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…

Good Talk

This is only the second graphic novel I’ve ever read, the first being Persepolis, last year. And that was a creative, touching and unique reading experience, which made me very open to trying more. So when this new release got great reviews from some of the bookstagrammers I respect the most (@lupita.reads and @allisonreadsdc), I…

You Can’t Touch My Hair

I picked up this memoir/essay/commentary collection at one of my library’s used book sales at least a year ago. But I’ve been trying to focus hard on balancing library/new release reads with catching up on some of my backlist book titles, so it made it off the TBR and onto the “currently reading” list as…

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…