This year has really just flown by. I’m sorry that I haven’t been updating here much. Between school and work life has just been flying by. I’ve read a ton this year though. As of right now I’m well over 500 books. I have been keeping track of my reading on a lovely Excel spreadsheet this year, which is something new that I’m trying, and there are a bunch of books that I read in the last few months that I would love to share with you all.
One of my reading resolutions this year was to read more diversely. So more books by women, POC, LGBTQIA+ authors, etc. Another one of my reading resolutions was to read more banned books. I took the list of the top 100 banned books from the American Library Association’s website and started with that. My list is now up to 138 books. Of those I’ve read 71 of them so far. This isn’t something that I’m trying to do in just one year, I don’t want to rush through reading these books. Some of these books are hard to read and even harder to review. But I sincerely think that these books need to be read. Sometimes you need to read about hard experiences that aren’t your own to learn and grow and develop empathy for other people.
The first book that I want to talk about is a banned book that I read earlier this year. It’s a biography called Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter. It’s about Ashley as she grows up in numerous foster homes and eventually gets adopted. The book has graphic descriptions of the abuse that Ashely went through while she was in foster care. This is one of those books that I’m sad is non-fiction. The things that Ashley went through are haunting even though it’s been a few months since I read this book. I can’t imagine going through any of the things that she went through. This is a book that’s hard for me to say that I liked. Because I did like it but the abuse that she went through was hard to read at times. But I think that everyone should read this book to get a better understanding about abuse and how horrible the foster care system can be.
The next book that I want to talk about is one that I’m still currently reading (it’s almost 700 pages so it’s taking me a minute). It’s called Habibi by Craig Thompson. It follows a cast of characters in the Middle East but we mostly follow two characters, Dodola and Zam, both refugee child slaves trying their best to survive in the harsh environment. This book is beautifully illustrated but it is a hard read. Dodola is constantly attacked and has to use her body more than once to get out of a situation. This book is also banned. According to my research it is for nudity, being sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group (that usually means that it’s in a Young Adult or children’s section and they think it should be moved.). There are things in this book that would lead to some hard conversations to have with your kids if they ended up picking this book up and reading it. But I think that they are conversations that need to be had. How else are children and young adults going to learn about hard topics? I certainly don’t want them to experience them for themselves. Having a book as a gateway to having those conversations makes sense and banning books is just another way to brush things under the rug and not talk about them.
The last book that I want to talk about is a complete detour from the first two books that I talked about in this post. I read the second book in the Ruinous Love trilogy by Brynne Weaver. In Leather and Lark we follow contract killer Lachlan Kane and singer Lark Montague. Lark has a proposition for Lachlan. Find a serial killer that is taking out members of her family and she will get him out of his contract to his crazy boss. But there’s a catch – he has to marry her.
I really enjoyed this book. I’ve already read the first one in the trilogy (Butcher & Blackbird) and I’m waiting (im)patiently for the third book. I don’t want to give anything away about the plot of the book because I feel like you should go in as blind as possible. But I will tell you this is enemies to lovers and there is a lot of murder happening. If you are squeamish then this book trilogy is not for you. But I would definitely suggest checking it out is you like a good murder mystery.
Again, I am sorry that I was gone for so long. I’m hoping that now that things in my personal life have settled down that I will want to get back to writing. I hope you all are doing good and I will see you in December!
BookWorm Blog 