Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has my highest recommendation. Even with as much as I read about democracy and politics I still found this book to be highly educational and motivational. It should be required high school/college reading especially with our democracy in increasing danger. The two main topics are fair elections and the importance of a complete and accurate census. That sounds a bit dry, but Abrams makes the topics come alive with her passion and knowledge.

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“Voting is a constitutional right in the United States, a right that has been reiterated three separate times via constitutional amendment.”

“Voter suppression works its might by first tripping and causing to stumble the unwanted voter, then by convincing those who see the obstacle course to forfeit the race without even starting to run.”
― Stacey Abrams

Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams

Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is really good. Much like Stacey Abrams is a jack-of-all-trades this book cannot be fit into one neat category: it's part political memoir, of course, part self-help business book, part antiracism book, part you-should-just-read-it-okay? As I learned more and more about Abrams I was reminded of Benjamin Franklin. She's a renaissance woman! We're too often discouraged from this wide approach to knowledge and career to the detriment of current society, I think.

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“Never tell yourself no. Let someone else do it.”

“What’s not right is giving credence to bad actions, and thereby becoming complicit.”

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is more of a book about cleaning your own emotional house and doesn't really at all address structural inequality. It rejects the idea of persuasiveness and instead counts on readers who pick up this book being completely dedicated to the cause already, and so it might be effective for a pretty limited audience. I found some interesting new perspectives in it.

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Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought this would be a mini version of Stamped from the Beginning for children but that’s completely wrong. This is very much its own book, excellent for adults and teens alike. It was packed on every page with facts and thoughtful analysis, likely the result of amazing writing and tight editing. I can’t recommend it enough.

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Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There were times when I was reading this that I thought I didn’t like this book that much. It’s not an easy book. But I kept at it and finally it opened up. This is a classic among the classics.

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Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely worth the time to read. I wish I knew exactly the difference between this and the kid version because I'd like to buy the kid version for my 9-year old son and eventually my younger daughter.

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Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks, Gita Varadarajan

Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks, Gita Varadarajan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cute story about new friendships, new cultures, and developing sympathy and understanding.

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Sakina's Restaurant by Aasif Mandvi

Sakina's Restaurant by Aasif Mandvi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was interesting and entertaining but I don't think it completely succeeded in being touching and funny like it was aiming to be.

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Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well-researched and pretty well-written as you’re carried along sentence by sentence, but I felt like most of the essays left me wondering what her point was. A few days after reading it I only remember the general topics of each essay.

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How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A powerful and moving memoir about Uwiringiyimana's experiences in the Congo, a Burundi refugee camp, and finally New York. Her story is important and she's a very relatable writer.

The horrifying thing is that the ethnic cleansing in the Congo has barely slowed down. In January of 2019: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46896159. In general, all the news from The DR of Congo is bad: https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cvenzmgylgwt/democratic-republic-of-congo.

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was shocked by how wonderful this book is because I'd actually read it before as a teenager and I didn't remember it being this phenomenal. I think as a teen, I was so mired down in the horror and sadness of the beginning that that's what stood out for me the most. Plus, having no life or significant literary reading experience, I failed to get most of the brilliance of the book. But what a beautiful perfect book. Amazing characters, amazing sentences, amazing everything. Favorite favorite.

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An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was very good and I definitely recommend it. It just sort of missed being one of my favorites this year because it lacked a little something. While I really became invested in Roy and all of Roy's parents, Celeste and her entire family lacked the same kind of depth. Andre was a decent enough character but I just didn't feel his significant connection to Celeste. Maybe I just didn't believe enough in Celeste as a character to believe in her relationships generally.

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The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander

The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This reminded me a lot of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking except I liked it better because I could palpably feel the love and loss of Alexander's husband Ficre. Alexander's writing is wonderful, and to read this book is to understand love on this earth a little better.

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My Time Among the Whites by Jennine Capo Crucet

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennine Capo Crucet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Capo Crucet is a Cuban-American woman that's approximately my age that moved to Nebraska, and I'm a Cuban-American that moved to Nebraska, so I was pretty excited to read this collection. I don't have the same Florida ties but I did live in a particularly Cuban-area of New Jersey until I was 6.

I could definitely relate to some of the ideas expressed by the author. For example, I also always have to field the "have I ever visited Cuba" question. Capo Crucet didn't explain why that one is tough (which she probably should have given her audience), so let me do it: the laws regarding travel to Cuba are complicated, and if you seek to do it legally, it's tough. You can't access American cash over there, so currency will be an issue. Additionally, many Cuban-Americans support the embargo against Cuba, so even if you don't personally, get ready to face the ire of many friends and family. But that's not really an answer that you have time to give every single time you're asked, and I get asked a lot.

I particularly liked the essay about her marriage, moving to Nebraska, and then crashing a bunch of weddings. I thought it was really vivid and interesting, and her feelings were palpable.

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the 8th Murakami book I've read and definitely in the top three for me along with Norwegian Wood and After Dark. The short of it is that Toru Okada is having some angst after leaving his legal job (I relate to that!) when things get very magically weird and his wife leaves him in mysterious circumstances. Interwoven with that is a bunch of truly horrific World War II stories from the perspective of Japanese soldiers in Mongolia, China, and Russia.

Beyond that, it's really difficult to explain what I think the book's deeper meaning is about. It's pretty complex; to give you a rough idea, it's very long and I can't actually think of any scenes that could have been cut. I pretty much always think editors should have slashed down long books. Unlike many Murakami novels, it actually mostly made sense even though it was full of literal magic. I wasn't prepared for such an in-depth exploration of violence, and I think this fantasy book also deserves a horror classification.


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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a very good coming-of-age YA in a poetic prose style. The scene with her mother at the end, this was so my mother, minus the religion.

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How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the sociology and history aspect of this book and I definitely recommend reading it. I did struggle a little with the memoir portion. Because of my preference and the other reviews, I think I should also read Kendi's other book, Stamped from the Beginning, so I have that on hold at the library now.

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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I feel like the allegorical lobster in the lobster pot. I love the way Murakami writes; it lulls me. That's probably why as this book got worse and worse I just kept right on cooking until I was almost at the end and realized what a big mistake I'd made. I'm puzzled over the good reviews.

Yes, there are some great sentences, mostly provided by Oshima who manages the library, but for me, they're insufficiently deep or life-changing to make up for the trainwreck of a plot. Yes, partly the plot is a retelling Oedipus, but the original story of Oedipus makes perfect sense even if it's outlandish. This is nonsensical, outlandish, and over-explained as a myth or analogy.

I also feel like it fails as a good fantasy book. First of all, I never appreciate it when the fantasy element of the story sneaks up on me, as this book starts out as magical realism and then all the sudden goes full low-fantasy ala American Gods with lots of characters over-explaining things that make no sense. More importantly, there are countless rules to the world that don't have any overarching concept. Perhaps it's a blend of Japanese mythology I'm unaware of, and even though I am familiar with the hungry ghost concept in Buddhism, and the magical powers of all objects of Shintoism, there's still a lot of randomnesses that isn't coming across to me.

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Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington

Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a complicated book to review. It's partly a memoir and partly an attempt to advertise the Tuskegee school he built and for which he fundraised. There's a line in here where Washington says not to say anything in the North that you wouldn't say in the South. Well, this entire book is things he would say in the South, and its effect is a possibly false positiveness. Nonetheless, Washington was a phenomenal person and his autobiography is well worth reading.

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Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Murakami books are all over the place. It's not a consistent standard, and you can't predict if you'll like one based on the others you've read. But I enjoy how very readable his books are. I find myself flying through his books, even the ones I think are terrible. This was my favorite one I've read so far, but I still didn't love it-- the ending was especially bothersome to me, but I did love parts of it. At first you think, oh I hope this doesn't turn into a laundry list of who this vaguely boring male character sleeps with, and then for a second you think- oh it's so wonderful, it's about life, and loneliness, and death-- and then bam he hits you with his laundry list. But for the middle of the book, I give it 4 stars.

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