bahareads's Reviews (1.09k)

I read this on audiobook. Will Smith is a great narrator. My boyfriend and I read this together, and we both enjoyed. He laid it all out up to his 50th birthday. I enjoyed getting to know about Will Smith. I didn't grow up on the Fresh Prince, so he is most familiar to me through movies. It was a very moving memoir. The book can read like a self-help book at points. I enjoyed the beginning and middle, more than the end of the book but it is all laid out well.

The Detour is short Christian Romance with the trope of accidental pregnancy. I should have known right away that that was going to throw me off. I do not like that trope. Watts writing is very good. It draws you and keeps you reading. I've enjoyed her other book, which was a memoir/self-help book. It made me cry. In The Detour Watts does a great job of interweaving her themes of faith, relationships, and motherhood. There were also themes of colourism which peeked in throughout the plot. I love the trope of 'found family.' I enjoyed seeing the female relationships in the book especially. I LOVE strong female relationships in monographs I read.

I thought that the timeline of the book was very fast. I've never been pregnant or a mother before so please correct me if I'm wrong. Finding out you're pregnant five weeks in and then automatically experiencing all the symptoms threw me. I thought the reaction of Ruthia against her boyfriend, Shane, was very harsh, and that it all happened so quickly. Everything happened so quickly. Sometimes God works that way, but it was all very convenient. Additionally I would have liked to see more reconciliation or interaction between Ruthia and her father later in the book.

I hated the love triangle. She went in the span of two weeks from loving Shane wanting to marry him to wrestling with deciding whether she wanted to seriously be with another guy?! I understand Shane hurt her but you do not get rid of love just like that. I think more yearning needed to happen for me to enjoy the love triangle at all. It was also very hard for me to wrap my head around a man wanting to be in a serious relationship with a newly pregnant woman fresh out - FRESH OUT - of a relationship. (Maybe the men can chime in on this one). It was all very quick.

The Detour read much like a YA book because of the theme of self-discovery. I believe the character ages were 21? It did not always read it. Overall this is a great book if you want to read more about discovering more about your self and God's love for his people. If you like light romance book this is also for you.

Thank you to the author for sending me her book.

Note: I read this on audiobook but I have the physical version. I wanted to rate each story individually (which I might go back and do) but as I am sitting here I do not have it on me.

I have never read short stories on audio before so this was a new experience. I enjoyed Arthurs work immensely. Each of the stories were memorable. The characters were memorable. I did not feel recycled in terms of characters' actions. The title story did stick out to me. ALL of the stories were wonderful though. The length of the stories differed which was great for me. Arthurs writing was reflective and astute.

A short and compact book that is informative for learning more about Black Seminoles in The Bahamas. All this time I thought Howard was a Bahamian, not an African-American so that threw me. I was surprised that Howard was surprised that she was received as an outsider - which always makes me think about African-Americans perceive themselves in and outside the African Diaspora.

A lot of the information outside of the Black Seminoles could be found elsewhere in other history books surrounding The Bahamas. Obviously this was Howard's thesis/dissertation. I wish that the narrative had been fleshed out a bit more as it reads very much like a dissertation. The bulk of the book isn't even on the present-day Seminoles descendants which is what really blew me. Howards has a section on gender roles within the community, and I would have loved for her to go even deeper with it. There is also a section on education for children within the community which was really disheartening. Since this work was created in the 90s, I would be interested to see what has changed in Red Bay and how the history has been held on to or evolved.

The book was so good I stayed up past my bedtime. Once again I love the idea of mixed powers and magic. Root and Arthurian powers mixed together just tickles a part of my brain.

I had to recap the other previous books before I started, but I was still a bit confused when I started. This is a long book that has the introduction of a few new characters. I would say I enjoyed this more than the 2nd book; which I found to have a middle book syndrome.

Bree's actions in the book were annoying at times; but she lost her memory. She's actively learning from someone who she knows is considered dangerous - and she knows this so I bly her a lot of things. I enjoyed the multiple POVs, being able to see inside the heads of different characters is always fascinating to me. I was very annoyed with Sel in this book; IDC what anyone else says!! I wish the Alice situation would have been moved further along but I honestly forgot about her for most of the book.

I listened to it on audio and e-book. I think switching back and forth gave me a different opinion than a lot of the other ones I've been seeing around. I did not think the book was slow. I thought it unfolded well to connect all the pieces together. I was chomping on the bit to see what would come next. I am excited for the next book.

Another hit of Lauren Francis-Sharma. 60 pages in and I knew that this was a 5/5 for me. The plot for Casualties of Truth is rocking. It will keep you reading. I'm not a consumer of thrillers, but the mix between historical fiction and thriller hit the spot. The plot goes back and forth between present day and the past.

I wept. I know very little about South African history, so reading some of the details of atrocities - particularly ones related to the plot - made me teary eyed. Francis-Sharma does a fantastic job of mixing history into the plot. Turns out that she was actually drawing from her own experiences, as she went to South African during the same period of time that Prudence went.

I enjoyed the comparison and reflection between the African American experience and the experience between Black/Coloured South Africans in South Africa. I think the interactions between Prudence and other Black South African characters were a great example of how marginalised characters in one place can still be privileged in another place regardless of skin colour. However the interactions between Prudence and White South Africans show that the end of the day, to White people ya still 'beneath' them. The exploration of race and identity was truly fascinating.

The characters' choices throughout the novel blowed me at times. However I was on the edge of my seat for it all. Casualties of Truth is a short, compact book that packs a powerful punch.

People We Meet on Vacation is my first Emily Henry book. I am not a serious reader of the romance genre so I found this book to be a nice palate cleanser. It was light and fun. Emily Henry's writing flows well and lulls you in a comfortable rhythm. Friends to Lovers isn't the typical trope I enjoy, BUT I love yearning!! PWMOV had YEARNING, and that will win me over every time. Miscommunication trope is something I hate and will continue to hate however.

Poppy and Alex do fall into typical trope-y characters of Golden Retriever and Black Cat. Their personality traits do not stray from these ideals. The build up was a lot for me.

I must rant now - WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!! Alex got a fucking vasectomy and they hadn't even kissed. NO ROMANTIC ANYTHING!!! The tension was there but come on now... Also the Croatia incident was a fucking kiss. All that time I thought they fucked but they just had a peck on the lips. Be so for real right now. I was actually annoyed about that.

The book was predictable but I didn't mind it. The ending did feel a bit rushed after a LONG drawn out longing. The book was getting a tad repetitive at that point.

Overall the tension between characters was beautiful but the plot tension was fucking annoying. It was a good read but not anything special. A nice, lighthearted palate cleanser.

Admittedly I know little about Puerto Rico's history as a whole. Much of what I know comes from activists attachment to other freedom movements and historical fiction I've read (DR and Cuba from Racial Migrations: New York City the Revolutionary Politics of the Spanish Caribbean and The Taste of Sugar). I have read War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony for a class, but the professor had a negative attitude towards the book which affected the way I read it. Puerto Rico: a National History is exact what the title says it is; the book covers the island from indigenous times to the present day.

Puerto Rico flows. It is a smooth read. It didn't read like an academic book from an academic publisher. I'm sure Meléndez-Badillo wrote his book with both an an academic and non-academic audience in mind. The jargon is kept to a minimum. The work is concise and clear; its a short book - just above 200 pages!

Meléndez-Badillo is a Puerto Rican so that adds another layer of care and thoughtfulness to the narrative of the work. He includes personal stories into the narrative. He talks about desperately waiting from his grandmother after Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico and the relief when a neighbour phoned him to let know that she was indeed okay. I did start crying at this point. He also talks about guilt around that - but I'll talk about that in another post. He does not go into heavily into a detailed narrative of Hurricane María and the aftermath, utilising Saidiya Hartman's method of not retraumaizing these people (read: historical actors) just to advance the narrative.

Meléndez-Badillo relays the subjection and terrorisation of the Puerto Rican people but also the victory and triumphs of them as well. He end with the text talking about Bad Bunny's track El apagón and some of the lyrics Gabriela Berlingeri sings towards the end of the song. The last two paragraphs are his contemplations and the collective hopes for Puerto Rico by Puerto Ricans. I also cried during this part.

Highly recommend reading. The font is amazing; its very visually stimulating.

Thank you to the publisher (Princeton University Press) for sending me a free copy!

no words. I can’t believe story ARC 1 is complete. Books 6-10 are going to be a TRIP. I might just name my son Kaladin. 

The First and Last King of Haiti is an academic masterpiece. Daut shows off her prolific knowledge of Haitian history with this monograph. Concerned with how earlier historical/literary/news works have covered Henry Christophe in a villainous light, Daut attempts to see Christophe through a fuller picture.

Not a moment in Henry Christophe's life is missed by Daut. Where there is no information, she picks the known information from persons around Christophe at that time in his life to piece together what it may have been like. This is one of the reasons TFALKOH is so big. Doubt says she understand "the king of Haiti's early life as a series of stories told about him, ones whose chains of recitation must be corroborated, verified, counterbalanced against and alongside the new documentation unearthed here, oral and written, including enemy reports as well as those that paint are more complicated but not necessarily more flattering portrait."

TFALKOH is published with a trad publisher, but it read more like an academic text from an academic press. The narrative can get bogged down with all citations from the many, many different commentaries on Christophe. It might be frustrating for some readers; I did get overwhelmed at times. However I personally enjoyed it - or maybe I'm just used to it. The narrative is not a straight line. Readers get the background information of everyone who was close to Christophe. I liked this aspect because provided a fuller picture of Christophe, especially when there is very limited tangible information about his early formative years. Daut says her responsibility is to her historical subjects, Christophe and his family, than any particular community.

TFALKOH sucks you in with the stories that Marlene Daut is able to weave throughout the narrative. I gasped, empathised and was agast in many different places. In places where the text may get bogged down the shocking stories always brings you back. Honestly I hope to be able to know as much to produce this type of work that Daut has put out there for the world. TFALKOH should go down as a classic in Haitian studies.

Thank you to www.CoriolisCompany.com for a review copy.