That New Hotness

As we continue to get to know each other, I’m sure you’ll learn I love fantasy stories, especially involving witchy things and magic, so a Black teenager in Atlanta who can see ghosts and who’s medium powers are burgeoning will always be right up my alley. We meet Jake as he constantly deals with micro aggressions from students and teachers in his very white private school. I like how Douglass constructed the world here. At times it’s grotesque, but it’s also kind of lush and beautiful. Jake comes to be haunted by a white kid named Sawyer who shot up his school before turning the gun on himself. He has to figure out how to get rid of him before Sawyer ruins his life. Some reveals in the second half had me looking like shocked pikachu, and I liked how realistic Jake’s reactions to things were. Dealing with micro aggressions is real and gone are the days where we just grin and bear it. There’s also a cute romance that develops.

Book Club Bonus: Phew, there is a lot to talk about here. There’s a lot to say of child abuse and its long term effects on the child, but also of the parent’s state of mind during the abuse. Are they forgivable?

When I say I need to read more nonfiction, I’ve always been recommended books by Mary Roach. She is the reigning queen of taking obscure topics, researching them, and making them actually fun to read about. This one is about the conflict that arises when the human and animals worlds collide, but more specifically, when animals commit crimes. Apparently, a few hundred years ago, offending animals would be given representation and put on trial. I mean, that’s more than some people get now *side eyes the justice system*. Roach speaks of her travels across the globe where she consulted wildlife experts, as well as saw firsthand some of the animal offenders. It’s a great addition to the ongoing and needed conversation of humanity’s impact on the world and what we can do to prevent further damage.

Book Club Bonus: The United Nations released a rather damning report on the state of the climate. Discuss how Roach’s book factors into the report. Also, discuss why humans are considered separate from animals. Is there some inherent quality that makes us different?

First of all, I love this cover. And the title. And Nicole Perkins. Perkins is a pop culture and social commentator as well as a 2017 Audre Lorde Fellow, a 2017 BuzzFeed Emerging Writers Fellow, and a 2016 Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow for poetry. In other words, sis can write. Through her podcasts and writing, she explores pop culture and desire through a feminist lens. She lays herself bare in this memoir as she explores her life growing up as a Black girl in Nashville, TN and how she struggled with depression, as well as a drug-addicted father. She also talks about self-care and the show Frasier (which I also love).

Book Club Bonus: Discuss how the digital era has affected feminine desire. Has it liberated or stifled it by further objectifying women?