One Good Mama Bone

A Novel

By: Bren McClain

Narrated by: Bren McClain

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

Simply the Best!

I look forward to any suggestions for my next book with Sincere gratitude and thanks!
To help you know what books I'm attracted to, I have read scores of Audible books, but loved these best:
One Good Mama Bone by Bren McClain
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
All of Sandra Dallas books
The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler
Peaches for Father Francis and all audio books by Joanne Harris
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
All of the Robyn Carr Virgin River, Thunder Point and Grace Valley Series

Read by the author version FANTASTIC

This is the kind of sad and wonderful story that is good to read but better to be listened to - especially when the author reads it so PERFECTLY! Like listening to Angela’s Ashes read by the author which is one of the best story listening experiences I’ve ever had - One Good Mama Bone is also WAY more touching and beautiful when listened to by Bren McLain!

Had me at Chapter 1

Loved this book. Very well written. Main character, Sarah, doesn't realize just how strong a woman she is. She digs deep...

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.

My heart is full.

I didn’t want this book to end. I loved it and all of the characters. God bless the author. Thank you for blessing me with your book.

Southern Story Telling

This was a wonderful example of Southern story telling. Multiple characters developed and their lives intertwined. A look into the poorest of family farmers. The story wrapped around young boys learning to raise cattle.

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.

Story about a simple but strong love

This is by far one of my favorite books. It is a story about a love that is simple but yet so strong that transcends all.

Excellent in every way

I loved this book, the story and narration are top notch. I liked the narrator so much I looked for other books by them and was shocked to realize the author was the narrator, that is typically not a good thing, but in this case it’s perfect. If you like Wylie Cash you will love this book!

Excellent

Loved this one. Didn’t want it to end. Held your interest the entire time. Loved the narrator