Full name: Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

Author: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Year: 2003 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Award winners, Non Fiction, Memoirs Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780743254434 0743254430

In her extraordinary bestseller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances - Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar - Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between survival and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and, throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty. Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations - as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation - LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story. Similar books: On Writing by Stephen King When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Born a Crime by Trevor Noah The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg Breaking Night by Liz Murray Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness A Work in Progress by Connor Franta This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff Buffering by Hannah Hart Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson True Notebooks by Mark Salzman Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat My Losing Season by Pat Conroy The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray