Homeward

"Homeward" by Angela Jackson-Brown is a family story. Like the waves of an ocean, good times come and go. What always remains is love for one another. When Rose faces trouble in her marriage,she goes back home to Parson, Georgia. I am glad she goes back home. No one can say what you need to hear more than your parents, grandparents, siblings and friends.

There are so many ways to use the word home. Angela Jackson-Brown's words led me to think about Jasper, Rose's husband. After he leaves the Air Force, Jasper .is looking forward to coming back home to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He knows Rose and his mother will welcome home. There, he will love Rose again and their new baby too. So often it is easy to take these places for granted. Each location leads to our learning how to love and to forgive ourselves as we grow toward a new self.

This is a story of family, heartbreak, loss and healing, and life in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as it begins, but moves to Parsons, Georgia in 1962. It is a time when racism was rampant and everyday, not that it has stopped. A time when those whose job was to protect people from harm were only available to those whose skin was the ‘right’ color. That’s how they saw it. When the color of your skin dictated if you could sit at a counter in Woolworth’s without being arrested, but were happy to give you the opportunity to put your life on the line to honor your country, even when those you fought alongside didn’t keep you in return.

But it is also so much more than that. It is a story of love of family, love of place, fear, war, death, and grief. It is also a story of navigating grief, and allowing oneself to honor the deceased by living fully, once again. Ultimately, it is a story of love, and finding a way to live and love despite the past.

1962 and mainly set in Parsons Georgia and the struggle for civil rights. For those of us who grew up in that era, the tragic events around that period will be familiar. The central character is Rose, a young lady, and with her we experience grief (a stillborn premature baby) tragedy, in the death of her husband in Viet Nam, the strength of family bonds, and her maturation, not only in terms of her evolving views on racial equality, but as a woman ready to love again and to fulfill a life long career dream.
Multifaceted, and well depicted, how even the black people who passively accepted their role became gradually fierce advocates for equality.
For young people unfamiliar with the struggle for racial equality a very good “history lesson” related in the form of an engrossing novel.

Absolutly breathtaking. Different from anything I’ve ever read and def something I’ll never forget! Wow just wow

Homeward by Angela Jackson-Brown is a novel that has the setting of the south during the Civil Rights Movement. The characters are well developed and the reader becomes immersed in their lives. There are family struggles as well as struggles of many of the citizens in this town. This novel entertains and informs. Thank you to Angela Jackson Brown, Harper Muse Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

5 stars

Homeward is a beautifully written book about love, loss, faith, family, hope, and courage. I like how the Perkins family were close and respectful to each other. Rose made a mistake in her marriage, but she had a loving and forgiving husband.

Many times in her life Rose had to pick up the pieces of what was left and move on. She showed resilence and strength in the face of all she went through. She then found her calling in the Civil Rights Movement. She made history and forged new friendships and relationships.

Throughout her life, Rose overcame the odds and all that was stacked against her. She found the courage to follow her dreams. The only down side to this book was the ending. I wanted and felt that an epiloque was needed. I know Rose had an amazing future, but I wanted to read about the beautiful life she finally got to have.

Such a great book! Beautifully written. Impacting. Soul searching. Truth telling. The nineteen sixties in Parsons, Georgia was a hard place to live as a person of color. Come back to it and see Opal and Cedric. Meet their families. They were in the previous book by Angela Jackson Brown. You don’t have to read it to follow this one, but if you haven’t, then you should. Completely absorbing. Loved it!

The reader is engaged in the civil rights fight to register black voters and achieve equal treatment for blacks in Parsons, Georgia. I was transported back in time to the tumult and anxiety of the early 1960s. Brown gave me the opportunity to view things through the eyes of a black family, to understand that not all blacks were opposed to protests and civil disobedience, and to witness the injustices inflicted on fine black people who were simply trying to build a better life for themselves and their children..

This historical fiction novel was a page turner. Following young Rose through mistakes, loss, and eventually finding her own voice amid the din of the civil rights movement across the South. Important educational information is touched upon, as well as the reactions and feelings of a family torn between wanting to be patient and quietly wait for their rights to come to them, or make themselves heard in their small town, while facing great unfairness and even abuse at the hands of the law. Well written story by Jackson-Brown, I will recommend it frequently..

A beautifully written book about a Black family in Mississippi in the early 1960s. This is the kind of story that will transplant you smack into the middle of a family's life. As you read, you'll feel like you are there with them on the front porch and at meal times. Each member of the family has a distinct personality and approaches solutions to rampant racism differently. In the end they all come together to create change in their own town.
The author really captured all the different feelings a person might have had in this place and time. Be it hesitation, fear, cautious enthusiasm, unbridled enthusiasm, indifference etc. These are memorable characters and a few are even unusual characters. I think this is a wonderful read and also a read that sheds light on some moments in history that are in danger of being forgotten.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's so well written and fascinating to get a glimpse into this time period and this wonderful family.

A thoughtful emotional novel about a young woman in the South during the fight for civil rights. Rose loses so much- a child, a husband, intangibles- and yet she keeps picking herself up and moving forward. The civil rights movement not only inspires her, it become her life's purpose and the way to happiness. She's a well drawn character as are the others, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, A good read and one that's especially important for younger people.

Homeward by Angela Jackson-Brow was a good book- in my opinion, it really cements Angela Jackson-Brow as one of the best American writers to come out of the last few years. It is epic and entertaining all at once, and so skillfully done. Angela pulls off the task of making each character of the story equally compelling.
A wonderful story of family, heartbreak, loss and healing.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Harper Muse for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Homeward by Angela Jackson Brown
#historicalfiction
#civilrights
#NetGalley published 10/10/2023
#harpermuse

This book takes place a generation after #WhenStarsRainDown. The first book of AJB's that I read and LOVED. It starts during the Vietnam War. Before President Kennedy's assassination. One of Opal's 5 kids is the center of this story. Rose got married early in life and unfortunately it was not a good decision. He life is filled with grief. Her baby sister, Ellena and the rest of her family helps her find her way out of her hole of grief.

I loved the closeness of the large family. I loved the way this book linked back to the When the Stars Rain Down. The book also mentions several well known events and people from that time. I loved hearing about the civil rights activists that didn't only include "Negros" as she called them in the book. It was the time. To the character's relief they were no longer called "colored". This author is now an auto-buy for me. I love the way she narrates her books with the dialogue of the time and region. It really makes me feel like I'm there.

#multiculturalinterest
#womensfiction
#homeward
#angelajacksonbrown @angelajacksonbrownauthor
#blackauthor
#bookstagram

Where to start with this novel! Homeward is definitely one of my favourite reads this year. It's absolutely breathtaking. No review I write will do this book justice, but I'm going to try anyway.

Georgia 1962, and Rose returns home pregnant with another man's baby after being unfaithful to her husband Jasper. He's away a lot with the Air Force, and Rose married young to a man who wasn't so honest about the way he could provide for her. Jasper still loves her and wants her back and agrees to raise the baby as his own. Forgiving her means being a family, and that's all both Rose and Jasper ever really wanted.
When Jasper returns back to duty, Rose's life is about to be turned upside down. She's about to face the worst things a woman can experience, but can her family and faith pull her through.

A beautiful novel about heartbreak and healing, family and faith, I can't adequately explain how this book made me weep. I absolutely adore the way family is portrayed with the perkins family as loyal and loving as they are. From segregation and fighting for the right to vote and be treated as fairly as white people, Homeward has so much depth to it. I can't recommend this book enough. It's one that will stay with me forever. I need it to be made into a movie now, please.
Ultimately, it is a story of resilience and love. I'm so pleased Rose got the beautiful ending she deserved.

I loved this book. I loved the characters, the situation in which they find themselves, the entire story.
Grief is a hard lesson to swallow and to learn from, however, Rose must give into sorrow and build her way up from it.
In the meantime, the Civil Rights movement is happening.
Will she join?

This book is beautifully written and I did not want it to end.
It gave me a new perspective on the Civil Rights movement.

THe only criticism that I have, and its so small....is there was a point in the book where Mama said Rose would be rewarded ten fold for everything that she lost...yet that did not come to fruition.
I am HOPING that the author does a sequel and it will be revealed then.

OVerall a wonderfully written book that I screamed with outrage over some of the incidents therein.

This touching narrative unfolds against the backdrop of the southern United States during the civil rights movement. As a Southerner, I resonated with its warmth, as the familiar diction evoked a sense of home. The tale skillfully navigates themes of grief, loss, and racism, yet remains a powerful testament to the enduring values of family and community.

Homeward by Angela Jackson-Brown tells the story of Rose a young woman coming of age in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. The stand-out parts of this book are that it allows Rose and her family to change and grow during the story AND that it takes you into the hearts and minds of those who were on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement, I understood the fear that was present in upending the white supremacist society. So often characters are portrayed as fearless and heroic but in this case, it felt far more heroic to move ahead despite the fear; The author also gives the reader a strong sense of the abuses suffered by the Black Community over time before the Civil Rights movement.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of Homeward in exchange for an honest review. This book is available now and I highly recommend it!

This author is amazing how she tied a story. About 2 girls named rose and her sister. Elle NA.. I like how she loves a story about these two girls growing up in the sixties when things were changing, and how she corporated historical facts into the book. Arose married man named J, Asp ER. This was not a really good fit for her. But she wanted to do it anyway.. Rose was very close to her family. Especially her dad and things happened to him, too.. Her sister e l l e n a was a student at spellman college She started to change as well. She got involved in the movement to sit at counters. And voting rates as well.. Her sister made some mistakes by getting pregnant by another man, and she came home. Because she could not face her husban They patched things up. But tragedy struck her again by losing her husband and her daughter.. She started to get involved in the movement with her sister, and she made a man named isaac. Family lived in a small town just outside atlanta georgia. Discuss a lot of different issues in this town. And however, but it treated everybody differently. The father was very concerned, too. Because things can happen to black women. And that time, and he tried to get Eleanor out of jail because he was really worried about her safety.. I like how she tied different things in the book. And this really helped clarify the book. It's a really good book to read.

I listened to the narration on audio by Joneice Abbott-Pratt who does an outstanding job. I thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eBook in exchange for my honest review.

“My husband and child haven’t even been dead a year. I can’t think about any relationship beyond Jasper. He is my husband and I plan to remain true to him.” She was only twenty two years old, that she was still in her good graces with her grandmother in heaven, but more importantly, in the good graces of God. For the first time in a long time, Rose’s soul began to release some of the turmoil and heartbreak she had been carrying.

I adored the warmth of the family. A close knit family that hugged, kissed foreheads, linked arms, gave squeezes, and had laughter in the house. Opal (Mama) taught all of her children, the boys and the girls, how to make Great-Grandma Birdie’s peach jam as well as other food items. Rose liked helping her Dad at the store and he loved her being there with him.

The antisemitism so prevalent in this current day and time, it’s magnified by the Jewish faith, culture, and beliefs that the author presents in the novel. The characters in the novel for reference are a reflection of our current time and situations. The reference to the inequality of the black soldiers who served in the Vietnam War was touched on by the author.

The characters and the storylines were reminiscent to ‘Soul Food’ the movie, but set in a different era, and more religiously infused. During the civil rights movement era, blacks needed the help of whites to get through the fight. The civil unrest is in this country, has resurfaced in recent years all around America, back in the civil rights movement it was most prevalent in the south, places like Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama.The novel has drama, romance, second chances, historical significance, and courage, Living in small rural town of a martyre (Jimmie Lee Jackson) who died during a push for black Americans to register to vote, brought me instant relatability to this story. This is a great southern fiction sprinkled with raw and truthful accounts of our history that needs telling and retelling so that history does not repeat itself.

#NetGalley #Homeward