Sometimes, when you’re very, very fortunate, you come across a story that is so poignant that it punches you in the gut, yet is sprinkled with laughter and hope, beauty and grace. That story is told in ‘The Sweetest Hallelujah’ by Elaine Hussey. It’s a story that makes you long to laze the day away on a front porch, sweet tea dripping in a glass next to you and the rich scent of barbecue in the air. This story, set in 1955 Mississippi, is ‘The Help’, and ‘Steel Magnolias’ rolled into one.

Betty Jewel Hughes, the greatest jazz singer to ever make her way out of tiny, downtrodden, Shakerag, Mississippi, finds herself pregnant and back home, with the matriarch of the family, Miz Queen.

The story begins when Billie, Betty Jewel’s daughter, is 10 years old. Betty Jewel is dying of cancer, her mother is fiercely strong, but too old to adequately care for Billie, and her two best friends are dealing with their own issues in 1955’s South.

Betty Jewel impulsively places an ad in a local paper and in marches lily-white, red headed Cassie Malone, a Tupelo journalist. The journey that these strong women embark upon is heartbreaking, astounding, and above all, hope-filled. It is a must for summer reading. Or winter reading. Or spring or fall!
The Sweetest Hallelujah