Gay New York by George Chauncey

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I FINALLY finished this book after reading it for YEARS. Well....I started reading it and then took a super long break and then finally finished it this week. It's not that the book was bad, I just needed to be in the mood to read this. Anyway, let's get into it.

BACKGROUND
In October 2018, I took a solo trip to Spain and Portugal. As I was huffing and puffing up a hill to get to Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal that I decided to keep pace with this girl named Gina.

She was traveling solo too and we spent the whole day together (well, at least at the Palace) taking photos together and chatting. She told me she was a newly married divorce attorney who lived in New York City. I told her I'd never been to New York City....I didn't see the hype in it. She urged me to come visit her so I could see how great her city was and I said I would.

Exactly one year later, I took a four-day trip to New York. I stayed with Gina, explored Brooklyn and Manhattan and lo and behold, my view of NYC changed. 

I really enjoyed myself and even stopped by to see her in 2021 when I took a day trip to the city with my husband while we were visiting New Jersey.

While in Brooklyn, I stopped by a local bookstore (the name escapes me) and bought Gay New York by George Chauncey.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I just finished this chonker of a book and oh.my.goodness. The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. What a book. What a beautiful, beautiful book. It's 800 plus pages and every single word is so meaningful, so wonderful, so eloquent. Let's get into it.

SUMMARY

Ailey Pearl Garfield comes from a maternal line reaching back two centuries. She is raised up North in the city most of the year, but spends her summers in the South in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta. It's where her mother's family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa.

As Ailey grows, we see her confront the issues of her family's past, present and future. To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the tales of generations of her ancestors--Indigenous, Black and white--in the deep South.

Bookish Thoughts....

 Hello my lovely readers!

This is just a random post on some bookish thoughts floating in my head.

• I've done something I never thought I'd do...listen to audiobooks. I've always sworn them off, but now I see them as a supplement. It started when I began reading The Love Songs of W.E.B Dubois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. I'm almost finished with it, but it's is a chunker at 800+ pages! There was no way I'd be able to finish it in time for book club (still not finishing it in time for book club smh) with how busy life has been and all of my traveling this month. The audiobook has helped me tremendously and since I have the physical copy, I still can annotate it with my thoughts. I really do think audiobooks will help me reach my reading goal this year especially with how much my schedule changes and how much traveling I'm doing.
  
  
• I was put on game today (thanks to my lovely coworkers) that the Libby app lets your listen to audiobooks or rent books from the library on your Kindle FOR FREE as long as you have a library card. Talk about GAME CHANGER! I've been trying to figure out how to extend my audiobook free trials without having to create a whole bunch of new emails. Thank you Libby! I'm super excited to use it.
  
  

The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I got through this book pretty quickly thanks to Scribd, but I'm still three books behind schedule of my 100 book reading goal. Oof.

Yes, I am using Scribd (or other audio book alternatives) as a supplement when I'm not able to sit down and physically read a book. I never thought I'd do it, but it's super helpful when I'm trying to meet this goal. However, I'm really against paying for audio books, so.....you know how that goes. 😉

BACKGROUND
Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan...I picked this up while I was in Los Angeles last summer for a work conference. A college friend and I went to The Last Bookstore in downtown LA before going out to dinner. The bookstore was closing when we got there, but I still managed to get three books and this was one of them.

Let's get into it!

Langston Hughes and the Chicago Defender: Essays on Race, Politics, and Culture, 1942-62 by Langston Hughes

Hello my lovely readers!

I saw this book on Bookstagram and had to get it RIGHT AWAY.  At the time, I was going through a heavy "books on journalism" phase and I'm so glad I picked this up! Langston Hughes is one of my favorite authors, so when I found out he wrote for the Chicago Defender, it was an automatic buy. Let's get into it!

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I needed some fiction in my life after my last few books were all history or non-fiction reads. Out of my vase of books, I chose Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis. I bought this book in Canada last year for my birthday...

BACKGROUND
For my birthday last year, my husband and I used our credit on Air Canada to go to Toronto. Originally we were supposed to go to Japan and South Korea in April 2022, but since it was still closed off to the world, we decided to cancel the tickets and go to Canada instead. Bittersweet, but what can you do?

I'd been to Toronto once before with my brother in 2017 and had a wonderful time. I'd even remembered to buy a book there, but I honestly did not like it. This was my chance at redemption! I found a local bookstore called Seekers and got multiple recommendations from both the owner and other patrons to buy Fifteen Dogs. So I bought it, read it and now I'm ready to review it! Let's get into it.