Tuesday, April 26, 2011

All Different Kinds of Free

Mama always told me bad things happen on Wednesdays, 'cause it's the middle of the week and the Lord just ain't looking then. I never really understood what she meant by that, because I thought the Lord was always supposed to be looking.
I'm grown now, and Mama's long since gone. But, oh, how I pray she was wrong about Wednesdays and that the Good Lord is looking down on York County, Pennsylvania this day.
 
Smart, hard-working, educated. A proud wife and mother. As a free woman of color in the 1830's, Margaret Morgan lived a comfortable life and envisioned a good future for her family, until the day her former owner sent a vicious bounty hunter to return her and her children to Maryland. Thrown back into a brutally cruel system, Margaret did the unthinkable in that era: she took her case to court. 
Her fate would to be determined by the laws of a time when one state considered her a citizen but another saw her as property. The landmark case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania sewed the bitter seeds of the states' rights battle that would lead eventually to the Civil War.

But the heart of this story is not a historic Supreme Court ruling, it is the remarkable, unforgettable, Margaret Morgan. Her life would never be the same. Her family had been torn apart. Uncaring forces abused her body and her heart. Yet she refused to give up; refused to stop fighting; refused to allow her soul to be enslaved.   

This vivid, true story will draw readers deep into the heartbreak, terror, courage and indomitable pride of one heroic woman. 

My Thoughts:
Rarely do I find a book that must be read in one day but that's exactly what I found in All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann. Once I started, I had to finish the book today. I managed (but only barely) to put it down long enough to prepare dinner.
McCann is a top notch writer leading her readers to feel the emotions of her characters, be drawn into the story so that one must read until its conclusion. Rather than a sugar coated artificial ending, All Different Kinds of Free leaves the reader with a feeling of hope.
I must also add this is the first book I read on my Nook Color; I found it very easy to read as an e-book. I absolutely loved turning pages with the tap of a finger. I'm looking forward to reading more great books on my Nook.

A+, Five Stars and Two Thumbs Up for All Different Kinds of Free

I'd like to thank the author for making a review copy available via NetGalley.

2 comments:

RAnn said...

New toys are so much fun!

Jessica McCann said...

Thank you for this amazing review of my book, Renee. That you read it in one day is such a huge compliment. And that you found it to be a story of hope is the best of all.