The Twelve Tribes of Hattie was chosen as the July selection for the Books and Beer Club. The novel focuses on the experiences and character of Hattie Shepherd, but the chapters are vignettes that describe her based on her interactions with her many children rather than addressing her directly. Through this structural device, the reader gets little snippets of information about Hattie's children and their lives, but eventually a more complete portrait of Hattie herself emerges. 
 Life is far from easy for Hattie's family. We learn that along with her mother and sisters, she has fled Georgia for Philadelphia. At seventeen, she becomes an ill-equipped mother to twins Philadelphia and Jubilee, as the result of tryst with a boy she barely knows. Her experience with her twins and her relationship with their father shape the way she will interact with her future children. 
 This is not a book I would have picked up on my own, and I probably wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been the July selection for book club. Once I began reading, I had a little trouble staying absorbed in the novel because it was hard for me to connect with the characters, whose lives and experiences were vastly different from my own. While each of the family members was unique, interesting, and well-developed, all of them seemed pretty miserable regardless of their situations. Their sadness constantly reminded me of Hattie's own situation. (view spoiler)[It seems that after the tragic deaths of the twins in the first vignette, Hattie becomes emotionally closed off to her children. It's as if she loved the twins and was affectionate toward them, but she was unable to save them, so she walls off that part of herself and forces herself to focus strictly on the other children's survival. As a result, she comes across to them as distant and cold, but her actions make it evident that she truly loves them. (hide spoiler)] 
 Ultimately, I'm glad that I stuck with it and finished the book, because I think the whole text is needed to fully appreciate the character of Hattie.