A Girl Is a Body of Water

My 11th Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 longlist read! I actually have had an earlier novel by Makumbi, Kintu, on my TBR for years. Having read this one first, due to my personal longlist challenge, I have to say that I am blown away by Makumbi’s work and am now planning to pick that one…

Furia

This book is a YA situation that appealed to me on a very deep level. I grew up playing soccer because my father played. And my brothers too, though they were younger than me, they started before me and I decided to try because, I don’t know, sibling FOMO maybe? Anyways, it turned out to…

All My Mother’s Lovers

I’m not sure what pulled me to this book. Perhaps the title? I think the idea of someone’s mother having lots of lovers was really fascinating to me, as generally once people become a mother, they sort of lose an individual personality and start to get characterized only in their relationship to someone else, their…

Vox

There has definitely been a trend in recent literature for speculative stories about dystopian futures (especially in the US and especially for women). This isn’t really a surprise, I don’t think, considering some of the leadership we’re currently experiencing. And it definitely adds a realistically frightening edge to the speculative-ness of the stories. Obviously, Margaret…

Know My Name

This has been on my TBR since the moment I heard about it. And that was only reinforced by all the reviews I saw of it. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy though, for so many reasons, personal and otherwise. But important and necessary. Originally, I was nervous when my hold came up…

Girl, Woman, Other

I had never heard of Bernardine Evaristo before this novel won the Booker Prize this past year (and yes, I am going to choose to believe that she won it singularly, for many reasons…agree or disagree, that’s my stance). In any case, I knew that I wanted to support Evaristo, so I went ahead and…

Trick Mirror

This recently released collection of essays has been getting a lot of praise from bookstagrammers and reviewers my age. It seemed like Tolentino’s writing was doing a great job capturing the frustrating and ridiculous parts of the millennial reality and, as a millennial myself (actually, I’m the same age as Tolentino), I was super curious…

Juliet Takes a Breath

This has been on my TBR for a few years now, but no libraries near me have had it. And this past year has been a strict one, financially, so buying it wasn’t necessarily an option for me. Anyways, in an exciting turn, it was chosen for re-publication this year! Which meant a few things.…

Sabrina & Corina

This one has been on my TBR since it came out. So. Really not that long, but many great reviews and lots of award nominations made me want to read it ASAP. In fact, it’s on the longlist for the Aspen Prize for Literature, which, after hearing about this award for the first time last…

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered

Basically, it was the title of this book that got me. Honestly, there’s no way anyone can convince me that a title like this doesn’t grab their interest. Nope. You can’t do it. This title is fantastic. And really, that’s all it took. (So, there’s a plug for choosing the right title if I’ve ever…