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The Secret Lives of Church Ladies Kindle Edition

by Deesha Philyaw (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 2,950 ratings

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*FINALIST for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction*

*WINNER of the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award*

*WINNER of the 2020 Story Prize*

*WINNER of the 2020 L.A. Times Book Prize, Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction*

“Beguiling.” —The New Yorker

“Tender, fierce, proudly black and beautiful, these stories will sneak inside you and take root.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Triumphant.” —Publishers Weekly

“Cheeky, insightful, and irresistible.” —Ms. Magazine

“This collection marks the emergence of a bona fide literary treasure.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Full of lived-in humanity, warmth, and compassion.” —Pittsburgh Current

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions.

There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher’s wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta’s “same time next year” arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.

With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Narrator Janina Edwards masterfully performs this collection of short stories featuring Black women who, though they differ in age and context, struggle with loneliness, sexual connection, and the ever-present and contradictory lessons of the church.-- "AudioFile"

From the Back Cover

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions.

There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher’s wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta’s “same time next year” arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.

With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

About the Author

Deesha Philyaw's writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, McSweeney's, the Rumpus, Brevity, TueNight, and elsewhere. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, she currently lives in Pittsburgh with her daughters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How to Make Love to a Physicist [excerpted]

How do you make love to a physicist? You do it on Pi Day—pi is a constant, also irrational—but the groundwork is laid months in advance. First you must meet him in passing at a STEAM conference. As a middle school art teacher, you are there to ensure the A(rts) are truly represented and not lost amid the giants of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math. But as a Black woman, you are there playing Count the Negroes, as you do at every conference. He is number twelve, at a conference of hundreds. On the first day of the conference, you notice him coming down the convention center escalator as you ride up. You try to guess which letter of the acronym he is there to represent. His face and baby dreads give you equal parts “poet” and “high school math teacher.”

On the second day of the conference, you see him again at a breakout session, “Arts Integration and Global Citizenry.” He’s chatting with the presenter—a sista, number thirteen—before the session begins. From what you overhear, you glean that they know each other from their undergrad days in Atlanta in the early nineties. The have a lot of people in common at their respective alma maters. They promise to catch up again before the conference is over. You notice she’s wearing a wedding ring, and he is not.

As you’re leaving the breakout session, he notices you noticing him. His smile is brilliant; you smile back. He falls in step with you, extends his hand, and introduces himself. He says “Eric Turman,” but you hear “Erick Sermon.” And your eyes widen and then narrow because you think he’s joking, in a weirdly esoteric way.

“No, Eric Turman,” he says again, laughing. “Not the guy from EPMD.”

“Got it,” you say. “I’m Lyra James. Not to be confused with Rick James.”

Eric chuckles. “But often confused with Lyra, home to one of the brightest stars in the night sky.”

The compliment takes you by surprise, and you’re probably doing a shitty job of hiding it. “So you’re . . . a science teacher?”

He is not a science teacher, nor is he a poet. He’s a physicist and chair of the education programs committee for the American Physics Society.

You make small talk about “Arts Integration and Global Citizenry.” He asks what brings you to the conference and you tell him you teach middle school art—sculpting, printmaking, painting, fiber arts, ceramics. He asks if you will tell him more over lunch. And you do. And then the conversation continues over dinner—you learn what the chair of the education programs committee for the American Physics Society does—and then in the bar of the conference hotel, over drinks. And then on a sofa in the lobby. You each share your top five MCs. You debate Scarface vs. Rakim for number one.

You notice his thick eyelashes, large hands, and a little scar next to his right eyebrow. When he lifts his newsboy cap a few times to scratch his head, you see the baby dreads are neat and well moisturized.

He tells you about his job, the one that pays the bills, where he develops astrophysics and cosmology theories, and conducts research to test those theories. “I aspire to be an astronaut as a side hustle, but NASA won’t return a brotha’s calls.” He shrugs. “What about you?”

“Me?” you say. “Oh, I just have the one job.”

“And your aspirations?”

You take a deep breath and spill your dreams. “You know that school LeBron James started? I want to start one like that. A bunch of them, actually, all over the country. But I’ll start with one, serving entire families. That’s really the key, you know?”

He knows. [. . .]

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08C7ZQ55M
Publisher ‏ : ‎ West Virginia University Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 655 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 189 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #90,342 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #59 in Literary Short Stories
- #76 in Black & African American Literary Fiction
- #79 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)

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4.4 2,950 ratings

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Deesha Philyaw

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Deesha Philyaw's collection of short stories about Black women, sex, and the Black church, THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES is forthcoming from West Virginia University Press in September 2020. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Cheat River Review, TueNight, ESPN’s The Undefeated and The Baltimore Review; Essence, Ebony, and Bitch magazines; and various anthologies. Deesha is a Fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People. Deesha is also the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband.

Learn more about Deesha's work at deeshaphilyaw.com.

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P. J. Owen

The best short story collection I've read in a long time

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021

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Deesah Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies won the prestigious Story Award for 2020, and this collection is well deserving of that accolade. The first story, Eula, sets the tone for the whole book, with its brief, heartbreaking look at two women who have been best friends “for more than half their lives”, but also lovers. While the narrator Caroletta, wants more from her friend than just the physical, Eula wants to be “normal” and hasn’t stopped looking for a husband and encouraging Caroletta to do the same. Eula is very religious, and she pushes hard against the idea that they can be anything more than they are. Caroletta, who is more ambivalent about her faith, continues to seduce and push Eula. As this very short story ends, Eula admits that she’s scared. Caroletta, acknowledging her fears, begins yet another physical interaction, and the story ends on this ambiguous note. Will there be a change? Or will Eula continue to search for the perfect husband?

Many of the stories are likes the first, with characters pitting their faith against their desires. And these stories also pit women against other women. In Peach Cobbler a teenage girl finds herself tutoring the son of the preacher her mother has been having an affair with for years, and find herself in a position of choosing her own path or her mother’s (another story, Instruction For Married Christian Husbands, suggests that she ends up like her mother, but with more perceived agency) In Jael, the titular character is disgusted when her friend begins to sleep with an older man, but she soon finds herself alone with him, and also makes a surprising choice.

There’s hope in some of the stories too. In How to Make Love to a Physicist, a woman’s distaste of her own body hinders her ability to be in a relationship with a seemingly good guy, but her psychiatrists helps her along. When Eddie Levert Comes is a poignant look at desire and memory, as a woman tries to find love while caring for her mother, who has dementia but wakes every morning believing her crush as a young woman is coming to see her.

These are all just amazing stories, very human and deep in their meaning, and creative in their various forms. Well done.

20 people found this helpful

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Elizabeth

Loved it!

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2021

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ꜱᴛᴏʀʏʟɪɴᴇ/ ᴘʟᴏᴛ: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Each short story had a mini-plot to it, but there were several stories I wish would’ve had more added to them.

ᴘʀᴏꜱᴇ:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- Very beautiful when need be, simple and easy to read. From her writing style, every page felt like I was reliving the memories of old right alongside her characters.

ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀꜱ:⭐️⭐️⭐️.5- I enjoyed each of the speakers for every story, but some of them I couldn’t agree with. Each of the girl’s motives are either sex/love-oriented, or they’re retelling events that happened previously.

ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛᴀʀʏ: This book is a realistic fiction type book comprised of about 9 short stories, each entailing the struggles of acceptance, being a black girl in America, same-sex relationships, christianity, and their love lives. Of all the short stories, I love the very first, ‘Eula’. Though the book is primarily about sex and young girls questioning christianity, the first story felt a little different to me. There was reflection among the two women reminiscing about their younger days, and it felt incredibly relatable. This book was really enjoyable and all the characters in each story convinced me to keep flipping the pages. It was one of those ‘short and sweet’ novels.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

I loved 7/9 stories

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2021

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This was an excellent read.

I wish there were more of these portrayals of realistic women and their sexuality when I was younger. I also appreciated that, in many of the stories were light-hearted or bittersweet. I'm a bit tired of books about miserable people suffering.

I think that the author is at her best when she portrays characters who she probably relates to more. Though the characters in the book are many ages, the most relatable came of age in the 80s. They are mostly defining their boundaries, especially in terms of their sexuality and their relationships with their mothers. When the author portrays women from older generations, the inner life that she describes is less nuanced, more what could be deduced from what they say rather than what could be imagined of their secret thoughts.

My favorite chapters were dear sister, peach cobbler, how to make love to a physicist, and instructions for married christian husbands. All of the stories had memorable characters and I'm sure that they'll stay with me for many years.

A lot of ppl like Jael. I read it twice (once after I reviewed the context of the scripture quoted at the end. I believe that atory) It's a fascinating and nuanced story. It made me wish that I had read it as part of a book club bc it left me with questions and points to discuss. All of that said, it also fell a bit flat for me. The other stories describe actions, both good and evil, that are common enough to be mundane, and I think that's a real strength of the book. In Jael, the characters are less like ppl I know. One, or possibly two, of the actions in that story are behaviors by teen girls that I never heard mention of in my 10 years of working at a crisis center (I've seen a lot of evil, though I'm sure I haven't seen everything). It's a compelling story, but not as satisfyingly real as the others.

I appreciated that a lot of the stories ended with semicolons rather than periods. If the author ever wants to tell us what happened next in their lives, I'd love to find out (and I was so relieved to meet one character for a second time towards the end).

12 people found this helpful

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Anonymous

Great Short Story Collection

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024

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A great collection of very human stories.

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Peter K.

Prize Winning Author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2023

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Not being the target audience for this book I still found it surprising good. Short stories.

One person found this helpful

Snapdragon

A lovely story collection

Reviewed in Australia on December 17, 2022

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This terrific collection of stories gives a non-Black, non-American person a great insight into Black American lives: the church-goers, and, in the periphery, the ones who die early, often due to drugs or violence. The speech cadences fall as easily as warm honey. Thanks to books, TV and movies, we recognise them. There are good grandmothers, tough mothers, church-going mothers who disapprove of lesbian daughters, tough daughters, a vengeful great granddaughter who lives up to her Biblical name, and plenty of feckless men. Beautiful, clear, writing that nevertheless creates entire worldviews. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.

Fern

Deesha Philyaw will have you begging for more!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2022

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A beautifully crafted collection of short stories, layered with an irresistible southern wit, stark humour and a messy realness that just felt so damn sexy.

In The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, no secrets are left untold as Deesha Philyaw’s unearths the distinct, deep rooted hunger for freedom, passion, lust and desire that drives each of her characters, which in turn, exposes a rich and insightful exploration into religion, womanhood, sexuality, infidelity, power, sexism and so much more.

For such a quick, mesmerising read, Deesha Philyaw will have you begging for more.

One person found this helpful

Treasure

Didn’t meet my expectations

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2023

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This book is a collection of short stories, only three stories caught my interests ,they were Peachcobller , lael and instructions for married Christian men !

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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Deesha Philyaw

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