A Sitting in St. James, Rita WilliamsGarcia
A Sitting in St. James, Rita WilliamsGarcia
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

A Sitting in St. James

Author: Rita Williams-Garcia

Narrator: Machelle Williams

Unabridged: 13 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/25/2021

Synopsis

Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award!7 starred reviews! "Monumental." —Booklist (starred review) * "A marathon masterpiece."—Kirkus (starred review) * "Necessary."—SLJ (starred review) * "Shocking and dramatic."—Shelf Awareness (starred review) * "Mesmerizing, confounding and vividly rendered."—Book Page (starred review) * "Williams-Garcia’s storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic."—Horn Book (starred review)This astonishing novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human—and essential reading for both teens and adults grappling with the long history of American racism.1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s objections, to sit for a portrait.While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations—from the big house to out in the fields—of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved, come to light to reveal a true portrait of the Guilberts.Rita Williams-Garcia is one of the preeminent authors of our time. She has been honored with the Children's Literature Lecture Award from the American Library Association.

About Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor Book, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The two sequels, P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both Coretta Scott King Author Award winners and ALA Notable Children’s Books. She is also the author of the NAACP Image Award–winning and National Book Award finalist Clayton Byrd Goes Underground; A Sitting in St. James, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner and Los Angeles Times Book Award winner; Like Sisters on the Homefront, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; Blue Tights; and four ALA Best Books for Young Adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here; Every Time a Rainbow Dies, a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book; and Fast Talk on a Slow Track. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, with her husband and has two adult daughters. You can visit her online at ritawg.com.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Erin Entrada on June 16, 2021

This is an incredible book. What a feat! Large cast of characters, rich historical setting, so many undercurrents relative to social, economic, racial dynamics. RWG truly takes a nuanced lens to a complex issue that isn’t as black-and-white as people like to believe. Race relations have always been......more

Goodreads review by Ramey on July 17, 2021

This is an adult book, not for children, teens, or YA. I would give it 4 stars for adults and 0 stars for teens, children, or YA. The story is set on a Louisiana plantation just prior to the Civil War. The lives of the white Guilbert family members and their enslaved "holdings" are intimately interw......more

Goodreads review by Melanie on January 04, 2021

Equal parts history and tantalizing hysteria, Williams-Garcia has delivered a novice and nuanced approach to the tale of American slavery asking white folks: “Who were you without enslaved people and slavery? What [emphasis added] are you without racism?” (p. 452)......more

Goodreads review by Richie on December 24, 2020

Richie’s Picks: A SITTING IN ST. JAMES by Rita Williams-Garcia, HarperCollins/Quill Tree, May 2021, 480p., ISBN: 978-0-06-236729-7 “It was Byron Guilbert whose steps in life mattered. In spite of his innermost conflicts, Byron would do what was expected of him. He would marry Eugénie Duhon and assume......more

Goodreads review by Leonard on July 10, 2021

Along with One Crazy Summer, I think this might be Williams-Garcia's best. So why not 5*? I usually delude myself into thinking I don't judge MG/YA books differently than adult books. But I do. If this were YA, I'd probably give it 5*. But for much of this, it wasn't clear to me what made this a YA......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List