The Next Book On My List

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo This book doesn’t waste words and I won’t either. This is amazing. Written in verse it’s the story of Xiomara, a young woman who expresses herself through the poems she writes in her diary. Her and her twin brother are first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. They both are constantly having to navigate what it means to have a family steeped in culture and tradition, while also living as a teenager in the U.S. She has a body that screams for attention and fist that have grown weary from fighting. But now the words on the page that express all of frustrations, fears and dreams are finding their way out through the poetry club she begins attending to avoid her confirmation class. I loved this. I loved it because Acevedo was able to pack so much world building, so much life, so much development into each poem. Her world, Xiomara’s world, unfolded beautifully on each page. It’s powerful and it resonates and it questions the relati

Becoming by Michelle Obama “I’m an ordinary person who found herself on an extraordinary journey. In sharing my story, I hope to help create space for other stories and other voices, to widen the pathway for who belongs and why.”                 I didn’t rush to read this book. A lot of it had to do with my own mental space and stressing about the state of the union. Would this book written by the first Black First Lady of the United States really give hope or would it be just another reminder of how far we’ve fallen? I decided instead to read this book as my first #readBlackwomen selection for this February for Black History month. I finished it in three days and if life hadn’t intruded, I would have finished it one day. This book is incredible.                 Michelle Obama is the only person who should ever be allowed to write about Michelle Obama No one will have more intimate knowledge of her life, and no one will ever be able to articulate in anyway near as

The Vicious Deep by Zoraida C ó rdova I’m not sure when was the last time I’ve read a book about mermaids. After reading Cordova’s Brooklyn Bruja series I knew I had to read more of her writing style which I absolutely loved. The Vicious Deep isn’t as compelling as her newest series but it is still highly entertaining and a really fun ride. Meet Tristan. You know this guy. We all know this guy. The girls think he’s cute. He one of the best swimmers on the team and he’s fun to be around. He’s also a lifeguard. And on the day the storm came he ran out into the waves to save the life of woman he saw flailing in the water. He was found days later somehow still alive. Many other people didn’t survive that day. He’s felt weird ever since. The next thing you know he’s lying on the bathroom floor and his legs have turned into fins! There’s a lot his mother hasn’t told him about her family, the family he has never known. Like the fact that he is actually a Merman and a descenda