tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21365302317658352862024-03-05T23:35:52.989-06:00Weezie's Whimsical WritingsWeezie's Whimsical Writings is dedicated to honest reviews of books with a heavy emphasis on books written by and about the LGBTQAI+ community, people of color, and other marginalized voices.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-72765182319449343492017-04-21T10:01:00.002-05:002017-04-21T10:01:21.043-05:00I'VE MOVED!You can now follow me at <a href="https://weezieswhimsicalwritings.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">my new blog</a>!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-9847848388589196422017-03-24T08:59:00.000-05:002017-03-24T08:59:11.361-05:00Review: A MONTH OF MONDAYS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Title: A MONTH OF MONDAYS<br />
Author: Joelle Anthony<br />
Rating: ★★★★★<br />
Summary: <span id="freeText10334926212319509016"><em>This can’t be good! Suddenly Suze’s mom wants back into her life, and her teacher wants her to “try harder”?!<br /><br />As if middle school wasn’t hard enough, Suze Tamaki's life gets turned upside down when her mother reappears after a ten-year absence. Once Suze gets over her shock, she thinks it might be cool to get to know her mom. But her older sister Tracie is determined not to let her back into their lives. <br /><br />At school things aren’t much better. One of her teachers decides the way to cure Suze’s lack of motivation is to move her into Honors English – a development Suze finds both inspiring and distressing. When she's paired with straight-A student Amanda on an English assignment, she finds herself caring about people’s expectations like she’s never done before.</em></span><br />
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***I was given a free e-ARC of this book by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***<br />
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Suze Tamaki is literally just coasting through middle school, trying to survive rocky friendships, bad dye jobs, and a principal who is out to get her. Her English teacher pairs her up with an Honors English student to work on a project. When Suze and Amanda find out that the school system is planning to get rid of their beloved custodians, the two girls turn saving their jobs into their English project. And if everything goes well, Suze will get to stay in Honors English- something that she desperately wants (it also scares her to death). <br />
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Adding to that stress is the reappearance of Suze's mom who left the family when Suze was just 3. While Suze wants to give her mother a second chance, older sister Traci is adamantly against it and resents Suze for her decision. <br />
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This is a pretty realistic story about not just growing up but also family ties. The characters were well thought out and the plot was solid. I loved the way it wrapped up and the decision Suze made about how much she influence she was going to allow her missing mother to have on her life. I've read a lot of stories where the child just fully forgives the parent who walked away, so it was nice to see a story where the child acknowledges their hurt over being abandoned and taking steps to protect themselves. <br />
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It was a lovely middle grade read but I would definitely recommend this to all realistic fiction lovers. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-41801514183171161782017-03-22T09:27:00.000-05:002017-03-22T09:27:10.755-05:00Review: ALLEGEDLY <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OtwO7zNpEFRMy_Rg4wMeYuXZY3Aj1TcAYRLkX-X4X1XkVHqlHSocuoh7ktl3v9P8r2dbOXaq2K51G-VYS1UsB1Llar7e9n81IBuLpxu6w-c-NNlXFWjKjtQhuUfO9nKTnbgYlA9mua0/s1600/a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5OtwO7zNpEFRMy_Rg4wMeYuXZY3Aj1TcAYRLkX-X4X1XkVHqlHSocuoh7ktl3v9P8r2dbOXaq2K51G-VYS1UsB1Llar7e9n81IBuLpxu6w-c-NNlXFWjKjtQhuUfO9nKTnbgYlA9mua0/s1600/a.JPG" /></a></div>
Title:<strong> ALLEGEDLY</strong><br />
Author: Tiffany D. Jackson<br />
Rating: ★★<br />
Summary: <span id="freeText5077924491514100296"><em>Mary B. Addison killed a baby.<br /><br />Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.<br /><br />Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.<br /><br />There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?</em></span><br />
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This was a strangely hard book to rate. Part of me understands exactly how impactful this book is. ALLEGEDLY covers a hard but true topic of how PoC, specifically Black people, are treated by the police and justice systems. Tiffany Jackson is also a masterful story teller. There's also a narrative on child abuse, survival sex, and the broken system that handles children who have been taken by the state and given to folks who use them as a business instead of treating them like children. <br />
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However, I cannot give this book a high rating due to the fatphobia and queerphobia represented in this book. <br />
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<em>Ms. Stein limps into the kitchen, her bowlegs fat and swollen. You’d think someone would change their diet after they reach over two hundred pounds. But not Ms. Stien. She still eats an entire box of Entenmann’s crumb topped donuts a day.</em><br />
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<em>"She wears black wrist guards and one of those weight belts that sits right below her bulging gut, yet I've never seen her work out or lift anything but food to her mouth." </em> <br />
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I've seen several people comment that the fatphobia was to show how the system and Mary's mother had made her intolerant but I don't buy that. This is not a character flaw. This is an author who chose to make two of the most arguable heinous characters in her book fat, slovenly, mean, and lazy. She could have made Ms. Stein evil without ever mentioning her size but she goes into great detail several times to push home the fact that not only is this woman abusive and terrible, she's also fat. Which, in text, seems to be her greatest crime of all- existing while being fat. <br />
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<em>My mom… she kicked me out when she caught me with my first girlfriend. Pretty little light skin thing with curly hair…”</em><br />
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<em>She glances at me and I stare at the floor. Kelly rolls her eyes and mouths. “Ew.”</em><br />
<em><br />China is the manliest person in the house. She wears nothing but boy clothes, even boxers which seems like overkill. Momma would be disgusted at the “nasty lesbian” I’m living with. she hates anything that is not in the Bible, which seems like everything.</em><br />
<em><br />“How long you been a rug muncher for?”</em><br />
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At no point in the book is this homophobia every questioned. In fact, China seems to only exist to be made fun of or to have sex with another female character. It was highly uncomfortable to see the only queer character being used in this way. <br />
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The last thing I want to talk about in my review is something that was hard for me to stomach and almost made me DNF the book. Mary is pregnant. She is 15 and the father of her baby is an adult. While I understand that this is real life for many people, it was also hard for me to read this book and never once see Mary understand that she was taken advantage of. I've seen a lot of arguments about this but Mary is fifteen. She is a child. She is a child who grew up in prison and has not had adequate emotional development being taken advantage by an adult. The whole book is Mary trying to protect this adult because she knows he will go to jail because what he did to her is illegal. Let me reiterate this: children cannot consent to sex with an adult. They cannot consent because they are children. <br />
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Honestly, the only thing that kept me from DNFing this book was I wanted to find out what really happened to Alyssa although half way through I pretty much figured out what the plot twist was going to be as it is heavily foreshadowed throughout the book. <br />
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Again, I do understand the importance of this book due to the topic at hand but I can't say that I would ever recommend this book to anyone due to the fatphobia and queerphobia. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-49446614229604741762017-03-01T08:20:00.002-06:002017-03-01T08:20:51.689-06:00February 2017 Wrap-Up!I read 15 books this month but I read one book 3 times so... February was pretty much on track with January considering this month was 3 days shorter. <br />
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Without further ado... <br />
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THE LIE TREE by Frances Hardinge<br />
- I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book. Generally I stay away from books set in the 1800s but the cover of this one sucked me in and then the promise of a demon tree kept me reading. I was not disappointed. <br />
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THE DISTANCE TO HOME by Jenn Bishop<br />
- I love middle grade books that deal with hard subjects. This book follows Quinnen during the spring after her older sister's death. The topic was beautifully handled, and I couldn't resist any book that has baseball in it. <br />
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STELLA BY STARLIGHT by Sharon M. Draper<br />
- Set in North Carolina in 1932, this book chronicles life in the Jim Crow area through the eyes of Stella, a young Black child who has just witnessed the KKK burning a cross near her home. I read this one with my godkid for their Black History Month project and was incredibly pleased with how the book handles family, truth, and understanding that sometimes you just have to stand up. <br />
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THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick<br />
- After hearing so much about Selznick's half picture, half word books, I decided to check on out for myself. Despite the size of the book, it was a really fast read with a terribly heartwarming ending. <br />
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UNTITLED (THE LEAH BOOK) by Becky Albertalli<br />
- This is the book I read 3 times, haha. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say... just know this book is amazing and I can't wait to scream about it!<br />
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BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jaqueline Woodson<br />
- My first audio book ever! This was read my the author herself so it definitely added a lot of depth to her already beautiful prose. <br />
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THE WARDEN'S DAUGHTER by Jerry Spinelli<br />
- This book follows 12 year old Cammie, the warden's daughter. Set in 1959 against the backdrop of a penitentiary, this isn't your normal coming of age story. Cammie is desperately searching for a mother figure. Book deals with mental illness. <br />
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SANCTUM by Madeleine Roux<br />
- Sequel to ASYLUM and in my opinion, much better than ASYLUM. Secret cults, creepy carnivals, messages from the possessed... what could go wrong?<br />
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ASYLUM by Madeleine Roux<br />
- A dorm full of teenagers in an old asylum where gruesome experiments took place... I'm sure we can all guess what happens. Not the best book in the world but not the worst either. <br />
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THE PANTS PROJECT by Cat Clarke<br />
- Story of a trans boy who fights his school's gendered dress code. I really enjoyed this book. <br />
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TRICK OR TREAT MURDER by Leslie Meier<br />
- My first cozy mystery in months! <br />
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HOODOO by Ron L. Smith<br />
- There's hoodoo the practice and Hoodoo the boy and together they can defeat any ol' demon that comes along.<br />
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ALLEGEDLY by Tiffany Jackson<br />
- I was beyond excited to read this book but was ultimately terribly disappointed. Jackson has a strong writing style and an obvious gift for story telling but the book was packed tight with fatphobia and queerphobia.<br />
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LEGEND by Marie Lu<br />
- I ended up skimming the last 50 or so pages of this.<br />
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ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND by Gena Showalter<br />
- I thought this was going to be Alice in Wonderland with zombies but it's actually just a girl named Alice and some zombies. Not to mention that the "love interest" was totally abusive. No thanks. <br />
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And that's it for February! I hope everyone had a great reading month and I hope March is just as kind!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-39392354171716736602017-02-28T08:02:00.001-06:002017-02-28T08:02:27.251-06:00SERIES I HAVE NOT FINISHEDSpring Cleaning fever started a touch early for me this year and I started with my Goodreads TBR shelf. While I was culling books that I have lost interest in reading, I noticed that I had a lot of unfinished series on my list. I decided to jot them down and determine whether I was actually ever going to finish them or not. Below are the series that I've started and haven't finished... and might not ever finish. <br />
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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL by Soman Chainani.<br />
- I started this series in October 2016 when I thought I was going to meet the author at YallFest. If you follow me on twitter, you probably already know what a disaster YallFest was for me and for whatever reason, when I got home, I put these books away. I do plan to finish books 2 & 3 sometime this year. <br />
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DOROTHY MUST DIE by Danielle Paige<br />
- My dad bought me the first book as a Christmas gift in 2015 (I'm not sure why... I was terrified of the Wizard of Oz as a child). It took until September of 2016 for me to actually read the first book and then I waited a little while before reading the second and third books. The final boo, THE END OF OZ, comes out in March and I'm SO excited to see how Danielle Paige wraps this series up. <br />
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CURIOUSITY HOUSE by Lauren Oliver<br />
- I read this one after watching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/booksboysandsuch?spfreload=5" target="_blank">Richard Denney</a> give it a rave review on his booktube channel. This is a middle grade series that is full of mystery and spooky vibes. I haven't been able to get into Lauren Oliver's YA books but I do love this series. <br />
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CASTOR CHRONICLES by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl<br />
- This is definitely one of those series that either you love it or hate it. If you look at any booktube video where the booktuber discusses series they won't be finishing, this is usually on it. I, personally, enjoyed the first book and after finding the rest of the series for about $9 at my local used bookstore, I will be (at least attempting) finishing this series this year. <br />
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13 TREASURE by Michelle Harrison<br />
- Another middle grade series I want to finish. Again, this one came at the recommendation of Richard Denney, and really, who doesn't love a story about fae? <br />
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WILDWOOD by Colin Meloy<br />
- I'll be honest- this was 100% a cover buy. I did enjoy the first one, even it's occasional pretentious Portland vibe, but I really struggled to get anywhere with the second book and ended up putting it down after the first 100 pages. I do plan to give this series another shot before I donate them to my library. <br />
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PRETTY LITTLE LIARS by Sara Shepard<br />
- There was a time in my life where I was painfully obsessed with the TV show Pretty Little Liars. When I found out they were originally a book series, I compulsively bought the first 5 books and then was hit with a brick wall of disappointment because the books and the show are nothing alike. I'm still really on the fence about finishing this series but since I have fallen out of love with the show... maybe the books will be more appealing now. <br />
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THE DARKEST MINDS by Alexandra Bracken<br />
- I received this book as a gift in 2016 and didn't really pick it up until right before YallFest. On the way to Charleston, I finished THE DARKEST MINDS and stopped in Atlanta to buy the 2nd and 3rd books. I did start the 2nd one but was kind of overwhelmed with just how boring it was. I'm going to give it another shot this year but I kind of have the feeling I'll be donating this entire series to the library. <br />
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SOMETHING LIKE by Jay Bell<br />
- I purchase SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER and SOMETHING LIKE WINTER when they were on sell on Kindle. I really enjoyed the first book but felt kind of iffy on the second book. It's definitely white cisgay centered and that's just not appealing to me anymore. I might pick up the other books if they ever go on sale. <br />
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(just a quick run through because these books have already wasted enough of my time)<br />
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THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman<br />
- Sold as "adult Harry Potter", I barely finished the first book. The characters were flat and Quentin is definitely your typical douchebag who feels sorry for himself. All. The. Time.<br />
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MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs<br />
- I tried to do a reread for the release of the third book, got through half of the first book and then questioned myself extensively on why I liked this series in the first place. <br />
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THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS by Cassandra Clare<br />
- No. <br />
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WORLDWALKER by Josephine Angelini<br />
- This series is so problematic. Between the magically cured chronic illness, the Native "savages", and the white savior complex from the little blonde girl... yeah, this is a hard pass.<br />
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ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis<br />
- Dude risks a girl's life because he wants a chance to have sex. Lol no. <br />
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FAIRYLAND by Catherynne M. Valente<br />
- I wanted to love this book. It has dragons and an assortment of magical creatures but reading the book felt very much like talking to someone who tries too hard to be smart. <br />
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NEED by Carrie Ryan<br />
- The only thing I remember about this series was that the vampires? fae? whatever left trails of gold glitter. <br />
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THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey<br />
- The first book was good. The 2nd, not so much. The 3rd... I don't know her. <br />
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DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver<br />
- I didn't make it through the first 50 pages, to be honest.<br />
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13 TO LIFE by Shannon Delaney<br />
- My niece was really into these books and I decided to read them as a "bonding" thing with her. She finished the entire series. I read the first two books and then some spoilers. <br />
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LEGEND by Marie Lu<br />
- Those last 20 pages were the hardest I've ever forced myself to read.<br />
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THE WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLIES by Gena Showalter<br />
- I thought this was going to be Alice in Wonderland with zombies. But this was just a girl named Alice and some zombies. <br />
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And that's the series I have started and haven't finished... and might not ever finish. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-71185695992093739472017-02-20T11:07:00.002-06:002017-02-20T11:07:36.228-06:00NATIVE/INDIGENOUS ERASURE IN THE DIVERSITY COMMUNITYIn the later part of 2016, I had a confrontation with someone on twitter who claimed they were an ally to all marginalized people. I had been subscribed to this person on booktube beforehand but had quickly unsubbed when they created a video that featured them using lipstick as "war paint" in a video where they talked about Peter Pan. When I called them out on twitter about it, I was immediately met with resistance and the person even talked down to me, asking me if I understood what the video was "really about" because they were using "war paint to point out racism in the book". I'm 100% sure that's not how pointing out racism works. This rocked on for a few hours and ended with her sending a handful of her white male friends to harass me through DMs as she not so vaguely subtweeted me and lamented to her followers about what a bully I was. <br />
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In reality, I expect this from white twitter. I do. I'm not shocked by it. What I was shocked by was the absolute lack of response from the diverse book community. Literally no one came to my aid, no one stood up for me. And this happens a lot of with Native people, I've noticed. <br />
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Not only is the diverse book community content to stand by while Native people fight their own battles, there is an alarming lack of Native books and authors being recommended in these long diverse book lists. And it takes a Native person calling this out for even one Native book/author to be added. My timeline was filled with women's march posts but the only people I ever see posting #NoDAPL things are... Natives. It's just like when I posted about the problematic line in JULIET TAKES A BREATH about Native genocide, I was met with a smattering of replies but mostly silence. People are still recommending that book with absolutely NO warning or acknowledgement of the hurtful treatment of Natives. I have people I consider to be my friends who will RT every post about social injustice but NEVER post anything regarding Native/Indigenous lives. <br />
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I'm tired of giving my all and being given crumbs in return. I am currently on hiatus from twitter as I work out my complicated feelings for a community I love that clearly has no room for me or my relatives in it. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-81240574071501840022017-02-02T08:55:00.001-06:002017-02-02T08:55:10.044-06:00Review: The Pants Project
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30095473" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470413686m/30095473.jpg" border="0" alt="The Pants Project" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30095473">The Pants Project</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4118351">Cat Clarke</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1897990746">3 of 5 stars</a>
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***I received a free e-ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review***<br /><br />THE PANTS PROJECT follows Liv, a transgender boy, as he navigates his first year of middle school and tackles his school's outdated gendered dress code. <br /><br />I was initially hesitant about reading requesting this book because I couldn't find any information about the author and whether or not THE PANTS PROJECT was an #ownvoice book. Generally, I do not read books with trans characters that are not written by trans authors because cis people tend to make a mess and mockery of the trans experience. I did, however, end up requesting this book. There were a few lines that felt off to me (comparing being trans to being a transformer) but since that's outside of my experience, I can't speak on whether that language is problematic or not. While I am nonbinary, I have not had the same experience as Liv and so my review will not be focusing on the trans aspect until I hear from trans reviewers and what their thoughts on the language and terminology in the book is. <br /><br />I did enjoy this book. The plot was solid and I enjoyed reading about Liv tackling a resistant intuition and forcing them to reevaluate their gendered dress code (pants for "boys", skirts for "girls"). I thought the reactions of everyone in the story was very true to real life. The characters themselves were wonderfully fleshed out, everyone had a distinct voice in the story, even the minor characters. <br /><br />My favorite part of the book is that while Liv forgives his former best friend, he doesn't feel the need to accept her back as a friend. I think that's important thing for young readers to understand. Too many times we have books where the best friend betrays the MC in a terrible way but by the end of the book, they are best friends again. It's definitely important to remind young children (and even adults!) that we don't have to allow people back into our lives just because they are "sorry" that they treated us poorly. <br /><br />A few things that I didn't like in this book: I wish the author would have explained more about Jacob's condition. This is a middle grade book and I'm guessing a lot of middle grade aged kids probably wouldn't really understand what hypermobility is. That was the second thing I didn't like about this book- sometimes it felt like the author forgot they were writing a middle grade book. The kids in the book are 11/12 years olds but sometimes it felt like the author was writing them as 16/17 year olds. <br /><br />I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a good 'sticking it to the man' story. <br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1897990746">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-35538577582354768182017-02-01T08:35:00.002-06:002017-02-01T08:35:53.515-06:00#DIVERSITYREADS 2017 (February Edition)January was such a great month for new releases. While I didn't get everything that was released, I did pick up FLYING LESSONS, ALLEGEDLY, and LATIN@ RISING. <br />
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This month looks like it's shaping up to be another great release month... and another month of hard decisions on what to buy and what to wait on! Here's a small list of the books I'm looking forward to in February. <br />
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AMERICAN STREET by Ibi Zoboi<br />
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Summary:<em>American Street </em>is an evocative and powerful coming-of-age story perfect for fans of <em>Everything, Everything</em>; <em>Bone Gap</em>; and <em>All American Boys</em>. In this stunning debut novel, Pushcart-nominated author Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and <em>vodou</em> culture. <br />
On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find <em>une belle vie</em>—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. <br />
Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?<br />
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BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Street-Ibi-Zoboi/dp/0062473042/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485958538&sr=8-1&keywords=american+street" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/American-Street-Ibi-Zoboi/9780062473042?ref=grid-view" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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WE ARE OKAY by Nina LaCour<br />
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Summary:<em>You go through life thinking there’s so much you need. . . . Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.</em> <br /> Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart. <br /> <br /> An intimate whisper that packs an indelible punch, <i>We Are Okay</i> is Nina LaCour at her finest. This gorgeously crafted and achingly honest portrayal of grief will leave you urgent to reach across any distance to reconnect with the people you love.<br /><br />
BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Okay-Nina-LaCour/dp/0525425896/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485958695&sr=8-1&keywords=we+are+okay" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/We-Are-Okay-Nin-LaCour/9780735232013?ref=grid-view" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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PIECING ME TOGETHER by Renee Watson<br />
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Summary: Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And she has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Except really, it's for black girls. From "bad" neighborhoods. And just because Maxine, her college-graduate mentor, is black doesn't mean she understands Jade. And maybe there are some things Jade could show these successful women about the real world and finding ways to make a real difference.<br />
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BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Piecing-Me-Together-Ren%C3%A9e-Watson/dp/1681191059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485958870&sr=8-1&keywords=piercing+me+together" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Piecing-Me-Together-Renee-Watson/9781681191058?ref=grid-view" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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THE EDUCATION OF MARGOT SANCHEZ by Lilliam Rivera<br />
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Summary: <em>Pretty in Pink </em>comes to the South Bronx in this bold and romantic coming-of-age novel about dysfunctional families, good and bad choices, and finding the courage to question everything you ever thought you wanted—from debut author Lilliam Rivera.<br /><br />Things/People Margot Hates:<br /> Mami, for destroying her social life<br /> Papi, for allowing Junior to become a Neanderthal<br /> Junior, for becoming a Neanderthal<br /> The supermarket<br /> Everyone else<br /><br />After “borrowing” her father’s credit card to finance a more stylish wardrobe, Margot Sanchez suddenly finds herself grounded. And by grounded, she means working as an indentured servant in her family’s struggling grocery store to pay off her debts.<br /><br />With each order of deli meat she slices, Margot can feel her carefully cultivated prep school reputation slipping through her fingers, and she’s willing to do anything to get out of this punishment. Lie, cheat, and maybe even steal…<br /><br />Margot’s invitation to the ultimate beach party is within reach and she has no intention of letting her family’s drama or Moises—the admittedly good looking but outspoken boy from the neighborhood—keep her from her goal.<br />
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BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Education-Margot-Sanchez-Lilliam-Rivera/dp/1481472119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485959014&sr=8-1&keywords=the+education+of+margot+sanchez" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Education-of-Margot-Sanchez-Lilliam-River/9781481472111?ref=grid-view" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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DREAMLAND BURNING by Jennifer Latham<br />
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Summary: When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family's property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past... and the present.<br /><br />Nearly one hundred years earlier, a misguided violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what's right the night Tulsa burns.<br /><br />Through intricately interwoven alternating perspectives, Jennifer Latham's lightning-paced page-turner brings the Tulsa race riot of 1921 to blazing life and raises important question about the complex state of US race relations - both yesterday and today.<br />
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BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-Burning-Jennifer-Latham/dp/0316384933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485959157&sr=8-1&keywords=dreamland+burning" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Dreamland-Burning-Jennifer-Latham/9780316384933" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas<br />
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Summary: Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas’s searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty. Soon to be a major motion picture from Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions.<br />
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Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.<br />
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Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what <em>really</em> went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. <br />
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.<br />
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BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hate-U-Give-Angie-Thomas/dp/0062498533/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485959327&sr=8-1&keywords=The+hate+u+give" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Hate-U-Give-Angie-Thomas/9780062498533?ref=grid-view" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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10 THINGS I CAN SEE FROM HERE by Carrie Mac<br />
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Summary: Maeve has heard it all before. She’s been struggling with severe anxiety for a long time, and as much as she wishes it was something she could just talk herself out of, it’s not. She constantly imagines the worst, composes obituaries in her head, and is always ready for things to fall apart. To add to her troubles, her mom—the only one who really gets what Maeve goes through—is leaving for six months, so Maeve will be sent to live with her dad in Vancouver.<br /> <br /> Vancouver brings a slew of new worries, but Maeve finds brief moments of calm (as well as even more worries) with Salix, a local girl who doesn’t seem to worry about <i>anything.</i> Between her dad’s wavering sobriety, her very pregnant stepmom insisting on a home birth, and her bumbling courtship with Salix, this summer brings more catastrophes than even Maeve could have foreseen. Will she be able to navigate through all the chaos to be there for the people she loves?<br />
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BUY HERE: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/10-Things-Can-See-Here/dp/0399556257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485959567&sr=8-1&keywords=ten+things+i+can+see+from+here" target="_blank">AMAZON</a> <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/10-Things-I-Can-See-From-Here-Carrie-Mac/9781524719265?ref=grid-view" target="_blank">BOOK DEPOSITORY</a><br />
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What new releases are you looking forward to in February?<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-72919433625885050152017-01-31T06:56:00.001-06:002017-01-31T06:56:52.616-06:00January 2017 Wrap-Up!January is usually my "hit the ground running" month for trying to get a jump start on all the reading challenges I normally partake in. This year, however, I had decided not to do any challenges and just read exactly how I want to and at whatever pace I wanted. It seems to be working out really well since I ended this month with 16 read books. Honestly, if so many things hadn't occurred this month, I think I could have gotten to 20. My reading just seems to go so much smoother when I'm not worried about if I'm on track or keeping up with everyone else. <br />
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I'm going to start breaking my monthly wrap-up down by rating. If you like it, let me know!<br />
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HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE by J.K. Rowling.<br />
- I try to reread the series at least once every other year. It's just as good as I remembered. <br />
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THE ROSE AND THE DAGGER by Renee Ahdieh<br />
- Not quite as good as The Wrath and the Dawn, but still undeniably satisfying.<br />
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THE DARK WIFE by S.E. Diemer<br />
- Hades and Persephone reimagined as... lesbians. Yes, please. <br />
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ALICE + FREDA FORVER: A MURDER IN MEMPHIS by Alexis Coe<br />
- Teenage lesbian murder bisexual lover in public. True story. <br />
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TWIXT by S.E. Diemer<br />
- Lesbian demons, ugly angels, and unaware dead people. Diemer is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. <br />
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THE ROUND HOUSE by Louise Erdrich<br />
- Revenge is definitely sweet. (tw: rape)<br />
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THE BACKSTAGERS by James Tynion<br />
- All boys academy and a stage crew. Plus, super cute crushes. <br />
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GIRL OUT OF WATER by Laura Silverman<br />
- Coming of age story. Involves a carefree Black boy with dimples. You need this in your life. <br />
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HEARTLESS by Marissa Meyer<br />
- Prequel to Alice in Wonderland. I'm still crying, tbh. <br />
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THE CURSE OF THE BLUE FIGURINE by John Bellairs<br />
- Moral of the story: Don't take things that don't belong to you.<br />
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QUEERING SEXUAL VIOLENCE by Jennifer Patterson<br />
- Essays on sexual violence between same-sex partners and how crisis centers are ciswoman centric. <br />
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THE BLAZING STAR by Imani Josey<br />
- Time traveling back to Egypt. It should have been more exciting but I was actually really bored the entire time. <br />
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I WORK AT A PUBLIC LIBRARY by Gina Sheridan<br />
- A lot of the stories seemed made up and not even in an imaginative way. <br />
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THE BONE WITCH by Rin Chupeco<br />
- DNFed at 50%. A story about a witch raising her brother from the dead should have been more interesting. <br />
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THE PRINCESS SAVES HERSELF IN THIS ONE by Amanda Lovelace<br />
- Not my cup of tea but also not my place to rate someone's extremely personal poetry.<br />
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IN ORDER TO LIVE by Yeonmi Park<br />
- I liked this book a lot but after doing some research, it appears that there are some major discrepancies in Park's story. Since I'm not sure what's real and what's not, I decided not to rate.<br />
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QUEEN SUGAR by Natalie Baszile<br />
- Three pages in, one of the character's starts making negative remarks about "Indians". Pass. <br />
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And that's it for January! I'm hoping February will be just as productive! What did y'all read in January?<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-20247829773873071902017-01-31T05:49:00.001-06:002017-01-31T05:49:46.831-06:00Review: Girl Out of Water
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29640839" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476883739m/29640839.jpg" border="0" alt="Girl Out of Water" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29640839">Girl Out of Water</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15148197">Laura Silverman</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1759697299">5 of 5 stars</a>
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***I received a free e-arc from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review***<br /><br />I had given this book a preemptive 5 star rating to try and combat the disgusting attack on the author after literal Nazis started trying to tank her book's ratings. Now that I've actually read it, I see that I don't have to change my rating at all. <br /><br />GIRL OUT OF WATER follows Anise during her last summer before senior year. She expects it to be a summer like any other- spending time with her friends and surfing- until a family emergency sends her and her dad to Nebraska to care for her 3 younger cousins. This is sold as a romance, and while there is definitely some romance in the book, it's more of a lesser told love story of a family coming together. <br /><br />There wasn't a character I despised in this entire book. All of them were well fleshed out and had depth, including the side characters which is something we usually don't get in YA novels. All of Anise's friends were distinct even though they might have only been mentioned a half dozen times. I loved how Silverman included mixed families throughout the story. <br /><br />The romance between Anise and Lincoln (OH MY GOD, LINCOLN!!!!) wasn't overplayed and I like that Silverman didn't rush their feelings or include sex in this book. YA has a problem with the trope of "We just met but I love you so let's have sex" but Silverman did a wonderful job in avoiding that. <br /><br />I only had two problems with this book and they tie in together. The first was that I felt the last few chapters lost the characters. It almost felt like I was reading an entirely different book and I'm not sure if that was on purpose (to show Anise slipping back into her Santa Cruz life) but it was disorienting and really almost made me drop the rating down to 4 stars. In those finally chapters, I had another problem- underage drinking. I'm totally aware that teenagers drink but it felt very out of place in this book. The "drama" it caused could have totally been rewritten. Honestly, the last few chapters just don't feel right in the book, period. <br /><br />However, I did love this book. I loved Anise. I loved Lincoln. I LOVED LINCOLN. <br /><br />Would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to enjoy a sweet, summery, coming-of-age story.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1759697299">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-14227581609263691062017-01-30T09:27:00.001-06:002017-01-30T09:27:19.525-06:00#DIVERSEATHON Wrap-Up!Did anyone else feel like #DiverseAThon went by way too fast? <br />
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Due to family obligations and having to catch back up with my community action program after being at the hospital with my dad for so long, I missed out on most of the really great chats that were going on but I was able to pop in and read some of the responses. I'm so glad so many of you are feeling more comfortable in actively seeking out diverse books and understanding that not all representation is good. It feels like everyone has grown so much in the last few months since the original #DiverseAThon week was started... which is a good thing now that we see how the next four years are going to go. It's imperative that we continue to push marginalized voices up higher, that we lend platforms and ears and hearts to their words so that they can't be silenced. <br />
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I don't feel that I read as much as I could have read this week, but again, I had plenty of obligations that kept me running so I'm trying not to feel too bad about it. <br />
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Here's a wrap-up of everything I read during #DiverseAThon:<br />
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ALICE + FREDA FOREVER: A MURDER IN MEMPHIS by Alexis Coe<br />
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I stumbled across this book months ago during the original #DiverseAThon and for whatever reason, I never got around to it. ALICE + FREDA is a nonfiction book that chronicles the rocky relationship between Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward which ended when Alice publicly slit Freda's throat. What was so weird to me was the fact that Alice was able to plea insanity and people believed her not because of the crime she committed but because she was in love with a woman. Definitely pick this one up for an interesting history lesson.<br />
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THE ROUND HOUSE by Louise Erdrich<br />
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This is one of those books that I could read over and over and never get tired of. THE ROUND HOUSE follows the Coutts, an Ojibwe family dealing with the aftermath of their matriarch's rape and attempted murder by a supposedly unknown assailant. I don't want to give too much away because this is a book that has to be deeply experienced. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who understand that sometimes revenge is the best option. <br />
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(I also want to talk about people who are rating this book who are Non-Native and do not understand Native family and tribal dynamics who are calling this book unrealistic: It's not.)<br />
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THE BACKSTAGERS VOL 1 by James Tynion<br />
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I saw this on Net Galley and thought it would be a cute read. It follows Jory, a new student at an all-boys academy who stumbles upon the stage crew and all the mysterious things that happens backstage. It definitely reaffirms my personal belief that nothing is better than working backstage... that is where all the magic really happens. <br />
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TWIXT by S.E. Diemer<br />
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After reading THE DARK WIFE and loving it, I was excited to read TWIXT. It has lesbians, demons, dead people, and ugly angels... everything I never knew I needed in a book. <br />
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I also attempted to read QUEEN SUAGR but DNFed it after 3 pages when one of the characters talks about Natives "liking to be called Indians" and talking about the "jackals at the Indian casinos". No, thank you. THE BONE WITCH was another one I DNFed at 50% due to sheer boredom. <br />
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What books did you get to during #DiverseAThon? Any conversations really stand out to you? Let me know in the comments below!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-54739446215881933572017-01-28T08:48:00.001-06:002017-01-28T08:48:35.533-06:00Review: The Bone Witch
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30095464" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462464739m/30095464.jpg" border="0" alt="The Bone Witch" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30095464">The Bone Witch</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7055613">Rin Chupeco</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1800539844">2 of 5 stars</a>
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***DNF-ed at 50%***<br /><br />This story had so much potential. So. MUCH. It literally begins with Tea (a witch who can raise the dead) resurrecting her beloved brother from the grave at his funeral. AT. HIS. FUNERAL. You can imagine how hyped I was about this book. I should have known better and say that because even though Tea has just done this amazing, wondrous, horrific thing, it is highly glossed over in the text. I wanted this description of what their parents and siblings thought, more of what the villagers thought (we only get a brief sense that they were scared and holding torches outside of the house). It's not every day that a young man gets raised from the dead so you would think Chupeco would have put more detail in it. <br /><br />Despite that, I thought I would still enjoy the book. I thought it would be action packed. Instead, I read a whole lot of descriptions of buildings and clothing and it took me 5 days to slog through half of this book before I finally decided to throw in the towel. It's not a bad book. Chupeco has an obvious gift but the delivery of the story is so slow and uneventful that I fell asleep several times while reading this or found my mind wandering away. I had one glimmer of hope when Tea brought back to life a bunch of dead mice but then that too was glossed over and I knew this was an uphill battle I wasn't going to win. Or end. So I wave my white flag at this book. <br /><br />***I was provided a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review from the publisher through NetGalley***
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1800539844">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-36529158532696712632017-01-26T06:49:00.001-06:002017-01-26T06:49:28.180-06:00Review: Queen Sugar
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18160078" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385499280m/18160078.jpg" border="0" alt="Queen Sugar" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18160078">Queen Sugar</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7145945">Natalie Baszile</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1762404189">1 of 5 stars</a>
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DNFed 3 pages in.<br /><br />"Well, the Native Americans I know like to be called Indians. Bunch of 'em live in the woods behind my house."<br /><br />"They built a big casino... nothing over there but a pack of jackals if you ask me. Jackals and sinners."<br /><br />Yeah, hey, fuck you.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1762404189">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-39129050282639921882017-01-20T09:18:00.001-06:002017-01-20T09:18:51.048-06:00My #DIVERSEATHON TBR!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's the most wonderful time of the year! That's right, #DiverseAThon is making it's 2017 debut during the week of January 22-29. </div>
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In September of 2016, after a video surfaced where some woman (apparently she's an author??) was talking about how problematic diversity is, a few youtubers (@monicakwatson, @lcmarie19, @squibblesreads, and @whittynovels) started a week long book challenge that was focused solely on diverse books and discussions about diversity. That was probably one of the best weeks I've ever had on book twitter and I LOVED reading so many other people's thoughts about diversity and just generally learning from their experiences. It was really cool to see how many of us have such shared experiences even though we come from vastly different walks of life. </div>
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I'm hella excited to be joining in again this year. I know I said I wasn't doing any book challenges this year but to me this isn't really a book challenge. There aren't any set TBRs or book counts. While there is an optional group book to read (THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Colson Whitehead), it's not something they actually push you to read if you don't want to. I already read diversely so this is just a really great time to connect with others who also read diversely or who want to start reading more diversely. </div>
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I picked 5 books that I want to read during #DIVERSEATHON this year. </div>
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<strong>THE ROUND HOUSE</strong> by Louise Erdrich.<br />
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Summary: <span id="freeText8088682956635978113"><em>One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.<br /><br />While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.</em></span><br />
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ALICE + FREDA FOREVER by Alexis Coe<br />
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Summary: <em>In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation—it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancée Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again.</em><br />
<br /><em>Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter—and her father’s razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée’s throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest, Alice spent months in jail—including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of "the finest men in Memphis" declared Alice insane, she was remanded to an asylum, where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later</em>.<br />
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<strong>PURPLE HIBISCUS</strong> by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie<br />
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Summary: <em>Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating.<br /><br />As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.</em><br />
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<strong>QUEEN SUGAR</strong> by Natalie Baszile<br />
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Summary: <em>When Charley unexpectedly inherits eight hundred acres of sugarcane land, she and her eleven-year-old daughter say goodbye to smoggy Los Angeles and head to Louisiana. She soon learns, however, that cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley struggles to balance the overwhelming challenges of a farm in decline with the demands of family and the startling desires of her own heart</em><br />
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<strong>FLYING LESSONS & OTHER STORIES</strong> by Ellen Oh<br />
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Summary: <em>Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology—written by the best children’s authors—celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us.<br /> <br /> In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson join newcomer Kelly J. Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. This impressive group of authors has earned among them every major award in children’s publishing and popularity as New York Times bestsellers.<br /> <br /> From these distinguished authors come ten distinct and vibrant stories</em><br />
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And that's my TBR! I'm hoping to get through these and at least one more during the #DIVERSEATHON week. <br />
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What is your TBR for #DIVERSEATHON? <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-58745986072860323102017-01-19T09:11:00.001-06:002017-01-19T09:11:42.136-06:00Review: Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29997013" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461605681m/29997013.jpg" border="0" alt="Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29997013">Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15222301">Jennifer Patterson</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1879420081">4 of 5 stars</a>
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**I received a copy of this book from Riverdale Avenue Books through Net Galley for an honest review**<br /><br />As you can probably already guess from the title of this book, there are major trigger warnings associated with this. Rape, abuse (sexual, mental, and physical), and incest. There are also a few essays in here that detail BDSM. <br /><br />Rating this book was really complicated for me. Reading it was, too, if I'm being completely honest. This is definitely one of those much needed books but there were a lot of things that were hard to stomach which I will talk about it more detail. <br /><br />The things I liked about this book:<br /><br />1. The fact that this was about sexual violence as it pertains to Queer people. We have a very heterocentric view of sexual violence where the perpetrator is male and the victim/survivor is female. Society is too willing to overlook sexual, physical, and mentally abuse in relationships between same-sex couples and I think it stems from the fact that society doesn't see our relationships as being real. I've talked before about how many m/m stories written by cishet women involve physical abuse and it's written as foreplay because men are expected to be violent with each other. We don't allow men to be soft and in love, and when we have that mentality that they are supposed to be "rough" with each other, it's easier to turn a blind eye to violence between m/m couples. On the opposite end of the spectrum with f/f relationships, abuse between two women is seen as women being typically "catty". It's masturbatory to think of two women who are sexually involved as being mean to each other before turning soft and sexual. <br /><br />2. It challenges safe centers and crisis hotlines that cater to cishet women but exclude trans women, Queer women, and non-binary people and the fact that there are no spaces for cishet men to talk about their own abuse. The first essay in the book is about a genderqueer individual who could not find a space that would talk to them about their sexual abuse. They were turned away from hotlines and in person meetings because of the notion that victims/survivors are only cishet women. <br /><br />3. The essays that discussed sexual violence that happens inside families. Incest is such a taboo topic that even most crisis centers tend to shy away from talking about it but it's such a painful for reality for those of us who have survived being sexually assaulted or raped by a family member. The two essays that really stuck out to me was the story of a woman who was forced by her family (who were feminists and human rights activists) to keep silence about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her step-grandfather. The other essay talked about something I haven't seen except in Sapphire's novel PUSH- the abuse of a female child by a female family member. While incest is taboo, sexual assault of a female child by a mother seems to be the ultimate taboo and something society has worked hard to sweep under the rug. I loved the fact that these writers blew the top off of these topics and shed some light on a very painful experience in a way that wasn't shameful. Too many times we look at incest and shy away from the victim because of the implications of incest. <br /><br />Things I didn't like about this book:<br /><br />1. Twice in the book it was pointed out that a lot of perpetrators were once abused and that they shouldn't be punished. I disagree with this so vehemently that I actually ranted about it on twitter. I do understand cycling and while I feel for anyone who has been a victim of sexual violence, that victimization is not a free pass to go out and victimize someone else. Everyone has a choice on whether or not they do harmful things. If you choose to harm someone else, there are consequences and the fact that anyone would think otherwise is troublesome. <br /><br />2. Relating to my above opinion, I also disagreed with how many of the writers believed that abusers should be included in circles with the abused. The one story that stuck out to me was how a woman wanted an abusers to be included in the 'Take Back the Night' festivities on campus so that the abuser "might get an understanding of what they were putting their victim through". Abusers know what they are doing and the only thing that happens when they are included in circles with victims/survivors is that the circle stops being a safe place for victims/survivors.<br /><br />3. There were no trigger warnings on any of the stories which would have been very useful to navigate this book. I, personally, can't read stories that involve BDSM as a method of dealing with past trauma and it would have been nice to have been able to skip over those stories before I actually started reading them. <br /><br />4. The insinuation that being Queer comes from sexual abuse. While the next essay disputed this, it was still very troubling to see my sexuality minimized to sexual trauma. <br /><br />Overall, this was a very informative read. The book was interesting and well put together.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1879420081">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-75638564290017709122017-01-14T09:27:00.001-06:002017-01-14T09:27:47.322-06:00Review: The Blazing Star
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32182684" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474571823m/32182684.jpg" border="0" alt="The Blazing Star" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32182684">The Blazing Star</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15857834">Imani Josey</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1877395505">2 of 5 stars</a>
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**I received a free ebook from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.**<br /><br />The first thing that struck me about this book was the cover. No, seriously, look at that cover. Isn't it beautiful? I am also 100% here for a book that has Black girls cast in all the major roles. I really thought this was going to be one of those 'wow' books for me. <br /><br />But it wasn't. <br /><br />There were 3 things that made this book difficult for me to finish. <br />1. I could not connect with Portia. At all. I love snarky characters but Portia felt very flat to me. <br />2. It's set in Egypt but, honestly, it could have been set anywhere. I was expecting more of an Egyptian feel to the setting and the characters but nah. This literally could have taken place in Arizona. Lack of details.<br />3. The plot was so boring to me. I'm not sure if it was just because it took SO LONG for something to happen but I set this book down several times. I clearly remember looking down at my Kindle and realizing I was 55% in and absolutely nothing had happened. <br /><br />I think it goes without saying that I wouldn't recommend this book.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1877395505">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-57974180859054869602017-01-03T13:28:00.001-06:002017-01-03T13:28:47.655-06:002017 Book JournalLast year was the first year I tried to do a book journal and... things got messy. I really went into it blind with no real idea of how to organize it- I just knew I wanted something away from Goodreads. It wasn't a complete disaster but it was so disorganized and scattered that it didn't do me a whole lot of good in the end. <br />
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This year I decided to be a) more organized and b) more consistent with how I use it. Instead of having release dates, TBRs, books I've read, books I want to buy, etc., scattered out across multiple journals or my phone, I've put everything I need to know about the book world into one handy journal. And so far it looks like it's going to work out great for me! <br />
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Just for fun, I thought I'd give y'all a look at how this year's journal is shaping up!<br />
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This is the journal! It's nothing super fancy. I actually think this one came in a three pack of journals at Target for like $8. I had a same brand one last year (but it was black and white) and it held together beautifully through an entire year so I'm hoping this one will serve me just as well!<br />
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This is what the front cover and first page look like when it's opened. In case you can't tell, this was my first time taking a panoramic photo and it is shakey as hell... whoops!<br />
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Front cover! I wanted to do a quick 'at a glance' of the books coming out in 2017 that I'm super excited for and I put the January-June on the front cover- just title and date released. The little envelopes hold my 'want to buy' lists. <br />
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These are the 3 envelopes (aren't they super cute??). I divided them into Young Adult/Adult, Middle Grade, and Cozy. I did a full page of books that I want to buy/read in each category and then put them in the corresponding envelopes. I'm really working towards getting my physical TBR and my Want to Buy TBR super, super low this year... because both are slightly out of control. I'll talk more about how I plan to do this in a later blog!<br />
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Just a quick glance inside the envelope. <br />
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This is the first page of my journal. I actually redid this page 3 times before I settled on this. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I decided to not participate in any of the challenges this year. On this page I have: a small calendar, my January TBR, books I want to order, movies I want to order (not bookish but in preparation for Halloween), blog ideas, reviews I need to write, books due for review (arcs/netgalley), blog goal for the month, total books read for the month, and money saved for YallFest/SeYaFest. I've also left space for notes I need to jot down. <br />
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The pages after are where I'll keep a list of books I've read for the month, any thoughts on those books, and notes for reviews. <br />
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Each month will have a similar first page. <br />
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And that's it! I'm hoping this year's journal is a little more helpful and a little less chaotic than last year's!<br />
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If you're doing a book journal or anything similar, let me know in the comments below! What kind of journal/method are you using?<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-89103081140868191102017-01-01T10:00:00.000-06:002017-01-01T10:00:00.883-06:00#DiversityReads New Release (JANUARY 2017 EDITION!)Happy New Year, friends! I hope the holidays treated you well and your bookshelves are lined with new books for you to enjoy in the upcoming year. Maybe you're like me and have family who wants to feed your book addiction but doesn't quite know what books to buy... so you're loaded up with giftcards. <br />
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Take a peek at some of my most anticipated releases for January 2017!<br />
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<u><strong>LATIN@ RISING: AN ANTHOLOGY OF LATIN@ SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY</strong></u> by Matthew David Goodwin.<br />
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Summary: <span id="freeText1003634847276985677"><em>Latin@ Rising is the first anthology of science fiction and fantasy written by Latinos/as living in the United States. The book gives an overview to the field of Latino/a speculative, showing the great variety of stories being told by Latino/a writers. Fifty years ago the Latin American "Boom" introduced magical realism to the world; Latin@ Rising is the literature that has risen from the explosion that gave us García Márquez, Jorge Amado, Carlos Fuentes and others. The 21st century writers and artists of Latin@ Rising help us to imagine a Latino/a past, present, and future which have not been whitewashed by mainstream perspectives. Contrary to the popular perception, Latino/a Literature is not just magical realism and social realist protest literature—it also contains much speculative fiction. By showing the actual breadth of genres being used by Latino/a authors, Latin@ Rising will help extend the boundaries of the Latino/a literature canon. Latin@ Rising demonstrates the value of speculative fiction for the Latino/a community: it gives Latinos/as a vital means for imagining a past and a future in which they play a pivotal role, and it constitutes a narrative of the effects of technology on the Latino/a community. The book shows how the richness of the speculative genres provide U.S. Latinos/as with a unique medium to discuss issues of colonialism, migration, and the experience of being bicultural. The 23 authors and artists included in this anthology come from all over the U.S. and from eight different national traditions. They include well-known creators like Kathleen Alcalá, Ana Castillo, Junot Diaz, Giannina Braschi and others; they also include new voices, well worth hearing.</em></span><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rising-Anthology-Science-Fiction-Fantasy/dp/1609405242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482419178&sr=8-1&keywords=latin%40+rising" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Latin-Rising-an-Anthology-of-Latin-Science-Fiction-and-Fantasy-Matthew-David-Goodwin-Frederick-Luis-Aldam/9781609405243?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>FLYING LESSONS AND OTHER STORIES</u></strong> by Ellen Oh<br />
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Summary: <em>Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology—written by the best children’s authors—celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us.<br /> <br /> In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson join newcomer Kelly J. Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. This impressive group of authors has earned among them every major award in children’s publishing and popularity as New York Times bestsellers.<br /> <br /> From these distinguished authors come ten distinct and vibrant stories.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Lessons-Other-Stories-Ellen/dp/110193459X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482419264&sr=8-1&keywords=flying+lessons" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Flying-Lessons-and-Other-Stories-Ellen-Oh/9781101934593?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>BATTLE HILL BOLERO</u></strong> by Daniel Jose Older<br />
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Summary: <em>The time has come for the dead to rise up...</em><b> </b><br />
<em> Trouble is brewing between the Council of the Dead and the ghostly, half-dead, spiritual, and supernatural community they claim to represent. One too many shady deals have gone down in New York City’s streets, and those caught in the crossfire have had enough. It’s time for the Council to be brought down—this time for good.<br /> <br /> Carlos Delacruz is used to being caught in the middle of things: both as an inbetweener, trapped somewhere between life and death, and as a double agent for the Council. But as his friends begin preparing for an unnatural war against the ghouls in charge, he realizes that more is on the line than ever before—not only for the people he cares about, but for every single soul in Brooklyn, alive or otherwise...</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hill-Bolero-Street-Rumba/dp/0425276007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482419430&sr=8-1&keywords=battle+hill+bolero" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Battle-Hill-Bolero/9780425276006" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>FINDING YOUR FEET</u></strong> by Cass Lennox<br />
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Summary: <em>While on holiday in Toronto, Evie Whitmore planned to sightsee and meet other asexuals, not audition for a dance competition. Now she's representing Toronto's newest queer dance studio, despite never having danced before. Not only does she have to spend hours learning her routine, she has to do it with one of the grumpiest men she's ever met. Tyler turns out to be more than a dedicated dancer, though -- he might be the kind of man who can sweep her off her feet, literally and figuratively.</em><br />
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<em>Tyler Davis has spent the last year recovering from an emotionally abusive relationship. So he doesn't need to be pushed into a rushed routine for a dumb competition. Ticking major representation boxes for being trans and biracial isn't why he went into dance. But Evie turns out to be a dream student. In fact, she helps him remember just how good partnering can be, in all senses of the word. Teaching her the routine, however, raises ghosts for him, ones he's not sure he can handle.</em><br />
<em>Plans change, and people change with them. Learning a few steps is one thing; learning to trust again is another entirely.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Your-Feet-Toronto-Connections/dp/1626494886/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1482419957&sr=8-3&keywords=finding+your+feet" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Finding-Your-Feet-Cass-Lennox/9781626494886?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<u><strong>HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME</strong></u> by Adam Silvera<br />
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Summary: <em>When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.<br /><br />To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.<br /><br />If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/History-All-You-Left-Me/dp/1471146189/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1482420014&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/History-is-All-You-Left-Me-Adam-Silver/9781471146183?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>ALLEGEDLY</u></strong> by Tiffany D. Jackson<br />
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Summary: <em>Mary B. Addison killed a baby. </em><br />
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<em>Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? </em><br />
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<em>There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Allegedly-Tiffany-D-Jackson/dp/0062422642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482420210&sr=8-1&keywords=allegedly" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Allegedly--Tiffany-D-Jackson/9780062668653?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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I know there are a lot of great books coming out this month, but this is just a selection of the ones I'm so excited about! It looks like 2017 is off to a great start!<br />
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I'd just let to take this moment to encourage you to dedicate yourself to reading more diversely if you haven't already made that commitment. We are in for four years of stress and fight and rebellion, and there is no better way to prepare than to read and to read outside of your experience. We are all in this together- for better or for worse- and I have your back if you have mine. #BooksFightHate is not just a hashtag. It's a reality. Fill yourself with good, diverse, own voice books. <br />
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Happy New Year!<br />
Weezie.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-45366343247974179332016-12-28T12:07:00.000-06:002016-12-28T12:13:46.843-06:00Bookolutions 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am terrible at sticking to my New Year's Resolutions. In fact, I can't really remember one that I've carried out the entire year. Last year I was going to lose weight (ha!), stop smoking (I did... but not until like October), completely paint my house (that didn't happen in any shape, form, or fashion), and I was going to stress less (double ha!). This year I'm making more manageable goals in my personal life. I want to treat myself with more respect, surround myself with like-minded people, and get back to doing the things I love. That includes reading. <br />
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It seems silly to include reading, right? Obviously I have been reading since my GoodReads Challenge is sitting at 175 as we approach the last few days of 2016. But a lot of my reading habits has turned reading from a hobby I love to something that almost feels like a job at times. It wasn't until I talk to my girlfriend about it that she pointed out I was letting things like bookstagram, reading challenges, and other bloggers reshape my way of buying and reading books. After a lot of soul searching, I realized she was right and that this needed to change in 2017. I want to get back to a very simple love of reading and books and I want to connect with people who don't think reading is a contest. <br />
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So, here are my Bookolutions for 2017:<br />
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1. <strong>Avoid book challenges or readathons.</strong> I think book challenges and readathons are great for people who want to participate in them but I am extremely competitive and get caught up very easily in numbers. I had originally planned to participate in #DiversityBingo2017 but a few things kind of turned me off from it. One of them is personal and I won't be sharing because that's not fair to the creators but the thing I will share is... I don't like most Sci-Fi. It's a personal preference but I really can't see the point in participating in something that I'm either going to have to leave the space blank (and lose) or force myself to read something I'm just not into. I will be setting a GR challenge just so I can easily keep up with how many and which books I've read during the year, but I probably won't set the goal over 100 so that I'm not pressuring myself and I'll feel like I have more time to enjoy some of the bigger books on my TBR. <br />
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2. Speaking of TBRs, mine is out of control. <strong>This year I want to reduce my TBR by either getting rid of the books or reading them.</strong> Seriously, I have books on my shelf that I've been holding on to for YEARS. As my Grandma says, "It's time to piss or get off the pot." (she's very eloquent.) I started culling books back in the summer but I'm definitely serious about getting rid of what I don't plan to read this year. <br />
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3. <strong>Limit myself to 3 brand new books a month and spend more time at the library/used book shop. </strong>I'm not sure when I got so vain about having brand new hardbacks, but it's kind of an issue. I used to spend hours and hours combing through used books at the library rummage room or going through boxes of used books in the back room at the used book shop (the owner had gotten to know me so well that I got first dibs). This was an every weekend thing. People knew where to find me on Saturday afternoon. But I went to the used book shop this past Monday and the owner was like "I thought you had died!" It had seriously been that long. I don't know when or why my mind started thinking that I had to have brand new books in order to fit in with other bookstagrammers or bloggers. I think used books are beautiful (not to mention affordable) and I love discovering little notes and markings left in them by their previous owners. I have to get out of this "Keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. <br />
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4. <strong>Read more freely. </strong>This connects directly with #1 but this year, I felt very cramped with my reading. I want to get back to reading middle grade books. I love weird, horrible, trashy romance and cozy mysteries and all the books I pushed to the side because I wanted so badly to fit in more with the YA community. I feel like I missed so many great MG books in the last half of 2016 because I was so worried about keeping up with YA. <br />
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5. <strong>Support more Native American/Indigenous authors. </strong>I stated on my twitter earlier in the month that I was terribly disappointed to see so many people excluding Native and Indigenous voices from their diversity lists. While I can't force people to read these authors, I can make sure that I'm reading more than my portion and uplift their (and in return, my) voice. <br />
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And this isn't a goal because it's who I am as a reader and as a Queer Mvskoke, but I will of course be pushing forward in promoting diversity books and literacy in our communities. I've been asked to partner with our community action board as a liaison to the libraries and schools in my county. I'll be helping them set up reading programs and securing more diverse books for our expanding community. I'm really honored to be blessed with this position and I'm looking forward to moving my activism into a place that I love. <br />
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What are your Bookolutions for 2017? Or just goals in general? <br />
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Have a Happy New Year!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-71982124289801621182016-12-19T11:45:00.001-06:002016-12-19T11:45:01.157-06:00Review: Juliet Takes a Breath
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28648863" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453334587m/28648863.jpg" border="0" alt="Juliet Takes a Breath" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28648863">Juliet Takes a Breath</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14889581">Gabby Rivera</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1750272373">0 of 5 stars</a>
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**Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley**<br /><br />This has honestly been the hardest review I have ever had to write. To the point that I thought about not writing it because I have so many conflicting emotions about it. <br /><br />First, this is an incredible book. I loved how the racism in white feminism was pointed out, I loved that Juliet started to decolonize and had a good taste of the Queer PoC community. The characters were well thought out, the plot was strong, the writing was nearly flawless. I loved how Harlowe even understood her privilege and was still learning how to break the cycle of white women using PoC. I loved how the book challenged white feminism and it's minimal space for WoC and Transwomen. <br /><br />But there was one passage that ruined it all for me. If you follow me on twitter, you've seen it and if you don't, here it is: <i>Like wasn't once with the Native Americans enough and didn't that kind of happen by accident? The pilgrims didn't mean to kill the Indians with yellow fever or whatever, right?</i><br /><br />It happens early on in the book and I spent the rest of my reading experience with those two sentences running non-stop in my head. I kept expecting for the author to correct the information but it never happened. In fact, while the book explores Latinx and Black oppression, the author never once circles around to talk about Native folks which I found troubling. You can bring us up but you can't correct it in later text? <br /><br />Someone reached out to the author on my behalf and while they did apologize and said that they meant no harm, I can't help but feel, well, harmed. <br /><br />This would have been a powerful read for me but instead I felt very othered by it. Brown and Queer but not the right kind of brown to be respectfully acknowledged. <br /><br />Due to this, I have chosen not to rate this book because it doesn't feel fair to the author to rate their book when I have such conflicted emotions about it. I also can't pick myself apart and rate this book based on its Queerness while ignoring the hurt it caused to my Nativeness. <br /><br />MY NOTE TO THE PUBLISHER: <br />Thank you for the opportunity to read JULIET TAKES A BREATH. While I have written a review for this book, I will not be rating it due to a conflict in emotions about this book. It is beautiful, yes, and powerful but I can't accurately give a rating to a book that has two very callous lines about the genocide of my people. ("Like, wasn't once with the Native Americans enough and didn't that kind of happen by accident? The pilgrims didn't mean to kill the Indians with yellow fever or whatever, right?") A friend reached out to Gabby Rivera on twitter on my behalf and while Gabby did apologize, it doesn't erase the text or the fact that it is never corrected at any point in the book. I understand that the passage was meant to show Juliet's lack of understanding about the whitewashing on American history, but if the author was going to choose to use Natives as her example (which I have no idea why she would do that since she was looking up Latinx history) then the text needed to be corrected at a later date or at least challenged by another character. While Gabby might understand that's not what happened to Native American tribes during the brutal conquests of early America, the reader might not. Too many times the displacement, slavery, and genocide of my people has been swept under the rug and chalked up to disease. I am terribly disappointed that anyone writing a book or publishing a book that includes decolonization and unlearning White History would think that 2 glib lines about genocide would be ok.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1750272373">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-61854911295994373992016-12-19T10:15:00.000-06:002016-12-29T13:41:35.002-06:00DIVERSITY BINGO 2017 SUGGESTIONS#DiversityBingo2017 starts on January 1, 2017! The goal is to fill in all the squares for a complete black-out bingo. I've seen a lot of posts asking for recs and I thought I would try to give y'all a little hand up on the categories.<br />
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Romance with a Trans MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156987-if-i-was-your-girl?from_search=true" target="_blank">IF I WAS YOUR GIRL</a> by Meredith Russo</div>
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I've removed my rec for Elliot Wake's book due to his anti-blackness. I promise to replace it with a more deserving rec soon. </div>
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MC with an Underrepresented Body:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18304322-dumplin?from_search=true" target="_blank">DUMPLIN'</a> by Julie Murphy</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30653853-the-upside-of-unrequited?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED</a> by Becky Albertalli (out 4/11/17)</div>
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MC of Color in SFF:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31560094-love-beyond-body-space-and-time?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">BEYOND BODY, SPACE, AND TIME: AN INDIGENOUS LGBT SCIFI ANTHOLOGY</a> by Hope Nicholson</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27774758-an-ember-in-the-ashes?from_search=true" target="_blank">AN EMBER IN THE ASHES</a> by Sabaa Tahir</div>
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West Asian Setting:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28427125-the-morning-they-came-for-us?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE MORNING THEY CAME FOR US: DISPATCHES FROM SYRIA</a> by Janine Di Giovanni</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6001011-rooftops-of-tehran" target="_blank">ROOFTOPS OF TEHRAN</a> by Mahbod Seraji</div>
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Black MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32075671-the-hate-u-give?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE HATE U GIVE</a> by Angie Thomas (out 2/28/17)</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20517379-how-it-went-down?from_search=true" target="_blank">THIS IS HOW IT WENT DOWN</a> by Kekla Magoon</div>
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Indigenous MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17071488-if-i-ever-get-out-of-here?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE</a> by Eric Gansworth</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17946249-killer-of-enemies?from_search=true" target="_blank">KILLER OF ENEMIES</a> by Joseph Bruchac</div>
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Non-Binary MC</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22692740-symptoms-of-being-human?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN</a> by Jeff Garvin</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13262783-every-day?from_search=true" target="_blank">EVERY DAY</a> by David Levithan</div>
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Neurodiverse MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15798757-maggot-moon?from_search=true" target="_blank">MAGGOT MOON</a> by Sally Gardner</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25903348-m-is-for-autism?from_search=true" target="_blank">M IS FOR AUTISM</a> by The Students of Limpsfield Grange School</div>
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Own Voices Latinx MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23202520-hollywood-witch-hunter?from_search=true" target="_blank">HOLLYWOOD WITCH HUNTER</a> by Valerie Tejada</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20702546-gabi-a-girl-in-pieces?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">GABI, A GIRL IN PIECES</a> by Isabel Quintero</div>
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Arab MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25897857-it-ain-t-so-awful-falafel?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">IT AIN'T SO AWFUL, FALAFEL</a> by Firoozeh Dumas</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23447506-when-the-moon-is-low?from_search=true" target="_blank">WHEN THE MOON IS LOW</a> by Nadia Hashimi</div>
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MC on the Ace Spectrum:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25322449-radio-silence?from_search=true" target="_blank">RADIO SILENCE</a> by Alice Oseman</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30341730-we-awaken?from_search=true" target="_blank">WE AWAKEN</a> by Calista Lynne</div>
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Diverse Non-fiction: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15792558-fresh-off-the-boat?from_search=true" target="_blank">FRESH OFF THE BOAT</a> by Eddie Huang</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20256746-alice-freda-forever?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">ALICE + FREDA FOREVER</a> by Alexis Coe</div>
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SFF with Disabled MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23437156-six-of-crows?from_search=true" target="_blank">SIX OF CROWS</a> / <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22299763-crooked-kinghttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23437156-six-of-crows?from_search=truedom?from_search=true" target="_blank">CROOKED KINGDOM</a> by Leigh Bardugo</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20578940-the-iron-trial?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE IRON TRIAL</a> by Holly Black</div>
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Retelling with LGBT MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6472451-ash?from_search=true" target="_blank">ASH</a> by Malinda Lo</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11672159-the-dark-wife?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE DARK WIFE</a> by Sarah Diemer</div>
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Free Choice: </div>
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I highly recommend anything by Louise Erdrich or Thomas King. </div>
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MC with a Wheelchair: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31315388-mia-lee-is-wheeling-through-middle-school?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">MIA LEE IS WHEELING THROUGH MIDDLE SCHOOL</a> by Melissa Shang</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17934647-push-girl?from_search=true" target="_blank">PUSH GIRL</a> by Chelsie Hill</div>
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LGBTQAI+ MC of Color:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12000020-aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE</a> by Benjamin Alire Saenz</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20312458-tell-me-again-how-a-crush-should-feel?from_search=true" target="_blank">TELL ME AGAIN HOW A CRUSH SHOULD FEEL</a> by Sara Farizan</div>
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PoC on the Cover:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22295304-shadowshaper?from_search=true" target="_blank">SHADOWSHAPER</a> by Daniel Jose Older</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15749186-to-all-the-boys-i-ve-loved-before?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE</a> by Jenny Han</div>
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Practicing Jewish MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18594409-can-t-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT</a> by Roz Chast</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256566.Everything_Is_Illuminated?from_search=true" target="_blank">EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED</a> by Jonathan Safran Foer</div>
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Bisexual MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123448.How_I_Paid_for_College?from_search=true" target="_blank">HOW I PAID FOR COLLEGE: A NOVEL OF SEX, THEFT, FRIENDSHIP & MUSICAL THEATER</a> by Marc Acito</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28147258-the-gallery-of-unfinished-girls?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE GALLERY OF UNFINISHED GIRLS</a> by Lauren Karcz (out 7/25/17)</div>
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Non-Western Real World Setting: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24611623-in-order-to-live?from_search=true" target="_blank">IN ORDER TO LIVE</a> by Yeonmi Park</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43015.A_Long_Way_Gone?from_search=true" target="_blank">A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER</a> by Ishmael Beah</div>
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Book by Author of Color:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30171491-the-marauders-island?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE MARAUDERS' ISLAND</a> by Tristan J. Tarwater</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126381.Purple_Hibiscus?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">PURPLE HIBISCUS</a> by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</div>
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Visually Impaired MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7130816-blindsided?from_search=true" target="_blank">BLINDSIDED</a> by Priscilla Cummings</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22701879-not-if-i-see-you-first?from_search=true" target="_blank">NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST</a> by Eric Lindstrom</div>
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D/deaf MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20701984-el-deafo?from_search=true" target="_blank">EL DEAFO</a> by Cece Bell</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10128428-wonderstruck?from_search=true" target="_blank">WONDERSTRUCK</a> by Brian Selznick</div>
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Indian MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28458598-when-dimple-met-rishi?from_search=true" target="_blank">WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI</a> by Sandhya Menon (out 5/30/17)</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/766319.Born_Confused?from_search=true" target="_blank">BORN CONFUSED</a> by Tanju Desai Hidier</div>
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MC with Invisible Disability:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21897920-dead-girls-society?from_search=true" target="_blank">DEAD GIRLS SOCIETY</a> by Michelle Krys</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/296507.Kissing_Doorknobs?from_search=true" target="_blank">KISSING DOORKNOBS</a> by Tony Spencer Hesser</div>
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Own Voices: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23228256-blood-drenched-beard?from_search=true" target="_blank">BLOOD DRENCHED BEARD</a> by Daniel Galera</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25164304-of-fire-and-stars?from_search=true" target="_blank">OF FIRE & STARS</a> by Audrey Coulthurst</div>
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Biracial MC: </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18667779-everything-leads-to-you?from_search=true" target="_blank">EVERYTHING LEADS TO YOU</a> by Nina LaCour</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18378827-abby-spencer-goes-to-bollywood?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">ABBY SPENCER GOES TO BOLLYWOOD</a> by Varsha Bajaj</div>
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Book Set in Central America</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1958749.Assault_on_Paradise?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">ASSAULT ON PARADISE</a> by Tatiana Lobo</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/380257.The_Weight_of_All_Things?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">THE WEIGHT OF ALL THINGS</a> by Sandra Benitez</div>
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Immigrant or Refugee:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28763485-the-sun-is-also-a-star?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR</a> by Nicola Yoon</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/139253.The_House_on_Mango_Street?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE HOUSE ON MAGO STREET</a> by Sandra Cisneros</div>
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Displaced MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7299917-displaced-persons?from_search=true" target="_blank">DISPLACED PERSONS</a> by Ghita Schwarz</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76401.Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE</a> by Dee Brown</div>
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Anaphylactic Allergy </div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30325865-the-tidal-zone?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE TIDAL ZONE</a> by Sarah Moss</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9833965-don-t-kill-the-birthday-girl?from_search=true" target="_blank">DON'T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL</a> by Sandra Beasley</div>
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MC with Chronic Pain:</div>
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-<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6013290-the-body-broken?from_search=true" target="_blank">THE BODY BROKEN</a> by Lynne Greenberg</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20517739-far-from-you?from_search=true" target="_blank">FAR FROM YOU</a> by Tess Sharpe</div>
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Pansexual MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26240663-seven-ways-we-lie?from_search=true" target="_blank">SEVEN WAYS WE LIE</a> by Riley Redgate</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25223500-out-on-good-behavior?from_search=true" target="_blank">OUT ON GOOD BEHAVIOR</a> by Dahlia Adler</div>
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Arranged Marriage:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22521951-written-in-the-stars?from_search=true" target="_blank">WRITTEN IN THE STARS</a> by Aisha Saeed</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128029.A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns" target="_blank">A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS</a> by Khaled Hosseini</div>
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Hijabi MC:</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79876.Does_My_Head_Look_Big_In_This_?ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS?</a> by Ronda Abdel-Fattah</div>
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- <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6295209-love-in-a-headscarf?from_search=true" target="_blank">LOVE IN A HEADSCARF</a> by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed</div>
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And there you have it! This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the wonderful diverse and own voices book available, but it is a nice little springboard if you aren't sure where to get started!</div>
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Happy reading!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-46713178791371362472016-12-17T08:15:00.001-06:002016-12-17T08:15:34.592-06:00Review: Alice & Jean
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32719908" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477062964m/32719908.jpg" border="0" alt="Alice & Jean" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32719908">Alice & Jean</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16003593">Lily Hammond</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1841177907">3 of 5 stars</a>
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**Disclaimer: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**<br /><br />Alice & Jean tells the story of Alice Holden, a war widow with two small children, who has fallen in love with Jean Reardon, the woman who delivers her milk every morning. The story starts off very fast with Alice already being head over heels for Jean (and vice-versa) so the reader doesn't get a very good sense of why Alice has fallen for Jean until near the end of the story when both women confess when/how they fell in love with the other. The pair face a lot of obstacles together- from Alice's overbearing and downright evil mother, to the whispers of the neighbors about Alice being seen with <i>that woman</i>, to the stereotypical man who feels jilted and can't stand women being together. <br /><br />Which brings me to things I didn't like about this book: I feel like Big Jim was overdone. I do realize that there are plenty of men like him the world, but I really feel we could have done without his macho homophobia. And I understand that his actions were the means to the happy end of the story but just once I would like to read a f/f love story that didn't include alpha males or rape. <br /><br />I also wasn't that impressed with Jean. The story definitely fell into that stereotypical "one is very femme and the other is very masculine" trope that I'm very, very burnt out on in f/f fiction. And maybe it wasn't the character herself as much as it was the way people treated her (Alice saying she wishes Jean were a man so they could get married, Tilly saying she wishes Jean could be her father, the men treating Jean like a man, etc.,) I think gender expression and fluidity is great and amazing (I myself am nonbinary) but I feel like Jean was only a stand-in for a man in the story. We don't get a sense of how she feels about her gender, only that she likes to wear trousers and enjoys jobs that are traditional more masculine. I would have felt more comfortable with her if there had been more discussion on how she identified or how she felt about having people continuously treat her like a man. <br /><br />I did like the story, though. I loved the way the group of women came together to protect Alice from Big Jim because we have a severe lack of solid, powerful, and protective female friendships in LGBTQAI+ literature. I also loved the fact that Alice does not forgive her mother in the end but does reach a compromise with herself that makes her happy. <br /><br />I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick f/f read with minimal sex scenes, strong female friends, and a HEA ending.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1841177907">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-28284423642415624452016-12-15T09:10:00.000-06:002016-12-15T09:13:56.140-06:00Diversity in YA (HOLIDAY GUIDE)Putting this list together was incredibly hard because there are so many GREAT diverse book in YA. Here are just a few to get you started!<br />
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<u><strong>SIX OF CROWS</strong></u> by Leigh Bardugo<br />
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Summary:<em> Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...</em><br />
<em>A convict with a thirst for revenge.</em><br />
<em>A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.</em><br />
<em>A runaway with a privileged past.</em><br />
<em>A spy known as the Wraith.</em><br />
<em>A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. </em><br />
<em>A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. </em><br />
<em>Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don't kill each other first.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Six-Crows-Leigh-Bardugo/dp/1627792120/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481811631&sr=8-1&keywords=six+of+crows" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-dregs/9420839/#isbn=1627792120" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Six-of-Crows-Leigh-Bardugo/9781627795098?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqUJ1x7G48roTSR0aI38rUQzn3BlASLgs5Yr8LQO5DQHuyXEJLoJpg8yRJXqpA6515KyWx30DF6Juygz86so3YI1WHX5rOIViMPo7JrVcKzmUA5GC05tuyUCSidzrpwH_1shL8-s8aNU/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqUJ1x7G48roTSR0aI38rUQzn3BlASLgs5Yr8LQO5DQHuyXEJLoJpg8yRJXqpA6515KyWx30DF6Juygz86so3YI1WHX5rOIViMPo7JrVcKzmUA5GC05tuyUCSidzrpwH_1shL8-s8aNU/s320/Capture.JPG" width="205" /></a></div>
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<strong><u>LABYRINTH LOST</u></strong> by Zoraida Cordova<br />
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Summary: <em>Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation...and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can't trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin.</em><br />
<em>The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland...</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Labyrinth-Brooklyn-Brujas-Zoraida-Cordova/dp/1492620947/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481811936&sr=8-1&keywords=Labyrinth+Lost" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/labyrinth-lost_zoraida-crdova/11435725/#isbn=1492620947" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Labyrinth-Lost-Zoraid-Cordov/9781492620945?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<em>*NOTE: This is not an own voice story but Becky Albertalli has done a wonderful job with her characters and with the situations they face.</em> <br />
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<u><strong>SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA</strong></u> by Becky Albertalli<br />
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Summary:<em> Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simon-vs-Homo-Sapiens-Agenda/dp/006234868X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481812166&sr=8-1&keywords=simon+vs.+the+homo+sapiens+agenda" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/simon-vs-the-homo-sapiens-agenda/9327432/#isbn=006234868X" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Simon-vs-the-Homo-Sapiens-Agend-Becky-Albertalli/9780141356099?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>ALL AMERICAN BOYS</u></strong> by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely<br />
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Summary: <em>A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?<br /><br />There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-American-Boys-Jason-Reynolds/dp/1481463330/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481812608&sr=8-1&keywords=all+american+boys" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/all-american-boys_jason-reynolds_brendan-kiely/9571954/#isbn=1481463330" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/All-American-Boys-Jason-Reynolds-Brendan-Kiely/9781481463331?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE</u></strong> by Eric Gansworth<br />
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Summary:<em> Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him -- people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan's side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home -- will he still be his friend?</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/If-Ever-Get-Out-Here/dp/0545417317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481813098&sr=8-1&keywords=if+i+ever+get+out+of+here" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/if-i-ever-get-out-of-here_eric-gansworth/672459/#isbn=0545417309" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/If-I-Ever-Get-Out-of-Here/9780545417310" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<u><strong>THE WRATH & THE DAWN</strong></u> by Renee Ahdieh<br />
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Summary: <em>Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.<br /><br />She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all</em>.<br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wrath-Dawn/dp/0399171614/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481813319&sr=8-1&keywords=the+wrath+and+the+dawn" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-wrath--the-dawn/9303791/#isbn=0147513855" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Wrath-and-the-Dawn-Renee-Ahdieh/9780399176654?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<u><strong>A TIME TO DANCE</strong></u> by Padma Venkatraman<br />
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Summary: <em>Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Dance-Padma-Venkatraman/dp/0147514401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481813529&sr=8-1&keywords=a+time+to+dance" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/a-time-to-dance_padma-venkatraman/3261580/#isbn=0147514401" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Time-Dance-Padm-Venkatraman/9780147514400?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<u><strong>SHADOWSHAPER</strong></u> by Daniel Jose Older<br />
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Summary: <em>Sierra Santiago planned to have an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears... Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.<br /><br /> With the help of a mysterious fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for herself and generations to come.</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadowshaper-Daniel-Jos%C3%A9-Older/dp/133803247X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481813719&sr=8-1&keywords=Shadowshaper" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/shadowshaper/9379021/#isbn=133803247X" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Shadowshaper-Daniel-Jos-Older/9780545591614?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<u><strong>KILLER OF ENEMIES</strong></u> by Joseph Bruchac<br />
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Summary: <em>Years ago, seventeen year old Apache hunter Lozen and her family lives in a world of haves and have-nots. There were the Ones (people so augmented with technology and genetic enhancements that they were barely human) and there was everyone else who served the Ones. <br />Then the Cloud came, and everything changed. Tech stopped working. The world plunged back into a new steam age. The Ones' pets — genetically engineered monsters — turned on them and are now loose on the world. <br />Lozen was not one of the lucky ones pre-C, but fate has given her a unique set of survival skills and magical abilities. She hunts monsters for the Ones who survived the apocalyptic events of the Cloud, which ensures the safety of her kidnapped family. But with every monster she takes down, Lozen's powers grow, and she connects those powers to an ancient legend of her people. It soon becomes clear to Lozen that she is not just a hired gun… Lozen is meant to be a hero.</em> <br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Enemies-Joseph-Bruchac/dp/1620141434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481813929&sr=8-1&keywords=killer+of+enemies" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/killer-of-enemies_joseph-bruchac/8749303/#isbn=1620141434" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Killer-of-Enemies-Joseph-Bruchac/9781620141434?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<u><strong>CHALLENGER DEEP</strong></u> by Neal Shusterman<br />
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Summary: <em>Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.<br />Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.<br />Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images.<br />Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.<br />Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.<br />Caden Bosch is torn</em>.<br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Deep-Neal-Shusterman/dp/0061134147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481814106&sr=8-1&keywords=Challenger+Deep" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/challenger-deep/9277592/#isbn=0061134147" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Challenger-Deep-Neal-Shusterman-Brendan-Shusterman/9780062413093?ref=grid-view" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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<strong><u>GEORGIA PEACHES AND OTHER FORBIDDEN FRUIT</u></strong> by Jaye Robin Brown<br />
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Summary: <em>Joanna meets the perfect girl for her and must decide whether to break a promise that could change everything for her and her family or lose out on love in this charming young adult romance that’s perfect for fans of Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’ and Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.</em><br />
<em>Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees.</em><br />
<em>Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn’t possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad. Even if she’s starting to fall for the girl. Even if there’s a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. Right?</em><br />
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<strong>BUY HERE: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Georgia-Peaches-Other-Forbidden-Fruit/dp/0062270982/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481814287&sr=8-3&keywords=girl+mans+up" target="_blank"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/georgia-peaches-and-other-forbidden-fruit_jaye-robin-brown/11419867/#isbn=0062270982" target="_blank"><strong>THRIFTBOOKS</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Georgi-Peaches-and-Other-Forbidden-Fruit-Jaye-Robin-Brown/9780062270986" target="_blank"><strong>BOOK DEPOSITORY</strong></a><br />
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And that wraps up my first ever holiday guide series! I hope y'all found something you like and may this be the jumpstart to a new year of diverse reading for you!!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-9721556053580472112016-12-14T15:28:00.001-06:002016-12-14T15:28:31.737-06:00Review: Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25861933" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479129380m/25861933.jpg" border="0" alt="Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case" /></a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25861933">Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/308137">Patricia Hruby Powell</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1839376818">5 of 5 stars</a>
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I was unfamilar with the Loving vs. Virginia case until a few months ago when I saw an ad on YouTube for the upcoming movie. While I am excited to see how it plays out on screen, I was even more excited to see a book about the case. <br /><br />Not just a book, really, Loving vs. Virginia is a carefully crafted novel of blank prose, photos, pieces of legislation, illustrations, and other excerpts that bring to life the case that changed laws regarding interracial marriage. At its heart, though, this is a wonderful story about two children who grew up together and fell in love despite the laws and prejudices that were set against them and ultimately tried to tear them apart. Despite the obstacles they faced, Mildred and Richard shared an unflinching love.<br /><br />I can’t wait to have an actual physical copy of this book to add to my collection. <br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1839376818">View all my reviews</a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2136530231765835286.post-41739467092593602672016-12-14T09:07:00.002-06:002016-12-14T09:07:42.490-06:00Good versus DiverseI keep seeing this discussion of <em>good books</em> versus <em>diverse books</em>. <br />
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<strong>"I want to read diversely but I also want to read good books."</strong> <br />
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<strong>"I value quality over specific topic."</strong> (yes, that was a real tweet but a real live white person trying to defend their decision to not read diversely.)<br />
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Brace yourself, here's some shocking news for y'all not in the know: Books can be good <em>and </em>diverse. At the same time. Can you believe that?? Is your mind blown?<br />
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Let me explain to you what I hear when you say that you want to read good books instead of diverse books. When you tell me that you prefer quality books over diverse books, you're telling me (and every other PoC, Queer, or marginalized voice) that you think our stories are boring. You're saying that you think marginalized authors are not capable of writing good books. You are playing into every white fantasy of white people being smarter, more articulate, more creative than any PoC in the room. You're saying that a marginalized author can't possible build a fantasy world as rich and deep as your favorite white authors. You are continuing centuries of oppressing marginalized voices. <br />
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I hear people say that they don't want to waste money on books (diverse books) because they might not like them, but you'll gladly spend cash on white authors that booktubers have promoted that you've never read. If you're willing to invest money in unknown white authors but hesitate to invest in marginalized authors, the problem isn't that you're afraid of the book not being good. The problem is that you think marginalized authors are not worth your money or your time. That's racism. That's sexism. That's ableism. That's homophobia. <br />
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In the last few weeks, I've been given a few books for review. The only one that was any good was by an unknown diverse author (Tristan J. Tarwater to be exact and I highly recommend you check her out <a href="https://www.backthatelfup.com/" target="_blank">here)</a>. The best books I've read this year have been by diverse authors. <br />
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I want to say this as clearly and as loudly as possible. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES ON UNKNOWN WHITE AUTHORS BUT NOT ON MARGINALIZED AUTHORS, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. <br />
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I can't force anyone to read more diversely. I can't. But I'm also not going to turn my head and let you pretend that you have "standards" that just happen to include only reading cishet white authors who write about cishet white characters. You might not read diversely but trust me when I say that everyone in the room has their eyes on you and have figured you out.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12343012439915599302noreply@blogger.com0