An American Marriage

Solid book from start to finish. Tayari Jones does an exceptional job breathing life into her incredibly flawed and incredibly real characters. One year into their marriage Roy is committed of a crime he did not do and sentenced to 12 years. He and his wife Celestial try to make it work, but she has a budding business and he is incarcerated. Love isn't easy, but what about a marriage in its infancy can it survive years behind bars? Heart wrenching, gritty, and real, this novel told through multiple perspectives and letters demands to be felt. Can every marriage be saved? Roy and Celestial's marriage isn't perfect, but is there enough love left to salvage? I didn't love either character, but I chafed at the wrongful imprisonment, and I wanted so badly for the two of them to rise above their predicament.

The Hate U Give

A powerful young adult book that has never been more relevant. Starr Carter too black for her white school and too white for her black neighborhood. She's constantly in the middle, afraid to let be too this or too that in front of certain people. That all begins to change one day when she and her friend are leaving a party and get pulled over. What happens next will haunt Starr forever, the white cop shoots her friend dead AND GETS AWAY WITH IT. Obviously this kind of injustice is in the media a lot which makes this book more timely then ever. Words can't describe how much I love this book and it's empowering message. Starr starts to find her voice not only to the media, but to her friends, family, white boyfriend, and classmates. This should be required reading. It's timely, impossible to put down (I read the book from cover to cover yesterday morning), and gives the disenfranchised youth a voice. Beautiful, haunting, and riveting.