Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Most Recent Reads

Happy Tuesday! I hope your week started off with bang (in a good way). 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is one I almost didn’t do because I haven’t read a whole lot this year. I mean the reality is it’s not even this weeks prompt. So there’s that. Anyway, I decided to do it because in spite of my reading being a little on the light side, I have read some relatively good books.

My Ten Most Recent Reads 

1. We Travel the Spaceways by Victor LaValle 💜💜💜
   This is an Amazon Original short story. It’s part of the Black Starts, a multi-dimensional collection of speculative fiction from Black authors. Each story is a world much like our own.
2. Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones💜💜💜💜
   For me this wasn’t scary as scary as I wanted it be. The novella was definitely disturbing in a psychological way. Watching the main character descend into madness as he murders people that are close to him.
3. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi 💜💜💜
   I’ve been trying to write a review for this for several weeks now and just can’t get it together. It’s a book community darling and I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It’s a tough read and Emezi doesn’t shy away from the trauma. One of my biggest complaints is that I felt like Emezi was emotionally manipulating the reader to feel more sympathy for the main character, Ada.
4. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle 💜💜💜💜
   The second Victor LaValle read on this list. This novella is a retelling off of H. P. Lovecraft’s most xenophobic short story, “The Horror at Red Hook”.
5. The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson 💜💜💜💜
   I read this a part of The Traveling Annotation Project with Emmarae. This was her pick. I enjoyed it, but there were some plot holes for me and I believe it’s because neither of us realized that it was book one of two.
6. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin 💜💜💜💜
   I picked this up because I was in a horror mood and it definitely gave me the creep factor I was looking for. It’s a little hard to describe without giving anything away. Just know it’s a commentary on the effects of agricultural pollution.
7. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson 💜💜💜💜💜
   Typically, I don’t get emotional when I read, but this book sent me through all sorts of feels. I read this in June for Pride Month and absolutely loved it. It was recommended to me by another booktuber. It’s described as memoir-manifesto. Johnson discusses coming to terms with his sexuality, his first sexual encounter, and what it means to be queer and Black.
8. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown 💜💜💜💜💜
   This was also part of The Traveling Annotation Project with Emmarae and was my pick. I loved this book. It’s a semi-autobiographical account that explicitly details a lesbian woman’s coming of age. There were so many great one-liners. It made me laugh. It made me angry. It made me realize how far we (women & society) have not come.
9. Almost American Girl by Robin Ha 💜💜💜💜
   I read this during AAPI Month. It’s an immigration story that is hopeful yet heartbreaking at times, but it also made me think of dangers of assimilation, losing/giving up your culture and not knowing your culture due to assimilation. 
10. I Was Their American Dream A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib 💜💜💜💜
    Is a coming of age immigration story. Gharib is of Filipeno and Egyptian descent. It’s the story of Gharib navigates her Filipeno and Egypitian heritage while simultaneously navigating American culture.

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think?

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