Good Morning America has revealed the final summer selection for its book club.
The morning show’s latest pick is Naima Coster’s Take What You Can. Published Tuesday by Pamela Dorman/Viking, the novel follows Val and Milly, two women who bonded when they were the only Black students on a study-abroad program; they later move to New York to raise their daughters together, but an old rift threatens their friendship. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “an intimate, immersive paean to the redemptive power of found families and the pleasure of choosing whom and how to love.”
Coster’s novel was announced as the book club’s latest pick on Good Morning America, which featured a conversation between the author and ABC News national correspondent Stephanie Ramos.
Ramos said that the theme of motherhood is “front and center” in the novel, noting that Coster had a toddler when she started writing the novel and now has three young children.
“I think that writing the themes of this book as I was living them made the experience really raw for me emotionally,” Coster said. “Val and Milly are messy characters. I love them; some readers might love to hate them, but I think if they are something, they’re honest and they’re true.”
Coster called her novel “a juicy, raw, compelling read that will help you think about how you stay close to someone that you love through all the phases of life. It will give you a lot to mull over by yourself and with the people closest to you.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
