Rereading this for the first time in about 20 years. Still delightful!

I randomly picked this because it was a lucky day book at the library (and it was short), but it ended up being perfect for this moment in my life! I'm currently halfway through my 2020 goal of buying no clothing or shoes, and not eating out except for special occasions (greatly helped by covid19), which I decided to do for much the same reason as Cait decided to do her year of less. A lot of what she said resonated with me, especially when it game to being able to do things that she didn't think she could do before because she'd cut out so much of her frivolous spending.

This was such an amazing story, chronicling the life and times of Macon "Milkman" Dead, a man who couldn't quite figure out his place in the world. It felt like a folk tale and a soap opera all at once.

This novel is hard to describe. It's deceptively simple, and wonderfully complex, an interrogation of what family means, what it means to be an individual, what it means to be without dignity. Who do you become? What do you do? What is significant in your life?

A must-read.

This was hilarious and adorable. Looking forward to more in this series!

Small but mighty. Poetic.

I really enjoyed hearing Alicia in her own words. I always forget just how young she was when she started her career, and just how successful she's been along the way.

Such an important read giving context to the role of armed self-defense as a complement to nonviolent tactics during the civil rights movement. This book shines a light on just how awful racism in the south was in the 1940s/50s/60s, and how organizations such as SNCC, CORE and SCLC empowered local Black folks to stand up for themselves and push harder against the status quo. It also provided historical context for the sociopolitical landscape of the south, framing the civil rights movement in that context, and highlighting the ways that this history has been largely whitewashed and sanitized.

I picked this up on a whim and I was not disappointed. A novel that takes a sideways approach to climate change, with alternating viewpoints from narrators David and Signe, set 34 years apart, Signe in the present day, and David in the future. It was interesting to see how their stories unfold and intersect. This story is not for folks who like a nice neat ending though: there are many questions left unanswered by the author.