The Reading Lessons Carole Lanham 9781938750892 Books
Download As PDF : The Reading Lessons Carole Lanham 9781938750892 Books
Mississippi 1920 Nine year old servant, Hadley Crump, finds himself drawn into a secret world when he is invited to join wealthy Lucinda Browning’s dirty book club. No one suspects that the bi-racial son of the cook is anything more to Lucinda than a charitable obligation, but behind closed doors, O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright. What begins as a breathless investigation into the more juicy parts of literature quickly becomes a consuming and life-long habit for two people who would not otherwise be left alone together. As lynchings erupt across the South and the serving staff is slowly cut to make way for new mechanical household conveniences, Hadley begins to understand how dangerous and precarious his situation is. The Reading Lessons follows the lives of two people born into a world that is unforgiving as a Hangman’s knot. Divided by skin color and joined by books, Hadley and Lucinda are forced to come together in the only place that will allow it, a land of printed words and dark secrets.
The Reading Lessons Carole Lanham 9781938750892 Books
If you have an appetite for literary fiction, history, romance and a great voice, then look no further. Lanham has provided her audience with a meal to satisfy the most finicky reader's palate. Lucinda Browning is a character you won't soon forget, with her tyrannical and seductive whims that keep young Hadley tripping over himself to please her. Their relationship is both charming and forbidden. The tone and pacing of this story are spot-on. Ms. Lanham provides periodic details that ground the reader in this trying and delicately difficult time. An impressive work from an equally impressive writer. Don't miss it.Product details
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Tags : The Reading Lessons [Carole Lanham] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Mississippi 1920: Nine year old servant, Hadley Crump, finds himself drawn into a secret world when he is invited to join wealthy Lucinda Browning’s dirty book club. No one suspects that the bi-racial son of the cook is anything more to Lucinda than a charitable obligation,Carole Lanham,The Reading Lessons,Immortal Ink Publishing LLC,1938750896,FICTION Literary,Fiction - General,Literary,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
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The Reading Lessons Carole Lanham 9781938750892 Books Reviews
The Reading Lessons turned out to be a completely different story than what I thought, but it was still enjoyable. I laughed at some parts and reading the book in one day, I found that afterwards, the main characters stayed with me.
Lucinda and Hadley, lifelong friends and erratic, passionate lovers, shared secrets and a not-so-typical love that bounded them together for nearly eighty years. Lucinda, a white woman of high society and Hadley, a mulatto, found a common joy in reading that would irrevocably link them together for the rest of their lives. Lucinda, under the guise of teaching the help to read, chose Hadley as her pupil. But the books they shared were not those typically used for lessons. Lucinda liked to read the "naughty" books of the era and used them as the blueprint for her intimate sexual encounters with Hadley. And Hadley went along with her book-themed antics because he loved her, forcing him eventually to give up his chance for a normal life - having a wife and legitimate offspring- for the result of that love. In the end this book was a love story, although not a sweet romance, as Lucinda's sexual preferences and treatment of Hadley boarded on "kinky," it certainly showed a love, tendencies toward jealousy, and familiarity between the two that is shared by people in love.
Unfortunately, the book missed in that the research for the time period was lacking, and there were continuity problems. There was an anachronistic feel to it, such as kids entering a Kix Cereal Contest before the cereal was invented , being USDA Certified in the 1920s, and others. Additionally, it was nearly impossible to tell what year characters were in, time kept jumping around and characters' ages and chronological years didn't add up, keeping this reader confused at times on what could be possible. Little history of the time was included, which may have helped with that problem. But what was most egregious for me is the use of the "n" word between blacks in the book. Lanham has "coloreds," as they called themselves in the 1920s, calling each other the "n" word in just general conversation as if they referred to each other as such. They didn't. That word, during more than half of the 20th century, was used as a derogatory term by whites. It was meant to insult and degrade and debase blacks and blacks, in being called that winced at the term, not embraced it. And no way did blacks in the era this author writes refer to each other with the word, especially church going folk and women, (even in the 1990s when the word became popular in rap songs, there was a huge controversy on blacks using it) yet the author has her colored characters using it freely among themselves. To me that showed a real lack of research and insensitivity to the era, the culture and the race by the author. The story would have had a more realistic feel and been more literary worthy if the author had been more circumspect in trying to capture the time period when writing her story.
The Reading Lessons shows the other side of the usually portrayed sweet innocent love of the early 1900s, giving Lucinda and Hadley real personalities - showing the good and bad of people, the reason they make poor choices and why life never goes as planned. Lanham's showing the flaws in people, made her main characters more human and their actions, interactions and reaction more true to life.
"Hadley Crump,finds himself drawn into a secret world when he is invited to join wealthy Lucinda Browning’s dirty book club." I was intrigued enough by author, Carole Lanham's, description of her novel to read it not quite knowing what to expect from the story line. The notion of a forbidden interracial love affair by a couple drawn together in the 1920s by their mutual love of reading was sufficient reason for me to purchase this book. I anticipated a typical love story of the era. A young southern white female seduces African American male via his love of literature. He acts upon his physical attraction; a force more powerful than his love of books. Romantic that I am, I expected that love and some heavy passion would conquer all!
Boy was I wrong! This novel uniquely explores the underpinnings of this taboo relationship; one that is mired in physical pain, lies, fear yet a seeming understanding and acceptance of these irregularities by Hadley and Lucinda. I believe readers will be challenged to fully understand the psychological dynamics of the Hadley/Lucinda relationship making this a must read!
This is certainly one of those books that takes you to a different time in US history and makes you see the way life was for people back then. Especially blacks. It’s refreshing for me to see a story that reminds me of the time of my grandfather. He used to tell stories in much of the same way, which made me reflect on the similarities in the end.
Though I wasn’t entirely positive on what to expect, this isn’t a sweet romance. It’s not going to give you warm fuzzies and though it ends on a sigh worthy note, it doesn’t have a very happy ending.
What it does have is two children who grew up and old together, bonded by an equal share of love and a lot of references to Poe. It has vivid and colorful language that paints pictures as you read. It has powerful characters that draw you in and hold your hand as they lead you through the story. There are points that make you sigh and points that make you gasp. And just when you thought all the effort of these two characters was finally going to have a reward, the story ends, beautiful and sad.
I’m positive this is going to be a story that will stick with me for some time as I have never felt the injustice and the longing of a character as much as I had for Hadley Crump. I never became so invested into a character’s story and emotion as I had. Of course, it’s easy to do. Hadley was a very likable character, and you couldn’t find fault in his reasons for any of his actions.
Despite being a half-black/half-white boy growing up in the south during the 1920’s, Hadley was a hard working gentleman who, despite his efforts, lived his life doing things as right as he possibly could. One of the things he saw was right for him was Lucinda. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, there was something between them that couldn’t be explained by mere words. And it’s with that, the reading lessons started, and their rocky and somewhat questionable relationship began.
I truly love what this story has done to me and how much I wanted the characters to be able to give freely and openly. I nearly cried at the end. This is such a beautifully written story. I have a hard time not recommending it to anyone who loves to read, regardless of favorite genre.
This review will appear on my site, Goodreads, and .
If you have an appetite for literary fiction, history, romance and a great voice, then look no further. Lanham has provided her audience with a meal to satisfy the most finicky reader's palate. Lucinda Browning is a character you won't soon forget, with her tyrannical and seductive whims that keep young Hadley tripping over himself to please her. Their relationship is both charming and forbidden. The tone and pacing of this story are spot-on. Ms. Lanham provides periodic details that ground the reader in this trying and delicately difficult time. An impressive work from an equally impressive writer. Don't miss it.
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