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…

The Vanishing Half

I read The Mothers a few years ago and generally enjoyed and was impressed by the debut. Bennett did a wonderful job writing real, flawed, “regular people” characters in a genuine and interesting way. So, I definitely knew that I’d look into whatever she wrote next. And then The Vanishing Half came out this past…

Against the Loveless World

This is the 8th book from the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 longlist that I have read (halfway through the list!)…and I am pretty sure it’s going to make it onto my shortlist prediction. Because holy *deep breath* this is a powerhouse of a novel. Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa “I indulge an…

A Children’s Bible

My 7th book on the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 Longlist and this is one that was neither on my radar at all prior to this list nor one that I read anything about before picking it up (or, to be fair, starting the audio...the narrator for which has a particularly grating voice, in my…

The Death of Vivek Oji

This is the 5th book of the Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist 2021 that I’ve gotten to. I’m a third of the way through the list now! This is one I definitely was planning to read anyways, having read and been so freaking impressive by both Freshwater and Pet, so it’s nice that it overlapped…

The Yield

I made myself a goal for this year to be better about keeping track of which reviewers bring books to my attention/convince me to pick them up, so that I can give credit where it’s due in my reviews. Unfortunately, this book was put on my radar prior to that goal. So, I cannot properly…

Memorial

I’ve heard so many good things about Washington’s first publication, Lot, a short story collection. I have been meaning to read it for a while, but short stories are not always my thing and I just haven’t been in the mood/headspace for that. When I saw this new book come through the library to be…

Real Life

This book was first on my radar long before it’s publication date by a couple reviewers on bookstagram whose opinions I highly value (@allisonreadsdc and @parisperusing) who both commented things along the lines of it being one of the most anticipated reads of the year and, then, absolutely destined to be one of their favorites.…

The Blazing World

This is a backlist title that I had picked up at a used book sale or store awhile ago and it’s just been sitting on my TBR shelf since then. I always try to sprinkle in backlist reads with new releases (which is always harder towards the end of the year), and this one was…

The Mountains Sing

As soon as I heard about this one, I added it to my TBR: an intergenerational saga of a family living through the incredibly turbulent recent history of Vietnam, told by an author inspired by her own family’s stories. Plus, that cover is just straight up gorgeous. The library waitlist was long (which is great…