Staff Picks: Chantelle Walker’s Favorites

This is Ear Hustle gives you an inside look into the humanity of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated. Nigel and Earlonne approach each guest with sincerity and an overall responsibility to share their truths. This is a book I am working on and looking forward to having it out there for the world. It’s on sale October 12, 2021.

You cannot help but love Ruby. It is in the complexities of her life which you find empathy for a woman who traverses the ups and downs of life while in search of herself. In Probably Ruby, we get to witness how Ruby traversed issues of race as a Métis woman, while also navigating love, friendship and adoption. This is the first Hogarth title I am working on, and I can’t wait for everyone to dive into this encompassing story. On sale April 5, 2022.

I picked this title up in the airport, I already packed a book but I couldn’t help myself. Something about the cover and the title drew me in.  An engrossing read based on one of America’s real-life scandals, the illegal adoptions organized by Georgia Tann. A few pages in and I could not put it down. I was invested in every stolen, kidnapped and sold child as well as all their families. Read this now, trust me. This read will have you hungry for the facts of this terrible time in history. But you won’t have to look far as you can learn more about the true facts of this scandal in Lisa Wingate and Judy Christie’s Before and After.

Any time a book is set in Brooklyn I’m intrigued, and Jacqueline Woodson does not disappoint. Red at the Bone is a brief novel that touched my soul. As a Black girl who grew up in Brooklyn, the familiarity leapt off the pages. I immediately understood how every decision we make as a Black woman, as a Black mother, as a family is affected by our race, class, gender, and our familial history. At times it seems like the fate of our entire being is hinged on the decisions we make during the most vulnerable points in our lives.