Features

End-of-the-Year Contest 2025

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Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Good Dirt

When 10-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved, and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England, the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. When Ebby's high-profile romance falls apart without any explanation, she flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what's happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day 18 years ago --- the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor.

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Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

February 2025

I was a huge fan of Charmaine Wilkerson’s first novel, BLACK CAKE. So when I heard that she had a new book coming out, I was looking forward to reading it. I am happy to share that GOOD DIRT is another powerful work of fiction that spans generations. Charmaine has a beautiful way of telling a family story, filling it with emotion and history.

Ebby Freeman is at the heart of the book. As a young girl, she witnessed her brother being killed in a home invasion, but she holds back from revealing everything she saw that day. For years, she is looked upon as “the poor Freeman girl,” and what happened to her is whispered about. Ebby already stands out as the stunningly beautiful Black woman in her affluent, all-white neighborhood. All this history makes the pain of being left at the altar on the day of her wedding at her family home that much sadder. She stumbles through life for a while before jetting off to France to get away from it all. But even there Ebby’s past follows her.

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Week of January 26, 2026

Paperback releases for the week of January 26th include PRESUMED GUILTY by Scott Turow, which marks Rusty Sabich's return to the courtroom as he defends his girlfriend's son against first-degree murder charges; Walter Mosley's BEEN WRONG SO LONG IT FEELS LIKE RIGHT, an emotionally stirring and pulse-pounding mystery in which a family member’s terminal illness leads P.I. Joe King Oliver to the investigation of his life; GOOD DIRT, a moving novel from Charmaine Wilkerson that finds the daughter of an affluent Black family piecing together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom; HEARTWOOD by Amity Gaige, which takes readers on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time after a woman mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail; and Marianne Richmond's IF YOU WERE MY DAUGHTER, a powerful memoir about overcoming a mother's emotional neglect and finding the courage to reclaim the story of your life.

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