Opening line: "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist." In her third novel, Jones writes about the link between two African-American half sisters, one legitimate and one secret, only one of whom knows the other exists. That is, until the secret of their father's second marriage starts to force its way into the open. Rather than writing back-and-forth between two perspectives, the reader encounters almost all of one sister's point of view in the first half, followed by the other's. The result is an absorbing coming-of-age narrative wrapped in a complicated family novel. I already loved this book, but when we discussed it with author Tayari Jones in the MMD Book Club, my appreciation and enjoyment skyrocketed, as so often happens. I love to peel back all the layers of a good book.

Roy and Celestial are young, middle-class, in love, and "on the come-up," as Roy likes to put it. But only 18 months into their marriage, Roy is sentenced to twelve years in prison—for a crime he didn't commit. Roy needs Celestial behind him if he is to survive. She needs to cut him loose if she is to do the same. In his letters, Roy writes, "I'm innocent." But Celestial tells him, "I'm innocent, too." If everyone is innocent, where does the fault lie? This is very much a book about mass incarceration—and it's no coincidence that Roy is arrested, tried, and imprisoned in Louisiana, the state with the highest per-capita rate of incarceration, with a 4:1 ratio of Black prisoners to white—but there's little talk of issues. Instead, this is a love story, though one gone horribly and irreversibly wrong. This is a book you'll need to discuss once you're finished: be prepared for a lively debate among your fellow readers.

Tayari Jones's debut novel is based on the 1979 Atlanta child murders. From the publisher: "It's the end of summer in Atlanta, and fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison will discover that back-to-school means facing everyday challenges in a new world of safety lessons, terrified parents, and constant fear. Because it was the summer during which Atlanta's African-American children were vanishing. The moving story of their struggle to grow up and survive shimmers with the piercing, ineffable quality of childhood, as it captures all the hurts and little wins, the all-too-sudden changes, and the merciless, outside forces that can sweep the young into adulthood and forever shape their lives."

Tayari Jones's second novel centers around Aria Jackson, who as a child, lost her father and sister in a car accident. Years later, she's done her best to establish a life for herself. Until she thinks she is pregnant but finds instead that she is experiencing early menopause. At the local literacy center she works at, she is drawn to Keisha, a teen pregnant with her second child. Not wanting to tell her fiancé she's infertile, Aria claims to have lost the baby. But Dwayne's wish for a child remains. Aria watches as Keisha's pregnancy progresses, and Aria's life becomes layered with lies.

From Tayari Jones, author of the New York Times best seller and Oprah’s Book Club pick An American Marriage, comes an intimate, powerful story of two sisters.

Identical twins Amelia and Camelia Hall were born with the same face, and that’s about it: By the time the girls were through school, the matching set of names could no longer contain them. Now there’s Cam, whose contrarian streak led her to a career in law, and Lia, who followed more closely in her parents’ footsteps with her dermatology practice and married-with-children lifestyle in Atlanta’s Glenwood Park.

But the bond between the sisters is deep and unshakable - Cam serves as the maid of honor on Lia’s wedding day and as her attorney 15 years later, when Lia’s life and the lives of her two teenage daughters are rocked by divorce. And two years after her separation, the dust is finally starting to settle. But in the hazy glow of their first years of marriage, Lia gifted her then-husband a precious, irreplaceable family heirloom, and she decides that now, she must do whatever she can to get it back, starting with breaking and entering.

In Half Light, Jones explores the complex, profound bond of family, both the family we’re born with and the family we choose, against the vibrant backdrop of present-day Atlanta.

From the publisher: "Ten years ago, Cheryl jumped at the chance to send her son, Javonte, to an exclusive boarding school in New England - far away from Atlanta and the violence of the city streets. It was the American dream, or was it? Now settled in Vermont, Javonte is married and well-employed, but Cheryl hardly ever sees him, and when she does, her own son seems like someone she only used to know. So, when Javonte announces he’s coming home to Atlanta for MLK weekend, Cheryl calls off work, thinking this could be their chance to reconnect. But a few days before the visit, Javonte cancels his trip. After begging for the hours back at the white glove moving company where she works, Cheryl accepts a last-minute gig in her own neighborhood, cheered by the idea of a Black family moving on to bigger and better. But on her way to the job site, Cheryl learns the home’s occupants aren’t moving by choice. Over the next several hours, Cheryl must reckon with her own unresolved past in this searing story about family, race, and the lasting consequences of a choice that can’t be taken back."