Sugar Land
Written by Tammy Lynne Stoner
Narrated by Donna Postel
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Sugar Land is a southern fried novel about love, Lead Belly, and liberation. According to a starred Kirkus Review, Sugar Land "is a postcard of small-town Texas life from Prohibition through civil rights, tracing the treatment and awareness of gay people through these decades. The love child of Fannie Flagg and Rita Mae Brown… [a] ravishing debut.”
It’s 1923 in Midland, Texas, and Miss Dara falls in love with her best friend―who also happens to be a girl. Terrified, Miss Dara takes a job at the Imperial State Prison Farm for men. Once there, she befriends inmate and soon-to-be legendary blues singer Lead Belly, who sings his way out (true story)―but only after he makes her promise to free herself from her own prison. Sugar Land is a triumphant, beautiful novel about the heart’s refusal to be denied what the heart wants.
Tammy Lynne Stoner
Tammy Lynne Stoner’s work has been selected for more than a dozen anthologies and literary journals. She was nominated for a Million Writers Award and earned her MFA from Antioch University. Stemming from what her grandmother calls her “gypsy blood,” Tammy has lived in 15 cities, working as a biscuit maker, a medical experimentee, a forklift operator, a gas station attendant, and a college instructor, among other odd jobs. She is the creator of Dottie’s Magic Pockets and the publisher of Gertrude Press, based in in Portland, OR, where she lives with her lady-friend, Karena, and their three kids.
Related to Sugar Land
Related audiobooks
The Middle of Somewhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Honey: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heart Begins Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Gold Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marriage of a Thousand Lies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unlit Lamp: Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGive: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carousel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Favorite Girlfriend was a French Bulldog Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Widows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Western Alienation Merit Badge: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShut Up You’re Pretty: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Undiscovered Country: A Novel Inspired by the Lives of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tell the Rest: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thin Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sugar Run: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In at the Deep End Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Secret of You and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heartland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Don't You Know I Love You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orphan #8: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Desert of the Heart: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holding Still for as Long as Possible Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Parting Glass Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Necessary Hunger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All of You Every Single One: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Lucky: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Butter Honey Pig Bread Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mrs. Dalloway - Unabridged Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Twice In A Lifetime Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Literary Fiction For You
Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5CATCH-22 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Sugar Land
52 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love this book. It's beautiful and gay and sweet. It was just some I needed
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5this book is so wonderfully written. i was totally enamored by most of the characters and the story. this is a book i will be recommending often and thinking about regularly.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5OK ..I am ready for the movie.Seriously,this would be an amazing movie with so many colorful characters,life lessons ,humor,tragedy,drama and just basically everything required of a great movie.
We don't often think about what it was like to be different,be it due to color,sexual orientation, or personal history in the 30s and 40s. It was actually a crime to be different in any way and the punishment if you were was swift and cruel.
With well fleshed out characters,this was an eye opening , beautiful and enjoyable book. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderfully written. I sure am gonna miss Nana Dara. Made issues crystal clear: a lot of heartache could be prevented if we could just love and accept folks for their uniqueness. Don’t have to agree; just love one another. Worth the read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In a small town in Texas in the summer of 1923, Miss Dara falls in love with a girl. Terrified of what that means and what her family and community would think, she flees to the safety of the kitchen of the farm prison at Sugarland, which isn't a safe place for a young woman, but she makes a place for herself nonetheless. Sugar Land follows the life of Miss Dara from a young woman falling in love, to a cook in a difficult environment who makes a few friends; an inmate with immense musical talent, another cook whose quiet decency protects her, and the prison warden, to a wife and step-mother and through to the end of her life. Despite the bleakness of Miss Dara's surroundings and her situation of always have to conceal who she really is, Tammy Lynne Stoner keeps the tone of the novel upbeat. Miss Dara is simply too pragmatic and too optimistic to allow herself to do anything other than to persevere and to take joy out of what she can, from a stray cat to the trailer she'll eventually call home.This is a novel about family, and about loving the family and friends that you are given. It's about learning to accept oneself and to accept others as they are and not as you'd wish them to be. Sugar Land is published by the very small Red Hen Press and it reminded me of how small presses are constantly publishing interesting and unusual novels, and how finding and reading books put out by small presses is always rewarding.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stoner, Tammy Lynne. Sugar Land. 9 CDs. unabridged. Brilliance Audio. 2018. ISBN 9781978649071. $24.99. A southern coming of age story about learning to come to terms with life and what makes your heart ring true. Set in the twenties, a young woman named Dara escapes from Midland, Texas only to run straight into a prison. Dara works in the kitchen and tries to put her past and her great romance to bed. She fell hard for her best friend but is too concerned with what the consequences could be if anyone ever discovered her attraction to girls. Safely ensconced in a prison filled with men, Dara soon befriends Leadbelly, a blues singer destined for stardom, and learns that love is what you make it. Sugar Land follows Dara's journey over the decades as she learns to do more than accept the lot life has given her. Brilliantly executed by the talented Donna Postel who throws just the right amount of southern charm into this novel of acceptance and love. Courageous, captivating, and charming, filled with characters that readers won't be able to stop thinking about. For fans of LGBTQ+ romance, historical fiction, and southern charm. - Erin Cataldi, Johnson Co. Public Library, Franklin, IN