February has come and gone, and what a month! I feel like it lasted 17 years, and yet it was still the shortest month of the year. So here we are. I managed to read 10 books this month, which is hella impressive, if I do say so myself. Even more exciting is the fact that I read only Black authors this month. It was tough, I won’t lie. There’s a lot of trauma in the books listed below, even in the lighthearted ones about becoming prom queen. I also read 5 LGBTQIA+ books unintentionally, which is awesome because I’m always here for intersectionalism. It was a pretty solid reading month, overall, and I knocked off some important books from my TBR.
So check out the books below for some really awesome recommendations if you’re looking for books by Black authors.
Books are listed in the order they were read. For more mini-reviews, check out my What I Read tag.
Monthly Stats
- Total Books Read in February: 10 Books
- Total Authors Read in February: 10 Authors
- Total Pages Read: 2,847 Pages
- Total Hours Listened: 11.25 Hours
- Total Books Quit: 0 Books
- Average Days Per Book: 2.8 Days per Book
- Average Pages Per Day: 101.7 Pages per Day
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
Premise: Liz Lighty is perfectly fine blending in with the crowd, thankyouverymuch. But when she doesn’t get the scholarship she was hoping for to her dream university, she decides to break out of her comfort zone and run for prom queen — and secure the scholarship that comes with it.
Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: Call the dentist — I think I have cavities. This book was so. dang. sweet. It was like.. the perfect YA rom-com featuring all the outlandish high school tropes, but OH MAN I was here for it. Liz Lighty is sassy and intelligent and quick-witted and caring and loyal and all of the things, plus she’s a black girl in a mostly-white town and a lesbian at that. So while the tropes were there, I never got tired of reading because there was always some unique spin on them.
Let’s be real, though. I thought the whole prom thing was satirical at first because NO ONE takes prom that seriously. Volunteer events and campaigning and legacies and rankings.. it was all a bit much. But once I got into the book, it stopped seeming so outlandish and started being just part of Liz’s world that she had to navigate. This book was superficial on the surface level, but it had surprising depth and nuance in Liz’s relationships and supporting characters. I really devoured this book
Who Should Read. It: Anyone who likes YA. Anyone who likes a good warm and fuzzy rom-com. Anyone who wishes they were prom queen.
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
Premise: Seventeen years before The Hate U Give, Maverick Carter was a teenager whose life was upended. He’s got everything he thinks he needs, until he learns that he’s a father. The choices he has to make for his new and existing family may throw his life into a tailspin.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: I had really high hopes for this book, although I tried to curb my expectations because, honestly, it’s hard to live up to The Hate U Give. I was pleasantly surprised though, by how much I enjoyed this book, and I ended up reading it in 24 hours. Male protagonists are not always my favorite, but I really liked the balance Maverick struck between the male ego and his growth.
Don’t get me wrong. There were definitely points in this book where I rolled my eyes and yelled at Mav for being so damn stupid, but I think that was the point. This whole novel pushed him from a kid that went along with the status quo to a *more mature* kid who realized the responsibilities he had to undertake to support his family. I mean, I knew where he would end up (I loved his character in The Hate U Give), but I’ll be honest… there were points in this book that had me questioning how he would get from this teenager to that father. It was a fun (albeit sometimes heartbreaking) journey, though, and I really enjoyed it.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loves The Hate U Give. Anyone who likes 90s hip hop references. Anyone looking for an uplifting story.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Premise: This is a tale of race and gender, told through the lens of twelve different individuals. Their histories interlock, and their futures are uncertain, but their stories are captivating.
Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: If you had asked me a week ago, I would have said 2 stars, don’t bother, I can’t believe I even suggested this as an option for book club. This book has… zero punctuation. I don’t mean commas and quotation marks. I mean… there’s not even a period. The whole novel reads like a stream-of-consciousness, poetic historical tale where the characters are all intertwined, but you don’t know that until they all magically come together.
So, obviously, I decided to go audio with this one. Lack of punctuation is NOT my jam. And the audio on this one was beautiful. Almost too beautiful? The narrator had such a soothing, harmonic voice that I found myself getting lulled away by the narration and was accidentally forgetting to listen to the story. It took me about 30% to really get into the story, but when I was hooked, I was hooked. There’s definitely some trauma trigger warnings here, but the novel overall was definitely celebrating Black culture and queer culture in a way that didn’t focus just on the struggles that come with being part of these marginalized groups. And I really can’t wait to discuss it with book club.
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking for a wide range of perspectives. Anyone who enjoys award-winning books. Anyone wanting an all-encompassing book for Black History Month.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Premise: Okonkwo came from humble beginnings, but rose quickly in his clan because of his wrestling and war prowess. Just as he is earning his titles, though, he has a fall from grace that marks the end of his success and the end of the clan.
Rating: 3 Stars
Thoughts: Another successful checkmark on my 40 Before 40 list! These books have really been hit or miss, but I am glad that I’m taking time to read through some of the classics. When I posted that I would be reading this book, I had quite a few of my English teacher friends mention that they teach this book in their English classes… and that’s great! I think it’s a great alternative to The Poisonwood Bible, which was insanely long and not quite worth the words for the same themes.
From a reader’s perspective, though, I didn’t really enjoy this book. The characters were pretty flat, mostly existing to shine a light on the community they represent (like… Okonkwo was so stereotypical warrior-man, and his wives were so stereotypical African wives), and since I’m a plot and character reader, I just had a bit of trouble connecting. Sure, there’s lots of allegory and symbolism, and if that’s your jam, then this is a great book. But… fell a bit flat for me.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who enjoys book that tell a lesson. Anyone looking for a quick classic book.
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Premise: Claudia’s best friend is missing. When Monday doesn’t show up to the first day of school, Claudia is concerned, but figures she will show up eventually. When she never shows up, though, Claudia takes matters into her own hands.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: I’ll need a second to gather my thoughts on this book, mostly because I read 411 pages of the 435 page book today. I was NOT sure about this one at the beginning. The main character is in 8th grade, so it read really child-like at the beginning, not helped by the diary entries that were littered with misspellings. I nearly gave up on it (and probably would have if I didn’t own the book).
But the book picked up, the language smoothed out, and I got really sucked in to the story. I was a bit confused by the Before and After and One Year Before the Before, and now that I know the ending (*no spoilers*), I want to go back and reread the whole book, paying closer attention to the chapter headings. It was a solid, twisty mystery read, and I do not regret buying it.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes mysteries and thrillers. Anyone looking for a surprising read. Anyone who likes character growth and development.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Premise: Lala is always getting lectured by her grandmother about the one-armed sister who was too curious about the tunnels in the area and the ways of men. But Lala admires the one-armed sister’s tenacity and goes out on her own for her own adventure with Adan… which turns out to be a terrible choice.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: Oh man this book. I’ve read a lot of heavy books this month, with a lot of trauma, so I was a bit worried when I realized that this was another book that featured trauma pretty heavily. But this book surprised me. It shocked me, and it kept me guessing. I was surprised by the twists it took, and surprised by how much I felt for all of the characters (except Adan, he can go somewhere). More than anything, this story was masterful in the way it unfolded; it’s obvious the author knows exactly how and when to reveal information to the reader.
This is a story with heavy trigger warnings though… domestic abuse, infant loss, murder, drugs, rape. For such a small book (less than 300 pages), it packed a heavy punch, and there were times that I had to put the book down for my own sanity. Nothing was too graphic or explicit, and the way that the story unfolded softened the blows. Honestly, I could have used another hundred pages to see how the characters lives unfolded after the end of this novel, but I guess the author left it ambiguous for a reason. I can already tell this book will be sticking with me for a while.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes books with a few points of view. Anyone looking for memorable characters. Anyone interested in stories of murder and intrigue.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Premise: George Matthew Johnson describes his childhood and adolescence in this memoir of essays. Growing up queer and Black is not easy, but he describes his family and support system in a way that softens the blow of the tragedies.
Rating: 2 Stars
Thoughts: Oh gosh I feel so bad for this. But like… I couldn’t. If it didn’t fulfill so many of my challenge prompts, I really think I would have definitely DNF’d this one. George’s story is heartbreaking and real and honest and.. so descriptive… but it felt like reading high school essays. There was a lot of telling instead of showing, a lot of “ok we will get to that a minute” (which is fine, unless it’s used A LOT), and a lot of simple sentences and clunky words. I tried this on audio first, but his narration was hard to listen to because he paused so long between sentences, and I ended up raising the narration to like 1.75x before giving up on it. The text was marginally better, in that I could skim read. So… blah. I know so, so, so many people who loved this book, so this could just be the English teacher in me but… yikes.
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking for nonfiction diverse perspectives.
Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
Premise: Del has had a crush on Kiera since she played Dorothy to his Cowardly Lion in the kindergarten play. So when, in his junior year, he zones out at church and sees Kiera going to the front of the church with a few other teenagers, he makes the impulse decision to go up with her. Except that means he’s taking a Purity Pledge.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This was such a weird book. I mean, I really enjoyed it and read it mostly in a day, but once I put it down and started really thinking about it… this was a weird book. The layers of sexism and religion and slut shaming and virginity pledges… I don’t know about it. Like… I read the whole book and it had me feeling some type of way throughout, but it wasn’t until I put it down that I could really see the whole picture of what I just read.
Pro: There was some great characters in this book. Con: The main character is NOT one of them. I loved the supporting cast, especially the sister, but our protagonist Del is kind of an awful human being, while also being oblivious to literally everyone (especially the women) around him. Plus there was this weird layer of religion that looked a lot like a cult, with the pastor being borderline abusive, but also never suffering any repercussions for that? Then we have the whole pregnancy-pact, slut-shaming thing, and the virginity pact on top of that, which, again, never really gets called out. Then there’s this layer of sex ed and the fight to teach students about reality, which was an interesting foil to the purity pledge but also felt a bit out of place (like.. explicit sexual questions right next to religious and purity themes in the book). So… While I read this book really quickly (stayed up way past my bedtime!), and I loved the supporting cast a lot, I’m not sure Del had enough of a turnaround for me to really feel satisfied with the ending.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who wants a quick read. Anyone looking for a book with religious themes without it being *religious*. Anyone who likes funny and diverse characters.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Premise: Gifty is a Stanford and Harvard trained neuroscientist. She’s also the daughter of immigrants and the sister to a heroin addict and a former Evangelical Christian. She contains multitudes and she grapples with the contrasting forces in her life.
Rating: 5 Stars
Thoughts: Holy. Cow. What can I say about this book? Seriously, where do I even begin? This book is straight literary fiction, full of deep character discovery and very, very little plot, told mostly through flashbacks. But while I’m normally turned off by this sort of book, especially in a stressful month, this book drew. me. in. It captured a piece of my soul with its poetic writing and thoughtful play of opposing worlds.
So many layers to this book. First of all, this is the book on the opioid crisis that everyone should be reading. Dear lord, it’s soul-crushing but like, in a good way? In a way that makes you truly feel the loss and heartbreak and understand just how devastating this crisis is. There’s also the layer of immigration, with Gifty being a second-generation American, covering the gap between her immigrant mother, her absent father, and her life in Alabama. Then there is mental health, with Gifty’s mother struggling through depression. Then, on top of all of that, there’s the battle of God vs. science. I am not someone who likes a lot of religion in my fiction books, but this book drew me in to the discussion instead of pushing me away… Gifty wavered throughout the whole book between trusting God and believing nothing, and and it was such an interesting battle throughout the novel.
At the end of the day, this book was philosophical without being pretentious, covered tough topics without being despondent, and found clarity without forcing it along. This book… just wow.
Disclaimer: It is NOTHING like Homegoing, so just… get that out of your head when you go into this book.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who is looking for a book that makes them think. Anyone who wants insight into addiction and loss. Anyone looking for a book that will make your heart stutter with its words.
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
Premise: Grace Porter did everything right. She worked hard, stayed focused, and finished her Ph.D. in astronomy by the age of 28. But when it comes to looking for jobs, it feels like her world is crashing down on her… then she gets married to a stranger.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: I was determined to finish this book by the end of February, and I squeezed most of it in on Sunday. It was a deceptive book… less than 300 pages, but full of thoughtfulness and action. Grace is a deeply conflicted character, faced with the fear of what to do after college (wow, do I know that anxiety well), and watching her struggle and come through to find herself was so rewarding and exciting.
This book wasn’t the best executed, though. I wanted a lot more on her relationship with Yuki. The summer she spent in NYC was largely glossed over, and it felt like I couldn’t really get a handle on their relationship because so much of it was sped through. That being said, I loved the secondary cast of characters as much as I loved Grace, and I thought this book portrayed friendship really well. The ups and downs and unconditional support they give her warmed my heart and made me miss my own friends.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who is graduating from college soon. Anyone who enjoyed Queenie. Anyone looking for a book about searching.
