The Office of Historical Corrections

My 10th Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 longlist read! I’m two thirds of the way there – maybe I will actually make it! Anyways, this one was amaze-balls. As per usual, here's a quick note with reactions for each story, and the closing novella of course, with some final thoughts to wrap it up. The…

Minor Feelings

I've had this one on my TBR since it came out last year, so I'm excited to finally have gotten to it. I don't really have a lot else to say in this little intro. I had both the audiobook and physical book from the library, which I am realizing more and more that I really…

Interior Chinatown

In high school, I co-wrote a full-length screenplay with a friend of mine. It was called The Five Stages of Baldness and was (very) loosely based on another friend who had shaved her head, chronicling the stages of hair re-growth alongside a number of other high school dramas. I believe there might have been a…

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…

You Should See Me in a Crown

From the moment I’d heard about this book, I’d added it to my TBR. That title, that (adorable) cover, the short description I’d read about small town prom and a queer love story…it was all right up my alley for a light, YA read (which I generally sprinkle into my reading throughout the year for…

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…

Your House Will Pay

This is another one of the “grab everything you’ve had your eye on and can find” library books that I managed to bring home before it closed due to coronavirus. In fact, this is the second time I had checked the particular one out from the library, but I just couldn’t get to it before…

The Nickel Boys

Knowing what this book was about, I was super nervous about reading it. I was afraid of the intensity of the content. But I still had it tentatively on my TBR, because I had read and really appreciated Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad when I read it a few years ago. (In fact, I event went…

Beloved

I am 31 years old, an avid reader, was the nerdy kid in English class who always actually read the books assigned, and yet…this is the first of Toni Morrison’s works that I’ve ever read. I’m disappointed in both myself and all the school systems I went through. But it’s never too late to correct…

SLAY

There are so many freaking reasons why I picked up this book: the cover (gorgeous), the title (so good), the description (so unique and, though I’m not personally a gamer, it sounded fascinating), and very importantly, Black women in STEM (phenomenally necessary YA rep). Anyways, not to give too big of a spoiler for the…