February’s Best Book Club Books

I actually recommended this to my book club, and it was voted on as our February read. Woo!

It follows Jessie Redmon Fauset, who is known as the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance” for discovering and fostering the growth of writers like Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen. In 1919, she was appointed as the new literary editor of The Crisis—the Negro magazine at the time—by its founder, W.E.B. Du Bois. With Jessie leading the way, subscriptions soared, and the literary component of the Harlem Renaissance started to take shape. There was just this one thing, though: she was having an affair with Du Bois, who was not only her boss and 14 years older, he was married, too. Harlem Rhapsody explores this long-held secret affair, as well as the racism and sexism Fauset fought through to forge a path of success and legacy for herself.

Adriana Herrera writes some banger historical Latine romances (also see: An Island Princess Starts a Scandal), and this latest one has us in Paris in 1889. There, running an underground women’s clinic, is physician Aurora Montalban Wright. What Aurora is doing is dangerous, so it’s no surprise that she eventually finds herself in a pickle—and has to then accept help from the infuriating Duke of Annan. She also accepts help into his bed…a few times, actually. And though they make excellent bedfellows, the Duke’s got his own problems as a titled Afro-Latine person that society is ready to judge harshly. As he starts to envision a real future for the two of them, complicated pasts rise up to muddy things.

Dr. Nadia Amin publishes an article on how rehabilitating ISIS brides is a possibility, which brings the UN to her door. They offer her a chance to lead a deradicalization program for ISIS-affiliated women, which would take her to Iraqi refugee camps and far away from London and the painful breakup she just experienced. She accepts, but when she gets to Iraq, she realizes that her being a UN newbie isn’t exactly well-received. There are also people saying how the methods the program uses are unethical. With everything looking bad, Nadia decides to visit the camp with her team—the lawful good (and annoying) Sherry, and Pierre, the perpetual Grindr scroller. Once they get there, Nadia is immediately drawn to Sara, a low-key rude young woman from East London. She’s determined to get Sara home, and the decisions she makes to overcome the obstacles could lead to consequences she never imagined.

This debut novel starts off in Ibadan, Nigeria, where a mother receives a message foretelling her daughter Amina meeting danger in America. Still, she allows her to go there to make a new life for herself. But then Hurricane Katrina hits, and Amina and her daughter’s soft beginnings are completely upended. This gets into Yoruba beliefs—both Christian and traditional—mother/daughter dynamics, and folklore. It’ll even give you a cackle or two.