WHO ASKED YOU? - Terry McMillan

Bestselling author McMillan expertly crafts a multi-generational novel about family, at the center of which are three middle-aged sisters - no-nonsense BJ (Betty Jean), dutiful, God-centric Venetia, and angry, judgmental Arlene, as they navigate Los Angeles while raising kids and grandkids and trying to be there for each other (often within a family that talks more ABOUT each other than TO each other).  When BJ's drug-addicted daughter, Trinetta, drops her two young sons off at Betty Jean's for what appears to be for good, the part-time hotel room service worker, already trying to deal with a husband slowly succumbing to Alzheimer's, must try to keep her grandsons from the lure of the streets ... while Venetia, giving so much to her husband and two kids, can't even see how much she's neglecting herself ... and Arlene, after nearly thirty years of single motherhood spent smothering her overweight son, feels the frustration and betrayal of his finally breaking free.  McMillan juggles multiples points of view (each chapter in the "voice" of a different character) quite well; you grow to care for, and about, what happens to them ... as well as identify with the storm-ravaged waters of dealing with both siblings and family.  ****