Mel The Bookworm

Last Week In Books: End Of Year Quickie

2021 is over in four days, fellow readers. I have been wearing the same pajamas since Christmas day, drunk twice my body weight in hot chocolate and watched every movie from my childhood on a reality-bending loop. Let’s dispense with the pleasantries and get into the links so that we can all get back toContinue reading “Last Week In Books: End Of Year Quickie”

[HEAR ME OUT] Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Is a Holiday Miracle

A tablet displaying the cover of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is held up by a Black woman's hand--my hand-- in front of a glittery Christmas tree in closeup.

Merry Christmas!!! So this is not the Christmas post I had originally intended. I had this whole thoughtful post/review about Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol planned out for today. I was going to tell you about how I re-read it every year at Christmastime, and how I have large chunks of it basically memorized asContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Is a Holiday Miracle”

[REVIEW] The Secret of Gumbo Grove, by Eleanora E Tate

A paperback copy of The Secret of Gumbo Grove lies on a table, surrounded by a crochet project, an open laptop, and a blue and white paper bookmark.

(Buy it from Bookshop here.) Finally I have time to write another book review! Eleven-year old Raisin Stackhouse loves Prince, her younger sisters, and history. She’s a responsible kid who does odd jobs for neighbors in her South Carolina tourist town, so when Effie Pfluggins, the church secretary, calls her over to help clean gravesContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Secret of Gumbo Grove, by Eleanora E Tate”

Last Week In Books: I Don’t Want To Sell You Stuff For Christmas

*SIGH* You may have noticed things have been a bit sparse around here lately. I haven’t posted on the blog since November, and while Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have been ticking along steadily, to be honest, I haven’t been posting with my usual joie de vivre. There’s a couple of reasons for this, but theContinue reading “Last Week In Books: I Don’t Want To Sell You Stuff For Christmas”

[REVIEW] Decolonization: A Very Short Introduction, by Dane Kennedy

A Kindle ebook displaying the text-only cover of Decolonization:A Very Short Introduction is on a white faux-marble table, propped up on the edge of a small gray platter of Thanksgiving food.

(Click to buy it on Bookshop.) How’s this for seasonal reading? I’ve done a little bit of work around the subject of decolonization. I’ve contributed to papers, taught class units, and read a lot of writing from Africa, Asia and Indigenous Oceania on the subject. Yet it never really dawned on me that the academicContinue reading “[REVIEW] Decolonization: A Very Short Introduction, by Dane Kennedy”

Last Week In Books: Black Superheroes, Pandemic Flash Fiction, and Asian Family Drama

After the last update involving phone carnage(which has since been solved…grudgingly) this week’s quickie diverse book info roundup is a more mixed bag than usual, fellow readers. Let’s start with this great list of diverse comics from Cultured Vultures. It includes all sorts of genres and points of representation, from the Count of Monte CristoContinue reading “Last Week In Books: Black Superheroes, Pandemic Flash Fiction, and Asian Family Drama”

[Booklist] And No-one Kills The Black Boy: A Selection of Black Boy Heroes

A young Black boy sits against a white wall with a notebook and pencil in his hands, staring into space pensively

Black boys are precious. Let me say that again. Black boys, and the men they grow into, are precious. It happens to be International Men’s Day today. As a result, the internet is full of Things About Men, good, bad, political, personal, and all points in between. I find myself thinking about the men IContinue reading “[Booklist] And No-one Kills The Black Boy: A Selection of Black Boy Heroes”

[REVIEW] Cheaper By The Dozen, by Frank B Gilbreth Jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

A Black woman's hand(my hand) holds a Kindle displaying the cover of Cheaper By The Dozen in front of a sleepy residential street lined with autumn trees

(Buy it on Bookshop here.) I rarely review “classic” books on here because a)I don’t read them all that often and b) I find it kind of tiresome that whenever I say I focus on diversity in my reading, people expect me to spend all my time making angry posts about old books written byContinue reading “[REVIEW] Cheaper By The Dozen, by Frank B Gilbreth Jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey”

[Last Week In Books] Immigrants, Refugees, Colonizers, and Serial Killers

A cracked, shattered phone lies on a white background.

Hello fellow readers! I turned lots of pages last week because I broke my phone. The resulting all-analog experience has me wondering…how did any of us ever live without a computer constantly in the palms of our hands? If the last week of my life is any indication, apparently we read far more books. InContinue reading “[Last Week In Books] Immigrants, Refugees, Colonizers, and Serial Killers”

[REVIEW] The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, by Ishmael Reed

A thin white book with a red stripe lies on a shiny gray formica table. The title is The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the author is Ishmael Reed. There is a goblet of amber beer and a glass of water nearby. A green exit sign is reflected in the table's shiny surface.

(Buy it at Bookshop.) I loved Broadway’s Hamilton despite myself. The songs, the sincerity, the hammy hip-hop–it all got to me. I went in scoffing at the idea of Founding Father fan fiction and came out claiming George Washington as my new bae. I don’t hate the play, but I can see its problems justContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, by Ishmael Reed”