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Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings

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Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & WritingsReview Quotes: A People, Amazon, Seattle Public Library, Read Between the Spines, Ms. Magazine, Goode Reader, Bookstr, and Publishers Lunch, "Book of the Month" * A Publishers Weekly, BookPage, BookRiot, The Millions, Medium Loc'D Booktician, Read Between the Spines, and Flyleaf Books "Most Anticipated" * A Washington Post, AARP, Garden & Gun, Literary Hub, Vulture, Zibby Owens, Atlanta Journal Constituion, Eagle Harbor Books, Deep South Magazine, She

Review Quotes:

A People, Amazon, Seattle Public Library, Read Between the Spines, Ms. Magazine, Goode Reader, Bookstr, and Publishers Lunch, "Book of the Month" * A Publishers Weekly, BookPage, BookRiot, The Millions, Medium Loc'D Booktician, Read Between the Spines, and Flyleaf Books "Most Anticipated" * A Washington Post, AARP, Garden & Gun, Literary Hub, Vulture, Zibby Owens, Atlanta Journal-Constituion, Eagle Harbor Books, Deep South Magazine, She Reads, and Tertulia "Book to Read this Summer" --

"Deftly moving between sharp critique and an intimate, confessional tone, this astonishes." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"I would follow Jeffers's voice anywhere. Her wide-ranging symphony of essays on Black womanhood is a treat -- incisive, intellectual, intimate, funny, and formally inventive. I felt like I was listening to a brave yet vulnerable big sister riff blazingly on topics of history, family, politics and culture. Above all, she writes with a poet's heart." -- Emily Raboteau, author of Lessons for Survival

"The poet 'shall draw us in with love and terror' and help us see more clearly our own times. Honorée Jeffers has done exactly that with this extraordinary collection of essays and writings. Sit with this book, revel in its use of language, struggle with the ideas, acknowledge that something intimate and vulnerable is happening on the page, and witness the expansiveness of Jeffers's imagination." -- Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For

"The work of Honorée's mother, Dr. Trellie James Jeffers, has long inspired me, guided me, made me feel things familiar, and question the familiar. Honorée's pen is as sharp as her mother's and just as instructive. Yet different somehow still. With a poetic voice all her own, she holds our hands and ushers us (back) to places familiar, places forgotten -- to the crossroads." -- Yaba Blay, author of One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race

"Once again Jeffers reveals her genius for plumbing the depth and complexity of Black women's lives. With compassion, rigor, and great beauty, she unveils the tensions that circumscribe public understanding of our womanhood while challenging the larger culture and us to see ourselves in the full flowering of our gendered humanity. A personal, moving, and revelatory tour de force of understanding, care, and analysis. And like always, Honorée leaves me wanting more. Brava!" -- Blair LM Kelley, Ph.D., author of Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class

"Jeffer's nonfiction debut is incisive and necessary reading." -- People

"Equal parts memoir, history, polemic and poetry... There's a difference between being at a crossroads--weighing an important decision at a crucial moment--and being at the crossroads: a fabled space in the Black diasporic tradition where powers can be granted, whisked away or reclaimed by the spirit world, sometimes for the price of a soul. With her nonfiction debut, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers comfortably inhabits this mythic juncture, telling the stories of Black women in her genealogy with a literary style that joyfully resists easy categorization."
-- New York Times Book Review

"Jeffers had a breakout hit in 2021 with her novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, one of The Post's 10 Best Books that year. Her new collection of essays is animated by the same capacious interest in the history of Black women, from colonial times and earlier up to the present day. Some of the book's most powerful writing is about her own family." -- Washington Post, "30 books to read this summer"

"Jeffers made a monumental pivot to fiction with 2021's centuries-spanning epic, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. Though certainly a leap, her debut novel continued what has become something of a career-long project for her, foregrounding the stories of heroic Black women. Now, Jeffers is carrying that project forward in still another mode, turning to personal and political essays to reflect on the complicated -- at times seemingly impossible -- position that Black women like her occupy in a culture determined to reduce them to virtually anything but themselves." -- NPR

"There is power in these writings....(Jeffers) will continue to misbehave, and we are all the better for it." -- Medium

"Part personal writing, part historical examination, this is a thought-provoking work threaded through with Jeffers' poetic style." -- BookRiot

"A poetic meditation on intersectionality... Jeffer's ability to infuse words with emotion inspires more than a few goose bumps.... one can only anticipate how the crossroads of her imagination and lived experiences will shape her next work of fiction." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Stunning." -- People, Top 10 Books of the Year, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is epic in its scope. [It] traces the story of a family, the town in Georgia where they come from, and their migration outward over generations. The word epic is overused these days, but this book was meant to be an epic and it is. . . . This is one of the most American books I have ever read. It's a book about the United States. It's a book about the legacy of slavery in this country. . . . And it's also a book about traumas and loves that sustain over generations." -- Noel King, NPR, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"Triumphant. . . . Quite simply the best book that I have read in a very, very long time. . . . An epic tale of adventure that brings to mind characters you never forget: Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time, Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn. . . . The historical archives of Black Americans are too often filled with broad outlines of what happened. . . . One of the many triumphs of Love Songs is how Jeffers transforms this large history into a story that feels specific and cinematic in the telling. . . . Just as Toni Morrison did in Beloved, Jeffers uses fiction to fill in the gaping blanks of those who have been rendered nameless and therefore storyless. . . . A sweeping, masterly debut." -- Veronica Chambers, New York Times Book Review, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"A feat of beauty and breadth." -- Time, 100 Must-Read Books of the Year, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"Whatever must be said to get you to heft this daunting debut novel by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, I'll say, because The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is the kind of book that comes around only once a decade. Yes, at roughly 800 pages, it is, indeed, a mountain to climb, but the journey is engrossing, and the view from the summit will transform your understanding of America. . . . With the depth of its intelligence and the breadth of its vision, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is simply magnificent." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"Stupendously good. . . . Jeffers' renditions of Black family traditions and the burden of respectability politics are spot-on, and made me wish the book was even longer." -- Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR Best Books of the Year

"A sweeping matriarchal epic that leads readers through a majestic tour of race, family, and love in America, this striking debut novel by an award-winning poet is, indeed, the Great American Novel at its finest." -- Joshunda Sanders, Boston Globe's Best Books of the Year, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"For me, this doesn't take much thought. It is THE novel of the year. This astonishing work is the first fiction by a writer whose poetry collections are profound and beautiful. In this book, a young woman follows her family history into the recesses of slavery in America. The young woman is a historian, so we are following her into her stunning access to the documentation of her family's capture and beyond, to the present." -- Michael Silverblatt, KCRW's Top 10 Books of the Year

"With The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, Jeffers has created an opus, an indelible entry to the canon of contemporary American literature and one of the foundational fictional texts of Black literature worthy of sitting alongside Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing." -- Latria Graham, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

"If you read one book this year, choose this one. I went to bed thinking of Ailey Pearl Garfield and woke up thinking of her. With the arrival of this epic novel of family, race, and ancestral legacy, one of America's finest poets has announced herself as a storyteller of the highest magnitude. Absolutely brilliant." -- Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench and Balm

"As one of the most prolific poets of our time, Jeffers has penned a family saga that is just as brilliant as it is necessary, just as intimate as it is expansive. An outstanding portrait of an American family and in turn, an outstanding portrait of America." -- Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give

"This sweeping, brilliant and beautiful narrative is at once a love song to Black girlhood, family, history, joy, pain . . . and so much more. In Jeffers's deft hands, the story of race and love in America becomes the great American novel." -- Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone and Another Brooklyn



Brief Description:
"The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois and The Age of Phillis makes her nonfiction debut with this personal and thought-provoking work that explores the journeys and possibilities of Black women throughout American history and in contemporary times"-- Provided by publisher.

Publisher Marketing:

The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois and The Age of Phillis makes her nonfiction debut with this personal and thought-provoking work that explores the journeys and possibilities of Black women throughout American history and in contemporary times.

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is at a crossroads.

Traditional African/Black American cultures present the crossroads as a place of simultaneous difficulty and possibility. In contemporary times, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the phrase "intersectionality" to explain the unique position of Black women in America. In many ways, they are at a third crossroads: attempting to fit into notions of femininity and respectability primarily assigned to White women, while inventing improvisational strategies to combat oppression.

In Misbehaving at the Crossroads, Jeffers explores the emotional and historical tensions in Black women's public lives and her own private life. She charts voyages of Black girlhood to womanhood and the currents buffeting these journeys, including the difficulties of racially gendered oppression, the challenges of documenting Black women's ancestry; the adultification of Black girls; the irony of Black female respectability politics; the origins of Womanism/Black feminism; and resistance to White supremacy and patriarchy. As Jeffers shows with empathy and wisdom, naming difficult historical truths represents both Blues and transcendence, a crossroads that speaks.

Necessary and sharply observed, provocative and humane, and full of the insight and brilliance that has characterized her poetry and fiction, Misbehaving at the Crossroads illustrates the life of one extraordinary Black woman--and her extraordinary foremothers.



 

Review Citations:

  • Library Journal 05/01/2025 pg. 10 (EAN 9780063246638, Hardcover)
  • Publishers Weekly 04/21/2025 (EAN 9780063246638, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
  • Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2025 (EAN 9780063246638, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
  • Booklist 06/01/2025 pg. 6 (EAN 9780063246638, Hardcover) - *Starred Review
  • BookPage 07/01/2025 (EAN 9780063246638, Hardcover)

 


Contributor Bio:Jeffers, Honoree Fanonne

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is a fiction writer, poet, and essayist. She is the author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club Pick, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award, and five poetry collections, including the NAACP Image Award-winning The Age of Phillis, also nominated for the National Book Award.

 

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SKU: 27687075687

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4.8 ★★★★★
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Hannah Durham
Carnegie, US
★★★★★ 5
this book set my soul ablaze! <3
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
"i had never really cared about the weather before, but now, clear skies meant everything to me, and i was grateful to see another calm morning." this book. this book! i loved the last storm so much. the writing style. the descriptions. the world-building. the characters. the plot twists. the tropes. the sexual tension. the—everything. everything was magic. the last storm follows our two main characters, ara and rogue, giving us dual POV from both characters (which i loved, btw). ara, a human girl who has been locked away in her father’s estate most of her life, just wants to see the world. all she dreams of is seeing what else is out there. but when her father announces her engagement, she knows that dream will become nothing more than just that—a dream. rogue, the fae king, is tired of the attacks being rained down on his people. in hopes of finding out the human king adon’s secrets, rogue infiltrates auryna’s borders. in his last resort to gain information, he visits the local pub. to his surprise, the general’s precious only child is sitting at the bar, drink round after round of mead. now he just needs to figure out how to take her without anyone noticing. first and foremost, let’s talk about the endless list of my favorite tropes and aspects that this book had. ›› enemies to lovers ›› fated mates ›› one bed ›› the chosen one ›› elemental magic ›› actually good and shocking plot twists!!! ›› badass female lead ›› morally-grey love interest ›› fae/human war ›› force proximity ›› touch her and die ›› who did this to you? ›› captor/captive ›› praise k!nk (panting profusely) “you are entirely the opposite of everything that i am, and i would gladly wear your shackles if it meant i could have you.” it’s been a long while since i read a book i liked this much. but i just loved this book. it set my soul ablaze. thank you to the author for writing this beautiful story and for blessing me with an eARC! i loved it so much that i immediately bought the paperback upon release! every aspect of this book was just beautiful. i was blown away by the way the world was described, the way feelings were portrayed, the way the elements were used in the fae’s magic. it just—AHHH! i just absolutely adored it all. i cannot wait for the second book to release next year! also the way he calls her “little storm” sets my heart on fire. this was a fast-paced read and if you are a lover of acotar, fbaa, deal with the elf king, or any other similar books, then please stop everything you’re doing and read this book right now. you won’t regret it. thank you again, jd linton, for giving me the privilege of reading your arc and for blessing this world with the world you created. <3 "something about him pulled me in, like a moth to a flame, and it felt as if i was just waiting for the inevitable burn that came with flying too close to the fire."
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2022
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Sean
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 4
Fun, both heartwarming and heartbreaking
Format: Kindle
Only my second first person written selection, I am still getting used to that aspect, but unlike my first, I enjoyed that the story was told through both MCs. A great enemies to lovers, forced proximity, fated love etc, that resonated to me. There were some small twists that I could see coming, but also a few that I didn’t quite see until the characters were also seeing. Personally, I am more interested in the story than the spice, but with that said, it was well seasoned! I am kind of new to the spice world so I can’t say for sure how this would rate, but it definitely had some heat. I am very glad I happened across this author, and I do plan on also reading the next book….if nothing else, just to see for myself the “transformation” of the characters I’ve grown to love!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024
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Havinne Akins
Natrona Heights, US
★★★★★ 5
😍😍 BEST DEBUT NOVEL EVER
Format: Paperback
I’m having trouble finding accurate words to describe the way this book made me feel, but I am going to do my best. To start off with basic elements, the character and world building are phenomenal. I feel a strong bond to not only the two main characters, Ara and Rogue, but to each and every character introduced throughout the book. The author did a stellar job of giving each of them unique personhood. All of the scenes are beautifully described. So much so that throughout the entirety of the book, I could see every scene: the towns, the castles, the meadows, the landscape. I have had difficulty with this and with distinguishing between outlying characters while reading in the past, but I did not have to think to remember details of world or character building because they flowed naturally within the story and were described well. I have read book series before that made me want to be a part of that world, but I actually felt like I got to step into Auryna and Ravaryn! The plot twists!! Although this is not a suspense novel, it still had me on a rollercoaster of emotions and on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. I haven’t cried actual tears over a book since I was in high school (and I’ve read a LOT). This book finally broke the floodgates in the final few chapters. Multiple times. And we love a good cliffhanger. It truly made me FEEL. THE SPICE is a solid 3.5/5. Some of the scenes had me flushed, some had me taking notes, some just had my jaw slack and my mouth hanging open. Bravo, JD Linton, bravo. The relationships: friendships, family, romantic, ALL of the relationships in this book have so much meaning. The author does a great job at making you feel the love, the anger, the peace, the frustrations, the safety, the familiarity, etc. between the characters. Ara and Rogue. I can not say enough and I also do not want to say too much. Just know that I feel like I know them both, to their core. I know what their childhood looks likes, their darkest moments, their biggest fears, their dreams and passions, what they want in life… The POV switches were seamless. I am so happy this author decided to let us see from both sets of eyes. I can not wait for book two after that cliffhanger. And there is SO much potential for at least one prequel, I can’t wait to see where this author goes! I hope this series continues and flourishes. Fingers crossed!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2022
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Tracy and Christina
Belleville, US
★★★★★ 5
Amazing!
Format: Kindle, Format: Kindle
This book was phenomenal, I devoured it within a few days! For this being a debut novel, it is fantastic and I would’ve thought the author was a seasoned author. I have zero complaints about this book. Let me start by saying that the world building was phenomenal. I could picture everything in my head because of how detailed it was — that’s how good it was written. And I absolutely love the “captive/captor” trope so much, it’s become one of my favorite tropes, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this book had that. I loved the banter between Rogue and Ara — they’re both snarky and witty, plus with the romantic tension, it made the dialogue that much better. Speaking of romantic tension, yes there is spice but not so much of it that it overrides the plot, which I loved. For me, this would probably be on the 3/5 level of spice. This book had a ton of plot twists and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2024
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R Spires
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 4
High on Tropes and Satisfaction
Format: Kindle
This is a great Romantasy book full of action, adventure, and everything you look for in this genre. I won’t lie: it does kinda feel like the author found every common trope from every successful book of this kind and threw them all into this novel. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Especially in romance, there’s a large audience who has specific expectations, and they want them every time. Nothing wrong with that and many times I’m one of them. I have no idea what defines a spoiler honestly, so spoiler alert!!!!!!! Tropes include: Only one bed at the inn/bar Dissatisfaction with life before hunk appears Lost royalty The chosen one Montage of dress up time followed by shocked hunk Forbidden romance between two from rival peoples Power that cannot be controlled, simply guided/asked Gathering intel at the inn/bar FMC who knows how to fight/use weapons well There’s probably more but no need to list them all. Good story and I would recommend!
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2024

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