The Book Chubi

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Talk about a book with enormous amounts of praise . This book has sky-rocketed in popularity ever since it was published back in September 2017. It is a New York Times bestseller , won the National Book Award, was named one of the NYT best books of 2017, and was nominated for numerous other accolades. And it became the first choice for the Now Read This  feature sponsored by PBS NewsHour and the New York Times, which is what pushed me to request the e-book from my local library. Does it live up to the hype? Sing, Unburied, Sing is powerful and has an important message that needs to be heard in our society. There are scenes throughout the novel which so clearly highlight the challenges faced by poor, rural African Americans. The everyday racism integrated into daily life in many parts of the country are exposed in this novel through episodes faced by the family. You see the discrimination of these characters in connection w...

Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon Picking out books, especially by authors you've never heard of, can be a daunting task. It is the ability to step outside our comfort zone and explore new authors that opens us to fantastic reads we would otherwise miss. Self-Portrait with Boy  was one of those take-a-chance novels for me. Author readings and signings are one of those treats that I love to indulge in whenever possible. Luckily, living in the Los Angeles Metro Area where I have access to a great many independent book stores which host wonderful events. If you haven't already, do an online search to find your local indie bookstores and sign up for their newsletter because your new favorite authors may very well find their way to your town. That is how I discovered Rachel Lyon, on the second stop of her book tour for Self-Portrait with Boy . Book Soup was hosting the event on Monday evening, squeezing chairs in a narrow aisle to create a makeshift event space....

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa If you are a member of Amazon Prime, make sure you are signed up to get the First Reads e-mail every month. On the first of every month an e-mail arrives in your inbox with a selection of Kindle titles of which you get to choose one to read. A River in Darkness  was one of those selections for December 2017. My interest in the novel came from the subtitle "One Man's Escape from North Korea". Since the subject of this country has been heavily populating the news cycle I figured it would be a great choice to broaden my understanding of the humanitarian angle of this subject. This is a very short memoir at only 172 pages, although you get plenty of what you are looking for in that compact time. Masaji's story is heartbreaking every step of the way giving an account of the immense difficulty in being poor, an immigrant, and asylum seeker, and an outsider. In his native country, J...

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood If you have never read Margaret Atwood before you need to do so immediately. She is one of those contemporary authors that will be immortalized for her novels. I can imagine a century from now students studying her work to define the literary atmosphere of the 21st century. The Handmaid's Tale is at this point her most famous piece of work. And, yes, I would recommend that title as your Atwood introduction. That work is very quintessential in defining her style and focus. I do not think it would be outside the line to call her a feminist author. Alias Grace  is another novel with a feminist leaning threaded throughout the narrative. The plot behind this novel is based on a real case out of Toronto from the mid 19th century. It follows the imprisonment of Grace Marks who has been accused of murder. The case was real and some of the journalism from that time plays highly into the story Atwood weaves to fill in the gaps. This falls under ...