Sponsored by Harper Perennial, publisher of Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend by Ben Philippe.
In the biting, hilarious vein of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life comes Ben Philippe’s candid memoir-in-essays, chronicling a lifetime of being the Black friend (see also: boyfriend, coworker, student, roommate, enemy) in predominantly white spaces. Ben takes his role as your new black friend seriously, providing original and borrowed wisdom on stereotypes, slurs, the whole “swimming thing,” how much Beyoncé is too much Beyoncé, the rise of the Karens, affirmative action, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other conversations you might want to have with your new BBFF.
Holy cats, it’s Tuesday again already! Where are we on that time-freeze device I asked for? My birthday is only three months away, so I hope someone has it ready by then. In the meantime, I will cram in as much reading as I can around all the virtual events I want to attend. I watch one almost every day now, LOL. I am also participating in a few coming up, the first being for Aidan Truhen and the release of his new thriller Seven Demons, next Tuesday, May 4th. I love talking to new authors. And hooray for virtual events!
Moving on to books: I’m looking forward to a lot of today’s new releases, such as You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown, and I know many of you will excited to hear there is a new Jhumpa Lahiri novel out today too! It’s called Whereabouts and it’s her first novel in ten years. And speaking of today’s great books, for this week’s episode of All the Books! Patricia and I discussed some of the wonderful books that we’ve read, such as Meet Me in Another Life, White Magic, Dial A for Aunties, and more.
And now, it’s time for everyone’s favorite gameshow: AHHHHHH MY TBR! Here are today’s contestants:
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur
I am super-into everything Erewhon is publishing these days, and Folklorn is no exception. This is an excellent fantasy novel steeped in Korean myth. When Elsa Park was young, her mother warned her of the ancestral curse hunting their family. Now a particle physicist stationed in the Antarctic, Elsa’s childhood imaginary friend returns, and Elsa thinks she must return to her mother in California, and face her family’s past and the dark secrets and traumas that haunt them. That might sound a bit dark, and it can be, but it’s also a beautiful shapeshifter of a book, full of spellbinding imagery and prose. It’s quite something.
(CW for mentions of trauma, drowning, war, abuse by a partner, violence, grief, mental illness, racism, and death of a parent.)
Backlist bump: Flowers of Mold & Other Stories by Ha Seong-nan, Janet Hong (translator)
Everything Is Fine: A Memoir by Vince Granata
If you are in the mood these days for an achingly honest and beautiful memoir to punch you in the heart, have I got a book for you. Granata writes about growing up in a seemingly idyllic family in the Connecticut suburbs, and how a shocking act of violence forever changed his life decades later. One of Granta’s brothers, at the time living with undiagnosed schizophrenia, murdered their mother in their family home. Granta explains to readers what it is like to come to terms with one family member killing another, and what it is like to grieve for them both, and how he worked to find his way towards forgiveness. It is a deeply sad and moving book, and an important look at a mental illness that has long been misdiagnosed, misunderstood, and ridiculed in popular culture.
(CW for mentions of murder, mental illness, grief, trauma, and chemical abuse.)
Backlist bump: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries Book 6) by Martha Wells
I can’t let the release of another Murderbot book go by without mentioning it! It is pretty much my favorite series of all time, and I keep reading each new book thinking that Wells can’t hit it out of the park every time—BUT SHE DOES. The series, which is now comprised of five novellas and a novel, is about a self-aware security robot that loves streaming its programs and being sarcastic, and curses its sentimental side that makes it want to help pesky humans. These are some of the smartest, funniest books I have read, with awesome plots and action. I feel you do need to read them in order, but what a treat that is, to have all of those books ahead of you! I envy you, if you haven’t read them already.
(CW for mentions of sci-fi violence.)
Backlist bump: All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Thank you, as always, for joining me each week as I rave about books! I am wishing the best for all of you in whatever situation you find yourself in now. – XO, Liberty