Posts in Book
THE HOLLYWOOD ASSISTANT by May Cobb - Booklist Review

Booklist | april 25, 2024

The Hollywood Assistant
By May Cobb
July 2024. 416p. Berkley, $29 (9780593546826); e-book (9780593546840)

Texan Cassidy Foster has dreams of being a writer, but it isn't until her best friend from college, Lexie, secures her a job working for a Hollywood power couple that Cassidy makes the big move to Los Angeles. The Sterlings, handsome writer-director Nate and stunning actress Marisol, are as glamorous as it gets with their beautiful Malibu home and tempestuous, sexually charged relationship. Cassidy, recovering from a recent heartbreak, finds herself drawn to Nate, and is flattered once he entrusts her to read and evaluate scripts for him, including a secret project he's written for Marisol to star in. But Nate is also plagued by concerns that Marisol might be cheating on him, and when he enlists Cassidy to start spying on his wife, Cassidy finds herself torn between her growing attraction to Nate and her genuine affection for Marisol. Cobb, whose novel Hunting Wives (2021) is being adapted for television, keeps readers wondering if Cassidy herself can be trusted once the growing tension between the Sterlings turns deadly. A wild and gripping ride.

BookDeena Warner
OFF THE BOOKS by Soma Mei Frazier - Publishers Weekly Review

PUblishers Weekly | April 23, 2024

Off the Books
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier. Holt, $27.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-250-87271-5

The character work is top-notch, as Frazier shows how Mĕi offers Anna the kind of support she wished her own mother had provided, and the narrative structure (each chapter recounts a different leg of the journey) creates plenty of forward momentum. It’s a fresh take on the classic American road novel.

Follow the link above to learn more.

BookDeena Warner
HATTIE MCDANIEL: BLACK AMBITION, WHITE HOLLYWOOD by Jill Watts - TIME 'The Most Memorable Acceptance Speeches in OscarHistory'

TIME | March 6, 2024

Historian Jill Watts, who wrote the 2007 biography Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, believes McDaniel’s place in Hollywood has been misunderstood. “She's an artist who's been resisting white domination with performance—up until she becomes involved in white show business,” Watts told Entertainment Weekly last year. “If you watch those performances, she's straitjacketed [by the writing], but she's trying to move her way out of that.”

Follow the link above to learn more.

BookDeena Warner
REDWOOD COURT by DéLana R.A. Dameron - Shelf Awareness 'The Best Books This Week'

Shelf Awareness | February 16, 2024

DéLana R.A. Dameron's keenly observed debut novel-in-stories, Redwood Court, paints a vivid portrait of a Southern Black family as seen by its youngest member, Mika Tabor.

Dameron's deep compassion and sharp eye for detail will leave readers wishing they could step through the screen door into Weesie's kitchen.

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BookDeena Warner
REDWOOD COURT by DéLana Dameron - New York Times 'A Child's-Eye View of Grandparents and South Carolina"

New York Times | February 5, 2024

This novel delivers the kind of choral experience that I have savored in books as disparate as James McBride’s “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” and Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge.” Reading “Redwood Court” feels like wandering down a street, stopping to listen to different voices, for better and for worse. At the end of that road is Mika, still striving to understand what she is made of but sensing that part of the answer is rooted in that chorus of voices.

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BookDeena Warner
REDWOOD COURT by DéLana Dameron - Kirkus Review

Kirkus | February 3, 2024

The youngest daughter in a Black family tries to understand her history and her legacy in this poignant multigenerational story.

Mika Tabor has to make a family tree for her history class, but as she tries to learn where she comes from a more existential question plagues her: "What am I made of?" It’s a difficult question to answer for Black Americans whose ancestors were forced to the U.S. and enslaved, but Mika’s grandfather, Teeta, tells her that in place of artifacts or records, she has the stories her family has passed down. The novel relays three generations of these stories in a Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, told through multiple first-person narratives as well as an intermittent close third person. The family lands in Columbia in 1948, when Mika’s great-grandmother “Lady” Bolton flees their Georgia hometown with her two children after the public lynching of a neighbor. About six years later, Lady’s daughter Weesie meets James “Teeta” Mosby at a vegetable stand and is instantly smitten; the two eventually marry and settle down in a newly constructed all-Black subdivision, on the titular Redwood Court. Despite the multiple perspectives, Mika is the heart of the novel, and the main timeline tracks her coming-of-age in the 1990s. Mika spends these years collecting memories and life lessons both trivial and essential: At one of Weesie’s summer cookouts, Mika begrudgingly runs around keeping food and drink in order while Weesie explains the merits of hosting; as she witnesses her parents being attacked with slurs, her father describes the importance of “pick[ing] your battle or your war.” Poet Dameron’s fiction debut is more a collection of snapshots than a straightforward narrative; the timeline jumps and the alternating points of view can be disorienting. Still, the scenes are brought to life by the way the author beautifully evokes the senses and focuses on intimate details, and the depiction of inherited trauma alongside profound love is powerful and moving.

Dameron argues that people are made of their stories in this poignant novel about a young Black girl looking for her roots.

Learn More about Redwood Court

BookDeena Warner
MY MOTHER'S TONGUES by Uma Menon - Booklist Review

Booklist | February 1, 2024

My Mother's Tongues: A Weaving of Languages.

By Uma Menon. Illus. by Rahele Jomepour Bell

Feb. 2024. 32p. Candlewick, $18.99 (9781536222517). K–Gr. 3

Sumi is a young child whose mother “speaks with two tongues,” smoothly navigating between Malayalam and English. Malayalam is her mom’s first language, which she learned growing up in Kerala, India. In school, she learned English starting at age 12, later immigrating to the U.S. as an adult. Her two tongues are woven together seamlessly: she speaks Malayalam with Sumi’s grandmother, a blend of both to Sumi, and easily switches to English with the grocery store cashier. Sumi acknowledges that everyone has an accent and that “every person’s voice is unique and important.” Other members of Sumi’s family also have multiple tongues. Sumi aspires to develop a superpower language tapestry of her own, which will allow her to “speak with people who live in every part of the world.” The textured mixed-media illustrations reflect the textile metaphors of multilingualism in the narrative. The visual depiction of language, including words and swirls as well as diverse facial features and cultural details, enhances the inclusive messaging. An uplifting story that promotes understanding and connection through language.

— Van McGary

BookDeena Warner
REDWOOD COURT by DéLana Dameron - TIME 'Here Are the 13 Books You Should Read in February'

TIME | January 31, 2024

The most exciting new books coming in February are easy to love and hard to put down.

Redwood Court, DéLana R. A. Dameron (Feb. 6)

Poet DéLana R. A. Dameron's tender debut novel, Redwood Court, follows a teenage girl in the 1990s. As the baby of her family, Mika Tabor has spent much of her life in the house on the titular cul-de-sac in an all-Black middle class neighborhood in Columbia, S.C. There, she grew up listening to her grandparents and parents’ stories of making it in the United States. Her family’s triumphs and struggles become her guide to navigating racism, sexism, and poverty as she comes of age at the start of a new millennium. Dameron is a native of Columbia—and her knowledge of the community shines through this portrait of a Southern Black family doing all they can to hold on to the American dream.

Follow the link above to learn more.

BookDeena Warner
REDWOOD COURT by DéLana Dameron - ESSENCE '16 Best Books To Consider Adding To Your “Must-Read” List'

ESSENCE | January 24, 2024

Redwood Court by Delana R.A. Dameron

Genre: Fiction (February 6th, 2024)

Redwood Court exquisitely paints a portrait of Black Southern life, and in her debut novel, Delana R.A. Dameron meticulously orchestrates a leading cast of characters that leap right off of the pages of this book! In this coming-of-age novel, readers get a glimpse of life through the eyes of the family’s youngest daughter. The writing is nuanced, succinct, and brilliant.

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BookDeena Warner
MY MOTHER'S TONGUES by Uma Menon - School Library Journal Starred Review

School Library Journal | December 15, 2023

NONFICTION
My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages by Uma Menon (text) & illus. by Rahele Jomepour
BellCandlewick. Feb. 2024. 32p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781536222517.

This framing is refreshing and will serve as validation to readers from multilingual families; it serves to illuminate multilingualism to those experiencing the story from an outsider’s perspective.

This story is an essential mirror and window, serving as a reminder that language is a superpower.

Follow the link above to learn more.

BookDeena Warner
REDWOOD COURT by DéLana R.A. Dameron - Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly | November 29, 2023

Redwood Court

DéLana R.A. Dameron. Dial, $28 (284p) ISBN 978-0-593-44702-4

Poet Dameron (How God Ends Us) makes her fiction debut with a gratifying collection about a Black family in South Carolina. The title story centers on Louise “Weesie” Bolton Mosby, who settles with her Korean War veteran husband, Teeta, in a cul-de-sac in suburban Columbia, S.C., in the late 1960s. While raising their daughter, Rhina, Weesie collects money from her neighbors to support others during tough times. In 1979, teenage Rhina gets pregnant with her older daughter, Sasha, and marries Thomas Tabor. “How Do You Know Where You’re Going?” follows Teeta as he dotes on Sasha and her younger sister, Mika, in the 1980s. “Thirty-first Annual Chitlin Strut” portrays the aftermath of Teeta’s death from lung cancer, when Mika, now in eighth grade, grows closer to Weesie as they learn about relatives in Florida. Later stories trace Mika’s coming-of-age as she contends with racism and financial hardships. In “Rollin’ with My Homies,” local reporters spread panic about gang activity in the neighborhood and the sheriff institutes racial profiling, while in “Independent Women,” which perfectly ties the collection together, Mika takes after Weesie by leaning on the family’s neighbors to raise money for her 16th birthday party. Even amid heartache and turmoil, this brims with joy. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders and Assoc. (Feb.)

Follow the link above to learn more.

BookDeena Warner