Hello and Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was created by Miz B formerly of shouldbereading and currently hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!
Published September 29th 2020 by Gallery/Scout Press
Spell the Month in Books
This is my second time trying to read this one. The first time I was listening to the audiobook and it just did not click with me. This time reading on the Kindle. Not quite where I was the last time but more of the plot is sinking in and I am connecting more So maybe this time I will finish it.
I came across the 52 Weeks of Women of Color challenge late last year. When I jumped aboard I had no idea just how wonderful my reading experience was going to be. More than half of these books were from new-to-me authors and they span a gambit of genres.
As this month is #NonfictionNovember here is My post – “Nonfiction Works by Women of Color.”
From Goodreads – “Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous essay “The Talented Tenth” and fuelled by Ladee Hubbard’s marvelously original imagination, The Talented Ribkins is a big-hearted debut novel about race, class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some problems from time to time, bind a family together.”
I enjoyed this family and their hijinks. My favorite part was when Johnny was teaching Eloise about their family history. The moral of the story was knowing who you are and what your gift is. That everyone has a special spark or super power to brighten the world.
From GoodReads: “Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love–finding beauty and possibility in life–and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition.”
So glad I had access to both the audio and the hard copy. I liked hearing the author’s words and experiences in her own voice. Yet I felt that what she was saying was so important that I had to see the words, mark them down. Absorb them.
This is a semi-autobiographical YA novel about a young girl that struggles with anxiety and depression. Written by poet Morgan Parker, it rings true and is very relatable. Parker captures the aughts (2000s), its music and a young black girl’s struggle with fitting in with humor and grace.
FUNNY! I would definitely recommend listening to the audiobook for this one. Sidibe narrates it herself and will have you in stitches! Who would have known that Precious was so funny?
From GoodReads – The Revisioners explores the depths of women’s relationships—powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between a mother and a child, the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.
This was a heartbreaking memoir. Chanel Miller recalls her attack by Brock Turner and describes the anguish she went through in the days after and during the trial. I applaud her strength in coming forward and telling her story as a victim, then a survivor and now an activist.
From GoodReads – Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Red Queen, this is the first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy-romance duet about a deadly assassin, his mysterious apprentice, and the country they are sworn to protect from #1 NYT bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz.
The books showcased in this post were all read in February this year.
The Purpose of Power is not your typical memoir. Yes, Alicia Garza pours her personal experience into these pages but her focus is on building community.
She talks about the definition of empowerment and explains how it is different from power
She walks us through the historical aspects of movements including the civil rights movement
We learn the difference between having a following and a having a base and what it takes to mobilize that base during a movement.
While Garza dispels the idea that black lives matter is a hashtag, she also criticizes those who have co-opted the movement for their own personal and political gain. These individuals were never part of BLM nor were involved in its founding. One case in point is the lawsuit brought about by a Baton Rouge police officer. During the 2016 protest against police brutality the officer was struck upon the head and suffered brain injuries. He sued the three founders of Black Lives Matter. The judge ruled against him citing that you cannot sue a social movement. Furthermore, the protest was not organized or promoted BLM. DeRay McKesson was the organizer of that event. He is a community activist but is not, nor has he ever been, a member of Black Lives Matter.
There have been several instances where the media has credited him and other men as having leading roles in the organization. Oftentimes, these men fail to correct them. In McKesson’s case he has met with politicians and dignitaries on behalf of Black Lives Matter. Hillary Clinton even sat down to meet with him during her presidential bid after Garza, Cullors and Tometi declined to align themselves with either campaign.
Garza stresses that the vision for the Black Lives Matter movement came to fruition through the hard work and dedication of three black and queer women. So why don’t we hear more of them? Simple, she says women are invisible in this society especially those that are marginalized.
Despite recognizing the importance of this intersectionality, she stresses that we must find common ground. What is the one purpose that you all have? Work towards that aim. Garza admits that there will always be things that people disagree about and that not everyone is going to value the same things. But if you stay focused on that one thing that ties you all together you can see measured success.
On a personal note, she called me out and I’m sure she called out a bunch of you guys too, when she was going over empathy. If someone is telling you that they are suffering from something, they are not expecting you to tell them of your experience with the same thing. They just want you to listen and to be heard. You may tell them you feel for their pain. It was funny because there was a guy who posted something about being distracted with reading and I went on to respond that I too had been distracted during the Covid pandemic instead of just saying that I understood. I could have just shared my support. Perhaps give suggestions. It may seem like a minor issue, but I think we are more aware of our reactions to big issues. These small moments occur every day and we often don’t realize what we are doing. If we are going to come together as a nation we need to start learning how to put ourselves in each other’s shoes and try to see things from other people’s perspectives. We also have to be able to find that common ground so we can heal as a nation.
The Dead Are Arising is the collaborative effort of Les Payne and his daughter Tamara. For the heralded columnist this is his opus, a thirty year labor of love. For Tamara Payne it is a testament to her father as much as it is to Malcolm.
This past Friday I had the pleasure of seeing Tamara Payne interviewed on Politics and Prose. In discussing the direction of The Dead Are Arising she explained how our love for the man clouds our vision of him. That we tend to see him in a vacuum. He is this myth of a man and we forget that he is a man who had a family. These extensions of himself that are still grounded here. His legacy lives on in them and although we as a public want to claim him, he really isn’t ours to own. In expressing these sentiments she could have been talking about Malcolm or her father Les Payne. In completing this book, one of Payne’s chief aims was to be true to her father’s voice. As his daughter, this book was her gift to the rest of his family; her hope that they would hear his voice as they read its pages.
The Dead Are Arising is the culmination of hundreds of interviews with the people who knew Malcolm best. While reading the book I found it hard not to compare it to The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This was in part because I read it directly before delving into this work, but also because the authors refer to it throughout. As a scientist, I considered this a natural part of being a researcher where your role is to verify the validity of the data presented to you. In some cases The Autobiography is supported. In others it is refuted.
Within its pages we get a new perspective of his early life and family dynamics. The previous claim that Malcolm’s father was murdered by the Klan is challenged. More attention is paid to the structure and the founding of the Nation of Islam. Most revelatory for me was the passages that detailed Malcolm’s meeting with the Ku Klux Klan in 1961 and the coverage of his assassination.
Payne is very protective of her subject. In fact fans of Marable’s book have criticized The Dead Are Arising for being too generous towards Malcolm’s legacy. His criminal activities are not as extensive or terrible as they appear in his autobiography. Miss Payne accounts for this difference by claiming that the purpose of exaggerating Malcolm’s street life in The Autobiography sets the stage for his origin myth. The more despicable a picture you paint of your past, the greater the redemptive value of your religious conversion.
The Dead Are Arising was an engrossing read. A vivid portrait, it gives insight into Malcolm Little, the child and El Hajj Malik Shabazz, the man. I believe Tamara Payne has done what she set out to do – amplify the voices of both her father and Malcolm.
Spell the Month in Books is a fun challenge created by Jana @ Reviews from the Stacks. The idea is to spell the month using the first letter from books you plan to read during that month. As we are approaching the end of the year I am using November to catch up on challenges and Netgalley ARCs.
So here goes nothing.
N is for Nectar in a Sieve
I received my copy of this book in a care package especially curated for me by Caveat Emptor Used Books. Named Notable Book of year in 1955 by the American Library Association, Nectar in the Sieve is the story about a child bride in India.
Challenge: 52 Weeks of Women in Color, Shelf-A-Thon
O is for On the Come Up
I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while now. Found the Hate You Give absolutely riveting so I just have to read this one.
Challenge: 52 Weeks of Women in Color, 2020 PopSugar Challenge, Shelf-A-Thon
V is for Victories Greater Than Death
I never thought of myself as a science fiction fantasy reader but my I guess I am going to rethink my labels and I have Charlie Jane Anders to thank in part for that. When I read All the Birds in the Sky for the 2017 Tournament of Books I surprised myself by liking it as much as I did. So of course I put in my wish for this book when it popped upon NetGalley.
Challenge: NetGalley
E is for The End of the Day
I tried to listen to this audiobook while doing my daily exercise but it couldn’t hold my attention. I do not know if it was the story line or the narrator (Bill Clegg himself) but I had to put it down. I will be revisiting this book in print with the hope of clearing my NetGalley shelf.
Challenge: NetGalley
M is for Mem
I came across this book while trying to find a title that fulfilled the “Set in the 1920s” task for the 2020 PopSugar Challenge. This debut novella by Bethany C. Morrow is highly rated among my GoodReads friends and has received many accolades. Her YA book A Song Below Water was a 5 star read for me.
Challenge: 2020 PopSugar Challenge; 52 Weeks of Women of Color
B is for Black Futures
Black Futures is a collaborative effort between Jenna Wortham New Your Times culture writer and Kimberly Drew art curator. A mix of essays, photos, poetry about the Black experience . . . I was intrigued when I received the widget for this book.
Challenge: 52 Weeks of Women of Color, NetGalley, Nonfiction November
E is for The Emissary
I remember when this book was nominated for the National Book Awards and everyone on my GoodReads page was raving about this book. Then Voila! It went on sale and I snatched it up.
Challenge: Shelf-A-Thon, 52 Weeks of Women of Color, 2020 PopSugar Challenge
R is for Red Island House
This book was recommended by a member of The Black Bookcase on GoodReads.
Challenge: 52 Weeks of Women of Color, NetGalley, Life of a Book Addict Color Challenge
This year I have taken on the challenge of reading 52 books by women of color. Simple enough – every week pick a book written by a woman of color from any genre, any time period, any place in the world. I have taken on many challenges but this one has been the most rewarding. Over this past year I have been introduced to many new authors and new perspectives.
As I have not been posting my challenge as I went along I decided to recap my year with women of color thus far. Each Friday from now through January 1st I will showcase a few of the books I have completed during this challenge.
Book #1: Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
“A powerful and taut novel about racial tensions in LA, following two families—one Korean-American, one African-American—grappling with the effects of a decades-old crime”
Book #2: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
“A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities. This is the story of a mother’s struggle against a house’s entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina. The Yellow House expands the map of New Orleans to include the stories of its lesser known natives, guided deftly by one of its native daughters, to demonstrate how enduring drives of clan, pride, and familial love resist and defy erasure. Located in the gap between the “Big Easy” of tourist guides and the New Orleans in which Broom was raised, The Yellow House is a brilliant memoir of place, class, race, the seeping rot of inequality, and the internalized shame that often follows. It is a transformative, deeply moving story from an unparalleled new voice of startling clarity, authority, and power.”
Book #3: Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
“Rich with hard-won wisdom and humanity, set in locales from Miami and Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, Everything Inside is at once wide in scope and intimate, as it explores the forces that pull us together, or drive us apart, sometimes in the same searing instant.”
Book #4: Sabrina and Corina: Stories
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
The stories in this collection speak to the indigenous Latina’s experience. Dark, yet luminous, Sabrina and Corina are heart aching stories. The common thread – a glimmer of hope in the face of loss and violence.
This critically acclaimed novel deals with racism, classism, the patriarchy and elitism in academia. Loosely based on Howards End, On Beauty pays homage to one of Smith’s favorite authors, E. M. Forster. Although there are parallels between the two novels, Smith’s aim was more so to emulate Forster’s style of writing. In an interview with Thalia Book Club, Smith said that what she admired most about Forster was how he did not pick sides in an argument. In On Beauty the opposite sides of the coin are represented by the Kipps and Belsey families.
Monty Kipps and Howard Belsey are arch nemeses. Revered in their field, their rivalry is protracted and well known. The Kipps are an affluent West Indian family living in Britain. They are deeply religious. Their political viewpoints are ultra-conservative and right wing. The Belseys are an interracial couple who are left leaning and decidedly atheist. Howard comes from a fairly modest background. He knows what it means to go without. A “pull yourself up from the bootstraps” type of guy, he is the first in his family to get a college degree.
Smith is very descriptive in painting well developed pictures of this dichotomy. And yes, she manages to remain impartial, exposing both sides as morally flawed.
Although Smith incorporates the aesthetic as a measure of beauty with cultural references to music, art and the physical form, her emphasis is on character. The world that she paints is not black and white but a kaleidoscope of colors.
One painting mentioned in the novel that spoke to me was that of the Maitresse Erzulie. The Haitian spirit of beauty, Erzulie may take the form of a woman or a man. Their character is a two-edged sword. On one hand they are representative of love, goodwill and fortune. On the other they bring about jealousy, vengeance and discord. The warning here is clear: we cannot be so binary in our thinking. The world is not a collection of opposites but is populated by people who are both good and evil. Our focus therefore should not be on harboring grudges based off of our differences, but be on cultivating that goodness that is within each of us.
Saudade is a feeling of melancholy brought on by the sense of absence and a longing to return to what was lost and can never be regained.
This sense of yearning ripples throughout this novella as a young Goan emigre struggles to find her self and her place during the Angolan Civil War. A daughter of Portuguese sympathizers she comes to realize that their existence, albeit of a privileged class, is that of outsiders. Yet they no more belong in Goa than they do in Angola. She does not recall her ancestral home and her parents cannot fathom how to return to a “life they have forgotten”. Peres da Costa eloquently captures this feeling of displacement across characters and experiences. Saudade is applied not only to the immigrant experience but to intimacy and coming of age.
I fell under Schweblin’s spell when I read Fever Dream for the Tournament of Books. I remember being haunted by her prose. This story collection has that same eery quality. Although Schweblin uses magical realism in her stories there’s something about the way she conveys her message that makes her plots ring frighteningly true. My favorites from this collection include tales about deserted women who grasp a chance at freedom, children who are transformed into butterflies and an old storyteller in a bar.
Book #8 Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
This book had me raging. Medical Apartheid is a detailed account of the atrocities that African Americans have faced at the hands of the medical profession and the scientific community. Most of us are familiar with the government funded Tuskegee Syphilis experiment but many do not realize how extensive and pervasive these egregious practices are currently. In today’s world children of color are more likely to be targeted for studies of a non-therapeutic nature. Men of color are rounded up for random DNA fingerprinting, infringing upon their legal and personal rights. The poor are exploited as a free resource for experimentation when they enter emergency rooms for care. Black employees are unknowingly tested for hereditary and social diseases. Their DNA profiles are then used to discriminate against them.
This does not even touch upon all that is covered in this book. Although Ron Butler does a fantastic job narrating this book, I would behoove you to get a physical copy. There was so much information here that I felt I should be highlighting and taking notes on. I found this hard to do in the audio format. For me Medical Apartheid is a book that I need to own. It is the type of book that you come back to time and again, each time gleaning more information.
Book #9: Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons by Ashli St. Armant
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 10 out of 10.
Even when I told her that the most stars she could give this book was 5 stars, my baby insisted it get all the stars! 100 stars from my little princess. (She thinks 100 is the highest number.😃)
If you would like to discover a new author check out my original post on the Mocha Girls Read blog: Debut Novels by Women of Color.
Spell the Month in Books is a fun challenge created by Jana @ Reviews from the Stacks. The idea is to spell the month using the first letter from books you plan to read during that month. When I saw it on Susan’s page I decided I would jump in on the fun but as October is nearly over I decided to instead highlight books from another challenge I am participating in called 52 Weeks of Women of Color.
O is for One Night in Georgia
“Set in the summer of 1968, (One Night in Georgia) a provocative and devastating novel of individual lives caught in the grips of violent history—a timely and poignant story that reverberates with the power of Alice Walker’s Meridian and Ntozake Shange’s Betsey Browne.“
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
C is for Conjure Women
Conjure Women is a magical debut that vividly captures America after the Civil War. A compulsive read, it emphasizes the importance of community, the resilience of women and knowing your power.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
T is for The Talking Drum
The Talking Drum examines gentrification and its impact on the black community was what drew me to this book. With the beating of the drums as an undercurrent throughout the book, Braxton reminds the reader of our connection to the ancestors and spirituality. That rhythm is our collective heartbeat. It symbolizes that all within the diaspora are of one blood despite our divisiveness.
The take home message from The Talking Drum was about community and of people holding steadfast in their convictions and weathering the storm together.
The Other Americans is a multilayered novel. It is all at once a family saga, a mystery, social commentary and a love story. Told from the perspectives of the victim, his immigrant family, neighbors and police, The Other Americans not only provides a clear lens for racial and class tensions, but also allows insight into the burdens our protectors carry. Although the book description focuses on the hit and run accident that claimed the life of patriarch Driss Guerraroui, at the forefront of this novel is love: self-love and acceptance, the love between a parent and child, sacrifice and romantic love. Not a syrupy sweet fairy tale romance, but a soul stirring love with real people, real issues and real emotion.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
B is for Banned Book Club
Banned Book Club is a graphic novel set during South Korea’s Fifth Republic. One aspect of the book that I liked was that it shows throughout history how books and art were used as a form of protest. The author not only declares books as political, but goes further to address the reasons why those in power censor books. The reason is not just because of possible messages of dissent, but rather that they can see themselves as the villains of these novels. Their fear that others may recognize this is what drives them to ban books. They want to control their image, to control the political narrative.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
E is for Empire of Wild
Dimaline’s Empire of Wild is a love story. It is about family, tradition, the gift of our elders. It is also a social commentary on the dispossessed, on capitalism and the perverting of religion for financial gain. The horror of this story is not the Rogarou, but big business and their manipulation of legal loopholes to trample on indigenous people and the land.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
R is for The Revisioners
“The Revisioners explores the depths of women’s relationships—powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between a mother and a child, the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Check out my GoodReads page to see my full reviews and more suggestions of diverse reads!
I am late to the game with this Readathon. I first saw it on Twitter on Deja (I hope I spelled her name right.) – Diary of a Reader‘s page. This is the third round of Mermaid-A-Thon. It is hosted by Fernando of Fernando’s Mermaid Books.
Dark World Challenges
Read a Book That Features War
Read a Book with a Badass Female Main Character
A Thousand Ships is a retelling of the Trojan War from a female perspective. Short listed for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, “A Thousand Ships gives voices to the women, girls and goddesses who, for so long, have been silent.”
Read a Book By a Black Author
Read a Predicted 5 star Read
In Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, “the Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.”
Read a Horror Middle Grade Book
Dead Voices is the spine tingling sequel to Katherine Arden’s Small Spaces. When I read this book a few years ago I got so swept up in the story that I forgot it was supposed to be a family read. LOL Looking forward to see where Arden takes Ollie and friends in this next chapter.
Read a Book with Revenge
In this first installment of Robert Pobi’s Lucas Page series, former FBI agent Lucas Page must find a sniper bent on revenge before his family find themselves in the sniper’s lens.
1. :a gentle sheen or soft glow, especially that of a partly reflective surface.
2. a: a glow of light from within : LUMINOSITY the luster of the stars; b: an inner beauty : RADIANCE
3 : a superficial attractiveness or appearance of excellence
I have a hard time putting into words what I think about this book. I didn’t really like the characters and I found the story sad. There is quite a bit of social commentary though. Now please understand that a book does not need likeable characters to be a good book. There are some books where the only reason why I read them is because of the bad@$$ antagonist. Sometimes you need a character you love to hate to drive the novel. But Luster is not that type of novel. All the characters are suffering and throughout the book we see them archiving their loneliness and sorrow in different ways. It doesn’t matter what skin they are in – young, old, black, white, rich or poor — there is pain and desolation here. And you wait a long time for Edie to find her inner beauty and shine. In the end she discovers more about who she is, but she has not come full circle yet.
As I was reading there were sentences that stopped me in my tracks. All I could say is “Wow! That’s deep!” There was poetry in the language and a depth of understanding the human condition. Then there were other times where I felt that the text was too cerebral. I felt that the writing got in the way of emoting the feelings.
From this debut it is obvious that Raven Leilani is very talented and creative. I am interested in seeing what she does next.
Raven Leilani
Raven‘s debut novel, Luster, is forthcoming from FSG August 2020. Her work has been published in Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Yale Review, Conjunctions, The Cut, and New England Review, among other publications. She completed her MFA at NYU. Represented by Ellen Levine @ Trident. You can reach her at @RavenLeilani
This week was filled with many ups and downs. My best reading day was Wednesday with 571 pages. By the end of the day I had finished 4 books for the week and was halfway through the fifth. My worst day was Thursday when my migraines started. But as you can see I never picked myself back up. Still feeling drained and out of sorts. Not sure if I am actually sick or just run down from online classes.
What Books Did I Read This Week?
This week my focus was on reading ARCs and getting my NetGalley average up. In total I read 7 ARCs and 2 backlist titles – A Good Marriage and The Night Watchman. Both backlist titles were bookclub picks.
Here are the buy links and release dates of the ARCs I read this week:
My NetGalley feedback ratio is now 91%, the highest since I joined the service. I still have 13 galleys to read. Four of these are due to be released within the next month.
Which Book Was My Favorite?
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
I had four five star reads this week. Choosing one is very hard as they were all different styles and genres. The Death of Vivek Oji is a contemporary fiction about identity. Emezi’s prose is tender and beautiful. I cried my way through this one. The Night Swim is a fast paced thriller. After the Rain is a graphic novel adapted from one of Okorafor’s short stories and Underground, Monroe and the Mamalogues are three plays written by scholar Lisa B. Thompson.
But if I have to choose just one it would have to be Awaeke Emezi’s third novel, The Death of Vivek Oji.
What Am I Reading Next?
Empire of Wild is a supernatural fable in the vein of Little Red Riding Hood. Hieroglyphics is a contemporary novel about parenthood, memory and loss. I will be reviewing both of these novels over the next week so stop back and hear my thoughts.
Carry a Big Book 