The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Read February 2024 - Zoom Reading Circle

This book seems slow moving... until it doesn’t.  It feels meandering, until you realize you are being introduced to an entire community - becoming more than just voyeur somehow - but truly attuned to all the nuances of it.  The weaving together of each story, each history, each intersection of relationship - and how it all creates this community of Chicken Hill... is masterful.  Especially by the end when many of those disparate figure's actions unite to help one poor soul.  I definitely want to read more by James McBride.  This book has been called a ‘great American novel’ and I agree.

I give it 4.5 stars but that could well move to 5 stars as it sits with me (and I sit with it).  Zoom Reading Circle rated it 4 stars. 

Note I sent to a friend recommending the book - 

You might enjoy the book Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.  First I have read by him.  Heart breaking and hopeful… ultimately about the power of forming community.

Discussion questions we looked at as a group...

3. Moshe desegregated the local theater by booking Black entertainers for Black audiences, and McBride writes in detail about the famous acts that played there. How courageous do you think Moshe had to be to do this? Have you ever tried to change the traditions of a place or an organization? 

9. The escape the characters engineered to extract Dodo from Pennhurst was possible thanks to the relationships they had with others in their community. How important do you think community was in these characters’ lives?

Quote from NYT article - 

And through this evocation, McBride offers us a thorough reminder: Against seemingly impossible odds, even in the midst of humanity’s most wicked designs, love, community and action can save us.

I found this marvelous book guide including subjects to consider, a character list, and historical information. 

https://www.marmaladeandmustardseed.com/bookguidesblog/the-heaven-and-earth-grocery-store

I thought this was another good article - 

https://reformedjournal.com/the-heaven-and-earth-grocery-store-a-novel/

An NPR review of the book - 

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/14/1188327549/james-mcbride-heaven-earth-grocery-store-review

James McBride introducing the book on CBS Mornings

Black Cake

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Read February 2024 - Zoom Reading Circle

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

This was an excellent book!  It was in the running for our Zoom Reading Circle summer 2022 but didn’t quite make it to the top.  So I was thrilled when it was chosen for our ‘fill in’ month of Feb.  

The story follows a woman named Eleanor Bennett, who before she dies leaves an audio for her two children sharing about her childhood and into her young adult years.  She tells them secrets she has kept for her whole life and asks both their forgiveness and offers a request for moving forward.  All of this plays out against the ‘then and now’ story-telling of a young girl growing up in the Caribbean and the various hardships she faced (and what made her flee), to Byron and Benny’s stories in more modern times.  The author slowly unfolded a story that held me rapt throughout... rooting for the main characters and marveling at their resiliency.  This was a 5 star read for me, for sure.  Zoom Reading Circle rated this book 4.7 stars. 

This is now a mini-series on Hulu and I do plan to watch.  But wanted to read the book first.  Glad I did! 

Some of my favorite passages from the book...

And what about a person’s life?  How do you make a map of that?  The borders people draw between themselves. The scars left along the ground of one’s heart. 

Sometimes, the stories we don’t tell people about ourselves matter even more than the things we do say. 

...but she saw that who you knew yourself to be on the insdie was not the same as how others saw you.  Who you knew yourself to be wasn’t always enough to help you make it in this world. 

...nothing else she did would ever bas as important as this, this raising up of a decent young person and sending them into the world.  Because the world needed decent, even more than it needed brillian, which her son also happened to be. 

Terrain and climate aside, food was often about who had colonized whom, who had been based where during wartime, who had been forced to feed what to their children when there was nothing else left.  And, of course, it was about geography, too. 

The three of them sit there silently for a moment, thinking nof small but profound inheritances.  Of how untold stories shape people’s lives, both when they are withheld and when they are revealed. 

Note from author - ...black cake, that led obliquely to this book.  It started me thinking about the emotional weight carried by recipes and other familial markers that are handed down from one generation to the next. 

from book club questions - The thing about identity. There’s your family history, there’s how you see yourself, and then there’s what others see in you.”

Discussion Questions our group looked at - among the general discussion (this book spurred a lot of that!) 

Wilkerson writes, “Sometimes, the stories we don’t tell people about ourselves matter even more than the things we do say.” What does this mean in your life?

One of the characters in this book believes her father has stolen her destiny. Is such a thing possible?

At some point in this book, every character is an outsider. What makes each of them feel as if he or she belongs — or is at least standing on firm ground?

Following up on that very interesting thought about what we share and what we don’t... especially regarding our children... this article...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/books/group-text-black-cake-charmaine-wilkerson.html 

I am sometimes wary of movies or TV shows made from books... but this one looks pretty good.  Here are two trailers...

New York Times article about this book...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/books/group-text-black-cake-charmaine-wilkerson.html

The Art of Dying Well

The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life by Katy Butler

Read February 2024 - Well Read Book Club

The Art of Dying Well

I had read this book several years ago, before my own Mama died, and thought it was so important and worth the read.  Going through it again now was a completely new experience.  This book is like that.  It will truly meet you ‘where you are’.  And as we age, we are at a different point each time we read it.  It is not just about ‘dying’, but about how to live out our years with the highest quality of life possible.  It is about taking charge of our health, our finances, and our wishes for our future now, and not just later.  

This time around I read it just after a grueling hospitalization experience with my Daddy.  I felt both appalled and empowered by her words.  We had ended up fighting to leave the hospital because we felt Daddy was being ‘nursing-homed’ (not a word, I know, but an accurate description of what we believe was happening to him).  She talks about the difficulties navigating the healthcare system, especially for the elderly - and things to be watchful for and actions to take if possible.  I was affirmed that our decisions were the correct ones (of course we knew this based on his immediate improvement upon returning home) and yet appalled that this is a common scenario for so many.  :( 

I appreciate that it is informative, practical, and helps you not only think about things you could and should be doing, but provides some structure (and lists) for things to do.  It also invites you to think about topics and wishes well before it is a crisis... which is truly the best time to be thinking about such things.  This is a book that I will likely work my way through again in a few years.  

The Lemon Tree

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan

Read February 2024 - Books With Friends

This is a book that I believe everyone should read.  I knew that I didn’t know much about the middle east, but wow... this book enlightened me in ways far beyond my imagining.  The author manages to inform us about the history of both sides - the Palestinian history and the Jewish history.  That is so important.  The awful part is you begin to realize how deep the conflict is and how there really doesn’t seem to be a ‘good solution’.  Heartbreaking in so many ways.  

Note - there is also a Young Readers version of this book.  That seems very important to me.  

The book begins in 1967 with a young Palestinian man, Bashir Al-Khayri, returning to Israel to his childhood family home and ringing the doorbell.  Years earlier his family had fled (or been pushed out) and a Jewish family escaping WW2 Europe later moved into the ‘abandoned’ house.  A young member of that Jewish family, nineteen year old Dalia Landau, opens the door when he rings and thus begins a decades long friendship that is complex and ultimately hope-filled.  We learn details about both families and their extreme hardships.  This book showcased so well the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - shown here in the stories of just two young people, Bashir and Dalia. 

A friend, and member of this book club, created the following list of phrases and points as an easy reference resource.  I really appreciate this list and it is especially helpful for those who are listening to the audiobook as well. 

43 - fragility of goodness

82 - “country without a people, and people w/o a country” Really?

84 - single vs 2 separate states

104 - custodian of “abandoned property”

107 - told Palestinians had “run away”

108 - first paragraph

114 - 2nd para - plea to God

115

116-117 discrimination, dark and light Jews

118 Sabra

119 never again

122

124 force expelled us and only force will get it back

125 water

147 house tour

160-161 indigenous people ignore

161 last sentence

177-178 Ahmad visits his house

179-180 Dalia feels betrayed

186 sadati

193 “stone” revolution

194 Hamas

199 Netanyahu

200-203 Dalia’s letter

204 UN sanctioned right of return

212-213 Can they compromise?

216-220 Bashir’s letter

During our discussion one member mentioned a podcast with the two primary people from this book, Bashir and Dalia.  I defintely intend to listen to this. 

From NPR's Fresh Air "Homelands" series (~1998), with Bahsir and Dalia talking (about an hour) : https://freshairarchive.org/segments/sandy-tolans-lemon-tree

And this is a short clip (~8min), cut from the Fresh Air series, if you just want to hear the voices and a few quick pieces:

https://www.npr.org/2006/06/04/5449840/lemon-tree-finds-friendship-amid-mideast-conflict 

Another link - author Sandy Tolan speaking about his book The Lemon Tree - Video of Sandy Tolan (~2006) discussing The Lemon Tree at a book talk: https://www.c-span.org/video/?193422-1/the-lemon-tree-arab-jew-heart-middle-east

I absolutely recommend this powerful book and rated it a 5.