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bookbos's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
bibliokyra's review against another edition
4.0
Special thanks to @amistadbooks for sending me a copy of BLACK BOTTOM SAINTS by Alice Randall.
Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson reflects on his life from his deathbed. He takes us on a trip through time from the depression to WWII highlighting Detroit’s black culture, history, and jazz. Ziggy weaves his own story throughout the stories of the 52 larger-than-life “saints” profiled in the book who contributed to Detroit’s Black Bottom. The book is written in such a creative format (based on the Catholic Saints Day Books) and there are delicious cocktail recipes at the end of each chapter based on each “saint”. BBS is a fascinating history lesson and a love letter to Detroit’s vibrant Black Bottom. This was a great, uplifting read and I highly recommend!
Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson reflects on his life from his deathbed. He takes us on a trip through time from the depression to WWII highlighting Detroit’s black culture, history, and jazz. Ziggy weaves his own story throughout the stories of the 52 larger-than-life “saints” profiled in the book who contributed to Detroit’s Black Bottom. The book is written in such a creative format (based on the Catholic Saints Day Books) and there are delicious cocktail recipes at the end of each chapter based on each “saint”. BBS is a fascinating history lesson and a love letter to Detroit’s vibrant Black Bottom. This was a great, uplifting read and I highly recommend!
smessmores's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I appreciate what the author was trying to do with the Catholic Saints Book format, but boy did it cause the story to drag too much for me. It would be one thing to have a one paragraph blurb about the person before Ziggy's story, but to have a blurb that takes up two pages that has literally nothing to do with the person? I get that we're supposed to be able to follow CG's story in it, but I did not care for that framing device at all. It took me out of the stories and people and made it very hard to read more than one chapter at a time. Sure, it would work fine if you did actually read one a week for 52 weeks, but when it's a book checked out from the library you don't get that luxury.
That said, it did make me want to learn more about the people mentioned. I just wish it more often actually dealt with the people mentioned. Far too frequently the story wasn't about the person, or even an interaction Ziggy had with the person, but rather the person was mentioned once at the beginning and then he'd go off on a description about something only tangentially related. It wasn't bad, it just didn't work with the expectation that the chapter would be about a particular person.
That said, it did make me want to learn more about the people mentioned. I just wish it more often actually dealt with the people mentioned. Far too frequently the story wasn't about the person, or even an interaction Ziggy had with the person, but rather the person was mentioned once at the beginning and then he'd go off on a description about something only tangentially related. It wasn't bad, it just didn't work with the expectation that the chapter would be about a particular person.
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