Member Reviews
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โจ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ค๐ซ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐จ by Anissa Gray โจ
โช๏ธ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐น๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป: If youโre looking for a family sagaโthen you will definitely find it here. First off, let me make it plain and clear, I think Ozโs disappearance is very selfish and caused so much turmoil for Deborah, Trinity, and Tommy. When you enter into a family unit, your actions have consequences. Ozโs unchecked childhood trauma and Deborahโs alcoholism wreaks havoc in their marriage as they try to get through this thing called life. It was very hard to connect to these characters. I felt most sympathetic towards Tommy and Deborah though.
โช๏ธ ๐๐๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฟโ๐ ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ: Humans are strangely flawed and complex. ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ค๐ซ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐จ asks us to be aware of the choices we make, but also to be prepared for the aftermath as wellโgood or bad. One choice sets the course for the rest of our lives. Can we live with that? If not, how do you reconcile or forgive yourself? (e.g. therapy, healing)
โช๏ธ๐๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ผ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ: Why, yes, of course. Thanks to @libby.app and @prhaudio for the free listen. This audiobook has a stellar cast of narrators with Dominic Hoffman,ย Karen Murray,ย and Nicole Lewis with previous (and separate) roles respectively in ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐, ๐๐๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ, and ๐๐๐ก๐ฉ๐๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐จ. These narrators made it easy to distinguish between Oz, Deborah, and Trinity (and the other supporting voices). It was a smooth listening experience when the settings changed. I love a full cast on audiobooks. This one was great.
โช๏ธ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ
โช๏ธ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ: For readers of historical fiction, literary fiction, and adult fiction with topics surrounding family drama (secrets, regrets, & guilt),The Great Migration, 1967 riots in Detroit, Vietnam War, AIDS epidemics, and LGBT rights.
โช๏ธ๐๐ฌ๐: I would rather swap Trinityโs POV out for Tommyโs b/c her character was flat to me.
Life and Other Love Songs is a family saga that spans the 60โs, 70โs, and 80โs. I enjoyed bits and oieces, loathed the father Oz and although I finished reading this book I wasnโt that into it. There are powerful messages here so maybe check it out for yourself and see if you enjoy it. It wasnโt my cup of tea.
**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an electronic ARC of this book and the opportunity to provide feedback.
WHY DO A**HOLES GET REDEEMED??????????? I scoffed multiple times reading this. I did love the time period this was set in.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC
I absolutely love a multigeneration family story and Anissa Gray developed each character so incredibly well that you couldn't help but feel invested in this family. This book was full of quotes I wanted to write down and refer back to, like this one: "I thought about life, the varied lengths of it and the many ways we can spend it." I haven't read Gray's debut, and now I'm excited to have something else of hers to dive into.
I wanted to love LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS, but this book became difficult for me to finish. The timeline was the biggest hurdle. I have read books like this before with no issue, but for some reason, I couldn't connect with the story. I will say that the authors' writing style was good. It was just the flow. I fully acknowledge that this is probably just a me thing and others will no doubt love this book.
I loved putting together this mystery and figuring out what was happening with Oz, Trinity, and Deborah. As the details around Oz's disappearance came together, I was very satisfied.
LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS
By Anissa Gray
Flawed and complex characters
Deep rooted secrets
A family healing from pain of loss
LIFE AND OTHER LOVE SONGS by Anissa Gray is a story of Oz Armsteadโs disappearance suddenly one day, and leaving his wife Deborah and daughter Trinity to wonder what happened to him, while the story opens at a funeral with an empty casket. The story is told through past and present timelines from the 60โs through the 80โs in three prominent POVโs as the story is slowly revealed.
The writing is emotional with well developed flawed characters โ but through it all, the story offers some hope and a chance to even find yourself in one of the characters. I couldnโt stop turning the pages as I just had to find the reason for Ozโs disappearance. Gray delivers a well written beautiful and equally heartbreaking family saga.
Do we really know the ones we love? It doesnโt seem to be the case in this one. On Ozroโs 37th birthday his daughter and his wife are at home preparing for a birthday to celebrate tradition. When he disappears it seems his family never really knew him at all. This was a sweeping family saga.
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a powerful book, It has historical stories, current fears, it kind of addresses a lot. I feel like I learned a lot as well. However, this book was triggering to me and I was more upset than I think the author may have intended. Great writer, great story teller. Thank you for this copy.
It pains me to say this, but sometimes we have stories we want to tell, but we are not equipped with the creative skill to do so.
The premise is intriguing but the writing is flat, as are the characters. There are ideas with potential in this book, but the execution is non-existent.
I love books that follow characters through years of their lives while weaving historical events into the story. Family dynamics and drama are a big plus. Life and Other Love Songs is that kind of book.
It's Oz's 37 birthday and he leaves his brother after having lunch...and his family never sees him again. It wasn't planned. He left everything behind, even his jacket hanging in his office. Years later, his daughter Trinity begins to dig into his disappearance.
There is a lot of trauma. There are secrets. All against a backdrop of Detroit (and small-town Alabama) from the 1960s to 80s.
My thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The only complaint I have about this beautifully written book, with it's nuanced characters and incredibly intense scenes, is the title. It is lackluster and truthfully doesn't connect with the story. HOWEVER. This book was fantastically written!
This book is told through multiple points of view and spans over several decades. A father and husband disappears on his 37th birthday. What happened to him? The book held my attention and was written well. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.
Pub date: 4/11/23
Genre: family drama
Quick summary: Trinity and her mother Deborah are devastated when Trinity's dad Ozro disappears - this is the story of their search for him and struggle to come to terms with the loss.
I love family dramas, so this book sounded right up my alley. I had a bit of a hard time following everything that was going on - there are multiple time periods, including when Deborah and Oz met and Trinity setting of on her own path. I had trouble connecting to the characters given the time shifts, and when I did connect with them, the narrative would shift again. This book is also very heavy, and I think it was too sad for me at the time I read it.
I think this is a case of a book hitting me at the wrong time - if you like heavier family dramas, you might enjoy this one more than I did. As many other reviewers have noted, the writing is beautiful.
Thank you to Berkley and @letstalkbookspromo for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book took me some time to get into because of the different time periods and many different voices, but once I really got into the story it was very interesting. I really wanted to know what happened to Oz and learn more about his past and how that affected them all as a family. It was weird to go back and forth from past and present and each of the three characters, but you can really see how someone's past affects the futures of so many people. Loved this book and will go back to read her other novel as well.
This book was a up and down read. The characters are all over the place. The book begins with a normal story then Orzo Armstead disappears on his 37th birthday. He never comes home from work to the party that Deborah his wife and Trinity his daughter have planned. Several years go by and they have a small burial. Trinity goes off to college and on with life. Deborah tries hard to not start drinking again and then Orzo reappears. Trinity is going to meet him but he dies. Trinity has a child and divorces her husband. Life is just a mess for all of these characters . A great book club discussion book.
When Oz Armstead disappears on his 37th birthday, in the early 1980s, family secrets come to light that impact his close family members. His wife, Deborah, an extremely talented aspiring singer when she met Oz in 1963, is now closeted in their suburban house, an alcoholic with a fractured shambles of a life. Her one chance at reinstating some semblance of her singing career ended in shame and embarrassment. Ozโs daughter, Trinity, has survived a tangle of one-off relationships and is committed to living with the father of her child when she makes a rash decision that changes everything. Ozโs mother, Pearl, suffers silently every day with the tragic reasons they left Alabama and came north to Detroit. After years in denial and a refusal to consider Oz dead, the declaration, seven years after his official death and the subsequent โshamโ funeral, is deeply painful to Trinity, but her mother seems particularly eager to move on.
This is a poignant, tragic story of a Black family embattled by thwarted hopes and dreams, coming to terms with Ozโs disappearance and their unwitting part in it. And then thereโs Tommy, Ozโs brother, who might hold the key. It is a vivid and emotional tale of one manโs atonement for his own perceived wrongs, and perhaps how he becomes so embroiled in his search for redemption that he fails to see how it impacts those who must live in ignorance. Might that journey have been eased were he to have shared it? Deborah comes to terms with a betrayal which altered her life irrevocably, without a true understanding of why it happened. Seamlessly moving between the 1980s and 1960s and into the early ยด90s, Anissa Gray has given us a tender, thoughtful story of life and love.
A beautifully written book on hard topics. It's really a hard to do a review on this one without spoilers.
Deborah was headed for stardom in Detroit. Oz was running from his past in Alabama. When they fall in love, he is looking for redemption and she is looking for support in her career. Can they do that for each other?
Neither are strangers to tragedy. Then Oz disappears into thin air on his 37th birthday leaving Deborah and their daughter, Trinity, to wonder and navigate life without him.
Set in the 1970-1990's, it covers hard themes and you ache and rejoice with the characters. It is not a "happy" book but maybe a necessary one. We all scars. We think we are doing the right thing but hurt the ones we love.
I gave it โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ. It was sorrow at its best. These characters were not even close to perfect but you understood their imperfections. It was real life. It would be a fantastic book club book! I love Anissa Gray's writing. I have her other book but it's been on my TBR too long. I think I need to dust it off and read it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
Life and Other Long Songs follows the story of a Black family. When a key member of the family disappears, secrets are revealed. I absolutely loved this book. A beautifully written story about a Black family and their pain. It was hard to put down. I loved the character development of each character. Deborah, a talented singer, had her life planned out, until it was all snatched away. I felt her pain, especially when she found out what Oz did. Reading her storyline and her struggles with alcoholism was heartbreaking. But she eventually found herself towards the end. Oz, who went through so much in his past with his family, didnโt heal until the end of the novel. His story was heartbreaking and you could feel his love for his brother. His trauma followed him and seeped into his new family with Deborah and Trinity. But eventually, he healed, and I cried reading his ending. Trinityโs storyline was hard to relate to, but I liked her. I didnโt feel any change with her character, but I think she complimented her parents storylines well. I could also see how her parents decisions affected her and her life. I wish Gray explored Tommyโs character more. He was more of a background character and we learned about him through the other main characters. I would have loved to read about his relationship with Lloyd and his abusive relationship with his father when he was younger. Overall, I loved this book and highly recommend especially if you love books centering around Black families.
See full review on Atlanta Journal-Constitution website:
โLife and Other Love Songsโ by Atlanta author Anissa Gray is a heartfelt family saga centered around a Detroit family that excavates multiple layers of trauma โ and the generational impact of abuse โ as they struggle to claim their piece of the American Dream.
Spanning from the 1960s to the early โ90s, with a dip back to Jim Crow Alabama, โLife and Other Love Songsโ begins with a missing father and explores his familyโs journey to reconcile his disappearance when theyโre left grasping at secrets.
โAbsence was not the same as death,โ Trinity Armstead says in the bookโs prologue while attending her fatherโs funeral in 1989 โ seven years after he vanished without a trace on his 37th birthday. During that time Trinity and her mother Deborah exist in limbo not knowing what became of him. They canโt mourn and canโt move on. And they donโt know how to interpret his emotional distance in the months preceding his disappearance...
https://www.ajc.com/life/arts-culture/life-and-other-love-songs-weighs-generational-impact-of-trauma/IJVSYYSEAFC3TFO4VV7CN5DH7Y/