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Books with Tricks & Treats

 


Weathered Fragments Weathered Souls, Poems by J.L. Smith 
chapbook 
Opus, 2018 

This collection of reflective, melancholy two dozen poems starts with "The Fragments You Carry" and ends with these lines from "Rocks (A Country in a Box)": the fragments you hold on to-- /the ones you did not want to leave behind. In these two poems and each one between, J.L. Smith travels across geographical and emotional terrain to excavate and catalogue her discoveries through countries, continents, seasons and phases of life. Readers are encouraged to do the same. The poet mixes mundane language with powerful imagery to conjure tension between life's daily grind and dreams. 


The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris 
fiction
Simon & Schuster Audio, June 2021 

The Manchurian Candidate, Stepford Wives and When No One Is Watching had a brilliant meta book baby about publishing, identity and life. 


Me, My Hair And I by Elizabeth Benedict, editot + multiple contributors (including Prince George's County's own Marita Golden) 
non-fiction essay anthology 

Different points of view regarding overlapping themes of identity, expectations of conformity and assimilation, narrowly defined standards of beauty and worthiness... Reading this text while listening to the audio book of The Other Black Girl soon after having read Dead Dead Girls generated interesting thematic parallels and intersections across generations, social strata, geographical locations, and ethnicities. 


Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia 
literary historical mystery fiction 
Berkley, June 2021 

from chapter one: If she wanted to stand out, like on the dance floor, she could. But otherwise, she was invisible. 

This complex tale of style and substance could easily double as providing multifaceted biographical sketches of the subjects of James VanDerZee's photographs while also resonating as relevant to current public conversations about missing and murdered Black and Brown people. 


Black Water Sister by Zen Cho 
New Adult speculative fiction 
Ace, May 2021 

from chapter 23: He looked Malay. But she had learned by now that in this part of the world being the follower of any given religion didn't exclude a healthy respect for other gods.  

It's a dangerous adventure that defies the limitations of genre told in succulent language. 


Witch Please (Fix-It Witches #1) by Ann Aguirre 
paranormal romance fiction
Sourcebooks Casablanca, September 2021 

Together, Danica, Titus, their families and friends create a tenderhearted adorkable love story with spice. 


Complications by Danielle Steel 
"contemporary" romance 
Delacorte Press, August 2021 

Context: The blurb generated the sense of strangers converging in one location for a short time as in the old 20th-c. shows like Love Boat and Hotel with an updated spin, my throwback tv shows sweet spot linked with good memories of watching them with family and friends. (Every few years a compelling blurb lures me to pick up a D.S. book, and EVERY TIME it feels like a bait-and-switch. D.S. fans, should probably stop reading this review now.) 

By chapter three I started reading only Gabrielle's thread because multiple themes in other characters' threads read as extremely outdated--Gabrielle's, too, but in less unbearable ways. (Giving up on a book is my choice of last resort when a story isn't working for me.)   

in chapter six: "...never suspecting that his sexual preference was men..." had me skimming until chapter nine, then skipping forward to read the last chapter. (I almost always need to know what happened!) 

Many of the attitudes in Complications are consistent with common 20th-c. tropes like the tragic closeted gay person, the slutty young homewrecker, etc. Maybe this is a reissue from the 1970s or 80s?  

Fool me once... 

   

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