Apr 3
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Have you read Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (2019)?
yes
no
I didn't finish it
I've never heard of it
Caribe's Contemporary Fiction TBR - Part 4
black history month reading challenge
sooooo for the month of february i challenged myself to read as many books by black authors as i could. this is the first reading challenge i've give myself besides the standard yearly reading goal. it was kind of a spur of the moment decision made literally on the last day of january. however, my spontaneity blessed me with some truly fulfilling reads.
i ended up reading six books this month - some were HITS some were just fine, but either way i really enjoyed the journey. so, of course, i want to recap/review those books in order to share my bhm experience.
happy black history month! <3
☆ imago by octavia e. butler (read from 2/1-2/2) ☆
octavia e. butler is one of my favorite authors of all time, and i usually eat her books within like three days. that being said, imago is my least favorite butler novel. this is not say it was bad!!!! it was just the least engaged i have been while reading any of her books.
this is the final book in the lilith's brood trilogy. the series has a premise like nothing i have read before where these nasty, monster like aliens "save" humans after a world war that basically kills the earth. however, these aliens intend to breed with humans in order to become a better species. just some wild stuff.
rating: 3.5 stars
☆ such a fun age by kiley reid (read from 2/4-2/5) ☆
such a fun age is, in my opinion, a "fun" approach to a black trauma story. it has the ability to stay comedic while broaching topics of fetishization and micro-aggressions. it definitely got a few laughs out of me.
it especially resonated with me because it follows this 26-year-old who is basically floundering as she attempts to figure out what to do with her life before she gets kicked off her parents health insurance. like.... THATS MEE?!!?! i'm not 26 just yet, but boy am I floundering
rating: 3.75 stars
☆ good dirt by charmaine wilkerson (read from 2/7-2/10) ☆
oh, good dirt..... i dont know. it was nice. i've read a few of these through-the-generations style books recently, and they're usually hit or miss for me. i was mildly entertained throughout the novel, but once i finished it felt like it was missing something. i know people have been raving about it recently, but it was just okay for me.
rating: 3 stars
☆ the city we became by n.k. jemisin (read from 2/12-2/17) ☆
n.k. jemisin, like octavie e. butler, loves to write some weird shit; imma fucking eat it up every time. this idea of cities having human avatars is already impressive in itself, but then to center the book on new york a city with five cities within it just transforms it to something even more captivating. plus the enemy in it is so otherworldly and monstrous - it's just another signal of jemisin's creativity.
i will say the twist/solution at the end was a bit silly, in my opinion. i do like how the story comes to a satisfactory ending while still leaving questions for book two (which i will be reading).
rating: 4 stars
☆ if beale street could talk by james baldwin (read from 2/18-2/19) ☆
gold, gold, fucking gold! simple, beautiful, sharp, but sweet - like a cold arnold palmer in the middle of summer. james baldwin created such a strip down image of being black and in love in a nasty american society. it's sorrowful, but it's also filled of love; not just romance, but familial too.
the ending is very open, so its open to really any interpretation. to me it delivers a message of perseverance and hope through an ocean of indefinite struggle.
rating: 5 stars
☆ the nickel boys by colson whitehead (read from 2/20-2/24) ☆
i wanted to read the nickel boys because of the movie that just came out, and was pleasantly surprised. at first i thought it was going to be a classic historical black trauma story but au contraire! the twist at the end was simultaneously extremely heart shattering and heart warming.
i also loved the deconstruction of dr. martin luther king's rhetoric. many people feel compelled to his philosophy as law due to the man he was, but i think it deserves a more nuanced view. maybe dr. king could do it, but i cannot love my oppressor.
rating: 4.5 stars
aaaaaaannnnnddddd thats all folks :D
Which of my favorite books is YOUR favorite?
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Nevada by Imogen Binnie
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
I haven't read any of these/show results
i want this to be a new trend
top five books !!
Hi there!
Thank you so much for your ask x
This was so hard to narrow down. But here we go, haha. This also ended up a bit longer than I intended. Whoops!
My Top 5 Books:
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. My God. Where do I begin with this painfully beautiful exploration of sexuality, identity, yearning, forbidden desire, repression, and grief all done in 159 pages?
Baldwin is a genius, my favorite writer of all time, and a true inspiration to me. He captured the dredges of the human psyche in this novel (in all of his novels, really) with such brutal honesty that smoothly oscillates between clean cut, surgical clarity and an achingly elegant beat of poetic prose. I first read the book at 17. I have reread it countless times since.
As a writer, I am so deeply touched by and indebted to Giovanni’s Room, the literary prowess of James Baldwin, and the impact his writing has had on me throughout my life.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. A relevant story on the perils of performative wokeness and classism as it feeds into casual racism/microaggressions, toxic relationships, and misogynoir. The protagonist is a young black nanny named Emira who is wrongfully accused of kidnapping the white child she’s babysitting by a security guard at a grocery store.
This book is the embodiment of the saying: “the most disrespected person in America is the black woman.” Emira is tried and tested at every turn, stuck in a cycle of devaluation and outright dismissal of her time, her energy, and her intelligence. Despite all the chaos, she’s not to be played with, and she circumvents the harmful stereotype of the “strong black woman.” Instead of having to strictly endure the pain and negativity thrown at her with complete stoicism, she allows herself the space to be vulnerable, to explore her self-doubts, and to process the impact the grocery incident had on her.
Black women can be soft, too, blue, too, and that's absolutely okay. This is so important to see represented in media, in literature, and in life.
Ways of Seeing by John Berger. There are a number of texts that dismantle elitism, the male gaze, and highlight the importance of historical, social, and cultural context to truly understand art, but Berger does it in a way that is accessible and timeless.
His work has always been a staple in my own research and institutional critiques on the inaccessibility of the art world, the austerity of museum spaces and practice, and the continued exclusion and mishandling of marginalized narratives within our canonical understanding of modern and contemporary art.
(Pssst…Outside of Berger, let me turn you on to performance artist Andrea Fraser, whose institutional critiques are hilarious, unapologetic, and without fail a gloriously biting commentary on the absurdity of the art world and our obsession with its lusty commodification and pretentiousness. Little Frank and His Carp (2011) is still a performance that lives rent free in my head.)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book holds sentimental value for me. It was one of my dad’s favorites, and he loved the 1974 film adaptation.
What’s not to love about this American classic that captures nostalgia in such a poignant way? We also have the glitz and glamour of the Roaring 20s, the socialites, fake identities/personalities, obsession, unrequited love, broken dreams and promises, and murder.
And it’s all depicted in such a lush and beautiful way that it takes you almost by surprise when you finally realize just how terrifyingly cold and empty this world that Fitzgerald crafted for us is. Love it!
The Trial by Franz Kafka. No one portrays absurdism, existentialism, loneliness, and depressed but horny unreliable narrators quite like Kafka! He is a master at building dread and confusion while disorienting his imperfect protagonists (and his readers) by dropping us in the middle of harrowing situations.
I’m a huge fan of his work, and it’s hard to narrow down my appreciation of it to just one book for this list, but The Trial has to be my absolute favorite. I am a sucker for witnessing the moral flailing of somewhat problematic protagonists. K’s arrogance and superiority, tempered by his utter helplessness and increasing instability against the metaphysical force of the Law, make him an instant favorite character of mine. He struggles against a tyrannical bureaucratic system hellbent on stripping away his autonomy by trapping in the ambiguity of an inexplicable hell. K never learns of the crime he's being accused of and neither do we as the reader.
The book satisfies my love for a critique of flawed judicial systems, while also exploring the impact of paranoia, isolation, and existential dread, all wrapped up in the tension of a psychological horror/thriller. I also love a story that comes full circle at the end, even if it is abrupt, tragic, and maybe even meaningless, despite K.'s desperation to find meaning within the absurd.
Ask me my "TOP 5/TOP 10" anything!
AUTHOR FEATURE:
﹒Kiley Reid﹒
Four Books Written By this Author:
Such A Fun Age
Simplexity
Come & Get It
George Washington's Teeth
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Happy reading!