#november2016reads

[em0282]

Set on the first day of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, Yapa's novel follows seven characters (a homeless teen drawn to the melee, the chief of police, 2 lifelong nonviolent protestors, 2 overzealous cops, and the Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka) whose lives irreparably collide on the eventful day. Yapa's prose contains an urgency and hyperkinetic quality that complements his pacing of the events and conveys the stakes involved for each of his characters. It's particularly gripping to read through the current real world context of #nodapl and how the violence of law enforcement on nonviolent protestors was drastically disproportionate. Months of negotiation btw the city and core protest groups had occurred and permits were obtained but the event devolved into rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray and physical abuse. Yapa does a near flawless job of capturing the chaos and the consequences. Bogs down a bit in the middle but still, a must read. #bookworm #november2016reads #latergram #nodapl

[em0282]

Read all these books! 1. Kindred- Octavia Butler's science fiction slave narrative could not be more relevant to today. In 1976, Dana is a young black woman living in L.A. who is transported back in time to a plantation in antebellum MD where she is tasked w saving her ancestors, a slave owner and the once free woman he has forced into slavery thus ensuring her own existence. Dana moves back and forth between the two periods of time and is forced to reconcile maintaining her lineage at the expense of her own agency and freedom. Really fascinating and well done. 2. Behold the Dreamers - follows a young couple who recently emigrated from Cameroon and are living in Harlem at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Jende works as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, an exec at Lehmann Brothers and the reader's exposure to the Edwards family through the POV of Jende and his wife, Neni, is a well-drawn exploration of race, gender, and class. I really loved the experience of reading this even though it's more heartbreaking than its earnest title at first suggests. 3. Homegoing - yes, it's worthy of the hype. Gyasi's epic spans three centuries as it covers the multigenerational experiences of half sisters born in Africa in the 18th c who never know of each other's existence. One is married off to a British general leading her family to a life of slave trading on the Gold Coast. The other is captured and sent to be a slave in America. The novel is structured as chapters focusing on a new central character from each bloodline as it moves deliberately through each era depicting a comprehensive narrative of African and African-American experience from the very early days of American slavery through the Civil Rights Movement and into the present. Incredibly ambitious, thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and extremely well-executed. Hard to believe it's a debut novel. #bookworm #november2016reads #goodreads #ninetyonedown #ninetogo