Fabulous Reading — Flawless Writing

Contrary to popular belief, you CAN judge a book by it’s cover. I just knew from the eye-catching illustration that I would find this story fascinating and thought-provoking — and it’s true, I did.

Madeline and Sybil are the two main characters whose futures are strongly influenced and shaped by a lack of maternal love from their mothers. It’s a deficit that’s passed along through generations. Every woman has a secret.

It’s hard to believe this is Jean Mckie-Sutton’s debut novel and I look forward to many more. Her deep and poignant story is well-worth reading. I’m sure this ethnic title will satisfy every reader’s thirst for good fiction.

My Favorite Books

by Jean Mckie Sutton

I’ve loved to read for as long as I can remember. Once I acquire a good book, it’s hard to get rid of it. In my home, there’s a room just for my books. It is lined floor to ceiling with bookcases tightly packed. What does not fit on the shelves sits tucked out of view in stacks in the corners of my bedroom and living room. On the rare occasion that I happen to get rid of a few books, it is only to make room for more. In no particular order, here are my top ten all time favorites:

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is, simply put, a lyrical masterpiece. I’ve read it more than once and at each turn I’m overwhelmed by the fullness and richness of its prose. Brilliant and moving, Morrison explores mother/daughter relationships against the backdrop of the psychological impact of slavery. The end result is a work of art that can only be described as majestic.

William Faulkner’s The Sound And The Fury is impressive with Faulkner’s range of narrative styles. He expertly transitions from first person point of view, to an omniscient point of view, to stream of consciousness. In the first section of the novel, the story is told from the perspective of Bengy, an autistic boy. At first it’s hard to read because the prose is stilted, and at times fragmented, but little by little the story line unfolds. What is revealed is a haunting account of a wealthy southern family in the midst of decline following the Civil War.

“No one may build their happiness on another’s pain.” This is one of the central themes in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and it resonated with me. I fell in love with Tolstoy’s exquisite prose, thought, dialogue and even the characters.

I’ve read Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak to my children countless times, yet it has never lost its magic. When Max visits the land of Wild Things, he discovers he is the wildest of them all. I envied Max’s boldness and reckless abandon as he danced with the monsters in a “wild rumpus”.

Cien Años De Soledad (One Hundred Years Of Solitude), by Gabriel García Marquez, is about the tragedies and comedies of life and the inevitable repetition of history in seven generations of the Buendía family. This work was a great influence for me in writing my own novel, which deals with parallel issues of repeating past mistakes generation after generation.

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, is both heart breaking and heart healing. You identify with and feel deeply for the characters who suffer tremendous personal hardship. But in the end there is a sense of closure, a sense that everyone gets what they deserve.

Scott Spencer’s, A Ship Made Of Paper, is a love story turned cautionary tale about adultery. Spencer took a lot of criticism for not delving more into the impact of race in his story, but none of that mattered to me. From the very first chapter I fell in love with his writing style. What follows is an excerpt, exemplary of his beautiful prose. In this scene the main character is driving his stepdaughter, Ruby, to daycare.

‘He welcomes the chance to do fatherly things with the little girl, and those ten minutes with dear little four-year-old Ruby with her deep, soulful eyes, and the wondrous things she sees with them, and her deep soulful voice … that little shimmering capsule of time is like listening to cello music in the morning … It simply reminds you that even if God is dead, or never existed in the first place, there is, nevertheless, something tender at the center of creation, some meaning, some purpose and poetry … those ten minutes with Ruby every weekday morning, those six hundred sweet seconds are his form of worship, and the temperamental eight-year-old black Saab his church’.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is another favorite. Below is an excerpt from the first chapter:

‘Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up for other times, so they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made burning statements with questions and killing tools out of laughs. It was mass cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without masters, walking altogether like harmony in a song.’

No matter how many times I read this passage, I never grow tired of the rhythm of the words, the vivid descriptions — both subtle and overt, the play of personification.

A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeline L’ Engle was my childhood favorite. I still remember the battle between darkness and light, and the love that allowed Meg to free Charles from the grips of evil. A Wrinkle In Time is a roller coaster of imagination filled with odd planets, alien-like beings and benevolent immortals.

In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man the narrator is born at the height of discrimination in the U.S. Ellison expertly explores the effects of bigotry and racism on not just the victims, but on the perpetrators as well.

After graduating from Franklin and Marshall College with a dual degree in Spanish and Government, Jean rose through the ranks of the insurance industry for twenty years before heeding her own heart and pursuing her passion for writing.

She grew up listening to the stories that elders recounted about the women in her family, and it is from these dominant, yet richly flawed matriarchs that she draws inspiration for her writing.

In addition to The Fruits Of Our Sins, Jean has published two short stories, Stella’s Silent World, and When The Bough Breaks. She is also a featured author in Sister To Sister, Black Women Speak To Young Black Girls.

Jean lives in a suburb of Philadelphia with her husband and three children.

I‘m sharing information provided by Virtual Book Tour Cafe’. I received no compensation for this post other than a free electronic copy of the book. I’m simply helping promote the book. I only recommend products or services I use personally and/or believe will be good for my readers. I’m disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.