As a former tennis player, I just loved this book. The author again (like in all her books) makes everything seem so real with all her research into the subject. Highly recommend!

Good book. Fun to read. Great characters. Interesting story line. Great anticipation. Excellent dialog.

My only complaint about this book, other than the amount of tissues I went through, was that while I was somewhat satisfied with the ending, it seemed somewhat abrupt in my opinion. Other than that, there was not one thing I didn’t absolutely love about this book. I fell in love with both the beautiful writing and lifelike characters. I sincerely hope this is the first of many books by this author because I found the writing both beautiful and profound. I particularly enjoyed the way the two storylines were beautifully interwoven. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone and won’t forget this book and it’s awesome cast of characters for a really long time!

Fences is a beautifully written yet heart wrenching story of a black man and father being so affected by the past that he can’t move forward, causing him to lose control of those he loved over time. Troy, the main character of the play, is in many ways scarred from his past. He works with his hands because his father did and he knows that a skill if the only thing the harsh world can’t take away from you. Growing up in the post-civil war time period and seeing the ways in which his father and black people struggled, he refuses to believe society will ever treat black people justly and allow them a chance to pursue what they love most. This is reflected in his refusal to sign a paper and let Cory, his son, play football and gain an opportunity for college. Troy can not fathom a world which allows black people to play mainstream sports and tries to prevent the pain before it starts by stopping Cory from playing. Resentment grows in Cory and with added issues of society’s treatment of his disabled veteran brother, Gabe, Troy begins to feel stuck and out of control with his life’s path. In doing so, he cheats on his wife, Rose, with a woman named Alberta and becomes the father to a girl who he asks Rose to take in. Miserable, and pushing away all who cared about him in his life, he becomes a stranger in his own home and begins his “fight” with death until he passes 8 years later. His impact on those around him (both good and bad) lingers on. I liked the story, even with us heartfelt sad ending. It is an overall great book!

I love learning new fancy words with Fancy Nancy. I also pretended that I needed glasses one time.

I read it all by myself. I love the princesses!

What a fantastic anthology of Black poetry that spans centuries! This book changed the way I thought and had a lot of wisdom, insight, and emotional moments. I quite enjoyed it!

I didn’t really like how mean the family was, but I though Amelia was funny!

This book was very interesting. It held my interest the whole time. I’d rate it higher if it hadn’t been predictable. That said, I’d recommend this book. I learned a lot.

Dark, macabre, subject matter, but so interesting and suspenseful. Ava is an extraordinary 14 year old: studious, compassionate, analytical, whip-smart—and very interested in death: how animals die, the rate at which they decompose, etc. She studies this with a scientific remove, yet also with compassion. During her clandestine studies she finds a the body of her missing classmate, and thus the story begins. This book is beautifully written, and the characters are complex and convincingly rendered. Unlike anything else I've read. Highly recommend.