Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

This discussion thread is to mark your completion of the June challenge to fulfill prompt #10. An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner. Honoring
Juneteenth on June 19, 2022! (aka African American Freedom Day or Emancipation Day)
This award "recognizes books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity."

Please include the following:

Title:
Author:
Would you recommend this book?

Title: Deacon King Kong
Author: James McBride
Would you recommend this book?
Yes. It took a bit to get into but, it picks up later.

Title: Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir
Author: Natasha Trethewey
Would you recommend this book? Yes.

Title: On Beauty
Author: Zadie Smith
Would you recommend this book? Yes, as long as you are a reader who's ok with literary fiction that kind of rambles around a bit. I wondered more than once where the story was going and found it shifted in tone. Maybe it was the mood I was in when I was reading it though. There was one plot point that I wasn't crazy about, but I liked the book overall.

Title: Obit
Author: Victoria Chang
Would you recommend this book?
Not really. The initial concept of how Chang used obits was a great idea but nothing was in any understandable order, at least to me. I also did not like that the poetry form completely switched in the middle.

Lynn wrote: "This discussion thread is to mark your completion of the June challenge to fulfill prompt #10. An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner. Honoring
Juneteenth on June 19, 2022! (aka African American Free..."

Title: Beloved
Author: Toni Morrison
Would you recommend this book? Mmmmm...It was an O.k. book. It was a difficult read but I guess worth a shot.

Title: Sing, Unburied, Sing
Author: Jesmyn Ward
Would you recommend this book? Yes, but I think you need to be in the right place to read this story. It was a difficult read but I thought it was an important one.

Title: Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Would you recommend this book? Yes but with content warning

Title: Wade in the Water: Poems
Author: Tracy K. Smith
Would you recommend this book? Yes. I admit, I'm biased - I'm a fan of the work of Tracy K. Smith. This is especially moving. Give yourself time to read and ponder; it's worth it.

Title: Beloved
Author: Toni Morrison
Recommend: This book would definitely not be for everyone. While I know a few people who might like it, I know just as many who would not. The principal reason I myself finished was because I wanted it for this prompt.

Title: The Trees
Author: Percival Everett
Would you recommend this book? Certainly not to everyone, it's a hard little book to figure out.