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  • Mini Book Reviews

    May 21st, 2021

    Hello, readers! Happy Friday! Today I’ve got a handful of mini book reviews, mostly mysteries and thrillers with some YA horror and romance.

    The Flight Attendant

    The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

    An alcoholic flight attendant wakes up in a hotel room in Dubai next to a dead man who’s obviously been murdered. That’s how this compelling psychological thriller begins. It’s definitely a slower build, and that didn’t bother me at all.

    Recommend if you like the trope of the somewhat unlikable character (or at least one who makes poor decisions consistently) finding themself in an unlikely, dangerous situation that they must navigate.

    The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)

    The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

    I blame the fact that I picked this up on Litsy. It’s a delightful, funny take on a rom com that I enjoyed. Pro baseball player Gavin and his wife Thea have just separated, and Thea wants a divorce. The straw that broke the camel’s back for her was Gavin’s reaction to finding out that Thea has been faking it in bed their entire marriage. Enter the secret romance book club his friend runs. They convince him to read a Regency and use what he learns to save his marriage. What ensues is an emotional, steamy, humorous romance about a couple putting in the work to save their marriage.

    The Girl from Widow Hills

    The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

    What a well done thriller, a perfect summer read. I read it in one day. It’s my first book by Megan Miranda, but it won’t be my last.

    The twists were impressive, as was how Miranda handled the issue of trauma’s potential reverberations throughout one’s life. I can see this making a good thriller movie or TV series.

    TW/CW for child abuse, stalking, and gaslighting.

    Sawkill Girls

    Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

    I loved this. It pretty much has everything I like in YA: a horrific monster, young women claiming their power, the setting as a character, sisterhood, female friendship, weird nature things happening, feminism, and queer rep. So of course I quickly gobbled it up. That being said, it’s not a perfect novel; sometimes the teen characters communicate with each other in ways that didn’t seem believable for Gen Zers, but I easily overlooked that.

    If you like YA horror with a powerful sense of place and atmosphere, I definitely recommend picking this up.

    TW/CW for child abuse, harm to children, animal death, threat of rape, racism, and sexism/misogyny.

    Don't Look for Me

    Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker

    Hello? 911? I’d like to report a murder. Yes, the final twist in this book murdered my ego, which likes to think it can guess all the twists of a mystery/thriller. Not so with this one.

    TW/CW for child abuse, death of a child, complex grief, and gaslighting.


    Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

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  • Ten Book Titles That Are Complete Sentences

    May 18th, 2021

    This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, was submitted by Jessica at A Cocoon of Books. It’s all about book titles that are complete sentences. Surprisingly, this was easier than I thought it would be. I didn’t realize that I’ve read so many books with titles that are complete sentences.

    In no particular order:

    Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful, #1)

    Chase Me by Tessa Bailey

    So You Want to Talk About Race

    So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

    Fleishman Is in Trouble

    Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

    Something is Killing the Children #1

    Something is Killing the Children #1 by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera (Illustrator), Miquel Muerto (Contributor)

    We Sold Our Souls

    We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

    I Wish You All the Best (I Wish You All the Best, #1)

    I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

    It Takes Two to Tumble (Seducing the Sedgwicks, #1)

    It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian

    Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius The Great, #1)

    Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

    This Is How You Lose the Time War

    This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

    I'll Be the One

    I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

    Have you read any of these? What titles have you read that are complete sentences?

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  • Current Reads

    May 5th, 2021

    Hi, book lovers! I hope you’re having a good, safe day out there. Today I’m sharing what I’m currently reading.

    The Flight Attendant

    The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

    Description: Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She’s a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them, and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, already counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police—she’s a single woman alone in a hotel room far from home—Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it’s too late to come clean—or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did? 

    I’m not going to lie; I picked this up on a whim after seeing that there’s a TV series based on it available now. So far, it’s pretty slow burn, but I’m here for it. There’s something about Bohjalian’s writing that I like (can’t put my finger on it yet), and I’ll probably be checking out the show once I finish the book.


    Have you read this book? What are you reading this week?

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  • Top Ten Tuesday: My Ten Most Recent Reads

    May 4th, 2021

    Happy May the Fourth! Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is my ten most recent reads.

    Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)

    Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan: So much fun.

    The Switch

    The Switch by Beth O’Leary: Loved this one.

    The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, #2)

    The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn: Not my favorite by Julia Quinn.

    Adulting 101

    Adulting 101 by Lisa Henry: A funny, charming, endearing new adult romance.

    Check, Please!, Book 2: Sticks & Scones

    Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Ukazu: The lovely conclusion to the comic series about a figure skater turned college hockey player coming to accept himself.

    I'll Be the One

    I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee: Mini review can be found here.

    Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet

    Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet: An anthology of original short stories by popular YA authors about various meet cutes.

    Waking Gods (Themis Files, #2)

    Waking Gods (Themis Files #2) by Sylvain Neuvel: Entertaining and kind of cinematic.

    Axiom's End (Noumena, #1)

    Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis: An unexpected First Contact novel that I really liked.

    The Wrong Stars (Axiom, #1)

    The Wrong Stars (Axiom #1) by Tim Pratt: I enjoyed this space opera about a ship’s diverse crew who discovers alien tech that could change everything for humanity.

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  • May Releases to Add to Your TBR

    April 30th, 2021

    The month of April was a bit slow in the reading department for me (only read seven books), but I’m looking forward to a lot of books that are coming out this summer. I thought I’d share a super short list of the titles coming out in May that I’m looking forward to reading.

    Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake

    Release date: May 18, 2021

    Description: Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.

    Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory.  Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.

    Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.

    I’ve really enjoyed the books of Alexis Hall’s that I’ve read so far. Their writing is always lovely, and they have a way with characterization and using humor. Bonus for a baking show setting!

    The Soulmate Equation

    Release date: May 18, 2021

    Description: Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents–who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno–Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father’s never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.

    But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands. At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Pena. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Pena. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess–who is barely making ends meet–is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist–and the science behind a soulmate–than she thought.

    I’ll admit this premise caught my attention; it is certainly unique. I know Christina Lauren is a favorite among many romance readers so I’ve read and enjoyed a few of their standalone titles, like Roomies, which came out in 2017.

    People We Meet on Vacation

    Release date: May 11, 2021

    Description: Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

    Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

    Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

    Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

    I’m a bit of a sucker for a friends-to-lovers romance so this premise speaks to me. I have yet to read Emily Henry’s much buzzed about Beach Read, but it’s definitely on my tbr.

    Are any of these on your tbr? What are you looking forward to reading next month?

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  • Mini Review: I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

    April 29th, 2021

    I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee

    My rating: 3 of 5 stars

    I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee




    This was a delightful read. One of the things I really liked about it was Skye, the MC. She’s ambitious and knows her worth, even when people come at her with their fatphobia. The casual bisexuality of both Skye and her male love interest elevated this even higher for me.

    The Kpop singing and dancing (and mentions of Kpop songs and groups) were a lovely bonus.

    Definitely recommend.

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  • Sci-Fi and Fantasy I Can’t Wait to Read

    July 21st, 2020

    Hello, friends. How are you doing? I’ve been on a little bit of a hiatus from the blog recently as I’ve been working on other projects (streaming The Sims 4 and other video games on Twitch and writing fiction for Camp NaNoWriMo this month).

    Since there are a lot of books I’m looking forward to reading that are coming out within the next year, I decided to make a little list of specifically the sci-fi and fantasy I can’t wait to get my hands on.

    To the books!

    The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

    Expected publication: August 4th 2020

    An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.

    Alternate universes? Queerness? A mysterious death? Say no more. I’m here for it.

    Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

    Expected publication: October 13th 2020

    From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Resistance Reborn comes the first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic.

    Rebecca Roanhorse is an amazing writer, and this premise definitely piqued my interest.

    The Conductors by Nicole Glover

    Expected publication: April 13th 2021

    A compelling debut by a new voice in fantasy fiction, The Conductors features the magic and mystery of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files written with the sensibility and historical setting of Octavia Butler’s Kindred: Introducing Hetty Rhodes, a magic-user and former conductor on the Underground Railroad who now solves crimes in post–Civil War Philadelphia.

    This isn’t a reason to read the book, but look at that gorgeous cover! Fantasy about a magical former Underground Railroad conductor solving crimes in the post-Civil War era? Um yes, please.


    These are just a few of the fantasy and sci-fi titles that I can’t wait to check out.

    Are you looking forward to reading any of these?

    Until next time, friends.

  • Reading Recommendation: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

    June 8th, 2020

    Hello there, friends. I hope the day’s treating you well.

    Today I’m featuring an anti-racist nonfiction book that I inhaled over the weekend.

    So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

    While I was listening to the audiobook, I wanted to write down so many passages that I lost count.

    Oluo pulls no punches.

    We live in a society where if you are a person of color, a disabled person, a single mother, or an LGBT person you have to be exceptional. And if you are exceptional by the standards put forth by white supremacist patriarchy, and you are lucky, you will most likely just barely get by. There is nothing inspirational about that.

    And her writing is sometimes funny and sardonic and always true.

    Race is everywhere and racial tension and animosity and pain is in almost everything we see and touch. Ignoring it does not make it go away. There is no shoving the four hundred years’ racial oppression and violence toothpaste back in the toothpaste tube.

    One of the most amazing things that resulted from my reading this book is being reminded of the necessity of continuing to check my privilege. One or two instances of doing so is not enough.

    When somebody asks you to “check your privilege” they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing and may in fact be contributing to those struggles. It is a big ask, to check your privilege. It is hard and often painful, but it’s not nearly as painful as living with the pain caused by the unexamined privilege of others.

    Oluo’s book has me thinking about and acknowledging my privileges in real ways. It has me trying to keep in the forefront of my mind the actions I can take to help dismantle systemic racism everyday–for example, buying books from black-owned independent bookstores and calling/emailing the local powers that be to urge them to enact much-needed reforms. (Yesterday I went to a Black Lives Matter march for Justice for Dion Johnson in my city with at least 1,000 other people in ninety-six degree heat.)

    This is absolutely necessary reading.


    Have you read this book? Are there any anti-racist books you highly recommend?

    Until next time, readers.

  • Down the TBR Hole #1

    June 4th, 2020

    Down the TBR Hole is a meme created by Lia at Lost in a Story. It involves whittling down your TBR by getting rid of the books you’re never going to read.

    It works like this:

    • Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
    • Order by ascending date added.
    • Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
    • Read the synopses of the books.
    • Decide: keep it or should it go?

    A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

    An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.

    At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting – he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

    From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd – whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself – Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

    Keep or pass: Keep. This book has been on my TBR for a while, and I consider Patrick Ness’s The Rest of Us Just Live Here one of my favorite books.


    A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson

    Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum. As the royalty negotiates over trade routes and public services, the divinity seeks arcane assistance among the local gods.

    Aqib bgm Sadiqi, fourth-cousin to the royal family and son of the Master of Beasts, has more mortal and pressing concerns. His heart has been captured for the first time by a handsome Daluçan soldier named Lucrio. In defiance of Saintly Canon, gossiping servants, and the furious disapproval of his father and brother, Aqib finds himself swept up in a whirlwind romance. But neither Aqib nor Lucrio know whether their love can survive all the hardships the world has to throw at them.

    Keep or pass: Keep. This is a novella that’s been on my TBR for so long that I forgot about it. I can’t believe I haven’t gotten around to actually reading it yet! I’ve heard only good things.


    Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

    Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer–a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away.

    The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labeling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world’s population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.

    And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destablize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life…

    Keep or pass: Pass. It clocks in at 432 pages, and I honestly can’t imagine myself being able to finish anything over 300 pages any time soon considering everything that’s been going on in the world. (I’m having to stick mostly to audiobooks right now as it is.)


    The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

    The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
    Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
    Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend . . . and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne–or his life.

    Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor is an exciting fantasy novel, set against the pageantry and color of a fascinating, unique world, is a memorable debut for a great new talent.

    Keep or pass: Pass. I’m not even sure why this is still on my TBR shelf. My husband and I tried the audiobook on a road trip last year, and neither of us could get into it.


    The Summer of Jordi Pérez (And the Best Burger in Los Ángeles)

    Seventeen, fashion-obsessed, and gay, Abby Ives has always been content playing the sidekick in other people’s lives. While her friends and sister have plunged headfirst into the world of dating and romances, Abby has stayed focused on her plus-size style blog and her dreams of taking the fashion industry by storm. When she lands a prized internship at her favorite local boutique, she’s thrilled to take her first step into her dream career. She doesn’t expect to fall for her fellow intern, Jordi Pérez. Abby knows it’s a big no-no to fall for a colleague. She also knows that Jordi documents her whole life in photographs, while Abby would prefer to stay behind the scenes.

    Then again, nothing is going as expected this summer. She’s competing against the girl she’s kissing to win a paid job at the boutique. She’s somehow managed to befriend Jax, a lacrosse-playing bro type who needs help in a project that involves eating burgers across L.A.’s eastside. Suddenly, she doesn’t feel like a sidekick. Is it possible Abby’s finally in her own story?

    But when Jordi’s photography puts Abby in the spotlight, it feels like a betrayal, rather than a starring role. Can Abby find a way to reconcile her positive yet private sense of self with the image that other people have of her?

    Is this just Abby’s summer of fashion? Or will it truly be The Summer of Jordi Pérez (and the Best Burger in Los Ángeles)?

    Keep or pass: Pass. I was on the fence about this book, but then I remembered that I tried the audio of it not too long ago but never finished.


    Are any of these books on your TBR or have you read any of them?

    Until next time, friends. Happy reading!

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  • 5 Excellent Speculative Fiction Books by Black Authors

    June 3rd, 2020

    Today I’m sharing a list of excellent speculative fiction by Black authors, some of which I’ve read and others I’ll be reading soon. All are currently available for purchase. Won’t you join me in reading them?

    The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

    THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS. AGAIN.

    Three terrible things happen in a single day.

    Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years, collapses as its greatest city is destroyed by a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the world’s sole continent, a great red rift has been been torn which spews ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

    But this is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes — those who wield the power of the earth as a weapon — are feared far more than the long cold night. Essun has remembered herself, and she will have her daughter back.

    She does not care if the world falls apart around her. Essun will break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.


    The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

    New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.
     
    Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he’s visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It’s no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who’s been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group’s enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that’s stalking them. But can the Devil die?
     
    The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons.


    My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

    When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever. Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force reminiscent of early Anne Rice will win Due a new legion of fans.


    The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

    A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but come to discover that in order to preserve their culture, they may have to change it forever.

    Now a man and a woman from these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing race—and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely team—one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive—just may find in each other their own destinies . . . and a force that transcends all.


    An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

    Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

    Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.

    When the autopsy of Matilda’s sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother’s suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother’s footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she’s willing to fight for it.


    Have you read any of these books? Do you have any to add to this list?

    Until next time. Happy reading!

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