Maryland Humanities’ Statewide Reading and Discussion Program Marks Fifteen Years
Maryland Humanities is pleased to announce the selection of What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster for the 2022 One Maryland One Book program. What’s Mine and Yours is a multigenerational saga featuring two North Carolina families. They collide in ways that neither is prepared for when Black students from the east side of the county are integrated into the predominantly white schools on the west side. Readers will follow these families over decades as they break apart and come back together. Parade called the novel “an intimate portrait of love, motherhood, class and race.”
What’s Mine and Yours was chosen by a committee of librarians, educators, authors, and bibliophiles in February from nearly 300 titles suggested last fall by readers across the state for the theme, “New Beginnings.” The Author Tour and other One Maryland One Book programming will occur in the fall. Maryland Humanities will announce details on the tour this summer.
“With What’s Mine and Yours, Naima Coster explores familial relationships with a clear sense of the world around her and the moment we live in,” says Lindsey Baker, Executive Director at Maryland Humanities. “The novel is riveting and thought-provoking, inviting readers into the lives of her complex, layered characters. I’m excited to hear and take part in conversations about this great book.”
Coster says: “I am thrilled that What’s Mine and Yours has been selected for One Maryland One Book 2022. My book is about characters who must remake their lives—and whose lives are remade—after tragedy, opportunity, love lost and gained. It’s a story that takes seriously both the difficulty and promise of ‘new beginnings’ as it follows two families whose paths intersect and diverge over twenty years,” she says. “I am honored that the book will find readers across the state of Maryland this year and that I will be able to join in the conversation. Thank you!”
About the Book
What’s Mine and Yours is a multigenerational saga featuring two North Carolina families who connect in ways that neither is prepared for. Jade is determined to protect her son, Gee, as he finds his way as an anxious, sensitive, young Black man. Lacey May refuses to see her half-Colombian daughters—Noelle, Margarita, and Diane—as anything other than white. Events reach a boiling point when an initiative is set in motion to bring Black students from the east side of the county to the predominantly white schools on the west side.
About the Author
Naima Coster is the author of two novels, What’s Mine and Yours, an instant New York Times bestseller, and her debut, Halsey Street, which was a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Naima’s stories and essays have appeared in Elle, Time, Kweli, The New York Times, The Cut, The Sunday Times, Catapult, and elsewhere. In 2020, she received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 honor.
Naima has taught writing for over a decade in community settings, youth programs, and universities. She currently teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Antioch University in Los Angeles. She occasionally writes the newsletter, Bloom How You Must. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
“Wandering Books”: Where will you find What’s Mine and Yours?
Copies of the 2022 One Maryland One Book selection will be dropped off in public spaces in three counties beginning in mid-August as part of “Wandering Books,” a fun campaign that introduces readers to What’s Mine and Yours and the One Maryland One Book program. Anyone can receive clues about where to find books via Maryland Humanities’ Maryland Center for the Book Facebook page or by following @MDHumanities on Twitter. This year, libraries in will distribute books throughout their communities. After finding a copy of What’s Mine and Yours, readers log on to www.bookcrossing.com and register their book’s ID number, post a comment or review when they’ve finished reading, then leave the book somewhere public for another reader to find and enjoy. Instructions are located on a label inside the book cover. Participation is free. Those who register books will be automatically entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Bookshop.org after the campaign ends on November 15 and must include their name and email to be eligible.
About One Maryland One Book
When we read a great book, we can’t wait to share the experience and talk about it with others. That’s one of the joys of reading.
In that spirit, through our Maryland Center for the Book program, Maryland Humanities created One Maryland One Book (OMOB) to bring together diverse people in communities across the state through the shared experience of reading the same book. We invite readers to participate in book-centered discussions and related programs at public libraries, high schools, colleges, museums, bookstores, and community and senior centers around the state.
OMOB programs, including an author tour, take place each year in the fall. A calendar of free public events—including the Author Tour—will be available online beginning this summer.
One Maryland One Book is presented in partnership with Howard County Library System and is sponsored by The Institute of Museum and Library Services via the Maryland State Library as well as PNC Foundation and BGE, with additional support from M&T Bank, an anonymous donor, and the Citizens of Baltimore County. Activities in Baltimore City are supported in part by the Creative Baltimore Fund and Mayor Brandon Scott.
About Maryland Center for the Book
The Maryland Center for the Book (MCFB)—an affiliate of the national Center for the Book in the Library of Congress—develops and supports literary programs and outreach activities that engage citizens across Maryland in literature and reading. As a program of Maryland Humanities, MCFB highlights our region’s literary heritage and calls attention to the importance of books, reading, literacy, and libraries.
Want to discuss the book now or get updates on upcoming events? Join the conversation on the Maryland Center for the Book page.
