booksgurrsandpurrs's reviews
11 reviews

My Name is Romero by David A. Romero

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Romero discusses family, culture, identity confusion, love, loss and examines colonialism and the whiplash of indoctrination. The only section of Romero's poetry that didn't work for me was 'Flowers', which discusses love/relationships. That section didn't seem to fit thematically with the other poetry selections.

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 This could be your loss. But it's not. It's mine, and you might think you're lucky, but for every lucky person, unluckiness arrives. Our existence shouldn't depend on luck. It should depend on justice, what is good, what is right. p294

The story focuses on a Latinx & Indigenous family in the American West. Embedded in the narrative is the importance of storytelling & although the focus is largely on Luz, the story toggles between her life and several generations before her, unveiling the choices that have been made through the generations just so Luz can exist.
 

Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 That's when I knew she was forever caught in her own undercurrent, bouncing from one deep swell to the next. She would never lift me out of the sea. She would never pause to fill her lungs with air. Soon the world would yank her chain of sadness against every shore, every rock, every glass-filled beach, leaving nothing but the broken hole of a drowned woman. Page 179

I absolutely loved Kali Fajardo-Anstine's short story collection. The collection of stories mostly take place in Saguarita, Colorado and focus on latina women of indigenous decent, mother/daughter dynamics, violence against women, MMIW, financial struggles, identity, the pressures and dangerous consequences of not falling in line to sociatal conventions and so much more. 

This Is the Fire by Don Lemon

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Gravity is a thing. Telling someone to ignore, transcend, or defy the dynamics of gravity does not make gravity not a thing. pg 140
We are the inferno in which Baldwin placed his faith. This is the fire. Let the last next time be now. pg 196.

I loved all the different layers to the structure of Don Lemon's book. Starting off with a letter to his nephews, (a la The Fire Next Time), and expanding into America's history, America's judicial system, the cinematic arts, myths and a ponderance of the future, Lemon hones in his journalistic skills to craft an urgent message to all readers.  

I have a tiny itsy bitsy criticism. The prose is a bit dry and I would attribute that to Don Lemon's strong journalistic background, which is also worth praising in the same breath. I have the same issue with Joan Didion as her strong journalistic skills sometimes makes her seem disconnected to the material, which makes it a bit hard for me to sink into the world the authors' are dropping me into. By the time I read chapter 3 I was locked into Don Lemon's voice. 

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

 Later, I put the report in my backpack, its pages flat against my spine. At some point, I am not sure when, I grew accustomed to its weight and stopped noticing I was carrying it around. 
Part I: Legacy, Lonely in America  by Wendy S. Walters, pg 58

The mural's insistence on those rights, which the citizens of our nation don't yet equally enjoy, reminded me that like the High Bridge, the Constitution is just another lofty infrastructure in need of rehabilitation.
Part II: Reckoning, Know Your Rights! by Emily Raboteau, pg 176

You can't tiptoe toward justice. You can't walk up to the door all polite and knock once or twice, hoping someone's home. Justice is a door that, when closed, must be kicked in.
Part III: Jubilee, This Far: Notes on Love and a Revolution by Daniel Jose Older, pg 200

This collection of non-fiction essays, memoir, and poems are curated into three sections; Part I Legacy (focusing on American History), Part II Reckoning (present day issues), and Part III Jubilee (looking towards the future) all tackling race in America. This is truly a juggernaut of a collection that punched me in the gut in the best of ways. 

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

 The American Dream has therefore become something much more closely resembling a nightmare... pg 89

The Fire Next Time is composed of two letters Baldwin writes to his nephew on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. Both are intimate and confessional as Baldwin contextualises the stark reality of "America celebrating 100 years of freedom too soon," (pg 10) through personal connections such as his belief that his father believed the terribly racist ideology that was hurled at him, to his spiritual epiphany that caused him to leave the church, and how oppression reaps cycles of violence. 

This is a re-read for me but by the time I finally picked up this book to read it this month, I quickly read it three more times in quick succession. 

The Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

"This civilization has proven itself capable of destroying peoples rather than hear them, destroying continents rather than share them, and are capable, for the same reason, of destroying all life on this planet." pg 82 

Walter Lowe, of Playboy commissioned James Baldwin to write a journalistic piece about the still unraveling case of missing and murdered children in Atlanta, Georgia (1979-1981). Baldwin does not write his findings in simple direct journalistic terms, but instead creates threads between the history of Atlanta, systemic racism, cycles of violence, poverty, and the unorthodox approach to trying Wayne Williams. 

Reading this book reminded me of Michelle Nakamura's I'll Be Gone in the Dark, as she also did not just write about survivors and incidences, but instead knew how important it is to get to know an environment and all the elements that were in place to proliferate such events. 

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 "...the kids had been told they weren't worth shit and everything they saw around them proved it. They struggled, they struggled, but they fell, like flies, and they congregated on the garbage heaps of their lives, like flies." pg 36 

In 1970's Harlem, two childhood friends, Tish & Fonny, fall in love. Fonny is taken into prison, falsely accused of a horrific crime. Both Tish and Fonny's family struggle to do anything within their means to get Fonny out of his current circumstance. This story weaves through religious hypocrisy, police corruption, systemic racism, a broken justice system and optimism during trying times.

If Beale Street Could Talk lulled me into the love of Tish & Fonny making every obstacle they face feel palpable. 

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 "I remember that life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea. Time flowed passed indifferently above us; hours and days had no meaning. In the beginning, our life together held joy and amazement which was newborn every day. Beneath the joy of course, was anguish and beneath the amazement was fear, but they did not work themselves to the beginning until our high beginning was aloes on our tongues."   pg 75

Running away from falling into his father's footsteps, David is an American expat living in 1950's Paris where he meets Giovanni, a bartender at a local pub. David and Giovanni fall deep into tumultuous love, lust and dependency, turning their lives upside down, leading to grave consequences. 

Giovanni's Room delves into internalized homophobia, violence, sexism, gender roles, national & sexual identity, self acceptance, love, guilt, shame, and the meaning of home. Now that I'm done with this book, I'm going to wrap myself into a blanket burrito and a chocolate bar. 

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 "The darkness and silence of the church pressed on him, cold as judgement, and the voices crying from the window might have been crying from another world." pg 44

It's 1935, John, the son of a Pentecostal minister, wakes up in anger on another neglected birthday, (his fourteenth to be exact), by a father that dislikes him all the while grappling with the "sin" of his sexuality. Go Tell it on the Mountain takes place largely in Harlem, toggling between two generations, exploring gender roles, violence against women, police brutality, religious pressures/hypocrisy, colorism, racism and self-discovery. 

The book is written with an abundance of imagery in a biblical vernacular that is so exact it's as if the book was a chapter ripped from the bible. I only have two minor criticisms for this impeccable book. 1) The time jumps are not always clear and could have used a more concise transition. 2) I'm not a fan of the last chapter, but that may change over time after I ruminate longer on the book as a whole.