One Good Mama Bone

A Novel

De: Bren McClain

Narrado por: Bren McClain

Set in early 1950s rural South Carolina, One Good Mama Bone chronicles Sarah Creamer's quest to find her "mama bone", after she is left to care for a boy who is not her own but instead is the product of an affair between her husband and her best friend and neighbor, a woman she calls "sister". When her husband drinks himself to death, Sarah, a dirt-poor homemaker with no family to rely on and the note on the farm long past due, must find a way for her and young Emerson Bridge to survive. But the more daunting obstacle is Sarah's fear that her mother's words, seared in her memory since she first heard them at the age of six, were a prophecy, "You ain't got you one good mama bone in you, girl."

When Sarah reads in the local newspaper that a boy won $680 with his Grand Champion steer at the recent 1951 Fat Cattle Show and Sale, she sees this as their financial salvation and finds a way to get Emerson Bridge a steer from a local farmer to compete in the 1952 show. But the young calf is unsettled at Sarah's farm, crying out in distress and growing louder as the night wears on. Some four miles away, the steer's mother hears his cries and breaks out of a barbed-wire fence to go in search of him. The next morning Sarah finds the young steer quiet, content, and nursing a large cow. Inspired by the mother cow's act of love, Sarah names her Mama Red. And so Sarah's education in motherhood begins with Mama Red as her teacher.

But Luther Dobbins, the man who sold Sarah the steer, has his sights set on winning too, and, like Sarah, he is desperate, but not for money. Dobbins is desperate for glory, wanting to regain his lost grand-champion dynasty, and he will stop at nothing to win. Emboldened by her lessons from Mama Red and her budding mama bone, Sarah is committed to victory even after she learns the winning steer's ultimate fate. Will she stop at nothing, even if it means betraying her teacher?

©2017 Bren McClain (P)2017 Bren McClain

Best story I have read in a very long time.

If you could sum up One Good Mama Bone in three words, what would they be?

Engaging, emotional, powerful story!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mama Red, Sarah, Emerson Bridge

Which scene was your favorite?

The ones where Sarah confesses to Mama REd

Who was the most memorable character of One Good Mama Bone and why?

Sarah

Any additional comments?

Not right now

an unforgettable story

beautiful story, excellent characters , excellent presentation
Me McClains' accent was wonderful for this story. I will remember Saral and her son for many years.

I'll take more please

I anxiously await Bren McClain's next novel and hope that she narrates it. McClain's characters in One Good Mama Bone fe4el so real and they are gritty and hopeless but filled with determination in an era and environment that seems to quash them at every turn. McClain's ability to tell a story from an animals perspective, especially a cow's, shows not only her love for animals but her willingness to step outside the box of everyday writing.
I will listen to this story in McClain's voice many, many times in the future.

Bren is a master story teller!

I love this story! The audiobook version is great because she gives the characters the voices in HER head, which were different from mine.

What a book!!!

This book was absolutely incredible. So many times I was moved to tears. Beautiful characters and a beautiful story line from a talented author