I enjoyed Kimberly Garrett Brown's debut, CORA'S KITCHEN. It successfully and meaningfully tells the story of a woman striving to find her voice and become a writer, while balancing the demands of family and the limitations placed on Black women in 1920s America. Another important thread in the book is Cora's friendship with her employer, a white woman, and the way they unexpectedly find connection.

Cora, a black librarian in 1928 New York, wants to be a writer. Filling in her for her cousin as a domestic affords her the opportunity to write. She’s pen pals with Langston Hughes and strikes up a friendship with Eleanor, her employer.
It took me awhile to get into the story. I felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of it without any background.
One of the most evocative things is the attitudes of the day, social convention, and also the racial segregation.
It’s interesting read.

I really enjoyed getting to know Cora and the inner workings of her mind. She lived both in and outside of the roles that were expected of her as a Black woman in 1920s New York. Her love of writing and drive to become an author guided her through the many situations in her story, as well as her friendship with Langston Hughes. I hope you will enjoy meeting Cora as much as I did.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me the ARC to review.

This is the story of Cora, a black librarian during the 1920's. Cora is also a wife and mother, while longing to be a writer. Cora's struggles are universal. She is challenged to find the time to pursue her dreams while working and caring for her family. This is very much true of life today as it was one hundred years ago for Cora.

Much of Cora's story is told through journal entries and correspondence with poet Langston Hughes. Mr. Hughes is an acquaintance whom she reaches out to for advice and mentorship. Although Langston gives sage advice regarding most matters and especially on the craft of writing. He falls short in recognizing that the struggles of a black writer are different than the struggles of a woman of color striving to be a writer.

This book would make an excellent book club discussion novel. How does race and gender affect your ability to pursue dreams?

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book from start to finish. It was really wonderful!

Cora sends a letter to Langston Hughes after relating to one of his poems. She wants to be writer. Langston Hughes responds, encouraging Cora not only to write but to enter a writing contest.

In helping her cousin, Agnes, Cora becomes a cook in a white family’s home, the Fitzgeralds. In that role, she finds she has more time to write. Ultimately, she forges a friendship with Mrs. Fitzgerald who gives her The Awakening to read (The Awakening is one of my very favorite books, so I loved this connection). These happenings lead to Cora penning a story she shares with Langston Hughes. The missives continue to pass back and forth, and Cora keeps writing; the process of which may cost her everything.

Cora’s story shares her perspective on being a woman, a Black woman, during this time in history. She aspires for something more, to be w writer, and as she encounters hurdles and attempts to navigate them, she keeps going. I really enjoyed the letters she shared with Hughes. Cora’s honesty and authentic voice are what grabbed me from the start of her story.

Cora’s Kitchen is a quick, but richly told read; full of emotion and heart, and one in which every woman can relate, especially if she aspires for something more for herself.

I received a gifted copy.

What a book! So much to say about it, but don't really have the words. Not only was I interested in the exploration between black and white women, and their relationships with each other and their families, I was also inspired by the suggestions Langston Hughes gave for writing. It has made me want to pick up a pen and write! I highly recommend this book for all.

Plot: 4/5 Characters: 5/5 Writing: 4.5/5 Enjoyment: 5/5

In 1928, Harlem librarian Cora James writes a letter to Langston Hughes whose poetry has inspired her. In ongoing correspondence, he supports her confessed desire to write and offers advice and commentary on her writing attempts.

There are more story elements including a surprising friendship with a white woman and a dangerous encounter, but for me the real story is about Cora’s awakening to the concept of having her own dreams and desires — beyond the expectations of being a wife and mother, a Black woman, and a good Christian. I absolutely loved and was startled by her own recognition of the limitations placed on her by societal and familial norms that she hadn’t even been aware of herself.

As part of the story she reads literature — Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, W.E.B Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, Miss Esale Fauset’s There is Confusion, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Nella Larsen’s Quicksand — and each informs her developing desire to express more than she knew she had in her to express. It is thoughtful, inspiring, and fascinating. Her reactions to works of literature are individual. She doesn’t like Amos and Andy or the characters in a prize winning Zora Neale Hurston story because she feels they make colored people look like fools. And she doesn’t want to write the standard colored woman story — growing up poor and oppressed in the South etc. She says, “We have been through so much as a people, but we have endured. I guess that’s why I think racism and oppression shouldn’t be our only focus. There are other stories to tell.” And in the end, when forced to choose, she makes what I found to be a surprising (and I was surprised that I was surprised by this) choice to identify more with the womanhood of her characters, rather than their Blackness). She explains it much better than I can, so I’ll let you read the story.

I loved this book and read it in a single sitting (Ok — I was on a long plane flight BUT I had plenty of other books available on the kindle!).

Just a couple of quotes to let you see how Cora’s mind works:
“But most books written by colored authors are about race one way or another. And though I know it’s important to talk about, I’m tired of that being the focus all the time. There are other things in life that are just as important. Dreams. Desires. But maybe that’s too much to ask of a book.”

“But I wish Miss Larsen spent more time exploring Helga Crane’s desire for individuality and beauty, rather than her struggle as a mulatto woman trying to figure out where she belongs. Then maybe the novel would have spoken more to the workings of a colored woman’s mind.”

The progression of Cora’s writing throughout this story is lovely, and it truly gets richer with each story, as does her own experience and how she perceives the world around her with each passing chapter. I love the connections to “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, and the themes of equality, gender bias, racism, and duty/place in society are all convicting and relatable. I think Cora’s challenge to write honestly and openly mirrors that of many writers—how do you tell a story honestly when the truth is so painful? How do you see the same world around you that everyone else sees and turn those small moments into something important—something worth reading? Cora had to fight to believe in herself and her work in a world where no one else believed in her, and even now, many people, women and minorities in particular, still have to fight that same fight each day. This is one of those books that sits in your thoughts and takes up residency long after you read the last page.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This was an easy, interesting, touching read. This is the story of Cora, a Black librarian, mother and wife in the 1920s who longs to be a writer like her hero and penpal Langston Hughs. Cora's struggles as a woman are universal and timeless, and compounded by being a woman of color. I enjoyed the story and Cora's journey but I felt the writing tended more towards YA and the ending was very abrupt. I would love to read a sequel to learn what happens to Cora.

It’s 1928 and Cora is a 35 yr old Black librarian and aspiring writer.
She comes across a poem that she identifies with,
written by a young Black man and she writes him a letter which develops into a continuing correspondence.
He is encouraging her to write and to enter a writing contest.
It’s difficult for Cora to write.. all her family obligations getting in the way.
She finds that not only is she challenged by her race… being Black, but also just by being a woman.
Through Cora’s correspondence, and journal entries we see how she tries to navigate all her different roles, and aspirations.
I really enjoyed this book!



Thank you to Netgalley and Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity for the digital copy!

This story was really engaging and I loved the way that it was written. However, I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. We will purchase this book for our library.

This engaging story has quite a bit of potential as a book club choice. It’s relatively short and a quick read with a story that keeps moving right along. It also provides lots of topics for discussion, race relations, the status of women, and how to realize a dream.
The tensions in Cora’s life will be familiar to lots of readers. She’s a working woman who procured a place working in a library to escape the kind of work that so many black women of her generation (the year is 1928) found available – cooks, house cleaners, and other types of domestics. Even so, she still has the responsibilities of maintaining her household and caring for her two children.
Her husband, a musician, works every night at the club, but doesn’t consider himself responsible for any of the work with a home or the children. He is not cruel or abusive, but she is still not sure if he would in any way be supportive of her dreams to be a writer.
Through her library job, she has met the prominent poet and writer Langston Hughes, and much of the book consists of the correspondence between them as well as Cora’s personal journal entries. She confesses to him her desire to be a writer, and he provides encouragement and advice. One surprising thing about that this story is that while Hughes is in touch with what it means to be a black American, he is not always as perceptive about what it means to be a woman, and here is where I think the real discussions will spring from this book.
How much do women of different races share because they’re women, and how much are their circumstances different? When Cora is offered a patronage by a wealthy white woman, she comes across all of these questions and more as she works to find the story she wants to tell.
Thank you to Netgalley which provided me a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Troubled Woman
by Langston Hughes
She stands
In the quiet darkness,
This troubled woman
Bowed by
Weariness and pain
Like an
Autumn flower
In the frozen rain,
Like a
Wind-blown autumn flower
That never lifts its head

This stunning poem is the epigraph that poignantly reflects the life of Cora James and other women in this debut novel who are “troubled” in their lives in 1928. Conventions and circumstances keep them from pursuing their dreams, under the grip of physical or mental and emotional abuse or the belief by men of their superiority. It’s not just the role of black women as the description suggests because Cora is a black woman, but the subservient role of white women is also portrayed in the marriages here.

It is a multilayered story not just about women, but also about racism and literature. Cora is educated as a librarian just as her coworkers, but yet is “vanquished to the back room, taping, binding and cleaning nooks like a first-year clerk.” A multifaceted narrative of Cora’s correspondence with Langston Hughes, blended with her notes to herself, pieces of her writing, and the telling of what is happening in her life kept me captivated. There are reflections and discussions of literature, most notably, [book:The Awakening|58345], which has a big impact on Cora’s thinking as does Walt Whitman and Zora Neale Hurston. It’s also about friendship, about women supporting other women. Over the span of 5 months in 1928, a woman’s life changes dramatically because she takes a risk to follow her dream . Even though a different time, it’s perhaps relevant today as women juggle their careers and family life. A very well written debut which will keep me looking for more by Kimberly Garrett Brown. (I guess I better read [book:The Awakening|58345].)

I received a copy of this book from Inanna through NetGalley