Review of All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
All Her Little Secrets shines when Ellice Littlejohn wrests control of her increasingly dangerous circumstances and when racial issues...
Jun 23, 2022
Review of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
“In exposing our nation’s troubled roots, the 1619 Project challenges us to think about a country whose exceptionalism we treat as the...
May 18, 2022
Review of We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
In We Are Not Like Them, Pride and Piazza dig into a friendship of opposites, conflicts around race, and a police shooting, creating a...
May 12, 2022
Review of You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn
Penn's thoughtful memoir explores serious issues yet also made me laugh out loud. You Can't Be Serious is both thoughtful and playful,...
Mar 31, 2022
Review of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is a fictional account of an interracial music duo's rise to success (and their famous split) in which...
Mar 22, 2022
Review of Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School by Kendra James
In Admissions, Kendra James explores race, friendship, ambition, and the absurdities and rhythm of daily life during her time at a New...
Jan 26, 2022
Review of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Caste is consistently powerful, profound, disturbing, and absolutely necessary nonfiction reading from the brilliant Isabel Wilkerson....
Nov 2, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/27/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Sally Rooney's newest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You; the brilliant Isabel Wilkerson's...
Oct 27, 2021
Review of The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash
ICYMI: Wiley Cash's The Last Ballad explores race relations and the fight for dignity in a 1929 North Carolina mill camp community....
Oct 1, 2021
Review of When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash
I loved Cash's Eastern North Carolina setting, the character of Sherriff Winston Barnes, and the pulsing racial, class-based, and family...
Sep 29, 2021
Review of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Zauner takes unflinching looks at her family, herself, and her future, all while exploring the rich flavors, traditions, and challenges...
Sep 27, 2021
Review of Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
Emiko Jean's young adult light fiction is delightful, youthful, sometimes wonderfully silly, and heartwarming. The irresistible premise...
Sep 14, 2021
Review of Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson offers another gentle yet affecting book in her Gilead series, this time about faith, grace, human connection, and a...
Aug 17, 2021
Review of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Invention of Wings is historical fiction that tracks the characters of (the real-life) Sarah Grimke and her enslaved maid Handful...
Aug 12, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 8/11/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Paper & Blood, Kevin Hearne's second and final book in his quirky Ink & Sigil fantasy duology; The...
Aug 11, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 8/4/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry's newest light fiction novel about best friends and polar...
Aug 4, 2021
Review of Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
I appreciated learning about various key players in Black Bottom life, and I absolutely adored the vivid details Randall offered about...
Jul 20, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 7/16/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Down Comes the Night, a young adult fantasy story featuring magical healing and warring kingdoms;...
Jul 16, 2021
Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War
The Civil War Books This painful, terrible time in our nation's history makes for some poignant, brutal, often beautiful storytelling....
May 14, 2021
Review of The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates took his time building the story, and I felt as though he deliberately kept us in a plodding pace to emphasize the unwavering,...
May 13, 2021