June Book Discussion

Hello Books & Brews! For our next meeting, we'll be discussing The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes. You can read all about it below, and if you'd like copies of the books we'll have some available at the Reference Desk of the James Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford.

The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes
April is a young mother raising her daughter in an intergenerational house of unspoken secrets and loud arguments. Her only refuge is to hide away in a locked bathroom, her ears plugged into an ambient soundscape, and a mantra on her lips: dead inside. That is, until one day, as she finds herself spiraling toward the volcanic rage she calls the white hot, a voice inside her tells her to just . . . walk away. She wanders to a bus station and asks for a ticket to the furthest destination; she tells the clerk to make it one-way. That ticket takes her from her Philly home to the threshold of a wilderness and the beginning of a nameless quest—an accidental journey that shakes her awake, almost kills her, and brings her to the brink of an impossible choice.

The White Hot takes the form of a letter from mother to daughter about a moment of abandonment that would stretch from ten days to ten years—an explanation, but not an apology. Hudes narrates April’s story—spiritual and sexy, fierce and funny—with delicate lyricism and tough love. Just as April finds in her painful and absurd sojourn the key to freeing herself and her family from a cage of generational trauma, so Hudes turns April’s stumbling pursuit of herself into an unforgettable short epic of self-discovery.

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*Due to Thimble Island Brewery's closure, our discussions are being held in the Blackstone Library auditorium* We're asking that everyone continue to RSVP if you intend on joining us so we can keep an eye on the headcount for the meeting. New members always welcome!