I can't help it, sometimes the books that were most impressive are the hardest ones to do justice with a review. Just read the book, otherwise it wouldn't have been on my books-that-matter shelf.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

I received a digital ARC from NetGalley ages ago and finally got around to reading it. I'm glad I did - it was a well written story full of hope, history and interesting characters. I loved The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew and encourage anyone who enjoyed it to read this as well.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Tomorrow's Bread takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina in the early 1960's as urban renewal threatens the neighborhood of Brooklyn. The people living in this neighborhood are predominately black and poor. It's sad that the city forced people out of this neighborhood where many had lived for generations. And all because the rich and privileged considered this area a blight on the city. This was a fast read for me and I enjoyed it!

EXCERPT: 'Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighbourhood you live in is a slum, but you always thought it was home.' - Langston Hughes

Home will never again be 1105 Brown Street, Charlotte 2, North Carolina, where I was born in 1936, where Shushu left me when she went to Chicago, and where Bibi and Uncle Ray brought me up from a baby to the mother I am now. I'm glad Bibi never saw the day when the city say we got to move. She bought and paid for our home working forty years as a maid, but that came to nothing when the city say Brooklyn is blight. That which withers our hopes.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn is a bustling city within a city. Self-contained and vibrant, it has its own restaurants, schools, theaters, churches, and night clubs. There are shotgun shacks and poverty, along with well-maintained houses like the one Loraylee Hawkins shares with her young son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee’s love for Archibald Griffin, Hawk’s white father and manager of the cafeteria where she works, must be kept secret in the segregated South.

Loraylee has heard rumors that the city plans to bulldoze her neighborhood, claiming it’s dilapidated and dangerous. The government promises to provide new housing and relocate businesses. But locals like Pastor Ebenezer Polk, who’s facing the demolition of his church, know the value of Brooklyn does not lie in bricks and mortar. Generations have lived, loved, and died here, supporting and strengthening each other. Yet street by street, longtime residents are being forced out. And Loraylee, searching for a way to keep her family together, will form new alliances—and find an unexpected path that may yet lead her home.

MY THOUGHTS: I love historical fiction set in America's south, and I loved this author's previous book, The Dry Grass of August, but for some reason this one just failed to entrance me. It's not a bad book, I enjoyed it, but I didn't feel the magic that I felt with The Dry Grass of August and I mostly failed to connect with the characters, although I could definitely sympathise with them.

The story is told by the voices of three characters - Loraylee, Pastor Ebenezer Polk, and the wife of the man pushing to have this area demolished and redeveloped. I had heard of these things happening, but had never really thought through the implications or impact on those who were being relocated. It opened my eyes.

***.5

THE AUTHOR: Anna Jean (A.J.) Mayhew’s first novel, The Dry Grass of August, won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and was a finalist for the Book Award from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. She has been writer-in-residence at Moulin à Nef Studio Center in Auvillar, France, and was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers' Network. A native of Charlotte, NC, A.J. has never lived outside the state, although she often travels to Europe with her Swiss-born husband. Her work reflects her vivid memories of growing up in the segregated South. A.J.—a mother and grandmother—now lives in a small town in the North Carolina Piedmont with her husband and their French-speaking cat.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Kensington Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew for review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my webpage sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

Such a phenomenal story about the effects of gentrification on a long established African American community in 1960s North Carolina from the perspective of three very different people.

A beautifully written book tracing the movement for urban renewal in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1961. I loved that Mayhew's characters are so complex and richly drawn, with many of them as messy and inconsistent as we all are in life today. Mayhew does a fine job of making us feel the plight of those being displaced without using the typical heavy-handed techniques normally employed in such tales today. I was especially fond of the elderly pastor, Ebenezer Polk, and would love to have him as my friend. The author does a fine job of putting skin and bones on her characters, making each one's voice and dialogue unique. This is that rare book that has lingered with me since I read it, and I look forward to discussing it with friends.

I had never heard about the Brooklyn an area of Charlotte, North Carolina before reading this book. I was shocked that this event occurred in the 1960s.

In the 1960s calling it "urban renewal", the city councillors in Charlotte, North Carolina, bulldozed a vibrant black neighborhood. It had its own churches, cemeteries, stores and businesses that were thriving, but they managed to destroy this community and scatter its residents around Charlotte. The story is told from the POV of three characters. Two are Brooklyn residents – a pastor about to lose his church and have his cemetery moved, and a young, single mother who must hide her relationship with her white boss. The third is a white woman who senses that this is wrong, even though her husband is championing Brooklyn's destruction in the name of progress. Through research done on the cemetery, there is information about slavery, and other incidents that African Americans had to deal with. This is a moving, story that evoked emotions of sadness, anger and helplessness. It is historical fiction that's both informative and entertaining. I love Anne Jean Mayhew's writing. Her prose is wonderful, the story well-paced and kept me reading long into the night. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book upon my request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

“Tomorrow’s Bread” is the story of the impact of re-development/gentrification in the African American community of Charlotte, North Carolina in the ’60s. The story expertly weaves together the lives of several different families and the deep effect the re-development will have. It is a quiet story but a thoughtful one. It doesn’t pretend to have answers and much is left to ponder at the end of the novel. But for me, this made it all the more impactful. Life doesn’t tie up into neat packages and “Tomorrow’s Bread” did not insult the reader with trying. This is the author’s second novel and while I thoroughly enjoyed her first, I liked this one even more. It is a book I do not hesitate to recommend! I was honored to receive a free advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the Publisher, Kensington.

If you enjoy southern historical fiction you are going to really like Tomorrow’s Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew. I loved her first novel, The Dry Grass of August, and have been waiting for her to write something else! And now, that book is here.

This book takes place in 1961 in Charlotte. Tomorrow’s Bread is so well written and so generous with details that you feel you are living in the 60’s in the south. Told through the eyes of three main characters, you will be pulled into the story immediately.

In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn is a bustling city within a city. Self-contained and vibrant, it has its own restaurants, schools, theaters, churches, and night clubs. There are shotgun shacks and poverty, along with well-maintained houses like the one Loraylee Hawkins shares with her young son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee’s love for Archibald Griffin, Hawk’s white father and manager of the cafeteria where she works, must be kept secret in the segregated South.

Loraylee has heard rumors that the city plans to bulldoze her neighborhood, claiming it’s dilapidated and dangerous. The government promises to provide new housing and relocate businesses. But locals like Pastor Ebenezer Polk, who’s facing the demolition of his church, know the value of Brooklyn does not lie in bricks and mortar. Generations have lived, loved, and died here, supporting and strengthening each other. Yet street by street, longtime residents are being forced out. And Loraylee, searching for a way to keep her family together, will form new alliances—and find an unexpected path that may yet lead her home.

Though I lived in Charlotte many years ago, I never heard of Brooklyn and did not know about urban renewal. Very good book!

This book is out now!

Being from the deep South, I've read so many books about race and segregation that they blend together at some point. While Tomorrow's Bread is compelling and beautifully written, it's really not anything new. It's a good story that's informative for anyone wanting to learn more about the subject. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

In the South in America the year 1961 still sees a lot of segregation and discrimination is rife. Loraylee lives with family and her young son Hawk whose parentage though suspect is never discussed either within the family or outside.

Urban renewal at the time seems to only focus on "black" neighbourhoods considered a blight on the environment due to its neglect, its lack of facilities and curb appeal so hundreds of these neighbourhoods are razed to the ground in the face of "development". When Brooklyn faces the same fate, how these three residents face them courageously is the story of this book. The end is inevitable but how they handle it with grace and dignity and the sense of survival that brought them this far, is very courageous.

Told in the language of the times and of the community this was a very well told story, especially for an outsider.

There's not much by way of plot in this book, despite the fact the main characters are facing the biggest change of their lives. There's this feeling though, that things are building within subplots, only to kind of fizzle out. The graveyard "mystery" doesn't ever feel "solved," while the relationship between Loraylee and Archie is drastically altered without us going thru the change with them. And what was the point of the marital tension and distance between the white couple that never built to anything? I appreciated the insights and research into the dramatic impacts of gentrification, but this one failed for me as a story or as a character development piece.

Loved this well written book! I felt like I understood what it was like to live during the 60's and the urban renewal movement. The story takes place in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte. Told from the prospective of a few residents, each with their own history, life situation and feelings about their neighborhood. I highly recommend this book! Thanks to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read the advanced copy.

Told in the alternating voices of a young mother, a preacher, and the wife of a man on the planning board, this lovely but sad novel is about the impact of "urban renewal" on a long standing comment in Charlotte, North Carolina. Brooklyn is an "old" African American part of town which the planners think can be better. Better for whom? Not necessarily for the people who live there. Loraylee, whose son was fathered by the white man she loves but can not appear with in public isn't a winner. Paster Ebeneezer Polk, whose church will go, is not a winner. Persey, who doesn't live in Brooklyn, might seem the odd person out because she's not directly affected but she is, isn't she? Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read that will resonate with those who are watching communities undergo gentrification today.

I've been on a bit of a historical fiction kick, and I think that's what drew me to request this one. The cover is really simple, but it drew me in. Sunflowers always make me think of the south, for no particular reason, and so I immediately thought this book must be something about the south.

Gentrification in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the 1960s to be specific. Taken by force by the city, the Second Ward, or Brooklyn as the locals often called it, was deemed a blight on Charlotte. According to those in power, it needed to go. It was valuable land that would be perfect to revitalise downtown. What they really meant was it would be perfect for white people to frequent if given a facelift. Brooklyn was a predominantly black ward, and true, much of the housing was rundown, but they made it work and it was their home.

Told from the perspectives of Pastor Ebenezer Polk, Loraylee Hawkins, and Persy Marshall (the lone white perspective, and wife of Blaire Marshall - the driving force behind the revitalisation), each offers a different view on the whitewashing of the area.

Pastor Ebenezer Polk was born and raised in Brooklyn, met and married his wife, became associate pastor, then pastor there. His home is at St Timothy's Presbyterian, and he's being forced out. Forced to watch as the city digs up the graves of his flock, and those before him, he struggles to come to terms with this, knowing that the graveyard contained different numbers of bodies than headstones. Many graves held more than one body, while some held no bodies. Some were simply stones put there by the family of slaves who had escaped. A false trail with a dead end. The most painful though is watching as Nettie Polk is dug up and reinterred in a new resting place. Eben, as he's often called, has no course of action to halt the desecration of his wife's grave, and is not only forced to watch this, but as salt in the wound, is being forced out of his home, and his church. He must find a new church while shepherding his flock the best he can. Eben trusts in God's will and figures there must be a bigger plan in play.

My favorite part about Eben is even though he's a man of God, he freely admits his faults to readers. He doesn't agree with some of the Bible, and instead of preaching a word he doesn't believe in, he quietly sets it aside. Instead of being a hypocrite, he embraces the word he knows and preaches that from his heart. I'm not a hugely religious person, but that is something that I found extremely refreshing in a religious character. I found it more much more relateable. Eben is much more progressive as a preacher than many of the time, and many even now. Jonny No Age, a member of the congregation, is secretly homosexual. While most have figured out that his accountant "friend" that lives with him isn't just a roommate, many have an issue with it. Eben recounts a conversation with a Mrs Hucks, where she makes plain her contempt for Jonny's lifestyle and Eben fights the urge to preach to her about casting the first stone. On returning to his sermon writing that day, Proverbs 16:18 jumps out at him. I think this is a verse that we should all be ruminating on - Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Whether you are religious or not, be not prideful, but stay humble. Remember that the bigger an ego, the harder a blow will fall.

Loraylee Hawkins is a force to be reckoned with. A single mother raising her biracial son in an area that is predominantly black isn't easy. Her son, Hawk, takes after his father. He's both too light and too dark, his hair is an anomaly, and his eyes are an exact replica of his father's. But Loraylee does the best she can, while providing for herself, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her Bibi (Livinia Hawkins - Uncle Ray's sister). Their house may be on Brown Street, and slated for demolition in the near future, but they're doing everything they can to hold on to the end. As their neighborhood is demolished around them, and they have the added stress of dealing with Bibi's increasing dementia, I couldn't help but feel my heart break a little more with each page.

When Hawk's best friend Desmond Whitin moves away, and the bulldozer appears overnight, Loraylee must face the harsh reality that their fate is sealed. The Whitins shotgun home is completely gone by lunchtime. The city is taking the Second Ward street by street. As Bibi's dementia worsens Loraylee isn't sure what to do. They're holding on as long as they can but eventually the letter arrives. They have a finite time left.

Persy Marshall is a stark contrast to the other perspectives in Tomorrow's Bread. She's a white woman, for starters, a woman of privilege who has never blatantly been affected by the racism and segregation of the South. And yet she empathises with the people of Brooklyn. The city is taking their homes, their livelihoods, everything they've got, and it's wrong. Persy ventured to the Second Ward once looking for a christening gown. She went to the best in the city despite area. Mrs Roberta Stokes, Seamstress, of 704 South Meyers. That visit to Brooklyn sticks in Persy's mind and when she realises how heavily Blaire is involved in pushing the revitalisation forward, she's increasingly bothered. She realises that the people of the Second Ward won't be welcome there once it's been "revitalised". They're losing successful businesses because it's a more appropriate space for whites to occupy. While there's nothing Persy can do to prevent the project from moving forward, she does eventually voice her concerns to Blaire - who of course, quickly shuts them down, telling he it will be good for Charlotte.

Tomorrow's Bread was an intriguing read. The different perspectives and the pain of the characters could be felt while I was reading. Loraylee is a character who demonstrated the type of inner strength and resilience I think a lot of women aspire to have. I know I do, at least. She was a character that, while uneducated, knew a lot more than people gave her credit for. She was underestimated, in my opinion, and I liked that she was ignorant of her own intelligence.

While I understand that the author was conveying Loraylee's lack of education, and the language of the day, in the way her dialogue was written, I found it slightly distracting, and as I was reading I felt a little as if I was mocking the character in the way her voice was speaking in my head. I also felt that Persy's storyline was a little anticlimactic, and I was left feeling unfulfilled. There were several time gaps throughout the book that left me a little confused, where several months had passed but the reader wasn't given anything that added to the plot, which I didn't find believable. Something had to have happened in those several months!

Overall I enjoyed Tomorrow's Bread, and would recommend it to friends looking for this type of read, but unfortunately it didn't leave me raving.

Tomorrow’s Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew is historical fiction set during the 1950‘s and 1960‘s. Mayhew has written another enlightening account of the segregated south. Her stories help the reader to understand the daily struggles of that time and place. I liked that the characters are everyday people that you might know. I have looked forward to reading a second book by Ms.Mayhew and it was well worth the wait. Now I will anxiously await a third book. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book.

I only recently discovered Anna Jean Mayhew's work, and feel lucky that I did. Being a woman of a certain age, living in the south, it is important to me for a writer to get it right. Few have gotten it as right as Ms. Mayhew. I recommend both her books to anyone with an interest in the real south, written by someone who has lived it and who has taken her research to a level of professionalism to be proud of. Brilliant.

Historical fiction taking place in the recently desegregated South. The story of a town deemed by outsiders as blight, about to become history, and its people scattered and separated from their small town family village life. Heartbreaking yet inspiring. I only gave it 3 stars because I thought it was missing something, not because it wasn't good. The characters all catch your heartstrings and play their own sweet melody you won't soon forget. The setting is a bucolic, American town described so well you can smell the flowers and fell the breeze.