Bryan Stevenson's book JUST MERCY is absolutely a book well
worth reading. Bryan reveals behind-the-scenes insights into the justice system and the truth that it does not always work. I know that is a truth we cannot deny, but it is still a bit of a shock to the system to read about how bad it really is.
What concerns me about JUST MERCY is the fact that there are so many people who already distrust the justice system, especially in regards to policemen and women. While I know that injustice is a reality, it takes a lot away from when it does work as well as from amazing police work that is done every single day.
Of course, I am a person who likes to focus on the positive, so reading JUST MERCY was difficult for me because it has many stories of injustice that are heart-wrenching. I WANT to read happily-ever-after stories and believe that when push comes to shove, all stories end with the "hero[es]" riding off into the sunset. Reading about the reality is difficult for someone like me, but necessary.
Please don't let the fact that I only gave JUST MERCY 3 stars keep you from reading this book or make you think that I did not like it. It most certainly is well worth reading. I just want to try to hang on to my belief in the innate goodness of humanity for as long as possible.
**My second reading: JUST MERCY is better the second time through. As much as I wish we had chosen WITH LOVE FROM THE INSIDE by Angela Pisel for our Interdisciplinary Read at CVCC, I am glad that we have chosen JUST MERCY for the 2017-2018 school year. This book will be a wonderful asset to our program and to our school as a whole. The good news is that I'll be able to use WITH LOVE FROM THE INSIDE as a discussion point because it is also about injustice--someone being wrongly accused and condemned to die. :)
I also plan on using BILLY BUDD by Herman Melville in my American Lit for comparison points. Melville is really for modern American Lit, but at least it's American Lit!
And I also hope to set up a discussion--round table--where we watch movies like LAW ABIDING CITIZEN and maybe other stories of social injustice and discuss them with a panel of community leaders and maybe even a few folks who have been involved in the prison system. I haven't mentioned this yet to the Interdisciplinary Read Committee [chairperson], but we had thrown around such ideas previously.
Personally, I want to do more research on Marsha Colbey. As a woman who has suffered a stillbirth and 2 miscarriages, the THOUGHT of being arrested and then condemned to die because someone thought I had.....I can't even type the words. Wow. It really makes me appreciate the support team I have always had, including doctors, family, friends, and just my community as a whole. I want to talk to Marsha personally and to hug her tight and tell her that she is a hero of mine. It was difficult enough grieving under "normal" circumstances; I can't even begin to imagine grieving under circumstances where people believed that I had......ON PURPOSE.
May Mercy be just and fair.
Bryan Stevenson has renewed in me a strong desire to be a stonecatcher--to help others grieving the loss of a child (children) in whatever way possible. That is MY purpose. It is what I am to do. I will let them lean on me--even if only for a moment.
WITH LOVE FROM THE INSIDE by my new favoritist author, Angela Pisel--and my new best friend--is better than a 5-star book. Wow. I haven't cried this hard over a work of fiction since Snape died!! This may be Angela's first published novel, but it clearly demonstrates her amazing writing ability--her awesome storytelling skills. Wow.
I had the wonderful joy of meeting Anglea at Barnes & Nobel in Hickory, NC the evening of the release of WITH LOVE FROM THE INSIDE, Tuesday, August 9. My counselor had told me about the release of Angela's book and suggested that I might like to meet Angela, especially since she's from Hickory and is a writer--and I am, too. (I just don't have anything published beyond my blogs.) So I ordered her book from Amazon, put the date on my calendar, and waited anxiously to meet a local author.
I was so excited about meeting Angela, I was there--with my friend--at 4:30 even though she wasn't scheduled to be there until 7:00! I even got a front row seat!!! Angela shared some facts and statistics and other interesting information about her book and then she read a few passages--both of which were really intriguing. The irony is that when I read the 2nd passage myself just a day later, even though Angela had read it the night before at her reading, I bawled like a baby--as if I'd never heard that section!
And I didn't stop crying throughout the whole book. In fact, I kinda-sorta cried the first 3/4 of the book, but from about page 250 on, I cried non-stop. By the end of the book, I was sobbing so hard, I couldn't see the words on the page through my tears. I had to stop and allow myself a good five-minute crying-fest where I went through about 10 Kleenex.
Don't let the tears keep you from reading WITH LOVE FROM THE INSIDE. The tears were because this is an AMAZING story. Part of the reason why we love stories such as HARRY POTTER as much as we do is because of the tears we shed over beloved characters; it's the same with Angela's book. I CARED about the characters in this book. They became REAL to me. I want, so desperately, to hold both Sophie and Grace--and Thomas and Max and Roni and others--in my arms and let them know how powerfully their story has affected me.
I can't help thinking about Roni just a little more than other fairly minor/background characters. I want to know Roni's whole story. I may have to explore some more about this amazing woman on death row--even though she's a work of fiction. Angela did say that many of her characters in this book are based on real people, so I'd love to hear more about the real woman Roni is based on, as well as more about Roni herself.
I hope and pray that WITH LOVE FROM THE INSIDE by Angela Pisel becomes a top ten best-selling novel and that it stays in the top ten until hundreds of thousands of millions of people read it. I also hope that Angela Pisel will allow me to be one of her groupies and to "stalk" her--but in a good way....if she can agree with me that there is a "good" way to stalk someone!!!! ;)
