Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It is Mother's Week on the pod.

And on top of everything mothers have to do, there's one aspect of parenting that seems particularly

rough, dealing with schools. You know, going to the meetings and the planning committees and all that,

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 ail us.

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

Costler 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 even means

to care about your characters, even if you don't like them that much. That's ahead.

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.

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,

...