Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. For all you parents out there who are

involved in your kid's school or school district, hitting up all the meetings and planning committees

and all that, tell me, is it as horrible as it seems? Because it seems pretty gnarly, you know,

dealing with other parents in these heated battles over school policy that can be proxy battles for, you know, race, class, sex, all the isms that ails.

That's the setting of Naima Costa's acclaimed novel, What's Mine is Yours, which is out now in paperback.

Costor spoke with former NPR host Audie Cornish

when the book first came out, and they got to talking about one character, a white woman who

opposes busing black kids into the predominantly white school. And it leads into this interesting

discussion of what it means to care about your characters. Even in the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you don't like them that much.

At the center of Naima Koster's new novel, it's called What's Mine and Yours,

are two determined and difficult mothers, equal and opposite forces. There's Jade.

A woman who is trying to figure out how to pursue her own ambitions while also taking care

of a child on her own. And Lacey May. A woman who is struggling financially and trying to secure

a future for her girls that she wasn't able

to secure for herself. And their paths cross at a high school auditorium in North Carolina. In fact,

at a community meeting about a new integration program, one that will bring students from the

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