It's a new dawn, it's a new day
It’s been a crazy month- when I last sent out this newsletter, we were still reeling from the attempted coup on the Capitol. Today, it has been 5 days since Joe Biden was inaugurated as the new president, and I personally am feeling great (okay fine, mediocre at best but still better than last week). I am looking forward to a year of holding people accountable for making the United States more equitable, less gaslighting from the White House, and hopefully seeing myself and the people I love get vaccinated. One constant: I’ll still be reading.
What Have I Been Reading:
Friday Black: These stories shook me (and not in the way the teens use it but actually left me reeling. Fine- yes, I was also shooketh). I had dreams about the stories in this collection, I could not stop talking about them (just ask my husband), and now I want to recommend it to everyone. 4.5 stars
Hood Feminism: I wish THIS was the book people recommended more widely when discussing feminism and racial equity. The author does a great job of showing how mainstream feminism comes from a place of privilege and more often than not protects the few and ignores the plight of the many. To put it simply- read this and recommend it widely. 5 stars
A Promised Land: Oh Barack! This memoir was so long- my goodness! I listened to the audiobook and have been listening since around Thanksgiving. It is extremely well written (I would expect nothing less from him) but I often felt like he was talking to white middle class America and still trying to appeal to a group of voters that I am not part of. 3.5 stars
The Bluest Eye: This is Toni Morrison’s first novel. I am having a mini book club this year where we go through her entire catalog and this was up first. I had already read The Bluest Eye but not since I was a teenager, and needless to say it hit different. There were so many passages I read and reread over and over again. 5 stars
Black Buck: This book has been the talk of the town (i.e. Bookstagram) for months now. While I thought it started off really strong, it really fell off for me in the middle. I think it was missing a lot of character development and some of the plot was just unbelievable. I still enjoyed the story and could not put it down. 3 stars
First Comes Like: The third book in the Modern Love series by Alisha Rai. I loved it- I love romance novels with protagonists we don’t often get and one with a famous makeup influencer who wear a hijab is definitely a story we don’t get enough of! The story was so sweet and though in MANY ways completely unbelievable, I suspended my disbelief for the number of heart eyes it made me feel. 4.5 stars (Release Date: 2/16)
Can’t Even: How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation: I liked this book more than I expected- it was more than just a basic examination of burnout culture. It looked at American culture, changing trends in parenting, capitalism/labor laws, and so much more to really come to a conclusion of what burnout looks like, how we got here, and why millenials have such high levels of it. I also think the author did a good job of making sure that she didn’t stick with just a white middle class view point but interviewed people across racial and income groups. 4 stars
Next up for me will be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. For my friends on Patreon, it is our book club choice this month and I decided to wait until the week of to read it so it would be fresh in my mind!
A Few Links:
I curled up yesterday with R. Eric Thomas’ newsletter and I am still chuckling.
Meena Harris’ new children book came out this week and I can’t wait to get it for my nieces and nephews.
I have been rereading Amanda Gorman’s poem from the Inauguration all week.
I loved this piece from Cup of Jo: “7 Women on Deciding Not to Have Kids”.
Time to start double-masking.