Day 8 – Highest on my TBR  I have to say Close to the Bone is the highest up on my TBR.  Ever since reading Jake Lamar’s memoir Bourgeois Blues  in December, I felt like I needed to try out his fiction, especially since they’ve been on my shelves forever and I just picked up my first in December.  Close to the Bone is written “In the tradition of Bebe Moore Campbell, Terry McMillan, and E. Lynn Harris, author Jake Lamar has created a riveting novel of three young couples whose lives intersect in curious ways. And the question that torments all of them: What is a black man?”  That last question has had me intrigued since I first read it.

Jake Lamar is an African-American writer currently living in Paris, France.  He was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. and graduated from Harvard University.  Lamar worked for six years writing for Time magazine.  He has written six novels including The Last Integrationist, and Rendezvous Eighteenth, mystery/crime novel, one memoir, short stories,plays, and reviews.  Brothers in Exile was Lamar’s latest play to be performed in 2013 at the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris, France.  It’s a play set in Paris 1950s which explores the complex relationship between Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Chester Himes.

My copy: Close to the Bone, hardcover 343 pages

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