Take a photo of a barcode or cover
1.23k reviews by:
nuhafariha
Hilarious, open hearted and honest, Isabel Quinetro creates a plausible journal of a high school senior as she manages dates, death and ultimately life. Gabi is like so many of my friends, it almost felt like talking to someone instead of reading. The romance between her and Michael feels almost too forced, a la Jane the Virgin. Actually, this book has big Jane energy so if you liked that or On My Block, you will probably like this book.
Bestiary is a heartbreaking, sparse and elegant collection of poems of finding oneself amid trauma, finding peace in the middle of a storm, of finding silence in traffic. It is jawdroppingly gorgeous and requires much more praise than I can give at the moment.
Thank you to Muswell Press and NetGalley for the ARC.
Golnoosh Nour's Ministry of Guidance is rousing collection of young, queer love stories set primarily in the Persian community in Tehran. The fully fleshed out characters are titillating, heartbreaking and exciting. This collection speaks to the larger collective, asking what does it mean to be a Muslim and in love? What is a 'bad hejabi'? Why are there so many rules and regulations around who a Muslim can love and how does that play out in the larger society? Well worth the time!
Golnoosh Nour's Ministry of Guidance is rousing collection of young, queer love stories set primarily in the Persian community in Tehran. The fully fleshed out characters are titillating, heartbreaking and exciting. This collection speaks to the larger collective, asking what does it mean to be a Muslim and in love? What is a 'bad hejabi'? Why are there so many rules and regulations around who a Muslim can love and how does that play out in the larger society? Well worth the time!
Thank you to Random House Publishing and Net Galley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
"How many years have you spent in this country? How often do you have nightmares?"
In The Undocumented Americans, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio paints an honest portrait of older undocumented Americans, the parts of their lives we don't see on our nightly news stations or our movie screens. Throughout the multifaceted ethnography, we meet the undocumented workers who cleaned 9/11 and must suffer the health hazards, we learn about the unique way alternative medicine can provide support for undocumented Americans who cannot access healthcare, and talk to undocumented Flint residents and their unique struggles in the ongoing water crisis.
Though the stories are gripping and the horrors unmitigating in their truth and honesty, it is Villavicencio's honest voice that ties this piece together. It is not a sterile book that only documents facts and figures. The characters we meet on our journey through undocumented America are as real as any of us. Villavicencio shows their stories, hopes, dreams and dramas, how they etch out a life under constant threat from the government.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone!
"How many years have you spent in this country? How often do you have nightmares?"
In The Undocumented Americans, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio paints an honest portrait of older undocumented Americans, the parts of their lives we don't see on our nightly news stations or our movie screens. Throughout the multifaceted ethnography, we meet the undocumented workers who cleaned 9/11 and must suffer the health hazards, we learn about the unique way alternative medicine can provide support for undocumented Americans who cannot access healthcare, and talk to undocumented Flint residents and their unique struggles in the ongoing water crisis.
Though the stories are gripping and the horrors unmitigating in their truth and honesty, it is Villavicencio's honest voice that ties this piece together. It is not a sterile book that only documents facts and figures. The characters we meet on our journey through undocumented America are as real as any of us. Villavicencio shows their stories, hopes, dreams and dramas, how they etch out a life under constant threat from the government.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone!
In Nothing To See Here, Kevin Wilson builds off of one the concepts from his earlier collection of short stories - Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (one of my all time favorites) - about the concept of spontaneous combustion in humans. Whereas in the earlier stories the concept of combustion was taken as a negative (ie the characters died), in this book it was taken a positive (ie the characters lived). Through magical realism, Wilson asks what does it mean to be a family? What does it mean to love something that self destructs? What does it take for love to stop self destruction? One of my favorite concepts is that Wilson uses hesitant narrators, ones that don't always jump into action or into thought. Narrators fuck up, just like the rest of us. Funny, irreverent and a welcome escape from today's troubles.
Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy.
In her stirring and alluring second book on The Rajes, Sonali Dev paints a portrait of a chef in self destructive distress, a heartbroken soccer player and a spicy mix of family secrets. While it might not be the most accurate retelling of Persuasion, Dev manages to translate Austen's drama of manners across culture and time. Recipe for Persuasion is indeed a persuasive, hilarious and delicious brew of romance, perfect for those staying in. Highly recommended for the romantic readers!
In her stirring and alluring second book on The Rajes, Sonali Dev paints a portrait of a chef in self destructive distress, a heartbroken soccer player and a spicy mix of family secrets. While it might not be the most accurate retelling of Persuasion, Dev manages to translate Austen's drama of manners across culture and time. Recipe for Persuasion is indeed a persuasive, hilarious and delicious brew of romance, perfect for those staying in. Highly recommended for the romantic readers!
ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Ballantine
If I Had Your Face follows five modern Korean women as they transverse their 20s covering issues like disability, wealth and education inequity and beauty standards. Similar to sisterhood narratives, each girl has her own voice and characters alternate chapters. Unfortunately, something about the writing did not stick with me. The topics either felt very rushed or very superficial with one dimensional characters. There's no growth or change or even interaction really. It's like a vacuous bubble where characters prod around each other but not with each other.
If I Had Your Face follows five modern Korean women as they transverse their 20s covering issues like disability, wealth and education inequity and beauty standards. Similar to sisterhood narratives, each girl has her own voice and characters alternate chapters. Unfortunately, something about the writing did not stick with me. The topics either felt very rushed or very superficial with one dimensional characters. There's no growth or change or even interaction really. It's like a vacuous bubble where characters prod around each other but not with each other.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #ForestAvenuePress for the advanced readers copy!
The Royal Abduls centers around the bond between Amina, an overthinking self sabotaging botanical scientist, and her nephew Omar, an lonely middle schooler outcast. Each brief chapter is narrated in turn by one of these two loveable if frustrating characters as they struggle to figure out the family's Indian heritage, Islamophobia, divorce and death.
What I loved the most was the way Koya was able to successfully navigate an eleven year old's innocent way of accumulating knowledge, showing the reader how Omar grows throughout the piece. The startling similarity between his thought process and thirty something year old Amina's is slowly revealed.
While the plot progresses in a steady, measured rate, the ending broke my heart completely and almost felt unreal. Regardless, this is a book that will make you laugh and cherish your family a little bit more.
The Royal Abduls centers around the bond between Amina, an overthinking self sabotaging botanical scientist, and her nephew Omar, an lonely middle schooler outcast. Each brief chapter is narrated in turn by one of these two loveable if frustrating characters as they struggle to figure out the family's Indian heritage, Islamophobia, divorce and death.
What I loved the most was the way Koya was able to successfully navigate an eleven year old's innocent way of accumulating knowledge, showing the reader how Omar grows throughout the piece. The startling similarity between his thought process and thirty something year old Amina's is slowly revealed.
While the plot progresses in a steady, measured rate, the ending broke my heart completely and almost felt unreal. Regardless, this is a book that will make you laugh and cherish your family a little bit more.
Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
In her abstract debut, K Ming Chang blurs the line between animal and human as she travels through three generations of Taiwanese folklore. Telling the story of Ben and her lover, "Bestiary" is an exploration of what it means to be a human. Turning anthropomorphism on its head, Chang instead explores what it would be like to be an animal with human tendencies, how love transverses bodies and physicality and seeks something much deeper inside. A fun, brief read that will leave you in wonder!
In her abstract debut, K Ming Chang blurs the line between animal and human as she travels through three generations of Taiwanese folklore. Telling the story of Ben and her lover, "Bestiary" is an exploration of what it means to be a human. Turning anthropomorphism on its head, Chang instead explores what it would be like to be an animal with human tendencies, how love transverses bodies and physicality and seeks something much deeper inside. A fun, brief read that will leave you in wonder!
Thank you to NYU Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy.
In Whiter, professor Nikki Khanna strives to illustrate colorism in the Asian American society, primarily through essays written by a diverse group of women from Filipina, Cambodian, Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. One of the strengths of this book is that she is able to catch similar trends across all of these informal essays - that Asian American societies are inherently colorist, that lighter skin holds priviledges but can sometimes exclude you from being "authentic" and that there is a closeted antiblack sentiment in colorism. The narratives are fascinating as they are pulled from different parts of American society and different socioeconomic levels. As a first generation Bangladeshi immigrant who was often considered in between shades of brown and fat, I identified with many of these narratives. What resonated throughout the book is how often our notion of "race" in America is situation dependent and often defined by whiteness. For example, when I am with my American or Indian friends, I am considered "desi" but when I am with my Latinx friends, I am considered "Mexican" by white people. While the stories do have a positive note, "embrace your unique skin color", I wish there was more qualitative information. How much do the fashion industries make profiting off of white skin? Who owns these businesses? How is the marketing so prevalent? These are some questions that remain unanswered.
In Whiter, professor Nikki Khanna strives to illustrate colorism in the Asian American society, primarily through essays written by a diverse group of women from Filipina, Cambodian, Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. One of the strengths of this book is that she is able to catch similar trends across all of these informal essays - that Asian American societies are inherently colorist, that lighter skin holds priviledges but can sometimes exclude you from being "authentic" and that there is a closeted antiblack sentiment in colorism. The narratives are fascinating as they are pulled from different parts of American society and different socioeconomic levels. As a first generation Bangladeshi immigrant who was often considered in between shades of brown and fat, I identified with many of these narratives. What resonated throughout the book is how often our notion of "race" in America is situation dependent and often defined by whiteness. For example, when I am with my American or Indian friends, I am considered "desi" but when I am with my Latinx friends, I am considered "Mexican" by white people. While the stories do have a positive note, "embrace your unique skin color", I wish there was more qualitative information. How much do the fashion industries make profiting off of white skin? Who owns these businesses? How is the marketing so prevalent? These are some questions that remain unanswered.