jaduhluhdabooks's Reviews (333)

I think this is a powerful read and soundly researched. It’s interesting to have the included pieces of Black narrative interwoven, but it brings clarity to how the sustaining of some large economic policies have remained intact. I think I’m giving it three and half stars, indicating that everyone should read it, but there are also other books and research articles out there that are more poignant and address narratives that I think heavily attribute to the poverty cross in America. 

Thinking about the expansion of decolonization and stolen land and reparations far beyond that of restoring the human basic needs, which should be the priority, so please don’t mishear me. 

Poverty is literal and generational and many Black and POC Americans are shouldering the reality of both. I’m thinking mostly about Desmond’s integration piece and how history shows us two narratives of integrative measures. I am thinking about the safety and security that communities of color provide in an America that seeks to erase. There’s layers here and I think Desmond does a good job of recognizing them, but maybe not addressing the possible severity of removing them if some of these measures where to take place. 

Overall, a powerful read that brings to the forefront my complicity in perpetuating poverty, the communal effort of displacing folx, and cyclical nature of numbness. There are and will be things that I do moving forward, to remain vigilant in what I consume and support, and that is something I am taking away from this read.

A powerful story about family, loss, and the constant but inescapable linger of grief. It’s about how stories shape and reshape who we are and how we choose to become who we are. It’s about the reality of being children of immigrants, harboring the challenges of biracialism and Black excellence wrapped in the pressures of parental expectation and societal binaries. Journeying with Byron and Benny was sobering and humbling. Mathilda, Pearl, Bunny, Gibbs, Lin, Mathilda, and so many others shaped Covey’s life and so many of the choices that she made to protect her and her family. 

Trivial and beautiful.

I am huge supporter and believer in the power of story and narrative. There is so much life given to words when the speaker is someone who has experienced and lived the realities of what is being revealed. This book reminded of just how powerful narrative is and how much of normative society seeks to control so much of the Black and Indigenous voice. From food to culture, Charmaine take us on a journey of discovering secrecy, loyalty, and all in all, survival - as we travel in grief, longing, and deep deep love with the Bennet family. This is a story about roots and how Black and cultural tradition is a anticolonial stand a against whiteness, intrusive, primitive men who came to take and destroy and reinvent. But the Black Cake stands and withstands generations and time and it is a powerful metaphor of persperverance and family. Many layers to unpack in this read, but I’m honored to have sat in it for some time.

Profound @kuangrf. A satirical and psychological masterpiece. The depth of the scrutiny and the audacity of Juniper is one of the most striking portrayals of ignorance and privilege that I’ve ever read fictionally. Juniper is relentless and the undertones of white guilt and shame are a hard hitting theme throughout this novel that I resonated with and see in my every job and in academia. The relevance of defining and astutely explaining what diversity is and looks like in a socially and economically capitalistic society that keeps whiteness a forefront requirement of access to mobility and power is the reality of this novel. How decoupling race systemically leads to dire sensitivity and authorship / censorship issues and leaves white narrators in possession of stories in which they have no right nor place to tell. What does it mean to gatekeep history? 

I think Yellowface does a wonderful job of showing just how powerful narrative and language truly are. And how very few diverse voices have the pen and papers to write them for others. It explores the complexity of white supremacy sitting at the forefront of drive. It drove juniper to think and find very little fault in her action. Drove Athena to be ok with and even embrace the audacity of tokenization. Its portrayed in the drive and cherry picking of the industry. The way in which Twitter and social spheres play such a hand in reputation, validation, and subjugation. It’s crafty, this book. And I appreciate it. 

Gonna be thinking about this one for a MINUTE.

Truly exceptional. I felt so empowered and seen reading this book. As an academic, as a Black woman, and as someone who is reaching for some high aspirations in the world, I felt heard and understood. Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, an iconic, well rounded, and powerful chemist. This was a book about pursuit and tenacity and inevitability of resiliency that comes with the life of minority. It was profound in structuring the sexist and patriarchal systems of the 1900s. It was revealing of the quiet and brooding strength of the house wife and mother. It was striking of the pain and the weariness of the unlived reality that many men take for granted of the woman. It was a sobering reminder of just how far we have come and yet so much father we still have yet to go. 

I am grateful for this book and for this story telling. I am proud of who I am and what I desire and believe it. This text grapples with questions I’ve consistently presented myself, especially as a person who believes in God. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s grasping. And I loved every second of it.

I think I would’ve appreciated a tie in of the racism talk angle with an actual person of color experiencing the depth that their intersectionality brings into the academic world and the societal. Other than that, this is a read I would 100% recommend.