Black Girl, Call Home

Black Girl, Call Home a book of poems by Jasmine Mans is a personal journey through race, feminism, and sexuality. Jasmine Mans is a Black American poet whose debut book of poetry Chalk Outlines of Snow Angels was first published in 2012. In her latest collection of poems, Mans explores the relationship between her sexuality and race and how they were shaped by her relationship with her mother and the importance of home. You see that from the first poem in the collection “I Ain’t Gon’ Be Bald-Headed No More” where it touches about the importance of hair especially when it relates to Black females and how her mother was going to make her pretty by styling her hair, to the last poem “Brown Marks” which equates female stretch marks to a map home.

Poetry is my first love, but I usually disdain most modern poetry. I grew up reading Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. And have always wondered what happens to a dream deferred. Modern poetry does nothing for me, but I can recognize when something is profound and well written. I have very little in common with Jasmine Mans other than both of us being born female and neither of us identifying as straight, but there were poems in this volume that spoke to me in ways that very few modern poems do. Her mother could have been my mother braiding my hair for the first day of school so that, in my mind, I could look pretty.

Her poems also touch on famous Black celebrities: Jay-Z, Kanye, Serena Williams, and Whitney Houston. There is also a tribute to Michelle Obama and how very important Barack Obama’s presidency was and not only because he was the first African-American president, but because his presidency shone a light on his family and it gave little black girls everywhere someone to look up to. Someone who looked like them was in the White House and maybe someday it could be them.

My favorite poems, probably because I can relate to them more, are “Dear Ex-Lover” and “Invite Me.” The first is a letter written to an ex detailing how she’ll get over her ex by marrying a man and having a daughter. And the line “If she ever falls in love with a woman; I’ll love bravery down her spine,” is still taking up space in my mind. It’s a beautiful poem about raising our daughters to be braver than we ever hoped to be when it comes down to holding on to love. “Invite Me” is about holding on to the person we love until we become one.

So, no this isn’t my favorite book of poetry that I own, but I will revisit some of these poems.

**A digital copy was provided free of charge from NetGalley in return of a review

Land of Big Numbers

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen is a collection of short stories that are told by or about Chinese people. Although, most of the stories do take place in China there are an odd couple that are set outside of China with Chinese characters. The stories do not seem to be interconnected and for the most part can be read as individual stories. They are beautifully written with compelling characters and beautiful imagery. The majority of the stories are bound in reality although a couple dabbling into magical realism.

The stories are short enough to be read in one sitting which makes them much more enjoyable because it becomes almost like reading a snippet of someone’s life. And that’s what these stories feel like, a glimpse into a life we know little about and we are given this one tiny window to look in before it is shut again. To expect these to be traditional stories with a plot and conclusion is to be disappointed. But, the stories are satisfying in what they do offer a snippet into fantastically ordinary people and the decisions they make that veer them off the course that had been set for them.

More than anything, these stories read like they should be an English class assignment. With enough beautifully written prose and sufficient questions of what ifs to make an interesting class discussion. What if the twins in the first story hadn’t been twins. If they had been born as individual births would they have made the same decisions and ended in the same places? If the old man had been accepted into the communist party early on would he still have the same desire to make things out of discarded pieces of people’s lives?

This is the kind of book I revisit when I need something quick and beautiful to read because no matter how incomplete some of these stories feel there is no denying that they are beautiful.

An e-ARC of this book was provided free of charge by NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Ten Things I Hate About the Duke

Pairing: M/F
Orientation: straight
Identity: cisgender
Genre: historical romance

Loretta Chase was one of the first historical romance authors that I ever read. The first time I picked up one of her books I was in high school, and at the time I found it scandalous and so very sexy. Of course, my reading before this consisted mostly of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Dean Koontz, so even a hint of romance was enough to make my sixteen year old heart swoon. Soon, I was devouring all the historical romance I could find from Julie Garwood to Johanna Lindsey from Jude Deveraux to Brenda Joyce and Judith McNaught. But it was Chase that opened the door to reading about Dukes and their Duchesses, Highlanders and their fair maidens, and the Lords and Ladies of the Ton.

When the opportunity arose to read Loretta Chase’s latest historical, Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, I was excited. And then about half way through, I remembered why I stopped reading most historical romance authors. I probably couldn’t list ten things I hated about this book, but I’d be hard pressed to list ten things that I liked.

Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, is the story of Cassandra Pomfrey, an intellectual young woman who doesn’t wish to marry and have her life dictated by a man, and Lucious Duke of Ashmont, a rake who causes scandal and mischief wherever he goes. So pretty much the same characters that appear in 89% of all historical romance novels, and usually I don’t mind these stock characters except they weren’t interesting. There was nothing about either character that was different than any number of other characters in other romance novels. These people for as different and rakish as they purported to be were in fact boring. There was a lot of telling not showing. And if there was a plot outside of just the two of them getting together, I failed to see it.

This was also a slow burn that never really got above tepid. I read a lot of romance novels, and this one just wasn’t steamy or sexy. It was at best lukewarm. When we finally did get to the one and only sex scene all i could think of was that scene in Ten Things I Hate About You and how it read like the romance novel the principal was writing. Which might be what Chase was going for since it’s pretty obvious she took inspiration from the film and you know Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.

I probably won’t read another Loretta Chase book, but reading this book reminded me how much I actually enjoy historical romance novels. After twenty years of reading romance, I’ve ventured way outside of what Chase’s audience is, but she was a great gateway to one of the greatest pleasures in my life.

This book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Haunting of Beatrix Greene – Episode 1

Genre: Gothic Horror Romance

Pairing: M/F

The Haunting of Beatrix Green Episode 1 by Rachel Hawkings, Ash Parsons, and Vicky Alvear Schecter is a cooperative novel that is currently available through Serial Box where it is released in weekly installments. I received the full novel version from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The story revolves around Beatrix Green, a fake spiritualist, who makes her living providing closure to people who have lost loved ones. As per the book’s description: “In Victorian England a savvy spiritual medium must outsmart the most important client of her career: a scientist determined to expose frauds like her,” and then something about wits and fatal consequences blah blah blah. That just covers the first 10% of the book, we learn pretty early on that the scientist, James Walker, is only exposing frauds because he is in need of a real spiritualist and is under the belief that Beatrix is it.

James Walker needs someone to help exorcise spirits from his family home so he can let go of the past before he makes a new future for himself in America. And this is where the bulk of the story takes place, Ashbury Manor. An ancient residence with a tragic past and evil within. James, Beatrix, Harry, Beatrix’s friend and sidekick, Amanda Reynolds, an American photographer, and Stanhope all gather in the manor to try and communicate with the dead in order to rid the house of what haunts it.

It is during the first night in the house and the seance that is performed we learn, and Beatrix too apparently, that Ms. Green is not actually a fraud. She seems to have a connection to the otherworld that made it possible for spirits to communicate through her. It is at this point that the book becomes more of a haunted house story with a smattering of romance thrown in, for no real good reason, than anything else. It was also at this point and later toward the climax of the story that all I could think about was the movie “Monster House.” Although I love the movie, I’m not saying that as a compliment. Some descriptions of the going ons in the house were laughable at best.

It might just be my imagination but the slight shifts in tone between one chapter to the next when there was a switch in writers was kinda obvious. This probably works really well as a serial when you have a week between episodes and don’t have two competing voices in your head. It was an enjoyable read, but not one I felt the need to finish, I started this back before Halloween, so yeah, or to see what was going to happen. It was predictable and at the end of the day couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a horror or romance, so it ended not being either.

There are Things I Can’t Tell You

Pairing: M/M
Orientation: gay, bisexual
Identity: cisgender

There are Things I Can’t Tell You by Edako Mofumofu is such a well told story about friendship and how there are certain things that you keep even from your closest friend. The manga revolves around two young men who meet in junior high, and how their relationship evolves from simple childhood friendship to something that becomes more difficult to describe as they grow older and their feelings for each other deepen. It is a book about facing personal biases while navigating the often difficult course of young adulthood.

Kasumi and Kyousuke are complete opposites. While Kasumi is shy, reserved and keeps mostly to himself, Kyousuke is often the center of attention, always around friends and not afraid to go after what he wants. Growing up, they are often each other’s pillar of strength. Kasumi sees Kyousuke as a hero, saving him from bullies, and Kyousuke sees Kasumi as the calmness in the middle of the tsunami that is his life.

I really enjoyed this book and it’s exploration of friendship and how that can deepen into love. I really liked the fact that the relationship wasn’t manipulative or one sided. There was no unnecessary miscommunication or misunderstanding. Everything these two boys did, even those things that hurt each other, they did because they believed that it would make the other happy. As misguided as that was, the thing they could not tell each other was that the other’s happiness was more important than their own.

***I was provided a digital copy of this title by NetGalley for an honest review.

The Assistant by John Tristan

Pairing: MM
Orientation: Gay
Identity: Cisgender, Trans.

Warning: discussion of depression, dealing with a chronic illness/disability, depiction of a D/s relationship between boss and employee, and a heavy caning scene.

The Assistant is Nick Kurosawa who is a former soldier battling with depression as he drifts from job to job and from one meaningless back alley encounter after another. Nick has found himself in a place where he doesn’t know how to move forward, but understands that he can’t stay stagnant. His one and only friend, Alex, gets him an interview for a position as a personal assistant to the secretive Jacob Umber.

The book is about the relationship that develops between the two men. The way they move from boss and employee to a more emotional and at times physical relationship. If the book had been longer, I would call it a slow burn, but since it isn’t I felt a bit stilted. We get almost fifty percent into the book before the relationship between the men begins to develop, during which time we get to know our main character Nick, but not much else. The book is almost three quarters done before the”mystery” of Jacob Umber begins to unravel and honestly it didn’t add much to the book or the relationship.

I felt the “romance” in this book was very one sided and forced. I’m not a newbie to D/s books and I felt that even though the very few mature scenes we got were very well done they weren’t anything that couldn’t have been in a scene between two strangers playing for the night.

I really enjoyed John Tristan’s writing. I just wish he would have written more. I think this book could have been a five star read if it were longer. If we had more time to explore the relationship between Nick and Jacob. If we had more time to figure out who Jacob was. After the the first half of the book, the rest of it felt rushed.

*The eARC of the book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange of an honest review.