JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
“Waiting for Monday”
by Janet Throneberry
3 of 5 Stars
“Waiting for Monday” by Janet Throneberry was a wonderful coming-of-age-story set in the mid-South.
At its core, “Waiting for Monday” was about the life of Monday Dawn Holder. Monday was abhorred by her mother, resented by her father, disgusting to her sister, tolerated by her paternal grandparents and loved by her maternal grandparents – especially the grandmother. She faced a series of challenges and tragedies that would make the average reader count their blessings as the novel progressed. This story will tug at your heartstrings and leave you emotionally spent by its conclusion. Continue reading JoeyPinkney.com Book Review – Waiting for Monday by Janet Throneberry→
JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
“Murder Takes Time”
by Giacomo Giammatteo
5 of 5 Stars
“Murder Takes Time” by Giacomo Giammatteo is nothing short of intense. Giammatteo takes many complex story lines and wraps them into a tight literary package.
In an immigrant neighborhood of mostly Italians in Wilmington, Delaware, Frankie “Bugs” Donovan, Nicky “the Rat” Fusco and Tony “the Brain” Sunnullo are three little boys who get into whatever may come. When Nicky’s mother dies, Tony and Nicky become more than just friends when Tony’s mother helps Nicky’s father by taking Nicky into her home and raising him like he’s her own child. Their old neighborhood is full of adventure, and these childhood friends often find more trouble than they can handle. Just like any young crew of roving boys, they live to see another day and get into new predicaments. Continue reading JoeyPinkney.com Book Review – Murder Takes Time by Giacomo Giammatteo→
JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
“Archie’s Psalm”
by Christopher D. Burns
5 of 5 Stars
In a 1970s neighborhood, the tale of “Archie’s Psalm” by Christopher D. Burns unfolds.
This book tells a story set in North Memphis, but this story holds true for Black people in many communities across the United States. It tells the story of a group of people devastated by generation after generation of men leaving families broken because of their absence. The landscape of this North Memphis neighborhood is taking a pervasive turn for the worst with festering problems like the presence of gangs that are looking younger and younger recruits to peddle drugs, lack of city planning, single-mothers working more than one job and leaving children to raise themselves and the disrespect of elders by children who aren’t being taught any better. The community center steadily gives way to gang activity. Gun violence becomes a reality. Vietnam War veterans come home zombified from heroine use or in pine boxes for burial.
