Death of the Author

 Fiction by Nnedi Okorafor

https://www.audible.com

Zelu is a Nigerian-American woman who has been partly paralyzed since age 12. She is the second born of a large and loud family, and a child of parents from two different African tribes: Ibo and Yoruba. All of these things make up part of who she is, but none of them define her as much as this: Zelu is an author.

This book is about both Zelu and her writing, combining elements of her novel, scenes from her life, and interviews of her family and close friends about her. It has wonderful and believable characters, and I would give it a very high rating… except for the ending. 

Without resorting to spoilers, I can’t tell you the ending of course. Let me just say it was ambiguous and anti climactic. So this book is well written, and the narration on the audiobook is stellar, but it’s been demoted down to one thumb, or less. 

Behind These Four Walls

 Fiction by Yasmin Angoe

https://www.amazon.com

At the beginning of this story, 26-year-old Isla Thorne is waiting for a bus when she sees a young woman with a flat tire and helps her out. The young woman is Holland Corrigan, youngest daughter of the fabulously rich Corrigan family of Virginia. 

But this wasn't just a chance meeting; Isla is hoping to infiltrate the family because she's looking for her friend Eden. Eden disappeared ten years ago, and the last thing she told Isla was that she was heading to the Corrigan mansion.

This was an okay mystery novel, but it had a few too many unbelievable coincidences for me.

The Nickel Boys

 Fiction by Colson Whitehead

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is a fictionalized account based on a real historical place: a juvenile detention facility in Mariana Florida called a "school for boys." This was a terrible place that remained open for over a hundred years for both white and colored boys, separately housed and very badly treated. Interestingly, I read another book on this subject recently, The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. That book involved the ghosts of dead boys telling the story, while this one  took a more realistic approach.

At the beginning of the story, a group of students from a Florida are digging up an archeological site on the grounds of the old school where hundreds of dead boys were apparently buried. The students are also gathering the stories of the boys who survived the place and are now old men.

This was a good story but very sad. It was well written but I can't say it was enjoyable.

I also read by this author: The Underground Railroad

The Reformatory

 Fiction by Tananarive Due

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

It's 1950 in Gracetown, Florida, and 12-year-old Robbie is living with his older sister Gloria in the old shack on their family's land. There had been a house there, but the Klan burned it down after their daddy, Robert Stevens Senior, was discovered trying to unionize the Negros at the mill. The audacity he showed really riled the white folks in town, and a bogus criminal charge was quickly found to issue a warrant for the arrest of Robert Stevens, causing him to flee the area and leave his children behind. 

Then Robbie kicks a white boy who tries to put an arm around Gloria, and all heck breaks loose. The local authorities see this incident as a perfect pretext to catch Robert Senior, arresting Robbie for assault and sentencing him to six months at the Boy's Reformatory outside of town, a true horror of a place. (The ghosts that haunt it are probably the most benign problem. It's BAD.) There the story really begins.

This was an amazing novel with great characters and an affecting storyline. Real and imagined events mix together to give the reader an exciting ride through the past, and also inspires a lot of thought for the present.

Monday's Not Coming

 Fiction by Tiffany D. Jackson

https://www.audible.com

Claudia Coleman lives in Washington, D.C., with her family and she's just starting the eight grade at a local charter school. But she's upset because her best friend Monday Charles isn't there to start school with her, although Claudia and Monday have been in school together all along. What's more, nobody knows where Monday actually is! 

This was a pretty interesting story with good characters, but I didn't like how the author kept going all around in time in a confusing way. There was an explanation for the convoluted timeline at the end, but I didn't completely buy it.

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

 Fiction by Cherie Jones

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Lala's grandmother Wilma tried to raise her right and keep her out of trouble. Still, sometimes young girls go looking for trouble, and Lala found it at not-quite-eighteen when she got pregnant and married bad-boy Adan. So Wilma washed her hands of the girl, and never acknowledged that some of the things she should have protected Lala from were in her own house. Things don't get better for Lala or her baby, either...

This book is set in Barbados, and I loved how truthful the depiction of that island seemed. I also liked most of the characters, but I didn't like how none of the nice ones could seem to catch a break. It was a really bleak story.

Symphony of Secrets

 Fiction by Brendan Slocumb

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Dr. Bern Hendricks is a musician and a historian, and his specialty is early 20th century composer Frederick Delaney. So when the Delaney Foundation calls him to say they have found documents needing review, he jumps at the chance to fly to New York and study them. After all, there is still some mystery surrounding Delany's work, and Bern longs to be the one to find out the truth. He enlists help from his friend Eboni Washington, a computer tech expert who had helped him with his Delaney dissertation some years before.

But soon Bern gets the feeling that the Delaney Foundation may not be interested in the truth. Or is it just because he and Eboni are the only Black scholars working with the all-white Foundation members that makes him uneasy? The reader knows something more is definitely going on! Then the book makes a time shift back to the early 1900's and the real Frederick Delaney's life and the plot thickens.

This was a really good book, a blend of historical and mystery fiction with interesting musical and cultural aspects as well. I highly recommend it!

I also read by this author: The Violin Conspiracy

Running From Mercy

 Fiction by Terra Little

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Pamela and Paris are identical twins, raised together in the small town of Mercy, Georgia, but bound for very different destinies. 

This book was okay but I didn’t love it. I felt like it gave too much of the plot away at the beginning and I had trouble engaging with the characters. 

Everything’s Fine

 Fiction by Cecilia Rabess

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Jess and Josh were (sort-of) enemies in college, but when they both start work at a New York investment firm they become (sort-of) friends. Then they become something more... But Jess is black and politically liberal, and Josh is white and politically conservative. Can they meet in the middle?

This is a straight romance with interesting characters. I enjoyed it.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

 Fiction by Zora Neale Hurston

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of the school year I saw that one of the high school classes was reading this; I realized that I'd never read it and reserved it at the library. Then when I got the book I found the dialect difficult to read. I remembered another dialect-heavy book that I'd read a while ago: The Girl with the Louding Voice. That one I had listened to on audiobook and hadn't even noticed the dialect until my sister-in-law pointed it out. So I figured I'd get this one on audiobook, and YAY! It was indeed more enjoyable that way.

All of that is a long way to say: I decided to read this book in August but didn't get it done until December.

This book was first published in 1937, but didn't get much recognition and went out of print. It was reissued in 1978 after Alice Walker was able to revive interest in the author, a "Harlem Renaissance" writer like the more well-known Langston Hughes.

The story is about a woman called Janie who dares to try to live as an independent woman in the 1930's, which earns her no admiration from anyone, unfortunately. By the end of the book I had really fallen in love with Janie and wanted to see her succeed, which was honestly pretty impossible for any woman in her time, let alone a black one. Still, this was a good book to listen to.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

 Fiction by James McBride

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read a memoir by this author years ago (see below) that I loved, but I actually didn't know he wrote fiction until my online reading recommendations started blowing up with this book title. Now I think I've written before about this, but to me Award-Winning Books are a mixed bag of Oh-my-gosh-so-good and I-don't-get-it and This-is the-most-pretentious-piece-of-bs-I've-ever-seen. So I never know what to expect with an award-winner. (See also my comments on "Smart Person Books" in Imagine Me Gone.)

This was a really really good novel with a weird-sounding title. The book begins with the discovery of some old bones under the street in 1972, and then steps back in time for the story of Moshe and Chona Ludlow's corner store (the one with the weird name) on Chicken Hill, a neighborhood of Jews and "coloreds" in the 1930's.

It's a beautiful character story, and the answer to the identity of the bones is almost peripheral. (Still I would have been super mad if the  mystery hadn't been revealed. It was, fortunately!)

I also read by this author: The Color of Water

The Long Fall

 Fiction by Walter Moseley

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the first book in the Leonid McGill detective series. Leonid is a private investigator who has worked for criminals in the past but now wants to go straight. The crooks won’t leave him alone though. Also he doesn’t much like his wife but also doesn’t want to divorce her and be with his girlfriend. He does like his three kids but genetic testing has revealed that only one of them is actually his.

I didn’t really like Mr. McGill and I didn’t really like any of the cases he worked on in this book. I did read it all the way through, but …. Meh. 

Black Cake

 Fiction by Charmaine Wilkerson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This novel has recently been made into a TV series. The preview for the show looked interesting, so I wanted to read it. 

The story begins with a 1965 wedding on a Caribbean island. (I think it's Jamaica, but the author never actually says so. She literally just says The Island.) The bride is missing, but her dress is found on the beach smeared with the eponymous black cake. It moves around in time from the present to various points in the past to unlock the story. 

I really liked the characters and the plot; I could see how the story would make great TV. The book, however, told the story in such a strange way. Maybe it was because I've had a lot going on recently and I had to keep putting it down and picking it back up, but it was a little hard to follow. I think the TV show will be better. Still, it was a good book.

Yellow Wife

 Fiction by Sadequa Johnson 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Pheby Delores Brown is born a slave on a Virginia plantation, but her mother Ruth dreams of launching her to freedom. Ruth keeps carefully on Master Jacob's good side, because he has promised that he'll give Pheby her freedom papers when she's eighteen. But a slave master's promises are not always kept.

Master Jacob's wife is jealous of Ruth and resents Pheby greatly. While he is on an extended trip, the Missus takes the opportunity and sells seventeen-year-old Pheby, sending her to the worst place a young woman can go: the slave market in Richmond.

This story was very good; it was both exciting and moving. 

I also read by this author: House of Eve

Memorial

 Fiction by Bryan Washington

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Mike and his boyfriend Benson live together in Houston. They really love each other, but they have been going through some troubles.  The major issue is Mike’s lack of fidelity, although Benson tries to act like he doesn’t mind. 

Then Mike hears from his mother in Japan that his father is dying. Although his parents are divorced, he knows this will upset his mother, so he invites her to come for an extended visit to the apartment he and Benson share in Houston. Then (inexplicably!) he leaves for Japan the day after she arrives, blithely expecting Benson to take care of her in his absence as he goes to see his dying father instead.

Although Mike’s mother and Benson are strangers, they begin to forge a relationship. Mike stays in Japan for months, waiting for his father to die. Occasionally he texts. Benson continues to muddle along as he always has, but it’s clear he needs to decide if he will continue to accept Mike’s casually selfish behavior or demand a change. 

This was an interesting book and I really liked some of the characters (NOT that dirtbag Mike). The story was difficult for me I guess; I really wanted good things for Benson. I wasn’t exactly happy with the ending but I guess it was realistic. I don’t know how to rate this one.

The House of Eve

 Fiction by Sadequa Johnson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Ruby and Eleanor are both young black women in the 1950's, and both of them find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and unmarried. Because of their class and age differences, their paths after "getting in trouble" are not the same. Ruby is only fifteen, and hoping to go to college to rise out of poverty, while Eleanor is twenty, already attending Howard University, and has a few more options.

Their two stories are completely separate; however, the reader knows that there will be a link. This was a great story with memorable characters.

The Violin Conspiracy

 Fiction by Brendan Slocumb

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book, professional violinist Ray McMillan is leaving a New York hotel after a short stay with his girlfriend. They separate in the lobby and each get into a taxi; each one is headed back to their respective states. But it isn't until Ray gets all the way back home to his apartment in North Carolina that he opens his violin case to practice. Then he discovers that instead of the violin in the case, there is a single shoe and a ransom note.

When I first read this, I though that it was his girlfriend who was kidnapped. But actually, it was his violin being held for ransom.

This makes more sense when you find out that the violin is incredibly valuable and insured for ten million dollars.

This was a really good book with a surprise ending.

Also I liked the cover art on the library copy I read better than the one above, which is apparently the paperback version.

https://www.amazon.com

Born a Crime

 Nonfiction by Trevor Noah.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I had heard a lot of good things about this book; still I was reluctant to start reading. I don't often love celebrity memoirs; usually their lives aren't that interesting other than the fact that they are on TV or whatever. And I'd seen Mr. Noah's show briefly and remained unimpressed.

But I'm so glad I did go ahead and read this book. Born in South Africa under apartheid to mixed-race parents and raised partly in hiding, Trevor Noah has an amazing story to tell! The thing I loved the most was reading about his mother, Patricia. She's great! 

I definitely recommend this book.

The Girl With the Louding Voice

 Fiction by Abi Dare.

https://www.audible.com

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old girl in a small Nigerian village who wants to go to school more than anything. However, since her mother died and her father descended into a depression, there has been no money for school fees, or even for rent and food, for Adunni or her two brothers. Then her father insists she become the third wife of an old man who has promised to help the family financially in exchange for her hand. But Adunni's problems don't even end there! 

My sister-in-law recommended this book to me. She said the unusual dialect made the book difficult to read at first, but I found that listening to the story on audible circumvented this problem nicely; the narrator navigated the dialect perfectly. 

This was a very good story!!

On the Come Up

 Fiction by Angie Thomas.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Bri Jackson is fifteen and hoping to become a rapper like her dad, who was murdered when she was a toddler. But she doesn't really want to embrace the gang culture that got him killed. Can she stay true to herself and make it in the music business?

This was a great story, set in the same (fictional) neighborhood as The Hate U Give but with different characters.

I also read recently by this author: Concrete Rose