#REVIEW @tayari's Book Silver Sparrow - I Don't Read But...

I’ll admit it – I don’t read books. It isn’t that I can’t. I just don’t.  When the movie “The Help” came out, I said, “I am not going to that movie, until I read the book” – basically saying – I’d never see that movie.  But one day, I looked on my book shelf (yep, I do have one of those), and there it was. Brand new and shiny… The Help.  It had been there the whole time.  Apparently, I had gotten it in my bag at Blogalicious in Miami and never looked at it.  So when Blogalicious rolled around this year in Washington DC, I was determined to read the books in our bag, if we got any.

This year, we received a copy of Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow.  As soon as I got home, I sat down and read it. Once I started I couldn’t stop, and was finished in a day and a half.  I am definitely a “do so no like so” kind of person sometimes, so my kids were stunned to see me on the couch with a book.  I make them read every chance they get, but if I can’t get it on my phone or laptop screen, it won’t be read.  I could feel them staring at me while I turned the pages.  My oldest sat down next to me with his own book – unprompted – and we read together.  Miracles do happen.

Okay, so this book is amazing.  I’ll just start there. You can read on if you’d like, or you can just go out and get it.  The idea of a second family (or third) is not uncommon in the Caribbean. Ask anyone from any island, and they’ll tell you that they or someone they know shared a patriarch with another family, and it was probably common knowledge.  The book was about an African American family, but it touched on issues that transcend color, race, and culture.  What is “the right thing” exactly?  Who determines if we have done “the right thing”? Right for whom?  How many people will the decision that you make today effect? Is marriage sacred to anyone? Do parents REALLY love all their kids the same?  I could go on, and I could tell you that this book will answer these questions.  I won’t – it won’t.  What it will do is engage you from start to finish, and make you think about relationships and family long after you have put it back on your bookshelf.

Congratulations to the winners of signed copies of Silver Sparrow... @hoyazeta and @JolivetteWill! Check them out on Twitter and ask them what they think of the book...

Since I read Silver Sparrow, I have finished another book – Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and Other Concerns), considered joining From Left to Write (If they’ll have me…), and started on A Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate (not the book about Haiti).  I am pleased to say, my new love of books was jump started by Tayari Jones' Silver Sparrow.

I still haven’t read The Help.

Author Profile: Eva Wilson  - Website

Eva is the administrator and blogger for SocaMom.com. Follow her on Twitter at @socamomdc.