This book has quite everything I enjoy in a book: impeccable character development, a perfect balance in descriptions and dialogues (I hate long descriptions as much as I hate useless dialogues put there only to fill a couple pages), and alternante narrators. In addition to that, we get to see the evolution of a family in time, while describing the American society over a laps of time from the 1950s to the 1990s.

While the theme of race is central to the story, it is far to be the only theme to be covered by the novel: Brit Bennett also cover the themes of gender identity, as well as class, social constructs and family relationships.

Mockingbird is a sweet yet deeply touching middle-grade novel about Caitlin, a young girl affected by Asperger and her struggles to understand society, friendship and, on top of all that, grief.

The fact that we can get to see the world through her eyes makes the novel unique, and her behaviours that might seem odd from the outside, become Cristal clear.

I found the book was incredibly insightful and a nice reading if you are looking to better understand how a person with asperger sees the world. On top of that, it makes the case for early intervention and the importance of a support network outside of family and friends, in this case the one that the education system might provide when resources are present.

Highly recommend this read ! 

In questo romanzo seguiamo Horra nella sua vita piena e impegnativa, cercando di trovare un equilibrio tra famiglia, università, lavoro e volontariato. 

Il romanzo riesce a mostrare le molteplici facce del mondo musulmano, rappresentando perfettamente la sua ricchezza, ma anche esponendo come gli estranei non sembrino capirlo né credere nella sua varietà, cercando di incasellare un'intera religione e i suoi seguaci in un'unica definizione.

Tuttavia, non ho trovato la scrittura molto fluida, soprattutto i dialoghi che sembravano un po' innaturali per la maggior parte del tempo, il che è un peccato perché la trama era interessante e ben costruita, così come i personaggi e le loro caratteristiche uniche che mostrano come l'essere musulman* non sia una definizione unica per tutt*. 

Nel complesso, consiglierei il libro per la storia e l'importanza culturale che ha, ma non per la scrittura che manca di spontaneità.

In this story, the unnamed protagonist who now lives in Canada meets a man who reminds her of a boy from her childhood in Sarajevo: they were supposed to run away together, but the boy never shows up and she never sees him again. In a stream of consciousness, the narrator goes back and forward between the past and the present, reminiscing how she lived in the Sarajevo war as a child, as well as her escape.
This reading was … confusing at best. Nothing happens, the story arch is practically inexistent, and all we are left with is good writing and too many metaphors and beautiful images. I found it extremely difficult to reach the end of the book, it seemed as reading a very long poem and while I found the writing beautiful and lyrical, the lack of a story in itself ruined it. 

In questo romanzo storico, ambientato nella Tanzania coloniale, seguiamo le vite di diversi personaggi che si uniscono e si allontanano allo stesso tempo.

Mentre tedeschi, britannici, francesi e belgi fanno della Tanzania (e del continente africano in generale) il loro campo di battaglia offshore, a pagarne le conseguenze sono ovviamente le popolazioni che sono sempre state lì e che si trovano improvvisamente divise da confini immaginari ma molto reali, sia dal punto di vista geografico che interpersonale.

Ho trovato la storia molto interessante dal punto di vista storico, con uno sguardo al passato coloniale della Tanzania.

Tuttavia, come romanzo, ho trovato che mancasse un po' di pathos narrativo: il punto di vista alternativo non è sfruttato al massimo delle sue potenzialità, perché i salti temporali sono troppo veloci e non danno abbastanza tempo a ogni personaggio. Si salta da una storia all'altra e il narratore riempie i vuoti lasciati dai salti temporali troppo frettolosamente.

Nel complesso, penso che potrei leggere altri libri dello stesso autore, poiché trovo che la scrittura sia abbastanza fluida, il che mi fa sperare che questo possa essere un problema di questo libro specifico.

✨ On the island of Black Conch, the lives of David, a fisherman, and those of the other islanders are disrupted by the arrival of Aycaya, a mermaid captured by American tourists who are planning to bring her to the USA to make an attraction out of her. When David rescues her and hides her in his home, he will see her transform into a woman again, but not easily and without difficulties: will she ever be free of her curse?

✨ I was quite disappointed with the read: while the storyline is interesting, everything else was kind of lazy: characters reduced to cliches, a magical realism not fully developed, a lack of atmosphere, and quite a big and imposing male gaze (which is all the more upsetting considering it was written by a woman)

✨ The latter was the most maddening for me: a few pages in, I stopped the read to check if I misread the author and wondered if it was written by a man. The mermaid is throughout the book described as innocent, and naive and plays a massive passive role in the story that sees her as the protagonist. Her fate is completely in the hands of men: men who want to capture her or men who want to protect her, but either way men who want to fuck her, constantly. I would have appreciated more time dedicated to her POV rather than reading pages and pages about what the men of the story thought of her breasts or wondering where her pussy was and how they would have fucked her: BLERK.

In this novel, we follow three main characters, all of them showing a different facet of femininity and what it means to be a woman.

Reese, a trans woman, and Amy her ex-girlfriend who has now detransitioned becoming Ames and is in a relationship with Katrina, a cis woman. When this last one becomes pregnant with Ames, all of their lives will connect, pushing each one of them to question their selves.

The story is an atypical one, and the intricate storyline is perfectly narrated, managing to tickle the readers' minds on various themes without losing of view the plot - a great example of a feminist novel that manages to keep the narrative at the center of the book, creating relatable characters and avoiding cliches.

Have you read it? What other trans authors and stories would you suggest?

This book is part of the collection « Pocket Change Collective » and let me say I LOVE the concept, even if this is the only one I own I cannot talk about all of the books in the collection.

In Beyond the Gender Binary, artist and LGBTQIA+ activist Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs the notion of gender through their own experiences and demonstrates how to get out of the black-and-white vision of gender: is it easy? No, because our western society makes it difficult, but it could be easy if only we could understand something pretty simple: even if we do not fully understand something ourselves, it does not mean it does not exist. Understanding as in « I understand it because I experienced it » should not be the condition for empathy: I am not a non-binary person and I cannot possibly know how it would feel to be, but it does not mean I cannot feel empathy and acceptance and love for a non-binary person. 

I would suggest this reading for someone who knows absolutely nothing about the subject BUT truly wishes to understand more about it as it describes and deconstruct very basic notions - if you are already an expert on gender identity, this still can be a nice short reading and with some cute AF illustrations

In this short story collection by Guatemalan author Rodrigo Fuentes, we follow the stories of different people who all have two things in common: the Guatemalan countryside and Don Henrik a man who is somehow connected to them all.

This is one of those books that left me neither satisfied nor unhappy about it. The short stories are well constructed and have a common thread in the image of a man who somehow is linked to all of the main characters. I would have appreciated a little more intricate storylines, which in my opinion lack the what-is-going-to-happen-next feeling. 

While the short stories are described as « disturbing » in the blurb, I honestly did not experience any strong emotion while reading this nor any empathy for the characters and their faith.

 In a word, I would say this book left me indifferent.

Dans ce livre court mais poignant, l'autrice Aya Cissoko s'adresse directement à sa fille. Tout en lui rappelant sans cesse que " tu n'es l'enfant de rien ni de personne ", elle rappelle à sa fille ses origines mixtes : Guerriers maliens qui ont affronté la colonisation puis le racisme en France, et Juifs ashkénazes déportés à Auschwitz du côté de son père.

✨ En rappelant son histoire, elle veut faire passer un message à sa fille : même si elle est née en France, elle doit continuer à se souvenir d'où elle vient car si elle ne le fait pas, d'autres le feront avec leur racisme outrageusement ouvert et leur agressivité. C'est central pour continuer le combat de ses ancêtres, un combat pour gagner le racisme et pour gagner le classisme et toutes les logiques perverses de discrimination qui grondent en France. 

✨ Ce fut une lecture courte, néanmoins une lecture qui restera à jamais dans ma mémoire. C'est un livre rempli de rage, une rage qui mérite d'être entendue : 

Je conseille cette lecture à toute personne vivant avec des privilèges afin de ne jamais oublier que le racisme et la discrimination existent encore : comme nous ne le vivons pas directement, il peut être facile d'oublier.

✨ Je pense que cela pourrait être une bonne lecture pour les jeunes adultes/adolescents qui vivent dans un pays où ils sont soumis à ces types de discrimination, comme un moyen d'encourager la fierté plutôt que la honte.