Rib King

<p><strong>Thrillist - 30 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021</strong></p><p><strong>Book Riot - Our Most Anticipated Releases of 2021</strong></p><p><strong>Real Simple - The Best New Books to Read in 2021</strong></p><p><strong>Chicago Review of Books - 12 Must-Read Books of January </strong></p><p><strong>Book Riot - January 2021 Horoscopes and Book Recommendations </strong></p><p><strong>Glamour--7 of the Best New Books in January</strong></p><p><strong>Vulture - 46 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021 </strong></p><p><strong>Lit Hub - Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021 </strong></p><p><strong>GMA.com - 16 January reads for the new year </strong></p><p><strong>Harper's Bazaar - 24 Books You Need to Read in 2021 -</strong></p><p><strong>The Millions - Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2021 Book Preview </strong></p><p><strong>Popsugar - From Bravery to Outlawed - These Are the Best Books of January 2021 </strong></p><p><strong>Ms. Magazine - January 2021 Reads for the Rest of Us </strong></p><p><strong>Bustle - The Best New Books Week of January 18<sup>th</sup> </strong></p><p><strong>Vulture - 27 Notable New Releases Over the Next Two Weeks </strong></p><p><strong>Lit Hub - 14 new books to fuel your reading resolutions </strong></p><p><strong><br/></strong></p><p><strong>Ultimately the reason to read <em>The Rib King</em> is not its timeliness or its insight into politics or Black culture but because it accomplishes what the best fiction sets out to do: It drops you into a world you could not otherwise visit and makes you care deeply about what happens there.--<em>BookPage</em> (starred review)</strong></p><p>The acclaimed author of <em>The Talented Ribkins</em> deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race class privilege ambition exploitation and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel set in early the twentieth century that centers around the black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family.</p><p>For fifteen years August Sitwell has worked for the Barclays a well-to-do white family who plucked him from an orphan asylum and gave him a job. The groundskeeper is part of the household's all-black staff along with Miss Mamie the talented cook pretty new maid Jennie Williams and three young kitchen apprentices--the latest orphan boys Mr. Barclay has taken in to civilize boys like August.</p><p>But the Barclays fortunes have fallen and their money is almost gone. When a prospective business associate proposes selling Miss Mamie's delicious rib sauce to local markets under the brand name The Rib King--using a caricature of a wildly grinning August on the label--Mr. Barclay desperate for cash agrees. Yet neither Miss Mamie nor August will see a dime. Humiliated August grows increasingly distraught his anger building to a rage that explodes in shocking tragedy. </p> <p>Elegantly written and exhaustively researched <em>The Rib King </em>is an unsparing examination of America's fascination with black iconography and exploitation that redefines African American stereotypes in literature. In this powerful disturbing and timely novel Ladee Hubbard reveals who people actually are and most importantly who and what they are not.</p>