Cold Rock River | 
|  | | |
 This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $13.99. |
The HTML code below can be pasted onto your web-site, your MySpace page, or blog - or any number of similar places - to create a link to this page: If, instead of a text link, you'd like to create a link to this page which will display the book cover, if it's available, then the code below will do exactly that:
Check for the same book at these other US book sites:
• [ Abebooks ] • [ Alibris ] • [ Barnes & Noble ] • [ Half.com ] • [ Powells ] … or check UK bookstores
| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
In 1963 rural Georgia, with the Vietnam War cranking up, pregnant seventeen-year-old Adie Jenkins discovers the diary of pregnant seventeen-year-old Tempe Jordan, a slave girl, begun as the Civil War was winding down. Adie is haunted by the memory of her dead sister; Tempe is overcome with grief over the sale of her three children sired by her master.
Adie—married to Buck, her baby's skirt-chasing father—is unprepared for marriage and motherhood. She spends her days with her new baby, Grace Annie. Buck spends his with the conniving daughter of the man he works for. Adie welcomes the friendship of midwife Willa Mae Satterfield. Having grown close to her after Grace Annie's birth, Adie confides that her baby sister, Annie, survived choking on a jelly bean only to drown in Cold Rock River a few months later. Willa Mae replies, "My two little chillins Georgia and Calvin drowns in that river, too." What she won't say is how and why.
Adie takes refuge in Tempe's journal. It tells an amazing tale, but the further she reads, the more questions the diary raises in her mind. After "the freedom" comes, Tempe sets out to find her lost children and meets Tom Barber, another freed slave. Tom and Tempe marry and have one daughter, Heart. When Tom is killed in a drunken brawl, Tempe takes Heart and settles on a small patch of land in North Georgia.
There, Heart blossoms, eventually marrying and giving birth to Georgia and Calvin. Adie is filled with questions: Could Willa Mae be Heart? How—and why—did the children die? And is it possible that the man who now owns the house in which she lives is Willa Mae's grandson?
As Cold Rock River rushes to its surprising, shocking ending, questions of family, race, love, loss, and longing are loosed from the mysterious secrets that have been kept for too long. And the depth of the connection between the two women united by place and separated by race—and a century—is revealed.
| Other Items You May Enjoy:
Browse Books From These Related Subjects:
Customer Reviews:
• Couldn't Put It Down 04 November, 2008
One of the best novels I have read in quite some time --- rates right up there with "The Glass Castle."
The dialect did not bother me -- just relax and let it flow. The story draws you in immediately and doesn't let go.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2M94J61OM6DWG
• Amazing - I Cannot Recommend This Enough! 07 November, 2008
First of all, I just have to start off by saying what a huge impact this book made upon me. There are tons of books that I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I love. However, there are only a select few that I can say leave a lasting effect, long after the final page has been turned. Cold Rock River is among those select few.
Jackie Lee Miles has a distinct talent of weaving the reader right in with the characters of the story. Cold Rock River is comprised of two touching stories, interwoven together. First there is the main character, Adie, who has lost a beloved baby sister, grown up knowing a tragic secret, gets married, has a baby and all before the age of seventeen. Her husband is having an affair and often times Adie feels isolated. However, she has befriended an elderly woman, Willa Mae Satterfield and it is through her that Adie discovers the diary of Tempe Jordan, a seventeen-year-old slave girl. After this, Adie's life is forever changed.
Cold Rock River is the story of both Adie and Tempe. The chapters are set up to smoothly transition between each time frame, leaving the reader anxious to see what will happen next with each girl. Tempe's story takes place during the close of the Civil War, while Adie's is more of the present day. Each girl has a very different life, however they both must reach within and find an inner strength to endure.
The author's characterization and story descriptions are amazingly vivid and bring the book to life. I was drawn to, and felt an enormous affection for, both Adie and Tempe - as well as many of the secondary characters - Willa Mae, Margaret Mary and Murphy. Though Cold Rock River is a story of strength of endurance, there is a bit of a mystery to the entire thing - a mystery that will not let itself known until the very end, changing several people's lives forever.
I cannot express enough how much I loved Cold Rock River. Once I started reading, it was torment to have to stop, for any reason - and made coming back to it absolutely wonderful. I wanted to mention, also, that for me there is something intriguing to the cover. I can't say exactly what it is, but it seems like a portrayal of lone fragility. It is a cover which drew me in, even before the words of the story engulfed me.
Cold Rock River has easily made my favorites of 2008 list, as well as all time favorite books. This was the first work by Jackie Lee Miles that I have had the pleasure to experience, however I anxiously await getting my hands on more by her!
Again, I give Cold Rock River my highest recommendation and know that once you start reading, you won't want to stop!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2ZPZM9RE08JXF
• Cold Rock River - 5 Stars 18 October, 2008
Cold Rock River by J.L. Miles is a wonderful, captivating piece of southern fiction that will draw you into the lives of its characters, as well as the rural Georgia setting.
Miles creates such a strong sense of what Adie, the narrator of Cold Rock River, is up against. No one in Adie's family has been the same since Adie's sister Annie died years ago. The cause of Annie's death is not revealed until the end of the book, but the reader knows it has happened and that it has created a gaping tear in the fabric of the family.
When Adie finds herself pregnant at age 17, she marries the father of her baby. She thinks she loves him, but she also sees marriage as her only option. Unfortunately, her husband turns out to be incapable of both marital fidelity and holding a job.
What makes Adie and her story special is how she responds to all this misfortune. Adie is unique in that she wants more from life than everyone around her has. She is strong, smart, motivated, and imbued with an endearing integrity.
I found myself hoping that Adie could rise above her circumstances. I grew to care about several secondary characters also. I also enjoyed the excerpts from the diary of a liberated slave woman that Adie read and shared with the reader throughout the book. Besides having an air of mystery, the diary became an important element in Adie's compelling story.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1YDB2T7CM1OKC
• Great Quick Read! 08 November, 2008
This is by far one of the best books I've read in a long time! I couldn't put it down!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3SSTH6AWDI3OJ
• Beautiful Story; But Has A Fatal Flaw 06 November, 2008
Having read the raving customer reviews, I bought this book and found it enchanting. I loved the story and I thought the writing style was unique and made it even more memorable. But I feel compelled to point out a fatal flaw with the storyline. Near the end of the novel, the main character comes to the end of Tempe's journal and is crushed to find that pages have been torn out. The diary describes the rape of Heart, the birth of Rachel and ends with the words "Rachel married to dat nice young man what owns all the land be's round here, and she be's ready to hab dat li'l baby she gwine hab and den one" ... and that is the end of the Tempe's journal. (This passage is near the end of Chapter 38.)
In Chapter 39, the protagonist learns that Rachel died clutching the pages that had been torn out of the diary and her husband burns the pages. How could Rachel die holding the pages that were written about her own death?
Honestly, this ruined the story for me. I felt so let down that I couldn't feel the characters anymore... they just became 2-dimensional cartoons that I no longer cared about. The inconsistency killed the ending for me.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3I613JTWLZ3DB
|
