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The Kitchen House

Kathleen Grissom

Start date: August 22, 2016

Finish date: August 30, 2016

Discussion: Books of the Month

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What Members Thought

Dec 08, 2010 Bonnie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-books, historical-fiction

There are a few historical time periods that I just have trouble really enjoying in historical fiction form. One is the Holocaust. Another is American slavery. There are a lot of books written about those time periods, and it's very hard to find an author who finds new stories to tell during these periods, or new ways to tell the same story. And there's only so many times I want to read the same depressing story again, and again.

The Kitchen House is a perfectly competent story. It read fast, and ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2017 Marla Cosner rated it really liked it

This book was praised by Alice Walker and suggested to those who enjoyed "The Help." I really enjoyed parts of the narratives, but the consistent depths of sorrow that Grissom plunged into again and again just broke the reader without giving a hope on the horizon. However, there are several characters that just make the book--and make it worth the read. Just guard your heart. I know that there was little to celebrate in the life of slavery--it's just that some of the stereotypes were played a li ...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Shannon rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Just finished and while I thought it was written well and I liked the two perspectives, I was consistently baffled and frustrated that not one person mentioned to Marshall that Belle was his sister. Seems like that one piece of missing information was the driving force for the whole story and all of the terrible things that happened and I don't buy that he could have lived his whole life without someone telling him. ...more

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