I’m in the midst of sewing my family’s Christmas gifts so my reading is a little light this month!
But I enjoyed some wonderful books.
The Last of Her Kind
Sigrid Nunez
In this book the protagonist finds out her college roommate and former friend has been put in jail for shooting a cop. She struggles to connect this new knowledge with the memories she has of her friend. I really enjoyed this book. It’s set in the 1970s and the protagonist’s friend is a social justice crusader renouncing her own privilege in order to help others. Given the social justice dialogues happening right now I drew some interesting parallels.
Interior Chinatown
Charles Yu
This book explores Asian American stereotypes through the lens of Hollywood. The main character wants desperately to be “Kung Fu Guy,” the highest role an Asian actor can have, rather than “Generic Asian Man.” I really enjoyed the premise of this book it was clever and amusing while still probing at racial injustice. It was at times a bit heavy handed and I felt that it fell apart a little at the end. But I’m of course reading it as a white woman which clouds my perspective.
Storms Beneath the Skin
Regie Gibson
Regie Gibson is one of my favorite local spoken word poets! Because he’s primarily a performer this is the only poetry book he’s published and it’s long out of print. I wish there was more of his work on paper but I really enjoyed these poems. It was also interesting to see how his style has evolved since this book is quite old.
Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead
This book is inspired by the true story of a boy’s reform school in Florida that brutally tortured and in some cases murdered their charges for over 100 years. It was beautifully written though pretty horrifying to read how these children were treated. The truly chilling part is that there were many articles written about the abuse during the school’s existence and no one did anything for over a century. I would recommend this book but brace yourself for the content!