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lottpoet's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
iamlorna's review against another edition
5.0
I hate the subject matter but its relevant. Rape, Racism, Domestic Violence, Drug addition, Absentee fathers... this book hit home in ways I’d hate to admit.
Gave me a sense of new direction though.
Gave me a sense of new direction though.
sarahbowman101's review against another edition
4.0
The joy is that there are whole worlds of authors out there waiting to be discovered. You never know what you will find. I have never read any Campbell before and while I didn't love this book and it isn't perfect, I really liked it and enjoyed the arc of the characters.
This novel is based on the Emmett Till case. Campbell takes the structure of Till's vicious murder and follows the characters in the aftermath of the crime. The book deals with some heavy issues, but was readable and the fates of the characters was compelling and sympathetic.
I chose this book for our February book club, so it will be interesting to see what the group thinks. I would recommend this to pretty much any fiction reader.
This novel is based on the Emmett Till case. Campbell takes the structure of Till's vicious murder and follows the characters in the aftermath of the crime. The book deals with some heavy issues, but was readable and the fates of the characters was compelling and sympathetic.
I chose this book for our February book club, so it will be interesting to see what the group thinks. I would recommend this to pretty much any fiction reader.
mochagirlalysia's review against another edition
5.0
This book was a Mocha Girls Read book club book of the month for the month of February. Our theme was Fictional Black History and this book delivered in so many ways.
Armstrong was a young Black city kid dropped into the South to stay with his Grandma when he is killed for speaking French indirectly to a White woman. No I didn't spoil it for you, that's where the story starts. The book then goes into decades of showing the reader the effects of his death in the community both in Hopewell and Chicago, with his family and friends, as well as the family of the killer.
The story is more or less a fictionalized version of Emmett Till's death, a 14 year old who was killed in 1955 for whistling at a White woman.
This book brought up so many different topics besides racism and all of it's ugliness, like domestic abuse, institutionalized poverty, injustice and countless others.
The one thing that stood out to me was the anniversary of Armstrong's death. Every 5 or so years churches and community organizations remember the passing of Armstrong and the presence of his mother and other family members are requested. I really never thought about it until now, but how could you heal and stop mourning when the community is pulling the scape off your wound every 5 years? The lost of a child is never something you can get over but what about healing? Armstrong's mom never stopped mourning her son even when she had two daughters and a son who she made live in his dead brother's shadow.
Bebe Moore Campbell is a wonderful storyteller. She brings the situations close to home and she makes you flip page after page. I found it hard to put it down because it is still happening now. #Blacklivesmatter I loved the ending and how things where mending. Reading a book that has so many characters with diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking can be a bit tricky keeping them true to themselves and letting them each grow but Bebe did it and did it well. This is another book that should be on the high school required reading list. Excellent historical fiction that rings true even now.
Armstrong was a young Black city kid dropped into the South to stay with his Grandma when he is killed for speaking French indirectly to a White woman. No I didn't spoil it for you, that's where the story starts. The book then goes into decades of showing the reader the effects of his death in the community both in Hopewell and Chicago, with his family and friends, as well as the family of the killer.
The story is more or less a fictionalized version of Emmett Till's death, a 14 year old who was killed in 1955 for whistling at a White woman.
This book brought up so many different topics besides racism and all of it's ugliness, like domestic abuse, institutionalized poverty, injustice and countless others.
The one thing that stood out to me was the anniversary of Armstrong's death. Every 5 or so years churches and community organizations remember the passing of Armstrong and the presence of his mother and other family members are requested. I really never thought about it until now, but how could you heal and stop mourning when the community is pulling the scape off your wound every 5 years? The lost of a child is never something you can get over but what about healing? Armstrong's mom never stopped mourning her son even when she had two daughters and a son who she made live in his dead brother's shadow.
Bebe Moore Campbell is a wonderful storyteller. She brings the situations close to home and she makes you flip page after page. I found it hard to put it down because it is still happening now. #Blacklivesmatter I loved the ending and how things where mending. Reading a book that has so many characters with diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking can be a bit tricky keeping them true to themselves and letting them each grow but Bebe did it and did it well. This is another book that should be on the high school required reading list. Excellent historical fiction that rings true even now.
berniemck's review against another edition
5.0
I would give this book more than 5 stars if that was an option. There are several stories going on at the same time that start in the deep south when prejudice and injustice against blacks was the law of the land. A young man from Chicago visits Mississippi and deals with the consequences of speaking French to a white woman. Another white man in this same town has a controlling father who dictates who he is allowed to love. Marrying a person beneath his station or who is not white is out of the question. This book was so good I could not put it down. You should definitely add this book to your T0-Be-Read list.
booklover81's review against another edition
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine
Bebe Moore Cambell
Fiction
323 pages
Repercussions are felt for decades in a dozen lives after a racist beating turns to cold-blooded murder in a small Mississippi town in the 1950s. Bebe Moore Campbell's affecting memoir, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad, was hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "a remarkable achievement." "Ripe with family stories, lush with images, suffused with emotions," said the Kansas City Star. "It is probably one of the more overdue books about and for the black community," wrote Nikki Giovanni in The Washington Post. Now Campbell turns her abundant talents to fiction in an evocative first novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. Chicago-born Armstrong Todd is fifteen, black, and unused to the segregated ways of the Deep South when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in her native rural Mississippi. For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong pays the ultimate price when her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law decide to teach him a lesson. The lives of everyone involved in the incident - black and white - are changed forever, and the reverberations extend well into the next generation. Resonant with the sorrows of poverty and racial prejudice as well as the triumphs of love and social justice, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine marks the debut of a powerful, clear voice in contemporary fiction.
Bebe Moore Cambell
Fiction
323 pages
Repercussions are felt for decades in a dozen lives after a racist beating turns to cold-blooded murder in a small Mississippi town in the 1950s. Bebe Moore Campbell's affecting memoir, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad, was hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "a remarkable achievement." "Ripe with family stories, lush with images, suffused with emotions," said the Kansas City Star. "It is probably one of the more overdue books about and for the black community," wrote Nikki Giovanni in The Washington Post. Now Campbell turns her abundant talents to fiction in an evocative first novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. Chicago-born Armstrong Todd is fifteen, black, and unused to the segregated ways of the Deep South when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in her native rural Mississippi. For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong pays the ultimate price when her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law decide to teach him a lesson. The lives of everyone involved in the incident - black and white - are changed forever, and the reverberations extend well into the next generation. Resonant with the sorrows of poverty and racial prejudice as well as the triumphs of love and social justice, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine marks the debut of a powerful, clear voice in contemporary fiction.
booklover81's review
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine
Bebe Moore Cambell
Fiction
323 pages
Repercussions are felt for decades in a dozen lives after a racist beating turns to cold-blooded murder in a small Mississippi town in the 1950s. Bebe Moore Campbell's affecting memoir, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad, was hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "a remarkable achievement." "Ripe with family stories, lush with images, suffused with emotions," said the Kansas City Star. "It is probably one of the more overdue books about and for the black community," wrote Nikki Giovanni in The Washington Post. Now Campbell turns her abundant talents to fiction in an evocative first novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. Chicago-born Armstrong Todd is fifteen, black, and unused to the segregated ways of the Deep South when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in her native rural Mississippi. For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong pays the ultimate price when her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law decide to teach him a lesson. The lives of everyone involved in the incident - black and white - are changed forever, and the reverberations extend well into the next generation. Resonant with the sorrows of poverty and racial prejudice as well as the triumphs of love and social justice, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine marks the debut of a powerful, clear voice in contemporary fiction.
Bebe Moore Cambell
Fiction
323 pages
Repercussions are felt for decades in a dozen lives after a racist beating turns to cold-blooded murder in a small Mississippi town in the 1950s. Bebe Moore Campbell's affecting memoir, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad, was hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "a remarkable achievement." "Ripe with family stories, lush with images, suffused with emotions," said the Kansas City Star. "It is probably one of the more overdue books about and for the black community," wrote Nikki Giovanni in The Washington Post. Now Campbell turns her abundant talents to fiction in an evocative first novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. Chicago-born Armstrong Todd is fifteen, black, and unused to the segregated ways of the Deep South when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in her native rural Mississippi. For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong pays the ultimate price when her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law decide to teach him a lesson. The lives of everyone involved in the incident - black and white - are changed forever, and the reverberations extend well into the next generation. Resonant with the sorrows of poverty and racial prejudice as well as the triumphs of love and social justice, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine marks the debut of a powerful, clear voice in contemporary fiction.
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