{ "item_title" : "Take What You Can", "item_author" : [" Naima Coster "], "item_description" : "GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK**Most Anticipated Book of Summer: The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country, Time Magazine, Electric Literature, Sass Magazine**Most Anticipated Book of 2026: People, LitHub, ScaryMommyLove is utterly bewildering, and nobody writes about it better than Naima Coster.—Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of SandwichFrom the New York Times bestselling author of What’s Mine and Yours, a rich, panoramic exploration of friendship, class, new motherhood, and independenceVal and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other and became immediate best friends. Then, they bonded as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now they are in their thirties, each married and with a baby girl on the way. When Milly suggests Val move to New York so they can raise their daughters together after a decade apart, it’s a resounding yes. Despite their excitement, the pair secretly wonders if their friendship has always worked best as a trio. On that first trip to France, these two motherless daughters were taken under the wing of an older woman named Helene. She showered them with money, love, and attention and showed them the possibilities of an independent and abundant future. But now, without Helene and her guidance, who are Milly and Val? Milly, a successful influencer married to restaurant royalty, is occupied with her desire for freedom. Val, a brilliant journalist, is unsure whether she fits into Milly’s new world. The realities of class and social capital, of strained marriages and the demands of motherhood, serve as constant reminders of how far apart they’ve grown. And no matter how much they try to avoid it, everything comes back to the rift that began all those years ago in France. What they’ve long tried to bury may finally destroy their sisterhood. Weaving between Brooklyn brownstones and the glittering beaches of southern France, Take What You Can is a dazzling novel exploring what it means to be a mother when you have none, a sister without blood ties, and a woman in pursuit of the life she wants. With her signature sharply observed prose, Naima Coster illustrates how to be—and to stay—someone’s person through all phases of life.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/59/383/327/0593833279_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "30.00", "online_price" : "26.40", "our_price" : "26.40", "club_price" : "26.40", "savings_pct" : "12", "savings_amt" : "3.60", "club_savings_pct" : "12", "club_savings_amt" : "3.60", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "30.00" } }

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It is something sacred to have a friend so close that you know them better than they know themself: to know their faults as well as their strengths, to know that, however much time you spend apart, there is no question that you’ll be brought back together. In Naima Coster’s Take What You Can, Val and Milly become such forever friends after meeting in a study abroad program in Paris, where they bond over having lost their mothers (Milly’s has died; Val and her mother are estranged). More than 10 years later, Milly is a successful lifestyle influencer living in Park Slope in Brooklyn and Val is a writer in suburban North Carolina when the friends find themselves pregnant at the same time. Val decides to move to New York City with her partner to have her small family near Milly’s. The grief each of the two friends carries stems from entirely different places, and thus manifests in completely different ways: Val tends to crave attachment, while Milly pulls away. It’s said more than once in Take What You Can that “there should be push and pull in every relationship, but not too much.” Milly and Val have been learning to dance this dance since they first met, but their proximity after Val’s move to Brooklyn forces them to confront their individual challenges and the hard parts of their friendship on a new level. While exploring friendship, motherhood and grief, Coster, the author of What’s Mine and Yours, touches on much more. Both protagonists have complicated marriages and romantic relationships, and queer love is celebrated. Wealth and class disparity is tackled with great care. Space is made to address and reflect on the friends’ experiences as Black women in largely white circles. Encapsulating each of these experiences with nuance and depth, Coster makes sure that readers will find something to relate to in this beautiful, honest reflection of modern American life. In the spirit of Tayari Jones’ Kin and Fredrik Backman’s My Friends, Take What You Can reminds us that there is so much in the world to love. This is a book to cry over and hold close.