ramonaleanna's reviews
104 reviews

Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jennifer Bing, Mike Merryman-Lotze, Jehad Abusalim

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

4.75

Gaza is unlike anywhere else in the world and this was a very important and informative read.

Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I for sure wish I would have read this in the context of a classroom discussion. I wasn't crazy about the writing style (at certain points it felt more like theory than art or fiction) but it was thought-provoking to say the least. 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

i absolutely loved this!

i found the way Hurston switched between her writers' voice and Janie's idiomatic storytelling was masterful to say the least. not only did I find myself doting on the love story between Tea Cake and Janie, but Janie's ever-evolving sense of self and assurance and the depiction of the characters as flawed and whole was very refreshing to me. 

Sula by Toni Morrison

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

I want to note that Toni Morrison has a gift for showing rather than simply telling events in a way that tugs at you and makes every event more visceral. 10/10

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This differed from a lot of first person slave narratives in the fact that it brought the perspective of a 1976 black feminist back to secure her own bloodline in the antebellum south—not only that, but it was actually decent. Butler described it as more of a "grim fantasy" than science fiction which I would agree with since the logistics of Dana's time travel was never explained, being used as more of a vehicle to explore the (lived) paradoxes of kinship, family and history (to put it broadly). Butler created a unique dialogue between the modern day African American woman and her ancestors and for that I would categorize this novel alongside Toni Morrison's Beloved as being one of the few neo-slave narratives of merit (in my opinion, most don't need to be written). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Rape

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective

5.0

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

dark mysterious tense

3.0

Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

I learned a lot from this and they added a lot of useful [historical] context in the selected readings included alongside Sultana's Dream (note: I read an edition published by The Feminist Press).