It’s likely you don’t know who Tarana Burke is, but almost impossible you’ve never seen the words that became the hashtag that defined one of the biggest social justice movements in American history. #MeToo appeared in 2019, attached to serial sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein. I heard it, read it, used it, but had no idea where it came from. Now, thanks to her memoir, ... Read More...
What’s Mine and Yours
In Piedmont, North Carolina in the 1990s two women are faced with raising young children on their own. Jade and her son Gee are Black while Lacey May and her three daughters are White. Both are living on the same edge of desperation, but in What’s Mine and Yours each responds to her circumstances in very different ways. Ways that come to clash a decade later, when despite it ... Read More...
Five Best Debuts of 2020
Welcome to the last week of the longest year in history. I’m going to avoid any rehashing of what a nightmare it was for so many and stick to the easy stuff: my best books of 2020! Today I have five debut books that really stood out for me. Normally, I’d have more, but there was nothing normal in 2020. Like a lot of other readers, my taste and what worked for me was ... Read More...
This is My America
Being 17 is difficult enough, but being that age, Black, in a small Texas town, and with a father on death row feels like a mountain too high. For most it would be, but for Tracy Beaumont in the YA novel This is My America, acceptance and resignation are not traits she possesses. Her mother might say she’s mostly “sass”, but Tracy doesn’t feel the need to keep her beliefs ... Read More...
A Knock at Midnight
If nothing else, 2020 has been my year of more “I had no idea” reading than any other in my adult life. I’ve read fiction and nonfiction on a number of issues for years, but somehow race was never a large part of that reading. Now, like many others in this country, I’ve seen just how insidious systemic racism is in America and want a better understanding. To that end, I read A ... Read More...
8 Fall 2020 Books I’m Ready to Read
September is here and fall (sort of) so I’ve got to pull myself out of my summer funk and get re-energized for reading. I feel as if I need to keep apologizing, because despite my best efforts at taking review breaks, I’m still struggling to get my mojo back and to post regularly. I don’t think I’m alone in this—it’s been a long time since we’ve had good news in ... Read More...
