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stacyrenee's reviews
411 reviews
White Tears / Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Adult
Nonfiction
Sociology
“Called “powerful and provocative” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, this explosive book of history and cultural criticism reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color.“
I’m trying to be much more intentional with my reading this year and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo has been on my tbr list for too long but I also wanted something from a bipoc perspective. My local library had this title so I borrowed both, but could only find White Fragility as an audiobook so I listened to it first, and I’m glad I did, since it was a quicker read and is mentioned many times in this book.
White Tears/Brown Scars greatly expands upon and adds to the topics mentioned in White Fragility, adding comparisons to popular dystopian fiction and real world history around the world but ultimately focuses on how white tears & white feminism betray women of color and gives many examples and details how.
I highly recommend!
🎶: White Tears Meter by Michael Abels
Nonfiction
Sociology
“Called “powerful and provocative” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, this explosive book of history and cultural criticism reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color.“
I’m trying to be much more intentional with my reading this year and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo has been on my tbr list for too long but I also wanted something from a bipoc perspective. My local library had this title so I borrowed both, but could only find White Fragility as an audiobook so I listened to it first, and I’m glad I did, since it was a quicker read and is mentioned many times in this book.
White Tears/Brown Scars greatly expands upon and adds to the topics mentioned in White Fragility, adding comparisons to popular dystopian fiction and real world history around the world but ultimately focuses on how white tears & white feminism betray women of color and gives many examples and details how.
I highly recommend!
🎶: White Tears Meter by Michael Abels
Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Middle-Grade
Contemporary Fantasy
12yo Maya from Chicago finds herself immersed ina world of shadows and monsters as she searches for her missing father.
Action=packed and adventurous with urban fantasy vibes!
Contemporary Fantasy
12yo Maya from Chicago finds herself immersed ina world of shadows and monsters as she searches for her missing father.
Action=packed and adventurous with urban fantasy vibes!
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
informative
fast-paced
4.5
Adult
Nonfiction
Sociology
Race
Short but to the point, this nonfiction ' attempts to expose the psychological and idealogical barriers that prevent whites from dismantling racism'.
A must-read!
Nonfiction
Sociology
Race
Short but to the point, this nonfiction ' attempts to expose the psychological and idealogical barriers that prevent whites from dismantling racism'.
A must-read!
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Adult
Magical realism
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”
This is the story of Macon “Milkman” Dead, the son of the richest black family in town, and his journey through life searching for the meaning of his name and his father’s name before him.
I’ve only read Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Recitatif from Morrison so far but all have been moving in their own way. This narration follows Milkman’s journey through life and understanding his name, his family’s name/s, and his own ancestry, which had been lost.
I especially enjoyed the ‘magical’ ending.
🎶: Song of Solomon by Martin Smith
Magical realism
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”
This is the story of Macon “Milkman” Dead, the son of the richest black family in town, and his journey through life searching for the meaning of his name and his father’s name before him.
I’ve only read Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Recitatif from Morrison so far but all have been moving in their own way. This narration follows Milkman’s journey through life and understanding his name, his family’s name/s, and his own ancestry, which had been lost.
I especially enjoyed the ‘magical’ ending.
🎶: Song of Solomon by Martin Smith
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Adult
Literary classic
I read a lot of Alice Walker poetry, etc last year and was prompted to read Zora next, especially after learning that she spent the majority of her life in Florida (I grew up here and have a renewed interest in local history) and I had this on my shelves so I finally dug in.
This is beautifully written. Poetic and lyrical. It follows a strong black woman named Janie through her long life, loves, dreams, and aspirations in early 20th-century Florida. I’m glad I waited to read this one because I think a lot of the material would have gone ‘over my head’ when I was younger.
Musical pairing 🎶: Their Eyes We’re Watching God by Bilal Abbey
Literary classic
I read a lot of Alice Walker poetry, etc last year and was prompted to read Zora next, especially after learning that she spent the majority of her life in Florida (I grew up here and have a renewed interest in local history) and I had this on my shelves so I finally dug in.
This is beautifully written. Poetic and lyrical. It follows a strong black woman named Janie through her long life, loves, dreams, and aspirations in early 20th-century Florida. I’m glad I waited to read this one because I think a lot of the material would have gone ‘over my head’ when I was younger.
Musical pairing 🎶: Their Eyes We’re Watching God by Bilal Abbey
Push by Sapphire
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Adult
Literary fiction
This short novel is about sixteen-year-old Precious Jones, an illiterate, pregnant black girl who has grown up in poverty and suffers SA at the hands of her parents but meets a teacher who sets Precious on the path to learning to read, write, and express herself in healthy ways, ultimately changing the trajectory of her life.
This is a tough read with many content warnings but is overall a very beautiful and inspiring story about a girl whose life is completely changed thanks to education.
This was adapted into a film called ‘Precious’ in 2009 but I haven’t seen it.
There’s also a sequel called ‘The Kid’, about her son.
Literary fiction
This short novel is about sixteen-year-old Precious Jones, an illiterate, pregnant black girl who has grown up in poverty and suffers SA at the hands of her parents but meets a teacher who sets Precious on the path to learning to read, write, and express herself in healthy ways, ultimately changing the trajectory of her life.
This is a tough read with many content warnings but is overall a very beautiful and inspiring story about a girl whose life is completely changed thanks to education.
This was adapted into a film called ‘Precious’ in 2009 but I haven’t seen it.
There’s also a sequel called ‘The Kid’, about her son.
West by Edith Pattou
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
YA
Fantasy
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
This is the duology sequel to East (also titled ‘North Child’), a young-adult fantasy retelling of the poem ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’.
The first book, East, gave me all the Beauty & the Beast meets The Snow Queen vibes, but with trolls as the antagonists.
In this sequel, Rose has discovered her White Bear has gone missing while traveling and must set off to find and save him once again, but the stakes are higher this time around!
Fantasy
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
This is the duology sequel to East (also titled ‘North Child’), a young-adult fantasy retelling of the poem ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’.
The first book, East, gave me all the Beauty & the Beast meets The Snow Queen vibes, but with trolls as the antagonists.
In this sequel, Rose has discovered her White Bear has gone missing while traveling and must set off to find and save him once again, but the stakes are higher this time around!
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Adult
Horror / historical
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•She didn’t think things could get any worse, then she saw the sign.
“Welcome to Florida,” it read. “The Sunshine State.”•
Set in the sweltering summer of 1970, ‘Fern’ is hauled off to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida where she and a number of other young, pregnant, flower-named girls and women are sent to convalesce in secret before giving birth and giving their babies up for adoption, all hidden away to protect their family’s good names, but then she meets a librarian who gives her a book of witchcraft that helps the girls take back their power.
I read The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead just before this (also set in north Florida, around the same decade, at an abusive reform school) so I feel like my thoughts on the two overlap a lot at the moment.
I’ve read other historical books like this about unwed pregnant women and the babies they were forced to give up for adoption (The Home For Unwanted Girls, historical fiction) but Grady Hendrix has a unique way of turning his stories into a gore-show at some point or another (there seems to be some ‘ick’ factor in all of his books) so this may be a bit much for anyone with pregnancy/birth/adoption content triggers but may appeal to those looking for more ‘feminine rage’ reads.
🎶: Witchcraft by Graveyard Club
Horror / historical
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•She didn’t think things could get any worse, then she saw the sign.
“Welcome to Florida,” it read. “The Sunshine State.”•
Set in the sweltering summer of 1970, ‘Fern’ is hauled off to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida where she and a number of other young, pregnant, flower-named girls and women are sent to convalesce in secret before giving birth and giving their babies up for adoption, all hidden away to protect their family’s good names, but then she meets a librarian who gives her a book of witchcraft that helps the girls take back their power.
I read The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead just before this (also set in north Florida, around the same decade, at an abusive reform school) so I feel like my thoughts on the two overlap a lot at the moment.
I’ve read other historical books like this about unwed pregnant women and the babies they were forced to give up for adoption (The Home For Unwanted Girls, historical fiction) but Grady Hendrix has a unique way of turning his stories into a gore-show at some point or another (there seems to be some ‘ick’ factor in all of his books) so this may be a bit much for anyone with pregnancy/birth/adoption content triggers but may appeal to those looking for more ‘feminine rage’ reads.
🎶: Witchcraft by Graveyard Club
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Adult
Historical fiction
Pulitzer Prize Winner
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Set in Jim Crow-era Florida, Elwood Curtis is a bright young Black man that is accepted into early college courses but is unjustly arrested after hitchhiking to school in the wrong vehicle and is sent to Nickel Academy, a brutal segregated reformatory school for young Black men specifically designed to grind them down.
This is based on a real Florida reformatory school, the Dozier School For Boys, located in a small town in the Florida panhandle, which operated from 1900 to 2011(😳), and was found to have over 100 reported deaths (& burials) on school grounds. Kids were sent here for as little as being incorrigible or disrespectful, and then never came home. No one in power cared enough about what was going on and it was only shut down in 2011 after failing state requirements and the archaeological discovery of the graves.
An absolutely cruel and senseless bit of American history and honestly not surprising from my own observations & hearsay growing up in Florida. (I had a young family-friend who ended up in a reform school just a few years before 2011 and the things he told me about the place always had me shaking.)
This Pulitzer Prize winner was adapted into a film and released in late 2024.
Historical fiction
Pulitzer Prize Winner
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Set in Jim Crow-era Florida, Elwood Curtis is a bright young Black man that is accepted into early college courses but is unjustly arrested after hitchhiking to school in the wrong vehicle and is sent to Nickel Academy, a brutal segregated reformatory school for young Black men specifically designed to grind them down.
This is based on a real Florida reformatory school, the Dozier School For Boys, located in a small town in the Florida panhandle, which operated from 1900 to 2011(😳), and was found to have over 100 reported deaths (& burials) on school grounds. Kids were sent here for as little as being incorrigible or disrespectful, and then never came home. No one in power cared enough about what was going on and it was only shut down in 2011 after failing state requirements and the archaeological discovery of the graves.
An absolutely cruel and senseless bit of American history and honestly not surprising from my own observations & hearsay growing up in Florida. (I had a young family-friend who ended up in a reform school just a few years before 2011 and the things he told me about the place always had me shaking.)
This Pulitzer Prize winner was adapted into a film and released in late 2024.