Books Between Bites Book Club

Books Between Bites – December 4, 2024 Please join us on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at 12:15 in the Decatur Public Library’s Madden Auditorium for a Books Between Bites.

Book Title: Going Home Author: J.M. Jacob

Presenter: Joy Willett

About the Book: Going Home is the story of Izzy, a woman who looks to the past as she faces an uncertain future. Her memories take her to the Virginia plantation where she was born during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. As a youngster, Izzy played in the dirt surrounding the ramshackle cabins where the Jaspers’ slaves lived. Mama, the plantation’s cook, was determined to set Izzy on a path that didn’t include working in the tobacco fields. She did what was needed to get eight-year-old Izzy into the kitchen. Being at Mama’s side was a refuge - one that Izzy, early on, didn’t fully realize she needed. The cruel actions of the Jasper family brought reality into focus. Their brutality, accepted as ordinary on the plantation, threatened Izzy as she matured into a young woman. Although it seemed she was without options, Izzy proved there are choices - if you are willing to take the risk.

About the Author/Presenter: Joy Willett, who writes under the pen name J. M. Jacob, has been in Decatur for three years. She and her husband, David Jacob, have lived in Indiana, Arizona, California, and now Illinois. The couple has fallen in love with the Decatur community, which was not hard given how welcoming everyone has been. Ms. Willett new novella, Going Home, a historical fiction, is the story of Izzy Graham – a woman born into slavery in the 1780s. The book tells of Izzy’s journey away from the Virginia plantation where she was born, and the adventures that give her a new life in freedom.