My mom says I always had my head in a book. In fact, I got in trouble once for reading a questionable book while sitting in the choir stand at church. I’ve always been a reluctant rule-follower. Reading allowed me to explore worlds that I wasn’t allowed to talk about, let alone visit. Even now, as an adult, my life is pretty boring. But the books I read and the stories I write—that’s where it all goes down, baby!
First off, let me say that this is one of the few books where I watched the movie AND STILL read the book because I didn’t want the experience to end.
That said, this story starts off with two siblings (older brother Byron and younger sister Benny) at odds after their mother’s death. Simple enough premise. But the flashbacks, the food, the Caribbean history, and the secrets their parents kept from them made it so much more than a book about burying the hatchet after Momma leaves.
I love a good family secret in a book, and this one is bursting with several. This novel brought together several genres that I enjoy: historical fiction, fictional commentary on race relations, family drama, and food.
**Featured on Barack Obama's Summer Reading List 2022** **A Grazia Instagram 'IT' book to watch out for** **Soon to be a major Hulu series by Oprah Winfrey, Aaron Kaplan and Marissa Jo Cerar**
Everyone wants to discover what they're made of . . . The compelling and beautifully written story about the inheritance of the secrets, betrayal and memories that shape one family for generations
'A story as meaningful as it is delicious. At turns delightfully juicy and then stunningly wise, Black Cake is a winner' TAYLOR JENKINS REID
This was a feel-good read about a 3-generation rivalry between two sisters in a small town involving fried chicken. (You cannot go wrong with southern food in a novel, I’m just saying.)
What I thoroughly enjoyed about this book was how the plot got thicker and thicker, revealing the backstory throughout the story in a way that made me #TeamAmanda one minute and #TeamMae the next. I like digging deep into a character’s life, and this one did so in a way that made me sympathetic to both sisters, rooting for their reunion until the very end.
I’m trying my best not to give away the ending…suffice it to say; it helped me reframe my thinking around getting to the heart of a long feud that started before you even got here.
"A charming, hilarious, feel-good story about the kind of bonds & rivalries only sisters can share. Also, a great present for your sister for the holidays!!"--Reese Witherspoon
Three generations. Two chicken shacks. One recipe for disaster.
In tiny Merinac, Kansas, Chicken Mimi's and Chicken Frannie's have spent a century vying to serve up the best fried chicken in the state--and the legendary feud between their respective owners, the Moores and the Pogociellos, has lasted just as long. No one feels the impact more than thirty-five-year-old widow Amanda Moore, who grew…
Whew–this family took me through some changes! This was my first novel by Sunny Hostin, which lived up to all the hype.
First of all, Martha’s Vineyard. The setting alone is intriguing because of the history of the elite Black inhabitants of the land. Secondly, I knew some secret would come out when these three goddaughters were called to the property for one last summer together.
The setting and plot alone had me hooked from the beginning, and I kept reading to learn more about each character’s pain and promise.
The View cohost and New York Times bestselling author Sunny Hostin dazzles with this brilliant novel about a life-changing summer along the beaches of Martha's Vineyard.
Welcome to Oak Bluffs, the most exclusive Black beach community in the country. Known for its gingerbread Victorian-style houses and modern architectural marvels, this picturesque town hugging the sea is a mecca for the crème de la crème of Black society—where Michelle and Barack Obama vacation and Meghan Markle has shopped for a house for her mom. Black people have lived in this pretty slip of the Vineyard since the…
Just wow. The siblings in this book are super-angry with their brother, whose addictions and reckless behavior racked up huge bills, eating through the joint inheritance they were all counting on to deal with their own bad (but perhaps less shameful) behaviors.
I loved the complexity of this book. The bad brother—and let’s be clear that he was definitely a piece of work—was such a scapegoat for everyone else’s issues. I loved learning about the characters’ hidden flaws, watching the hypocrisy unfold, and seeing them all work through their anger and their differing versions of their childhood.
It’s another reminder that people can grow up in the same house with the same parents and take vastly different routes in life.
'I couldn't stop reading or caring about the juicy and dysfunctional Plumb family' AMY POEHLER
'A masterfully constructed, darkly comic, and immensely captivating tale...Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney is a real talent' ELIZABETH GILBERT
When black sheep Leo has a costly car accident, the Plumb siblings' much-anticipated inheritance is suddenly wiped out. His brother and sisters come together and form a plan to get back what is owed them - each grappling with their own financial and emotional turmoil from the fallout. As 'the nest' fades further from view, they must decide whether they will build their…
I adore quirky characters, and the author nails it with the main character, Fern Castle. (Fern immediately reminded me of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant.)
The author dropped hints of a super-dark secret between Fern and her sister, Rose, in the very first chapters, and I was hooked from that moment on. I love complex relationships in the middle of a flashback mystery.
Sisters Rose Tillman and Marvina Nash haven’t spoken in decades—not since Rose sent Marvina $40 to register their business, and Marvina used that money for her own personal purposes. But she’s gonna need her sister’s help to make it happen. Marvina has her own version of what caused their falling out, and it’s a far cry from what Rose recalls.
As the sisters fight their way to forgiveness through this tale rich with Southern charm, they unpack their complicated past, form an unexpected alliance with a young mother-to-be, and reconnect through the tantalizing aroma of chicken dinners that hold the power to heal—or divide—a community.
I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.
Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.
Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…
A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.
Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…
