[REVIEW] How High The Moon, by Karyn Parsons

(Buy this book.) I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but my current day job is in an ESL school. Perhaps this is a bit too on-brand, but I’m always telling my students that if they want a good English vocabulary, they need to read. Our school even has a little library that IContinue reading “[REVIEW] How High The Moon, by Karyn Parsons”

[REVIEW] Fevered Star, by Rebecca Roanhorse

(Buy this book!) Let me just rip the band-aid off; meh. I wanted to love this book because of what it is. I love fantasy that steps away from the hoary old medieval Europe tropes. This series, set in a world based on pre-Columbian South American cultures, follows a clash between age-old forces of lightContinue reading “[REVIEW] Fevered Star, by Rebecca Roanhorse”

[REVIEW] Hold Me, by Courtney Milan

(Click to buy this book.) Courtney Milan is a romantic genius and let me tell you why. Hold Me is a pretty standard romance novel in a lot of ways. The premise plays off of how normal it has become to have long acquaintanceships, friendships, and even romantic relationships online without ever meeting each otherContinue reading “[REVIEW] Hold Me, by Courtney Milan”

[REVIEW] Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun, by Sarah Ladipo Manyika

(Buy it on Bookshop) It’s rare that I can summarize a book with only one word, but for this one it’s easy–“delightful”. Morayo Da Silva is an almost-75 year old Nigerian woman living in San Francisco. She’s funny, well-traveled, cosmopolitan, active, and young at heart. She was a college professor, a writer, a polyglot whoContinue reading “[REVIEW] Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun, by Sarah Ladipo Manyika”

[REVIEW] The Duke Who Didn’t, by Courtney Milan

(Buy it from Bookshop) I usually cleanse my mental palate with romance after reading horror. A British-Chinese duke in Victorian England is a pretty big switch from depressed teenage ghost hunters–but the cover of this really caught my eye and Courtney Milan’s name was familiar due to her role in calling out anti-Asian racism inContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Duke Who Didn’t, by Courtney Milan”

[REVIEW] Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse

(Find it HERE) First review of the year! This is the first published novel in the Between Earth and Sky epic, a fantasy series based on the histories and mythologies of pre-settler Meso-America (think Maya, Inca, Aztec, etc). Despite the very unique worldbuilding, in many ways it’s still a very traditional fantasy story. There’s aContinue reading “[REVIEW] Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse”

[REVIEW] Black Indian, by Shonda Buchanan

(Find it HERE.) Why don’t I like this book? ⠀⠀ I really wanted to. It’s a memoir of the author’s multiracial family, who were coded Black by American caste norms but felt culturally closer to their Choctaw and Coharie Indigenous ancestors who purchased and integrated African slaves, then expelled their mixed descendants in a bidContinue reading “[REVIEW] Black Indian, by Shonda Buchanan”

[REVIEW] The Meaning of Mariah Carey, by Mariah Carey

(Buy it HERE.) 🎶⠀This isn’t the best book I’ve read all year, but it’s certainly the most surprising. I was expecting Mariah Carey(the glamorous award-winning diva) to fill a few frivolous pages with brand names, romantic liaisons and shady entertainment gossip with a few childhood anecdotes sprinkled in. What I was not expecting was MariahContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Meaning of Mariah Carey, by Mariah Carey”

[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”

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5/5) (Buy it HERE.) I have no idea what you’re doing messing around with me on the internet when you could be somewhere reading this Booker-prize winning masterpiece. Hurry up and log off so you can get into this ASAP. (Just hit like before you go, ok? 😜 ) Seriously, this is genius, real lifeContinue reading “Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo”