in an extended family where love was often needed more than it was given. Karen’s family, peers and religion shape some of her later choices involving abortion, adoption and her own single parenting. Karen hopes that her book will help others who find themselves with similar choices to make in their own lives.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Womans-Choice-Karen-Whitaker/dp/1475952155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367170677&sr=8-1&keywords=One+Woman%27s+choice+by+karen+whitaker

View all my reviews