nomadreader

The backstory: Leaving Atlanta  is the first novel by Tayari Jones. After adoring her most recent novel, Silver Sparrow  ( my review ), I finally got around to reading this one ("finally getting around to reading" was the theme of much of my holiday break binge-reading!) The basics: Told in three parts from the perspective of three black middle school students in southwest Atlanta, Leaving Atlanta  takes place at the time of the notorious Atlanta Child Murders. My thoughts: I spent almost half my life in Atlanta (although I'm getting farther away from that every year!) Regardless, I've lived more years in Atlanta than in any other city, and I've been fascinated by the Atlanta Child Murders since I first heard of them. Jones introduces the reader to this time through three different child narrators. Each of the three takes one section, although the sections frequently reference the other narrators. I have mixed reactions to this storytelling approach. Typical...

The backstory:   Silver Sparrow, the third novel by Tayari Jones,   is the winner of this year's Indie Lit Awards  for Fiction. It is such a joy to finally tell you all how much I loved this novel. As a judge for the Indie Lit Awards, I've been under a gag order until the winner was announced, and it was killing me to not share this novel with you, even before we all voted it the winner. Also, for the first time in my organized reading life, the novel I wanted to win from the shortlist won. It's a nice feeling. The basics: This novel tells the story of James Witherspoon's family in 1980's Atlanta. Witherspoon is a bigamist with two wives who each have one daughter. My thoughts: I adored this novel from the beginning. It begins with Dana narrating. Dana's mother married James when she became pregnant, even though she knew he was already married. Dana has always known of her father's first wife and first daughter, Chaurisse. As a teenager, she has to wait ...