In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

With her wise, wry, and poignant novels of families and friendships, Terry McMillan has touched millions of readers. Now, in her eighth novel, the author of Waiting to Exhale gives exuberant voice to characters who reveal how we live now -- at least as lived in a racially diverse Los Angeles neighborhood. Who Asked You? casts an intimate look at the burdens and blessings of family and speaks to trusting your own judgment when others don't agree.

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for...

An African-American woman in her forties discovers that the unplanned life may be the best.

"Louise spends her days working at Maggie's Cafe and her nights at the Zodiac, Manhattan's hottest speakeasy. When a girl turns up dead in front of the cafe, Louise is forced to confront something she's been trying to ignore - several local black girls have been murdered over the past few weeks. After Louise's night job gets her arrested, she's given an ultimatum: She can either help solve the case or let a judge make an example of her"--