Welcome to Litsy!

Sneaked in another of @DebinHawaii recommendations for #auldlangspine2024 and I loved it. Heartbreaking story of friendship and family over the course of one summer in a neighbourhood grappling with poverty, gangs and it‘s actual eradication and the buildings are demolished. Powerful and both sad and yet optimistic. Beware numerous trigger warnings

I am in awe of @monalyisha ability to watch up folks for #auldlangspine. This year I have been paired with @DebinHawaii and I am so excited about the list. We overlapped on one and I have four of her selections already sitting in either a pile or on the kindle! But in true fashion I have picked the tagged to be my first read with a quick download getting me ready for Jan!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Told in the summer when Chicago tore down all the “affordable housing” (aka the projects) buildings, it‘s the story of a 12 year old & her three friends & how they are all affected. In the telling of all the fear & sadness, there is also hope.
The frame story makes it feel more like a memoir than a novel.
I‘m grateful to Wolfe & her immense talent (and Shayna Small‘s beautiful reading) for showing us these truths. Expertly done.

This book was so authentic! A love letter to my city—a part of my city that I‘m not that familiar with, but that I somehow still recognize. Deeply. Even my high school has gotten a shoutout! Such a heartbreaking, beautiful, raw, triumphant story.

Over the years, she‘s watched cute little kids grow up to become fiends or drink themselves to death, dying in their forties. She‘s seen descendants of her friends ruin their family names, one generation at a time. For Mama Pearl, it wasn‘t just about the demolition of iron gates and bricks; what had already broken her heart was the destruction of so many families over the years.

I saw @TracyReadsBooks post on this book and immediately decided to listen to a sample on Audible. I‘m. Sold! I‘m from the Southside of Chicago and—while I didn‘t grow up in a neighborhood like RTH—I recognize so much of my city! This feels authentic. This author *knows* Chicago. I‘m so excited to read (or maybe listen to…I haven‘t decided yet) it!

Book mail = my favorite type of mail!

Today‘s arrivals are the next selection for my irl bookclub and a little something to tide me over as the Light Bringer hype machine ramps up and we get closer to its release.

Short yet powerful coming of age story about 12-year-old (Felicia) Fe Fe & the last summer spent with her friends & family in the Robert Taylor housing projects in Chicago & how their lives were irrevocably changed. The writing is evocative & amazing especially from a debut novel. It isn‘t an easy read, (TWs for gang & sexual violence & abuse) but it‘s a good one & one I‘ll be thinking about. Tagged for fans of Jacqueline Woodsen for good reason.

This was my favorite book of the summer. At just over 200 pages, it packed in a lot of story & a lot of feelings. The story takes place in the summer of 1999 on the Southside of Chicago. Fe Fe Stevens lives with her mom & older brother in the Robert Taylor Homes. Before the summer ends, Fe Fe's life & community will have been changed forever. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Fe Fe is 12 and lives in the Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project in Chicago that is being gradually torn down. This details a summer of violence, fear, friendship, and the making and fracturing of bonds. It‘s a tough read but a good one.

I picked this one off the shelf to read while I pack up a bunch of other books to send home from vacation (I‘m not leaving yet but I‘m sending some bags home with my son to save on my car‘s suspension 😂).

LOVED this. Comparisons to Jacqueline Woodson feel right to me - yes, in the portrayal of Black girlhood and addressing very hard realities, but also in the stunning writing. This has an incredible Chicago sense of place that makes me want to read more about the history of the Robert Taylor Homes. And after this plus some previous listens, Shayna Small is now on my list of most loved audiobook narrators - she‘s just excellent.

This debut is important, but not easy. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#last-summer-on-state-street