The MahoganyBooks  & Very Smart Brothas book club  is excited to announce our December book selection: HEAVY: An American Memoir.  This recently released book has been named a Best Book of 2018 by the:

• New York Times

• Publishers Weekly

• NPR

• The Undefeated

• The Washington Post (Nonfiction)

In addition to being shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal and Kirkus Prize Finalist.

About the Book

In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse.

Kiese Laymon is a fearless writer. In his essays, personal stories combine with piercing intellect to reflect both on the state of American society and on his experiences with abuse, which conjure conflicted feelings of shame, joy, confusion and humiliation. Laymon invites us to consider the consequences of growing up in a nation wholly obsessed with progress yet wholly disinterested in the messy work of reckoning with where we’ve been. In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.

About the Discussion

We invite you to stop by the store or go online to grab you copy for our upcoming book  discussion of ‘Heavy’ on January 4, 2019 from 6 PM to 8PM at MahoganyBooks, located inside of the Anacostia Arts Center. If you are unable to join us in store for the book discussion, we encourage you to join us online as we stream the discussion to our Facebook page.