Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Life is Simple, Except When it Isn’t.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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This book is amazing. I love this book. I am so glad I stumbled across this looking for something to fill up my bingo card. Magical realism is one of my absolute favorite story telling devices when it is done well, and this is such a perfect example of what it can really do. This is the story of Jojo’s family. Jojo is a thirteen-year-old mixed race boy growing up in the current day South and straddling that realm in between boyhood and adulthood. He lives with his Grandparents, Mam and Pop, his toddler sister Kayla and his mom, Leonie. […]

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11/7/2018 's CBR10 Review No:17 |

Just read it

Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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Probably because I’ve read them both in the last month, I kept hearkening back to Lincoln in the Bardo. It certainly isn’t the best comparison, but the themes of grief and loss are persistent in both and very keenly unearthed by both authors. If anything, I went into this one knowing less and with more discovery awaiting me. It didn’t do as much more me (I still really, really loved the experimental nature of Lincoln), but I did really enjoy it. It’s like the book is haunting me. This is the story of a family, centered on the 13-year-old boy, Jojo. Jojo’s mother […]

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3/13/2018 's CBR10 Review No:24 |

Like my marrow could carry a bruise.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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I couldn’t decide if this was a book that I needed to digest a little before I tried to review it. Ultimately, I decided to write about it immediately after finishing it, while it still clung to me. This is definitely a book that clings to you. It’s not an easy book to read and it shouldn’t be. The bulk of the story is a somber road trip that takes place over a few days, trapped inside a hot car in the American south. When Michael is released from prison, Leonie is determined to be the one to bring him home.  […]

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2/17/2018 's CBR10 Review No:14 |

Now Read This

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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I haven’t read Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward’s earlier novel, though it’s been on my to-read list since it first came out, so this was my first experience with Ward’s writing.  Sing, Unburied, Sing is a novel both beautiful and terrible, heartbreaking yet optimistic, and grittily realistic while tinged with magical realism. It’s a family story but one where the history of race, poverty, and violence is close to the surface.  Jojo lives with his grandparents, Pop and Mam, while his mother, Leonie, hovers around the edges. She is not the mothering type, even to her three-year-old daughter, Kayla, and […]

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2/10/2018 's CBR10 Review No:9 |

Sometimes, the world don’t give you what you need, no matter how hard you look

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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I dread writing this review. I hated this book. I’ll just get that out of the way. Hated it. Yet I hesitate. How can I eviscerate a book that contains lines like this: ‘Come on, son,’ Pop says. When he begins walking toward the house, I follow, trying to leave the memory of Leonie and Michael fighting outside, floating like fog in the damp, chilly day. But it follows, even as I follow the trail of tender organ blood Pop has left in the dirt, a trail that signals love as clearly as the bread crumbs Hansel spread in the […]

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1/28/2018 's CBR10 Review No:4 |

Ghosts on the Gulf Coast

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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Sing, Unburied, Sing is the story of three generations of a black family in a fictitious town on the Mississippi coast, told from three perspectives. Jojo is a biracial 13-year-old boy living with his grandparents, his mother and his young sister. He idolizes his grandfather but only tolerates his mother, who leaves him with the responsibility of caring for 3-year-old Michaela. His mother, Leonie, soothes her pains with drugs while she waits for her white boyfriend (and Jojo and Michaela’s father) to get out of prison at the same facility in which her father was once held (Parchman, a real […]

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1/20/2018 's CBR10 Review No:3 |

My favorite book of 2017

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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Hello, favorite and best book of 2017. This is a book that needs to be shouted from the rooftops, because it crawls into your bones and won’t release you from its spell. Jesmyn Ward is a magnificent writer, as I discovered when I devoured Salvage the Bones. I’d heard that her newest novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing was short-listed for the National Book Award, so I grudgingly added to my library holds list, interrupting my read-the-books-on-my-shelf project once again. And what a worthy interruption. This is a novel told from three perspectives: Jojo, a thirteen-year-old boy who functions as a grandchild […]

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12/28/2017 's CBR9 Review No:131 |

My last review of 2017: a stark end to a stark year – Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

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Firstly, let me toot my horn for a moment.  I set a goal this year to read 34 books and this is my 34th review.  (Insert trumpeting sounds). Huzzah! Now, on to the book. I saw this book posted on the CBR Facebook page as part of a combo review of book award winners from a fellow Cannonballer.  During a brief stop into the library I saw it on the new books shelf and though I did not judge a book by its cover I did recognize it by its cover, so I grabbed it on a whim, not really […]

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12/23/2017 's CBR9 Review No:34 |


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