'An Evening in Guanima: A Treasury of Folktales from The Bahamas' by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas is beautifully written, with a foreword explaining the importance of keeping a track record of stories told from one generation to the other in person, hence safeguarding a vital part of the country's cultural heritage.

In her heart-wrenching memoir, award-winning Haitian-American author Danticat details her family's history. The story mainly focuses on the lives of her two father-figures: her biological father, Mira, and her uncle, Joseph, who took care of her and her brother for eight years while her parents lived in the US and the kids weren't able to join them.

My heart broke into a million pieces, and I could barely keep reading through the tears in the last 100 pages of the book. What I'm left with after finishing, though, is gratitude for family, love, and life. 'Brother, I'm Dying' is a profession of love and a recollection of the lives of people at the sidelines of history.

I highly recommend it!

In this book, a pro athlete tries to save his marriage by joining a book club organized by his teammates (who also needed marriage-saving in the past). The club analyzes romance novels to learn how they should behave. The book tries to break toxic masculinity and harmful stereotypes but falls flat. It's heteronormative, at points romanticizes toxic relationship traits, and lacks non-tokenistic diversity. Some cute scenes, though, and it's a very fast-paced and easy-to-read book.

TW: child marriage, child abuse, sexual abuse, rape.

This is the story of Nujood Ali, a ten-year-old girl who is sold into marriage to a man thrice her age by her family. Determined to escape her situation, she seeks legal action and demands the court to grant her a divorce. And succeeds!

Nujood's story is unbelievably heartbreaking, but it's also inspirational. As the youngest divorcee ever, she brought international attention to a too often ignored problem - not only in Yemen but all over the world.

Just as Nujood's story shouldn't be romanticized, it shouldn't be used to fuel a single-story narrative of Yemen or the Middle East either. Unfortunately, child marriage is a global phenomenon that should be fought everywhere.

Although the story itself is powerful, the book itself has some shortcomings. It seems to have been written from and for a western gaze, and there are thoughts attributed to Nujood as the narrator that seem to be projections from the ghostwriter Delphine Minoui, from France, and not Nujood's own opinions.

Love After Love tells the story of three family members from Trinidad: a middle-aged woman called Betty, her son Solo and the man who rents out their extra room, Mr. Chetan.

The story has some very high points for me:
- the description of life in Trinidad,
- the mouth-watering paragraphs narrating how local dishes are prepared,
- the relationships between characters, and
- character development as a whole.

However, the ending felt unnecessary to me. The violent death of the main LGBTIQ+ character was used to advance the story of the heteronormative characters. It could and should have been done differently.

TW: self-harm, domestic abuse, homophobia.

'Summer Lighting and Other Stories' is a short story collection by Jamaican author Olive Senior. Each story has enough to deserve a complete review of its own. Senior's style is unique. Most of the dialogue is written in a mix of Jamaican patois/patwah and standard English, which I found particularly enriching.

I heard once that listening to women's stories is the best way to get to know the soul of a given place. That's exactly what it felt like to read this collection of short stories. With close to no knowledge of Samoan or Pacific Islander culture in general, Lani Wendt Young transported me to her home and allowed me to peek into its soul.

'Pachinko' is one of my favorite 2020 reads and an all-time favorite too! The ending is absolutely stunning, and I could barely read through the tears. Min Jin Lee also created one of my all-time favorite book characters, Sunja. If you're debating whether to read it or not, the answer 100% you should do it!