Category: 5 Star Books
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I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Is it okay to be glad over an abuser’s death, and if so, is it okay to express that feeling? In what contexts? What other factors impact the answer, such as the severity of the abuse or the feelings of others toward the deceased? What does it mean to feel relief or anger at the…
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Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
Rating: 5/5, excellent It feels odd writing this after Trump’s been voted out of the presidency. I want to be done talking about him, but this book was fantastic and deserves the attention. Too Much and Never Enough is Mary L. Trump’s memoir/biography of the Trump family. Mary analyzes how Donald came to be the…
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Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Rating: 5/5, excellent This book should be required reading—especially for white feminists! Angela Y. Davis’s Women, Race & Class is a classic feminist text. It came out in 1981 but it’s just as relevant today, and I think it will be evergreen because of its well-referenced discussion of black history. Women, Race & Class is…
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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Rating: 5/5, excellent Diverse Reading Challenge #3 I don’t know why I slept on this book so long. It came out February 8th, 2017 and it was a huge hit, with a movie adaptation that came out in 2018. I’ve heard so many great things about it, and it 100% lives up to the hype!…
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Sula by Toni Morrison
Diverse Reading Challenge #1 Rating: 4/5, good Sula is a modern classic. It was published in 1973 and is Morrison’s second novel after The Bluest Eye. I tried to read Beloved in college (it was assigned for Helene Moglen’s Gothic Imagination class – by the way, there’s a colloquium in her honor happening in March) but…
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A Little Life by Hanya Yanigahara
Rating: 5/5, excellent This book is amazing. Basically, A Little Life is the story of four men – Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm – who we follow over the course of thirty years of friendship. The main character, Jude, has been severely abused as a child and as a teen and only started to…
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Yes, You Are Trans Enough by Mia Violet
Rating: 5/5, amazing I started following Mia Violet on Twitter (@OhMiaGod) once I started being more active on Twitter a year or two ago and she consistently posts good stuff, mostly on trans topics but also on mental health and other subjects. This book is a memoir of Mia’s life from her childhood in a…
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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin Rating: 5/5, excellent I loved this book. N.K. Jemisin creates a whole world for readers to explore. The way she obscures secrets to build tension and then reveals them at just the right dramatic moment is nothing short of masterful. N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is the first book…
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The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Rating: 5/5, excellent WARNING: This review contains spoilers! This book is a touchstone for me. I read it the first time in middle school, and it really resonated with me. The Invisible Man is a very irritable, impatient, smart person. He reminds me a lot of myself and my…