dummyhuey's reviews
59 reviews

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry by Camille T. Dungy

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History by Camille T. Dungy

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Trophic Cascade by Camille T. Dungy

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Into and Out of Dislocation by C.S. Giscombe

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing tense medium-paced

5.0

Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

adventurous dark emotional funny informative fast-paced

4.0

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

About as good as it gets 

Maus: A Survivor's Tale. My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

adventurous dark emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

3.0

First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

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

3.25

Light philosophical stories with a zen-like narrator. However, couldn’t defend the misogyny in the later half.

Negro Mountain by C. S. Giscombe

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

“Negro what?”

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

The narration is equal parts dazzling as well as dizzying (however the latter shouldn’t take anyway any enjoyment). This is a book whose scope is far reaching and from 30 decades of Jamaican political turmoil and the CIA’s role as neocolonialists during the Cold War. It is also a deeply fascinating exploration of international Jamaican identity, queer sexuality in the 80s drug cartels, and the exposed fleshy bits of ripping a story from the most underexposed parts of African diasporic history through inadvertent means. I walked away with my ears ringing from gunshots and with a new appetite for the grisly polyphonic.