ASD January Read: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Our January2024 book selection is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store written by James McBride. Published in August of last year, it was an instant best seller and listed as a New York Times Notable Book. Below we give our take on this book plus a bit of background on the author.

James McBride

If you are an avid reader, it is very likely that you have read or at least are familiar with James McBride. A noted author, musician and screenwriter, his books have been made into films and series to great acclaim. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is his eighth publication; some of the most notable are Miracle at St Anna (made into a film by Spike Lee), The Good Lord Bird, The Color of Water (on the New York Times best seller list for over two years) and Deacon King Kong. He is a National Book Award winning author.

Synopsis: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is set in the 1920s and 1930s in Pottstown Pennsylvania in the Chicken Hill neighborhood. Chicken Hill is a impoverished community of immigrant Jews and African Americans who have come together trying to make a better life for themselves. McBride creates overlapping stories of the Chicken Hill locals which ultimately display the strength, resolution and love of community that unites this disparate group of people. It is considered historical fiction and is loosely based on McBride’s Jewish grandmother as well as the actual town of Pottstown. To sum up the heart of this book, McBride’s comment in an interview says it perfectly, “I have a desire to see the good in people and push them past their boundaries.”

Our Take: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is on almost every best book of 2023 list, so clearly it is a very well regarded work. Harriet loved the book; I liked it a lot. The beginning is slow and it took me a few chapters to really begin to enjoy it. There are a multitude of characters (some with names I found a bit difficult); it takes a moment to figure it out and keep them all straight. However, once this book grabs you it won’t let go. I was hooked in chapter 10 and from then on I couldn’t put it down. The ending is clever, surprising and absolutely uplifting. We both recommend that you put The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store on your “must read” list for 2024.