Some Books I Read...

Hiya folks! Welcome to another post about books. I'll be posting a bunch of notable books I read recently below. Enjoy! 

Book of the Month: Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler

Welcome to another book of the month! We're going all the way back for the book of this month; talk about an oldie but goodie. I love when a book tugs deep into our hearts and reminds us of our humanity, but not through something profound but in the ordinary, in the normal.  This is an amazing story of sacrifice, quiet devotion, love, and ordinariness. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Book of the Month is Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler. I'm a little new to her work but completely blown away so much I just want to consume everything she's ever written. 

Saint Maybe is set in 1965 when the Beldoe family is living an idyllic, quintessential American life in Baltimore before they are struck with a tragedy that transforms their existence forever; but especially the life of their youngest son, 17-year old Ian Bedloe, who assumes the blame for this tragic event. Even as I type this and remember him, my heart breaks just a little again. That's what fiction does. It expands your heart and show you realities you never knew existed. In any case, we follow through Ian through a great chunk of this life (several decades, I believe) as he tries to redeem himself. Through the process watch the Bedloes transform from their nauseously happy status quo to dealing with extraordinary calamities. The New York Times said Anne Tyler likes to break America's heart. They weren't wrong.

Book of the Month: The Wedding People by Alison Epsach

Hi party people (very apropos for this post), welcome to another Book of the Month! This month's book is such a delight, I'm eager to get into it directly. I went into this clueless about what the book was about and it turned into such a complex, unexpected, and beautiful story. When we meet Phoebe, she's walking into the Cornwall Inn, wearing a green dress and some fancy shoes but no luggage in sight. As she joins the line to check in, she is immediately mistaken for one of the guests at a wedding happening at the hotel. Meanwhile, she's literally the only one at the hotel (this was just coming out of the pandemic) who isn't there for the wedding. The bride thinks she's accounted for every possible mishap and disaster, except there is no planning for Phoebe, who has reached rock bottom and is at that hotel for completely different reasons from the wedding people. And yet somehow, as if always destined, the two women are exactly where they need to be and just when each needs the other. The book takes us through what happens over the course of the week in what is a funny, tender, complex, and very human story arc. 

Book of the Month: Ask Again, Yes By Mary Beth Keane

Welcome to the Book of the Month! I asked last time about whether to talk about a few in one post or just one book per BOM post and it looks like the vote goes for a combination of both approaches. So, let's try that. I feel like knowing me there are some books I will feel so strongly about as to want to dedicate one post too, anyway. So this format works. And today's book feels like one of those books. 

Ask again, Yes starts with two NYPD cops, Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhorpe. They eventually become neighbors in the suburbs and the peculiarities of what happens in each home one night sets the stage for explosive events that will ripple through generations. 

Some Books I Read

Happy New Year, friends! Book of the Month suffered last year; not just because I didn't read as much (I really didn't) but because I didn't talk about what I did read as much. I really enjoy books and talking about them and in the spirit of finding pockets of joy everywhere and especially outside of work, hopefully I'll be better at talking about books I read this year.

Towards the end of 2024, I posted about some books I read on Instagram and I thought to share them here, where they can be more permanent. So here goes (in no particular order):

Book of the Month: Yellowface by R.F.Kuang

Hi folks and welcome to the Book of the Month. It's Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. OMG this book is amazing. Okay let me be a bit honest/upfront before going on: after reading this book, I read a bit more about the author's life that robbed me somehow and made me think maybe it should not be her telling this story. Bias is an extraordinary thing. I had read this book and was on such a high after reading, and it was a little deflated when I found out more about her. None of what I read is awful or cruel; just some bit about her choices that helps me understand how she chose to paint some characters (ahem the straight white men character(s)). It's a writer's job to create nuance to characters and give them depth but....alright, imma leave that for now. The most important thing is that this is an EXTRAORDINARY book. I cannot say that enough. Oops I'm way ahead of myself.

Yellowface tells the story of a failing author who steals an unpublished manuscript of her late friend. Here is how it really went down. A white author and an Asian author were frenemies; the Asian author, Athena Liu, was a literary darling, while the white one, Juniper Hayward (June, Junie, June Song etc) was mediocre at best, or at least that's how her debut novel was received. Athena was THE star and had everything going for her--heck she just inked a Netflix deal--so much that June started to get envious. So when June witnesses Athena's death in a weird accident, she does what anyone would do  (if you are a weirdo white basic babe)   in the face of such tragedy and steals Athena's unpublished manuscript. Athena was notoriously tight lipped about her projects and she was no different with this experimental novel on the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. June steals it, polishes it (who really knows how much work she put into it except what she tells us), sends it to her agent, gets rebranded as Juniper Song (with an ambiguously ethnic author photo to boot), and makes it big. End of story, right? WRONG. June can't get away from Athena's shadow. Plus newly brought to light evidence threatens to expose her. This story uncovers that, June's desperation to get past this, and so much more.

Some Books I've Been Reading

I did tell you we’ll make up for the lack of a Book of the Month last month, didn’t I? I’m here to fulfill that not a promise. 

Here are some books that I’ve read this year that are noteworthy for different reasons; maybe they’ll motivate you to read or reread anything from this list

Book of the Month: Maame by Jessica George

I read the most delightful book. It’s called Maame. Now that I think of it, perhaps “delightful” is not the ideal descriptive? 

Welcome to the Book of the Month! We missed last month and I’m not sure why, but we’ll make it up.

The Book of this month is called Maame by Jessica George. Maame is a novel about Maddie—when we meet her, her life is a boring chaos. Her mother is never around; her father suffers from advanced-stage Parkinson’s and Maddie is his caretaker; her brother is the type of irritating hustler you don’t want around you; and at work, her boss is a nightmare and the work itself strips Maddie of reasons to live. Things aren’t looking good, to say the least. Then her mom returns from her latest trip and Maddie can finally move out. The book shows us how the self-acknowledged “late bloomer” attempts to find her footing, the numerous mistakes she makes during this attempt, and how she survives the impossible. Maame is a nickname given to Maddie by her mother. It is a name she has come to hate because of the burden in places on her and how it saddles her with responsibility that shouldn’t even be hers in the first place. It’s also this name—this forced-on identity—that jolts Maame to the life she deserves.

Book of the Month: My Last Innocent Year By Daisy Alpert Florin

Another Book of the Month! Welcome. The book of this month is My last Innocent Year by Doris Alpert Florin.

I'm going to start out by saying, I first heard about this book on TwoNightStands. It was one of their best books of 2023. And it did not disappoint.

Book of the Month: Nightcrawling

Welcome to The Book of the Month! Y'all... no need to explain the long absence from here. See previous post for an explanation. Alright, let's dive in. The book of this month  is Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley. 

I am going to give extraordinary grace to this book because I honestly believe it suffered from the curse of being read after two Chimamanda Adichie novels—I recently reread Americanah and Purple Hibiscus.  Listen, once you’ve experienced the ease and delicious smoothness of Chimamanda's work, everybody else just seems like they are trying too hard. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In sum, the book is about Kiara, steeped in abject poverty and neglect, who has to scrap by on the streets of Oakland, and who, one night, mistakenly stumbles into the failure of America's justice system. For a longer version of the preceding sentence: Kiara and her brother, Marcus, live in a rundown apartment in Oakland called Regal-Hi. Both had to drop out of high school and their family has been fractured by death and prison. Meanwhile, rather than find a way to care for his sister, Marcus is too consumed by his dream of rap stardom; leaving Kiara to hunt for work to pay their rent and take care of them. At the same time, she has to keep the nine-year old boy next door (whose mother has abandoned) fed. In any case, as a minor and high school dropout, her options for work are limited and thanks to a misunderstanding on a drunken night, she turns to a job she never wanted but definitely needs. 

Book of the Month: The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close

Welcome back to the book of the month! I love doing these because people love reading these haha. The book of this month is “The Hopefuls” by Jennifer Close. The thing about giving summaries of books is they are never quite enough. And I’m admittedly not the best with summaries but I’ll try. It tells the story of a young wife who follows her husband to Washington, D.C. to follow his political dreams in the newly minted Obama administration. Matt, the husband in question, is a White House staffer (who was also a campaign staffer) perennially frustrated and antsy about his career. Beth, the protagonist and from whose perspective the entire book is written, is a writer unsure about everything. And when I say everything—I literally mean everything and everyone.  Early on in the novel, at a birthday party for another White House employee, Beth meets Ash and Jimmy. Ash is a Texan who also moved to DC for her husband, Jimmy’s, work as an Obama staffer. The foursome quickly become close, going on vacations today, sharing everything including a “cleaning” lady. The book uses the discomfort of a new DC transplant to tell the story of important themes  of marriage, friendship, career, political campaigns, and envy.

Book of the Month: Life Behind Bars

America’s carceral system is deeply flawed. It is filled with deep injustices and its criminalization of black and brown bodies can never be fully stated. Those are facts. More so, the American prison system suffers from the prison-industrial complex. Where to begin? The imprisonment of people has resulted in the massive economic profit and political influence for certain groups. Again, these are facts. 

But what about the people watching over these inmates? Seldom do we hear about correctional officers and staff charged with the responsibility of overseeing inmates.  Here is where the book of this month comes in. Life Behind Bars is a first-hand testament of the author, who spent fifteen years on a tour of duty at the Delaware Department of Corrections (DOC). He provides excellent and never-before-seen/heard insights into the world of DOC in Delaware. 

Book of the Month: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Welcome to Book of the Month! The Book of this Month is a historical fiction titled Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I know people say awards don't matter (don't believe them by the way) but I still want to start off with  the awards this book has won. It won the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction and the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. It was named "Novel of the Year" at the Dalkey Literary Awards, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. I say all of these to show that this book is a masterpiece. It's O'Farrell's magnum opus.

Remember how I said here that I didn't want to read about a pandemic or similar stuff this soon. It turns out I lied Lol. Because Hamnet is literally about The Plague. The book, set in the 1580s, is about a young Latin tutor—constantly bullied by his violent father—who falls wildly in love with a weird, remarkable woman older than him. She is known throughout town for her eccentricity and her ability to heal people and to understand plants and potions. She falls in love with the tutor right back and they get married, and settle in Stratford. There, she becomes an extraordinary mother, a force in the life of her husband who recently started a career miles away in London theatre scene, and their three children. Life is just getting stable when their beloved young son succumbs to The Plague. It is a story about love, family, and more importantly, the many ways grief can ravage even the most perfect union. It shows how people react so different to grief. 

Book of the Month: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Welcome to the Book of the Month! Let's get into it. One important thing you need to know about the book of this month is that it is about time travel. Yes. I will be honest that I didn't know that before going in; I knew nothing about the book before going in. If I knew it was about time travel, I am not sure I would have gone ahead with it. There are also some other things that made me a little uncomfortable but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Book of the Month: Verity by Colleen Hoover

Welcome to Book of the Month. The book of this month is Verity by Colleen Hoover. I cannot possibly continue with this post without acknowledging the HOLD Colleen Hoover has on the reading community. If this woman was Nigerian I would legit accuse her of using some sort of spiritual power to captivate people, because people LOVE her. She has a large cult following and you literally cannot walk any airport, train station, bookstore without seeing the array of her books. They are everywhere. This is only the second book of hers that I'm reading. I read It Ends With Us and I HAD thoughts but it was so emotionally intense that I decided against making it book of the month despite my feelings.

Anyway, Verity is about a writer, Lowen, on the verge of financial ruin when she accepts the opportunity of a lifetime. She has been hired by the husband of a much more famous writer, Verity Crawford, to complete the series Verity started before she became unable to continue due to an injury. The said husband, Jeremy Crawford, invites Lowen to their home to sort through Verity's notes and outlines and such, which is opportune, because Lowen has just been kicked out of her apartment. What Lowen did not expect to find in all the chaos was an unfinished autobiography by Verity. And that's where crap hits the fan. Somewhere along the line, Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify. And as I said, crap hits the fan.

Book of the Month: We are the Brennans by Tracey Lange

I bet you thought we were going to end March without a book of the month, huh? Think again! Haha.

When I got midway through the book of this month, I remember thinking finally! I deserve to read such a great book. True story. I haven't had that wow factor with most of the books I've been reading this year, and when I say this book made up for all that, I am not kidding. Let's get into it. 

Book of the Month: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Hi folks,

It's another Book of the Month. Let's jump into it. The Book of this Month is Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. I went into this book really excited and just assumed it would be a HIT. I had really high hopes for this, and while in a lot of ways it met those expectations; in others, it fell short terribly. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's dive in.

Black Cake –  a debut novel – is about a woman, Eleanor Bennet, who has just died and left a puzzling mystery and inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake from long-running family recipe and a voice recording. Through the course of this message, Eleanor shares about her past, untold secrets, and a long-lost daughter (and sibling to Byron and Benny) that no one knew about. As this story unfolds, we learn about the memories, secrets, betrayals, and a thread of connections intricately woven by the author. The kicker is Eleanor has left a message that her kids can only eat this cake together with their long-lost sister (who they didn't know existed until the recording); and they have to do all of this while estranged from each other. Byron, a successful Ph.D. and Oceanologist, and Benny, a stubborn, spoiled-rotten queer artist living in New York must confront everything they knew about themselves, their mother, and their family. 

Book of the Month: On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi

Happy New Year! I can't believe this is the first time I'm here on the blog. So let's get it out of our system. The Book of this Month is On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi. This is a hard book to categorize and talk about. It's about a Ghanaian-American medical student, Angie Appiah, who is figuring out life as she navigates her myriad of relationships with her boyfriend(s), friends, and her family. She also deals with expectations from her family and is left confronting choices, decisions, and even the people around her. As this is happening, she meets a random guy, at a random place, Ricky. As he is introduced into the equation, Angie feels control spiraling out of her hands. 

Book of the Month: Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo

 Welcome to the Book of the Month! Our Book of the Month series on this website is where I take you on the journey of my favorite book that month, or perhaps, it is more accurate to say the most significant book I read that month, or the book that stood out the most. I think of it as TIME's person of the year; it is not always heroes, it can sometimes be a villain. So while I wouldn't necessary include a book I outright hate, I may not alway select the book I loved the most that month. I wonder if that made sense. Welcome. 

I am really hoping for a short and sweet post this month. The book for this month is Chibundu Onuzo's Sankofa. I have always followed her, in the sense of being aware of someone. Interestingly, I have never actually read any of her three books. She is what you call a multi hyphenate creative: she sings, dances, writes, and has a Ph.D. Oh to be young, black, AND gifted. In any case, I was excited to pick up Sankofa.

Book of the Month: Finding Me by Viola Davis

I am excited to break the fiction streak of Book of the Month for THE Viola Davis. Her memoir, Finding Me, had a sixteen-week wait or thereabout at the library. And trust me when I say this book was worth all of that and more. 

This book tells the story of Viola Davis’s life from a crumbling apartment in Rhode Island to the world’s stage. In a lot of ways, it shows a path that normally wouldn’t make sense but can only be connected looking backwards. There is a lot about her life growing up, and the abject—and this is putting it mildly—poverty she and her siblings grew up in. This is a deep reflection of her life, a validation of her life, and an affirmation to 7-year-old Viola (who literally ran home every day from school because some boys chased her with sticks calling her the n-word and such). This is not a juicy book as much as it is a truly inspiring—if somewhat heartbreaking—memoir. It is a testament to resilience, hard work, and struggle. The honesty in this book is the best part of it. There are hard truths about her life, her family, and her mistakes that she sheds and presents to us. Yet, all of what she writes in this book only makes her more alluring, and you, more in love with her. In this book, her vulnerability is her power.