Its a good thing that this is only the first book of a trilogy, because after getting to know Tabitha, you wont want to leave her at the end. . . . Written intimately as if youre peering into the mind of a close friend, this book is a true testament to the stresses on women today and how great girlfriends (and grandmothers) are often the key to our sanity.   Good Morning America

The first novel in a captivating three-book series about modern womanhood, in which a young Black woman must rely on courage, laughter, and loveand the support of her two longtime friendsto overcome an unexpected setback that threatens the most precious thing shes ever wanted.

Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to have it all. At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice house? Check. Dating marriage material? Check, check, and check. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, a ""paper-perfect"" boyfriend, and even a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, everything seems to be falling into place.

Then Tabby receives an unexpected diagnosis that brings her picture-perfect life crashing down, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children. With her dreams at risk of falling through the cracks of her checklist, suddenly she is faced with an impossible choice between her career, her dream home, and a family of her own.

 With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the mom jeans-wearing former ""Sexy Lexi,"" and the generational wisdom of her grandmother and the nonagenarian firebrand Ms. Gretchen, Tabby explores the reaches of modern medicine and tests the limits of her relationships, hoping to salvage the future she always dreamed of. But the fight is all consuming, demanding a steep price that forces an honest reckoning for nearly everyone in her life. As Tabby soon learns, her grandmother's age-old adage just might still be true: Black girls must die exhausted.

A powerful reckoning over the people we might have been if wed chosen a different path, from a master of the short story

In this stirring, reflective collection of short stories, Joyce Carol Oates ponders alternate destinies: the other lives we might have led if wed made different choices. An accomplished writer returns to her childhood home of Yewville, but the homecoming stirs troubled thoughts about the person she might have been if shed never left. A man in prison contemplates the gravity of his irreversible act. A students affair with a professor results in a pregnancy that alters the course of her life forever. Even the experience of reading is investigated as one that can create a profound transformation: You could enter another time, the time of the book.

The (Other) You is an arresting and incisive vision into these alternative realities, a collection that ponders the constraints we all face given the circumstances of our birth and our temperaments, and that examines the competing pressures and expectations on women in particular. Finely attuned to the nuances of our social and psychic selves, Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates here why she remains one of our most celebrated and relevant literary figures.