race relations – Reading While Fat

Guide Me Home

I’ve only posted one review of Attica Locke’s books here (The Cutting Season (2012)) but I have assiduously read everything she publishes. So I was looking forward to the final installment of the Highway 59 trilogy, Guide Me Home (2024), which follows now-retired Texas Ranger Darren Matthews as he adjusts to life in retirement andContinue reading “Guide Me Home”

Blood Caste

Blood Caste (publication date July 24, 2025) by Shylashri Shankar is an absorbing mystery set in 1895, and imagines what could happen if Jack the Ripper hadn’t been stopped in London but starts another killing spree in Hyderabad, India. Most fascinating was the interplay of all of the different royals and officials–both Indian and British–presentContinue reading “Blood Caste”

Wayward Girls

I was completely captivated by Wayward Girls (publication day July 15, 2025) by Susan Wiggs! It’s an epic story of friendship and survival despite the horrific conditions some girls in the United States were subjected to as recently as 50 or 60 years ago. As the book opens in 2020, we know that a fifty-yearContinue reading “Wayward Girls”

Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator

Another entry in the expanding Pride and Prejudice universe, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator, (publication day July 8, 2025) by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar, is a satisfying mystery centered on a minor character from Pride and Prejudice. As the book opens, Caroline Bingley is staying with her brother Charles and his new wife JaneContinue reading “Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator”

All the Sinners Bleed

All the Sinners Bleed (2023) by Anthony award-winning S.A. Cosby was a gripping, frightening mystery/ thriller set in rural, coastal Virginia featuring former FBI agent, and the county’s first Black sheriff, Titus Crown. Racial tensions are coming to a head, with local white people wanting to parade in support of a Confederate statue and TitusContinue reading “All the Sinners Bleed”

The Queen Bees of Tybee County

I loved The Queen Bees of Tybee County (publication date April 15, 2025) by Kyle Casey Chu! I loved meeting Derrick Chan, his best friend JJ, grandmother Claudia, and the new friends he meets in Heritage, Georgia. As the book open, 7th grader Derrick is playing in the championship basketball game as a point guard,Continue reading “The Queen Bees of Tybee County”

The River We Remember

I loved The River We Remember (2023) by William Kent Krueger, which was a selection for my library book group. I didn’t have any previous knowledge of the book or the author, but I devoured it after the last line of the prologue, which describes the story as how the channel catfish in the riverContinue reading “The River We Remember”

One of Our Kind

One of Our Kind (2024) is bestselling YA author Nicola Yoon’s adult fiction debut, so I was very much looking forward to it, and I was not disappointed. That being said, a quick scan of some of the Goodreads reviews told me my opinion was in no way universal–many people did not like it atContinue reading “One of Our Kind”

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

I was thrilled to finally get to read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (2023) by James McBride, as I’ve loved his writing since reading his memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother and the brilliant pre-civil war historical fiction The Good Lord Bird. In The Heaven and EarthContinue reading “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store”

The Vanishing Half

I’m late to The Vanishing Half (2020) by Brit Bennett, which was deservedly named a best book of the year by many popular news outlets, and was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Beginning in 1968, when one of the “lost twins” of Mallard, Louisiana, returns after having run away at 16Continue reading “The Vanishing Half”