Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Thurston

 This is a collection of short stories by one of the important voices of the Harlem Renaissance.  I struggled with the vernacular in the beginning but it is worth it to fall into the rhythm of the language, the times and the lives she spotlights.  The title of the book references the act of achieving something the hard way and this is at the core of each of the stories.   Thurston died impoverished and these stories were believed to be lost.  Glad they were found.