Recommended Reads
The last two books that I’ve read have both been five star reads, absolutely brilliant. I’m a bit behind in reviews and suffering a bit of brain fog lately but I still wanted to recommend them to you all, even if it wasn’t via a full review. Both of these are ones I’ve purchased and read on my Kobo, not sent to me for review by the publishers and both are American titles.
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Meet the Stockton women of Brooklyn Heights: Darley, who was born with money; Sasha, who married into it; and Georgiana, who wants to give it all away.
Among glittering parties, weekend homes and hungover brunches, the three will have to grapple with the burden of parental expectations, the hardships and bewilderment of growing up, and the miles between the haves and have-nots.
Pineapple Street is a witty and wicked novel about New York’s one percenters: their first loves, family feuds and the complexities of being human – even when you have everything.
This was such an enjoyable read, witty, complex, and smart. I liked each of the Stockton women, even when they weren’t behaving at their best. There’s a lot more to this book than rich women agonising over how much money they have. It’s an honest look at the changing tide of what it means to have, to not have, and to want a make a difference in your life. It’s also a wonderful deep dive into family, the one you’re born into, and the one you marry into. Highly recommended.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theatre and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
This one started off a bit chaotic in terms of the number of characters that were being introduced and what their connections to each other and the greater story actually were. I am so glad I persevered with this one though because it turned to be utterly wonderful in so many ways. The connections, once they all started linking up, were brilliant. The characters memorable and moments throughout, over and over, so full of deep meaning. I read this one for my book club, we meet up later this week, and I am keen to find out what everyone else thought of it. This is exactly the type of fiction I love reading the most. The epilogue left me weeping with joy. Highly recommended.
