Ida B. (also known as Uptown Dreams) is one of Karen Q. Miller’s best books ever!
Ida B. is a mind-gripping, true to life novel about Brenda Carver, a young unwed mother who wished to pursue a career as a writer. Hot and sassy Rosa Rivera who has dreams of becoming a major celebrity, and Sharif Goldsby a young black activist who lives to protect his people and his privacy, especially his life as a homosexual.
In Harlem life has always been vivid in the Ida B. complex but things become shaded when three deaths occur and causes the people of Ida B. to come together and help those in need.
As Brenda and her mother work together to keep things afloat, they are shocked by a rumor that after more than twenty years, the Ida B. will be closed and the people will have to find a new place to live. The Ida B. community goes to their gracious, humble and most respected activist Sharif to get to the bottom of the rumors but in the midst of getting an answer another death occurs and the entire building in devastated.
Who could have done such a horrendous act? Did it happen in the building? Was it someone in the building? Were there any witnesses? Those were the questions that continued to rock the boat giving it a "whodunit" mystery feel.
What makes this book a great read is the amount of unity throughout the book. No matter what goes on, the people of Ida B. stick together. You tend to forget that these are people who just live in the same building because they are so much like family. It takes you back to a time when people would throw rent parties for the tenants that needed help; when communities would come together and clean the neighborhoods; when a child would get in trouble with everyone on the block before getting home to their parents. A village helping the only way it could to keep the people alive and safe from harm.
The other characters in the book were way familiar from the nosy neighbor Ms. Jackie who knew the business of everyone in the building and spread rumors. The bad boy friend Vincent who was always a stone throw away from doing hard time, and Mrs. Marcie, the older woman who kept people in check. You could love them or hate them, but they laid the bricks in building the story Ida B.
If you have this book, read it again and reminisce with Brenda and her Ida B. family. If you never read it, believe it when we say that you will never read a book more focused on togetherness than Ida B.
Ida B. is a mind-gripping, true to life novel about Brenda Carver, a young unwed mother who wished to pursue a career as a writer. Hot and sassy Rosa Rivera who has dreams of becoming a major celebrity, and Sharif Goldsby a young black activist who lives to protect his people and his privacy, especially his life as a homosexual.
In Harlem life has always been vivid in the Ida B. complex but things become shaded when three deaths occur and causes the people of Ida B. to come together and help those in need.
As Brenda and her mother work together to keep things afloat, they are shocked by a rumor that after more than twenty years, the Ida B. will be closed and the people will have to find a new place to live. The Ida B. community goes to their gracious, humble and most respected activist Sharif to get to the bottom of the rumors but in the midst of getting an answer another death occurs and the entire building in devastated.
Who could have done such a horrendous act? Did it happen in the building? Was it someone in the building? Were there any witnesses? Those were the questions that continued to rock the boat giving it a "whodunit" mystery feel.
What makes this book a great read is the amount of unity throughout the book. No matter what goes on, the people of Ida B. stick together. You tend to forget that these are people who just live in the same building because they are so much like family. It takes you back to a time when people would throw rent parties for the tenants that needed help; when communities would come together and clean the neighborhoods; when a child would get in trouble with everyone on the block before getting home to their parents. A village helping the only way it could to keep the people alive and safe from harm.
The other characters in the book were way familiar from the nosy neighbor Ms. Jackie who knew the business of everyone in the building and spread rumors. The bad boy friend Vincent who was always a stone throw away from doing hard time, and Mrs. Marcie, the older woman who kept people in check. You could love them or hate them, but they laid the bricks in building the story Ida B.
If you have this book, read it again and reminisce with Brenda and her Ida B. family. If you never read it, believe it when we say that you will never read a book more focused on togetherness than Ida B.
Get ready for Karen's soon to be released book, "Passin."
Heather Elitou-Reviewer
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