Review: DEAR IJEAWELE, OR A FEMINIST MANIFESTO IN FIFTEEN SUGGESTIONS by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I love what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has to say about feminism, both in Dear Ijeawele and in We Should All Be Feminists. 

In this short manifesto, she writes a letter to her friend about how to raise her daughter as a feminist. I think this is an extremely important and relevant book, not just for mothers of daughters, but also for mothers of sons and for all women and men around the world. Chimamanda challenges social norms and stereotypical gender roles. She asks some profound questions. She gives some great suggestions about what we should teach our children and why teaching them these ideas and behaviors is important, and also about how we should live and treat others in the world. 

I did not quite agree with everything that she said, but for the most part, this is a book worth reading and adhering to. I know I will absolutely be returning to this again and again once I have kids, and until then, I have a lot to think about. 

Review: BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

Rating: 2/5 stars

I’ve tended to really enjoy classical dystopian novels, such as 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale, so I thought Brave New World would be a new favorite. Futuristic science and technology in a “utopian” society that many claim is prophetic of our day? That sounds right up my alley.

Unfortunately, most of this book didn’t make any sense to me.

I did enjoy reading about the scientific and technological advances of this world, but a lot of what was discussed went right over my head. The entire first chapter is about how people are made. Humans are no longer viviparous (producing offspring inside the body of the parent), so eggs are fertilized in a bath and placed into a decanter and onto a conveyor belt where they undergo treatments to help them grow. The eggs then undergo Bokanovsky’s Process, allowing them to multiply up to 16,000 times, thus creating a bunch of identical embryos. There is no such thing as a mother or a father anymore in this society. This was all very fascinating to read about and had me intrigued to keep learning more about this world and why things are this way.

I quickly learned that there is no main character in this book. Each chapter is about something going on in someone’s life; sometimes we see the same people we did in previous chapters and sometimes not. The POV is third-person omniscient, even within the same paragraph, and it was kind of jarring. It pulled me out of the story, but maybe that was the point though, to view this society from the outside and simply observe. I’m not sure.

Some parts at the beginning were uncomfortable to read because this society is very sexual and they encourage young children to play sexual games with each other. Their motto is “everyone belongs to everyone else,” so of course literally everyone is sleeping with everyone else all the time. The less civilized regions are the ones who practice consent and monogamy, and they are deeply looked down upon for that. This super bothered me, especially the bits about the kids (I’m talking 7-8 years old) engaging in “erotic play.” There is a bit of commentary on this later on from one character who is described as being more intellectual than others and the way these sexually-bred people act is “infantile,” and they are encouraged to act that way. I was never sure what was going on here or why this group of people was bred and raised to act that way. 

Despite my discomfort and the weird start to this book, eventually I started to get more into it but I still had no idea what was going on. I didn’t feel like there was a central plot or anything, and some of the scenes I was reading purely made no sense. I would reread them and I swear I could not tell you what the words on the page were telling me, nor why those passages were included in the book because I didn’t feel like they added anything to the story.

This entirety of Brave New World is very strange; it didn’t go at all how I expected it to go. Part of me wishes I had read it in a class-setting to get some clarity on what was going on, but part of me is also glad it was never required reading because I probably would have liked it less when I was younger. After I finished the book, I watched a summary and analysis video that discussed the themes and the governmental control of the society herein. It made a lot more sense and I kind of wish I had watched that before I read the book so I could follow along and understand the story better, but oh well. I still would really enjoy a book-club-type discussion about Brave New World because I think there’s a lot to unpack here that is going completely unnoticed by me. I’ve seen a lot of people say that Huxley’s novel was prophetic of our day today and that we are currently living in a “brave new world,” and I just want to talk more about the parallels and why that’s true.

Ultimately, I won’t be rereading Brave New World like I will be with 1984, my all-time favorite dystopian, but I am still glad I read it and experienced the weirdness that it is. I am quite looking forward to the new tv show though, as I think that format will be able to communicate the story in a more accessible way for me to understand.

Review: STAMPED by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Rating: 4/5 stars

This is a really engaging and accessible history of racism in America that should be required reading for all teens.

Jason Reynolds did an excellent job of adapting Ibram X. Kendi’s near-600 page book, Stamped from the Beginning, into less than 300 pages in Stamped while still packing a full punch.

Because I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, and I especially don’t read any historical nonfiction, I was pretty intimidated to read Stamped from the Beginning, so when I discovered this book was a shorter version of that book, written in a way meant to be engaging to young adults, I was much more excited to pick it up. I felt like I understood the history being taught here—which is a miracle within itself because history was always my weakest and least favorite subject in school—but I also felt like I had a greater understanding of why racism still exists in America today and what led up to that.

Reynolds states at the beginning, “This is not a history book.” Though he does teach you history throughout Stamped, he does it in such a way that it doesn’t feel like a history book. It’s the history not taught in schools, and it’s also taught in a way that’s unlike how history is commonly taught in schools. The whole book is entertaining, humorous, and fun to read while still communicating the harrowing truth of how Blacks were treated over the past 500 years and why racism is still present today. It’s terrible and disgusting that racism is still so prevalent and damaging in our society, and I hope that this book will help people be able to recognize that and work toward change.

Reynolds explains the differences between the three avenues of thinking about race. A segregationist: someone who believes that Black people and white people should live separately; this is racist thinking. An assimilationist: someone who believes Black people should conform to how white people live to be accepted in their society; this is also racist thinking. And an anti-racist: someone who believes that all races are equal and actively works to change racism instead of trying to change Black people. I appreciate how he explained these different types of people because I think a lot of the time we encounter assimilationists and they can easily be mistaken for anti-racists, but it’s important to recognize that trying to get someone to change before you’ll accept them is not the same thing as simply accepting them for who they are.

I highly encourage everyone to read Stamped, or Stamped from the Beginning if that’s more your style, to learn about our country’s history with racism. This book, specifically, is an entertaining and educational young adult primer about Black history, and it’s so important for everyone to know this truth. I also recommend the audiobook because it’s read by author Jason Reynolds and he is so engaging to listen to! Parts of the book even sounded like he was performing slam poetry, which I thought was really neat.

Review: BLACK KLANSMAN by Ron Stallworth

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I’ve always been curious about this book whenever I’ve seen it, but I never knew what it was about. I finally read the description to find that it was about how a black police officer infiltrated the KKK, a white supremacist hate group. Even though I don’t read much nonfiction, that premise sounded super interesting to me, so I decided to give it a go!

The story starts right away with Stallworth finding a KKK ad in the classifieds, responding to it, and getting a call from the leader.

After that, we got a lot of backstory of Stallworth’s rise in the ranks of the police bureau, and unfortunately, that was not very interesting to me. I came for the story about the KKK but I didn’t realize this was also partially Stallworth’s memoir on top of that. That disappointment is my own fault because his whole story was still interesting, just not quite what I was expecting to read about.

Ultimately, this book was about Stallworth’s investigation into the KKK in the 1970s and how it all panned out. He had to have his white friend Chuck, from the narcotics division, pretend to be him during the Klan’s in-person meetings, but Ron himself still did all the work behind the scenes and took all the phone calls. 

Black Klansman definitely has an interesting premise and it was an educational read, but it was also a book I was never really looking forward to picking back up whenever I put it down, which is why it gets a lower rating from me. I wanted to like it more than I did, but unfortunately, I found that it struggled to keep my attention at times and was slower-paced than I wanted it to be. I’m looking forward to watching the movie now though, and hopefully, I will have a better time connecting with Stallworth’s story in that format. 

Review: MAGIC UNMASKED by Megan Crewe

Rating: 4/5 stars

I’ve been loving Megan Crewe’s Conspiracy of Magic series so far, so I decided to pick up its prequel novella, Magic Unmasked.

Taking place almost four decades before Ruthless Magic begins, this novella follows mage Jonathan as he discovers a non-magical girl named Amy actually possesses some innate magical ability she didn’t know about. As they become fast friends, he teaches her about the mage society and shows her how to use her magic.

Meanwhile, Mt. St. Helens is becoming unstable and is about to erupt, but only Jonathan and the other mages are aware of how dire the situation has become. Because the non-magical people don’t know that magical people exist, the mages can’t make any drastic moves without alerting the whole world of their presence. Jonathan is determined to help, however, in any way he can. He and Amy must figure out a way to protect the people near the volcano when it blows while also protecting the mage society that has been hidden from the world for thousands of years.

I love Megan Crewe’s writing style, and I love that her stories never go where you expect them to go. I had a theory about the ending of this novella—I thought I knew the obvious path of resolution—but I was wrong. It’s so refreshing to read a YA book that doesn’t follow the same plot and tropes as all the others.

Magic Unmasked is a fun, free (on her website) standalone story to familiarize yourself with Megan’s writing style or with the Conspiracy of Magic series if you plan to read that. I read it between books 2 and 3 and had no issues with timelines or keeping track of events. I will say that Jonathan here reminds me of Finn from the series because they have very similar personalities, but I didn’t mind too much. I’d still recommend checking out this story for a good time and a unique twist on urban fantasy mages.

Review: THE KILLING MOON by N. K. Jemisin

Rating: 3/5 stars

I loved the Broken Earth trilogy so much that I knew I had to read everything N. K. Jemisin has ever written. The Dreamblood duology sounded especially cool because it’s about demons that come to people in their dreams. I love stories about dreams so I was very keen to read this series.

The Killing Moon had me interested right from the start. The first chapter is about a Gatherer going into someone’s dream to gather the dreamblood. In the next couple of chapters, we get introduced to many characters, each with a unique name I’ve never heard before, and I started to feel a little overwhelmed for a while that I couldn’t keep everyone straight or remember who everyone was. But after fifty pages or so I got the hang of it.

Thankfully, this book has a glossary with a character list mixed in, which helped out tremendously, but which I, unfortunately, did not discover until a hundred pages or so into the book. This made it hard for me to immerse myself in the story in the beginning when I was getting characters mixed up and when I was unfamiliar with the new terminology and magic system. Usually, when I start a new book with an epic fantasy setting, I like to spend a good hour just looking through the appendices to familiarize myself with the world and characters, but I wasn’t able to do that here because for some reason I didn’t realize the glossary existed, which is my own fault. One thing The Killing Moon doesn’t have though is a map. In my opinion, this book severely needs one because there are many regions mentioned and it’s hard to picture them all in relation to each other.

There were quite a bit of political machinations that I didn’t understand at times, and (even with the glossary) I couldn’t keep all the characters straight. Most of this book I had the general gist of the story without knowing all the details, which pulled me out of the book and made me feel really distant from what was going on.

It took me almost a full month to read this book, which I hated because it made me feel so detached from the story, but this wasn’t the book’s fault. I’ve been stuck in a depression for the past month and reading has not been my priority and it hasn’t been a particularly enjoyable pastime of late, either. This being the only physical book I’ve picked up during that time, it kind of got neglected, unfortunately. I do think an epic fantasy was not the best thing to read during this time, but it’s too late for that. I will definitely need to reread The Killing Moon when I’m in a better headspace to be able to experience optimal enjoyment of the story; I am fairly certain I will like it better and rate it higher upon reread because the writing and the plot are well-constructed; N. K. Jemisin is a master. This was just a bad time for me to read this book, sadly. 

The Most Intimidating Books I Need to Read

There are a handful of books on my shelves that I’ve been putting off reading for one reason or another, and today I’m going to talk about them. This list includes only books that I own; there are of course books I’m intimidated by that I don’t own, but I’m much more likely to read intimidating books I own before I read intimidating books I don’t own.

I’m intimidated to read these books because...

1. I’ve been struggling to finish it: Spinning Silver

2. I haven’t had the time: Infinite Jest

3. It’s a sequel: A Memory of Light (Yes, I chose I the last book in this 15-book series because I’m intimidated to read the entire Wheel of Time series!)

4. It’s brand new: Ninth House

5. It’s by an author who I previously didn’t like in the past: any book by Rick Riordan (I didn’t dislike the Percy Jackson books but I don’t like mythology yet I own all his books. I just have no interest in reading them though.)

6. It’s by an author who I loved in the past and I’m worried this book won’t live up to the one I loved: Armada (Ready Player One is my favorite book.)

7. I haven’t been in the mood for it: Cloud Atlas (I have wanted to read this book for over ten years but every time I look at it on my shelf, it never feels like the right time.)

8. It’s overhyped and I’m worried I won’t like it: All the Light We Cannot See 

9. It’s enormous: 1Q84

10. I bought it because of the cover but have since read negative reviews on it: Tess of the Road (I thought it was a story about a girl and her dragon because of the cover image but have since learned it’s a story about rape culture disguised as fantasy, so now I’m really not excited about it.)

11. It’s a genre I don’t normally read: House of Leaves

12. It was a gift: The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

13. Overall, it’s the most intimidating book on my TBR: The Way of Kings 

(First book in a ten-book series—each book over 1,000 pages long—written by my all-time favorite author, Brandon Sanderson. I’m worried it will take me a full month to read each installment and that I won’t understand the magic or the world-building or be able to keep the hundreds of characters straight, plus I’m mega worried that I will forget everything by the time the next book comes out and then have to read them all again before each new release! Maybe I’m just overhyping it for myself, but this is definitely the most intimidating book that I own.) 

Review: THE HOUSE by Christina Lauren

Rating: 4/5 stars

I remember buying this book five years ago because the premise said something about a dark, mysterious boy and a house that’s not what it seems. I bought it before I even knew who Christina Lauren was.

I’m glad I decided to finally read it instead of getting rid of it or something because it was a lot of fun.

Even though this story is pretty much a teen romance disguised as a horror story, there is actually more depth to it than that.

Gavin lives in a house that’s alive, and it can get pretty creepy inside. Delilah has liked him for years and doesn’t care that he’s the weird kid who lives in the weird house at the edge of town. They reconnect when Delilah returns to town after years away at a boarding school, and they immediately begin a relationship together. Delilah becomes the first person to enter Gavin’s house beside himself.

At first, the house is wonderful and alive and gives them everything they want. But then things start getting uncomfortable and strange. Is Delilah paranoid or is the house actually more sinister than it seems?

What I loved about this book is that there is an underlying tone of eeriness throughout the whole story, a constant feeling that something’s not right. While the story isn’t exactly a horror story (it’s not scary), it is definitely creepy at times.

I was pleasantly surprised by The House and I ended up liking it more than I expected to. I really like Christina Lauren’s writing style, and I already have a ton more books by them on my list. This one deviates a bit from their usual pure-romance style, but it was great nonetheless.

Review: SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE by Ijeoma Oluo

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

If you want to address racism and racial oppression in our society but don’t know where to start, this book is for you. If you have questions about racism that you’re scared to ask, this book is for you. If you want to feel less ignorant about the Black experience but don’t know who to ask, this book is for you.

“If we continue to treat racism like it is a giant monster that is chasing us, we will be forever running.”

Ijeoma Oluo addresses vital topics in this book, focused around the questions that she gets asked most often on a day-to-day basis. These questions include the following topics:

• Is it really about race?
• What is racism?
• What if I talk about race wrong?
• Why am I always being told to check my privilege?
• What is intersectionality, and why do I need it?
• Is police brutality really about race?
• How can I talk about affirmative action?
• What is the school-to-prison pipeline?
• Why can’t I say the N-word?
• What is cultural appropriation?
• Why can’t I touch a black person’s hair?
• What are micro-aggressions?
• What is the model minority myth?
• What is tone policing?
• I just called racist, what do I do now?
• What else can I do besides talking about race?

If any of those questions sparked a chord with you, or if you secretly or overtly want to know the answer to any of them, then read this book. These are important discussions to be having. It is hard and uncomfortable at times, but that doesn’t make it any less important for us to educate ourselves and help those who are struggling and being oppressed.

This book was written to educate white people and push them to make an effort and make a change, but it was also written to make black people feel heard. Reading and understanding what Ijeoma talks about can help all of us face hard truths and enact change.

This book would be especially good for educators because it addresses a lot of the disparities in schools and success levels of students. I believe it can help people who work directly with children to be more aware of the way they may be treating children differently from different races.

Ijeoma addresses racism not just surrounding black people, but also surrounding people of Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, or other minority descents. It is so important for us to recognize that racism is everywhere and affects everyone, even if the effect it has on someone is that they benefit from racism (which is not a good thing). Everyone is of equal worth and we need to strive to make that a reality that every single person of every single race believes. 

I read this book as part of my effort to educate myself on racism and the oppression of black people, and I definitely learned a lot here, but this is only the beginning. Education is never finished, and although I’m a white ally, I can always take steps to be a better white ally. I really encourage you, whoever you may be, to pick up this book or any number of other books from people of marginalized communities and learn for yourself what you can do to make a positive difference in our society.

“I hope that if parts of this book make you uncomfortable, you can sit with that discomfort for a while, to see if it has anything else to offer you.”

Review: THE ICE QUEEN by Alice Hoffman

Rating: 1.5/5 stars

I've really enjoyed a lot of Alice Hoffman's middle-grade books in the past, such as the Green Angel series, Aquamarine and Indigo, Nightbird, and especially Incantation, which is my most-read book to date (I think I've read it five times so far). I had never read any of her adult books though, that is until now. I actually own about ten or fifteen novels from Hoffman that I have yet to read, and for some reason, I expected to love them because I love her novels for kids so much, but if The Ice Queen is any indication, her best works are the ones I've already read. 

I couldn't get on board with this book. Very, very early on I didn't feel like I was going to like it, mostly because the entire beginning of the story is all telling and no showing. Our protagonist, who as far as I can tell remains unnamed, tells us her entire life story in minimal detail, including the moment when she wished for her mother to die and then she died later that day. Even though the writing style was so bland at that point, I believe in giving books a fair chance, so I continued reading. 

But the telling instead of showing never went away! The whole book (at least as far as I read before I decided I wasn't enjoying it enough to finish it, which was at 40% of the way through) is like this and it's awful. I wanted to feel connected to the characters, I wanted to feel like I understood them and were in their minds, but I never did. I actually really did not like our protagonist at all. 

So back to the story: one day she mentions to her brother that she wishes she could get struck by lightning, and, you guessed it, she later gets struck by lightning. This causes her to essentially become "the ice queen" because everything in her life becomes cold, literally, and she loses seeing the color red (associated with heat). She then seeks out another lightning-struck victim named Lazarus, who had the opposite reaction: he is basically on fire, his skin being so hot that it literally burns our protagonist. 

Basically, they have a weird love affair, which was very uncomfortable for me and is the point at which I stopped the book. I normally have no issues with sensual relationships in stories but for some reason, it really bothered me here. It felt so unnatural and I did not want to read about it at all. 

Ultimately, I realized I did not care enough about this book or the story to finish reading it. It was all around an unenjoyable experience for me and I dreaded having to pick it up again every time I stopped reading. The story is obviously full of magical realism, which I think is Alice Hoffman's forte, but I'm starting to think it's just not the genre for me because I have read many magical realism books in the past that have sounded so good but only disappointed me in the end. I'm not done giving Alice Hoffman's adult novels a chance yet, purely because I own so many of them, but if I have the same experience next time, I might just have to stick to her middle-grade books only from then on. 

2020 Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag

We are exactly halfway through 2020! This book tag is to reflect on my reading so far this year. I’ve read 64 books during the first six months of 2020 (my best year yet so far!), one of which was a reread. 

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2020

    The Toll by Neal Shusterman

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2020

    Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

3. New release you haven’t read yet but want to

    House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

    The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

5. Biggest disappointment

    Uprooted by Naomi Novik

6. Biggest surprise

    Most Likely by Sarah Watson

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

    Neal Shusterman

8. Newest fictional crush

    I don't really have one but if I had to pick, Calvin from Roomies by Christina Lauren

9. Newest favorite character

    Pippa from A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

10. Book that made you cry

      I have never cried while reading a book

11. Book that made you happy

      After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

12. Most beautiful book you’ve acquired so far this year

      The UK hardcover of Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

      There are some new releases I really want to make time for, such as The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, The Burning God by R. F. Kuang, and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. Plus I really want to finally get to The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and I need to restart Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and finally finish it.