by: Jeanine Cummins
Goodreads description:
On her wedding day in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1968, Rafaela Acuña y Daubón has mild misgivings, but she marries Peter Brennan Jr. anyway, in a blaze of romantic optimism. She has no way of knowing how dramatically her life will change when she uproots her young family to start over in the American Midwest, unleashing a fleet of disappointments. Against the backdrop of her mother’s isolation in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1980s, Rafaela’s daughter, Ruth Brennan, longs only to belong. Eager to fit in, Ruth lets go of her language, habits, and childhood memories of Puerto Rico. It’s not until decades later, when Ruth’s own daughter, Daisy, returns to Puerto Rico that her mother and grandmother begin to truly reflect on the choices that have come to define their lives.
When a hurricane ravages the island in 2023, leaving Daisy critically injured, Rafaela and Ruth return to the city where it all began. As they gather at Daisy’s bedside, they’re confronted by the pasts that brought them to this point. We follow them as they come of age, fall in love, take risks, and contend with all the heartbreaks, triumphs, and reversals of fortune — both good and bad — that make up a meaningful life. As old memories come to light, so do buried secrets, leaving everyone in the family wondering exactly where it is that they belong.
A striking, resonant examination of marriage, family, and identity, Speak to Me of Home is ultimately a story of mothers and daughters that asks: how can three women who share geography and genetics have such wildly different ideas of where it is they come from? And more importantly, can they discover the common language to find their way home?
Helen says: 🤓🤓🤓
Hooray for a new book by American Dirt author Jeanine Cummins. Unfortunately, I wasn’t immediately hooked. It was good, but not nearly as good as American Dirt. You may remember the controversy associated with that book and cultural appropriation…I think she was trying to prove her Latina heritage with this novel…and it fell flat.
Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓1/4
If I am ranking, this is #3 on my list of books we read this month. Jeanine Cummins’ American Dirt was amazing!! This one is not on the same level, almost seems like a different author – not that there is anything wrong with that, it just didn’t hit home for me. Would be interested in hearing others’ opinions…
Helen and Holly Hit the Books 