Stiff by Mary Roach

Hello my lovely readers! 

Two years ago, coincidentally around this time, I DNF'd this book because I wasn't in the headspace for it. You can read that "review" here.

I decided to give it another shot and I'm glad I did! Let's get into it.

SYNPOSIS
Cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings from France's first guillotines to helping solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800.

For every new surgical procedure, cadavers have helped make history. Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

 Hello my lovely readers! I finished this book in two days and...whew! Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.

Clotel, or The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown

Hello my lovely readers! I was inspired to read this book after I read Junie. I was looking for a more authentic telling of life in the 1800s and I had this book on my shelf. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
First published in December 1853, Clotel was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves. The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her, gets her pregnant, seems to promise marriage—then sells her. Escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returns to Virginia disguised as a white man in order to rescue her daughter, Mary, a slave in her father’s house. A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom, of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles, Clotel is more than a sensationalist novel. It is a founding text of the African American novelistic tradition, a brilliantly composed and richly detailed exploration of human relations in a new world in which race is a cultural construct.

The Swans of Harlem by Karen Valby

Hello my lovely readers!  What a beautiful book. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history—until now.

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.

These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world.

Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine

 

Hello my lovely readers! Another day, another book. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

Unravelling by Preethi Nair

 

Hello my lovely readers! It's been a while since I've read a novel that was so thought-provoking. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
The stories we tell ourselves and others are very often not true…

To the outside world, Bhanu seems to have a perfect a beautiful home and a wonderful husband and family… No one knows that each superficial layer has been carefully constructed to hide the dark secrets of her past and to bury the utter disappointment that what was written in the stars did not come to pass.

Then, on the eve of her fortieth wedding anniversary and vow renewal ceremony, a chance encounter shatters Bhanu’s pretence, when a face from her past reappears.

Deep, her first love who was etched into her heart, the man who lingered in her dreams throughout her married life, reappears, asking her to abandon everything for a second chance at love.

Forced to confront the consequences of choices made long ago, Bhanu begins to unravel as her life is thrust into chaos. But by reaching for a different future, can she heal the wounds of her past?

An extraordinary story about the complex tapestry that makes up a woman’s life and how facing the truth can change everything.

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray

Hello my lovely readers!

I am really in my fiction era right now....and I have A LOT of thoughts about this book. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
In 1919, as civil and social unrest grips the country, there is a little corner of America, a place called Harlem where something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere…in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is Jessie Redmon Fauset, the new literary editor of the preeminent Negro magazine The Crisis.

W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder and editor of The Crisis, has charged her with discovering young writers whose words will change the world. Jessie attacks the challenge with fervor, quickly finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives, the writers become notable and magazine subscriptions soar. Every Negro writer in the country wants their work published in the magazine now known for its groundbreaking poetry and short stories.

Jessie’s rising star is shining bright….but her relationship with W.E.B. could jeopardize all that she’s built. The man, considered by most to be the leader of Black America, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Their torrid and tumultuous affair is complicated by a secret desire that Jessie harbors — to someday, herself, become the editor of the magazine, a position that only W.E.B. Du Bois has held.

In the face of overwhelming sexism and racism, Jessie must balance her drive with her desires. However, as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.