What's Mine and Yours

By: Naima Coster

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

An instant New York Times best seller!

A USA Today best seller!

Named a Best Book of 2021 by Amazon • Esquire • Marie Claire • Refinery29 • Kirkus • Redbook • Ms. Magazine • The Millions • Undomesticated Magazine • Paperback Paris

"A once-every-few-years reading experience." (Mary Beth Keane, New York Times best-selling author of Ask Again, Yes)

"Coster portrays her characters’ worlds with startling vitality. As the children fall in lust and love, grapple with angst and battle the tides of New South politics, Coster’s writing shines." (New York Times Book Review)

From the author of Halsey Street, a sweeping novel of legacy, identity, the American family - and the ways that race affects even our most intimate relationships.

A community in the Piedmont of North Carolina rises in outrage as a county initiative draws students from the largely Black east side of town into predominantly White high schools on the west. For two students, Gee and Noelle, the integration sets off a chain of events that will tie their two families together in unexpected ways over the next 20 years.

On one side of the integration debate is Jade, Gee's steely, ambitious mother. In the aftermath of a harrowing loss, she is determined to give her son the tools he'll need to survive in America as a sensitive, anxious young Black man. On the other side is Noelle's headstrong mother, Lacey May, a White woman who refuses to see her half-Latina daughters as anything but White. She strives to protect them as she couldn't protect herself from the influence of their charming but unreliable father, Robbie.

When Gee and Noelle join the school play meant to bridge the divide between new and old students, their paths collide, and their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deeply knotted, messy ties that will shape the trajectory of their adult lives. And their mothers - each determined to see her child inherit a better life - will make choices that will haunt them for decades to come.

As love is built and lost, and the past never too far behind, What's Mine and Yours is an expansive, vibrant tapestry that moves between the years, from the foothills of North Carolina, to Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Paris. It explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.

©2021 Naima Coster (P)2021 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

“At its heart, What’s Mine and Yours is a coming-of-age story - one that examines the unraveling of marriages, complexities of siblinghood, and reckonings with parents…. Coster portrays her characters’ worlds with startling vitality. As the children fall in lust and love, grapple with angst and battle the tides of New South politics, Coster’s writing shines." (New York Times Book Review)

“Coster’s remarkable characters, each one of them authentically flawed and gorgeously realized, propel this wise and loving story ever forward, making for a graceful meditation on family, inequality, and the ties that bind.” (Esquire)

"Coster…depict[s the characters] complex situations and moral ambiguities with depth and compassion. Weaving numerous plot threads - miscarriages, abortions, divorces, brain tumors, benders - into an intricate tapestry, Coster shows, as one of her indelible minor characters declares, that 'It's only our life if we say so. Otherwise it belongs to them'." (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

loved it

Good read👍🏿. Lacy Mae the protagonist is something else. Situation somewhere in Piedmont of the Carolinas is Lacy Mae, her husband and their three girls. He buys them a house but messes around and gets on that bugga suga and stole the sheriff's car and went joyridding. He ends up in jail and as the sole provider, he leaves his family in shambles. Long story short Lacy Mae took the girls rented out the house and moved in with Hank a known creep. She ended up falling in love with hank and got married. Now this story is full of drama, from Noel calling Hank uncle frank to Lacy Mae not liking her daughters black husband or calling her first husband to her death bed while her current husband was right there....chile y'all just gotta read this 🤣. And the girls are a journey themselves #Book20of2021 #bookworm #whatsnext

Great story awesome narration

Thank you Bahni Turpin narration is amazing! I enjoyed listening and the story was amazing.

Great narration!

This story had a great narration, but the characters were hard to keep track of since the timeline jumped around a lot.

Completely engrossing!

The intricate family dynamics that all family members know intimately, and outsiders never truly understand, brilliantly unfoldd . Love, fear, addiction, courage, hope and peace...intertwine as the story unfolds. The narration is so well done and smooth. Voice changes don't distract and emotional inflections are subtle but understood. I loved the story!!

Delightful

This was an easy and fun listen. I enjoyed the family story line: sisterhood, and love.

Ending…

The story was easy to follow and I enjoyed it for the most part. I just feel like the end was so abrupt, I need a part 2 to find out more. Kind of left me hanging. Overall a decent book.

Raw, Real and Beautiful

I could feel the characters in this book. I felt like I knew them, ached with them, celebrated with them. It was a beautiful story intertwining two families and slips effortlessly throughout time to deliver a suspenseful, raw, emotional story of all the painful and wonderful ways life works.

Wonderful story

I loved this book. It's a beautiful story and the reader was excellent! must read

Snooze

I really like the narrator, very good job. I liked the premise of the story, but it was pretty boring. A missed opportunity.

A nice read

It took me a while to finish because I had to keep backtracking. Had trouble keeping up with the characters sometimes