Email this review to a friend.

Set in Chatham County North Carolina, Home Across the Road reveals the family saga of the white Redds, the black Redds and the one child born of mixed blood. The one child sold into slavery because he looked too much like his white ancestor. The one child sold after being falsely accused of stealing a pair of earrings. Earrings that eventually become a family heirloom that carries with it a curse. Told in multiple voices, this character rich story sweeps through a time period of slavery into the early seventies. Peacock's descriptive writing style makes it easy for readers to visualize Roseberry, the home of the white Redds, with it slave trod stairs, well-manicured wisteria vine and dark family secrets.

Reviewed by Vickie C., West Boulevard Branch

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Connie Briscoe's latest novel is a fictitious account of her ancestors who were slaves of President James Madison. Spanning three generations, the story begins on Madison's Montipelier Plantation in Virginia with Susie. It moves through the births, struggles and relationships of Susie's daughter, Clara and granddaughter, Susan. The author gives a realistic account of the hardships and problems inflicted by the Civil War on the people and economy of Richmond Virginia. Several historical events and figures are even incorporated into the novel. An excellent read for those who enjoy stories of love, courage, perseverance and the quest for freedom.

Reviewed by Michelle G., Matthews Branch

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Surprisingly enough Julie Dash wrote this novel several years after the release of her classic award-winning film of the same name. The novel not only expands upon the basic story but also explores each character in greater detail. In the 1920's native New Yorker, Amelia Varness decides to travel to the rural Sea Islands on the South Carolina coast to study her relatives for her master's thesis on Gullah culture. Much to her dismay she encounters a few obstacles. The author's descriptions and detail are such that you can almost feel the ocean breeze; smell the rich island vegetation and hear the calls of the wildlife. The Gullah language and culture are prominent throughout the book. Dash even includes recipes for home remedies and many Gullah legends.

Reviewed by Michelle G., Scaleybark Branch

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Simone Covington is a young, successful woman living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has a very fulfilling job as a paralegal and a wonderful relationship with her boyfriend, Cliff. Everything is going well for Simone but she can't enjoy it. She is summoned back to Otis, South Carolina to help her mother solve a mystery. Her mother has been named the beneficiary of her newly deceased neighbor's land. The problem is that everyone in town knows that her neighbor hated her, and it is soon discovered that the neighbor has been poisoned. Secrets, gossip and accusations cloud the path to the truth. Family history and heritage dominates this hometown tale of murder and deception.

Reviewed by Mercede W., Freedom Regional

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Author Gloria Naylor set this novel on the imaginary sea island of Willow Springs off the coast of South Carolina. Miranda (known to everyone as Mama Day) and her sister, Abigail are as ancient as the ways of the island. Mama Day has never had a child but has served as a midwife and doctor to the island people. Abigail has a granddaughter named Cocoa who lives with her husband in New York City. She returns every August to the island for a visit. Evil forces are unleashed when Cocoa brings her outsider husband to the island for the first time. As a result of this, Mama Day has to call on the powers of magic against the superhuman forces of nature and death.

Reviewed by Ann P., Independence Regional

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Far from the Tree gives powerful examples of how one's upbringing can determine their quality of life. The story unfolds through the eyes of Della and her past. The challenge is to solve the mystery of why she never wants to return to Prosper, North Carolina. The authors leap from Della’s past to where the story actually begins — the friction between her two daughters Celeste and Ronnie after the untimely death of their father. These two sisters are as different as night and day. Celeste is a social-climbing control freak who has obsessive concerns for material possessions. Ronnie is an unsuccessful actress who lives from paycheck to paycheck. The two sisters inherit a mysterious piece of property from their recently deceased father; a piece of property that was once their mother’s home. Mysterious secrets about their lives are revealed as they visit this new-found land. The old saying, "the apple does not fall far from the tree" is demonstrated poignantly through this family.

Reviewed by Dot S., Freedom Regional

See more titles featured in Carolina Stories

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The inhumanity of slavery has never before been depicted as it is in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison. The story revolves around Seth Suggs, a woman who murders her young child in a desperate attempt to save her from the degradations of slavery. Forced back into servitude, even Seth’s black community rejects her in light of the violent murder. Escaping in order to live free and raise her remaining children, Seth finds her new home haunted, which becomes the vortex around which the events of the novel unfold. Beloved is a vivid depiction of slavery’s horrors on the lives and psyches of its victims. Morrison peoples her novel with fully developed characters, not relying on storytelling conventions or stock characterizations. It is a unique portrayal of the suffering and devastation that is slavery’s legacy.

Reviewed by David S., University City Regional

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

See more titles featured in Historical Fiction

See more titles featured in Tear Jerkers

See more titles featured in Banned in the U.S.A.

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Jewell Parker Rhodes has written a wonderful fictional account of the personal life of renown abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In this compelling story Rhodes devotes alternate chapters to each of Douglass’ women. There is Anna Murray Douglass, his wife, and a freed slave who freely offers her money to Douglass to help facilitate his escape to the North. And there is Ottilie Assing who leaves Germany for America to help the cause. Assing has money and uses it freely to help support Douglass' cause. Because of his travels, Douglass is able to maintain an ongoing relationship with both women. Rhodes' novel takes on a rather slow pace but the plot, which transcends time, is well worth it. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Vickie C., West Boulevard Branch

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The year is 1920. Cora Harvey lives a very secure life in the black section of Rudell, Mississippi. At seventeen years old her life consists of her loving parents, Reverend and Mrs. Harvey, her father’s church, and the loving warmth of their congregation and community. But Cora has dreams. Dreams that she hides from her doting mother. Dreams of being something great. She also has a desire that bears the name of David Mackey, Rudell’s only black doctor. However, she is torn between her love for David and her desire to follow her dream. Then one night her world falls apart and she sinks into an abyss of despair. While swimming in this abysmal pit she makes a decision. A decision that would affect the rhythm of her life forever.

Reviewed by Annie J., West Boulevard Branch

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This novel tells the story of Ava Johnson, a former businesswoman living in Atlanta, who becomes stricken with the HIV virus. Ava decides to relocate to San Francisco, but passes through her hometown of Idlewild, Michigan, to visit her recently widowed sister, Joyce, before moving on to California. There in Idlewild, Ava assists her sister run a program for teenage mothers, and also meets the man of her dreams. Cleage does a superb job of weaving a contemporary love story, while at the same time addressing important social issues facing African-Americans, without being preachy. If you are looking for a fun and lighthearted novel, with social overtones, then this is a perfect choice.

Reviewed by LaJuan P., University City Regional

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Published in 2005, this book is an autobiographical look back for a man who was once a young white boy in Winston-Salem, NC in the early 1960s. But this plainly written narrative is unique. At age twelve, Gene Cheek was taken from his mother by the state because she had had a child with a black man. This was a felony in the state of North Carolina at the time. The Color of Love is a journey into the history of prejudice via Mr. Cheek's life. It gives a unique and touching perspective of the Jim Crow South and what it meant to be a “free” black. This is an essential American volume, no matter what your background.

Reviewed by Sarah L., Beatties Ford Road Branch

See more titles featured in Biographies and Memoirs

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The burdens of black women during the time of slavery was doubled, not only were the considered property because of their race, but also dominated because of their gender. Cane River reflects this duality in its portrayal of four generations of strong women destined to survive that thrive against all odds. Down the line from Elizabeth and Suzette to Philomene and Emily, each women exemplifies the personification of strength, determination and survival instinct. Beautifully told with sincerity and love, Tademy chronicles the steps of her ancestors with pride and awe. Including family photos and documents into the work, she weaves a story that is destined to become a modern classic. Her characters are so life-like they become not only old friends but also family.

Reviewed by Courtney A., South County Regional

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

See more titles featured in Historical Fiction

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

"Come closer. This is not a story to go down easy." So begins Lalita Tademy's work Red River in which she chronicles the lives of her paternal ancestors after the finality of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. By telling of the events of April 13, 1873, Tademy weaves an intricate tale of the lives of colored men, women and children after the Civil War and the battles that continued to rage for equality, including the massacre within the town of Colfax, Louisiana. Much like Cane River, this is once again a remarkable story of survival, integrity and love told by a woman descended from ordinary men and women. A woman who while discovering her family, created a new world for readers.

Reviewed by Courtney A., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Black History Month

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Thriving in the Shadows, a showcase of photographs and personal stories, describes the role of black citizens during Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s evolution after the Civil War. This story album is divided into six sections -- Home and Family, Education, Work, War and the Military, Religion, and Community – and portrays those remarkable individuals who laid the financial and political groundwork for future generations to build upon and prosper. Such strength and prosperity were evident in those black neighborhoods highlighted in the stories and pictures throughout this unique book. Unfortunately, today there are few signs visible that these black neighborhoods existed. “Historians lament the invisibility of this history, and the rest of us should, too,” writes Fannie Flono, author and associate editor for The Charlotte Observer.

Reviewed by Kim W., University City Regional

See more titles featured in Novello Festival Press

See more titles featured in African American life in the South

See more titles featured in 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.