My Blue Suede Shoes: Four Novellas [Paperback]

Tracy Price-Thompson (Author), TaRessa Stovall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2011

A powerful collection of novellas by four leading African-American women writers, each tackling the terror of domestic violence.In Other People’s Skin, Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, along with writers Elizabeth Atkins and Desiree Cooper, took on intra-racial prejudice. The second book in their successful Sister4Sister Empowerment Series once again offers hope and healing, this time from the nightmare of abuse. In Desiree Cooper’s Breakin’ It Down, a highly successful talk show host, haunted by the abandonment and self-loathing she felt as a child, is shocked to find herself inflicting the same abuse she experienced on her seven-year-old daughter. Tracy Price-Thompson’s Brotherly Love goes deep into the disturbing relationship between a beautiful, accomplished teenage girl and the seemingly dutiful brother who raised her after their parents’ death. TaRessa Stovall’s Breakin’ Dishes reveals the turmoil behind the scenes of a picture-perfect marriage as an angry wife beats her cheating husband. And in Elizabeth Atkins’s The Wrong Side of Mr. Right, an outwardly beaming bride-to-be comes to terms with the inner turmoil brought on by her emotionally abusive fiancé. In all four novellas, redemption and hope appear when a pair of blue suede shoes enters each woman’s life, helping her to overcome her challenges and stop the cycle of abuse.A raw, engaging, and enlightening collection from beginning to end, My Blue Suede Shoes is as informative as it is entertaining.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The titular footwear connects these overtly inspiring tales of African-American women recovering from domestic violence in the latest effort from Price-Thompson. Desiree Cooper's opener, "Breakin' It Down," features a pair of blue suede tennis shoes that help TV host "CC" Smart, a Norfolk, Va. single mom, face the consequences of putting her career over the needs of her daughter. In Price-Thompson's "Brotherly Love," a social worker gives a pair of slingbacks to an abused teen who has aborted her baby. Stilettos become a good luck charm for an Atlanta TV news anchor accused of trying to kill her husband and his pregnant girlfriend in Stovall's "Breakin' Dishes." And Elizabeth Atkins's "The Wrong Side of Mr. Right" hits a profound closing note when a pair of old Jamaican wedding slippers inspire a woman to face the reality of her abusive Prince Charming. The perfunctory prose of all involved disappoints, but their accumulated efforts and shared subjects matter makes for a moving collection. (Mar.)
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Review

“My Blue Suede Shoes has the potential to be used to spark engaging discussions about family violence that will hopefully lead to solutions and healing for victims, abusers and the community.” —B.L.A.C. Detroit Magazine

“A moving collection.” —Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; Original edition (March 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416542086
• ISBN-13: 978-1416542087
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,774,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Self-Power, June 5, 2011

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Blue Suede Shoes: Four Novellas (Paperback)

In Desiree Cooper's, "Breakin' It Down," talk show host sensation CC Smart is a powerhouse on the television screen and she rules with an iron fist on and off the stage. Never healing from her own issues of childhood abandonment and neglect, she forces the same cruel punishment on her seven-year-old daughter.

"Brotherly Love" by Tracy Price-Thompson introduces readers to a brilliant teenager, who lost her parents at an early age. After the death of their parents, her older brother raises her and their relationship is not of the norm.

Most times when we hear of spousal abuse, we automatically think of husbands beating their wives; however, in TaRessa Stovall's novella "Breakin' Dishes" Monique Worthington is fed up with her husband's cheating.

Lastly, "The Wrong Side of Mr. Right" by Elizabeth Atkins presents a bride-to-be who must determine whether social status and fortune is worth losing her self-respect at the hands of an abusive fiancé.

In each of the short stories a pair of blue suede shoes in various styles, grants each woman empowerment and encouragement to stop the vicious cycle of abuse. Love isn't supposed to cause deliberate emotional or physical pain and each of these women have to take back control of what they've lost. As I read each novella, I sunk deeper and deeper into each page, each verbal attack, each physical attack and my mind was literally drained. I can't begin to imagine what an abused person goes through on a daily basis. Hopefully, MY BLUE SUEDE SHOES: Four Novellas will touch an abused victim and inspire in them encouragement, hope and deliverance.

Reviewed by Sharon Lewis

of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really good read.....Just one disapointment, May 25, 2011

By 

S. Cotlong "books and shoes: my addiction" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: My Blue Suede Shoes: Four Novellas (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book and it stimulated great convo for my book club . There's definitely something to take away from each story. The authors bring to light several forms of abuse, including the taboo ones that we like to keep on a hush. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the story "Breakin' Dishes" by TaRessa Stovall didn't capture the realness of women who abuse their men. This was an opportunity to present something that is really taboo across cultures and I don't feel like the author succeeded in this because you soon find out all of the husband's dirt (I don't want to give away the story) and it leaves the reader (or maybe just me LOL) feeling like he deserved to get his butt beat by his wife. Whenever there's a story about a man abusing a woman, the woman is always the victim and you feel sorry for her and happy when she makes it out the situation. Stovall wrote a story about a woman abusing a man but the woman still ends up being the victim. I really wanted to see the tables get turned but it just didn't happen.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empowering Self & Standing Down Domestic Abuse, April 7, 2011

By 

Sundiata "Sekou" (Clinton, Md.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Blue Suede Shoes (Kindle Edition)

Respect your self, respect & love, not abuse, the givers and nurturers of human life. That begins when sisters take their power back and stand down all forms of family abuse. My Blue Suede Shoes is one such road map, told from three diverse and accomplished women writers, in clear, concise anecdotes that inspire women to empower themselves and stand down domestic abuse.