The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafa is a novel focusing on a Palestinian- American woman, Afaf Rahman, as she navigates a world that is torn apart by hate, misunderstanding, and cruelty. She is the principal of a Muslim all-girls’ school in a Chicago suburb. The story focuses on two timelines: the present where […]
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Summary What images come to mind when you hear the phrase “Silicon Valley”? A colorful workspace filled people scootering around the office while they munch on their endless assortment of vegan snacks? That might paint one picture. Anna Wiener paints a different side in her memoir, Uncanny Valley. Anna began her career as a young
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When My Riot — written by Rick Spears and with art by Emmett Helen — opens, it’s 1991 and the 17-year-old Valerie Simmons is chugging along through an average suburban life, landing her first job at an ice cream shop and training to be a ballerina. But then, a rookie police officer murders a Salvadorian
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Have you ever thought about your right to vote as a woman? Have you ever taken it for granted? You won’t feel that way after you read Stories from Suffragette City. This compilation of short stories, edited by M.J. Rose and Fiona Davis, showcases the fictitious lives of women and men in 1915 – when
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An informal solo series reviewing everything FBC founder Renee reads each month. Listen to this podcast using the player above! Mentioned in this episode: The Searcher by Tana French Genres: Contemporary literary fiction Read if you like: rural settings and classic rural characters, fish out of water stories, Tana French’s breathtaking skill of writing lush, vivid
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Synopsis Running is a debut young adult novel from Peruvian American author Natalia Sylvester. Running tells the story of Mariana Ruiz who is a Cuban American teenager and also the daughter of Florida’s Republican Senator Anthony Ruiz. Mariana has gotten used to being the daughter of a senator but that all changes when her Dad runs
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It Is Wood, It Is Stone is Gabriella Burnham’s debut novel where the female American protagonist, Linda spends a year in Sao Paolo, Brazil. She lives with her husband, Dennis who is a visiting offer of history at the University of Sao Paolo. Apart from the gorgeous cover, the novel, written from Linda’s perspective, is
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It’s easy to feel useless in the face of a white supremacist society that was created to bolster your own privilege. Sure, you can read every book on anti-racism. Support the small businesses built by those within marginalized communities. Lift up other voices. Attend rallies. But what good are you if you can only talk
In See No Stranger, Valarie Kaur Advocates for Revolutionary Love Read More »
In case you were unaware, which I hope is not the case, the primary election is coming up. On November 3rd, 2020 the United States will be engaging in a primary election following four years of an eventful presidential term. Voting is one of the most important acts that a person can do in the
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I sat (virtually) down to interview author Layne Fargo about her newest book They Never Learn (out today – Happy Publication Day!) and the very first thing out of my mouth was a chipper and excited “So, I’m not a thriller fan!” …smooth right? But what followed was an amazing conversation about how it’s ok to
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An informal solo series reviewing everything FBC founder Renee reads each month. Listen to this podcast using the player above! Mentioned in this episode: Smash It! by Francina Simone Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins (podcast episode here) Running by Natalia Sylvester (podcast episode here)
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Afterlife is Julia Alvarez’s latest novel for adults, after a hiatus of nearly fourteen years. Alvarez was born in New York but she had spent a part of her childhood in the Dominican Republic. I enjoyed her novels, be it the historical novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, a fictionalized account of the Mirabal
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