08/21/2026
What’s New On My Bookshelf ✨
Some publisher mail and books I picked up over the last couple weeks.
Thank you to each publisher/author for the gifted books
Friends and Family by Natalie Baszile
From the author of Queen Sugar, a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs on race, identity and allyship, especially when it comes to their teenage children
Babs and Nora became friends thanks to their kids. Now, the desire to protect their children might tear them apart.
Thank you
I’m looking forward to reading this classic
Beetlecreek by William Demby
After several years of seclusion in the Black quarter of Beetlecreek, West Virginia, in the precarious 1930s, a retired carnival worker named Bill Trapp strikes up a chance friendship with Johnny Johnson, a Pittsburgh teenager transplanted into his uncle’s home. Bill is white. Johnny is Black. Both are searching for something that will give meaning to their lives. While Bill tries to court favor in the community, Johnny joins a local gang; meanwhile, their new friendship kindles hope that there is something for each of them beyond the bounds of Beetlecreek. But as the church society’s Fall Festival approaches, the battle between the repressive town and the aspirations of its trapped inhabitants comes to a nail-biting head.
Thank you Vintage Books for a copy!
I grabbed this one not too long ago. I want to read this one this year.
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
Marooned in an apartment that overflows with mementos from the past, 91-year-old Ptolemy Grey is all but forgotten by his family and the world. But when an unexpected opportunity arrives, everything changes for Ptolemy in ways as shocking and unanticipated as they are poignant and profound.
I looveeeddd this book and so grateful that Brea Baker 💕💚 sent me a copy.
I need to sit down and record a review on this and annotate now that I have a physical copy.
Rooted by Brea Baker
To understand the contemporary racial wealth gap, we must first unpack the historic attacks on Indigen
