I uploaded my Friday reads for June 4 2021 and showing what I checked out from my library. Let me know if you have read any of these and how you felt about these books. Take care, and stay safe☺
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Surviving Home By Katerina Canyon | Book Review
Concisely arresting and challenging the beliefs of family and the fantasies of tradition, the poems in Surviving Home show that home is a place that you endure rather than a place where you are nurtured. With unyielding cadence and unparalleled sadness and warmth, Katerina Canyon contemplates the prejudice and limitations buried in a person’s African American heritage: parents that seem to care for you with one hand and slap you with the other, the secret desires to be released from the daily burdens of life, as well as the surprising ways a child chooses to amuse herself. Finding resilience in the unexpected, this collection tears down the delicate facades of family.
Review:
This collection of poems was the most honest collection I have read in a while. The author dives deep into her life and touches on topics such as her family, sexual abuse, her life growing up, and political opinions.
Reading this made me feel a real close connection to the author, as if she was telling me something private yet something that needed to heard. The author seems to not hold back on her thoughts about current events. I liked that she is using her voice to talk about important topics such as political power, abuse, and home life.
I liked how this collection of poetry was written. It’s not like like today’s instagram poetry but more like what I grew up reading when I was in school and I appreciate that, a lot. This is something I can see myself reading again and referencing back to. I took my time reading this because I knew from the first page it was going to be an important read.
Rating 4.75 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
**I want to thank the publisher for sending me this to read and review. This review and opinions are of my own.This comes out December 2021**
Sheets By Brenna Thummler | Book Review
Synopsis:
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen year old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for.
Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world.
When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.
Book Review:
Sheets tells the story of a girl, Marjorie who works at her family’s laundry mat and only wants to feel invisible. Her mom died not long ago and her dad is basically deeply depressed and won’t leave his room.
Marjorie just wants to get though her school days and work and come home. That is until she meets Wendell the ghost. Marjorie and Wendell eventually end up having a good friendship. What got on my nerves was this big belly Mr. Saubertuck trying his damn best to take Marjorie’s family business away and he felt like he could and say whatever he wanted to get his way.
In the end I enjoyed this story. The art work was nice to look at. I felt it was different and wasn’t your typical drawings but still brought the story to life.
Rating: 3 ⭐⭐⭐
Watch “Black Author Readathon | Feb TBR 2021” on YouTube
In this video I talk about my February tbr and the tbr I picked out for the black author readathon
Watch “Friday Reads/ Weekend Reads Jan 22 2021” on YouTube
In this video I share the books I plan to start this weekend and hope to finish the last week of January. ☺️
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson | Book Review
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.
But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.
Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.
Review:
So I had to DNF this @ 62% I really didn’t want to but continuing on to finish this was making me fall into a reading slump that’s when I know I have to give up reading this.
So this isn’t a bad story at all it’s just all over the place for me. I picked this up for two reasons because I assumed there will be a story about witches and magic and also because of the bookclub I’m in.
Immanuel is basically shunned because of her mother’s sins. There’s talk about a plauge and Immanuel is trying to uncover more about it. Very little talk about witches, and when you do hear from them it’s much later in the story.
I wanted to like this, but this didn’t work for me at all. I didn’t really care for the style of writing. Maybe …just maybe I might pick this back up in the future but for now it’s a 2.5 star
I know a lot of people love this book but when a story is making me dred reading I know I have to stop what I’m reading. Once again not a bad story, it just didn’t work for me.
Rating: 2.5 ⭐⭐