Celie is born into poverty and suffers abuse from her father and then her husband and is separated from her children and then her sister. Over the course of many years and a relationship with the glamorous Shug Avery, Celie discovers love, joy, and how to take control of her own life.

I’ll be honest here, I went into this book almost totally blind. I’ve never read it or seen the movie or the play. Basically all I knew was it was about a Black woman named Celie. And wow, was I floored by this book.

I was totally engrossed right from the start - I barely took any notes in my reading journal, I was turning the pages so fast. I did worry that I was in for another tale of endless woe, and was pleasantly surprised by the hope this book offers. Celie spent so much of her life - knowingly or not - pushing the other women to empower themselves, I nearly cheered when she finally began to see the joy and worth in living the life she wanted, too.

I loved that everyone, even the men who were ugly caricatures at the start, learned and grew and found the humanity in others.