We Are Not Like Them

This would be a great book for book clubs that are just getting into discussions of race. It moves quickly, in part because of the alternating chapter/perspective format. It was only after I finished it that I saw it was a collaboration between two authors, which made sense. The idea (best friends on different sides of an issue because of their respective identities) is a good one. Where this fell short for me was the lack of elegance in covering some of the important ideas. I appreciate (and agree with) the message the authors were trying to convey re: race, but they did themselves a disservice when they switched from showing to telling – it felt clumsy, like actors delivering lines, when characters overtly discussed race. Still, I'd recommend it for book clubs: it's quick like a beach read and a good springboard for discussing race.