Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ARC!

What an amazing collection of short stories! Diane Oliver was so ahead of her time that any reader unaware she died almost 50 years ago would have no idea these are not contemporary. Emana Rachelle's narration is consistently engaging and does the stories great justice. I will be recommending both the print and audio editions to all librarians I work with!

Neighbors And Other Stories is a short story collection by Diane Oliver, a black writer who passed away in the early 60s at the young age of only 22. In the summary and introduction they say she was a writer far ahead of her time and I must agree the best story is about Elie worrying about her brother Tom being the first child to integrate a white school in the blowback and encouragement from their community including a white pastor who comes to give his support. They also have one where a house made named a Nessi daydreams about being the lady of the house but I think another good one is The Nature Museum, this one explores discrimination between different types in the black community I thought all of these stories were really good except the one about Jenny I really didn’t get what that was about and found it was almost like a poem but the rest of the stories were very interesting and I found it quite refreshing to get the stories about race and class from the perspective of a minority it is sad the Diane Oliver died so young because she was so super talented but sometimes that’s just how it goes. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it I want to thank dreamscape media and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This audiobook is stupendous. I had never heard of Diane Oliver prior to receiving an ARC of this audio from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, which I am now ashamed of! I believe her writing should be essential reading. While I am not typically a big fan of short stories (I fall in love with characters, and need more time with them), this collection of vignettes into the lives of a variety of black families is incredible. The stories differ in length, and you visit some families once, others a few times. The stories are a heartbreaking look into the reality of the lives of black people across the United States during a variety of time periods. You will not feel great after reading this collection, but the reality of the history contained here is so important. The narrator, Emana Rachelle, does a fantastic job. I recommend this to anyone!

This book was very vivid!! The way Diane Oliver was able to capture pain, oppression, courage, and love in her stories is refreshing. I typically shy away from books on this subject matter because of the anger that it brings about in me, I am happy that I was able to digest these stories and not feel heavy afterward. I believe it is because Diane was able to give each story its own voice, each character has its own story. There are some that will cause your jaw to drop from surprise, shock, and awe. There are some that will cause you to bite away tears because of the pain illustrated. There are also some, that will cause you to giggle in places.

Diane Oliver did a magnificent job with this book. I wish she were alive to see the success the book will have.

A few months back, a book club friend asked me why do I even need Netgalley? Like what are the benefits? Those were initial days of my starting using netgalley and even though I told her my reasons , I was not really able to convince her.

This book - "Neighbors and other stories" and books like this are the reason why I started using netgalley. And which is the best platform to get to know new and unknown, not so popular authors and their books , if not Netgalley?

I have already read the book and loved it and I wanted to re-read it so when I found an audiobook I had to request it and to my pleasant surprise, I did get the book in few hours. I started it just soon as I got it. And it was just a beautiful experience it was as reading. Even better. So I ended up giving it 5 stars too.

Neighbors and other stories comes with an brilliant introduction from Tayari Jones , a black American woman author . Normally I do not read introductions but I read this one and was profoundly impressed with it. Because I did not know anything about Diane Oliver. Diane Oliver was just 22 years old when she published her short stories. sadly she left the world quite young. Being an African American woman author her stories ring with ugly truth and history of racism. All the short stories are brilliant and mind numbing. It left me with an ache I would not be able to describe in words.

These short stories are must read for everyone. Thank you very much netgalley and dreamscape media for this amazing audiobook ARC , I'm soon going to purchase this gem for my collection.

Wild that these short stories were written by a 22-year-old and what a blessing to the literary world to have this binding to consume now. Oliver covered quite the wide range of topics. Some short story collections run together, but each one of these was incredibly unique and engaging. Poetic and heartbreaking with depth and grit, frustration and beauty, I felt like I was right in the thick with these characters even with stories written well before my time. It’s probably a sad testament that so many things still hit home &/or haven’t changed or improved enough since Oliver wrote these. I’m digging short story collections lately and this is definitely a must-ad for all!
The audio is very well done.

Neighbors and Other Short Stories is a powerful and engaging collection of short stories following BIPOC characters during the Jim Crow era. Diane Oliver discusses race and racism in a truly remarkable manner; her stories depict seemingly monotonous routine daily events, but in a brutally honest way that fills the reader with a mixture of grief, hope, and horror right along with the characters during the era of desegregation.

It's a tragedy that the world lost Diane Oliver at the age of young age of 22; I’m so thankful this collection of her short stories is now being published. Neighbors is proof that Oliver’s writing is a gift to the literary world.

I cannot recommend the audiobook version enough; the narrator, Emana Rachelle, did an excellent job! I think listening to these stories rather than reading them made the experience even more emotional and meaningful for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Diane Oliver for a free audio-ARC in exchange for this honest review!

Honestly all I can say after listening to this is: Wow! Oliver was an incredible talent and I'm really sad her life was cut short. I'm so impressed by her voice, the range of stories she has written and her ability to build very real seeming personalities and situations in the span of a few pages. Emana Rachelle does a spectacular job of narrating each of the stories, switching between accents and tones seamlessly. It's hard to pick a favorite but "The Closet on the Top Floor", "Banago Kalt" and "Our Trip to the Nature Museum" are ones that have made a mark on me! Huge thanks to Dreamscape Media for the ALC of this one.

What a fascinating collection of stories, by a remarkable young woman who was taken from the world much too soon.

Neighbors and Other Stories is a collection of work written by Diane Oliver, and published posthumously. Oliver explores themes of racism, family and relationships in the Jim Crow 50s-60s.

Neighbors, the title story, is my absolute favorite! And while some stories are stronger than others, the variety in style and tone is a testament to Oliver's range and talent.

Actor Emana Rachelle narrates this just brilliantly!! This is my first time hearing her voice in an audiobook and I hope it won't be my last. Brava!!!

Definitely worth the read, and I'm so grateful to Dreamscape for my gifted ALC.

was looking for audiobooks to have on while recovering from a knee injury and "Neighbors and other stories" caught my eye.

I have always found anthologies to be a rich source of an authors versatility, or the listener/ reader is introduced to a litany of different authors, but in this audiobook, we find an exceptional talent in Diane Oliver, an author taken tragically too soon.

While researching the authors story, I came across an article in "The Bitter Southerner" by Michael A Gonzales who describes how he turned to a gift he had recently received from a friend, an anthology by BIPOC authors called "Right On!". He describes how he turned to a random page, where he found a short story by Diane Oliver, a writer he had never experienced before, but was immediately drawn to;

"[I]..was blown away by the narrative power she demonstrated; later, I learned that she was still in her early 20s when the story was published, but her voice was already mature"

I really wanted to include this article in my review and credit it accordingly as while the anthology is a superb work of literature, the fortuitous story of how it has rightly been brought back to the public consciousness is something we can all be grateful for

The audiobook is performed in stunning fashion by Emana Rachelle. While the narrative is powerful ad stands on its own, Emana gives a passionate performance; her vocal versatility and emotes will blow the listener away

Listen, read, but do not miss out on this masterpiece. Every library, public or private needs a copy of this anthology to encourage a depth of understanding and preserve an authentic account of the African American Family experience in one of the most volatile and important periods in the Civil Rights movement of the twentieth century. This book is sadly as iportant now as it was then and as such, needs to stay in the public consciousness

The anthology speaks for itself, more than I ever could

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this incredible ALC of literary and historical importance. My review is left of my own accord and the opinions herein are my own

A collection of short stories that follow several characters during the Jim Crow era, the Neighbors can be excellent at times. I'd say maybe 60% of the short stories are really great! The best ones for me are the ones that talk about school integration, like The Closet on the Top Floor or mixed-race families like The Visitor, Our Trip to the Nature Museum, or Spiders Cry Without Tears.

I felt that Frozen Voices didn't work for me, maybe I don't have the poetic sensibility.

I am excited to see this as a BOTM add-on this month, so I thought it was nice to read it before deciding whether to get it or not!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

OUCH. This one was so sad, but I am VERY thankful to Grove Press, Dreamscape Media, and Diane Oliver for granting me advanced listener access before it hits shelves on February 13, 2024. Neighbors and Other Stories is a collection of stories about African Americans throughout the start of the civil rights movement in the States.

I am so ashamed of racism and the white supremacy movement that harbored such hate for people of color everywhere, but it's worth mentioning and bringing up so we can do better going forward. Hate is not the answer, and we, as white people, need to hold other white people accountable for their actions.

There weren't really any happy endings in this collection, but that's because there weren't too many happy endings in the time leading up to the civil rights movement and throughout its duration. I think this should be required reading because the voices were so loud, and those are the ones that need to be heard.