Dear Great Book Guru,  I have noticed the quiet of Sea Cliff's streets with so many friends and neighbors vacationing this Presidents' Week so I  am really looking forward to this Friday's Pub Crawl.  Tickets will be available at the former Rose's General Store- beautifully decorated  by the Beach Committee with mermaids galore ! But I certainly have time the rest of the weekend for a good book. Suggestions?   Presidents' Week  Reveler

Dear Presidents' Week Reveler,  I do have a book you might enjoy, but perhaps enjoy is not the word I am looking for because this a painful book to read but enlightening and ultimately rewarding.  THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE  by Ayana  Mathis is a novel that recounts the story of the Grand Migration  from the perspective of seventeen year-old Hattie Shepherd who flees the Jim Crow racism of Georgia to find herself caught in the economic and social upheaval  of  the twentieth century North.  The twelve tribes of the title are Hattie's children who are each described in interconnecting  chapters .   The children  confront  their own adversities , but all  are bound by their love for the coldly dispassionate Hattie .  The American dream remains  painfully elusive for Hattie, echoing the struggles of the biblical Hagar and the twelve tribes of Israel.  This is certainly not an easy book to read, but definitely a story and character you will long remember.