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✨ 5 stars #1. “A book with a title that ends in A, T, or Y”📕#ATYin52books #aroundtheyearin52books #audiobookstagram This should be required reading

Just finished this. I‘m speechless, angry and devastated.

#blackhistorymonth

First in-person book club read! This is a book I‘d never heard of before, but I‘m glad I read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this for our first book club meeting. Discussion is this evening.
Lutie is a young, poor black woman who is trying to raise her son, Bub, on her own & keep him safe from the influence of the Street they live on. Everyone in Lutie and Bub‘s life fails them and they have no chance even though Lutie tries to do the right things. This story will rip your heart out, stomp on it, then drag it through the mud 😢

Well-written with multiple POV narratives, this is a heartbreaking story about race, women, and poverty that reaches beyond the 1940's setting. I found the ending abrupt but well suited for the book. I definitely need to read more by Ann Petry now.

Started reading this book, and Ann Petry's writing just brings the scene to life so clearly.

Finally! I finally read this masterwork - first published in 1946! I love the scenic, emotional, and social detail that Ann Petry poured into telling Lutie‘s Johnson‘s story. In the introduction [to my 2020 edition] Tayari Jones notes that Petry was “a pioneer of the literary thriller, a genre popularized by her contemporary Patricia Highsmith.” Now I want to read more Petry, and try Highsmith for the first time!❤️❤️

Young single mother Lootie Johnson is forced to move into a cramped apartment on a poor street in Harlem (one of many) with her son Bub. Lootie wants to create a better life for her and her son, but is blocked at every turn. It's a beautiful, rich, heart-wrenching novel that exposes the endless, daily cruelties and terrible choices Blacks in America are forced to endure. Written in 1946, it deserves to be seen as an American classic!

Current audiobook. Written in 1946 but still relevant.

The fact that this book was published in 1948 is remarkable. It's a powerful story that lays bare the reality of poverty, racism and misogyny #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

I was not expecting that ending.

This is incredibly well crafted and I am so glad it is finding a resurgence of interest. I want to take this book and throw it at anyone who dates utter "bootstraps". The writing is exceptional, the characters drawn vividly and real. This should be a required school reading in the US.

New York City, 1944 — I‘m not going to say much about this book other than the fact it is about a single black woman and her eight year old son trying to make it out of her bleak life in Harlem. That‘s just the tip of a very treacherous mountain. This story will rip at your heart and drag your soul through the mud. You have to read it to fully appreciate it. I haven‘t read anything so gut-wrenching since A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

Lutie Johnson is an African American single mother trying to make a life for herself and her child in New York in the 1940s. This novel was published in 1946, and it vividly describes the New York of the time. Lutie‘s struggles with racism and misogyny are raw and heartbreaking. This one will stay with me for a long time. I will look for more of Ann Petry‘s work.

Grateful for recommendations from Litsy and Bookstagram that I don‘t think I would‘ve read otherwise. I‘ve already highlighted a dozen things and written reflections throughout. I‘m quickly attached to the main character & her son and want to see them succeed. And in that context, as I flip through Zillow or Airbnb and dream of a change of scenery, I realize how spoiled I already am for the comfort, security, and view from my own bed.

#7Days7Books Day 3

This was an audiobook I listened to a few years ago. I don't think it gets enough buzz.

My local indie had a member sale yesterday and I grabbed so many amazing books. My never ending TBR just got longer 😬

#bookhaul

Written in 1946 Ann Petry‘s novel, THE STREET, has themes and characters that felt very current. There is a pervasive sense of dread as we follow the lives of Lutie Johnson, her son Bub, Mrs Hedges, the Super, and Min on the 116th Street in Harlem. I kept thinking: “this is not going to end well” but I surprised, and saddened, by the ending.

I read it after THE WATER DANCER, and I found them interesting bookend reads. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5⭐️ A tragedy about what oppression, violence, and degradation does to the soul. Petry has amazing powers of description! It definitely seems like it could be adapted to the stage or screen, I wonder if it has been?

Jones the super of the building ...... *shiver* 🤭

Oh such LUSH writing! I am torn between continuing on listening to it or buying a paper copy. There is something wonderful about writing from the 40s.

Day 1 #7Days#7Covers #CoverCrush

Had to get this book because of the cover 😅

Thank you for the tag @thebluestocking @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @veritysalter

Sorry I'm a little late in this! 🙏

I'm not sure if you've been tagged or not @Klou @Crazeedi Pls ignore if you're already playing 😊

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Timeless and timely #blacklit

Long, but good. I had the audiobook.

I just realized that I met my goal! I edited it and added 20 more. Summer reading has been good to me.

Ann Petry became the first African American female author to sell a million copies with her novel The Street, a story of coming of age in 1940s Harlem. I want to read this soon.

#WheretheStreetsHaveNoName #WanderingJune

I read according to my mood, and this one isn‘t quite hitting the spot for me right now. I may return to it eventually when the mood strikes, but for now... bailing!

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Petry is not as well known today as Richard Wright, but The Street is just as good as Native Son as a work of African American social realism. It follows Lutie Johnson as she tries to make a life for her son.

There were men who thought Lutie Johnson was the #angelofharlem, but she just wanted to raise her son in peace. #winterwonderland @TrishB @Cinfhen

Finished this while running errands. Even though it was published in the 40s it's still relevant today, which is sad. Everyone should read this. Personally I'd love to see it taught in schools.

Here‘s a tip from our bookselling days: you know how certain types of covers get dirty looking? Use just a tiny, tiny bit of Goo Gone on a paper towel or cloth, rub gently on the cover and it comes right off! Good as new!
I learned of this title from a very passionate comment on a news article. It sounds like an incredible and criminally under appreciated novel. It‘s about a young mother raising her son in 1940‘s Harlem. Have you read it?

This book is so good, but it is devastating and without hope.

OMG! How did I not know about this book! I think it‘s better than Invisible Man, and it addresses misogyny and poverty, and racism without offering any easy answers. Please read this book! The audiobook is excellently narrated so read it or listen to it.

I started listening to this on my commute this morning, thanks to @RestlessFickleBookHoarder ‘s recommendation. The narrator is excellent and so far the story has drawn me in. I love the MC‘s inner monologues!

LOVING THIS!

My latest order from Thriftbooks arrived today 📚

All the spine stickers came off without any damage or sticky residue!

I was enjoying this audiobook while baking earlier, and then it suddenly stopped playing. The audiobook I downloaded before this one wouldn't play at all. I don't know what the exclamation point means. I sent an email to Libby support.

No audiobook to listen to 😭😭😭

Starting this audiobook

This is one of those classic I wish had been taught in my high school. Lutie is trying to raise her 8 yo son in Harlem in the 1940s. She is hardworking and smart but has relentless obstacles in front of her everyday. So many of the micro aggressions and overt racism in this book still resonate today. She gives so much backstory for each of these characters that it's hard not to feel for even the unlikable. Recommend if you liked Native Son. 5⭐️

Because they [white people] sensed that a black man had to roar past them, had for a brief moment to feel equal, feel superior; had to take reckless chances going around curves, passing on hills, so that they would be better able to face a world that took pains to make them feel that they didn't belong, that they were inferior.

The satisfaction she felt was from the quiet way he had listened to her, giving her all his attention. No one had ever done that before. 💔

All a mother's fears for her child circa 1946. I don't think that much has changed.

This has been on my tbr for over a year and I think I'm finally ready to start it! The story of a young black woman trying to raise her son in 1940s Harlem and seems to be a forgotten classic. The blurb from Gloria Naylor calls it "painfully honest and wrenching novel.... a standing ovation is due for this American classic."

Just finally started The Street! Buddy reading it and I'm sure the discussion is going to be great. #readsoullit

And while you were out working to pay the rent on this stinking, rotten place, why, the street outside played nursemaid to your kid. The street did more than that. It became both mother and father and trained your kid for you, and it was an evil father and a vicious mother, and, of course, you helped the street along by talking to him about money.