The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

    The Underground Railroad is a story about a young slave girl named Cora.  Cora is a slave on the Randall plantation, a cotton plantation in the state of Georgia.  Cora was born on the Randall plantation, and this is where her mother and grandmother were also slaves.  The book doesn't tell Cora's age but lets you believe she is about fifteen or sixteen years old.  Her mother ran away when she was a child and Cora resents being left behind to fend for herself.
    The one thing Cora does own is "a plot three yards square and the hearty stuff that spouted from it."  This plot was passed down to her mother from her grandmother and then to Cora once her mother ran away.  Cora has to defend her right to this ground more than once and learns to stand up for herself and what is hers.
     Caesar, a new arrival on the plantation, offers Cora an opportunity to accompany him on the Underground Railroad, but she is hesitant.  But when leadership on the plantation changes hands and Cora's circumstances get even worse, she decides to take a chance and flee with Caesar.  Not one to let his property get away, Terrance Randall sends a determined slave catcher, Ridgeway, after the duo.     As Cora and Caesar embark on a horrifying journey through the heart of America in search of freedom, the dangers of being caught are always at the forefront of their minds. Their journey takes them through the states of Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Indiana.
   The Underground Railroad is a tale of one woman's strong will to escape the horrors of bondage.
   Good read. This book just made the shortlist for the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Award.

The Cellar by Minette Walters

Young Muna has lived as a slave to the Songoli family (mother, father, and two sons) for six years, after being removed from a West African orphanage at age 8.  When the family immigrates to England, Muna accompanies them. With her nights filled with horrible abuse at the hands of Mr. Songoli, locked in an unlit basement, and her days filled with manual labor and beatings by the rod-wielding Yetunda (Mrs. Songoli), Muna has led a bleak life, devoid of affection and care. This all changes when the Songolis’ youngest son, overweight and spoiled, fails arrive home after school.  In order to explain Muna’s presence to the investigators, the family “adopts” her, claiming that she is their mentally disabled daughter who can neither, read, write nor speak English (an underestimation that will have surprising consequences for all concerned).  They dispose of her basement mattress, dress her in “Princess’s” cast-off clothing (Yetunda has always forced Muna use this endearment to address her…in the few times she is permitted to speak), and prop her up in a neatly furnished bedroom.  Having never been allowed to leave the house since the family’s immigration, and beaten if she is caught looking out, Muna at first views these white interlopers with a mixture of fear and superstitious awe (she believes the lead officer can see into her soul with her piercing blue eyes). Despite her misgivings, it soon becomes apparent that while suspicion for the boy’s disappearance looms over the family, Muna’s quality of life is significantly improved.  Upon this rise in station, Muna begins to engineer her own reversal of fortune.  Fast-paced, surprising, and short, Minette Walter’s newest novella is highly readable!

Jennifer Wilson

Yellow Crocus

by Laila Ibrahim

A beautiful story of pre-civil war slavery.  Ibrahim's main character is Mattie, who is chosen to be a wet nurse for the masters new baby girl.  Another prime character is Lisbeth, the child Mattie nurses and tends for many years. Lisbeth loves Mattie more than her own mother, and as she grows to adulthood, she is faced with some tough choices - to go the way of the South or become an abolitionist. Mattie, who has her own child but is separated from him, has tough choices to make also - stay a slave or run away and possibly not survive.

Yellow Crocus is a moving glimpse into how it was for the slaves as well as the whites. Parts are somewhat predictable, but still a beautiful story of hearts that tear, souls getting abused and actions that are brave. Excellent read!
- Posted by P. Scott

Same kind of different!

Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, is a true story told by two guys who didn't know they were being set up by God.

I can't say enough good about this book. It is the best! Why? Because it touches you in a deep place and wakes you up to seeing what you probably missed.

This is a story about a homeless drifter who grew up in virtual slavery in the 50's. His name is Denver and you will fall in love with him and he will bless you with the wisdom from within a man who never went to school. It is also about a profitable art dealer accustomed to the good life. This is Ron. We grow along with Ron. And then it is about a gutsy lady...I like gutsy.....who is moved and inspired by God to see something unlikely happen with these two men.

A story of friendship, faith, homelessness and pain! Don't pass this one over because we are the same kind of different.