From the publisher: "Situated in Ohio, a free territory before the Civil War, Tawawa House is an idyllic retreat for Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their enslaved black mistresses. It’s their open secret. Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars at the resort, building strong friendships over the years. But when Mawu, as fearless as she is assured, comes along and starts talking of running away, things change. To run is to leave everything behind, and for some it also means escaping from the emotional and psychological bonds that bind them to their masters. When a fire on the resort sets off a string of tragedies, the women of Tawawa House soon learn that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the most inhuman, brutal of circumstances—all while they bear witness to the end of an era."

Our Take My Hand conversation with Dolen Perkins-Valdez in MMD Book Club last year left me eager to read more of the author's work. From the publisher: "The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life. Madge was born with the power to discern others' suffering, but to mend her own damaged heart, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child. Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift. Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught in a desperate battle for survival in a community that years to lay the pain of the past to rest."

I've loved Dolen Perkins-Valdez's work in the past, especially her 2022 novel Take My Hand, which was one of my favorite books that year. I decided to listen to her 2025 release on audio, largely because Bahni Turpin narrates, along with Ashley J. Hobbs. Once again, here she takes inspiration from lesser-explored history that deserves to be better known. Happy Land is about the “kingdom” established in 1873 in North Carolina by a group of freedpeople looking to escape white terrorist violence in nearby Spartanburg County SC, where they lived. This kingdom named a king and queen, formed a communal treasury, and eventually purchased land spread across the NC/SC state line. The story unfolds in two timelines: the first follows Luella, Happy Land’s first queen, and the second contemporary timeline follows her descendant Nikki. The stories are linked by the ancestral line and also by the fuller story of African American land loss in the 20th century. Perkins-Valdez excels at making history come alive through her rich historical details.

A timely and gripping work of historical fiction loosely inspired by the real-life groundbreaking court case of Relf v Weinberger. In 2016 Memphis, distinguished Black doctor Civil Townsend prepares to retire. First she must journey to her hometown of Montgomery to make peace with the past and tell the truth of it to her own daughter. In alternating timelines, Civil reveals all that unfolded in 1973, when she was a young and idealistic nurse, stepping into her first job at a reproductive clinic serving Black women in her community. She cared deeply for the girls under her care, but grew alarmed at what she was called upon to do: administer experimental and perhaps unnecessary treatments to young patients without their understanding or consent. When the unthinkable happens to one patient and she is sterilized without consent, Civil becomes involved in a landmark lawsuit. A moving story and a testament to fiction’s power to influence hearts and impact lives. For fans of Kaia Alderson’s Sisters in Arms and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.