Kibkabe Araya's Blog, page 2
August 9, 2023
Book Review: ‘Nigeria Jones’ by Ibi Zoboi
*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review* Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi follows the daughter of a Black revolutionary in Philadelphia trying to fulfill her mother’s wish for her to have a normal life. Sixteen-year-old Nigeria is the daughter of Kofi Sankofa, an activist who has built his identity and his community around uplifting people in the African diaspora with his pro-African beliefs. Nigeria has always been in his shadow as his warrior princess who can practice shooting guns under the protection of the Second Amendment and organize the youth who seek guidance in their community household. She also takes care of her 1-year-old brother Freedom. With her mother missing, Nigeria takes it upon herself to be that motherly figure to Freedom while trying to find answers of why her mother is no longer around. Her mother’s friend KD, a White woman, tells Nigeria that her mother wanted her to attend the Philadelphia Friends School, a Quaker high school. It’s the same school KD’s daughter Sage, who is biracial, attends. And Sage and Nigeria used to be close, but Kofi has driven a wedge between the families, not wanting someone White in his […]
August 2, 2023
Book Review: ‘Nic Blake and the Remarkables’ by Angie Thomas
*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review* Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas is an imaginative, well-developed middle grade novel from the famous young adult author who gave us The Hate U Give. Nichole Blake, who goes by Nic, is turning 12 years old, and for her birthday, she is looking forward to being trained by her dad on how to use the Gift as a real Manifestor. The Gift is a supernatural ability, which Nic’s dad has and therefore Nic has inherited. They are known as Remarkables. The human beings without the Gift are called Unremarkables. Though Nic wants a dragon badly, her dad gives her the safer option of a hellhound for her birthday. The hellhound, who is named Cocoa, has horns and is the size of a tiger. When Nic’s best friend JP comes over, he only sees a regular dog as an Unremarkable. Well, Nic has a feeling that JP may have seen more of Cocoa as a hellhound, but she lets that feeling go. Since Nic and her dad have moved around the U.S. a lot, Nic feels settled in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s […]
July 26, 2023
Book Review: ‘Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm’ by Laura Warrell
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell is a literary fiction novel that introduces us to a womanizing jazz musician and the females who cross his path, including his daughter. It’s 2013, and Circus Palmer is a 40-year-old trumpet player who takes gigs across the country but doesn’t like to plant roots anywhere. In the first few pages, he learns that Maggie, the woman who enthralls him, is pregnant. He tries to convince her to end the pregnancy; he can’t be rooted down to anything. And she shouldn’t root herself down since she’s a drummer. A child can’t fit into their musician-touring life. Maggie says she wants the baby, and she returns to drumming while Circus heads home to Boston. We meet his 14-year-old daughter Koko who’s trying to navigate high school and control her fluctuating hormones. With Circus back in the picture, Koko still harbors the emptiness she felt for years living without him and living with her regretful, depressed mother, Circus’ ex-wife Pia. While Koko and Pia are constants in Circus’ life, the jazzman finds himself constantly attracted to other women. He falls for a twenty-something waitress at a bar where he plays for gigs, for a mysterious […]
July 8, 2023
July 6, 2023
‘And Just Like That…’ Shows How Recording an Audiobook Is Part of Grieving Process
⚠️ Spoilers ahead! Watch the series on Max. The Sex and the City reboot centers its second season’s third episode on Carrie Bradshaw narrating her story of grief for her audiobook. As she bumbles with emotion over the chapter detailing her husband’s untimely death, Carrie does everything in her power to avoid having to complete the narration. And Just Like That… returned for its second season June 22 on Max, formerly HBO Max, and picked up where the first season left off: Carrie moving forward after the sudden death of her husband, John, better known as “Big.” The grief connects to her writing in the episode “Chapter Three.” Traipsing around Manhattan in her iconic heels, Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, is heading to the studio to record her latest book, Loved and Lost. This book fits into a different genre compared to her other books. This one is about her journey of grief after the death of Big, played by Chris Noth (Sexual assault allegations against the actor emerged immediately after his character’s demise. He denies the allegations and hasn’t been criminally charged). Carrie’s foray into the grief memoir genre has given her an opportunity to narrate her audiobook. Most […]
May 26, 2023
Representation Matters With New ‘Little Mermaid’
Hans Christian Andersen’s story resonates with another generation. Plus, these novels with mermaid themes make great beach reads for the long weekend. View this email in your browser The Little Mermaid is in theaters and in books during #Mermay 🪸 Cue hot mermaid summer with classic fairy tale returning as live-action Disney remake With The Little Mermaid debuting this weekend, you know the obsession over merfolks will dominate the culture for the rest of the year, right? Like most toddler girls, I was enthralled with Disney’s 1989 animated version of The Little Mermaid, the most famous fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. Growing up in the coastal neighborhood of Rogers Park in Chicago, I imagined myself as a mermaid far too many times with beaches in walking distance. But as much as I wanted to be Ariel, she didn’t look like me. She had long ketchup-red hair and over-animated blue eyes, and while under the sea she was just a mermaid, on land she was a young White woman. This led to my parents looking high and low for Black mermaids. The search was fruitful with Sukey and the Mermaid. The 1992 book featured the first time I saw […]
May 22, 2023
Book Review: ‘Belonging’ by Michelle Miller
Belonging: A Daughter’s Search for Identity Through Loss and Love by Michelle Miller with Rosemarie Robotham shows the CBS Saturday Morning cohost go through childhood and adulthood wondering the whereabouts of a mother who refused to raise her. Born at the end of 1967, Michelle arrives back in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968. The night before, her father, Dr. Ross Miller, becomes embedded in one of U.S. history’s most tragic events: the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Michelle’s father was the first doctor to examine the presidential candidate’s gunshot wounds. Still a newborn, Michelle flies back to the city of her recent birth from Birmingham, Alabama, after her grandmother, Bigmama, discovers her existence. Her father sent his secret daughter to family in Alabama, but Bigmama demanded her granddaughter return to LA. It’s Bigmama’s responsibility to raise Michelle out of sight from her son’s wife and two adopted daughters. This is where the journalist’s story begins. Her mother, a Chicana fair enough to pass as White, worked in the same hospital as her married father, a top Black cardiopulmonary surgeon. Their affair sparks hate from her mother’s family; they only see their daughter and sister dating a Black man. Once […]
May 18, 2023
Nikki Giovanni Talks About Libraries Supporting Readers on Earth and Mars
Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni joined Books in Bloom in Columbia, Maryland, on May 13 to discuss the importance of libraries, including one in outer space. The book festival’s headliner was introduced as someone who identifies as an “earthling” by Busboys and Poets founder Andy Shallat. This led to a conversation with Nikki discussing her work with libraries and her curation for a library on Mars. A library was established in 2008 by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, thanks to the funding and development from The Planetary Society, where TV scientist Bill Nye is the CEO. The space shuttle left an encoded archival silica-glass mini-DVD on Mars and called it the Visions of Mars digital time capsule. The DVD contains a collection of literature and art about Mars from mostly male authors such as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Carl Sagan. California-bred science fiction author Leigh Douglass Brackett, who was dubbed the Queen of Space Opera; Canadian sci-fi author Candas Jane Dorsey, and Finnish speculative fiction author Johanna Sinisalo seem to be the only women whose texts are in the interplanetary library of over 80 literary works. The DVD was designed to last hundreds, possibly thousands, of years, according to the society. […]
May 5, 2023
The Judy Blume Book That Changed Everything
SHE LIT: The Judy Blume Book That Changed Everything ♾️ How a Judy Blume classic revolutionized the middle grade genre. Plus, a state passes a bill to defund libraries that remove banned books from shelves. View this email in your browser Discover works by AANHPI female authors here 🌸 Banned coming-of-age novel that boosted middle grade genre finally gets its flowers I finished Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret during a daylong doctor’s appointment when I was nine years old. The famous Judy Blume story was already over 25 years old when I devoured it in less than 24 hours. I was wearing a training bra and the loom of the period was hanging over my head since some of my fourth-grade friends already had theirs. I laughed at the characters kissing their pillows to practice kissing boys because I wasn’t there yet. I talked to God a lot growing up in an interfaith household like the main character Margaret. With Margaret and her friends worrying about kissing boys, buying bras, and getting periods, the 1970 book has enjoyed a revival with a new film in theaters amid the latest banned books movement. Describing feelings many kids feel that […]
April 22, 2023
Editing Authors Amid Banned Books
SHE LIT: Editing Authors Amid Banned Books 📖 An author shares how a publisher asked her to edit “racism” out of her children’s book. Plus, libraries joke about losing blue checks on Twitter. View this email in your browser #currentlyreading Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell Why authors of color tend to lean into indie publishers to get their work distributed Maggie Tokuda-Hall went viral this week for claiming she declined a book deal with Scholastic over an edit to remove any references to the word “racism” in her children’s book. Her actions show the reason why many authors of color prefer to have their books published through indie publishers and self-publishing companies: To be able to tell the stories they envisioned with their authentic lived experiences. The author from Oakland, California, wrote Love in the Library, a children’s book centered on a love story set in a World War II incarceration camp for Japanese Americans. The story is inspired by her grandparents who fell in love at one of these camps. She writes about the inspiration in an author’s note. But Scholastic allegedly wanted to tweak the contents of that note to make the book more consumable for […]
