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…

Sulwe

I don’t think I have read a picture book since I was actually the age for reading picture books. But one of the prompts (#4) for The Reading Women Challenge 2020 is to read a Picture Book by a BIPOC Author, so here was my chance to try something “new.” I had legitimately no idea…

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

This first novel by Ocean Vuong (who has previously published a collection of poetry that has been on my TBR for years) is the most recent book that I’ve seen sweeping the reading community. I’ve seen nothing but amazing reviews and recommendations and so I knew that, eventually, I’d want to read it. But I…

Eloquent Rage

This book has been on my shelf for over a year. I’ve heard so many amazing things about this piece of nonfiction, and it’s impossible to deny the way that simple cover just catches the eye. Perfect design for the title. Anyways, the Just One More Pa(i)ge Reading Challenge prompt for July was “a book…

Americanah

After reading two of Adichie’s nonfiction pieces over the past few years, Dear Ijeawele and We Should All Be Feminists, and loving them, I knew that I was going to have to get around to reading some of her fiction sooner rather than later. I asked on bookstagram to see where I should start and…