Silver Sparrow

"One of my favorite books, Tayari Jones became my favorite authoress with this book. You get immersed into both protagonists, don’t have to take sides as neither one of them is at fault. The weight of secrets makes one of the sisters love & hate the other who is ignorant of everything as she is the one who had the perfect life. She does a good job of painting the full picture, from the backgrounds of both relationships of the father & the culture of the city, the stark differences between neighborhoods . Your heart will ache at the end of how pain & embarrassment is too much for the sisters to truly become sisters & go back to their individual lives, kind of becoming like their mothers. "

"This book was strange, but not bad. I'd like to give it 3.5 stars, but not 4. It was different than what I typically read. I enjoyed seeing into the lives of the 2 girls, but the ending was not my favorite as I wanted the friendship to last (I did not expect it to, given the circumstances, but I wanted it to nonetheless)"

"One of the best books I've read this year. Dana and Chaurisse are sisters, but only Dana knows it. She and her mother Gwen are the "secret" family, the illegitimate wife and daughter James Witherspoon hides from his "real" family and the rest of the world. Although James persuades himself that he's doing right by them, Dana's resentment at always being second best eventually leads to devastating revelations for everyone involved. Tayari Jones creates a cast of fascinating and memorable characters, and a fully realized setting in Atlanta's black community of the late 70s and 80. A stunning, painful story of betrayal and disillusionment, in a family with far too many secrets."

""People say, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn’t kill you, doesn’t kill you. That’s all you get. Sometimes, you just have to hope that’s enough."<br/><br/>This is a beautifully written book about how easily children can internalize things adults say off-handedly and then forget, and about living in the shadow of someone who doesn't even know that you exist. Both protagonists have strong voices, and the characters around them feel real. This book is a slow-motion car crash you can't look away from."

"Right now I'm reading Such a Fun Age. It's been on my list for a while and I scored it for cheap at a thrift store! V thought provoking so far."

"The book hangover from this one was severe! "

"Just one other which is An American Marriage. Both were very good books in my opinion."

"Jones once again takes us into the lives of Black Atlanta in this compelling story of families, relationships and the layers of deception that we call/confuse as love. Told in two parts by the daughters of two different women, married to the same man (only one legally of course), we are given audience to the heartbreak and disappointment of one girl, the obliviousness and discovery of truth of the other, and how their father’s actions over the course of their lives affects them as they grow into young women. You know, I’ve always felt (as a card carrying member of The Daddy’s Girl Club), that a girl's first love is her daddy and that he dictates how she sees and allows herself to be treated by the men she encounters throughout her life. Watching these two girls attempt to navigate love while accepting crumbs is heartbreaking. But they are just one set of women in this story. Their mothers, the wives of the man, that knowingly for one and unknowingly for the other, they share. But let’s be real: as women we know when something is off. If every Wednesday for 20+ years your man is gone...really? Also these two women, each experiencing isolation and loneliness due to being in a relationship with just a fraction of a man, leans on and over shares too much adult information with their daughters, further robbing these girls of the chance to be just that: girls. Jones is a masterful storyteller. While some may feel the Depiction of Black men in this book is negative, I don’t think the behaviors exhibited can be isolated to just Black men. This same story could be told with White, Hispanic or Asian characters; human condition is not determined by race. <br/><br/>Where others get overly poetic and floral with prose, Jones writes in the way real people think and talk and feel. You are transported into her stories because you know the characters, maybe you’re related to them, maybe you live next door to them, hell maybe you are them. And it is that ability to pour humanity onto page that makes her such a provocative writer."