SHOP THE BOOK - Kin by Tayari Jones

Hey my tiktok booktalk lovers this is Deirdre Pippins and today I am bringing you Shop the Book. So right now I'm reading Ken by Tayari Jones and I think you already know from some of my previous posts that I'm totally smitten with this book. This is literary fiction taking place in the Jim Crow south with two friends Annie and Vernice and they are quote-unquote cradle babies. They're not sisters they're not relatives at all but they were as people used to say back in the day in the south they were raised up together and this is their and when they turn about 18 or so both go their separate ways. Vernice to Spelman College in Atlanta and Annie Kay to Memphis Tennessee searching for her mom. So their paths are going to separate and become quite different lives. Now I'm not finished with the book but I do believe they're going to come back together. Anyway I curated some pieces out of the book that have a strong meaning for their journey. So number one what I have in Shop the Book are suitcases and in particular these are away suitcases. Now personally I have away luggage and I have found it to be fantastic. I probably have had them pretty much right after Away came on the scene. It was a special edition curated by Rashida Jones. So they're in this purple color and the new colors are right here in my post like a sky blue and a green. Those are two new colors that they have but I will stand by the away luggage and say that it's very durable. I have taken that luggage from domestic locations to New York recently just to carry on and I've taken both the large and the small carry on to Africa to London to Barcelona to Paris. So they have gotten me all over the world. They got me through all of these hectic airports. The wheels have not messed up one time yet. They're very efficient and just plain out wonderful and very stylish of course. But suitcases mean a lot to our characters. For one Vernice gets a new set of luggage and she takes them to Spelman College or so she thinks. There's a little a horrible incident that happens to her new luggage and so there's all that. Then our other Annie Kaye, our other character in our book, she has hand-me-down luggage and a lot of times for example her grandmother is a domestic worker for some white people and so she gets their hand-me-down luggage. So luggage is a lot, has a lot of meaning. It's a literal meaning. It has luggage and baggage that they're carrying because both of the young women are motherless children. So there's a lot to luggage and baggage that mean a lot to the story. Cat eye glasses, you know cat eye glasses were very fashionable in the 1950s and 60s. So I have that therefore fun element. When you put on sunglasses you tend to be a little bit carefree and having a little bit of fun. And so it's kind of associated with a silk scarf which is one of my next products and that was also, silk scarves were also very heavily worn to the 50s and 60s and you oftentimes see in old movies women in convertible cars and hair blowing in the wind. So they put on a silk scarf and it's very fashionable and beautiful. Four is charm bracelets. Charm bracelets back in the day were very effective as a friendship gift. So a lot of women wore charm bracelets back in the day and each charm of course means a memory. So memory and relations and thinking back are also prime feelings and thoughts in the book Ken. And last but not least, I have stationery there. And stationery means a lot because Annie Kay, she's writing from Memphis to the folks back home in Honeysuckle. So you know and that's the way people communicated back at those times. There was hardly telephones. There were sometimes people who did not have a telephone landline and so letters were one of the best ways to communicate. And so there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this and I'm inviting you to shop the book Ken.