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introvertinterrupted's Reviews (1.08k)
I once read this book for class and fell head over hills for Greenlee's talent for summing up what it means to enact a revolution for change in the African-American community. In our current atmosphere of #BlackLivesMatter, the need to understand the mechanisms of revolting and the tactics that should and should not be used are important.
This book packs a punch in it's blunt use of racial slurs, violence, and intellect. If you are not a mature reader who can look beyond the surface, this book may not be for you. However, if you want to push yourself and your thoughts on the plight of African-Americans in America, you'll definitely need to give this book a try.
I talk about it further in my Beyoncé Book Tag video on my BookTube channel.
This book should definitely be on your #LemonadeSyllabus/#RootsSyllabus.
This book packs a punch in it's blunt use of racial slurs, violence, and intellect. If you are not a mature reader who can look beyond the surface, this book may not be for you. However, if you want to push yourself and your thoughts on the plight of African-Americans in America, you'll definitely need to give this book a try.
I talk about it further in my Beyoncé Book Tag video on my BookTube channel.
This book should definitely be on your #LemonadeSyllabus/#RootsSyllabus.
This was a much needed dose of inspiration. I like Joel Osteen's approach to religion. It's less guilt based and more person driven. If you want a good daily devotional pick this one up.
Reread in 2016.
Reread in 2016.
You often feel as if you can with stand anything until life hits you with the unexpected. Therefore, as I watch my father labor in what feels like the end stages of his illness, listening to Edwidge Danticat's story of her Uncle Joseph and father, Andre (neé Mira), battle through their own health scares a deep cord was struck within me.
With this memoir, Danticat manages to take her family's tragedy along with Haiti's ongoing political turmoil and magnificently pair it with her journey into motherhood. This intriguing story snatches the reader up right from the start and makes you root for each character to have some type of breakthrough even though it is apparent early on that the family will have no respite from the illnesses that plagues them or the country that crumbles around them.
I shed tears of joy and sadness, laughed, and even outright cheered in some parts listening to this audiobook. Danticat truly has a gift that shines through with the descriptive way that she writes about the two men who she called "father" and the country that no amount of violence can stop her from loving. Likewise, thanks to Robin Miles, the audio narrator, the story truly comes to life with all the different Creole and French accents that she evokes to tell Joseph and Mira's story.
I haven't felt this many range of emotions reading a biography in a long time. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is up for the challenge of a heartbreaking book that's raw and honest. The closest auto/biography I can think that would be similar to Danticat's masterpiece is [b: The Autobiography of Malcolm X|92057|The Autobiography of Malcolm X|Malcolm X|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1434682864s/92057.jpg|47400] by Alex Haley and Malcolm X.
With this memoir, Danticat manages to take her family's tragedy along with Haiti's ongoing political turmoil and magnificently pair it with her journey into motherhood. This intriguing story snatches the reader up right from the start and makes you root for each character to have some type of breakthrough even though it is apparent early on that the family will have no respite from the illnesses that plagues them or the country that crumbles around them.
I shed tears of joy and sadness, laughed, and even outright cheered in some parts listening to this audiobook. Danticat truly has a gift that shines through with the descriptive way that she writes about the two men who she called "father" and the country that no amount of violence can stop her from loving. Likewise, thanks to Robin Miles, the audio narrator, the story truly comes to life with all the different Creole and French accents that she evokes to tell Joseph and Mira's story.
I haven't felt this many range of emotions reading a biography in a long time. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is up for the challenge of a heartbreaking book that's raw and honest. The closest auto/biography I can think that would be similar to Danticat's masterpiece is [b: The Autobiography of Malcolm X|92057|The Autobiography of Malcolm X|Malcolm X|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1434682864s/92057.jpg|47400] by Alex Haley and Malcolm X.
Do you remember that one scene in [b: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince|1|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)|J.K. Rowling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361039191s/1.jpg|41335427] where Ron gets drugged by a love potion by mistake and almost dies? This book is like an expanded version of that scene.
That being said, I really enjoyed this book more than I assumed I would. This book deals heavily with magical realism and hints at a setting that is reminiscent of Amsterdam or some other city in Holland. The characters in the story are fighting against a tyrannical love fortune teller who has their town enraptured with her "spot on" love predictions. In the story, each character gets a love fortune that covers their love life in its entirety with extreme "accuracy." Until the main character, Fallon, and her friends challenge the accuracy of the predictions and launches a rebellion, this is just the way the town operates.
One of my favorite aspects of this story is that the story has a lot of diverse characters that include all types of ethnic characters and LGBT characters in major roles of the story.My one qualm for the story is that the one character, Nico, who is labeled as gay by the author sets out to woo Marcus, a straight guy who is explicitly labeled as being "not into boys" (or Nico) and who has a girlfriend. In my opinion, this particular storyline seemed to reach predatory status rather quickly and almost felt like Nico is trying to rob Marcus of his free will in deciding who he dates just so that Nico's bad fortune won't become true.
Besides this I absolutely adored this book and would recommend this book to anyone who wants a sweet contemporary novel that's infused with magical realism.
That being said, I really enjoyed this book more than I assumed I would. This book deals heavily with magical realism and hints at a setting that is reminiscent of Amsterdam or some other city in Holland. The characters in the story are fighting against a tyrannical love fortune teller who has their town enraptured with her "spot on" love predictions. In the story, each character gets a love fortune that covers their love life in its entirety with extreme "accuracy." Until the main character, Fallon, and her friends challenge the accuracy of the predictions and launches a rebellion, this is just the way the town operates.
One of my favorite aspects of this story is that the story has a lot of diverse characters that include all types of ethnic characters and LGBT characters in major roles of the story.
Besides this I absolutely adored this book and would recommend this book to anyone who wants a sweet contemporary novel that's infused with magical realism.
I gave this book 2.5 stars.
I didn't really care for this book. I think that if Kang had given a solid section from Yeong-hye's point of view, this book would have been much better. The build up and consequences of the character going "vegetarian" doesn't match the intensity of the story's tone or the consequences that come about from this one decision. Instead, it gives off the impression that either the translation is off or the author's ideas are half-baked.
I personally wanted the character to tell more about the significance of her dreams, which spurs the whole transformation of her becoming a vegetarian so that I could sympathize more with her character in regards to her going through her illness, but instead I ended up feeling that I only had a surface level understanding of the main character thanks to her story being told by other characters. I honestly wonder whether my confusion of the story comes from a cultural place where I just didn't understand the Korean culture enough to get the significance of Yeong-hye becoming a vegetarian or if it truly was an issue of poor translation.
In a way, this book reminds me of the premise for [b: The Edible Woman|133445|The Edible Woman|Margaret Atwood|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320439047s/133445.jpg|1007843] by Margaret Atwood.
I didn't really care for this book. I think that if Kang had given a solid section from Yeong-hye's point of view, this book would have been much better. The build up and consequences of the character going "vegetarian" doesn't match the intensity of the story's tone or the consequences that come about from this one decision. Instead, it gives off the impression that either the translation is off or the author's ideas are half-baked.
I personally wanted the character to tell more about the significance of her dreams, which spurs the whole transformation of her becoming a vegetarian so that I could sympathize more with her character in regards to her going through her illness, but instead I ended up feeling that I only had a surface level understanding of the main character thanks to her story being told by other characters. I honestly wonder whether my confusion of the story comes from a cultural place where I just didn't understand the Korean culture enough to get the significance of Yeong-hye becoming a vegetarian or if it truly was an issue of poor translation.
In a way, this book reminds me of the premise for [b: The Edible Woman|133445|The Edible Woman|Margaret Atwood|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320439047s/133445.jpg|1007843] by Margaret Atwood.