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nuhafariha
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available October 13 2020
You ever read those books that sound conceptually really fun and interesting? Then, as you read the book, you find yourself becoming more and more frustrated at the main character? You can see their self destructive behavior and in an eerie way it reminds you of your own.
All that to say Sarah Smith's Simmer Down is one of the most relatable romantic novels I've read in awhile. When Filipino American Nikki DiMarco moved to Maui to help her mother with a food truck business after the abrupt death of her father, she wasn't expecting to find love. Yet, just as Tiva's Filipina Kitchen is starting to provide real income, the truck faces opposition from the handsome yet distant Callum James. Will the heat in kitchen be too much for Nikki to handle?
Much of the book centers around Nikki's emotional state, though she seems very oblivious to it most of the time. While there isn't much comedy, I would say this is a good hearted, relaxing read that might help others identify their own behaviors in a relationship.
Available October 13 2020
You ever read those books that sound conceptually really fun and interesting? Then, as you read the book, you find yourself becoming more and more frustrated at the main character? You can see their self destructive behavior and in an eerie way it reminds you of your own.
All that to say Sarah Smith's Simmer Down is one of the most relatable romantic novels I've read in awhile. When Filipino American Nikki DiMarco moved to Maui to help her mother with a food truck business after the abrupt death of her father, she wasn't expecting to find love. Yet, just as Tiva's Filipina Kitchen is starting to provide real income, the truck faces opposition from the handsome yet distant Callum James. Will the heat in kitchen be too much for Nikki to handle?
Much of the book centers around Nikki's emotional state, though she seems very oblivious to it most of the time. While there isn't much comedy, I would say this is a good hearted, relaxing read that might help others identify their own behaviors in a relationship.
Brit Bennett's sweeping, memorable saga about identity, family and history. When the Vignes twins leave their small birth city of Mallard at the age of 16 for the hustle and bustle of New Orleans, they can hardly predict the set of events that would come to dictate their family's lives. Spanning nearly a century, Bennett transports us to the Jim Crow South, to 1960s New Orleans, to the crowded streets of LA in the 70s and 80s. The writing is emotional, simple yet dramatic.
Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Sept 1 2020
I remember being in high school and stumbling onto Kevin Wilson's "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth" in my high school library just as they were about to close down for the day. I started the first story, "Good Stand-Ins" on the bus ride back and was instantly hooked into Wilson's bizarre, sad-happy world of stand-in actors for family members, exploding people working in Scrabble factories and elegies of dead sisters. It was exciting, revolting, and all around engrossing, a perfect accompaniment for my gothic persona.
In the intervening years, I changed a little bit, but these stories remained just as enchanting as they did back then. Highly recommend checking it out!
Available Sept 1 2020
I remember being in high school and stumbling onto Kevin Wilson's "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth" in my high school library just as they were about to close down for the day. I started the first story, "Good Stand-Ins" on the bus ride back and was instantly hooked into Wilson's bizarre, sad-happy world of stand-in actors for family members, exploding people working in Scrabble factories and elegies of dead sisters. It was exciting, revolting, and all around engrossing, a perfect accompaniment for my gothic persona.
In the intervening years, I changed a little bit, but these stories remained just as enchanting as they did back then. Highly recommend checking it out!
Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Sept 1 2020
I remember being in high school and stumbling onto Kevin Wilson's "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth" in my high school library just as they were about to close down for the day. I started the first story, "Good Stand-Ins" on the bus ride back and was instantly hooked into Wilson's bizarre, sad-happy world of stand-in actors for family members, exploding people working in Scrabble factories and elegies of dead sisters. It was exciting, revolting, and all around engrossing, a perfect accompaniment for my gothic persona.
In the intervening years, I changed a little bit, but these stories remained just as enchanting as they did back then. Highly recommend checking it out!
Available Sept 1 2020
I remember being in high school and stumbling onto Kevin Wilson's "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth" in my high school library just as they were about to close down for the day. I started the first story, "Good Stand-Ins" on the bus ride back and was instantly hooked into Wilson's bizarre, sad-happy world of stand-in actors for family members, exploding people working in Scrabble factories and elegies of dead sisters. It was exciting, revolting, and all around engrossing, a perfect accompaniment for my gothic persona.
In the intervening years, I changed a little bit, but these stories remained just as enchanting as they did back then. Highly recommend checking it out!
Thanks to Perseus Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Dec 1 2020
Ijeoma Oluo's scathing and accurate new book, "Mediocre" is a fantastic analysis at the role of whiteness and patriarchy in creating and maintaining corrupt systems. Through an exploration of Manifest Destiny to exploring Kopernick and the NFL, Oluo presents case study after case study that strike against American "meritocracy". What was most illuminating is the way Oluo shows how the concept of white maleness is destructive to white males themselves.
One of the most moving portions of the book for me was the way Oluo describes the threat of toxic white maleness on her own life, from suicide notes and death threats in her emails to an actual SWAT team called on her teenage son. Oftentimes, we don't see the toll that doing this type of work has on the writer and the writer's family. We forget that they too are humans with emotions and stress limits. Reading it made me even more in awe of Oluo's grace and strength and bravery to continue to engage in these conversations.
Much love.
Available Dec 1 2020
Ijeoma Oluo's scathing and accurate new book, "Mediocre" is a fantastic analysis at the role of whiteness and patriarchy in creating and maintaining corrupt systems. Through an exploration of Manifest Destiny to exploring Kopernick and the NFL, Oluo presents case study after case study that strike against American "meritocracy". What was most illuminating is the way Oluo shows how the concept of white maleness is destructive to white males themselves.
One of the most moving portions of the book for me was the way Oluo describes the threat of toxic white maleness on her own life, from suicide notes and death threats in her emails to an actual SWAT team called on her teenage son. Oftentimes, we don't see the toll that doing this type of work has on the writer and the writer's family. We forget that they too are humans with emotions and stress limits. Reading it made me even more in awe of Oluo's grace and strength and bravery to continue to engage in these conversations.
Much love.
Thanks to Cannongate and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Jan 26 2021
During summer of 2018, I worked with a foster care agency in Philadelphia, reading through case file after case file, calling guardian after guardian to remind them of upcoming doctors and dentist visits, filling hours in the dusty, moldy quiet offices in the middle of the summer heat. All of this to say that the pain and institutionalized tragedy in Lemn Sissay's "My Name Is Why" is unsurprising and yet emotionally touching. Interspersed with poetry, documentation and narrative, Sissy paints a portrait of growing up as an unwitting Ethiopian adoptee in a primarily white community.
Reading the social worker's reports feels oddly like deja-vu. When Sissay plainly states that "care workers are the most institutionalized", he struck a chord. It is often the agents of the state, the ones who think that they are out to change the system, that become most enamored with the mechanics of their system, unable to see its flaws or perhaps unwilling to change it. Like Sissay, many foster children internalize guilt and long for freedom. Unlike Sissay, most don't find the communities they belong to in the end. Haunting, evocative and education, Sissay's memorial should be read nationwide.
Available Jan 26 2021
During summer of 2018, I worked with a foster care agency in Philadelphia, reading through case file after case file, calling guardian after guardian to remind them of upcoming doctors and dentist visits, filling hours in the dusty, moldy quiet offices in the middle of the summer heat. All of this to say that the pain and institutionalized tragedy in Lemn Sissay's "My Name Is Why" is unsurprising and yet emotionally touching. Interspersed with poetry, documentation and narrative, Sissy paints a portrait of growing up as an unwitting Ethiopian adoptee in a primarily white community.
Reading the social worker's reports feels oddly like deja-vu. When Sissay plainly states that "care workers are the most institutionalized", he struck a chord. It is often the agents of the state, the ones who think that they are out to change the system, that become most enamored with the mechanics of their system, unable to see its flaws or perhaps unwilling to change it. Like Sissay, many foster children internalize guilt and long for freedom. Unlike Sissay, most don't find the communities they belong to in the end. Haunting, evocative and education, Sissay's memorial should be read nationwide.
Thank you to Laurence King Publishing Ltd and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Sept 15 2020
I remember enviously and wonderously staring at my friend's Instagram posts in the Kusama galleries in New York and Chicago. I wished so badly to be in those large rooms, staring at the infinite circles of life. However, I had no idea about Kusama's equally compelling life story. Thanks to Elisa Macellari's simple yet effective illustrated biography, I learned about Kusama's early years, her free love campaigns in New York City in the 60s and the eventual hospitalization. In simple red, black and white, Macellari stays true to Kusama's original style and tries to do her justice.
My only critique would be that I would have liked to see more words from Kusama herself. Oftentimes, the author attempts to summarize large patches of time. However, perhaps that is the limitation of the biography genre as a whole. Overall, an enjoyable read!
Available Sept 15 2020
I remember enviously and wonderously staring at my friend's Instagram posts in the Kusama galleries in New York and Chicago. I wished so badly to be in those large rooms, staring at the infinite circles of life. However, I had no idea about Kusama's equally compelling life story. Thanks to Elisa Macellari's simple yet effective illustrated biography, I learned about Kusama's early years, her free love campaigns in New York City in the 60s and the eventual hospitalization. In simple red, black and white, Macellari stays true to Kusama's original style and tries to do her justice.
My only critique would be that I would have liked to see more words from Kusama herself. Oftentimes, the author attempts to summarize large patches of time. However, perhaps that is the limitation of the biography genre as a whole. Overall, an enjoyable read!
Thanks to Cannongate and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Jan 26 2021
During summer of 2018, I worked with a foster care agency in Philadelphia, reading through case file after case file, calling guardian after guardian to remind them of upcoming doctors and dentist visits, filling hours in the dusty, moldy quiet offices in the middle of the summer heat. All of this to say that the pain and institutionalized tragedy in Lemn Sissay's "My Name Is Why" is unsurprising and yet emotionally touching. Interspersed with poetry, documentation and narrative, Sissy paints a portrait of growing up as an unwitting Ethiopian adoptee in a primarily white community.
Reading the social worker's reports feels oddly like deja-vu. When Sissay plainly states that "care workers are the most institutionalized", he struck a chord. It is often the agents of the state, the ones who think that they are out to change the system, that become most enamored with the mechanics of their system, unable to see its flaws or perhaps unwilling to change it. Like Sissay, many foster children internalize guilt and long for freedom. Unlike Sissay, most don't find the communities they belong to in the end. Haunting, evocative and education, Sissay's memorial should be read nationwide.
Available Jan 26 2021
During summer of 2018, I worked with a foster care agency in Philadelphia, reading through case file after case file, calling guardian after guardian to remind them of upcoming doctors and dentist visits, filling hours in the dusty, moldy quiet offices in the middle of the summer heat. All of this to say that the pain and institutionalized tragedy in Lemn Sissay's "My Name Is Why" is unsurprising and yet emotionally touching. Interspersed with poetry, documentation and narrative, Sissy paints a portrait of growing up as an unwitting Ethiopian adoptee in a primarily white community.
Reading the social worker's reports feels oddly like deja-vu. When Sissay plainly states that "care workers are the most institutionalized", he struck a chord. It is often the agents of the state, the ones who think that they are out to change the system, that become most enamored with the mechanics of their system, unable to see its flaws or perhaps unwilling to change it. Like Sissay, many foster children internalize guilt and long for freedom. Unlike Sissay, most don't find the communities they belong to in the end. Haunting, evocative and education, Sissay's memorial should be read nationwide.
Thanks to Knopf DoubleDay and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available August 25 2020
Waltzing in and out of present and past day Iran, Nazanine Hozar's "Aria" paints a mesmerizing portrait of what it means to claim womanhood for both a country and for the main protagonist. With a deft hand, Hozar's "Aria" is still piecing together her complicated family narrative amid a shifting political landscape. What follows is a soft, delicate and meandering narrative that truly does honesty to its protagonist's age and place in history. I enjoyed the author's slowed pace and gentle narrative style, even when describing quite brutal events.
Available August 25 2020
Waltzing in and out of present and past day Iran, Nazanine Hozar's "Aria" paints a mesmerizing portrait of what it means to claim womanhood for both a country and for the main protagonist. With a deft hand, Hozar's "Aria" is still piecing together her complicated family narrative amid a shifting political landscape. What follows is a soft, delicate and meandering narrative that truly does honesty to its protagonist's age and place in history. I enjoyed the author's slowed pace and gentle narrative style, even when describing quite brutal events.
Sexy yet guarded, "You Exist Too Much" is a millennial, existential reckoning. Funny yet always a touch desperate, the narrator's self-introspection is as painful as it is mesmerizing, like watching an accident unplay itself slowly in front of your eyes, the thread of time seeming more tenuous and fragile by the minute.