Hot Sheet: Unpredictable Folk

7. BOOKS: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Ayana Mathis's debut novel, about a 15-year-old black girl who flees Georgia for a better life in 1923 Philadelphia, already has Oprah Winfrey's seal of approval. Hattie Shepherd, who already had twin babies by the time she got to the city of brotherly love, gives birth to nine more children. The novel, now in paperback, follows the complex Hattie, her children, and her grandchild through a 60-year journey of strength, poverty, race, sexuality, and secrets.