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Hamnet

Title: Hamnet

Author: Maggie O’Farrell

Genre: historical fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book that has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction

This book has quite a bit of buzz around it. And as much as I love Shakespeare, I’m not a fan of historical fiction. However, this book didn’t read like a historical book to me. Aside from the actual time period, this book really is just about a family, which could have taken place at any time. The death and subsequent grief of losing a child is universal.

From Goodreads: Drawing on Maggie O’Farrell’s long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare’s most enigmatic play, HAMNET is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

This story is beautifully written. Somehow O’Farrell manages never to write the words William or Shakespeare in the entire book. He’s always the husband, brother, father, uncle, or playwright. Agnes really is the center of this story. Once she is married, her story takes over. The love she has for nature and her children is clear. And although her husband is away a lot doing “things” in London, Agnes is a survivor, dealing with her house, her children, and her pain. The death of Hamnet levels her to the ground. She manages to find her way out, but the climb is excruciating.

As great as this book is, I just didn’t LOVE love it. But I completely understand how others do. It was just my personal preference. Hamnet deserves all the awards it won, and I definitely will be recommending it. I just didn’t connect with it in a way I had been expecting.

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Girl A

Title: Girl A

Author: Abigail Dean

Genre: Women’s fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: A book you think your best friend would like

This book was one of the Book of the Month‘s selections for February. I absolutely had to select Kristin Hannah’s newest, and I already had another book as an add-on, so I checked with my local library and saw they had this one as an ebook. The blurb sounded really good, so I took a stab and checked it out.

From Goodreads: Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It’s been easy enough to avoid her parents–her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings – and with the childhood they shared.

What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and betrayals of sibling relationships–about the secrets our siblings keep, from themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their memories defy or galvanize Lex’s own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to her family’s final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly broken free.

Wow. You guys. This book just kept me reading. I couldn’t put it down. The House of Horrors was terrible, but not as graphic as I was expecting. Lex frequently references her scars, but how she gets them is referred to, but not described in detail. More is left up to the imagination than not, which might be worse, depending on who you are. The story is told as both present time and flashbacks so by the book’s end, you understand Lex and her family’s full story. As tough as this book is, it’s also beautifully written. I definitely recommend this one!

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The Eighth Detective

Title: The Eighth Detective

Author: Alex Pavesi

Genre: detective mystery

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a locked-room mystery

Holy smokes this was a great book. I discovered it via Twitter because Jeff VanderMeer (he wrote The Southern Reach trilogy, Borne, City of Saints and Madmen) recommended it. Anytime an author I like recommends something, I make a note to check it out, if it’s a book I would normally enjoy. And not only was it a great book, it filled the locked-room mystery prompt of the PopSugar Reading Challenge. Most of the locked-room mystery books recommended, I’ve already read. There are actually seven different locked-room mysteries in this one. I’m really surprised this book doesn’t have more people talking about it.

From Goodreads: There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective. The rest is just shuffling the sequence. Expanding the permutations. Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out – calculating the different orders and possibilities of a mystery into seven perfect detective stories he quietly published. But that was thirty years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days.

Until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: an author hiding from his past, and an editor, keen to understand it.

But there are things in the stories that don’t add up. Inconsistencies left by Grant that a sharp-eyed editor begins to suspect are more than mistakes. They may be clues, and Julia finds herself with a mystery of her own to solve.

Every other chapter is a short murder mystery, in between short chapters of conversation between Julia and Grant. Julia sees small errors in each mystery, but Grant chalks them up to carelessness. The unraveling of the inconsistencies is so much fun. And by the time I had gotten through all seven mysteries and realized I still had a chunk of the book left, I really had no idea what else I was in store for. I really loved this book. It’s creative, well-written, clever, and intelligent. I will be recommending this one to anyone!

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Shuggie Bain

Title: Shuggie Bain

Author: Douglas Stuart

Genre: Literary Fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A free book from your TBR list

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

This book has gotten rave reviews from just about every source imaginable. The list of reviews and blurbs on Amazon is crazy long. When a book has this many people talking about it, I’m suspicious. I rarely like what “everyone” likes, and books just don’t live up to the hype. That said, I understand why this book is so loved. But, it is ridiculously depressing, which made me not love it.

From Goodreads: Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good–her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamorous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion’s share of each week’s benefits–all the family has to live on–on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes’s older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is “no right,” a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her–even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. It is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.

So, see what I mean. Depressing. But it’s a great book. Really great. Well-written, full of heart and heartache. Shuggie is such a good kid, and his mother really wants to be there for him, but her alcoholism has such a strong hold on her. I can’t say I loved this book, but I agree with the critics about how good it is. I’m just not a “depressing book” kind of person. But if this sounds like a book you would enjoy, then read it because it really is an excellent book.

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Just Mercy

Title: Just Mercy

Author: Bryan Stevenson

Genre: Criminology

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: a book about a social justice issue

Of course I’ve heard of this book and subsequent movie, which I haven’t seen. But I know that it features a young lawyer trying to get a falsely convicted man out of prison. That’s the bare bones of this book, though. I had no idea this book was about prisons in general and how the criminal justice system fails so many people.

From Goodreads: An unforgettable true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to end mass incarceration in America — from one of the most inspiring lawyers of our time.

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned.

Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.

One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was sentenced to die for the murder of a young white woman that he didn’t commit. The case exemplifies how the death penalty in America is a direct descendant of lynching — a system that treats the rich and guilty better than the poor and innocent.

As captivating as Walter’s story is, the rest of the book is just as fascinating. Stevenson briefly tells about other cases he’s worked on, people with mental disabilities or juveniles who were guilty of crimes, but who had received extraordinarily harsh punishments. Several juveniles who received life without parole for a non-homicide crime committed at age 14 or 15. How anyone thought this was appropriate to begin with was beyond me. I used to teach that age group. As mature as teens appear to me, they are still children and their brains just aren’t fully developed at all. They do and say bone-headed things. I get holding people accountable for their crimes, but you can’t just make an extreme punishment like that.

This book was fascinating and deeply disturbing. So many of these incarcerated people, whether they are falsely accused or received unnecessarily harsh punishment, had their own story tell. Some were clearly framed, some had terrible, abusive childhoods, and some just had damn bad luck. An attorney, Stevenson’s writing was easy to follow and understand for non-attorneys. The statistics are incredible and shocking. This book is a must read for insight into the terrible world that is our criminal justice system.

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The Deep

Title: The Deep

Authors: Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes

Genre: Black science-fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: A book set mostly or entirely outdoors.

The concept of this book is just so cool. Rivers Solomon heard the song “The Deep” by the band clipping. and was so moved that they wrote this novella in response. You can find the lyrics and a clip (pun intended) of the song here. I wanted to listen to the song before I read the book so I could be in the same frame of mind that Solomon was. And the song was really familiar. I’m a big Hamilton fan, so I knew Diggs had a rap group, but I’ve never listened to any of the songs. When I read the Afterword, I realized that clipping. wrote the song for an episode of This American Life. That’s when the light bulb went off. I heard that episode. It’s an excellent one about Afrofuturism. Here’s a link.

From Goodreads: Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

I’m not a fantasy/sci-fi person at all. It’s my least favorite genre. Well, romance is way worse. But I read An Unkindness of Ghosts last year, and I have Solomon’s newest, Sorrowland, from Netgalley to read, so I wanted to read The Deep as well. The concept is kind of like The Giver where one person holds the past memories of the community, but that’s where the similarities end. Yetu is trying to find who she is deep down and ends up making connections where she least expects it. This book was great. I love that it’s inspired by a song, because music and lyrics can truly be powerful. This book was impactful and will stick with me for awhile.

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My Body in Pieces

Title: My Body in Pieces

Author: Marie-Noëlle Hébert

Genre: graphic novel

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: A book that discusses body positivity

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

This book is absolutely beautiful. Not only are Marie-Noëlle’s honesty and realizations important to convey, but her illustrations are absolutely phenomenal. They are in black and white, so I was able to read it on my e-ink Kindle, but I also read it again on my phone to see just how dynamic the illustrations would look. I definitely recommend reading on a full-color tablet. The shades of gray and small details are so dynamic.

From Goodreads: All Marie-Noëlle wants is to be thin and beautiful. She wishes that her thighs were slimmer, that her stomach lay flatter. Maybe then her parents wouldn’t make fun of her eating habits at family dinners, the girls at school wouldn’t call her ugly, and the boy she likes would ask her out. This all-too-relatable memoir follows Marie-Noëlle from childhood to her twenties, as she navigates what it means to be born into a body that doesn’t fall within society’s beauty standards.

When, as a young teen, Marie-Noëlle begins a fitness regime in an effort to change her body, her obsession with her weight and size only grows and she begins having suicidal thoughts. Fortunately for Marie-Noëlle, a friend points her in the direction of therapy, and slowly, she begins to realize that she doesn’t need the approval of others to feel whole.

Marie-Noëlle Hébert’s debut graphic memoir is visually stunning and drawn entirely in graphite pencil, depicting a deeply personal and emotional journey that encourages us to all be ourselves without apology.

There isn’t a lot of text to this graphic novel, but that’s okay. As Marie-Noëlle discusses her image of herself, the few words and detailed illustrations work together well. When I downloaded the book from NetGalley, I had no idea it was a graphic novel, but I loved everything about this book. I highly recommend this one.

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Vox

Title: Vox

Author: Christina Dalcher

Genre: Dystopian

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: a book where the main character works at your current or dream job (current job… stay-at-home mom)

I appreciate what this book tried to do. Published in 2018 during the previous administration, the plot is about men taking over and censoring women. Literal censoring. Women are allowed 100 words a day. They wear counters that keep track and any over 100 a shock will be administered. The more over 100, the worse the shock. The main character, Jean, unwillingly abides. When she is given the opportunity to remove the counter in exchange for helping the president, she jumps at the chance.

From Goodreads: Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her. This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard. But this is not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

This book’s premise is important and, thankfully, no longer an issue since we have a new administration, but it didn’t work at all. The characters are great, the concept is great, but the writing was subpar. I lost track of how many times the plot went from A to C without explaining B. I’m a smart gal, I can make inferences, but this book was just so full of holes. Not plot holes necessarily, but just holes in explanation. A good editor could have eliminated those. As much as I wanted to like this book, it just frustrated me more. Bummer.

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Concrete Rose

Title: Concrete Rose

Author: Angie Thomas

Genre: YA fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A book set somewhere you’d like to visit in 2021 (California)

Reading The Hate U Give was one of the highlights of the year I read it. Written for teens, which I am resoundingly not, I was still moved by the story. When I heard Thomas was writing a prequel, I was in. Maverick was such a great father in THUG that I was excited to see how he got to that place.

From Goodreads: If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.

When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

Spoilers for The Hate U Give below…fair warning.

So, you know from reading THUG that Seven is Maverick’s kid. You know he and Lisa end up together. And you know that Maverick ends up doing the right thing because he’s a good, stable father. However, the hardest parts are meeting some characters knowing their fate. We see baby Khalil, which just broke my heart. We see baby Seven (and yes, his name is explained) but know his life isn’t going to be easy. We meet King and see just how long he’s been a force in the community. The seeds are planted in Concrete Rose (ha…see what I did there!!) and they blossom in THUG.

Like THUG, the name is taken from another Tupac work. This time a poem and the book of the same name. Here is the poem:

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

It’s a perfect title for this book. The concrete rose is EXACTLY what Maverick is. He doesn’t want to be in a gang anymore, doesn’t want to be selling drugs, feels the pressure to do so because his father did. He wants to be a good dad and eventually a business owner. But that concrete is hard to break out of. Watching Maverick do so is a joy. Concrete Rose is an excellent book, and I cannot recommend it enough.

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The Son of the House

Title: The Son of the House

Author: Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia

Genre: Nigerian fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: book published in 2021

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

I’m hit or miss with Netgalley. I take chances and sometimes, ugh, the books are just the worst. Sweet Water, The Residence, The Other Side of the Door, and No One Knows come to mind as ones that sounded great, but ended up disappointing. However, ones like Hurricane Summer, When the Stars Go Dark, Before She Disappeared, The Hollow Places, and My Sunshine Away turned out to be excellent. I absolutely love Netgalley and am thankful they keep sending me books, even the ones that are underwhelming to me. This book, however, this book just might be the best one Netgalley has ever sent me.

From Goodreads: In the Nigerian city of Enugu, young Nwabulu, a housemaid since the age of ten, dreams of becoming a typist as she endures her employers’ endless chores. She is tall and beautiful and in love with a rich man’s son.

Educated and privileged, Julie is a modern woman. Living on her own, she is happy to collect the gold jewelry lovestruck Eugene brings her but has no intention of becoming his second wife.

When a kidnapping forces Nwabulu and Julie into a dank room years later, the two women relate the stories of their lives as they await their fate.

Pulsing with vitality and intense human drama, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia’s debut is set against four decades of vibrant Nigeria, celebrating the resilience of women as they navigate and transform what still remains a man’s world.

I will be shocked if this book isn’t on every “best of 2021” list. Set in Nigeria, the story is familiar. Two women trying to find their place in the world. No matter the culture, this theme is easily relatable. You spend more time with Nwabulu (it felt like to me, at least) and her story is truly heartbreaking. She and Julie are excellently contrasted, but have so much in common as well. The story is simple: two women’s lives and what unites them, but it’s just a beautiful story. I absolutely loved it and hope it doesn’t fly under the radar. It’s a must read.