A fun book that captures the carefreeness, sense of invicibility and freedom of being young, (semi) single and in living in a city in your 20s.
Story of Brooklyn before it became gentifried.
Alicia Forten was raised by a single mother in Fort Greene, Brooklyn but exposed to the elite world through her distant father and spending summers at Martha's Vinyard with her cousin Devon.
She lives across from up and coming designer La Garza who has a larger than life personality and rides the high of being the darling of New York City. La Garza also dated Devon previously.
Provides insight into being Black while in Finance and growing up as part of the elite upper class. As well as struggling to make it (and selling out) in New York.
Great characters and memorable story. I enjoyed Gonzalez's writing so much that I plan to read her novel Olga Dies Dreaming.
Kin by Tayari Jones, 2026
The story takes place in the 1950s/1960s in Lousiana of two girls born motherless in small town Honeysuckle.
Vernice is given the nickname Niecy, what her cradle friend Annie calls her.
Niecy's mother has been murdered by her father. Her aunt Irene comes back from Ohio to raise Niecy, fleeing back to Ohio once Niecy heads off to Spelman College in Atlanta.
Annie is haunted by the fact that her mother Hattie Lee is out in the world, leaving Annie with her mother to raise.
Annie flees town with her boyfriend Clyde from a neighboring small town. They are heading to Memphis where Hattie Lee's last known address is.
Their lives diverge as Niecy enters another world at Spelman, where she rooms with the wealthy and worldy Joette. She is all but selcted by a Spelman alum to marry her wealthy son Franklin where is enveloped in the world of a Housewife who gets her anger out on dust and joins groups where all white, with no breaks, is required.
Annie's adventures to Memphis are met with detours, with their car breaking down. She ends up in a relationship with Clyde's cousin Bobo. They live a simple and modest life in Memphis.
The women keep in touch through letters and visits. Despite their starkly different worlds, they remain each others sisters.
All Fours by Miranda July, 2024
How fitting I read July's book in July! Recommended by a friend. Story centers around a woman going through an identity realization (or idealization?) while peri-menopausal.
She takes off from her home in California for a road trip to New York City but ends up getting off at nearby Monrovia where she stays for the week creating a new life and world for herself while under the guise of driving cross country.
Her relationship with Davey is compelling and messy. When she retunrs home, there are fallouts from what she has discovered on her trip.
I liked how the story played out the fallout versus her returning to life as usual with either her or her husband changing and realizing they were wrong all along.
Despite compelling moments, it was more sexually charged than I typically enjoy reading and would have stopped reading it except that a friend whose book taste I share had recommended.
