BTT (#47) ~ recommended

For today's Booking Through Thursday, Deb asks:

"Do you read books recommended by friends?  Or do you prefer to find your own books to read?"

My answer is "yes" to both.  No, I don't read everything recommended by friends, not without considering how much the subject interests me.  But books my friends like are usually considered more carefully than a random book whose title I run across.  Specifically, anything recommended by my best reading buddy Donna goes to the top of my list, simply because she and I read and study the same things.  I'm sharing what she told me today that she "doesn't want to put it down."  It's that good.

The Secret of Magic ~ by Deborah Johnson, 2014, fiction (Mississippi)

In 1946, a young female attorney from New York City attempts the impossible: attaining justice for a black man in the Deep South.  Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero.  It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country.  As a child, Regina was captivated by Calhoun's The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest.  Once down in Mississippi, Regina finds that nothing in the South is as it seems.  She must navigate the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past.  This book brilliantly explores the power of stories and those who tell them.

Ah, I see why Donna got this one.  She actually met Thurgood Marshall on her high school trip to Washington, DC.  Yes, I do want to read this one and will put it on reserve at my library.