Shout her lovely name, by Natalie Serber

A book of mostly interconnected short stories, seemingly the author’s first published book.  As one reviewer noted, the structure is a little odd, as the great majority of the stories follow the lives of single mother, Ruby, and her daughter, Nora.   However, the title story is not about them, nor is the final story, although they both revolve around a mother/daughter relationship.  In between these bookends, we get to know Ruby, who makes mostly wrong decisions, and her daughter, Nora, struggling to find her place in the world in the absence of a truly adult role model.  In many ways, it would have made a better novel, and those stories not about Ruby and Nora could have found a home elsewhere.  226 pp.