Book Review: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan [Introducing the Percy Jackson Project]
The start of The Percy Jackson Project: the stumble of a 20-something through the world of the demigods. Book one: The Lightning Thief.
books
Book Review: Outside the Charmed Circle: Exploring Gender & Sexuality in Magical Practice by Misha Magdalene
I had high hopes for Misha Magdalene’s Outside the Charmed Circle, and I am pleased to say that I was not at all disappointed. This book is a wealth of information about some of the subjects that I enjoy best: embodiment, gender, sexuality, and magic. More importantly, this book calls our attention to the fact […]
Book Reviews in Review Part II: Books that Center Blackness
Over the course of my time writing this blog I’ve reviewed a lot of books, many of which center blackness including books that discuss racism as a larger topic and thus also include marginalization on a wider scale. I thought that, seeing as how this is my last post during Black History Month, it would […]
Book Review: How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
Seeing as how February is Black History Month, I thought that reviewing N.K. Jemisin’s fantastic collection of short stories How Long ‘til Black Future Month? would be an excellent way to start off this month’s reviews and posts. I loved all of these stories, each of them engaging and thrilling, so much so that I […]
Book Review: Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
I thought that Children of Blood and Bone was a fantastic book, but Children of Virtue and Vengeance takes things to a whole new level. Keep in mind, this is a review for a sequel, so there are some small spoilers for Children of Blood and Bone ahead. At the end of Children of Blood […]
Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone is a book that reminds me why I love reading. I was glued to my seat for all 523 pages, and while I’m glad that the sequel is already out and I can continue right along with the story, I’m also furious with myself for letting such a […]
Book Review: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I seriously considered sitting under a streetlamp on a cold November night so that I could finish reading this book after the library closed, but my partner insisted on making me walk home first, much to my chagrin. Gods of Jade and Shadow is a book that utterly seized my soul, and left me feeling […]
Book Review: Sorted by Jackson Bird
Writing this review was a struggle, because Sorted was a very personal read for me. (I’m pretty sure I cried at least twice.) Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place is a memoir written by Jackson Bird about his experiences growing up that led directly to his inevitable transition from the gender he […]
Book Review: The Next Loves by Stéphane Bouquet (translated by Lindsay Turner)
It’s been a while since I read poetry that moved me as much as did The Next Loves by Stéphane Bouquet (translated by Lindsay Turner). I find almost all poetry moving, but the raw ache I felt when reading some of the verse within this text was such that I found my eyes scanning and […]
Why Read Fiction?
This is a short exploratory paper I wrote for my English class in my senior year of High School, arguing for the need to read and study fiction. It has been slightly edited for clarity and punctuation, but for the most part the content is identical to what I turned in to my teacher on […]
Book Review: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy Jones & The Six is an incredibly fast-paced and immersive experience. This is because the world described within is so familiar, yet distinct from our own. I was a few decades away from being born in the seventies, when the events of this book take place, but the rich cultural imagination that I found […]
On Re-reading
I’ve written about reading before, and while doing so I did touch a tad on the subject of re-reading — in particular, how I feel that in order to get the true measure of a book one needs to read it more than once. I stand by that, and right now I’d like to expand […]
A Reflective Book Review: Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
I’ve been casually following the Well-Read Black Girl Instagram account for a while, but my financially conscious brain was winning when the book first came out, so I didn’t buy it right away. That said, when I saw that this anthology was on display at my local bookstore on the Black History Month table I […]
Book Review: Pride by Ibi Zoboi
Pride and Prejudice has been adapted over and over again, but I think I have found my new favorite in Ibi Zoboi’s Pride.[1] The book is narrated in the first person by Zuri Benitez, a seventeen year old girl living in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The story starts at the beginning of summer vacation, when two important […]
Book Review: Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America’s Lingua Franca by John McWhorter
Talking Back, Talking Black is a systematic and impassioned celebration of and commentary on Black English that elucidates and informs without ever feeling as though there is more of an agenda than that of increased understanding. Aside from the introduction, the book only contains five chapters, but each of them packs a punch as they […]