Tag: black literature

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Nightcrawling

Title: Nightcrawling

Author: Leila Mottley

Genre: Black and African-American literary fiction

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

Sometimes, NetGalley emails me books that it recommends. When I get those, I request anything that sounds interesting. This book fell under this category. I probably never would have read this otherwise. However, it’s now an Oprah Book Club recommendation, so I’m glad I got my hands on it. This book was just so beautiful and heartbreaking and beautifully written. I loved it.

From Goodreads: Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent–which has more than doubled–and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed.

One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

If your heart isn’t breaking for Kiara in this book, you have no soul. She’s just a child, taking care of a child, doing the best she can. She has the best heart but no means to do much since she is a high school dropout. You want so badly for her to find her way. And she does but not in a way that’s beneficial to her soul. You beg Marcus to step up and be the big brother. You beg the neighbor kid’s mom to see what she’s done to her son. And you beg those who love Kiara to protect her. Not only is the story captivating, the writing is beautiful. This is Mottley’s first book, but I will keeping an eye on her to see what else she creates.

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books and reading

Blanche Cleans Up

Title: Blanche Cleans Up

Author: Barbara Neely

Genre: mystery, Black literature

This book is the third in the “Blanche White” series. I haven’t read the first two, but I had no trouble following the story. I picked this book at random off my shelf and am so glad I did. What a fun story, and Blanche is just a great character. She’s strong and funny, full of love and sass. She has no qualms about eavesdropping and speaking her mind. You can’t help but cheer for her.

From Goodreads: Blanche White is a very black, middle-aged woman who cleans white people’s houses for a living. Tart-tongued and shrewd, with a keen nose for trouble, she’s also a queen-sized snoop – who sees at a glance what people are really up to – especially if it’s criminal. It’s been three years since she had to grab the kids and scurry out of Farleigh, North Carolina. Now they’ve all settled into life in the Roxbury section of Boston, and Blanche herself is feeling like she may finally be free to enjoy life – at least a little. But before Blanche can say, Breakfast is ready, she gets suckered into standing in as cook-housekeeper to one Allister Brindle, a Boston Brahmin politician, and his do-gooder wife. Blanche is quickly enmeshed in a festering canker of a scandal that moves from the Brindles’ house (a.k.a. Prozac House) to her own black community as she tries to figure out the truth behind the swimming-pool death of a young black man who knew a little too much…

What I loved about this book was that it deals with so many different topics in excellent ways. Neely doesn’t shy away from current events (even though this was published in 1998) like LGBTQ acceptance, especially within the Black community, teenage pregnancy, environmental issues, etc. Sadly, 20+ years later and not much has changed. This book could have been written a year ago and the same themes would have been present. Blanche is such a great character, and it’s not as if she’s an amateur detective. She just gets caught up in a terrible situation with people she cares about who she wants to help. She would much rather mind her own business (but still be in on the gossip) without putting her life on the line. If you want a funny, well-written heroine, this book is a great one. Maybe start at the first book, but it’s definitely not mandatory.

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books and reading

Transcendent Kingdom

Title: Transcendent Kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Genre: Black and African-American Literature

I read Homegoing earlier this year and just loved it. The story was so interesting, and the book was just beautifully written. I was just blown away at how captivating it was. And, although I didn’t love this one as much, it was still just such an excellent book. I had no trouble relating to Gifty and her struggles, even though I haven’t experienced them myself. Such is the talent of Gyasi, that even though I’m white, have parents who are still together, born in America, no family members with substance abuse issues, literally Gifty’s polar opposite, I could still get into her psyche because that’s what talented authors do. They create characters that anyone can inhabit, just for a few days. And Gifty will stick with me.

From Goodreads: Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.

What was most fascinating to me was Gifty’s struggle with her faith. I’m not religious at all and never have been. So seeing Gifty in a tug-of-war with her beliefs was interesting. Her soul is laid bare in this book, and at an early age, she’s forced to grow up. I flew through this book, but not necessarily to see how the plot unfolds, like with most books. But, I just wanted to keep spending time with Gifty and seeing her evolve. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Gyasi’s next book. Count me as a fan.