Largehearted Boy, founded by David Gutowski, is a website where literature and music are paired together. I created a playlist for my book, Daughters of Muscadine. Click here to listen!
Daughters of Muscadine Playlist
Weatherford Award! ❤️
Y’all, Daughters of Muscadine has been named the 2023 Weatherford Award winner!
Read more about the award here.
Books All Georgians Should Read
Proud to announce that the Georgia Center for the Book has chosen Daughters of Muscadine for their list entitled, “Books All Georgians Should Read.” Yay!
Book Lovers’ Social Event
I’m reading from Julie Otsuka’s lovely novel The Buddha in the Attic this Saturday, February 3, 2024. Hope to see you there!
My Author Interview at Focus on Fiction
❤️ Thanks to Nancy Christie for this thoughtful interview:
Last Summer on State Street
I’m about halfway through Last Summer on State Street and I’m enjoying it because of the honest narration and the wisdom of the adult narrator looking back on her harrowing childhood. It’s the story of a 12-year-old black girl named Fe Fe who lives in a housing project in Chicago with her three friends: Precious, Stacia, and a newcomer named Tonya. The story is set in 1999, and the girls’ apartment building is likely to be demolished due to neighborhood gentrification. The girls and their families dodge bullets and witness violence. Fe Fe has a brother who is into guns and is being recruited by a gang. Her friend Tonya is being taken advantage of by grown men, and Tonya has a drug addicted mother. Stacia is a gang leader’s daughter, so she’s seen as dangerous by the kids around them. The novel is heartbreaking and feels true. I know these issues can be triggering, but if you can handle violence, gangs, crimes against children, and poverty, give this one a read.
I’m listening to the story on Hoopla Digital, and the opening paragraphs drew me in. I love the sense of place and time and the fact that these girls bond over something as innocent as double Dutch. The characters are flawed, and I feel so much sympathy for them. I especially like Fe Fe’s mother, a single parent who stresses the importance of good behavior and deportment.
The author is Toya Wolfe, and this is her debut work. This is an #OwnVoices read.
The Rainmaker by John Grisham
This is the story of Rudy Baylor, a twenty-five-year-old who is just finishing law school and searching desperately for work. He has two cases before he can even get his law license: a silly one in which his elderly landlord wants to leave the bulk of her estate to a televangelist, and a lawsuit in which a poor family sues an insurance company that refuses to pay for their son’s cancer treatment.
I like Rudy, especially because he’s so down on his luck. He very much reminds me of how I felt in college: broke and desperate to make a good living. I do think the book is much longer than it should be. The audiobook is about fifteen hours long (!!!). I’m one of those people who hesitates to read a book longer than 300 pages or so. (I’d cut some of the parts about Rudy leaving his resume at various firms around Memphis. Those parts felt like they could’ve been summed up so that we could move toward the main action more quickly.) I think the book is mostly about the insurance company lawsuit. I see it as a story about poor, disadvantaged people vs. a corrupt business. Reminds me a bit of Erin Brokovich. Much enjoyed! 😃
Monic Ductan 