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    Orange Mint and Honey
    Orange Mint and Honey
    Orange Mint and Honey
    Audiobook8 hours

    Orange Mint and Honey

    Written by Carleen Brice

    Narrated by Cherise Boothe

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Carleen Brice's debut Orange Mint and Honey is an invigorating and poignant novel. After grad school, Shay Dixon feels like she's had enough for a while. Inspired by her spiritual adviser-a blues player named Nina Simon-Shay calls her estranged mother Nona for the first time in years to ask if it would be alright to stay with her for a while.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 20, 2008
    ISBN9781436133494
    Orange Mint and Honey

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    Reviews for Orange Mint and Honey

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Shay Dixon is a burnt out grad student at the University of Iowa. Her advisor has convinced her to take a semester off to get some rest and get her head together. Shay has worked and gone to school to the exclusion of the rest of her life for so long that she doesn't know where to go or what to do. Nina Simone appears to Shay and tells her to go home to her mother. Shay doesn't like or respect her mother. But with nowhere else to go, she heads back to Denver. Nona was a serious alcoholic for all of Shay's life. Shay raised herself while Nona partied, leaving her school-aged daughter home alone for a week at a time. The last time Shay saw Nona was four years ago when Nona began AA and was following the steps, apologizing to the people she had hurt. Nona had been pregnant at the time.Shay moves in with her mother and 3-year-old sister Sunny. Despite evidence that Nona has changed - healthy food, positive quotes, a garden, prayer - Shay is determined to hold on to her anger. Shay is a very immature 25-year-old, especially for someone who raised herself. But the way she holds on to her anger and blames Nona for her situation is believable. She made a lot of bad decisions and pissed me off, but her character was realistic. I didn't feel a whole lot towards Nona. I thought the book was going to end up implying that the love of a good man could save a woman, and I was ready to roll my eyes. But Brice didn't go there. Nona and Shay's relationship developed in a realistic way and Shay did start to make her own decisions.The recipes at the back of the book were a nice touch, and I loved the idea of the God box, planting your prayers in your garden.
    • 4/5
      Loved this book!! I adore the idea for God Box- planting your prayers in your garden!! Just love it! This was a great mother/daughter story! It just had so much emotion and characters you just fell in love with! A wonderful ending it was just great beginning to end and I can't wait for Carleen Brice's next book!!
    • 3/5
      This books would create a lot of discussion for book clubs. There are even recipes in the back. I found the mother's behavior puzzling throughout most of the book. The daughter's behavior was irritating, but more understandable. But she was pretty immature for someone who essentially raised herself.
    • 5/5
      RATING:5 out of 5Why did I wait so long to read this book? I was lucky enough to snag a hard cover copy back in September of 2009 but somehow kept putting it further down on the pile. Must have truly been overrun with ARC’s. Finally, I decided I must devour it before the “made for TV” movie airs which just happens to be this Sunday on Lifetime. I never like to see the movie before I read the book. This was a simple feat because once I picked up the book; I could not put it down.Don’t get me wrong. This is not light reading. The subject of conflict between mother and daughter is always raw and hurtful. Shay Dixon had raised herself for all practical purposes as her mother, Nona was a stone alcoholic, and stayed drunk throughout all of Shay’s school years. Shay left the first chance she had, getting herself a scholarship, and as far away from her mother as possible. However, all the negative baggage that Shay left home with continued to haunt her throughout her college years. As she shied away from any kind a relationship, she had no support network, and that finally took it toll on her and she could not finish her thesis to graduate. Her advisor recommended that she take a semester or two off and gather her strength. Unfortunately, Shay had no place to go but home, which she did reluctantly because she was still packing all the baggage of her lost childhood. However, Nona on the other hand, had found sobriety four years earlier, and another daughter, Sunshine, who she was just beginning to raise.The story of Nona and Shay coming to terms about their earlier life is full of pain, blame, and a dawning of the damage that could not be forgotten but had to be forgiven for both of them to move on. The question is really can that happen. No spoilers. I hope you will rush out and get a copy of the book. Record the movie and save until you finish the book. I promise you will not be sorry.
    • 5/5
      Relationships whether good, bad or ugly, we all have them. These relationships, especially those with close friends and family shape our entire existence. The most unique relationship is the mother-daughter bond, even if that bond is broken; it still exists. In Orange Mint & Honey, author Carleen Brice takes us on an emotional roller coaster ride in the lives of Shay Dixon and her mother Nona. Although 25 years in age, Shay's soul personifies a character much older. While experiencing her mid-life crisis, Shay is advised to take a break from graduate school by her advisor. Later Shay would receive a visit from her banshee (spirit) Nina Simone and be advised to return home to her mother, a recovering alcoholic whom she had not spoken to in seven years.A tale of love, hate, forgiveness, truth, and a large dose of heart-wrenching reality, Brice uses Orange Mint and Honey as an avenue to touch on very sensitive and sometimes taboo subjects, but with such eloquence and skill. While reading this novel I continuously found myself overwhelmed with emotion. At times I laughed, sometimes I cried and other times I had to put the book down and just think. Brice allowed me to use the character of Shay Dixon to deal with some of my own daughter-mother issues. Like Shay they are issues that started for me as a young girl and now in adulthood these same issues continue to affect me via the choices I make on a daily basis. However, I received a dose of hope that all relationships are mendable if we are willing to meet people where they are and if we receive what they have to give us as opposed to demanding what we want or what we think we deserve. Like Shay eventually did, I had to take into account that my mom has her own growing pains that she has to deal with on her terms and I must allow her to do that on her time, but not at the expense of my feelings. This book is a must read and an eye-opener for anyone that is affected by or intrigued by the mother-daughter bond and the strengths and weaknesses that lie within it. In spite of the struggles, these women, Nona and Shay were determined to make it through allowing the reader to understand the sensitive yet strong bond that women possess. "Ain't I a woman?"**Be sure to tune in Sunday, February 21, 2010 to Lifetime Movie Network to catch the premiere of "Sins of the Mother." This movie is based on Brice's novel Orange Mint & Honey and stars Grammy Award winning singer/actress Jill Scott. ****Check out the Carleen Brice interview by BrownGirl by clicking here.
    • 3/5
      I kind of liked this book. Actually, I liked more about it than I disliked. The story is about Shay Dixon, a burnt out grad student who goes to stay with her recovering alcoholic mother for a break. She goes because Nina Simone (a dead jazz singer) tells her to. I didn't really connect with the Nina Simone thing. However, I really liked the mother-daughter story that's at the core of the novel. Their relationship and Shay's healing and evolution kept me reading. I didn't like the end. It felt loose and unfinished but not in a "literary" on purpose kind of way. The ending also felt untrue to me. I didn't understand Shay's decisions in the end. I'm not saying they were the wrong decisions. They just didn't fit for me. This sounds like a bad review but it's not. I did enjoy most of the story and I would recommend this books to friends. Lifetime is coming out with a movie based on the book. Hopefully they don't butcher it too badly.
    • 5/5
      “Orange Mint and Honey” held my attention from the opening paragraph to the very end. This book was refreshing, real, uplifting and enjoyable read with short chapters that get straight to the point. The characters, with all their flaws, were very likeable. The author has an easy way with words, conveying much insight and wit when you least expect it. As well, for me, it brought compassion for Shay and Nona. There are many layers to this story that make it a satisfying reading experience; alcoholism, Trichotillomania (impulse control disorder), domestic abuse, gardening, virginity, infidelity and many other issues. Also, well-developed secondary or supporting characters; such as Ivy, a recovering alcoholic, drug abuser and prostitute, and I Loved Oliver, Shay's first "real boyfriend." I liked the way Shay’s character grew and how Carleen Brice uses the spirit of Shay’s favorite singer, the late Nina Simone, to move the character along. It was a wonderful read. Women of all races will be able to identify with the characters. I was happy with the way the novel ended and I’ll be anxiously awaiting the Lifetime movie and her second novel “Children of the Waters.”
    • 5/5
      I really loved this book and the transformation of the characters within the story. I was alittle dissapointed about the ending but I won't spill the beans on that. All in all a very very good read.
    • 4/5
      I was at first very skeptical of Shay and carried a bit of animosity towards her. Mental illness, deep rooted pain, or selfishness? The book begins with her burnt out from grad school and unable to complete her master's thesis in epidemiology. Nina Simone appears to her and tells her that she must return home to see her mother. What results is a whirlwind of emotion, resentment, self-discovery, forgiveness, and understanding around her mother's past alcohol addiction, her younger half sister's [better] life, old friends, new loves and of course growing up. Brice creates characters that are unapologetic and at the same time remorseful for their situations. Rounded out by the cyclical connections of mother/daughter relationships and gardening the novel puts the past and the present into full view. We see that relationships can be righted and women can be whole again, women can be powerful in their support for each other. Brice shows this through the roles of mothers and what it means to mother. Women can mother their children, their friends, even their own mothers. Throughout the book I was afraid that the message would be that what women need to be whole and to heal is the love of a man. We see that this is not the case. Shay was able to realize that society's ideas of family and womanhood and the logical next steps for a young woman may not be right for her. And she was okay with that realization.
    • 4/5
      Shay Dixon has run fast and far from her alcoholic, irresponsible mother and has worked hard to establish herself through higher education and a level of respectability that her mother never had. She's a classic over-achiever, and when grad school burn out leaves her no choice but to go home and face her past, she finds a very different Nona and in the process, she discovers a very different picture of herself. Anger, resentment, addiction, recovery and forgiveness are all themes that weave through this skillfully told story of facing the past, dealing with the present and having the courage to step into the future. In this terrific debut, Carleen Brice uses her deft, fresh voice to introduce us to richly textured and interesting characters. I can't wait to read more from this very talented author.