132. "Honky"~ Dalton Conley

Dalton Conley's childhood has all the requisite normalcies: sleepovers with friends, Little League games, bus rides to school.

Knives being held to his throat.

This memoir/non-fiction book delves into Conley's life as one of the few white people living in the tenements off Avenue D in New York City. Rather than a tell-all, cry-me-a-river diatribe, it is a book that analyzes the issues of race and class.

Questioning how and if his "whiteness" got him out of jams (setting a friend's apartment on fire, for example) is part of the appeal. Here is the story of a boy who desperately wanted to be called, "nigga." There is no way to make sociology more appealing.

4.5 out of 5.0 New York Cocktails.