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Showing posts from January, 2017

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander                 Let me start off by saying that this is one of those books that I believe could initiate a large amount of change if people would take the time to read it, understand it and pursue a change. With that in mind I am going to recommend this book to you before I even start to tell you about this book because I believe everyone should be aware of what is happening in the United States, why it is unprecedented and why mass incarceration affects us all. Michelle Alexander wanted to prove with this book how the War on Drugs began, how the language behind it insinuated the worst possible imagery of the black community, how the prison industry expanded to such a gargantuan size and how the main victims of the War of Drugs are African-American men.                 To see that written so bluntly can be slightly off putting, I understand that. Especially if you may not believe at face

Cam Girl by Leah Raeder

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Cam Girl by Leah Raeder                               Vada and Ellis were in a horrible car accident. Vada was behind the wheel. Ellis was completely drunk. Ryan was in the other car with a blood alcohol level of 0.20. Ryan didn’t make it. Vada almost lost her arm. Ellis lost her best friend. They had been best friends for five years. In many ways they were more than best friends. But Vada never consider Ellis her girlfriend. She was bisexual not gay and she had barely been in a real relationship with a guy let alone a girl. The night of the accident it wasn’t just their relationship that changed. Vada was no longer able to paint or sketch because of her injury. She stopped going to her master’s program, was evicted from her home and met Frankie, a cam girl. Everything changed.                 This was a novel unlike anything I have ever read before. Vada and Ellis are two extremely complicated characters. Not only in their relationship with each other but in their sexualit

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

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Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill                 When Judas Coyne first saw the online listing to “Buy my Stepfather’s ghost” he thought it was a fucking joke. One thousand dollars later and he was the proud owner of dead man’s suit. It came in a heart shaped box and it looked like it was almost Coyne’s size. He still thought it was a joke. That was until he woke in the middle of the night to the sound of someone walking around his home. The motion detector picked up nothing and yet he found a man, wearing the exact suit that came in the heart-shaped box, sitting in a chair outside of his room. The ghost. But this particular ghost isn’t satisfied with just haunting Coyne. He wants him to take his own life and the life of anyone else who attempts to help him escape.                 Oh Joe Hill, how I love your sick and twisted storylines. This is no exception. This starts off intriguing enough and then the horror and suspense just keeps on growing. This was a complicated story a

2016: The Wrap Up

2016: The Wrap Up Books and more books of course. And Hamilton.                      What was a girl to do when there were so many books and so little time: READ! That’s what! This year as usual I started off with re-reading the Harry Potter series. You may ask “But Stacie, why do you read that series over and over again when you have so many other books to read?” Sigh* Number one: You must not be a Harry Potter fan. Number two: It makes me happy. Moving on!                    This year I turned 30 years old (cue the mix of anxiety, happiness and utter horror at the realization of this landmark) and I wanted to do something memorable. A friend of mine came up with this amazing idea to read a book for every year that I’ve been alive. Voila we now have “Reading through 30 years” which would be later coined #birthdaychallenge. That was my big to-do of this year. I gathered a list of books to tackle this year using the Pulitzer prize list, New York Times bestsellers list, book

Some of my Favorite, Top, Most Memorable Reads of 2016

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Some of my Favorite, Top, Most Memorable Reads of 2016                 Well I don’t know about anyone else but I read some pretty spectacular books this year! And no I didn’t think this year was the most amazing thing that has ever happened but I can definitely appreciate the many great books I was able to get my hands on. I’m going to quickly share with you some of my most memorable of the year.                 My choice of the year for “the one book I never thought I would fall in love with” is  The Pillars of the Earth  by Ken Follett . I read this book solely because of the many great reviews I had seen and heard from other people. I have absolutely no interest in the building of cathedrals so the plot would never have jumped out to me as something I absolutely needed to read. It also fit really neatly in my “ Reading Through 30 Years /#birthdaychallenge” so away I went. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED it. It was brilliantly written and evenly paced. The world building and character

Kindred by Octavia Butler

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Kindred by Octavia Butler                  It was Dana’s twenty sixth birthday the first time she moved through time and space to save Rufus. He had been a little boy drowning in the water. She pulled him out, saved his life, and came back. She had only been gone for a few seconds in her time of 1976. She would later learn that she had traveled to the anti Bellum South in the early 19 th century. Rufus’ father was a slave owner with a plantation of over 30 slaves. Dana would only learn this information as she continued to return to his side, away from her time, her husband and her life, violently thrusted into his.                 This book took my breath away. I wasn’t sure what to think when I first read the synopsis. I wanted to read this book simply because I really wanted to read an Octavia Butler novel. I was instantly sucked into the story. It’s a combination of historical fiction and science fiction with a dash of magical realism throw in. Butler created these reall

Alice by Christina Henry

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Alice by Christina Henry                 It has been ten years since Alice was found stumbling out of the Old City, blood running from between her legs where bruises in the shape of hand prints could be found. She was screaming about the Rabbit, her face now held a long scar and her best friend Dor was nowhere to be found. No one believed her story about the Rabbit. But that was all Alice could remember: the Rabbit and the blue-green eye. Soon her family would place her in a hospital. Eventually they would stop visiting. Alice’s only friend would be the man in the room beside her, Hatcher. They would talk through the mouse hole in the wall. Hatcher warned her of the Jabberwocky but Alice thought he was just crazy like her. But the night of the fire, the night Hatcher broke out of his room, grabbed her and they escaped, she saw the Jabberwocky. Now the two of them must kill the Jabberwocky by making their way through the Old city and finding the one object that will destroy it

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

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Scarlet by Marissa Meyer This is the second installment in the Lunar Chronicles. If you have never read the first book, Cinder , you can read my review first or just skip this review. But there will be some spoilers.                 Scarlet’s grandmother is missing from their farm outside of Paris. Her ID chip has been removed and the police have given up their search after three weeks. Scarlet however remains convinced her grandmother isn’t safe. When Wolf offers to help, she is desperate to follow him in order to get her grandmother back. Meanwhile in New Beijing Cinder escapes from prison with Thorne and is looking for clues about her life. If she really is the Lunar princess how can she defeat the Queen and take her place on the throne.                 I am so torn. On a bright note this book was really funny but I’m not sure it offered much more for me than Cinder. Scarlet’s introduction and story line was interesting but she didn’t grab my attention as much as

killing rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks

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killing rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks                 I’m going to recommend this collection of essays to everyone knowing that some people might not be ready to read this book. I probably wouldn’t have been able to read this book and gain so much value from it if I had picked it up 10, even 5, years ago. At this stage in my life, at the age of 30, at a time when I feel like I have gone through so much self-discovery and learned so many different things about myself, is the moment when I should have picked it up. And I am really glad I have. bell hooks has created a collection of essays that boldly confronts life as black woman living in North America. Mind you, this book was published over two decades ago and these essays are still valid and still reflect what is happening in society. Feminism, racism, sexism, white supremacy, internalized racism, color complexes, class hierarchies and much more are discussed in depth. I related very intimately with much of what she re