Hi! My name is Danika, and today I have my
January wrap up. The first book that I picked
up for my Year of Reading In Colour was The
Color Purple by Alice Walker. This is one
I’ve been meaning to read for a long time.
I did a review at the Lesbrary, which I will
link below, but suffice to say I loved this
one. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but
it’s going to stick with me a long time.
I loved the celebration of all different types
of love between women and the variety of female
characters, who are all dealing with sexism
and racism in their own ways. I was expecting
this to be a bleak book, but it ended up being
so life-affirming by the end. I highly recommend
this one, it's definitely one I'll be coming
back to.
Next I had a sponsored review, which wasn’t
part of the Year of Reading In Colour, and
that's All the Devils Here by Astor Penn.
This is a lesbian dystopian book, and I liked
some aspects, but I felt like it was a little
bit uneven for me. I also really didn’t
like the descriptions of the person of colour
love interest in this book, who was constantly
being described as “wild” or being compared
to an animal.
After that, I listened to the audiobook of
The Truth About Stories by Thomas King, which
was a re-read for me, and I loved it just
as much the second time around. This is a
series of Massey lectures that are about Native
history and culture, and colonialism, as well
as the power of stories and how stories can
change the world. I would recommend this to
anyone who loves stories or who's interested
in Native literature or history. It’s thought-provoking
and it's funny, and I look forward to picking
up more from Thomas King in the near future.
Then I read Smoketown by Tenea D. Johnson,
which is another dystopian novel with a lesbian
main character. This was a book that I adored
some aspects of and didn't really like others.
The worldbuilding is incredible and so intricate,
especially for how short the book was: it's
under 200 pages. It’s about a world after
global warming, and specifically this one
city that was once quarantined years ago during
a horrific epidemic, and in response to that,
it has now banned birds from the city. I also
really liked one of the main characters, who
has this magical ability to bring things she
creates to life, but unfortunately she’s
not the only main character, and the other
two viewpoints that we get I just wasn't interested
in, and the main plot was something that I
didn't really have much interest in either.
I still think it’s worth picking up for
the world alone, but I was disappointed that
the rest didn’t really grab me. This is
another one I reviewed at the Lesbrary, if
you want more detail on it.
Then I read the novella Natural Selection
by Malinda Lo, which is book 1.5 of the Adaptation
duology. The Adaptation duology was my number
one pick in my top 10 of 2014, so you know
I loved it. And I was excited to get another
taste of this world. It is just a short novella,
but I still really enjoyed it. I liked learning
a little bit more about Amber, and I thought
the story wrapped up really well. Again, I’ll
link the Lesbrary review down below.
And then I read the Writers of Color Goodreads
group's pick for the month, which was The
Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez.
I really enjoyed this book for the most part.
I really liked the writing style, and I liked
seeing these glimpses of different South and
Central American immigrants' experiences in
the U.S. My only real problem with the book
is that the main plot revolves around Maribel,
who is a teenage girl with brain damage who
is trying to recover some language skills
and memory retention. We get different perspectives
of what this is like for other people, especially
her mother, but we don’t really get her
own perspective, and I wish that she could
have had her own voice in telling her story.
The last book I read in January was Tell Me
Again How A Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan.
First of all, I love that title. This is a
lesbian young adult book about an Iranian-American
girl. I liked parts of this book, and I appreciate
that there is some lesbian young adult out
there now that's not about white girl main
characters, but there was one aspect in this
book, and I won't spoil you for it, but I'll
just say there was one par that felt cartoonish
for me and a little over-the-top. I did like
most of the characters, and I liked that Leila
was self-aware from the beginning of the book
that she's a lesbian, and makes little mental
jokes about it throughout the book, because
that means we got to skip that angst. And
it was also a light, quick read for me, and
I was excited to see what would happen next,
but it just didn’t blow me away overall.
So those were all the books that I read in
January. As for the Year of Reading In Color
project, I think it’s going well. There
has been a couple of times that I suddenly
desperately want to read a book that's not
included in the Year of Reading In Colour
project--mostly books about Sappho have been
on my mind lately--but I’m also really excited
about lots of the books I will be reading.
And I've been having fun adding books to the
list, and I think in February, I'm going to
have sort of a romance-themed month for Valentine's
Day. I think this has been a good start to
my reading year, especially starting out with
The Color Purple. Let me know if you’ve
read any of these and what you thought of
them, and if you have a January wrap up, feel
free to link it in the comments and I’ll
definitely check it out, and thank you for
watching! Bye!
