What’s it about?
 This memoir tackles some tough subject matter.  Saeed Jones is a gay, African-American man who was raised in Texas by a single mother.  Mr. Jones memoir is an honest, frank look back at his life.  He does not sugar coat his story- so be ready when you pick up his book.

What did it make me think about?
 I have often thought that this may be the best time in history to come out as a gay man.  However, after reading this book, I am not saying that anymore.  Saeed Jones makes you understand how truly difficult it is to be black and gay in America- even today.  ​"You never forget your first "faggot'.  Because the memory, in its way, makes you.  It becomes the spine for the body of anxieties and insecurities that will follow, something to hang all that meat on.  Before you were scrawny; now you're scrawny because you're a faggot.  Before you were just bookish; now you're bookish because you're a faggot.
   Soon, bullies won't even have to say the word.  Nor will friends, as they start to sit at different lunch tables without explanation.  There will already be a voice in your head whispering 'faggot' for them."

Should I read it?
 Saeed Jones is an award winning poet and the way he uses language is just beautiful.  ​"Just as some cultures have a hundred words for 'snow', there should be a hundred words in our language for all the ways a black boy can lie awake at night."  I found this one of the most compelling memoirs I have ever read.  It is raw, honest, and sometimes more graphic than readers might be comfortable with.  I urge you to read this book anyway.  Maybe it will change the way you look at someone that is different from yourself.

Quote-
​"However many masks we invent and deploy, in the end, we cannot control what other people see when they look at us."

If you liked this try-
​On Earth We're Breifly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
​My Brother Moochie by Issac J. Bailey
All Over But the Shouting by Rick Bragg
​Fire Shut up In My Bones by Charles M. Blow

9 1/2 stars

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
341 pages

What's it about?
This novel is about a decades long friendship between two couples- the Langs and the Morgans.  They meet in Madison at the beginning of their careers and immediately become friends.  

What did it make me think about?
This is one of my favorite books of all time.  I try to re-read it every few years.  It is a story of friendship, of rescue, and of the passage of time.  

Should I read it?
This is a book not to be missed.  My review is short because how can I do this novel justice?  I highly recommend this one.  

Quote-
"Is that the basis of friendship?  Is it as reactive as that? Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?.. Do we all buzz or ring or light up when people press our vanity buttons, and only then?  Can I think of anyone in my whole life whom I have liked without his first showing signs of liking me?"

If you like this try-
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

9 1/2 stars

Fleishman is in Trouble by  Taffy Brodesser-Akner
373 pages

What’s it about?
 Toby Fleishman has been married to Rachel for fifteen years- some of them happy.  When he finally asks Rachel for a divorce, he thinks he knows what to expect.  He is sorely mistaken.  From dating apps, to custody of the children- nothing goes as planned.

What did it make me think about?
Anyone who reads this will think about marriage, child care issues. and the role of women in the workplace. I was so impressed with how Ms. Brodesser-Akner was able to turn the "main child care giver" on its head by making the man (Toby) have that role in this story.  Toby shoulders most of the childcare responsibilities and this allows the author more freedom to explore the complicated issues of two working parents.  Also, she was able to look at the role of women  in todays' marriages.  She does have a few things to say about working outside the home versus not working outside the home.  "No one had to tell me it was harder to have a job and be a mother.  It was obvious. It was two full-time occupations.  It's just math. Because having a job made you no less of a mother; you still had to do all that shit, too.  Keeping track of your kids from afar isn't easier.  Entrusting them to a stranger who was available for babysitting by virtue of the fact that she was incapable of doing anything else is not something that fills a person with faith and relaxation.  Now that I have worked and stayed home I can confirm all this.  Now that I stay home I can say it out loud.  But now that I don't work, no one is listening."  So maybe Ms. Brodesser-Akner has a strong perspective.  I did not always agree with her but it sure makes you think.

Should I read it?
 This is a gem!  If you can take reading explicit sex scenes then you will really enjoy this novel.   It has a lot to say  about marriage and the changing (or not changing) role of women in our society.  Don't you just love a book that keeps you turning the pages and then at the end you realize that the novel actually had a lot to say?  Be patient with this one- especially when the narrator changes in a trance way.  It took me a few pages to get into it  but this is a good book!
​
Quote-
"It was all such an insult, the Hamptons.  It was an insult to economic disparity.  It was an insult to leading a good life and asking hard questions about what one should sacrifice in the name of decency.  It was an insult to having enough- to knowing that there was such a thing as enough."  

"But also, divorce is about forgetfulness- a decision to stop remembering the moment before all the chaos- the moment they fell in love, the moment they knew they were more special together than apart.  Marriage lives in service to those moments. "

If you liked this try-
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
​Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
We  Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

9 stars

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 
208 pages

What’s it about?
Elwood Curtis is 17 years-old in 1962. He is living with his grandmother in Tallahassee, Florida when he hitches a ride to school in the wrong car. Charged with car theft he is sent to the Nickel Academy Reform School for Boys.  Elwood trusts that doing the right thing will always prevail- but this strategy may not work in Nickel Academy.

What did it make me think about?
The words of Martin Luther King are sprinkled throughout this novel. “Throw us in jail, and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities after midnight hours, and drag us out onto some wayside road, and beat us and leave us half dead, and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom.”  On one hand there is the senseless brutality and abuse of power in Nickel, and on the other hand are the lofty ideals of Martin Luther King  who wanted to rise above it all.  In many ways this book is about the capacity to suffer. The history of racism in our country is wide and deep.  It is a complicated divide and stories such as these should help start much needed conversations.

Should I read it?
Nickel Academy is modeled after the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.  Dozier was an actual reform school in Florida.  The recent discovery of dead bodies has given new weight to age old stories of abuse at Dozier. Colson Whitehead tells Elwood’s story in a quiet voice that should break your heart.  

Quote-
"That's what the school did to a boy," Whitehead writes. "It didn't stop when you got out. Bend you all kind of ways until you were unfit for straight life, good and twisted by the time you left."

If you liked this try-
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
​Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
​Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

​9 stars

 What’s it about?
The novel begins with the line, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist."  So the story had me from the first line.  Tayari Jones is most well-known as the author of An American Marriage, but I enjoyed this earlier book as well.   The story is told from two different points of view. James Witherspoon's has two daughters from different marriages and they each serve as narrators. Both stories are compelling.  

What did it make me think about?
 Secret lives...

Should I read it?
Tayari Jones can tell a story!  This novel takes place in Atlanta in the 1990's and portrays a world I didn't know much about.  That is always appealing to me.

Quote-
"And this is how it started.  Just with coffee and the exchange of their long stories.  Love can be incremental.  Predicaments,too.  Coffee can start a life just as it can start a day.  This was the meeting of tow people destined to love from before they were born, from before they made choices that would complicate their lives.  This love just rolled toward my mother as though she were standing at the bottom of a steep hill.  Mother had no hand in this, only heart."

If you liked this try-
​Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
​The  Turner House by Angela Flournoy
​The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinit
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

8 1/2 stars

What’s it about?
 Isma has been living in London and caring for her younger brother and sister since her mother died years ago.   Isma and her siblings are British citizens of Pakistani descent. They have grown up in a city that increasingly wants the Muslim community to become more assimilated.  Now that the twins have reached adulthood it is finally time for Isma to follow her dreams and go study in America.  After arriving in America Isma meets a fellow traveler from London in a coffee shop.  Eammon is the son of a member of Parliament and also of Pakistani descent.  When Eammon returns to London he will meet Isma's sister and the story will begin in earnest.

What did it make me think about?
 So with all the talk of nationalism and immigration it is good to remember that life is not that simple.  Problems are often complicated and do not have an easy answer. What happens when you are 19 and make a mistake...  a big mistake.

Should I read it?
 YES!  This was an amazing book and a page turner as well.  It will be one of my favorites this year. 

Quote-
" 'I'm driving at the fact that habits of secrecy are damaging things', Hira said in her most professorial voice.  'And they underestimate other people's willingness to accept the complicated truths of your life.' "

If you liked this try-
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid
Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
​A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
*The Map of Salt and Stars bt Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

9 1/2 stars

What’s it about?
Frances is a 21 year-old university student who writes poetry and then performs her poems with her charismatic ex-girlfriend, Bobbi in Dublin.  Bobbi and Frances are pulled into an older crowd when Melissa, a well-known photographer, decides to do an article about them.  The novel centers around the relationship between Frances and Nick.  Nick is Melissa's 32 year-old husband....
 
What did it make me think about?
I wrote the following about "Normal People" also written by Sally Rooney.   I would write much the same about "Conversations With Friends".  "So this novel explores some fascinating questions.  One of my favorite sayings over the last several years is, "We are the stories we tell ourselves."  No novel captures the essence of this phrase as well as Normal People.    Marianne and Connell both make up narratives to explain the behavior of the people around them.  Often these narratives are wrong. We also see how isolated individuals can feel- even when they are in relationships. The book also explores how relationships in our formative years can influence our future choices.  Fascinating stuff!"

Should I read it?
 This was a book that moved a little slowly, but what an interesting concept.  I am eternally fascinated by how we all perceive the world so differently.   

Quote-
"At the beginning I thought it was playful, maybe kind of sarcastic, like she wasn't his real wife at all. Now I saws it differently.  He didn't mind me knowing that he loved someone else, he wanted me to know, but he was horrified by the idea that Melissa would find out about our relationship.  It was something he was ashamed of, something he wanted to protect her from.  I was sealed up in a certain part of his life that he didn't like to look at or think about when he was with other people."

If you liked this try-
​*Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
*Life Drawing by Robin Black
Normal People by Sally Rooney
​The Heart's invisible Furies by John Boyne

8 stars