Mel The Bookworm

[REVIEW] Peace Talks, Jim Butcher

(Buy it HERE.) 🧙🏻‍♂️⠀(This is the 16th book in a 20 book series…so here be spoilers, aargh, beware. They’re for the series, not this book. ) Harry Dresden is my problematic fave. I’m well aware that if he were a real, non-magical person the crime-solving, wizard-for-hire hero of the Dresden Files would probably be aContinue reading “[REVIEW] Peace Talks, Jim Butcher”

[REVIEW] The Passion According To Carmela, by Marco Aguinis (translated by Carolina De Robertis)

(Buy it HERE.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟 This book sat on my Kindle at 35% for months, because frankly, the first 3rd of this book is pretty obnoxious. It starts as a whimsical love story between two privileged elites playing at revolution in Bautista-era Cuba in order to relieve themselves of their pampered boredom and exercise their intellectualContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Passion According To Carmela, by Marco Aguinis (translated by Carolina De Robertis)”

[REVIEW] An Ember In The Ashes, Sabaa Tahir

(Buy it HERE.) 🔥⠀I’m usually pretty indifferent when it comes to YA fantasy. The genre is over-saturated and usually far too full of belabored love triangles and incompetent parents for me. I bought An Ember In The Ashes not knowing that it was young adult fiction–once I realized, I instantly lowered my expectations. However, thereContinue reading “[REVIEW] An Ember In The Ashes, Sabaa Tahir”

[REVIEW] In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared, by Christopher Robbins

(This book is also published under the title Apples Are From Kazakhstan). ⭐ star out of 5. ⠀🗺⠀This is a weird one. I appreciated this book–it’s a travelogue of two years spent exploring Kazakhstan–but I didn’t like it at all. It did a great job selling me on how fascinating Kazakhstan and its history are,Continue reading “[REVIEW] In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared, by Christopher Robbins”

Last Week In Books, July 6th – July 13th: Sistahs Are Doing It For Themselves

What the hell is this? Seriously, what the hell? I went searching for an annotated copy of Harriet Jacob‘s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl to send to someone as part of my book fairy project and came across this travesty. Incidents…is in the public domain, which means it often gets repackaged inContinue reading “Last Week In Books, July 6th – July 13th: Sistahs Are Doing It For Themselves”

[BOOKLIST] If You’re Brown, Stick Around: Books About Colorism

If you’re Black, get back! If you’re brown, stick around. If you’re white, you’re alright! ~ Big Bill Broonzy Even though I make a conscious effort to read across genres, cultures, and time periods I still sometimes find myself stuck in thematic patterns. For months I’ll find myself somehow reading books that feature sharks orContinue reading “[BOOKLIST] If You’re Brown, Stick Around: Books About Colorism”

[REVIEW] Sula, Toni Morrison

(Buy it HERE.) (In lieu of the usual review, I present to you the explanation of this book that I gave to a non-American friend who has never read Toni Morrison before.)⠀📖⠀“This book? Yeah, it’s good, but I’m not sure you’d like it. It’s by this writer who won a Pulitzer prize & was famousContinue reading “[REVIEW] Sula, Toni Morrison”

[REVIEW] A Mercy, Toni Morrison

(Buy it HERE.) ⭐⭐⭐*whew* This ain’t it, y’all. Toni Morrison was a genius and everything she wrote is brilliant in some way. But now that I’ve said that, I honestly feel that when you place A Mercy next to the rest of Morrison’s oeuvre it’s like parking a hooptie in a lot full of Ferraris.Continue reading “[REVIEW] A Mercy, Toni Morrison”

[REVIEW] Fairest, Meredith Talusan

(Buy it HERE.) Although I did my official Pride Month wrap-up a few days ago, I didn’t mention one of the LGBTQIA+ themed books I read, simply because I’ve had such a hard time deciding what to say about it. Is there a word for a book that everyone else seems to like, but youContinue reading “[REVIEW] Fairest, Meredith Talusan”

[BOOKLIST] Pride Month Reads 2020: A Wrap-Up and Booklist

Happy Pride Month, fellow readers! The genesis of LGBTQIA+ Pride is a long story that begins before the 1969 Stonewall riots and still continues today. Notably, in 1970 a bisexual woman named Brenda Howard first proposed a planned Pride march to celebrate and take joy in queer identities and the rest is history. I’m notContinue reading “[BOOKLIST] Pride Month Reads 2020: A Wrap-Up and Booklist”