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.

#LastSummerOnStateStreet

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The Rainmaker by John Grisham

Photo credit: Walmart.com

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! 😃

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The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel

I finished the whole thing in two days. It’s about a 30-year-old woman whose 12-year-old daughter is murdered in a park along with the daughter’s best friend. The mother, Eve, vows to find her daughter’s killer. She lives in a tiny town in Missouri where both her mother and her ex-lover are into drugs and hard living.

The one thing that bugged me about this one was that Eve, the first-person narrator, keeps a secret from the reader for about half of the book. She simply doesn’t tell us who her daughter’s father is, even though she knew all along. Aside from that, I found this book to be a fun read that kept me guessing. I especially liked the way the author characterizes Eve and her mother. Eve was really shaped by her upbringing, and that comes out on the page. I also appreciated that the book is so short (only about six hours long for the audio version). I despise when authors waste words, and Engel doesn’t waste many. An interesting, entertaining novel. Brava!

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Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

I re-listened to this one today. It’s told in simple language and has lovely descriptions (eg. A man’s deep voice compared to a well, the descriptions of Vermeer’s paintings). the story follows Griet, a Dutch girl who works as a maid for Vermeer, the painter. Griet must contend with Vermeer’s jealous wife and some other headstrong family members to work as their maid. She comes from a family led by a blind father who cannot financially support his family, and thus she becomes a maid at age 16. The story is set in the 1600s in Delft, a period I know nothing about. Most historicals I read are set in the 20th century. Give this one a listen if you have a chance. The audio is narrated by a young woman with a quiet and pleasant voice.

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