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Shades Book Club

February Book Club Reading

Take My Hand

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Newly graduated nurse Civil Townsend is determined to empower her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women take control of their futures.

But her first week on the job brings a shocking revelation—her new patients, sisters Erica and India, are just 11 and 13. Poor and Black, they’ve been placed on birth control without consent. As Civil grows close to the family, an unthinkable tragedy changes everything.

Decades later, as Dr. Civil Townsend prepares to retire, the past refuses to be forgotten—because history repeats what we fail to remember.

Inspired by true events, Take My Hand is a powerful story of accountability and redemption.

Sis Let's Listen Together!

James

By Percival Everett

When the enslaved Jim learns he’s about to be sold and separated from his family forever, he hides on Jackson Island to plan his escape. Meanwhile, Huck Finn fakes his death to flee his abusive father. Together, they embark on a perilous raft journey down the Mississippi, chasing the elusive promise of freedom.

While the classic adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain—storms, scams, and unexpected discoveries—Jim’s intelligence, agency, and compassion take center stage in a bold reimagining.

With sharp humor and searing insight, James cements Percival Everett as a literary icon and a defining voice of 21st-century American literature.