Bernice L. McFadden is a literary fiction author of many novels. However, the first book I read by her was Glorious . Shame on me! I know. The book changed my life. This woman is a master story teller. I locked myself in my room and read the book in hours. Not because it was so easy that a 4th grader could do it. But because I was totally engaged and held captive by her writing style and the story's plot. The main character, Easter is a fictionalized character parallel to the literary genius Zora Neale Hurston. After reading that book, I have been on a mission to read everything Ms. Bernice has written. EVERYTHING!! She has become one of my favorite authors.
Now, if you follow me on twitter you know leading up to Lil Wayne's release of Da Carter 4, I tweeted for months and on the day of I tweeted all day about the CD. I also told everyone I came in contact with about the CD. I even had a Lil Wayne Party. Got a T-shirt. Fan? Yes, I am. Well, I plan to support the new release of Ms. Bernice L. McFadden's new book, Gathering of Waters , like I did for Da Carter 4. Gathering of Waters will be released on January 31, 2012. It is available for pre-order NOW on AMAZON.
Do you want writers to disappear? Let me rephrase. Do you want GOOD writers to disappear? NO! WE DON'T! So, we as readers need to take a STAND for writers. They have to eat good just like rappers and singers. I am in full support of this novel. I know and stand firmly on my security that this book will be also a MASTERPIECE!!
Before I tell you about the book, I want to know: Why can't literary fiction sell 1 million in a week like Lil Wayne? Thoughts? Will we rush to the stores in mass numbers to purchase books, especially literary fiction?
I know, I was at Best Buy before it opened to buy Da Carter 4. But, I do the same for books that I am expecting or I pre-order them. Do you? Will you?
Here is a little about the book:
GATHERING OF WATERS is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.
TASS HILSON AND EMMETT TILL were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.FORTY YEARS LATER, AFTER THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River.
The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion. GATHERING OF WATERS mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.
"In her new novel, Gathering of Waters, Bernice McFadden brings her own special vision to the unfortunate story of Emmett Till and his murder in Money, Mississippi. This moving and magical novel, which traces the generations leading up to and away from that horrible night in 1955, drew me in immediately and swept me along through its richly imagined world. I couldn't stop reading, caught up as I was in that enticing place between truth and fantasy, the here-and-now and the what-was, the living and the dead, the ugliness and the beauty, the hatred and the love. What a rich chorus of voices Bernice McFadden has fashioned from this place called Money."--Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever
You may be aware that recently Emmett Till has been brought back to the forefront of the American consciousness with the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. In addition, a marker was placed on the Mississippi Freedom Trail in memory of Emmett Till and Emmett Till's casket was put on public display at the Smithsonian.
OH & THERE IS MORE!!
This book, also by Ms. Bernice will be reissued, The Warmest December (with forward by James Frey of A Million Little Pieces)
"Now and then I forget things.... One day last week I forgot that I hated my father... " McFadden's graphic, poignant second novel charts the resonating legacy that alcoholic parents pass on to their children through the cycle of addiction and domestic violence. Narrator Kenzie Lowe, an African-American woman in her 30s on welfare, has used alcohol to repress the memories of abuse she suffered growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, caught in the physical and emotional grip of her whiskey-swilling father, Hyman Lowe. Seamless transitions between Kenzie's past and her present life anchored by AA sessions imbue this difficult tale with dramatic suspense. Its cathartic message of forgiveness and recovery will elicit tears.
"Riveting. . . . So nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes."— Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate author of Beloved
Gathering of Waters and The Warmest December will be released in USA, Canada and the UK on January 31st, 2012.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE GREAT WRITERS.
Always,
B. LaShera GLAZE
Now, if you follow me on twitter you know leading up to Lil Wayne's release of Da Carter 4, I tweeted for months and on the day of I tweeted all day about the CD. I also told everyone I came in contact with about the CD. I even had a Lil Wayne Party. Got a T-shirt. Fan? Yes, I am. Well, I plan to support the new release of Ms. Bernice L. McFadden's new book, Gathering of Waters , like I did for Da Carter 4. Gathering of Waters will be released on January 31, 2012. It is available for pre-order NOW on AMAZON.
Do you want writers to disappear? Let me rephrase. Do you want GOOD writers to disappear? NO! WE DON'T! So, we as readers need to take a STAND for writers. They have to eat good just like rappers and singers. I am in full support of this novel. I know and stand firmly on my security that this book will be also a MASTERPIECE!!
Before I tell you about the book, I want to know: Why can't literary fiction sell 1 million in a week like Lil Wayne? Thoughts? Will we rush to the stores in mass numbers to purchase books, especially literary fiction?
I know, I was at Best Buy before it opened to buy Da Carter 4. But, I do the same for books that I am expecting or I pre-order them. Do you? Will you?
Here is a little about the book:
GATHERING OF WATERS is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.
TASS HILSON AND EMMETT TILL were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.FORTY YEARS LATER, AFTER THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River.
The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion. GATHERING OF WATERS mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.
"In her new novel, Gathering of Waters, Bernice McFadden brings her own special vision to the unfortunate story of Emmett Till and his murder in Money, Mississippi. This moving and magical novel, which traces the generations leading up to and away from that horrible night in 1955, drew me in immediately and swept me along through its richly imagined world. I couldn't stop reading, caught up as I was in that enticing place between truth and fantasy, the here-and-now and the what-was, the living and the dead, the ugliness and the beauty, the hatred and the love. What a rich chorus of voices Bernice McFadden has fashioned from this place called Money."--Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever
You may be aware that recently Emmett Till has been brought back to the forefront of the American consciousness with the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. In addition, a marker was placed on the Mississippi Freedom Trail in memory of Emmett Till and Emmett Till's casket was put on public display at the Smithsonian.
OH & THERE IS MORE!!
This book, also by Ms. Bernice will be reissued, The Warmest December (with forward by James Frey of A Million Little Pieces)
"Now and then I forget things.... One day last week I forgot that I hated my father... " McFadden's graphic, poignant second novel charts the resonating legacy that alcoholic parents pass on to their children through the cycle of addiction and domestic violence. Narrator Kenzie Lowe, an African-American woman in her 30s on welfare, has used alcohol to repress the memories of abuse she suffered growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, caught in the physical and emotional grip of her whiskey-swilling father, Hyman Lowe. Seamless transitions between Kenzie's past and her present life anchored by AA sessions imbue this difficult tale with dramatic suspense. Its cathartic message of forgiveness and recovery will elicit tears.
"Riveting. . . . So nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes."— Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate author of Beloved
Gathering of Waters and The Warmest December will be released in USA, Canada and the UK on January 31st, 2012.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE GREAT WRITERS.
Always,
B. LaShera GLAZE
I was lucky enough to see a copy of Bernice's first book SUGAR in a bookstore and it caught my eye. I was hit so hard that I ended up with every book she's written and have pre-ordered GATHERING OF WATERS.
ReplyDeleteShe is one of my favorite authors also.
Thank you for this!
ReplyDelete