My October 2021 4 Star Reading Recommendations & Book List
Photo courtesy of @STOCK_BYJEWELS
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.
Reid’s first narrative featuring Emira, a young attractive 25-year-old black woman, and Alix, her well-off white obsessive boss, is an introspective read. Working for Alix as her daughter Briar’s sitter, Emira barely makes ends meet. Emira works two jobs as she struggles to support herself and figure out what she ultimately wants from her life. Referring to the assignments related to her supplementary position,
Emira didn’t mind reading or writing papers, but this was also mostly the problem. Emira didn’t love doing anything, but she didn’t terribly mind doing anything either.
Aspiring to improve her prospects, Emira deals with racial bias, societal expectations, and a myriad of juxtaposed relationships.
Kiley Reid’s book Such A Fun Age is a compelling look at the trials and eventual triumphs of Reid’s spirited star character Emira Tucker.
I highly recommend this book which is filled with humor and heartache. Emira Tucker is a bright, lovable young black woman who I rooted for throughout Reid’s novel. Reid’s portrayal of Emira is so dynamic, as a reader, I almost forgot she was part of fictional dialogue. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel the same palpable emotions towards her controlling boss Alix.
My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Newlyweds, Celestial and Roy, are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. They are settling into the routine of their life together when they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined.
Tayari Jones weaves a delicate piece conveying the intertwined relationship of 3 dear friends and the truths they face following an unconscionable act of inhumanity.
An American Marriage is a stunningly private glimpse into the hearts of people who must come to terms with the past while continuing to reshape their destinies.
My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities.
The founder of the twin’s Desiree and Stella’s small hometown of Mallard thought about his light-skinned black families future nostalgically digressing
Lightness, like anything inherited at great cost, was a lonely gift […] He imagined his children’s children’s children, lighter still, like a cup of coffee steadily diluted with cream. A more perfect Negro. Each generation lighter than the one before.
Traumatized by their father’s death at the hands of white men, the twins, Desiree and Stella become eager to escape from their hometown. As teenagers the sisters run away from home bound for New Orleans.
Living in New Orleans, Desiree and Stella accept work at a laundromat. Daydreamer Stella loses herself in mundane tasks and fails to keep her job. Desiree tries to cover their expenses, but money is tight.
Stella applies for a secretarial position and is hired under the assumption that she is white. Desperate, Stella accepts the job, but she has to pass as a white woman. After she falls in love with her boss, Stella runs away with him and becomes estranged from her twin sister Desiree.
The Vanishing Half follows both sisters and their subsequent families from the 1950s to the 1990s, amidst the splendor of their differing identities.
My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
The Woman Who Caught The Babies: A Story of African American Midwives by Eloise Greenfield
Benefitting from the medley of Eloise Greenfield’s poetry, and Daniel Minter’s artwork, The Woman Who Caught The Babies is a story to behold. Greenfield’s writing reads like a lyrical thank you note to the African-American Midwives who have skillfully assisted women during childbirth.
The Women
They caught the babies,
and catch them still,
welcome them into the world,
for loving.
Greenfield’s work concludes with a poem dedicated to Miss Rovenia Mayo, the midwife who caught baby Eloise herself on the evening of May 17, 1929.
My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
Beautifully depicted Jerry Pinkney’s award-winning wordless adaptation of Aesop’s Fable is a touching tale.
Set in the African Serengeti, The Lion and the Mouse is a sweet story about a mouse who is heading home to reunite with her babies. While en route the mouse absentmindedly bumps into a lion disrupting his nap. Grumpily the lion paws the mouse but selflessly decides to let him go.
When poachers arrive the lion protectively warns the animals to flee from the jungles dangerous traffickers. Unfortunately, the lion gets caught in the poacher’s tangled trap. Crying for help, the lion roars, and the mouse rushes to his rescue.
This brilliantly fashioned watercolor-infused children’s book is about fostering hope and healing within communities.
My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together.
Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.
The Paris Library is a historical fiction book that begins in Paris during the second world war. Initially, we meet an eclectic cast of characters who are invested in the theory that bibliotherapy can soften the traumas of war. Like greater Paris, the American Library of Paris was gravely affected during the Nazi occupation.
The Paris Library encapsulates the librarian’s prominent role during the German occupation. Charles’s dedicated literary characters brought books, gifts, and the sacredness of the library to life. Despite the censorship of books and curtailed admission access, the library endured these hardships and brought hope to readers.
The Paris Library benefits from Charles’s astute attention to detail and plot expansion. Set in two-time frames, Charles links the past with the 1980s. She threads her narrative between main character Odile’s earlier days in Paris and her subsequent years in Montana.
Charles’s moving words encouraged me to read her intriguing novel.
Throughout her writing, the difficulties of war were often offset by the stories of resilient helpers and brave apprentices.
Montana 1983, Charles portrays Odile as the reclusive next-door neighbor of a teenage girl named Lily. While thrust together in Montana, the pair uncharacteristically become friends.
No longer isolated in Montana, little by little, Odile helps Lily get through a difficult time of loss. Odile shares her love of reading with Lily and teaches the young adult basic French. Nearing the end of Charles’s book, we uncover how important Lily’s friendship is to Odile’s livelihood.
Her main protagonist Odile Souchet will remain in my mind for sometime to come. My only regret is that the book ended too soon.
“Atrum post bellum, ex libris lux. After the darkness of war, the light of books.”
My 4 star October reading list concludes here, but I aspire to continue to highlight some of my favorite stories for you.
