Wow. "The Color Purple" definitely holds up. I loved the movie when I saw it as a kid and I read the book for the first time in college. At the time I remember being shocked that it was a book. My professor at the time called Stephen Speilberg a coward for not depicting Shug and Ms. Celie's relationship on the screen the way the book did. I didn't get it at the time, but definitely did at the end of the book.

Walker does a great job of showing us Celie and her growing awareness of her own sexuality and how her acceptance or I guess her being forced to be subservient to Mr. drove a lot of things she said and did. When we get to Celie growing into her own and realizing that she doesn't have to stay in a life that she never wanted, it was glorious. Walker goes back and forth between Celie writing to "God" and then her sister Nettie. And then we get to read Nettie's letters to Celie. 

Walker does a wonderful job of showing how black women were not only ground down by the patriarchal and racist society in America, but how they were ground down by other black women and men. 

We get to see a lot of women portrayed in this book besides Shug, Ms. Celie, and Nettie. I loved the story-line following Squeak (Mary Agnes) as well as Sophia.

I also shook my head at how Walker showed the hypocrisy of those white people who are racist to your face, and those who consider themselves allies (like the young girl that Sophie raised) . Walker showing that many black men and black women in this book knew about their white relatives, i.e. many of them were sons and daughters of men who raped their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and sisters. And we get the aftermath of a rape and the understanding that Ms. Celie was raped repeatedly as a child and that was something that everyone knew and just accepted. 

This book is exceptional and it definitely speaks to me. 

This made my heart sing. 

Ahhh

I'm reading this for the Kwanzaa holiday, which has only been partially revealed with the book task. 

Book:  Read a book set in Africa or the Caribbean, by an African, Caribbean, or African-American author, with a green, red, or black cover, or with crops of the earth or a native African animal on the cover (lion, giraffe, cheetah, etc.).

I"m not sure why but I've yet again found myself distanced from BL as I was in the earlier months of this year. I'm trying to get back into participating on the site a bit more and noted that I'm way behind on posting what I've been reading in that time.

The good news is that I've caught up with most of my reading challenges for the year and should manage to read over my 150 goal.

Yearly reading challenge update (May) - 60/150

Read in May - 7

Audio - 4

Novel/novella - 3

Graphic Novels - 0

5*

4.5*

4*

3.5*

Yearly reading challenge update (June) -72 /150

Read in June - 12

Audio - 2

Novel/novella - 5

Graphic Novels - 5

5*

4.5*

4*

3.5*

3*

Yearly reading challenge update (July) -  98/150

Read in July - 26

Audio - 0

Novel/novella - 9

Graphic Novels - 17

5*

4.5*

4*

3.5*

3*

2.5*

2*

Challenges

Total reading challenge 98/150 (65%)

A-Z Challenge - 18/26 (69%)

Graphic novels challenge - 37/50 (74%)

Random TBR Challenge - 6/25 (24%)

Just lagging behind in the TBR challenge, have managed to catch up with everything else.

On a personal note it's been a stressful few months with insurance repair issues and the insurance company only just denying my claim after pissing around for a few months. I have now had to go back to my former insurer to lodge a claim, very frustrating, especially as I had wanted my property to go on the market at the end of September/early October. Trying not to panic but hopefully things will go a little bit smoother over the next few months.

Still leaving in December so nothings changing that and to be honest it can't come soon enough.