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…

Disability Visibility

I cut it really close, but this is the final book I needed to finish out the Reading Women Challenge 2020 (this is for prompt #8 “An Anthology by Multiple Authors”). Of note, I’ll post a full compilation of all the books I read for the Challenge, and likely list some favorites of the bunch…

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.…

A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing

This isn’t a book that I’ve seen around or reviewed often. In fact, I had to request my library purchase it since they didn’t already have a copy when I went looking to borrow it. So, I had to wait for it to be bought and delivered before, excitingly, being the first person to borrow…

Stamped From the Beginning

This book is intimidating – it is heavy and thick – but I knew as soon as I saw the IG-hosted readalong from @melanatedreader, @_pagesgaloree, and @booksteanhenny that that was the community to read with and the time to pick it up. (As an exciting addition, my college roommate messaged and wanted to join as…

Brown Girl Dreaming

I know I don’t usually read children’s/middle grade books, and Woodson has written “adult” books, so I’m not really sure what made me feel like this needed to be the first one by her that I read. But there was definitely a reason, because I bought this a year or so ago and have had…

The Tradition

I don’t read a lot of poetry. I never really have. And though I’ve picked up and loved a few collections over my years on this blog (notably: If They Come for Us and Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings), I haven’t really been what I would consider “converted” to the art form. However, as is…

How We Get Free

This book was chosen by a friend as the first book of an Anti-Racist Book Club that she started. I know that the reactions to white people, white women, starting book clubs like this to address racism is very understandably skeptical as an empty gesture that will soon be moved on from… All I can…

How We Fight For Lives

I’d seen a couple reviews for this memoir that said it was very powerful, and I was interested in reading it, but I can’t necessarily say it was super high on my TBR, objectively. However, it was one of the books I managed to grab in my last library haul before the closures for COVID-19.…

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…