Welcome to Litsy!

After their mother‘s death, Byron and ‘Benny‘ learn that almost everything they thought they knew about their mother was wrong. B&B‘s ma, Eleanor hoped that telling them the truth would heal old hurts and mend their relationship. Eleanor left her kids traditional black cake and more room for love. I was left with love for this novel and a hankering for cake. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Much like the black cake in the book, good things take time, patience, skill. A woman dies and her two children learn there was more to their mother than they could have ever imagined. I normally don‘t read sweeping family dramas, but this one needs to be on people‘s radars. It was a lovely journey.

Wow! A great read. An epic adventure of a young Caribbean girl who lost everything and yet kept persevering and how it affected family and friends. I had a hard time putting it down and imagine this book hangover will last a while.

This novel was well written and the characters were nice (except of a couple) and the story took the readers from the Caribbean to London, then New York and California. Two siblings who were estranged find themselves together trying to work through the death of their mother. Surprised, the lawyer tells them of a half sister they didn‘t know about. Life has dealt each of them a path they didn‘t expect. 4.25/5⭐️

I loved this novel of family, identity, and the power of cake. 😂 Seriously, it‘s a well written story that draws you in and with one exception, makes you love all the characters. I‘m looking forward to my book club‘s discussion. #litsyAtoZ #letterB

This month‘s book club pick! This was a good one for discussion because there is SO MUCH going on in this book. I won‘t even try to explain the plot. 😂 At first, the endless characters and storylines annoyed me, but over time as things developed and tied together, I liked it better. By the end, it was a pick for me!

Good baseline story, though I felt the author tried to include too much “extra” stuff that felt forced & that bogged it down a bit. Currently watching the series on Hulu, which I am enjoying and seems to be pretty faithful to the book.

When you‘re at the end of life, all your secrets either die with you, or are told. Here, they are secrets of sexual assault, paternal trauma, murder, immigration, identity, love, the real price of sugar, and…a Jamaican Black Cake. A life story full of sadness but also love is revealed to the next generation. What will they do with those secrets?

#BookReport
I read a lot this week but mostly books I don't track. I enjoyed it and hopefully it will help me get out of my current reads slump.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal this week is to finish Black Cake for work as the book club I moderate is on the 30th. I'd also like to get farther in Fox Wife as it's due back on Libby soon.

My new best read of the year. A structural tour de force.

4.5⭐️/5⭐️

I thought it was a slow start but once I got engaged in the characters it was a beautiful human story. Fast read!

Black Cake follows the life of Eleanor Bennet, an older Caribbean woman living in California; and the mystery that shrouds her past.

It also follows the lives of Byron & Benny, her two children, and their experiences as black/brown people living in a white-ruled country.

It was nice to learn about the history of the Caribbean - both socia-culturally & culinarily.

However, the author wrote about way too many issues, making the script too busy.

I really enjoyed this multigenerational story about a woman who shares her past with her children after she passes away. It is a remarkable story with Caribbean culture and a bit of a mystery. We read it for my book club and I look forward to our discussion. 5⭐️
Has anyone seen the tv series? Another #roll100 off the TBR!

Halfway through and I‘m enjoying it. Wow!

This was so good. Nearly 5⭐ except the ending is too long. That's just my opinion. I definitely did not need a wrap up that included all of the secondary characters. It's possible I was being moody.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Loved this story intertwining multiple generations of a family across their lives in the Caribbean, the UK and the USA.

A book about how family recipes can link us, about family history and how it defines us, and about love.

I really liked the history of the ingredients and recipes, the influence of multiple cultures and countries coming together, and the ocean science scattered throughout.

Fantastic first novel!

#botm

“I don‘t believe that we can fully lay claim to a tradition if we are not willing to recognize what we have taken from other cultures over time, for better or worse.”

This is a story about family, tradition, identity, loyalty, secrets and what a person is willing to do.

This was a book club pick for this month. If not for that, I probably wouldn‘t have picked it up. 5⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. I LOVED this book. So glad I suggested it for book club!

I have mixed feelings about this book. A couple of key plot events were too good to be true when people who had lost touch were reconnected. Also, in some ways the story was trying to do too much - it had themes of systemic racism, bisexuality, rape, domestic abuse, adoption. On the other hand, I liked the short chapters and the switching back and forth in time. It kept my interest and was easy for me to read many pages quickly. 3.5 stars

The best bookstore is the kind with a dog. 🐶

I read a few standout books in #April , but I picked Black Cake to highlight - I felt it was so beautifully written and emotionally charged. A family with a secret past, estranged siblings, and the uncovering of that secret. Incredible story.

I also have to mention A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum, which I also completed in April and was astounded by it.

#12BooksOf2023

Loved the audiobook!
#12booksof2023
@Andrew65

Day 3: Black Cake #12booksof2023 ##12daysofChristmas

Hopefully this is the last book of the year but finally starting it after promising myself to read it soon.

I debated on watching this, reading the text, or audiolistening. Chose to #audiolisten and the audio made it interesting. Enjoyed how the different viewpoints developed and wove together. It also made me want to try black cake. 😂

#audiolisten

I couldn‘t get into it. I even watched the series. It just wasn‘t great for me. Deep though.

Interesting plot, but I felt that some characters or parts of the plot were underdeveloped. It's well constructed, I see why the author chose the flashbacks and the different voices to write her book, but the end of the book (last 100 pages) seems rushed.
I don't think it's a story that'll stick with me. Mainstream/beach read category to me.

4 ⭐️ This is an engrossing novel about the power of the narratives we tell about ourselves & others. The author weaves her own familial history of multiculturalism and “people who do not quite fit into the boxes that others have set up for them…Their difficulties are both universal and specific to the times and places in which they live.” I recommend this book for readers interested in understandings of how our life stories are all interwoven.

1. Breakfast always!
2.Tagged book I just loved it.
#two4tuesday

1. It‘s hard to choose, but I‘ll say dinner.

2. Tagged book is about the cake … and much more.

#two4tuesday

This book has a lot of layers to it, with a lot of different characters, in a lot off different places, in a lot of different time periods. I know it's taboo to say so but it might actually work better on screen lol (upcoming on Hulu, idk when though). Lots of family and generational trauma, but I can't help but feel like some of it could have been avoided if people had just communicated better?!

August 21 #BookBingo Anticipated5 @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Liked it, didn't love it. Good writing, but maybe it was the two timelines/nonlinear structure or it was just too long that made it a bit of a struggle to finish. Even so, I don't regret reading it.

In flight reading 🛩

#Book.7.2023

Brace for an #unpopularopinion - did not like this one. It wasn‘t a dense read but it felt like a real slog to get through. The narrative flitted over the (many) characters so superficially, it didn‘t feel like any of them were really fleshed out. The plot also took some real sensational turns for apparent shock value, especially near the end. #BOTM

Delightful story

Family love, family dynamics, family traditions, family secrets. A complicated story infused with a strong Caribbean vibe. Great reading.
#TitlesAndTunes #IslandVibes #ReadYourTBR

"You were never just you, and you owed it to the people you cared about to remember that. Because the people you loved were part of your identity, too. Perhaps the biggest part." #junebookclub2023 #book8of24for2023

Book club read. This was… ok. Fairly interesting but I never felt properly invested in the characters. I do think it‘ll make for good discussion at book club though! And I want to try some black cake!

“Question yourself, yes, but don‘t doubt yourself. There‘s a difference.”
#June2023

How well do we know the stories of our parents?? In this sweeping, multigenerational family saga brother and sister confront what they thought was true about their family and stumble onto a vastly different past.

I‘m not going to say much because I hate to trash a book, especially when so many other people enjoyed it. But I will say that it was a terrible choice for me. I can hardly believe someone published it. 😵‍💫

Sometimes, all I need is reading under the moonlight, sitting by my best buddy, and listening to the wind chimes being tickled by the wind.

This is such a fun idea! My May selections for #TitlesandTunes #IslandVibes are Black Cake and It‘s 5 o‘Clock Somewhere (either version - Jimmy Buffet or Alan Jackson). I don‘t think the book has anything to do with the song, but that song just says “island vacay” to me!
@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB

Bank holiday weekend sorted. Already half way through Black Cake which I put on my TBR pile a while back after it was recommended by the Obamas. Unfollow is my pick for book club this month, after being challenged to pick a non-fiction book. Have read good reviews so hopefully it doesn‘t disappoint.