Excellent! Two years ago Zoe Washington helped her dad get exonerated and released from prison, now she's fourteen, and learning about what life afterExcellent! Two years ago Zoe Washington helped her dad get exonerated and released from prison, now she's fourteen, and learning about what life after prison is like for those who served time....more
I read this for this for the Women's Prize. I am a big fan of sci fi but not a big fan of space operas/aliens. Since it isn't a book I would naturallyI read this for this for the Women's Prize. I am a big fan of sci fi but not a big fan of space operas/aliens. Since it isn't a book I would naturally pick up, I'll leave it unrated....more
Medie is a masterful storyteller, she first sets up the story of Akorfa before subverting it with Selasi. She shows two childhoods side by side but woMedie is a masterful storyteller, she first sets up the story of Akorfa before subverting it with Selasi. She shows two childhoods side by side but worlds apart. The interpretation of memory, generational trauma and the price of 'reptutation' and silence.
I have seen the way she has carefully done this with Afi in His Only Wife and I am impressed by how she continues this in her sophomore novel. I cannot wait for all the stories she will tell in the future.
CW: sexual assualt of minors (concise but on page), sexual harassment, sexism, abandonment, racism, physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexualization and shaming of young girls, corrupt government, abortion, death of a parent
Medie does a good job of discussing these topics without it ever being graphic....more
This collection interacts with a report that was issued following the 1919 Race Riot in Chicago that killed 23, injured hundreds and dehomed thousandsThis collection interacts with a report that was issued following the 1919 Race Riot in Chicago that killed 23, injured hundreds and dehomed thousands of Black residents.
The excerpts from the report are harrowing, the poems Countless Schemes and July, July! That look at the schemes to eradicate Black people in America and the 1995 heat wave that killed 739 people, primarily improverished Black people both rocked me. The appalling othering and inability to value people of colour as human and worthy of dignity and fiancial security (homes, healthcare, education, opportunitues, assistance as needed).
This book was penned and published in 2019, and it draws back on 1919, because a hundred years before white people paraded through streets beating, looting and killing Black people. This violence lasted days. Openly. In the streets.
And this continues to ricochet through the century, the inequality, the othering, the racism.
We also look at the Great Migration, and how it rendered lonliness and seperation from family and friends and how many southern Black teachers ended up as factory workers in Chicago, their degrees considered nothing.
There's also a striking portrait of a Black man reading a book on a bus when he sees a white boy smiling at him, the boy's mother catches the smile and chides her son, forching his face away. It shows how prejudice is not inherent, it is taught. "What a thing: to be an invisible man, seen only by a babe."
We talk about the homlessness caused by the riots:
"My children, my precious ones I can never take you home. You have none And so you go, out into the wind"
The wind here has a triple meaning, 'in the wind' can mean uncertanity, it can also mean the literal wind as the family is now unhoused and subject to the weather, and it can be a reference to Chicago itself as the 'Windy City.'
I found many of the excerpts of the reports and her introduction more powerful than the poetry. I'm particular with my poetry and this didn't always work for me in regards to verse type but the content was do good I could overlook it. But I wonder if I should check out Ewing's other work before any of her poetry again.
Notes while reading:
"I am lonely for them here"
"The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either good or evil" –Hannah Arendt
Countless Schemes wrecked me inside, the kind that shakes you on the inside but leaves no tears
739 people died of heat related deaths in 5 days in Chicago in July of 1995.
"They slept like that, tangled together, under the canopy of her voice"...more
"Beneath your lover's windows Next to the years you left there" –Sophia Thakur
"We are callusimg where we should soften." – Sophia Thakur (about immigrat"Beneath your lover's windows Next to the years you left there" –Sophia Thakur
"We are callusimg where we should soften." – Sophia Thakur (about immigration)
"I suppose I grew up like him with a heart of scars Holding tight to a love layered in loss" –Sophia Thakur (about parents)
"These were things that I once contested And then just became accustomed to" . . . . "I got to know the hold that you had on me so well the hold that strangled out my expectations." –Sophia Thakur
"and slide right into 2am so I can cry and hurt in peace until I empty myself into sleep" – Sophia Thakur
"I can't help but plaster potential over every part of me"...more
This was incredible! I loved the way that Mc Ivor handled a litany of issues with complexity.
Bianca Bridge is at rock bottom, after her affair with aThis was incredible! I loved the way that Mc Ivor handled a litany of issues with complexity.
Bianca Bridge is at rock bottom, after her affair with a prominent politician is revealed she is left modelling with sleazy photographers. Her mother died at fourteen, her father is distant and remarried and she had no friends. She meets a prominent cocky make up artist who insults her and offers her a job in one fell swoop.
So begins her journey, it tackles the ways affairs affect a woman and man differently, the ways rich and powerful men can isolate and manipulate women, the affect of our words. Class, race, gender and corruption. I love how she focused on isolation/ lonliness is a huge factor in abuse and manipulation.
It is a slight take on Pride and Prejudice, with characters that come from different worlds, with different secrets and masques and the way we must change, grow and find our voice.
Mc Ivor's is authorial voice is intoxicating, it sweeps you in and I did not want to leave.
Heavy trigger warnings for disordered eating, food preoccupation and body shaming. Also for those like me that love a closed door approach to sex, there is virtually zero sexual content despite tackling slutshaming and sleaziness. There are references to the affair and them having sex but these scenes are included to demostrate the nature of their relationship and are not explicit or lingered on.
I loved that Mc Ivor had an 'about the book' section where she talked about her various drafts and the development and feedback she received. I have a lot of affection for the Bianca and Obadiah that she slowly developed and changed and that she wasn't afraid to make them human and messy alomg the way. She said so many amazing things on writing and how we learn as we write, both of ourselves and those around but also of how we want yo go forward.
Okay, I love a slow burn but dang, I wanted them to kiss. I know the hint was there and we can see the direction of the relationship but I wanted them to kiss....more
Jason Reynolds has a way with words, he weaves them together with incredible skill. He is masteful in his storytelling and rhythm and the accompanyingJason Reynolds has a way with words, he weaves them together with incredible skill. He is masteful in his storytelling and rhythm and the accompanying art is chef's kiss.
It starts with a photograph of two Black legends dancing in a library, and Reynolds puts the the landscape of this in focus. All that Langston Hughes wrote and all the people who came before and after, looking on and smiling from the shelves.
I love that Reynolds captured what poetry does, that they were able to write in such a way that you feel what a thing is or what it could be. The shakeablity of Harlem, with every letter vibrating. How Angelou and Baraka's wtiting also accomplished in different ways.
I got Langston Hughes' collected poems out of my library in 2018 and read many of them (but there was 800 pages and you can only read so much of even incredible poetry) but I really need to get a more manageable copy and read it. Because this is reminding me how much I liked his writing....more
An early novel by Jacqueline Woodson and one that has ricocheted throughout the years as a retelling of Romeo and Juliet in 1998 New York. Ellie is whAn early novel by Jacqueline Woodson and one that has ricocheted throughout the years as a retelling of Romeo and Juliet in 1998 New York. Ellie is white, Miah is Black. We follow their love story from first meeting as new transfers to the curdling end.
Jacqueline Woodson is one of my favourite authors, this is my eighth book by her that I've read. It was written in 1998, near the beginning of her career, and though it is a poetic and poignant novel I can't help but see where's she's grown as an author. I don't want to do this. But it's hard not to when you love an author's newer work. I could just see some of the weaker pointscin developmemts of the characters and insta love. We have a big part of the novel where they have only bumped into each other and then go a month without seeing each other but are obessed. He doesn't even know her name yet. But then we quite quickly jump through their relationship. Woodson's poetic verse is very able to pull us through time but it doesn't always completely build the momentum and sense of time and history that has passed.
I know how cleverly and beautifully she flows through scenes and seasons and it is wonderful to see that talenr growing here.
It deals with complicated family situations and the realization that your family is racist. It deals with grief, seperation, abandonment and police brutality.
Incredible graphic memoir about race and coming of age. One of the most poignant scenes in which Darrin is asked about racism by his son, and he drawsIncredible graphic memoir about race and coming of age. One of the most poignant scenes in which Darrin is asked about racism by his son, and he draws a specter of his adult self looking at his father turning away from this same conversation. He wants to make the world better, to make a world where he doesn't need to tell his son about police brutality because it doesn't exist anymore. But then he realizes, he needs to inform his son rather than leave him unprepared in a world that hasn't turned its head toward justice.
I think it was especially poignant for him to draw a parrellel toward a child covering over a broken watch with lies to white people covering over history with lies, denying reality and making it worse by avoiding accountability.
I apperciated that Bell acknowledged his own times of racism and harm, like after 9/11 when he drew a cartoon that further stigmatized South Asians....more
She does it again! With wonderful encouragement and beautiful poetry! We trace her journeys from Georgia to California and back again during childhoodShe does it again! With wonderful encouragement and beautiful poetry! We trace her journeys from Georgia to California and back again during childhood and adulthood and the ups and downs, accompanied by lovely art....more
I was captivated by the early stories. I was drawn into Trelawny and his family and him coming of age. I am a big fan of well executed second person aI was captivated by the early stories. I was drawn into Trelawny and his family and him coming of age. I am a big fan of well executed second person and this was excellent.
I lost the thread a little as we shifted to his father, then cousin, brother and back to him. I felt like we had jumped ahead and weren't fully grounded again. I found the senior home section and the portrayal of homelessness and struggling of post grad unemployment so real and evoked. I have seen so much of the desperateness to put food on the table, to pay rent, to get by when everything is rising and you can't get your feet on the ground. It was a big part of the story but it wasn't the whole book and I love that it touched on it without it being a book about homelessness.
The beginning is about race and identity, how we are told and we are perceved. Ome of the lines I found so interesting was 'Trelawny, you're Black. You weren't back in Jamaica but here you are. It's the whole one drop rule.' It really shows how race is constructed and made. Trelawny's parents wom't tell him what he is so he's always in a limbo between the Latino and Black boys, he doesn't speak Spanish (and when they ask why you're parents didn't teach him, they don't know Spanish) but his family doesn't identify as Black. There's also the conversatiob about 'good hair' and 'bad hair.' And the microagressions and treatments, he gets from partners and their families, bosses, instiutions and the internet.
I found Cukie's story also interesting, especially his childhood one where he is meeting his dad. But we never re-meet with him and find out what happened. In generel, there is so much space between what happened and what will happen and I can enjoy that ambiguity in short stories but in my novels I often like things a little more explained.
Over all, it was a good book. The beginning would be a 5 star but it wavered a little and ended up a 3.5...more
"Fry bread is history The long walk, the stolen land Strangers in our own world With unknown food We made new recipes From what we had"
I love that this hi"Fry bread is history The long walk, the stolen land Strangers in our own world With unknown food We made new recipes From what we had"
I love that this highlighted the multiracial identities of many Indigenous people, that being Indigenous is not only one thing, skin colour, tribe, place or culture....more
Quite often, life is too much like a pathless wood Still I have lived so long and travelled so far"
This is a collection of poetry by Kwame Alexander, CQuite often, life is too much like a pathless wood Still I have lived so long and travelled so far"
This is a collection of poetry by Kwame Alexander, Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth celebrating poets from Rumi and Bashō to Sandra Cisneros and Mary Oliver, and many inbetween like Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost and Gwendolyn Brooks.
I love that it's intentiom was to show the accessibility and beauty of poetry to a younger generation. Poetry gets a stuffy, unpenetrable reptutation. But it is reallu beautiful and universal.
I really loved the poems celebrating Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Walter Dean Myers and Gwendolyn Brooks. The others were both hits and misses, mostly on style. I am particular on my style of poetry.
I did wish there was a more diverse staff of writers, I felt uncomfortable reading an ode to Chile, as my country, from a white poet. I think the ways publishing approaches own voices has changed since 2017 and it was lovely too see the diversity on page, so I'm torn.
Chris Colderley is an author from Burlington, Ontario which was so cool! And I learned about Dan George, a twentieth century Indigenous poet from Canada that I am going to be reading more of.
I also was not familar with Walter Dean Myer,and found the way Alexander combined traditional poetic verse with vernacular so cool.
"I'm gonna name the stars after my buddies put 'em each in a story of thrir own so they never forget the summers we spent watching sweeties double Dutch . . . . Yeah, one day I'll stand on my stoop look around at all the nurses, the poets the works, thd hustlers and colour them my heroes beautiful and brilliant heroes bouncing around here in Harlem"
Extraordinary, I want to study the way she writes. It's transfixing, moving, and breathtaking. She tells her own history, interwoven with odes to manyExtraordinary, I want to study the way she writes. It's transfixing, moving, and breathtaking. She tells her own history, interwoven with odes to many people. I felt carried along so narratively.
A lovely picture book confronting the doom we project on children. 'They say everything is too big' but we can all do small things, work toward a bettA lovely picture book confronting the doom we project on children. 'They say everything is too big' but we can all do small things, work toward a better day tomorrow even if it isn't life-changing in the moment it adds up. The illustrations by Christian Robinson are gorgeous.
We need hope in children's books. Not just in lollipops and unicorns but in the affirmation that reality too can be beautiful.
This was a great retelling of Persuasion, Reyna was a complicated character dealing with grief and change and her childhood best friend and love showiThis was a great retelling of Persuasion, Reyna was a complicated character dealing with grief and change and her childhood best friend and love showing back up in her life.
I especially liked the ways Dass handled the complicated dynamics between many of the female characters. It would have been easy to fall into stereotypes when it comes to Eliza, Hailey, Olivia and Helen but there is nuance in all these relationships. Though Olivia could have had more page time to fully flush out their dynamic.
I'm enjoying listening to my soca playlist and had a great time reading it. I don’t know if it will stay in mind forever, but I am excited to read more Sarah Dass.
Despite reading like my ideal ingredients this failed to capture my love. I read it on audio and it is complicated and interwoven plot, but I am no stDespite reading like my ideal ingredients this failed to capture my love. I read it on audio and it is complicated and interwoven plot, but I am no stranger to large ensembles and timelines. I prefer them to more straightforward plots but there was something missing here. A spark. A character to love and dig deep into. I just felt passive about everything. It isn't a bad book but it fails to be a great one.
Kier Scrivener
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