Review: Daughter by Asha Bandele

Daughter by Asha Bandele

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Published: January 2005

Aya has made mistakes in her life, but she has worked hard to turn her life around and is now on the straight and narrow. When she is out for a jog, she is mistakenly shot by the police. As her mother waits to find out what is going to happen to her daughter, she reflects back on her own life and how they have arrived to this point.

This was recommended by @browngirlreading on Instagram.

This book made me think about how well I knew my own mother when she was in her teens and early 20s. I really don't know too much about what her personal life was like. I know she went to community college and got married and had me by the time she was 24. But I don't know if she went to parties or what she and her friends did on the weekends. I'm sure she doesn't know much about what I did in my late teens and early twenties either.

Miriam, Aya's mother looks back on the life she lived before Aya was born and the years right after she arrived. Each choice she made was to make a life for her daughter. Aya's father was killed shortly after she was born and the manner in which this happens I think is the most chilling part of the experience for Miriam.

This is a touching story that will make you think about mother/daughter relationships as well as how to be the best parent and protect your children as best as you can.

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Review: The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green

The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ronni Sunshine was not a very good mother. Her career as an actress was always most important to her. But when life throws her a curve ball she isn't expecting, she will call her three daughters home together to try to make up for lost time.

Each daughter dealt with their mother's selfish ways the best way they knew how. Nell, the eldest,was unemotional; Meredith, in the middle, took everything to heart; and Lizzy, the youngest ignored her mother and did whatever she wanted to do anyway. They have all gone on to lead separate lives, and rarely spoke to each other. Their childhood and their relationship with they mother have shaped them into the women they became as women. Nell has lived her life being a mother to her son and running a farm, even though she loves her work and her son, is she really happy? Meredith is engaged to be married and has a great job, but is this the life she envisioned? Lizzy is a celebrity chef and is married with a son, but her life isn't as perfect as it looks from the outside.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I love Jane Green's books. They always send a wave of emotions. This book grabs at your heart strings and makes you feel for these characters How do you reconnect with family when you've been apart for so long. I don't think there has ever been a time when I didn't speak with my mom and my sister. I don't know what I would do if anything would happen to either one of them. The character I most connected with in this story was Meredith. I've always been the type of person to always make sure the people around me are taken care of before I've taken care of myself.

This book immediately makes you think of family and how to stay connected to them. Make sure your relationships are well maintained before it's too late. Life is so short and the next day is not promised to anyone. For those you love, you need to always keep them close so that when they go, as we all will someday, you will not feel as though there was something that you should have or could have done.

Jane Green is currently on tour for this book, click here to find out dates.


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Review--Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maya Angelou has long been one of my favorite authors.  I have even performed her poetry during my high school day in regional speech & debate tournaments.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was her first book that I read as an adolescent.  Her words are always inspiring and listening to her read Letter to My Daughter was incredible.  Reading her books always leave me feeling refreshed and alive, but hearing the emotion in her voice while she was reading her words, gives the book even more enjoyable.  Hearing her voice crack as she talks about being beaten and raped almost brought me to tears. It made me feel a deeper connection to Ms. Angelou.

It's ironic that this book is called Letter to My Daughter when Maya Angelou doesn't have a daughter. She claims women such as Oprah Winfrey, Rosa Johnson Butler, Valerie Simpson, Brenda Crisp, and Frances Berry allowed her to be a mother to them.  This book goes through different aspects of Maya Angelou's life from childhood living with her grandmother, to becoming an undeveloped woman who thought sex would bring in her breasts. And it did, but they were filled with milk.

We as women go through many struggles in life.  A lot of the time, we put ourselves on the back burner in order to take care of those around us.  In this book, Maya Angelou proves to us that no matter the struggle, if we work hard and put ourselves first, we can accomplish anything.  She had it just as hard, actually harder than any of us and look at all she had done in this world.

I recommend this book to all the women I know.  It will leave you feeling empowered, strong and on top of the world.


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