Back in college, one of my friends took a comic books class where he had to read “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang. He raved about it just enough that years later, I remembered the title and put it on hold at the library. This is the first book I started and finished this year and it is probably going to set the tone for the rest of my 2018 reading.
I don’t think any other book has quite captured my anguished, pissed, etc. side quite like Erika L. Sánchez’s “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.” It’s definitely one of the best YA books I’ve ever read.
Sherman Alexie is the first writer of color that I ever read besides Frederick Douglass, and I didn’t read him until college. He and his writing have been immensely influential and this book about his mom completely captivated me. Continue reading “Same, Sherman”
“The First Rule of Punk” by Celia C. Pérez is a book for young readers, but I don’t care! In my 26th year of life, this book is exactly what I needed to read.
I hate to make this book the poster child for books I couldn’t bring myself to finish, but I really like how this photo came out. And that’s where my disappointment stems from, although I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But I couldn’t help it. This was the book next in line for a review, but I didn’t just couldn’t. I’m sorry book gods, I just couldn’t.
Continue reading “When You Can’t Even With A Book: “He Who Searches””
I’m trying to catch up on all of my reviews and I will do it, I swear! And yes, this review is of another Sandra Cisneros book. I finished reading “Woman Hollering Creek” before I went to her signing way back in April. I still think about this book every now and then because in these stories is a sense of hope.
I didn’t consider myself a feminist until my last two years in college. It’s not that I was afraid of being seen as a overbearing, opinionated, man-hating woman. In all honesty, I just didn’t get feminism. I didn’t see how feminism benefited me. The feminist ideals that were presented to me before those last two years in college were always in connection with white, middle class women, which I am not.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s first published short story collection and it wins the Pulitzer? Intimidation. That is all I was feeling before reading this book. I was intimidated, but intrigued, and not at all let down by this book.
I have high expectations of any book that is a part of Oprah’s Book Club because I can be easily swayed like that. Edwidge Danticat’s “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” the writer’s first novel published in 1994, is one of those books. While it was a quick read, it certainly did not lack in content.
I’m ashamed to say it, but in my high school days, I thought the only “good” books were written by white male writers. My view of what a “good” book is has changed drastically since then, but at the time, most of what I read for class was written by a white male, so that’s what was ingrained into my reading habits. I had no exposure to any other literature, and I was too naive to seek for more diverse writers on my own. I deeply regret it and even more so after having read Sandra Cisneros’ “Caramelo.”
Continue reading ““Caramelo,” Where Have You Been All My Life?”
