Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a powerful and eye-opening novel that addresses a disturbing piece of history. Set in 1973, it follows Civil Townsend, a newly graduated nurse who returns home to work at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic. Her supervisor assigns her to give the Depo-Provera birth control shot to India and Erica Williams, who are only 11 and 13 years old. The girls have not yet reached puberty and are not sexually active, which leads Civil to question the motives behind her assignment. When Civil later learns the girls have been sterilized without their consent, she embarks on a legal battle against the clinic. The courtroom […]
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What the Fireflies Knew
“The house is silent and smells like a mix between the old people that kiss my cheeks at church, and the tiny storage unit where all our stuff lives now.”—Kai Harris, What the Fireflies Knew. After her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit, almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice (KB) and her teenage sister, Nia, are dropped off by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing. The kids don’t know where she’s gone or if she’ll ever come get them. Over that sweltering summer, KB’s entire world is upended. Even her sister, always her […]
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
First published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God was out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to the initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist. It was reissued in 1978 and has since become one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed works of African American literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Starks, fair-skinned, long-legged, independent, and articulate, who sets out to be her own person—no easy feat for a black woman in the ‘30s. After three marriages, she journeys back to her roots, where her small southern black community buzzes with gossip about the outcome of her affair […]
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Amy’s April 2022 Book Reviews
Sheesh, will I ever catch up on my book reviews? I read some amazing books in April, and I’m thrilled to share my reviews. Here goes! The Progeny By Tosca Lee Emily Porter is on a quest that will take her to the secret underground of Europe and the inner circles of three ancient orders—one determined to kill her, one devoted to keeping her alive, and one she must ultimately save. The Progeny is the present-day saga of a 400-year-old war between the descendants of “Blood Countess” Elizabeth Báthory, the most prolific female serial killer of all time, and a secret society dedicated to erasing every one of her descendants. The […]
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