Sunday salon ~ books and stories

I want a book holder like this!  Whoever designed it is a genius.

I don't like that cup over the books, but I always have a bottled drink

and keep the top screwed on when I'm not actually drinking.

I'm sure this is over-simplified, but I like the thought.

I'm a girl (okay, an elderly girl), and I want

more than "just the facts, ma'am" in the stories I read.

We Turn to Face the Sun ~ by Stephanianna Lozito, 2022, fiction, 295 pages

To what lengths would a person go to cope with trauma?  Jennifer Rossi — a 35-year-old professor who is tormented and exhausted by a broken and painful relationship with her younger sister, Tara — takes the reader on an unexpected journey as she tackles this question and all its unanticipated outcomes.  When Jennifer receives shocking news about Tara, she begins a quest to uncover answers she may not want to find.  As Jennifer learns more about her sister, she becomes more alone and confused.  Jennifer must face up to her complicated relationship with Tara — or lose herself in the process.

This is the latest book I've downloaded onto my Kindle.  It looks good, so I plan to start this one next, after I finish Finding Samuel Lowe that I'm reading now:

Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem ~ by Paula Williams Madison, 2015, memoir, 301 pages

This powerful debut tells the story of Paula Williams Madison's Chinese grandfather, Samuel Lowe.  He became romantically involved with a Jamaican woman, Paula's grandmother, and they lived together modestly with their daughter in his Kingston dry goods store, Chiney Shop.  His Chinese soon-to-be wife arrived in 1920 to set up a "proper" family.  When he requested to take his three-year-old daughter with him, Paula's jealous grandmother made sure that Lowe never saw his child again.  That began an almost one-hundred-year break in their family.

Years later, the arrival of her only grandchild raising questions about family and legacy, Paula decided to search for Samuel Lowe's descendants in China.  With the support of her brothers and the help of encouraging strangers, a determined Paula eventually pieced together her grandfather's life, following his story from China to Jamaica and back.  Using old documents, digital records, and referrals from the insular and interrelated Chinese-Jamaican community, she found three hundred long-lost relatives in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, China.  She even located documented family lineage that traces back three thousand years to 1006 BC.  This book is a remarkable journey about one woman's path to self-discovery and a beautiful reflection of the power of family.

After failing, I tried it with my LEFT foot and RIGHT hand and could do it that way.  But I'm still asking myself, "Why, why, why???"

Today's laugh

Where do bad rainbows go?  Prism, but it's a light sentence.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon.