A thought provoking story centered around a mother/daughter relationship and their struggles with societal, class and racial issues in the 1960s and 1990s, respectively. Both Freda and her daughter, Tulip, struggle to navigate the responsibility of living out their personal dreams while honoring the past and desires of their families. Freda's journey is largely affected by the reality of racism in the south and the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement. Tulip's activism is triggered by the murder of a local woman and the Rodney King trial. This book is multilayered and set in dual timelines with complex, well developed characters. I highly recommend it for those who enjoy historical fiction. Thank you #netgalley and William Morrow Publishers for an advance copy of this book.

Nancy Johnson's "People of Means" is a masterfully woven narrative that transcends generations, delivering a poignant exploration of racial equality and personal sacrifice. With richly drawn characters and a dual timeline that seamlessly navigates the 1960s and 1990s, Johnson illuminates the enduring struggle for justice through the eyes of Freda and Tulip. The emotional depth and historical resonance of this novel are undeniable, making it a compelling and timely read that challenges and inspires in equal measure.

While the history was fascinating I didn't feel the writing was particularly engaging or the ending satisfying.

This was a good one! Two time periods and both held my interest. The characters were rich and believable and the history was informative. At times the plot developed a bit slowly for my taste but I never considered not finishing it. I definitely recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book had me hooked from the beginning! I'm sad to say that growing up in a different part of the country from where I live now, I did not realize the extent of racism that existed during the fight for civil rights, as it was not a part of my history classes in the detail it should have been.
The storyline and characters in the book were well written and engaging and while I loved seeing how much changed in the lives of the characters between generations, it still pains me to see how much continues to remain the same in all of the worst ways.
This is a story of generational expectations and personal choices that had or have the ability to change the course of lives and I definitely recommend reading it! 4.5 stars (only because I would have liked to see more closure for all of the characters at the end)

3.5 stars. People of Means is Nancy Johnson’s second book. Her debut novel The Kindest Lie is a personal favorite of mine. I could not read it fast enough! I was excited to read her second book, People of Means. Both mother and daughter are involved in civil rights issues. We learn about mom’s story in fighting for civil rights as a young college student at Fisk University in the 60s. Freda and her husband, a doctor, are a well-respected couple in Chicago. (I loved the story about Nat King Cole and the porters on the trains). The second storyline is about Freida’s daughter who has a job in a PR firm in Chicago and is working to make things better in the Ida Wells tenement around the same time as the Rodney King incident.

I thought this book would take a couple of days to read; however, it just did not flow well for me. I think there was some editing needed. It ended up taking a couple of weeks for me to finish the book. I am glad I read it.

This book worked for me. The story might have been a bit predictable, but I thought the character development was well done. Being from Chicago, I enjoyed the history lesson as well!

I enjoy reading historical fiction. and have read a lot more in the last year. Unfortunately, this one did not land for me. I ultimately stopped reading at about 65%, because I had to push myself to pick this book up and continue reading.

This story covers two time lines. A mother, Freda, during her college years in the early 60s, and later her daughter, Tulip in the 90's.
Freda is in college during the civil rights movement, sit-ins, and demonstrations while she attends Fisk college. We also follow her personal life, where she is torn between two men who are different in personality and goals. In addition, we follow Tulip, her daughter, as she grapples with the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, and she also struggles with dating and career issues.

The treatment of the historical events seems superficial, nothing more than what would have been seen in a picture or news clip. I also did not enjoy the two main female characters. The male characters and their storylines were more interesting.
But it was not enough to keep my attention.
I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, this one just wasn't for me.

This was a historical fiction focused on the civil rights movement from the mid 1960s as well as more recent times. The characters were well written and the historical details were accurate and well woven into the narrative. This book wasn't especially fast moving but I enjoyed the strong female friendships and the mother-daughter storyline.

I loved Nancy Johnson’s debut novel, “The Kindest Lie,” so was eager to read “People of Means.” The book traces the choices made by a mother and daughter -- as young black women from families of means, 30 years apart -- with respect to civil rights. Freda is a student at Fisk University in Nashville in the early 1960s. She is eyewitness to John Lewis and others participating at sit-ins at local lunch counters. Her daughter, Tulip, works at a Chicago advertising firm in the early 1990s and wrestles with Rodney King’s treatment by police.

Both women are stirred by the injustice they see and sometimes experience firsthand, but their families pressure them not to rock the boat, as there is too much to lose. I appreciated the glimpse into the HBCU experience and the portrayal of friction between socio-economic groups within the black community.

The novel raises questions which remain with the reader after the final chapter. A great selection for book clubs.

If there is any thing I always love in a book, it’s a dual timeline/multiple POV narrative.

People of Means follows Freda, a Fisk college student, along her journey protesting for civil rights in 1960s North Carolina and Tulip, Freeda’s daughter, along her journey protesting in the wake of Rodney King’s brutal beating by police in the 1990s. Though decades apart, Johnson used both timelines to showcase that no matter how far we’ve come, there is still plenty more to do. Johnson’s characters in People of Means are incredibly multidimensional and only add to the complexity of themes in the book. Johnson even explores the intersection of class (or perceived class) and race through the novel, including a unique spin on the conversation of race that I rarely see. Through dialogue, interpersonal relationships, and actions taken in the novel, Johnson weaves a stunning portrait of resistance.

I only wish the author didn’t foreshadow to the extent that she did in the novel. Though the reveals packed a punch, I think it would’ve been even more effective without all of the hints leading up. Regardless, People of Means is a book I highly highly highly recommend you pick up. Overall, it came in at an easy 4.25/5 stars for me. Thank you so much to NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC!

A timely read about a mother and daughter from two time periods, 1963 and 1992.
The writing is eloquent and upfront.
I think readers will find lots of resonating themes from this book that still prevail today.

This was a phenomenal read. I was born in 1971 and missed the major civil rights movement of the 1960’s. However, I really enjoyed and appreciated the speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King that I read in college. He taught and inspired his followers to fight for equality peacefully. There is something powerful about peaceful activism.

I remember the beating of Rodney King as I was in college at that time. I don’t think you had to be black to be horrified when this happened. I think as a human if this didn’t bother you there is something terribly wrong.

I loved this story of the dual time line between 1960’s and 1990’s. These characters felt real to me.

I would love to ask Nancy Johnson if she feels like as a society that we’ve made progress towards equality. I feel like we have after reading the 1960’s timeline. But, since I’m white I could just see it from my perspective.

I was given a complimentary copy of the Audiobook as well an ARC from Netgalley. I was thrilled to listen to the author tell the story. Authors tend to tell the story and not simply read it. I hung on to her words. When I read the book I was pulled in but the Audio grabbed me more. Thank you Netgalley for extending me an ARC. The opinions expressed are my own. I wanted to convey my feelings of this book rather than give a synopsis. The book speaks for itself. Read it, please.

This book had a lot of hype but I found it so poorly written that it was almost impossible to complete.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of People of Means by Nancy Johnson. This is a dual timeline story of two generations of a black family from Chicago. Freda is a student at Fisk College in 1959, and to her parent’s dismay, gets involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She ends up graduating and marrying the man that her parents approved, and lives a quiet life. Freda’s daughter Tulip is also going against her parents’ wishes, she has a good job in public relations, but is dating a bus driver. The common thread of the story is the racism that both see and face. And how some things have changed and improved, and many things haven’t. This brought up a lot of good issues and was a family story which is my type of story. I did think it was a little longer and more detailed than it needed to be. #peopleofmeans #nancyjohnson #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday

Loved the story. Loved the writing. Looking forward to reading more from Nancy Johnson. Set in the 60's and the 90's we follow in Mother and Daughter's footsteps. We see how racism was in the 60's while trying to segregate and in the 90's after Rodney King was attacked by police and how it brings back in the focus how racism is a hard fight that must continue.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing company for this Advanced Readers Copy of People of Means by Nancy Johnson!

I had high hopes for People of Means after reading Nancy Johnson's The Kindest Lie and was not disappointed.. Nancy is a master of writing about families, class differences, racism, and the struggle for equality. The Gilroy's are upper middle class African American family navigating the world in 1960's Nashville and 1990's Chicago. The novel is full of rich characters, family secrets, and personal choices. The dual timeline was perfect in showing how far the US has come in dealing with the struggle for equality and how far we still need to go. Read this in your book group now.

I enjoyed this novel overall, with just a few reservations. The last half seemed stronger than the first to me. I did not find the characters particularly complex or multidimensional with the exception of Freida, and, perhaps, Tulip. But even this mother-daughter pair seemed to have one major internal conflict each and that conflict happened to be the same: striving for racial equality through Black excellence vs. through protesting for social justice.
In early chapters the figurative language was sometimes too easy: for example, describing cotton bols as "sharp as needles," or describing someone's excitement as "like a child at Christmas." However as the novel progressed the language became increasingly fresh and original, which elevated the writing overall, in my opinion. Overall, the story definitely held my interest with its well-constructed dual timeline, and I thought that Johnson did a really fine job of portraying a lesser known Black point of view regarding how to achieve full equality. I definitely recommend this novel, especially for those interested in African-American history and also for a general readership.

A mother and a daughter caught in different historical watershed moments of civil rights in America - Tulip is irate at the miscarriage of justice for Rodney King while her mother was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Through Tulip’s passion for the cause she begins to learn surprising facts about her mother and her own journey.

The book goes back and forth between the Jim Crow south and Chicago in the 90s and shows (as we all know) that there is so much more work to do. Unfortunately, I found the story sort of predictable and slow paced. In addition there was one thing that really clouded the whole book for me - there is one Jewish character in the story and he was written as a caricature of a Jewish man (while eating lunch at a diner he orders latkes, rugelach, and ends his conversation with Mazel Tov) - if we are trying to show how minorities need more respect and rights, we shouldn’t be using stereotypes to describe another minority. Beyond that, the characters never really felt multidimensional and because of that I honestly could not get particularly invested in the characters or their story. The audiobook made the pacing better but in the end this didn’t work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC to review