A review by atomic_tourist
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

Deesha Philyaw was the last author I needed to "collect" for the 2022 Miami book fair... and her writing in The Secret Lives of Church Ladies absolutely blew me away. She may be my favorite of the MBF-2022 authors! Secret Lives is a relatively short collection of short stories, but it displays an awe-inspiring control of both technique and storytelling. When I flipped the page after the last story in the collection, "When Eddie Levert Comes," an inadvertent "Oh my G-d" escaped my lips, that's how struck I was by the writing. It was beautiful and made me feel something, which is all I really ask of a book. I'm so glad Philyaw was a Miami Book Fair author and that through MBF I discovered this book! (Now onto the 2023 MBF list...)