It is word perfect, sometimes hilarious, always honest to the life of its characters and to “ghetto” society. This novel is a rich celebration of mothers who have, in the age of crack cocaine, been forced to raise their own grandchildren, having lost their daughters to the epidemic. My feeling of kinship with “Jane Eyre” has never waned. Who is your favorite novelist of all time?Ĭharlotte Brontë. It is revelatory about a life of high adventure with her completely tough, gun-toting, charming, fearless and seductive mother. Audio is ideal for this book, especially for readers who did not grow up in the South.

A fantastic investigation of gender issues, large and small. I am rereading this incredible novel about a young boy in the Deep South who was raised until he was 8 as if he were a girl. In Icke’s books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. “And the Truth Shall Set You Free,” by David Icke. I felt a duty to read it, however, and others like it, to know without forgetting, that for countries devastated by war, often wars “we” cause, or extend by carpet bombing or laying of land mines, the suffering, usually for the most vulnerable, never ends.

I couldn’t sleep after reading this book. Mam, a modern heroine who was once a captive herself, rises to protect and save those few young girls that she can. Bombed-out, psychologically traumatized Cambodia has become a place where even children are seen as commodities and treated worse than never terrorized or subjugated humans can imagine. “The Road of Lost Innocence,” by Somaly Mam, about child-selling, enslavement and sadistic “sex” trafficking in Cambodia. The author, most recently, of the poetry collection “Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart” feels a duty to read about countries devastated by war: “The suffering, usually for the most vulnerable, never ends.”

Perfect peace by daniel black