Washtenaw Reads Author Event | Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

When

Sunday February 5, 2023: 4:00pm to 6:00pm  Add to Calendar /   Add to Google Calendar

Where

Downtown Library

Description

ASL interpretation and live captioning were provided for this event. This program was recorded and made available for viewing through February 12th, 2023.

AADL hosts Kiley Reid, author of the 2023 Washtenaw Reads title Such a Fun Age for a talk, reading, and Q&A session. 

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.

Such a Fun Age, Kiley's Reid's debut novel, was an instant New York Times Bestseller, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, The Guardian, and others. Reid is currently an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

This event is part of the 2023 Washtenaw Read. The Washtenaw Reads program is a community initiative to promote reading and civic dialogue through the shared experience of reading and discussing a common book. Participating libraries include Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter, Milan, Northfield Township, Saline, and Ypsilanti, and local schools, universities and bookstores. For more information about Washtenaw Reads and previous years' reads, go to wread.org.

This event includes a signing with books for sale.