It’s always an exciting day when Bonny and Carole and I announce the next Read With Us title . . . and today’s the day!

Our next Read With Us selection is  . . .
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.

Danez Smith, book reviewer for the New York Times, summarizes The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store this way . . .

The book is a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel. The story opens in 1972, with the discovery of a skeleton buried in a well in Pottstown, Pa. The identity of the corpse is unknown but the few clues found (a belt buckle, a pendant and a mezuza) lead authorities to question the only Jewish man remaining from the town’s formerly vibrant Jewish community. However, instead of a simple whodunit, the novel leaves the bones behind and swings back to the 1920s and ’30s, to Chicken Hill, the neighborhood in Pottstown where Jewish, Black and immigrant folks make their homes. It’s a community of people bonded together by the links of love and duty, and it’s here that McBride’s epic tale truly begins.

We think you’ll enjoy reading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. It’s a book that will make your heart sing . . . AND it’s also a book that will make your heart skip (and break a little). Mostly, though, it’s a book filled with hope. And we can surely use a bit more of that. Always.

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We’ll be talking more about the book and providing additional background information next month. Then . . . mark your calendars for our blog book discussions/Zoom discussion on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 (7:00 pm Eastern time).

Please be sure to visit the new Read With Us resource page (update coming later this week) for more information about the book and our discussion. (I’ll continue to update the page as Bonny, Carole, and I share more details and links about the book over the next weeks, so it really can be a resource for you as you read – or consider reading – with us.)

We hope you’ll be as excited as we are to read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.

C’mon along!
Read With Us this fall – and right through the holidays!