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Book Review: ‘Linden Hills’ by Gloria Naylor

She Lit Book Club Pick: Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor explores the rise of a Black suburb and how the residents sacrifice so much to live at the lowest elevation to flaunt their wealth.

The community of Linden Hills was created by Luther Nedeed’s “double great-grandfather” who has the same name. The rumor around town is the original Luther Nedeed sold his wife and six children into slavery to get the money to buy the hilly land that nearby White residents found unlivable. But the original Luther Nedeed set out to build a community that lasted generations with the current Luther Nedeed approving all the residents with a contract. If the residents fail to live up to the terms in the contract, then they’re asked to leave the elusive Linden Hills. But residents keep coming to the master-planned community the moment they amass enough money. They also try to get closer to Nedeed’s grand cabin and the funeral parlor he owns. If their home is closer to the man who pulls the strings in town, then they’re considered the most important residents in town as well.

The story follows two twentysomething handymen, Lester and Willie. Lester lives in Linden Hills proper, but on the edge of town in a small home that doesn’t meet the standards of most of the homes in the area. Willie lives outside of Linden Hills with his family in low-income housing. They team up to fulfill jobs around Linden Hills to multiply their money for holiday gifts, with Willie opting to stay with Lester the week leading up to Christmas. But something doesn’t sit well with Willie. He’s noticing the quirks of the average Linden Hills resident.

Willie and Lester work the wedding of the year of Winston Alcott, a rising businessman who feels he must get married to succeed in Linden Hills. Or that’s what Luther Nedeed is telling him. When Willie and Lester listen to Luther Nedeed talk on stage at the wedding, Willie gets a bad feeling about the man who serves as the face of Linden Hills.

The more jobs the handymen do in the span of five days, the more they come across Luther Nedeed. As Luther’s eerie presence marks the scenes where they work, the situations with the residents Willie and Lester are helping seem to worsen. Willie tries to make sense of it as he and his friend witness the ultimate sacrifice residents take to live up to Linden Hills’ expectations.

With chapters split into full days from Dec. 19 to Christmas Eve on Dec. 24, the book becomes unputdownable with easing into the narratives of neighbors weaved together through the eyes of Willie and Lester. We meet characters desperate to keep their economic stature in order to move on up in Linden Hills. The higher on the hill, the higher the respect, but in this case, residents want to move down to the center of the hill where the Nedeed cabin and mortuary sits. They don’t realize they’re physically being dragged downward instead of upward.

The downward pull is supposed to represent hell for these residents. They’ve signed their names to contracts to keep homes until infinity, but if they break any rules, then the contracts are nullified by Luther Nedeed himself. The book adapts the 14th century epic Inferno by poet Dante Alighieri, which depicts nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The Linden Hills residents are socially climbing so high that they don’t realize downfall is the only place left to go when the obsession for riches and power overcomes them.

A theme in the book is the absence of women. There are several references to funerals happening in Linden Hills of women and husbands who had lost their wives years prior. We meet Laurel Dumont, a successful woman separated from her husband. She summers in Linden Hills as a child who loves to swim with her grandmother. But the moment Luther Nedeed finds out Laurel’s husband has filed for divorce, he threatens to take away her home because it wasn’t in the contract for her to live in the home without her husband. Also an interwoven perspective is that of Luther Nedeed’s wife, who nobody ever sees because she’s trapped in the basement. Luther Nedeed carries on business in town and lies about his wife’s whereabouts, knowing that nobody will investigate further because of the power he possesses over the town and its residents. He creates a patriarchal society without anyone realizing it because they’re so consumed by their financial worth.

Overall, the novel gives us a chilling look into a fictional Black suburb built on wealth and how residents only care about accumulating more wealth to move closer to the most powerful resident. The characters are blind to their obsession with money and to their worship of Luther Nedeed. Author Gloria Naylor started writing this book for her master’s thesis examining the Black middle class at Yale University under the guidance of Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Linden Hills is a stark difference from her award-winning debut novel The Women of Brewster Place but maintains the narrative of a community making sense of the socioeconomic elements that went into its creation. The way she describes Linden Hills as a haven for Black residents is in reality a different kind of hell shows the duality of how we see our communities. It could be safe, but your life could be in danger because of other circumstances that you may have overlooked in search of calling a place home.



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what's lit

‘Passing’ Cast Members Discuss Differences Between Novel and Film in Netflix Book Club

Netflix

*Spoilers ahead! Read Passing, then check out the book review on shelit.com and watch the film on Netflix*

Netflix Book Club uploaded its first video episode in a series looking at the streaming giant’s film adaptations based on popular books. The inaugural selection is the almost century-old novel Passing by Nella Larsen that became Netflix’s most recent book-to-film adaptation that started streaming last week.

Now live on Netflix’s YouTube and Facebook channels, “But Have You Read The Book?” is hosted by Orange Is the New Black star Uzo Aduba sitting down at Starbucks Reserve Roastery New York with Passing film director Rebecca Hall and actors Ruth Negga and André Holland.

The film stars Tessa Thompson playing Irene Redfield, a Black woman in 1929 Harlem, who bumps into childhood friend Clare Kendry Bellew, played by Ruth, as they realize though they’re of the same race they are living on separate sides of the color line with Clare passing as a White woman. Based on the 1929 novel by Harlem Renaissance royalty Nella Larsen, the film and the book explores a toxic friendship where the two main characters wonder if the grass is greener on the other side as their lives unravel amid the fear of Clare’s dangerous secret becoming public.

Rebecca starts the book club conversation with what she says became stringing together her own family history with her grandfather being African American but living as a White man in the U.K.

“I grew up looking at my mother, thinking you’re a Black woman, you look to me like a Black woman, but that’s not in your lexicon,” she says. “It’s not how you’re talking about yourself. It’s not how you’re living your life because she wasn’t given that because her father was passing.” 

Once she read the book, she says she had a better understanding of the situation surrounding her grandfather and countless others like him.

“This book was a big turning point for me because I didn’t know that there was this word ‘passing,'” she says. “This was something that many, many, many people of color in this country did to get better lives for themselves.”

Passing, or assuming another usually racial identity based on appearance, became a pathway for people of color to pursue their dreams and unlock their potential, Ruth says.

“To be quite clear about passing, many times it wasn’t a rejection of yourself, your Black self,” she says. “It wasn’t a rejection of your Black culture at all. It was a choice to choose a path of access. Access to what we would call White privilege.” 

While her character Clare is considered the main one passing, the book unpacks the layers of Irene as a person also passing but in a different sense, such as a wife and friend becoming unstable when she believes she sees sparks fly between Clare and her husband Brian, played by André.

“Clare is obviously passing,” Rebecca says. “She’s gay when she needs to be. She’s straight when she needs to be. She behaves like a man when she needs to be. She behaves like a woman when she needs to be. She’s Black. She’s White. She’s this walking duality.”

Tessa Thompson, adorned in a Chanel choker, reads an excerpt in her taped cameo from when her character Irene notices the piercing gaze from Clare in the hotel tearoom where they reconnect. Irene is distraught the stranger—who she doesn’t know is her old friend Clare—could tell she’s a Black woman passing to gain entry into the posh hotel.

For slight changes in the film, Rebecca talks about how she allows Irene to reveal to her White author friend Hugh Wentworth, played by Bill Camp, that Clare is passing as White. It’s a dangerous move that Irene barely dodges in the book, failing to remove any suspicion of Clare at a time when she seems to notice Clare’s charisma suck the air out of a room and leave Irene envious. The book has Irene wrestle with revealing Clare’s secret, knowing she has the ante to destroy her friend while she also wants to protect her friend. 

Irene’s back-and-forth with herself doesn’t save Clare from her tragic demise after being found out by her White bigoted husband John, played by Alexander Skarsgård. As John bangs on the door of a party in Harlem full of Black guests, he darts toward Clare, calling her a liar. Clare positions herself in front of an open window to get away from John and closer to Irene, but the sway of arms somehow forces Clare to fall out of the fifth-story window and into the snow. But whose arm is at fault is a mystery in the book as well as the film.

“Nella Larsen keeps it ambiguous for a good reason,” Rebecca says. “She’s also pointing out that it doesn’t really matter because everyone is sort of complicit in something. And also whatever happened, Irene does feel like she was responsible.”

To sum up the story, Uzo says the phrase spoken by Irene when discussing Clare with Hugh about everything not appearing as it seems threads the film together.

“We’re watching characters who can exist and move through life in ways that might not be as they seem,” she says. “I think it was consistent with the larger narrative being told throughout.”

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what's lit

Gold House Releases Second Book Club List Featuring Asian Pacific Islander Authors

On the heels of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Gold House launched its second book club list on Tuesday selecting stories that explore identity written by Asian Pacific Islander authors.

A part of the largest nonprofit collective of top Asian and Pacific Islander cultural leaders, the book club list highlights works to emphasize this year’s “Resistance & Resilience” theme.

“Through the selection of books in our second Reading List, we will explore ways in which ‘Resistance and Resilience’ forges Asian American identity, particularly through the lens of grief, oppression, and cultural assimilation,” says Cindy Joung, Gold House’s Gold Records director, in a statement.

The book club list is as follows:

June 2021: Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner

July 2021: Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob

August 2021: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

September 2021: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston 

October 2021: America Is in the Heart: A Personal History by Carlos Bulosan

November 2021: This Is One Way to Dance by Sejal Shah

“At a time when many Asians and Asian Americans are feeling unsafe, unseen, and unwelcome in this country, the Gold House Book Club seeks to share stories that exemplify our strength, our contributions, and our multifaceted identities,” Cindy says. “Ultimately, we hope these books and our programming will bring the community together for moments of introspection and discussion while highlighting API representation in the literary landscape.”

The list was curated by Gold House’s advisory council of 22 API writers, activists, and professors, including celebrated authors Amy Tan, Helen Zia, and Viet Nguyen.

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what's lit

Beach Reads, Memoirs Dominate the Summer: July 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

With the impact of the anti-Black racism protests last month, some of the celebrity-founded book clubs kept the focus on Black stories as others chose the top books of the summer including reads perfect for the beach (if it’s open) and texts exploring gender and sexual identity.

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

The debut novel features a Palestinian American girl who is yelled at by a group of men for showing her legs on a trip to Bethlehem. The experience eventually allows her to tell her mother she’s queer as she moves to different spaces to find her true self.

“I rooted for her and hurt for her as she tried to find her way through one bad decision after another,” Amerie wrote on Instagram. “The main character, whose name is never revealed, stayed with me long after I closed the book, as did her hope for yet another shot at love.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

The Dragons, The Giant, The Women: A Memoir by Wayétu Moore

The author of She Would Be King and founder of nonprofit One Moore Book has a new memoir about her experience living through the civil war in Liberia. At five years old, she’s waiting to be reunited with her mother, who’s studying in New York, then her world is turned upside down with the war. Her family flees on foot from their home and get smuggled across the border of Sierra Leone, where they get a chance to fly to the U.S.

Belletrist, founded by actress Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss, also chose the Black woman-owned Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago as its indie bookstore of the month.

GMA BOOK CLUB

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

The Crazy Rich Asians series creator’s new book takes place on the island of Capri with a half-Chinese, half-White woman trying to fall for the well-off White man her family likes while avoiding another man, who is Chinese, she keeps suppressing her feelings for.

“It’s a summer escape full of travel, food, fun and fashion,” Kevin told Good Morning America. “The outrageous characters will make your crazy families seem almost normal.”

KAIA GERBER’S BOOK CLUB

Darling Days: A Memoir by iO Tillett Wright

Born female, the author comes of age in downtown New York with a young widowed mother and adopts the persona of a boy amid the 1980s “intersection of punk, poverty, heroin, and art.”
“In talking to him about his experience publishing this book, he taught me that writers who happen to be queer too often are dismissed as ‘queer writers’ and their books, regardless of the topics they cover, end up exclusively stocked on ‘LGBT author’ shelves,” Kaia wrote in an Instagram post. “Darling Days goes far beyond this—it is a story about neglect, creativity, internalized homophobia, and the beauty you can make out of pain. it is a New York story of growing up and out of the life you are born into.” 

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith

Rapper Noname picks Are Prisons Obsolete?, a book that calls for the abolition of prisons and how it will benefit society as a whole. The homie pick, Captive Genders, comes from Che Gossett. It studies trans and gender-queer people in prison with the most recent version including a foreword from CeCe MacDonald, who was imprisoned for killing a transphobic attacker, and an essay by Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army soldier who transitioned amid getting sentenced for espionage.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

This novel tells the story of a church deacon who shoots the neighborhood drug dealer point blank range in front of the community and the aftermath.

“In naming Deacon King Kong my latest Oprah’s Book Club selection, I am hoping readers will find in it what I did: sorrow, joy, resilience, humanity, and an understanding that while we struggle with pain and trauma, we can find shelter in one another—just as the characters in the Cause housing project in McBride’s Brooklyn do,” Oprah wrote in the Instagram announcement. 

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Jenna Bush Hager’s book club via her Today Show gig is one of the hottest books of the season. The main character is a new mother who hires a college senior as a baby-sitter. As they grow close, the baby-sitter’s relationship with the mother’s father-in-law leads to a betrayal.

“I wanted to explore American life in the pre-Trump years and sort of how we got here,” the author said in an article introducing the book club pick. “The book very much digs into the gig economy, the shrinking safety net and the notion that privilege takes many different forms.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

After the book club delayed its selection announcement in June, actress Reese Witherspoon directed her book club to make two selections—a first to recognize current events. Both books will be read over June and July.

“Elevating women’s stories is at the core of Reese’s Book Club. I love how this community champions the narrative for women and we are just getting started,” the book club placed in a graphic on Instagram. “Unity and understanding through the lens of storytelling is how we will continue these meaningful conversations.”

Readers expressed their disappointment in the comments over the book club adding a book by a Black woman author last minute and not pushing back the book by a White woman author to another month.

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what's lit

Recognizing Racial Injustice Delays and Defines Announcements: June 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd and the subsequent worldwide protests to combat racial injustice affected the celebrity book clubs with many delaying their monthly book selection announcements.

Most book clubs make the official announcement on social media the first week of the month, but some news on the latest picks came the second week of June and highlighted works by black women authors.

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

My Vanishing Country by Bakari Sellers

“In his unapologetically emotional memoir, CNN analyst @BakariSellers shares what it is to grow up “Black, country, and proud,” Amerie wrote in the book club’s Instagram announcement. “From the tragic event that helped to shape his life though it occurred before his birth, to his rise in politics while pursuing his education, to his dedication to not allowing those in his rural South Carolina community to be forgotten, to his personal experiences with anxiety, Bakari Sellers’ story left me amazed while also leaving me to wonder just how he managed to fit so much life into such a short time.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

GMA BOOK CLUB

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Actress Emma Roberts’ book club and Good Morning America‘s book club chose the same book again this month along with other major national book clubs. For May, both book clubs chose The Book of V. by Anna Solomon.

Belletrist shared that it delayed its announcement due to the civil unrest.

“We know we’re about a week later than usual, but we wanted to spend last week thinking about the ways in which we, as an online community, will be moving forward as we approach this seismic shift in our collective consciousness.”

“We have loved Brit’s book since we first got it a few months ago and are very excited to finally announce,” Belletrist stated in its message on Instagram. “Please stay tuned as we will have a more in depth conversation with Brit towards the end of the month, and look out for our weekly quotes, which are curated this month by this month’s author!”

“It’s a compelling read about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds: one black, and one white,” Good Morning America‘s book club wrote in its post. “It’s a powerful story about family, compassion, identity and roots.”

KAIA GERBER’S BOOK CLUB

Kaia Gerber shares book selections every week for her book club on Instagram, but she decided to give her friend Janaya Future Khan, international ambassador for Black Lives Matter, a platform on her account with over 5.6 million followers. She bookstagrammed a pile including Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Danielle Allen’s Cuz: An American Tragedy, which follows the author’s journey in trying to rescue her younger cousin who dies after incarceration for a crime he commits as a teenager.

 

“in lieu of book club this week, i am honored that my friend and international ambassador of @blklivesmatter @janayathefuture will be going live on my page. they have been such a leader and powerful voice,” she wrote in her post. “they helped educate me on understanding the weight of privilege and the importance of these protests—and they have continuously and tirelessly worked to give people an understanding of what the mission of Black Lives Matter means for this country and for this world.”

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Blood in My Eye by George L. Jackson

Race Music: From Bebop to Hip-Hop by Guthrie Ramsey

Rapper Noname’s book club had selected one book last month, a change from its two-books-a-month template, but the book club returned to two books due to what’s going on in the world now.

“I felt it was important to go back to our old routine of picking two books a month,” Noname said on the book club’s Instagram profile. “In addition to reading Race Music I chose Blood In My Eye by George Jackson. Books about revolutionary action and resistance are vital during this time.” 

Blood In My Eye was written by George Jackson, who died days after completing the book in 1971 at the hands of San Quentin State Prison guards during an alleged escape attempt. He was serving a sentence for stealing $70 from a gas station.

The homie pick, Race Music: From Bebop to Hip-Hop, is from the book club’s project manager Shakira in honor of June being Black Music Month.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

Oprah is finishing up Hidden Valley Road, according to her book club’s schedule though it may have been pushed back with giving space online for the current civil unrest. The book club has posted about anti-racism books to read for kids and young adults.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

The debut novel surrounds an ambitious Muslim girl from the slums who is accused of executing a terrorist attack because of a careless Facebook comment.

“I think books are a tool for empathy,” Jenna said in her announcement. “And now when we are stuck at home—and I definitely won’t be traveling to India this summer—this is a tool for all of us to learn more about the plight of people all over the world.”

“I started writing from a place of alarm and anger,” Majumdar told Today in the article. “India has been changing in frightening ways and growing more intolerant of minority communities, more extremist. I definitely hope that readers will see resonances in the U.S. as well.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

After the book club delayed its selection announcement, actress Reese Witherspoon directed her book club to make two selections—a first to recognize current events. Both books will be read over June and July.

“Elevating women’s stories is at the core of Reese’s Book Club. I love how this community champions the narrative for women and we are just getting started,” the book club placed in a graphic on Instagram. Unity and understanding through the lens of storytelling is how we will continue these meaningful conversations.”

Readers expressed their disappointment in the comments over the book club adding a book by a black woman author last minute and not pushing back the book by a white woman author to another month.

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what's lit

May 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

Singer and author Amerie will read Deacon King Kong by James McBride with her book club.

“James McBride tackles trauma, the Black migration, community, racism (of both Southern and Northern variety), and the perils of Growing Up While Black with subtlety and humor,” she wrote in her Instagram announcement. “In his deft hands, the exploration of such themes within a premise in which a perpetually drunk deacon shoots a teen drug dealer is not depressing or gratuitous, but intimate, funny, and full of hope.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

GMA BOOK CLUB

Emma Roberts, the actress and book connoisseur of Belletrist, and Good Morning America crowned The Book of V. by Anna Solomon as their monthly book club pick.

The book describes the intersecting story between a struggling writer in Brooklyn balancing motherhood and being a second wife, a  political wife who receives a humiliating favor from her husband, and an independent young woman in ancient Persia who may have become a sacrifice to the king in order to save her people.

“I think a lot of readers will find some part of themselves in this book,” the author tells GMA. Whether you relate most to the headstrong Esther, who does not want to become queen to Vivian Barr, a senator’s wife torn between following conventions and breaking free or to Lily, a contemporary mother of two struggling to figure out what she even wants, you’ll recognize and root for the characters in this book.”

KAIA GERBER’S BOOK CLUB

 

Rising teen supermodel and the daughter of legend Cindy Crawford, Kaia Gerber started a weekly book club in March. This week, she announced to her Instagram followers that she’s reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

She will discuss the book on Friday, May 15 with her mother on Instagram Live at 5 p.m. PST.

Since her book selection changes every week with Instagram Live interviews with authors and others in the literary realm, check out her social media channel to keep up with selections for the rest of the month.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Busy revolutionizing the book club model, indie rapper Noname’s book club usually selects two books each month particularly for readers of color. She chooses a book, which this month has yet to be announced, and the homie pick, the classic black revolutionary memoir Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur, which comes from Blake and Delency, the founders of People’s Breakfast Oakland.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker is still Oprah Winfrey’s book club pick, which was named at the beginning of April.

The biography of a family where six out of 12 of the children were born with schizophrenia and became a major source of research for scientists working to understand the genetics behind the devastating mental illness.

“This is a riveting true story of an American family that reads like a medical detective journey,” Oprah announced in a video. “It reveals the shame, denial, shock, confusion and misunderstanding of mental illness at a time when no one was really sure what schizophrenia was or how to treat it.”

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Through her Today Show correspondent gig, former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager chose All Adults Here by Emma Straub for her May selection.

“I loved it because I thought, on one hand, it was light and funny,” Jenna said in an article. “On the other, Emma Straub has the capability of writing in a way that explores these themes that are important and interesting.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

Actress and producer Reese Witherspoon picked The Henna Artist by Indian-born author Alka Joshi for her monthly book club.

This debut novel surrounds a teenager in India who escapes an abusive marriage and ends up in 1950s Jaipur where she rises as a prominent henna artist and confidante to the wealthy women of the upper class who could never know her secret.

“This vivid story is so rich and complex… reading about Lakshmi’s journey from escaping an abusive marriage to becoming one of the most sought-after henna artists in Jaipur captivated me from the first chapter to the final page,” Reese shared on her book club website.

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book reviews

Book Review: ‘Sabrina & Corina’ by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine is a brilliant short story collection surrounding indigenous and Latina characters in Colorado. From the first story to the last story, the book follows the lives of several women who are trying to keep family and history a priority.

“Sugar Babies” is the introductory story showing two classmates trying to care for a pretend baby made of sugar that brings up feelings for the girl who’s trying to develop a relationship with a mother who had abandoned her. “Cheeseman Park” has a young woman staying with her mother and meeting another woman in the same apartment complex who appears misunderstood by their neighbors as they bond in the nearby park. “Remedies” emphasizes how hard it is to incorporate blood ties into the family when a mother brings in her daughter’s father’s other child by another woman into the home and deals with a head lice problem that turns her life upside down. “Tomi” features a woman getting out of prison and bonding with her nephew while figuring out her new surroundings as the neighborhood changes. And the neighborhood changes also comes up in “Galapago” when a grandmother, being pushed by her granddaughter to move away, faces a home invasion. The namesake story, “Sabrina & Corina,” examines the dwindling relationship between two cousins and how one finds relative success and the other experiences the ultimate downfall.

The stories amazingly concentrate in the greater Denver area, showing the Latinx and indigenous female experience we don’t really see in fiction, especially from the perspective of an author who was bred within that culture. There is a struggle for the characters to remain in their homeland where generations before them had settled as they handle the gentrification, family, and discrimination. A consistent theme is the woman’s role in her family and how her relationships with her family dictate all her relationships. They are daughters, granddaughters, sisters, cousins, aunts, mothers, grandmothers figuring out their roles in their current situations.

Overall, the stories are well-structured and thought-provoking. I listened to the book on audio where the voices changed as if to give the indigenous and Latina narrators the opportunity, but it was unnecessary; one narrator throughout the book would’ve worked better to make the transitions more seamless.

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what's lit

February 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

Little Gods by Meng Jin

Singer-turned-book YouTuber Amerie plans to host the author at the end of the month on Instagram Live to discuss the novel.

“Quantum physics meets motherhood, love, and identity in this haunting portrayal of a daughter’s desperation to be seen and a mother’s desperation to disappear,” she wrote in the book club’s post. “@mengjinwrites creates characters who are at once vulnerable, caring, self-absorbed, and despicable, and through it all, utterly real. I rooted for them just as I was repelled by them; always, though, Ms. Jin put me so firmly in their heads, I couldn’t help but feel empathetic, even as I cringed.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan

“An exhilarating novel about a group of students who take revenge on a wunderkind professor after she destroys one of their own—a story of collective drive to create, sabotage, and ultimately, to love,” the book club copied from publisher Penguin Random House in its announcement email and on Instagram.  ⠀

GMA BOOK CLUB

Good Morning America’s book club hasn’t named its February title yet. It’s celebrating Black History Month with a Feb. 19 appearance by Tomi Adeyemi of Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance fame; Kiley Reid of Such a Fun Age; and award-winning young adult novelist Jason Reynolds.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker

“I’m so excited to start black history month by honoring two incredible black women. trust me you definitely want to read with us for the month of february!” rapper Noname tweeted when quote tweeting her book club’s two picks. She also reminded her followers to shop local bookstores, preferably black-owned, and avoid Amazon.com.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its controversial January book, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, which added a spark to the conversation around diversity in publishing.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

“It’s about this young girl, Adunni, whose voice, from the time she is born, is strong, loud and clear but because of where she is born and the circumstances of her life, she doesn’t yet know how to use it,” said Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager in an article.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

“The story centers around Emmeline, a young girl who lives on a remote island with her father and uncovers secrets of the natural world through her senses,” Hollywood bookwoman Reese Witherspoon’s book club explained on Instagram. “As she gets older, she becomes even more curious about the scents in the drawers of their cabin.”

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January 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel Jose Older

“At times funny and at times somber, I couldn’t stop turning the pages, waiting to learn more about Marisol and Ramón’s intertwined past and present,” singer and literary influencer Amerie wrote in an Instagram post, adding that the author will join her for the end-of-the-month live chat.

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

Creatures by Crissy Van Meter

“On the eve of Evangeline’s wedding, on the shore of Winter Island, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, the groom may be lost at sea, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue,” the book club co-founded by actress Emma Roberts posted on Instagram. “We can’t wait for you to read along!”

GMA BOOK CLUB

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

“‘Long Bright River’ is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate,” Good Morning America posted in its latest book announcement.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Die Nigger Die! by H. Rap Brown

Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

The book club serving readers of color founded by rapper Noname announced on Twitter Noname chose Sabrina & Corina and the book club’s “homie pick” of Die Nigger Die! came from journalist Najma Sharif. The books can be found in the club’s partner bookstores or libraries.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its December book, Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

“I choose ‘Dear Edward’ because it is a book about love and loss and finding your way after the unthinkable,” said Jenna Bush Hager on Today. “I thought to start our year off, even though hopefully nothing this dramatic happens in everyone’s life, we can all think about a new lease on life.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

“You’ll follow a young women’s journey of self-discovery after she’s wrongfully accused of kidnapping a child,” Reese Witherspoon and her book club wrote in Instagram posts. “This story is a beautiful conversation starter about race, privilege, work dynamics.”