MIDTOWN September 2026 — Nightcrawling, by Leila Mottley

📖 Why this book? 📖

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK • A DAZZLING NOVEL ABOUT A YOUNG BLACK WOMAN WHO WALKS THE STREETS OF OAKLAND AND STUMBLES HEADLONG INTO THE FAILURE OF ITS JUSTICE SYSTEM. THIS DEBUT OF A BLAZINGLY ORIGINAL VOICE

"BURSTS AT THE SEAMS OF EVERY PAGE AND SWALLOWS YOU WHOLE" (TOMMY ORANGE, AUTHOR OF THERE THERE).
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, TIME, GOODREADS

REVIEWS

• Library Journal * Publisher's Weekly
  AudioFile Magazine
  AWARDS
  Audie Award Nominee

Hard to find a book? Suggest a title or use Zip Books at your local library.

💠 What can I expect? 💠

We will meet in-person after hours in Time Tested Books. Front door will be unlocked, and staff will point the way.

💬 We catch up socially;
🧊 we recommend a book or author, and
📕 we start our book discussion at 7pm.

👜 WHAT DO I BRING? 👜

◾️A snack or drink to share
◾️$5 (cash or Venmo *8913)
◾️And you could bring your book 😄

✴️ Event Fee Details ✴️

The $5 is split between our access to this Meetup platform and our access to the meeting location.

You can venmo me (https://venmo.com/u/Rebecca-Bon *8913) or bring cash.

However❕We would never want you to miss a book club discussion because of the $5, so please message me if you have any concerns

(Heads up: Time-Tested Books can run a bit warm after hot downtown days like these. 😅)

Thanks, and see you all soon!

📚 ** BOOK SUMMARY ** 📚

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi.

Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison

But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent — which has more than doubled — and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling.
Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.