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brianreadsbooks's Reviews (820)
This was an approachable read and a great “intro” to online activism, the realities of social media, and basics of social justice. I’d recommend it for your friends who maybe aren’t ready for a “heavy” book on social justice (though they absolutely should also check out Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want To Talk About Race, books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, etc.). Ramsey does a good job of using her own experiences and mistakes to tell an entertaining story that helps make the topics relatable and allows you to take in the message with a balance of humor and sincerity.
Everfair is an epic, sprawling, steampunk historical fiction set primarily in an alternate version of the Congo during Belgian King Leopold's brutal exploitation of African people and resources. (This is a chapter of history I'd never learned before and was a side benefit to this book.)
In Shawl's fictional version of the Congo, the new Utopian colony of Everfair is being founded with a collectivist approach to ruling, primarily by women. The colony welcomes those who have escaped from Leopold's atrocities. Alongside immigrants from Asia, they have developed steam technologies that allow them to combat Leopold more effectively.
Alongside these players, arrive Black American evangelists, who form a tenuous alliance with Everfair. All of them co-exist alongside the indigenous people of the Congo and their King. The mix of individual characters, and the different communities they represent, results in a fascinating (if at times complicated) decades-long saga of conflict and alliance that leaves you wondering whose side you're on and why. No one in this book is perfect, and I think that's part of what impressed me about Shawl's writing. Each person is a complex, unique character who sucked me into their world.
This one takes a little longer to read, but it's worth every minute. I like to give a few years between re-reading books typically, but this will always have a permanent spot on my shelf.
If you enjoy fiction that takes on larger themes such as gender, race, sexuality, colonialism and religion (while still being an entertaining story), I highly recommend this one.
In Shawl's fictional version of the Congo, the new Utopian colony of Everfair is being founded with a collectivist approach to ruling, primarily by women. The colony welcomes those who have escaped from Leopold's atrocities. Alongside immigrants from Asia, they have developed steam technologies that allow them to combat Leopold more effectively.
Alongside these players, arrive Black American evangelists, who form a tenuous alliance with Everfair. All of them co-exist alongside the indigenous people of the Congo and their King. The mix of individual characters, and the different communities they represent, results in a fascinating (if at times complicated) decades-long saga of conflict and alliance that leaves you wondering whose side you're on and why. No one in this book is perfect, and I think that's part of what impressed me about Shawl's writing. Each person is a complex, unique character who sucked me into their world.
This one takes a little longer to read, but it's worth every minute. I like to give a few years between re-reading books typically, but this will always have a permanent spot on my shelf.
If you enjoy fiction that takes on larger themes such as gender, race, sexuality, colonialism and religion (while still being an entertaining story), I highly recommend this one.
1. You should read this.
2. It hit me in the gut and I'm still processing a few days later.
The book itself is relatively short, so in that sense it's an accessible and quick read. But Iweala packs a LOT into these 224 pages.
The story is split between two narrators/protagonists in Washington, DC. First Niru, a Nigerian American teen, struggling to find a way to live his life as a gay young man and come into his own while split between his father's Nigerian culture and the realities of the US. Second Meredith, a white girl and Niru's best friend, who is both supportive and conflicted in her relationship with him. I love the way Iweala's writing style changes to reflect each character at different stages of their lives. Niru's prose is urgent, nonstop. Meredith's is curious, confused, reflective.
I thought the story was going in one direction and I was sucked in. Then BAM a twist that shocked me to the point I had to set it aside for a couple days, before picking it back up and devouring the rest of it in one go.
Highly recommend.
2. It hit me in the gut and I'm still processing a few days later.
The book itself is relatively short, so in that sense it's an accessible and quick read. But Iweala packs a LOT into these 224 pages.
The story is split between two narrators/protagonists in Washington, DC. First Niru, a Nigerian American teen, struggling to find a way to live his life as a gay young man and come into his own while split between his father's Nigerian culture and the realities of the US. Second Meredith, a white girl and Niru's best friend, who is both supportive and conflicted in her relationship with him. I love the way Iweala's writing style changes to reflect each character at different stages of their lives. Niru's prose is urgent, nonstop. Meredith's is curious, confused, reflective.
I thought the story was going in one direction and I was sucked in. Then BAM a twist that shocked me to the point I had to set it aside for a couple days, before picking it back up and devouring the rest of it in one go.
Highly recommend.
This was a fast read, not because of it's length but because it hooked me quickly and kept me reading until I was late to dinner. I literally read the last 80% of it in one day because I couldn't stop until I got to the end.
Darren Matthews is a Black Texas Ranger, which sets him apart from everyone in different ways. Black residents are wary of a stranger and a cop when he arrives in their small town. White folks are unsure whether to respect the badge or hate the Black man who dares to exert his authority over them. His uncle (and only surviving father figure) doesn't see a life for him in law enforcement and wants him to settle down and return to law school, and his calling has led to a separation from his wife.
Darren leaves Houston to investigate the deaths of a Black man from Chicago traveling through the small East Texas town of Lark, and a local white woman whose body washed up from the Bayou a week later. He comes up against the twin forces that drive this small town, the Black community's heart, mother and sometimes authority figure, Geneva Sweet (of Geneva Sweet's Sweets), and the extremely rich white man living in a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello on the other side of the highway. The racial tension is THICK in this deep rural area in Trump's America, with both individual racism and blatant terrorism from the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas taking central roles.
Between the citizens of Lark, Houston and strangers beyond Texas, a slow history begins to unfold. Every time Locke reveals one a layer, there's another waiting below, and every time I thought I was onto the final "aha" moment, there was more to surprise and shock.
This was my first book by Locke, but I'm already going for another. She also left this wide open for a continued series. Add this to your TBR!
Darren Matthews is a Black Texas Ranger, which sets him apart from everyone in different ways. Black residents are wary of a stranger and a cop when he arrives in their small town. White folks are unsure whether to respect the badge or hate the Black man who dares to exert his authority over them. His uncle (and only surviving father figure) doesn't see a life for him in law enforcement and wants him to settle down and return to law school, and his calling has led to a separation from his wife.
Darren leaves Houston to investigate the deaths of a Black man from Chicago traveling through the small East Texas town of Lark, and a local white woman whose body washed up from the Bayou a week later. He comes up against the twin forces that drive this small town, the Black community's heart, mother and sometimes authority figure, Geneva Sweet (of Geneva Sweet's Sweets), and the extremely rich white man living in a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello on the other side of the highway. The racial tension is THICK in this deep rural area in Trump's America, with both individual racism and blatant terrorism from the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas taking central roles.
Between the citizens of Lark, Houston and strangers beyond Texas, a slow history begins to unfold. Every time Locke reveals one a layer, there's another waiting below, and every time I thought I was onto the final "aha" moment, there was more to surprise and shock.
This was my first book by Locke, but I'm already going for another. She also left this wide open for a continued series. Add this to your TBR!
Queen Butler was extremely prescient. Sadly. This is the sequel to Parable of the Sower, and as a set, they paint a dystopian future of what could come of a disastrous cultural, political and ecological shift in America. It's eerily similar to today's reality and the potential outcomes are frightening.
For example, speaking of a populist "Christian" candidate for president, who shouts simplistic solutions on a platform of "cleaning up" America, she writes "Jarret's supporters are more than a little seduced by Jarret's talk of [holy shit] making America great again." and "Jarret insists on being a throwback to some earlier, 'simpler' time...There was never such a time in this country. But these days when more than half the people in the country can't read at all, history is just one more vast unknown to them. Jarret supporters have been known, now and then, to form mobs and burn people at the stake for being witches. Witches! In 2032! A witch, in their view tends to be a Moslem, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist..."
The Parable duo is about a woman defining her world, with layers of examination of community, race, gender family and love. I liked how in this sequel, she introduces a new narrator, the daughter of the protagonist from Parable of the Sower, and plays the two stories back and forth to build to the finale.
There are times when the pace was a little slow, and then the last quarter of the book flies by almost seeming like Butler herself got tired of the pace and wanted to wrap the story quickly. There were also new characters introduced partway through that served little purpose and never got fully developed. Still, this continuation of the Parable story compelling and worth reading.
For example, speaking of a populist "Christian" candidate for president, who shouts simplistic solutions on a platform of "cleaning up" America, she writes "Jarret's supporters are more than a little seduced by Jarret's talk of [holy shit] making America great again." and "Jarret insists on being a throwback to some earlier, 'simpler' time...There was never such a time in this country. But these days when more than half the people in the country can't read at all, history is just one more vast unknown to them. Jarret supporters have been known, now and then, to form mobs and burn people at the stake for being witches. Witches! In 2032! A witch, in their view tends to be a Moslem, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist..."
The Parable duo is about a woman defining her world, with layers of examination of community, race, gender family and love. I liked how in this sequel, she introduces a new narrator, the daughter of the protagonist from Parable of the Sower, and plays the two stories back and forth to build to the finale.
There are times when the pace was a little slow, and then the last quarter of the book flies by almost seeming like Butler herself got tired of the pace and wanted to wrap the story quickly. There were also new characters introduced partway through that served little purpose and never got fully developed. Still, this continuation of the Parable story compelling and worth reading.
I discovered Octavia Butler at the end of 2017, so it’s fitting I came back to her to finish off 2018.
While her work fits firmly into the Dystopian SciFi category (not typically my favorite), she added depth through her explorations of race, gender, religion and human nature.
Parable of the Sower was one of her last novels, and it definitely continues those themes. Lauren is coming into adulthood in a world where climate change has destroyed the United States, particularly in hot, dry California. Adding to the misery, government has privatized police, fire services, and in some cases even entire towns. Indentured labor harking back to post-Civil War sharecropping (read: slavery by another name) has made a comeback.
Similar to Butler’s Xenogenesis and Patternist series, the protagonist slowly builds a community around her. The interplay of this reality and Lauren’s slowly developing new religion is a fascinating.
I’d definitely recommend this one, though I haven’t read the second book in the series to determine if it satisfies me fully. There’s enough in this book alone that you could just stop there and you’ll be processing your thoughts for days after.
While her work fits firmly into the Dystopian SciFi category (not typically my favorite), she added depth through her explorations of race, gender, religion and human nature.
Parable of the Sower was one of her last novels, and it definitely continues those themes. Lauren is coming into adulthood in a world where climate change has destroyed the United States, particularly in hot, dry California. Adding to the misery, government has privatized police, fire services, and in some cases even entire towns. Indentured labor harking back to post-Civil War sharecropping (read: slavery by another name) has made a comeback.
Similar to Butler’s Xenogenesis and Patternist series, the protagonist slowly builds a community around her. The interplay of this reality and Lauren’s slowly developing new religion is a fascinating.
I’d definitely recommend this one, though I haven’t read the second book in the series to determine if it satisfies me fully. There’s enough in this book alone that you could just stop there and you’ll be processing your thoughts for days after.
I enjoyed this YA coming-of-age novel. What I loved about it was how it centered the narrative around teen characters with real intersectional identities. No one is one-dimentional or stereotypical. Black, Asian, mixed-race, female, bi-sexual, lesbian, bipolar and Jewish. This book was written for a younger audience than me, but it was still welcome to read Colbert's representation of the teen angst, joy and anxiety. It felt more honest in approach than other YA novels I've read recently where the characters felt overly confident or adult in the way they interacted with the world. I'm not sure how old Colbert is but she captured that life stage well. She weaved together how each one of us felt insecure in our own self, and the compounding issues faced by a young queer woman of color and her white Jewish brother suffering from mental illness.
I remember what it felt like growing up to find even one book in the library that had positive or realistic portrayals of gay teens. The feeling of joy on reading characters like me, of how much more I could relate to the story, even if it took place far from my daily reality. So I can only imagine what this book has meant to young women of color or a young person living with bipolar at the same time they're coming into their adulthood.
Little & Lion is well-deserving of the awards it received (ALA’s 2018 Stonewall Book Award, listed to ALA’s 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults, among others). This one would be a great, meaningful gift for any young adult in your life - no matter who they are, they'll either see themselves represented in some way or learn from the stories of others.
I remember what it felt like growing up to find even one book in the library that had positive or realistic portrayals of gay teens. The feeling of joy on reading characters like me, of how much more I could relate to the story, even if it took place far from my daily reality. So I can only imagine what this book has meant to young women of color or a young person living with bipolar at the same time they're coming into their adulthood.
Little & Lion is well-deserving of the awards it received (ALA’s 2018 Stonewall Book Award, listed to ALA’s 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults, among others). This one would be a great, meaningful gift for any young adult in your life - no matter who they are, they'll either see themselves represented in some way or learn from the stories of others.