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Book Review: ‘A Song Below Water’ by Bethany C. Morrow

A Song Below WaterA Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow follows two teen girls who call themselves sisters as they evolve into their true selves in an environment that discriminates against who they are.

Effie is changing. Her skin is unbearably itchy as she keeps scratching her scalp around her locs. She tries to conceal this irritation by remembering she’s Euphemia the Mer, the town faire’s cosplaying mermaid, along with Elric, the cosplaying merman. As the faire is set to begin, Effie can’t concentrate as a murder case of a siren becomes news. And Effie still hasn’t gotten over her friends turning into stone years before at the park while she was spared. In this story, sirens live among humans and are exclusively black females, so they face severe discrimination since society wants white sirens.

Tavia is a siren who lost her voice. She and Effie become sisters when Effie’s grandmother sends Effie to live with Tavia’s family. For Tavia, she’s having a hard time getting over her ex-boyfriend, Priam, an eloko, the beings connected to sirens who manifest in other races, so they don’t get the same degree of discrimination like sirens.

This fantasy YA novel mixes fantasy and reality, but the story can get lost in the weeds amid the constant world-building involving multiple magical beings. The racial thread is interesting, but most of the time blackness is described through Effie scratching her scalp and watching a natural hair YouTuber who turns out to be a siren. Effie’s hair and skin become the main issue, above the murder trial she’s paying attention to or Tavia getting pulled over by the police. The setting is Portland, Oregon, a community that has become notorious for not supporting its black population. Also, a gargoyle is perched on their roof at home. Making sirens black and emphasizing how they’re expected to be white is an interesting comparison, especially with mentioning a high-profile murder of a black woman suspected to be a siren and how it’s playing out in the media. The threat of showing magic affects both Tavia, who already knows she’s a siren, and Effie, who’s not sure who she is yet though she suspects a siren.

Overall, the black girl magic theme underlies this story of two teen girls trying to find their place in high school among human beings and other beings while remaining true to their destinies.

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Book Review: ‘Trailblazer’ by Dorothy Butler Gilliam

Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America by Dorothy Butler Gilliam is a fascinating memoir of the first African American woman reporter at the Washington Post. Though parts of her story fall into history retelling, she still refocuses on her life and what she’s learned from her journalism career especially supporting diversity and inclusion in the field.

Born in 1936, Dorothy overcame poverty and racism in Louisville, Kentucky to win a scholarship at a Catholic women’s college and study to become a journalist. She eventually goes on to Columbia University for her master’s degree in journalism. Her first gig is at the black newspaper in Memphis where she covers the Little Rock Nine, the nine black children who integrated a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Her second gig is at the illustrious Washington Post, an opportunity she earns after taking a trip throughout Africa and reporting there. This puts her at the center of the civil rights movement. Later in the 1990s, she covers Nelson Mandela’s U.S. visit during his historic presidency to black women reacting to the cinematic success of Waiting to Exhale. She also serves as the president of the National Association of Black Journalists, the largest trade organization for journalists of color.

The best parts of her memoir is focusing on her contributions and her family. Her book tends to lean in to adding so much research and history almost from a perspective that she didn’t experience it as if she’s just taking it from historical records. The most details she gives about herself is when she talks about her upbringing with losing her father at a young age and becoming an obese teen to getting married and starting a family while starting a career without role models who look like her.

Overall, it’s a good memoir about a trailblazing black female journalist who wants to use her legacy to diversify the mostly white male industry. Companion to the book, the 83-year-old journalist now is active on Twitter saluting other lesser-known trailblazing black female journalists and praising current ones trying to pave their own paths.

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Book Review: ‘My Sister, the Serial Killer’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Sister, the Serial KillerMy Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite describes the contentious relationship between two sisters through the older sister who’s tired of cleaning up after her irresistibly beautiful younger sister’s murderous mistakes.

The story starts with Korede getting a call from her younger sister Ayoola to help clean up after the murder of her current lover. Korede obliges since this is the third man whose body they had to hide after Ayoola murdered them in what she calls self-defense. Though Korede justified the previous murders because she had met the men and deemed them disgusting, she’s unsure about this third man. She never met him, so she doesn’t know if she should believe Ayoola, who can be classified as a serial killer since this killing is number three. As Korede tries to suppress her suspicion, Ayoola keeps popping up even at Korede’s place of work where the man Korede likes takes a liking to Ayoola. Now Korede worries that this man and other men who keep falling under Ayoola’s spell may show up dead, so should she protect her sister or divulge the secret to stop more killings?

This book moves smoothly within Korede’s thoughts on how to approach her relationship with her sister and wondering if her sister’s actions are a result of her beauty or their family’s past. Korede is constantly in dilemma mode, which makes the book exciting, as Ayoola’s killer looks lead to disaster with Korede exhausted of cleaning up the messes.

Overall, it’s an entertaining read with an interesting twist on a young woman whose man-eating ways go too far and the sister trying to understand the phenomenon and stop the madness.

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Book Review: ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ by Ottessa Moshfegh

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh tells the story of a young woman who decides to spend the year 2000 holed up in her apartment and isolated from the world. She tries to hide from her life, but her best friend keeps bothering her and so does her feelings for her pseudo-boyfriend and for her recently deceased parents.

The nameless narrator is living in that glam NYC Sex and the City setup at the turn of the millennium unfazed by the excitement. She has her friend Reva who she seems to loathe for being upbeat about the future. Reva tries to keep her friend engaged with the world, but her friend is not having it. When Reva experiences a loss, the narrator still can’t find enough empathy to be selfless in the situation. She remains a curmudgeon with the thoughts of her father and her mother dying within months of each other still haunting her. Other than Reva, she only really contacts Trevor who’s usually sleeping with another woman when she calls and acts like he doesn’t have time for her like she doesn’t have time for Reva. To vent her problems, she goes to her aloof therapist who dishes out questionable treatment methods. Finally, the narrator takes extreme measures to really get the rest and relaxation she wants without the distractions after seeing Reva and Trevor move on without her. When she’s satisfied, she finds herself emerging from her submersion as the city is hit with the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The narrator is that great unlikable character who acts in ways that are upsetting and annoying yet it’s understandable. Though the book came out a few years ago, the book is enjoying a resurgence as the world grips with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and being forced into weeks of “rest and relaxation.” It also shows that excitement for the future at the turn of a new decade, like now in 2020, and how all that hope can go down like it had in 2001 because of a national traumatic event. The narrator is working hard to ignore the news and enjoy TV reruns while laying on the couch like many are now with the worry around the novel coronavirus. She has everything going for her: her Columbia University degree, her art gallery job, and her rent-control Upper East Side apartment, but she can’t handle it and wants to escape the life she’s unsure she wants.

Overall, the story is well-written and highlights the unlikable character and her selfish desperation. It’s an interesting read for today’s times as 2020 is becoming a year of rest and relaxation for some who choose to see the widespread quarantine that way.

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Book Review: ‘Such a Fun Age’ by Kiley Reid

Such a Fun AgeSuch a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid is a tale about a millennial black woman who gets caught between her white boss and her white boyfriend after a racial incident while on the job leaves her vulnerable. Though the book rides on the racial divide, it fails to make the characters likeable and the main character is riding in the backseat of her own story.

Emira Tucker is partying with her friends when she gets a call from a couple, the Chamberlains, she regularly babysits for. She ditches the party while in her party clothes to save toddler Briar from her parents as they deal with an unexpected situation in their home. With an upscale grocery store down the street, Emira decides to take Briar there to buy time. Being a black woman in a skimpy dress baby-sitting a young white girl rings the alarm for one customer. Soon, the security guard is asking Emira why she has custody of Briar, assuming some type of kidnapping. The event escalates then cools off when Mr. Chamberlain shows up.

Emira doesn’t want to talk about the event, but the wife and mother, Alix Chamberlain, a well-to-do lifestyle expert, wants to take Emira under her wing by offering Emira more gigs and getting other ways for her to take care of things around the house. Emira doesn’t pick up on any changes because she’s desperate for money.

Soon, Emira meets Kelley, a white guy she remembered seeing at the store during the incident. In fact, he taped the incident and tries to convince Emira to approve its release. She doesn’t want to. Kelley then goes out of his way to date Emira, and they become an item. But it turns out Alix and Kelley have history with each other that dates back to high school when they were dating until a racial profiling incident ends their relationship.

With Kelley thinking he knows Alix’s motives around Emira with Alix growing up with black nannies, he also may have a motive of his own with only dating women of color. As they bicker about who will reveal themselves to Emira, Emira is oblivious to everything going on around her, including not taking the lead on her own life with being reduced to just baby-sitting Briar as a college graduate.

After the secrets between Alix and Kelley are revealed, Emira takes note and eventually finds her happy ending. But it takes too long for Emira to wake up. She doesn’t want the video of the incident to get out, but she’s not vocal enough expressing her concerns about safety if the video surfaces publicly. Because the incident fades more and more throughout the book and then pops up again, her character personality gets faded, too. She’s a Temple University grad, but she’s baby-sitting and doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life at 25 years old. Many black women college graduates have more direction, so this part of the story falls flat. Why is she not ambitious? Why is she half-awake? If the why is there, then that also falls flat.

Also, I don’t know a lot of black women who would subject themselves to being that close to a white family that they work with. Even at 25, that’s something they would handle delicately if ever in that situation. Emira’s devotion to Briar mirrors that of Aibileen in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, where the “you is kind, you is smart, you is important” speech that Viola Davis voiced as the character onscreen to the little white girl she’s responsible for is still a running joke.

Emira comes alive with her friends, but there’s too much focus on the Ebonics within their interactions to the point their conversations have no meaning; they’re just using a blaccent to be using a blaccent. On Good Morning America for a Black History Month literary segment, author Kiley Reid said, “As I’ve been touring, a lot of black women have said, ‘This is the first book I’ve read where I hear me and my friends talking,’ so I’m so glad they can hear themselves in it.” Black women readers told me NOT to read this book. They couldn’t explain why, just shook their heads no.

It’s hard to explain why we needed this to be the story that brings up race and privilege. The issues are dropped into the storyline but among unlikable, stereotypical characters who don’t know how to play with those themes. With a future film coming out, this book can come off stronger like Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, where those themes are more emphasized onscreen, making the story more entertaining.

Overall, this book is hard to decipher as a story that’s relatable and necessary to strike the conversation the publisher is pushing in its marketing strategy for readers to have.

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Book Review: ‘The Revisioners’ by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

The RevisionersThe Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Well, she’s coming over a bit,” I say.
They look up from their food at that, a mix of concern and shock wrinkling their faces.
“Coming by to do what?” Link asks. She has set her fork down.
“Just to talk, she’s lonely.” I already regret saying as much as I’ve said. There was no need to is all. “She can’t have a baby,” I add.
“I could prepare my bath with white women’s tears,” Link says.
“Not just yours but all of ours,” Theron adds.

The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton compares the lives of a single biracial mother who goes to live with her white grandmother in current times and her black great-great-great grandmother who befriends her new white neighbor in the 1920s. What they both learn is that they shouldn’t have trusted the white women because at the end of the day their unapologetic blackness will always cause division.

In 2017, New Orleans native Ava recently left her husband, lost her paralegal job, and is now raising her teen son, King, alone. To cut costs and save money, she accepts an invitation from her white grandmother, Martha, to live in her family mansion. Ava’s black mother, Gladys, warns her daughter to not live with the grandmother she barely knew because her white father was barely there and neither was his family. Ava takes Grandma Martha’s invitation as a way to fix the past between them and start anew. She takes care of her aging grandmother but notices microaggressions against her and her son that she struggles to ignore. As she adapts to her new life, she sees King doing the same, including falling for a white girl at his school. When Grandma Martha’s actions (and admissions) go too far, Ava rethinks her living situation.

In 1924, Ava’s maternal ancestor, Josephine, is dealing with her son, Major, getting married to Eliza, a woman she’s unsure about because of how the couple treats Major’s son from another marriage, Jericho, differently. While Josephine helps take care of Jericho while her son and his new wife adjust to their new home, a white woman stops by her door. It turns out to be a new neighbor named Charlotte, a mousy woman who’s obviously being beaten by her husband. She wants Josephine to help her conceive because she heard rumors of Josephine being able to manifest, or “revision,” such events and they happen. Because she feels pity for the woman, Josephine invites Charlotte into her home. They meet regularly and share baked goods until Charlotte, upset she can’t carry a baby to term, turns her back on Josephine by secretly joining the Ku Klux Klan. Charlotte’s connections then threaten Josephine’s family when a land dispute erupts between the neighbors.

In 1855, young enslaved Josephine is realizing her Revisioner powers with her mother and father teaching her. On the plantation, she becomes a play partner for the owner’s daughter, Miss Sally. Josephine shows her powers to Miss Sally, who eventually asks if she could help her mother conceive. When Missus gets pregnant, Miss Sally is gracious and she and Josephine get closer to the point where Josephine reveals she wants to use her power to be free. Miss Sally laughs, but Josephine keeps the rest of her secret that her parents and another mysterious slave, Jupiter, are preparing to flee.

Both the relationships Ava and Josephine strike with the white women in their lives end up in disaster. Early in the book, for example, Grandma Martha accidentally bumps into a lamp that’s the only heirloom Ava has from Josephine. Though Grandma Martha doesn’t know it’s Josephine’s lamp, the author weaves in the distrust the characters feel for each other over deeply rooted racial issues. Gladys doesn’t feel comfortable with Ava living with Grandma Martha and would rather have her daughter live with her and study to become a doula like her, like Josephine. From the start, Josephine’s friends and family explain to Josephine that she shouldn’t become friends, let alone trade niceties, with Charlotte, as evidenced in the quote above.

Overall, the book shows the history of a bloodline shared by strong black women, with a few having a soft heart for women outside of their race that leads to a hard-learned lesson. They learn though they share a womanly connection it could mean nothing due to racial differences. It reads smoothly flowing through the parts of Ava and the two parts of Josephine, where we see her as a child slave and as a free woman. It’s an interesting story, especially with the juxtaposition of Ava and Josephine living a century apart in the same place and dealing with the same problems but with different outcomes.

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Book Review: ‘Frankly in Love’ by David Yoon

Frankly in Love (Frankly in Love, #1)Frankly in Love by David Yoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Frankly in Love by David Yoon, young adult author Nicola Yoon’s husband, is an intricate fictional first-person narrative from a Korean teen boy trying to overcome the subtle racism he was taught because he now finds himself liking a girl he knows his parents would never approve.

Frank Li is a first-generation Korean American teen living in Orange County, California. He starts falling for Brit Means, a white girl at his school. But he knows his strict Korean parents won’t be having that. They even practically disowned their older daughter, who attended Harvard and became an investment banker like she was groomed to do, but to them she canceled all her success by marrying a black man. Even with his best friend Q Lee, who’s black, Frank knows his parents aren’t the most comfortable with Q though they swear they love him like another son because he’s not like “other black people.” With that in his head, Frank decides to recruit his friend, Joy Song, who’s not only Korean but her parents are friends with Frank’s parents, to be his fake girlfriend. She also is hiding who she’s dating, a Chinese boy she knows her parents won’t approve of. While Frank invites Brit to his house with other friends, Brit doesn’t know about the ploy and falls deeper for her new boyfriend. After they exchange “I love you,” Frank is having doubts that he picked the right girl after all.

Frank’s voice is authentic with the constant worrying over race and how his hormones are leading him to someone outside his race then within his race but not within his income bracket. He struggles with how his immigrant parents racially profile everyone like many parents do, especially taking into consideration their American experience and what their parents taught them. The book does a good job in this mental back-and-forth of surveying the meaning of race around the character and seeing it affecting his life in a bad way yet not knowing how to avoid it. His internal monologue, though on the long side, shows what a lot of teens are coping with when it comes to relationships and their parents possibly not being supportive only because of the race of the partner they choose.

Some book reviews discuss the book’s length, and yes it’s too long and has the character going through a lot during his senior year on top of worrying about his love life, dealing with his parents, and trying to get into college. The beginning of the book is very long with over-describing his life and that same rhythm returns at the end, as in there are few times you think the book will end but it keeps going. It needed better editing when it came to length.

Overall, the book handles mixed-race relationships among teens well and how even today they may be dealing with heavier racial issues because they’re hearing their parents discuss race in a negative way. In this book, Frank becomes a bit obsessed analyzing race in his world, but he’s developing his viewpoints around cultural expectations and trying to figure out love in the process. Also listened to this story on audiobook where the narrator’s voice works except when he did the girls’ voice, which came out comical, but it’s a likeable audio read.

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Book Review: ‘Grand Union’ by Zadie Smith

Grand Union: StoriesGrand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith is an offbeat story collection that dives into the lives of various characters from the U.K. to New York. The author’s literary fiction style sometimes shines in certain stories and fails to deliver in others.

The longer stories resonate stronger because the characters are established better, with some even having chapters. “Sentimental Education” is about a college couple where the young woman is trying to find herself sexually while she becomes annoyed by her boyfriend’s attention to his recently jailed best friend. “Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets” surrounds a drag queen’s shopping trip to a department store to find a version of an old corset; the corset has changed and so has the store’s management. “Downtown” sounds like it has more personal reflection from the author as the narrator details an everyday adventure in New York City from noticing the movements of an artist to dropping the kids off at school. “Big Week” features a recovering alcoholic as we follow him from meeting his son at the bar, picking up a professional woman at the airport for his new job as a driver, and reuniting with his ex-wife as he moves out.

Stories like “The Dialectic” and “The Lazy River” are similar to “Downtown” with describing what sounds like Zadie’s real moments, but they describe the setting and characters mostly without having a tangible plot. Other stories like “Kelso Deconstructed” and “For the King” have an overflow of conversation and character descriptions that buries the plot.

Overall, it’s an interesting short story collection because there isn’t a central theme; it’s her random stories, many previously published in magazines, placed together in one book. Some stories stand out while others don’t.

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Book Review: ‘On the Come Up’ by Angie Thomas

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas follows a teenage girl through her rise in the local rap game as she learns to navigate her emotions around a traumatic event at her high school. Like Angie’s debut novel The Hate U Give, this story features a black teen girl trying to overcome obstacles in the fictional Garden Heights.

The daughter of the late rap legend Lawless, Bri is 16 and hungry to jump-start her rap career. Her Aunt Pooh becomes her unofficial agent by hooking Bri up with a chance at the main rap battle competition in the city. Once she steps up into the ring, Bri feels her nerves until the rapper across from her, Milez, disses her father. She never knew her father, but she knows he deserves the respect of every rapper in Garden Heights. She transfers that anger into her rhymes, emerging as the winner. She soon learns her competitor is the son of Lawless’ manager, Supreme. And Supreme sees the opportunity to make Bri a star. While riding the wave of future stardom, Bri is slammed against the floor at her school by two white security guards. As one of a few students of color at the historically white performing arts school, Bri knows she walks in those hallways with her skin color being seen as a threat. She takes that frustration and puts it into a song. Aunt Pooh warns Bri not to release that faux gangster front song, but when Aunt Pooh disappears, Bri decides to upload the song online. It goes viral but brings up a lot of negative attention Bri was not ready for.

The story is a great follow-up to The Hate U Give with a magnified focus on hip-hop and the lifestyles the musicians feel they have to assume due to stereotypes. Bri lives in the black underdeveloped neighborhood of Garden Heights with her Aunt Pooh, who’s in the gang Garden Disciples, and her father being murdered in the streets while at the top of his game because he was faking the lifestyle of being a hardened, weapon-strapped gangster. The juxtaposition of knowing who you are and knowing who others think you are follows Bri while other characters like Bri’s mother Jayda and Milez try to rise above the stereotypes. The school incident is unfortunately becoming viral with many kids of color being thrown to the ground by a white teacher or staffer over a disciplinary issue. Again, Angie weaves a racially charged issue into her book like the shootings of unarmed black people in The Hate U Give.

Overall, this is another hypnotic read from the author that dives deep into a realistic story that’s rare to find in today’s young adult literature.

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Book Review: ‘Sabrina & Corina’ by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine is a brilliant short story collection surrounding indigenous and Latina characters in Colorado. From the first story to the last story, the book follows the lives of several women who are trying to keep family and history a priority.

“Sugar Babies” is the introductory story showing two classmates trying to care for a pretend baby made of sugar that brings up feelings for the girl who’s trying to develop a relationship with a mother who had abandoned her. “Cheeseman Park” has a young woman staying with her mother and meeting another woman in the same apartment complex who appears misunderstood by their neighbors as they bond in the nearby park. “Remedies” emphasizes how hard it is to incorporate blood ties into the family when a mother brings in her daughter’s father’s other child by another woman into the home and deals with a head lice problem that turns her life upside down. “Tomi” features a woman getting out of prison and bonding with her nephew while figuring out her new surroundings as the neighborhood changes. And the neighborhood changes also comes up in “Galapago” when a grandmother, being pushed by her granddaughter to move away, faces a home invasion. The namesake story, “Sabrina & Corina,” examines the dwindling relationship between two cousins and how one finds relative success and the other experiences the ultimate downfall.

The stories amazingly concentrate in the greater Denver area, showing the Latinx and indigenous female experience we don’t really see in fiction, especially from the perspective of an author who was bred within that culture. There is a struggle for the characters to remain in their homeland where generations before them had settled as they handle the gentrification, family, and discrimination. A consistent theme is the woman’s role in her family and how her relationships with her family dictate all her relationships. They are daughters, granddaughters, sisters, cousins, aunts, mothers, grandmothers figuring out their roles in their current situations.

Overall, the stories are well-structured and thought-provoking. I listened to the book on audio where the voices changed as if to give the indigenous and Latina narrators the opportunity, but it was unnecessary; one narrator throughout the book would’ve worked better to make the transitions more seamless.

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Book Review: ‘Saint X’ by Alexis Schaitkin

Saint XSaint X by Alexis Schaitkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*Received an advanced copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

“Saint X” by Alexis Schaitkin is a novel that centers around a young woman who sees the man suspected in her older sister’s murder years later. Though from the younger sister’s perspective, there are snippets exploring the lives of others who found themselves connected to the murdered college girl.

The novel starts on the picturesque island of Saint X, where the Thomas family is enjoying their summer vacation. While 7-year-old Claire stays with her parents most of the time, her 18-year-old sister Alison runs off and hangs out with the other college-age kids at the resort. Except on the last night Alison doesn’t return. Claire senses something is wrong and tells her parents. A search leads to Alison’s body found in shallow water nearby. Devastated by the loss and the infamous stamp of Alison’s demise, the family returns to New York and eventually moves to Southern California. Claire becomes Emily, using her middle name for a new identity to separate herself from her sister’s well-known murder. Emily returns to New York to work in publishing only to see one of the men accused of Alison’s murder from the island. She begins to follow him and develop a friendship while still sorting out her grief and contemplating on the woman she became in the shadow of the sister she barely knew.

The writing is so seamless and poetic where it captivates the reader, making the book a possible quick read. It’s about a murder mystery with the family behaving the way anyone would expect, but the emotional angles are wrapped under the actions, especially with Claire aka Emily. Other characters get their own chapters such as the suspects who claim innocence and the tourists at the resort who had noticed Alison at some point during their stay and now feel an unwanted connection to her murder.

Overall, it’s a book that will keep your attention and does a good job of unpeeling characters’ layers amid the aftermath of a traumatic event.

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Book Review: ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn HugoThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“This is not low-stakes for Evelyn. Evelyn can speak casually about things of great importance. But right now, in this moment, when she is taking so much time to make such specific points, I’m realizing this is real. This is happening. She really intends to tell me her life story―a story that no doubt includes the gritty truths behind her career and her marriages and her image. That’s an incredibly vulnerable position she’s putting herself in. It’s a lot of power she’s giving me. I don’t know why she’s giving it to me.”

“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid follows the life of a fictional Hollywood siren and the trials and tribulations she experiences in the spotlight during each of her seven marriages. It’s a fascinating page-turner, luring the reader through all the secrets Evelyn holds.

Evelyn Hugo, now almost in her 80s, paints her life without the rose-colored glasses, admitting how hungry she was for the fame and how the fame informed the decisions that will follow her for the rest of her life. This is what struggling journalist Monique learns as she’s chosen by Evelyn to tell her life story, not the article she thought she would be writing for her magazine. As Monique tries to figure out why she’s documenting Evelyn’s life inside the actress’ Upper East Side home, she begins interlacing the stories from Evelyn into her own life, taking her thoughts off her impending divorce. Once they reach the end, Monique learns why Evelyn picked her and the revelation sets her in a tailspin of emotion.

Evelyn jumps into every marriage to seek higher fame or to hide behind her true feelings. She peels back each marriage like an onion. It’s one of the best books to read because the author uses the classic story development technique with building up tension where you want to read the next chapter. One example is the titles of the parts about each husband, including “Brilliant, Kindhearted, Tortured Harry Cameron” and “Goddamn Don Adler.” The reader is intrigued by the titles to learn why each husband gets that particular description up-front. Also, the reason Evelyn requests Monique to be her biographer pops up continuously as we learn more about the many moments of her many successes and comebacks in the entertainment industry while donning her signature emerald green.

Overall, the book reads like a True Hollywood Story with going behind the scenes of the tabloid fodder―inserts in between chapters―making the book delicious and heartwarming.

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Book Review: ‘Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons’ by Ashli St. Armant

Viva Durant and The Secret of the Silver ButtonsViva Durant and The Secret of the Silver Buttons by Ashli St. Armant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Viva Durant and The Secret of the Silver Buttons” by Ashli St. Armant is an imaginative girl detective story that combines music and mystery. An interview with the author will be available soon at shelit.com.

Visiting from California, Viva Durant is a teen girl who arrives in New Orleans bored by her grandmother’s seemingly simple life of running errands. Grams doesn’t want to explore New Orleans because she lives there, but Viva feels there’s so much mystique in the city that she has to explore the most exciting parts like the French Quarter. One day, Grams gives Viva a newspaper to read where Viva discovers an article about a man looking for his great-aunt’s secret treasure that could be worth a lot of money. What sticks out to Viva is the man saying the Miss Mary Mack nursery rhyme is about his ancestor and the rhyme has clues about where the treasure is, but he needed help analyzing the lyrics to crack the code. Intrigued by the backstory, Viva uses her trips into the city for Grams’ shopping list to head to various landmarks to string together the clues about “Miss Mary Mack.”

The music is creatively blended into the story during pivotal moments, especially in between chapters. Giving a history to the Miss Mary Mack rhyme on top of making it into a treasure hunt spells out an entertaining audiobook. There are moments where it feels like the mystery will stop with a questionable clue, but Viva moves forward with the clue anyway and finds better clues that bring her closer to the secret location of the silver buttons. The narrator, Bahni Turpin, also delivers the best rhythm for the childish voice of Viva.

Overall, the audiobook is perfect for a girl, especially a girl of color, interested in mystery and history.

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Book Review: ‘Red at the Bone’ by Jacqueline Woodson

…she had to take slow breaths to calm herself. She felt red at the bone―like there was something inside of her undone and bleeding.

“Red at the Bone” by Jacqueline Woodson tells the story of three generations of two families united by an unexpected pregnancy. The poetic flow distracts the reader from the disorganization of each characters’ stories, but it’s an effortless read that creates a memorable world between the characters and their situations.

The story opens up to Melody, on her sixteenth birthday, wearing her mother’s dress at her party. Her mother, Iris, never wore it because, at that tender age, she and her boyfriend Aubrey discover they will be having baby Melody. The pages go through the growing pains of their parents—Iris’ Spelhouse-coupled mother and father and Aubrey’s single mother—stretching beyond their limits to accept the baby. Then we see how Iris and Aubrey grow apart with Aubrey raising Melody and Iris heading off to college to start over. Iris and Aubrey have to decide on how they want to live their lives after having Melody and maturing into adulthood.

The author does a great job of chopping up the story in digestible pieces with short chapters and very short paragraphs but simultaneously making the character’s mark known without starting with his/her name. The story grows yet it picks up in various places with Iris, for example, in college then the next succeeding chapter can be her back in time dealing with her pregnancy or even before Melody.

It’s a nice and succinct read that incorporates black culture like Iris’ parents graduating from Spelman College and Morehouse College and history with her great-grandmother surviving the Tulsa race massacre. The story takes place in the not-so-distant past in 2001 New York City. Overall, the book covers a lot of ground chronicling a family that comes together for a child.

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Book Review: ‘A Song For You’ by Robyn Crawford


A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston by Robyn Crawford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“A Song For You” by Robyn Crawford is an honest memoir about the friend of pop superstar Whitney Houston who felt like she had to be quiet in the past out of respect and privacy, but she decides her side of the story is valuable.

Robyn tells her story. There has been backlash about Robyn, who became a backdropped friend of Whitney, due to the media overemphasizing their alleged romantic ties to Whitney’s family publicly showing disdain for Robyn and her relationship with Whitney. With Whitney being gone now seven years, it may seem like poor taste that Robyn wrote a book on her friendship with Whitney, but it’s more about her years working in Whitney’s camp, trying to protect her friend at every corner, but also losing herself in someone else’s dream and rediscovering her purpose.

The story starts with how Robyn meets Whitney at summer camp in New Jersey. She says Whitney introduces herself as a singer and is already a teen model. They begin to hang out a lot as Whitney soon becomes discovered as a singer, signing with Clive Davis at Arista Records. Robyn, who’s a college basketball standout, is thrust into the music industry, but the rumors of her and Whitney having a romance start early. Years go by as Robyn stays beside Whitney to make sure her business interests are met, but at home her brother and mother are diagnosed with AIDS while her sister is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Robyn describes her interactions with Whitney’s husband Bobby Brown and other family members as unpleasant. Whitney’s marriage and drug addiction soon builds a rift between Whitney and Robyn, and in 1999 Robyn leaves Arista and the music industry behind. How Robyn’s life unfolds as she tries to find what she wants to do and what makes her happy as she approaches forty is intriguing.

Overall, as a memoir of a person who is known for being in the shadow of a superstar, Robyn does a great job of focusing the story on herself and describing what she had witnessed. This is not always the case for similar memoirs like Jessica Harris’ My Soul Looks Back, where that author gets lost in focusing on the famous people instead of herself. Robyn feeling comfortable to tell her side of the story is commendable, as she says she wasn’t interested for years until she felt Whitney’s legacy was marred by drug addiction and molestation rumors despite her extraordinary talent. Robyn’s book is more to support Whitney’s legacy while the author exhibits her right to tell her own story.

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Book Review: ‘Just Mercy’ by Bryan Stevenson


Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In fact, there is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.

“Just Mercy” is civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s memoir on his dedication to justice through his legal nonprofit, Equal Justice Initiative or EJI. He writes about the hardship of mostly representing low-income individuals of color in punishment-heavy states who have committed low-level crimes or were wrongly accused of high-level crimes and received death or lifelong imprisonment sentences. He dives into his story but simultaneously focuses on the stories of his clients that reflect the way a legal system will move forward on injustice because of corruption and the lack of resources.

Bryan is fresh out of Harvard Law School in 1983 when he decides to head to Alabama for an internship. There, he eventually meets Walter McMillian, who is sitting on death row for a murder of a young white female clerk. He swears he did not commit the murder and even has countless people to support his alibi. Bryan works feverishly to expose the mistakes that led to Walter’s arrest and imprisonment, and while doing this, his popularity among others suffering a similar fate as Walter is building. He establishes his nonprofit and hires more lawyers and legal staff to help him in numerous cases. Throughout the book, he tells the stories of the people behind bars he helps in several states, but Walter’s story is the one that resonates the entire time.

The book is packed with easily digestible information with weaving in true-life stories that almost seem unbelievable by the way the people had been thrown in prison and even given harsh sentences over crimes they had committed as a juvenile or had not committed at all. The EJI is against the death penalty because many of its clients had been wrongfully imprisoned or had severe mental illness issues that contributed to their crimes. It believes in the notion that many others in the same predicament have yet to see justice. The topic is controversial, but Bryan justifies his point with integrating the socioeconomic and medical backgrounds of his clients on top of the nation’s history that played a role in the oversized prison community and the state and federal players at work to pack prisons for profit. He also adds the voices of some people he’s met over the years who were connected to victims and how they seldom feel satisfied with the death penalty.

Overall, the book melds autobiography with criminal justice history well and lays out a system where failures have ruined lives.

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Book Review: ‘I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying’ by Bassey Ikpi


I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying by Bassey Ikpi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I share this with people often. I give them the suggestion: Allow yourself morning. I tell them it means that today may have been a rolling ball of anxiety and trembling, a face wet and slick with tears, but if you could get to morning, if you could allow yourself a new day to encourage a change, then you can get through it. Allow yourself morning.

“I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying” by Bassey Ikpi is a poetically written collection of essays reflecting the author’s yearslong struggle with mental illness. It has an attention-keeping rhythm as it tells the story of the author’s life from childhood in Nigeria to childhood in the United States to adulthood marred by mood swings that lead to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Bassey’s journey starts in Nigeria with her family, but one of her early memories of not being able to point out her father in a room of people marks more similar moments in the book where she feels something is off but can’t place what that is. One of the moments that sticks out in her American childhood is when she’s watching the Challenger blast off then explode in 1986 with the first teacher astronaut, a well-known national tragedy. She’s shaken and remains shaken that life could be snatched immediately and, she like many other children during that time, didn’t know why she was witnessing such a catastrophe. But she also knows it bothers her more than other children. Her adulthood in New York City has moments of not wanting to deal with people and not understanding why as if she makes a living as a traveling poet. She eventually receives a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. There’s a longtime hospital visit. There’s a setback then another. There’s always the desire to be “normal,” where mental illness doesn’t subtract her from living her life the way she wants to.

How she tells her personal story is striking as other people fade in the background but play a role simultaneously. It’s an issue I’ve noticed in memoirs, where writers tell their stories by mentioning major and minor characters but emphasize the pain those characters planted onto their lives. It becomes obvious that not only forgiveness hangs in the balance but also the realization that this person you mentioned doesn’t care or even remembers you or what they did to you. In my opinion, this takes away from memoirists’ stories, but Bassey makes sure to let the reader know she’s the main character, and she takes responsibility for the journey of understanding her brain chemistry and that she will sometimes have things under control and sometimes they’ll be out of her control and that’s just how it is for her.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in learning more about mental illness or living with mental illness. I listened to the audiobook with Bassey narrating her story. Overall, the story is relatable about how to conquer the obstacles that come with life and trying to be better at seeing them for what they are and reacting the way you should.

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Book Review: ‘The Water Dancer’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates


The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The summoning of a story, the water, and the object that made memory real as brick: that was Conduction. What I might do with such a power was not my immediate concern, so much making it through that day.”

Tales of magical realism and the harsh reality of the Atlantic slave trade becomes intertwined in “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It tells the story of a man trying to recall memories of his long-lost mother and escape enslavement on a dying tobacco plantation in Virginia owned by his white father. Coates’ first novel moves slowly through the overuse of prose but emphasizes the decision of freedom and what it exactly means to the different characters.

Hiram Walker’s mother had been sold off years ago by his white father, Howell Walker, and Hiram wants to remember his mother. Other slaves in the community, called the Tasked, tell him he has this power to conjure the memory of his mother through the water.

The story really starts with Hiram riding over a bridge with his white brother, Maynard, where they fall into the water. Maynard doesn’t survive, and everyone is surprised Hiram survived in the water so long. He returns to his father’s plantation, but eventually decides to run after he’s blamed for Maynard’s death. Hiram runs with the girl he loves, Sophia, but they’re captured.

After weeks of torture, he’s returned to Corinne Quinn, a wealthy white woman who was betrothed to Maynard. It turns out Corinne is a part of the Underground aka the famous Underground Railroad. Hiram joins the effort, always wondering of Sophia’s fate and of the purpose of his powers as he figures out what it means to be really free.

Hiram seeking freedom and expecting everyone Tasked wants his version of freedom, regardless of who’s left behind, is an interesting concept that plays throughout the novel. It focuses on the division of families and how it was a fact of life, and if someone ran away, they would have to create a new life in the North and research where their loved ones had ended up. Not knowing the fate of a loved one haunts Hiram with his mother, an underdeveloped character that keeps getting mentioned yet there’s no sense of who she is. It’s reminiscent of Cora in “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead because Cora’s mother had escaped but never sent for Cora, so there is anguish toward the mother; she’s not present, but the reader feels her impact.

This book made me appreciate Whitehead’s book more because the characters are better developed there. Hiram in Coates’ book tells the story in first-person narrative, but there are personality elements missing; he’s mostly stoic. He’s one of those narrators who falls behind other characters though we follow his actions.

The freedom definition theme saved the book. The magical realism gets muddled until the end where the history of African folklore related to water comes up. Though it’s brought up a lot, the water dancing leading to what you need isn’t believable enough, like the folklore isn’t fitted correctly to this story.

Length-wise, It’s a 400-page book that could’ve been done closer to 300 pages. Slavery in the Americas will always be a fascinating topic because of the legacy of not acknowledging its profound generational impact. The history itself in many cases overshadows a fictional story.

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Book Review: ‘From Scratch’ by Tembi Locke

“From Scratch” is a beautifully written memoir showing the elements of grief when dealing with the loss of a spouse while nurturing the delicate relationships with that spouse’s homeland, culture, and family.

Tembi is studying abroad in Italy when she meets Sicilian native Saro after he tries to help her get her stolen bike back. There’s instant chemistry between them. Tembi, who returns to the U.S. to finish her studies, keeps a long-distance relationship with Saro, who’s in his 30s and ready to become a chef. They convene in New York City later where they marry as Tembi builds up her acting career on Broadway. Her career then takes her away from the stage to the silver screen in Hollywood. Saro follows and begins his culinary career in Los Angeles. They’re living an ideal life until they want children. Biologically, they are having trouble conceiving, so they soon adopt Zoela. During the adoption decision, they learn Saro has liver cancer. Though he’s in and out of remission for years, he succumbs to the disease when Zoela is 7 years old. The overwhelming loss hits Tembi as she has to deal with matters such as distributing Saro’s ashes – some interred in LA and the rest she takes to Sicily. Saro’s parents never approved of their son marrying an American black woman, so in Siciliy Tembi is also still in relationship-building mode with her in-laws with her young daughter in tow. Tembi and Zoela feel a stronger sense of family in Sicily as they bond with Saro’s aging mother and realistically make plans in time of her impending death.

The way this memoir is written is extraordinary with detail, including the details of Tembi handling her husband’s cancer treatment, their adoption process, her husband’s death, and her obsession to make sure she grieves healthily with her daughter. She talks about the moments when she misses her husband the most like picking fava beans in their garden in the Silver Lake neighborhood in LA, creating meals with Saro’s favorite utensils and pots. The memoir also shines a spotlight on how stressful a loved one’s death can be with all the checklists and how one person may bear most of the burden of crossing everything off. On audiobook, Tembi reads her story perfectly.

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Book Review: ‘The Mother of Black Hollywood’ by Jenifer Lewis

The Mother of Black Hollywood: A MemoirThe Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir by Jenifer Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“The Mother of Black Hollywood” by Jenifer Lewis candidly describes the underrated actress’s rise on Broadway and eventually in TV and film. On audiobook, she tells her story in her dramatic and comedic tone that brings on the entertainment and wisdom.

Born and raised in the historically Black community of Kinloch, Missouri, Jenifer starts her book when she jumps on a plane to New York City after graduating from Webster University. She books a Broadway show within a week while staying with a Dominican lover, Miguel, she met in college and navigating the city with her gay friends. Once that show ends, she keeps successfully auditioning with even helping mold the character of Effie in Dreamgirls; a role she assumed she would get after Jennifer Holliday dropped out, but that Jennifer came back. That same instance would happen years later in Hollywood, where she had already nabbed roles in “A Different World” and “Beaches,” when she works with Norman Lear in developing the wife character in the Black spin-off of “All in the Family.” By that time, she’s built a bicoastal career, and she shares her disappointment of not getting that gig. Jenifer talks about other setbacks in entertainment, showing how restricted opportunities can be for Black actors.

Despite the disappointments, she performs for years with Bette Midler and co-creates her own film, “Jackie’s Back!” a 1999 cult classic. As roles start and end, she’s slowly earning the reputation of being the mother/aunt of Black Hollywood. She’s Tupac Shakur’s character’s mom on “Poetic Justice,” Aunt Helen on “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Tina Turner’s mom on “What’s Love Got To Do With It?,” Whitney Houston’s character’s mom on “The Preacher’s Wife,” and now most recently Anthony Anderson’s character’s mom on “Black-ish.”

Juggling Hollywood and Broadway roles isn’t easy, especially when she’s diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She details the struggles with her mental illness and how it leads her to reliving her hard-knock childhood with her mother, who raised Jenifer and her six siblings mostly alone. Jenifer depends on her therapist to reassess her behavior as she sometimes botches auditions and other opportunities because she’s not in the right state of mind. Her bipolar disorder also manifests into sex addiction, in which she talks about some of her most memorable encounters.

Overall, it’s a perfect memoir as it’s well-written, divvies up stories in a good sequence, shows the growth from the mistakes, and opens the reader to a somewhat hidden world behind the scenes of our favorite shows and movies. Jenifer reads the memoir brilliantly on audiobook without a dull moment.

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