"Mudbound" by Hillary Jordan: LOVED IT! (UPDATED)

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan is historical fiction that reminded me of The Help but is a much faster read. I LOVED this one even more than When She Woke, the first book I read by Hillary Jordan. Mudbound tells the story of a black family and a white family living in the deep south in the early 1940s. The black family are the sharecroppers on the white family's land. The characters are likable and well developed. It has a really good ending and would make a fantastic movie!

If you liked The Help by Kathryn Stockton, you will love this book too!  I highly recommend this one!
(Gerard's Review)

Karen's review:
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan is a book that drew me into the characters.  It is historical fiction during 1946 about a black and a white man coming home from war to Mississippi to help their families on the farm.  I had no idea what this book was about from the title, but “Mudbound” is the name of the farm Henry bought out of the blue without even consulting his wife, Laura.  She is the one who named the farm because she felt trapped there.  Through great story telling by all the characters, the reader discovers the tragic story behind Pappy’s death.

Although I did not like the offensive language, it was a part of history and was used appropriately in conveying the unfairness the Blacks faced every day.  Mudbound is very well written and had lots of good passages in it.  I had a hard time choosing a teaser!  I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it if you like books with some depth that cause you to really take an interest in the characters.  I agree with Gerard that it would make a good movie.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

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Cover Art Weekend Blog Hop

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

I chose a beautiful cover this week that really captures the story as well.  Read our review of The Guardian.

This is a brand new meme to display all those beautiful, funny, crazy and even those that make you think book covers you come across each week. I don't know about the rest of you, but I love looking at different book covers. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but they are sure fun to look at. So, if you'd like to join in the fun, all you have to do is...

1. Take the button at the top of this post and post it on your blog.

2. Chose a book cover of your choice and post it. (You can post as many covers as you'd like.)

3. Sign up with Mr. Linky at Socrates' Book Reviews. Please use the url that links directly to your cover art post.

4. Visit other blogs on the list to see what covers they are featuring this week.

Instead of just one day, this hop runs through the weekends - from Fridays to Mondays. That gives people more of a chance to blog hop.

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"The Guardian" by Nicholas Sparks

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks is a combination of a love story and a thriller with a dog thrown in.  The main character is Julie, a young widow who works at a salon and finally decides to date four years after her husband died.  Her husband, Jim, left her a letter and arranged for her to get a Great Dane puppy in the event of his death which I thought was a pretty neat idea.  The dog was his way of watching out for her.  After the Prologue, this book poked along for me until about half way through when the psycho stalks her and she realizes she is in danger.  I liked "The Guardian" because of the dog involved watching out for Julie.  Gerard read this a long time ago and liked it too.  He said I should read it and I finally got to it and am glad I did!

BEWARE:  SPOILER AHEAD--STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!
The ending was pretty intense but I didn't like that the dog died.  I think Julie should have went for the gun when her dog grabbed the guys arm instead of letting him shoot her dog.  I get that the dog was like a guardian angel and once Richard was dead, she'd have Mike and live happily ever after and the dog's "job" was done.  I just think the dog could have lived too--I would have liked that ending better.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Sweetness--Life of Walter Payton" by Jeff Pearlman

I enjoyed Sweetness--The Enigmatic Life Of Walter Payton a lot!  It tells the story of the life of Walter Payton aka Sweetness, a football player.  I especially liked hearing from all the players he played with and against as well as the details of his life off the field were fantastic and enjoyable.  It must have taken a lot of research to write such a book.  It seemed he left nothing out!  If you are a football fan, I think you will love this book!
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Leading With The Heart" by Mike Krzyzewski

I read Leading With The Heart--Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski last year but with him being breaking coach Bobby Knight's record of winning the most College basketball games this week, I thought it would be appropriate to repost this.

This is a helpful book about coaching but many of the principles and tips he shares could also apply to business and teaching.  Every coach should read this one because there are so many practical tips that Mike shares and solid principles to follow.  After each chapter is a summary of the main points.  Mike shares from his experiences to illustrate his points in a very interesting way. 

Some key points on coaching that stood out to me from Leading With The Heart--Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski (Duke's head basketball coach):

1.  Recruit players with character who respect their parents, willing to be part of the team and are coachable.

2.   Do not have a bunch of rules that limit you, it's better to just have one rule:  "Don't do anything detrimental to yourself."

3.    Use plural pronoun's such as "our," "we," "us" so it's the player's team and not just the coach's. 

4.    Always look your players in the eye and tell the truth.

5.    Share the goals with the players.

6.    Lead with confidence, show your players what they need to see.

7.    Imagine the loose ball you're chasing has your name on it.  It belongs to you.

8.     Stress honor in all things.

9.      Set goals that revolve around playing together as a team, never the number of wins.  Define your own success.

10.    Five fundamental qualities that make a team great:  communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride.

11.    Win or lose together--don't play the blame game.

12.    Address the little things you may encounter in a real situation.

13.    Be positive about all things that happen to the team.  Look at nothing in the past as failure.  Learn from every game.

14.    Plan but be flexible.

15.    Believe you can win, but don't assume you can.

16.    Always respect your competition.

17.    Set up some team traditions.

18.    Maintain a good sense of humor--having fun reduces pressure.

19.    Show strength, hide weakness.

20.    The only way you lose is if you don't try your best.

21.    When people achieve something that they've really worked hard for, it makes them feel great, superb, wonderful.

22.    You have to work at staying in contact with your friends so that the relationships will continue and live on.

23.    If something isn't working, try something new and different.  Never give up, find a way to win.

24.    Spend time with your players outside of practices and games to get to know them and become friends.

25.    At the end of each season, thank the team for their hard work.

I really got a lot out of this book--it was great!
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.