Author: Patricia Elzie

Our main protagonist is Kian Andrews and this story is told from his point of view. Kian is a gay Black man just out of college (Northeastern) and still living in Boston. He studied journalism and fully intends to go on to be a journalist but he is currently unemployed. Kian’s best friend is Divya Evans. She is studying Law at Harvard and calls Kian on his b*llshit every single time. She doesn’t let anything slide.

Not too long before this book begins Kian’s boyfriend broke up with him and left him devastated. This is probably why right at the beginning, Divya is yelling at Kian via text. Turns out that Kian responded to a text from the ex-boyfriend asking to meet up. Kian said yes. He knows it’s probably an awful idea.

This ex is Hudson Rivers and he is from Atlanta. The Rivers family is the third richest in the South, as they are the family behind the Rivers and Valleys brand of alcohol. Hudson is gorgeous, absolutely stunning, and a really good person. Unsurprisingly, Kian is still madly in love with him.

So they meet up at the coffee shop, as Hudson asked. He wants a favor (which it’s clear he doesn’t deserve). Much to Hudson’s family’s dismay, Hudson doesn’t want to be involved with the family business at all. He actually wants to go into a grad program and become a psychologist and help people. His parents are incredibly disappointed by this decision. They were also disappointed that he went to Northeastern and not Yale. Basically, they think that every decision Hudson makes is a bad one except for the decision to date Kian. His parents think that dating Kian is the one good decision he has ever made. They do not know he broke up with Kian and they are coming to town for a visit.

Hudson is desperate for his parents’ approval and so he asks Kian to pretend to be his boyfriend, just for the one lunch date during their visit. In return, Hudson will make a connection between Kian and the CEO of Spotlight, an online news corporation that Kian is dying to get a job at. Fake date for one lunch and be set for the rest of his life. Easy, right?

I laughed so loudly reading this book. Yes, it’s sweet and very sexy (there is definitely sex on the page) but it’s also absolutely hilarious. Every character pops. I love it so much.

Belle Marion Greener was a Black woman and J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian. Belle was very light-skinned and passed as white. She went by Belle da Costa Greene, saying the da Costa was from a Portuguese grandmother of hers, which is why she was slightly olive-skinned.

Belle’s mother and siblings were also very light-skinned. Her father was too, but he was a prominent Black man, Harvard University’s first Black student and Black graduate, and an attorney who was dean of the Howard University School of Law. He fought loudly and openly for equal rights for Black people. He’s also the one who gave Belle an appreciation for books and fine art. Belle’s mother, Genevieve, had different ideas. She decided that she and the children would pass as white to gain access to things they could not if they stayed being perceived as Black. They moved up to New York (they were from Washington, D.C.) and Belle’s parents, having very different views on what was best for them and the children, separated from each other.

Belle got a job as a librarian at Princeton University, where she met and intellectually dazzled the nephew of J. P. Morgan. J. P. Morgan already had an extensive rare books collection and had a library built to house the collection he had in hand as well as to supply a place for the collection to grow. His nephew insisted he interview Belle to be the librarian.

Needless to say, she got the job and was thrust into the world of fine art auctions and rare book dealers, which was at the time, for the most part, the realm of men. Not only was she so incredibly careful with every single thing she did so that people would not find out her true heritage, but she was also trying to make a name for herself in a world where the expectations and respect for women were so incredibly low.

The book is full of extravagance and secrets. There’s definitely some anti-Semitism and racism, so be aware of that. I really loved this book. Belle is an absolute force to be reckoned with. There’s a great historical note at the end where the authors talk about where some of the largest liberties were taken and I appreciate that.

If you didn’t recognize Quinta Brunson’s name when this book came out in June 2021, you would probably recognize her now considering her incredible success with the Emmy award-nominated sitcom Abbott Elementary. Prior to that, if you are a person who has been on the internet at all in the past half dozen years, then you’ve likely seen or heard one of Quinta Brunson’s many hilarious viral videos, many of which were from her time working at BuzzFeed.

I have a soft spot in my reading heart for memoirs by comedians. I’ve read so many of them by some of my favorite comics from Margaret Cho to Aisha Tyler to Jo Koy. I’m definitely adding Quinta Brunson’s book to this beloved list of mine. I honestly doubt she has peaked and I’m so excited to continue following her career. She’s only in her early 30s, which pops up in the book during the parts where she talks about pop culture things (films, music, etc) that are meaningful to her.

Brunson grew up in Philly and she writes a lot about her family and upbringing. Her elementary and high school experiences were really remarkable in ways that 1) don’t exist anymore and 2) ways I can’t even fathom having access to when I was in school. Her education experiences really shaped who she is and what remains important in her personal life.

One of the most relatable parts of her book is where she talks about the culture shock of moving from Philly to Los Angeles. I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area but I went to college in LA and I lived in LA for years. The scene down there is… unique. And so are the people, especially if they work in entertainment.

A big theme of this memoir is around Brunson staying true to who she is, what she stands for, and the family she came from. It makes for a strong first memoir and yes, there are definitely some moments where I’ve laughed out loud. I want to note a quick content warning for gun violence.

There are a number of books on the Black Panther Party and on (and by) its members. It can be hard to know where to start because the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was incredibly complicated. This book organizes the information with neither overly glorifying nor sugarcoating the complexity and I think it’s a good entry-point.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (later shortened to the Black Panther Party) was a radical political organization that was founded here where I am, in Oakland, CA. Many people associate the Black Panther Party with violence and while that is not completely unfair, it is definitely not the whole picture. I think that’s one of the things that I really love about this book. It gives you the tough stuff right alongside the wonderful, truly transformative stuff that the Black Panthers did.

It is very notable that the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense rose as a response to and in contrast to the non-violent civil rights movement. Congressman John Lewis’ and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s non-violence stance did not mean there wasn’t violence. The activists practiced nonviolence but their opposition, the police and others who upheld white supremacy, were still incredibly violent. This context is what gave birth to the Black Panthers: that Black people have the right to protect ourselves and our community from brutality. This graphic history has the text of the original Ten Point Program, of what the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense wanted and believed. I’ll be honest: reading that was really hard because it’s stuff we’re still fighting for decades later.

This book teaches about so many radical things the Black Panthers accomplished, like the free breakfast program, community clinics, and schools. We learn about many of the key members and how the Black Panthers inspired other such groups around the nation as well as satellites of the Black Panthers themselves. Readers also learn the many ways in which the party was taken down, both externally and internally, much at the hands of the FBI.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the artwork, which is perfection. There are so many people mentioned that I could not fully keep track of all the moving parts without the artwork. It helped the story feel more real, especially when at least in my life it always felt a bit like legend.

Content warnings for violence, police violence, racism in particular anti-Blackness, and substance use.

Kindred is one of my favorite pieces of speculative fiction. It’s one of those books that is so intense that I find myself frequently clenching my jaw or holding my breath while reading. The book is pretty violent both physically and psychologically and this graphic novelization adds multiple new levels to the terror.

The first page is the prologue. It is artwork of our protagonist, Dana, in a hospital bed. The words, “I lost an arm on my last trip home” are the only words on the page. The artwork is a gut-punch and if you haven’t read Kindred at all, you won’t know why until much later.

The present time in the book is June 1976. Dana, a Black woman author, and her husband Kevin, who is white, just moved into a house in Altadena, California down in Los Angeles County. Dana and Kevin are working on unpacking boxes and Dana starts feeling funny, like she’s going to pass out. She suddenly finds herself not in her new house but on the bank of a river and there’s a little boy that looks like he’s drowning. His mother is screaming his name (Rufus) and Dana jumps in the water, grabs the kid, and brings him to shore. His mom starts hitting Dana and yelling that Dana killed the kid and Dana starts administering CPR and saves Rufus’s life. Suddenly there’s a voice yelling “What’s going on?” and a click. Dana turns around to see there’s a rifle in her face and then instantly she appears back in her home with Altadena a few feet from where she had disappeared right in front of Kevin. She’s wet, covered in mud, and terrified. Kevin says Dana had disappeared for a few seconds, but to Dana, it felt like she was in that other place for a few minutes.

Some time later, maybe a few days, it happens again. Dana disappears from her dinner table with Kevin and suddenly finds herself in a bedroom, where Rufus, who is a bit older, has put himself in danger and Dana saves him again. Rufus and his mother were both white, and the clothes they were wearing look like they’re from a hundred-fifty years earlier. Dana learns that it’s the year 1815 and they are on a plantation, owned by Rufus’s father. Dana’s present and Rufus’s past are inextricably linked as she keeps getting sucked back to this awful, terrifying time to save his life.

Content warnings for graphic violence, racism, suicide, and sexual assault.

Bree Matthews and her best friend Alice are attending the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Early College Program. Bree is Black and Alice is Taiwanese-American and they saw this program as the best way for two girls from marginalized backgrounds to get out of their small, rural North Carolina town. Bree’s mom attended UNC and it’s always been a dream of Bree’s to go, though her mom didn’t like that idea for reasons unbeknownst to Bree.

During their first night on campus, Bree and Alice find themselves at the traditional (and illegal) first-year student cliff-jumping at Eno Quarry. At the quarry, things take a turn for the magical and frightening. After witnessing a little too much, Bree runs away and is arrested along with Alice who takes them back to campus. The next morning, the dean’s office summons them both and they are assigned peer mentors, second-year Early College Program students who have made better choices. Bree’s peer mentor is Nick Davis. He’s trying to be friendly and walk her back to her dorm when things get weird, magical, and terrifying again. Bree stumbles upon some large, glowing, absolutely frightening creature. It tries to attack but Nick jumps between her and the monster and tells her to run. Bree passes out and wakes up in one of the giant stately homes off campus. Nick brought her there, to their healer.

Nick is part of a secret society and is what is called Legendborn, a direct descendent of King Arthur and his round table. They assume Bree must be one of them, because she saw the hellhound and normal people can’t. Meanwhile, Bree has close to no idea what is going on but everyone else there thinks she knows more than she is letting on. Once Bree knows this little bit, she can’t unknow it. And maybe she has more of a connection than she realizes. So she plans on infiltrating this secret society.

There is so much in this book. Different kinds of magics, lots of monsters, both the human kind and the fantastical, Black girl magic, of course, and tons of fun.

Content warnings: the book immediately starts with our main character’s mother’s death and additional content warnings for lots of racism. This is the first book in a series and the second is due out later this year.

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Full disclosure: I have not read the original novel by Gabby Rivera but this graphic novel is incredibly good. It starts with a letter from our heroin, Juliet Milagros Palante to Harlowe Brisbane, the author of Raging Flower, a feminist book that Juliet is reading. In the letter, Juliet interrogates the author’s white feminism and asks if there is a place for her, a queer Puerto Rican teen from the Bronx. She hears that Harlowe is working on writing another book and offers her services as an intern to help inject more melanin into the content.

Three months later Juliet will be heading to Portland, Oregon to be Harlowe’s intern. But before she gets on the plane she is determined to come out to her family. They don’t know she’s a lesbian. Well, her little brother Melvin does. Juliet’s family doesn’t take her coming out very well and she heads off to Portland on a sour note. Juliet has a girlfriend, Lainie, who she is head over heels for but to an outsider Lainie just looks like a whole field full of red flags. Juliet gets to Portland and is starstruck by Harlowe. We quickly learn that Harlowe might be a bit too head-in-the-clouds-and-the-clouds-are-in-fairyland and also she is a mess. Again, lots of red flags here.

This story has so many layers. Yes, it’s about Juliet coming into her own but it’s also a story about queer people of color doing all kinds of groundwork and then a white queer woman taking the credit. It’s such an accurate portrayal of a queer white woman feeling guilty because she has privilege but then somehow making that the problem of the people of color in the queer community. It’s also a beautiful portrayal of the importance of queer people of color being in community with other queer people of color. This book is a story about Juliet finding her people and it’s amazing and beautiful and heartbreaking and really, really important.

KC Davis is a therapist who has a really popular TikTok account, @DomesticBlisters. A lot of her content is about cleaning. I’m not talking about vacuuming your mattress every night or labeling everything you own or organizing all your belongings in Roy G Biv order. I’m talking about the chores, or as Davis calls them, the care tasks, that seem like they’re simple for other people but when you have depression, ADHD, physical disabilities, chronic pain, trauma, lack of support etc. even the thought of doing these things can be overwhelming and fill you with deep shame when you can’t bring yourself to do them. It could be folding laundry, doing laundry at all, changing your sheets, brushing your teeth, washing dishes, or something else. If you are a person who does all of these things regularly and without issue, then this book is probably not for you. But if you, like me, have ever sat on your kitchen floor and cried at the prospect of doing a mountain of dishes, then I think you will get something out of this book.

The center of this book is this: You do not work for your home; your home works for you. KC Davis offers a helpful perspective on ways to make your home work for you. This book isn’t all tips and tricks (though honestly, why do baby onesies need to be folded?). The author wants to help put a stop to the shame that builds up over care tasks and not having the capacity to do them. She tells readers over and over that we are not bad people if we have a messy home. We still deserve things like love and rest and fun even if the laundry isn’t done.

This book is big on self-compassion and practicality. It stresses the importance of care tasks as kindnesses to yourself, sometimes your present self, sometimes your future self, like how washing the coffee pot tonight is a kindness to your morning self so you have a clean pot to make coffee in. If you’re into different tidying methods or cleaning shortcuts, there are definitely some of those offered in this book as well.

In the introduction, the author asks, “Where are all the stories about little swarthy-skinned robber trans girls waving tiny knives made of bone? About trans teenage witches with golden eyes who cut out their own hearts and lock them in boxes so that awful guys on the internet will never break them again? About trans girls who lost their father in the war and their mother to disease, and who go forth to find where Death lives and make him give them back?” This novel is a reply to these questions. Not only a reply, but a scream, a yell, and a song.

The protagonist is an older teen, Asian trans girl who runs away from a city called Gloom. She leaves her parents, who have expectations of her to not be trans and to go to university, among other things. She also leaves her little sister Charity to whom she writes letters that are scattered through this book. Our protagonist is a kung-fu expert and she has a companion who is a ghost. One more thing: our protagonist is a pathological liar.

Upon her arrival to the City of Smoke & Lights, she is found by Kimaya, a fierce femme who takes in all the trans girls seeking love, community, safety, and home. The epicenter of the city where the fiercest femmes can be found is called the Street of Miracles. The Street of Miracles has its own history/mythology and it keeps the inhabitants safe. We meet more fierce femmes as well. Kimaya runs the Femme Alliance Building, known as FAB, which is a health and social services center for trans women and sex workers.

At one point, one of their group gets murdered. A number of them then form the Lipstick Lacerators, a revenge gang who runs around terrorizing and beating the crap out of the men who would see trans women as victims. Remember, our protagonist is a kung-fu expert and things get very violent.

Content warnings for rape and molestation, transphobic hate speech, violence including murder of trans women, and self-harm.

Harvard University professor Annette Gordon-Reed is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and a Texan. In this quintessential book, she explores the confluence of the various historical happenings that brought us to Juneteenth. This book was actually written and published just prior to President Joe Biden signing Juneteenth into law as a federal holiday in June 2021. This doesn’t surprise me as there have been activists fighting for years to get Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday.

Juneteenth, at its heart, began as a uniquely Black Texan holiday and it’s important to remember that. It originally commemorated June 19, 1865, the day that enslaved Blacks in Texas were freed. Texas was the last state in the Confederacy to have enslaved people and Juneteenth was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Gordon-Reed unpacks the labyrinthine history of Texas to explain why Texas was the last holdout of slavery. She also gives a very different history lesson than what we’re taught in U.S. schools about perhaps who the first Black people to step foot on this land were and how truly diverse Texas’s history and topography is. It’s not all white men, cowboy hats, and tumbleweeds as popular media would lead folks to believe.

The author also weaves in her personal story and family history as Black Texans, which only adds to the already fascinating writing. As she goes through the sordid and complicated history of the Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, white, Black, and more folks who converged in Texas and does not leave the racist portions of Texas’s history and present untouched, she also unabashedly loves her home state and tells readers why Texas is worthy of her love.

I learned so much from this very short book and it upended so many of my preconceived notions about Texas’s history and its present. It is definitely worth a read!