AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

Little Gods by Meng Jin

Singer-turned-book YouTuber Amerie plans to host the author at the end of the month on Instagram Live to discuss the novel.

“Quantum physics meets motherhood, love, and identity in this haunting portrayal of a daughter’s desperation to be seen and a mother’s desperation to disappear,” she wrote in the book club’s post. “@mengjinwrites creates characters who are at once vulnerable, caring, self-absorbed, and despicable, and through it all, utterly real. I rooted for them just as I was repelled by them; always, though, Ms. Jin put me so firmly in their heads, I couldn’t help but feel empathetic, even as I cringed.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan

“An exhilarating novel about a group of students who take revenge on a wunderkind professor after she destroys one of their own—a story of collective drive to create, sabotage, and ultimately, to love,” the book club copied from publisher Penguin Random House in its announcement email and on Instagram. ⠀

GMA BOOK CLUB

Good Morning America’s book club hasn’t named its February title yet. It’s celebrating Black History Month with a Feb. 19 appearance by Tomi Adeyemi of Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance fame; Kiley Reid of Such a Fun Age; and award-winning young adult novelist Jason Reynolds.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker

“I’m so excited to start black history month by honoring two incredible black women. trust me you definitely want to read with us for the month of february!” rapper Noname tweeted when quote tweeting her book club’s two picks. She also reminded her followers to shop local bookstores, preferably black-owned, and avoid Amazon.com.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its controversial January book, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, which added a spark to the conversation around diversity in publishing.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

“It’s about this young girl, Adunni, whose voice, from the time she is born, is strong, loud and clear but because of where she is born and the circumstances of her life, she doesn’t yet know how to use it,” said Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager in an article.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

“The story centers around Emmeline, a young girl who lives on a remote island with her father and uncovers secrets of the natural world through her senses,” Hollywood bookwoman Reese Witherspoon’s book club explained on Instagram. “As she gets older, she becomes even more curious about the scents in the drawers of their cabin.”

The Seas by Samantha Hunt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Jude is in love with something watery
My father told me I am a mermaid.
Therefore Jude must be in love with me.
But the above logic is faulty. Lots of things besides me are watery. Alcohol is watery. Water is watery.”

The unnamed narrator believes she’s a mermaid, and her fantasies increase as she tries to capture the love of an Iraq War veteran while finding signs within the wet footprints she believes belongs to her father who disappeared at sea years before. “The Seas” by Samantha Hunt paints a portrait of a 19-year-old woman who’s not quite the same after losing her father but lives in a town always in mourning mode due to its proximity to the ocean.

Her father would tell her she was a mermaid, so her reasoning strengthens as she falls for Jude, a veteran dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder in his 30s. Their connection is strong but faulty as in she feels like Jude should be in love with her though Jude is in his own world. The woman’s mother is also in a depression because of the yearslong disappearance of her husband coupled with miscarriages from the past. The woman’s grandfather focuses on breaking down words in the dictionary since he used to be in the printing industry with his long-lost wife. The heartbreaks while living in a sleepy seaside town affected by people being lost at sea enhances the story more.

The poetic rhythm reminds me of Francesca Lia Block’s style in a way. I first heard about this book in one of Block’s writing groups, where I started my own mermaid novel. The mermaid mythology can be taken to so many different levels, and I enjoyed this rendition that didn’t quite go into detail with the stereotypical features such as the siren voice and scaly fin but showed how the myth can affect a woman’s mind and change how she perceives her problems. The novel does the first-person voice well as in you get to know the character, sense the character’s personality without knowing her name.

Overall, it’s an engaging story with writing that matches its essence, but the melancholy doesn’t overpower.

View all my reviews