Review: Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This may be an unpopular opinion.

After reading glowing reviews of this book and listening to several passionate reviews with the author about his research and intentions, I was excited to read this book. It was quite a slog for me but I kept coming back to it to try to see what others were seeing.

Around halfway, the parts did coalesce and I felt I could finally sink into the story, but it also grew in violence at this point. So I take issue with two major components - this reads like a mind-dump first draft and I found there to be way too much detail even for an epic fantasy. Less is more! Revision is your friend! Along the same vein, the dialogue was often redundant and slowed the pacing down (I really noticed this at the end when I needed it to wrap up already.)

Part of the praise for the novel is that it has gay characters and is based in mythologies and folklore of the African continent, which is wonderful and I would like to see more of this. Diversity and representation matter. But the content also includes horrifying rape scenes and child abuse that are made more awful because the children are made to survive through magic. Am I just the wrong audience for epic fantasy? It's possible. But I did not feel my time was justified for pushing through to the end.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I really did read the entire thing before coming to this conclusion.
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Review: Halal If You Hear Me: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3

Halal If You Hear Me: The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3 by Fatimah Asghar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This collection is the third in the BreakBeat Poets series, all of which are highly recommends - The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop followed by The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic. There are some poets shared between this volume and the others, although this one focuses on poets of Muslim identities, often at the intersection of blackness and brownness, or claiming space inside/next to Muslim identity for varying gender and sexual identities. All through words, transcribed, proclaimed, and collected here.

Two poets I have previously appreciated edited the volume - Safia Elhillo (The January Children) and Fatimah Asghar (If They Come for Us.) Some of my previous favorites are represented here as well - Tarfia Faizullah Registers of Illuminated Villages: Poems and Warsan Shire (you may know her best from being the poet behind the spoken parts of Beyonce's Lemonade.) Many of the poets I have encountered previously in some of the new-generation African or African American poet chapbook sets from Akashic, but it felt like most of the poems in this collection were new.

Some of my favorite discoveries in this volume:

Nadra Mabrouk - Memory in Which We Are Not Singing But You Are Home
Sahar Romani - Burden of Proof (available at The Offing Magazine
H.H. - QM
Zaina Alsous - On Longing (available at Glass: A Journal of Poetry)

But it's all good. All recommended.

I did receive a review copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss, but this was pretty much a sure thing for me to read regardless. It comes out April 23, 2019.

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Review: The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in

The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in by Ayser Salman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this memoir from Ayser Salman - it is full of funny and relatable moments, magnified by occasional cultural misunderstandings. Ayser moved from Iraq to Ohio to Saudi Arabia, and experiences awkwardness everywhere. The memoir finishes up in the almost present day, with stories about dating in her 40s. I love the interactions with her parents in particular.

I received a copy from the publisher through Edelweiss, and it came out 5 March 2019.

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Review: The Bird King

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in 1491 during the reign of the last sultanate in the Iberian peninsula, this novel tells the story of Fatima, the concubine to the sultan, and her friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. With the enemy at the gate, Fa and Hassan attempt an escape with the help of a jinn.

Wilson blends fantasy and magic with history, morphing into an epic adventure, and I love that the story is told through two characters who have never been free until now.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy through Edelweiss. It came out March 12.

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Reading Envy 145: Things Get Dark

Bianca joins Jenny for a late-night chat about books, and we follow all tangents to the end. We cover cults, manga and comics, and middle-grade reads. Bianca talks about her monthly themed reads in 2018 and how that has inspired her focused reading in 2019. Jenny begs your forgiveness for a few coughing spells; allergies have hit early in the south. (She edited everything out that she could.)

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 145: Things Get Dark

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Books discussed:



Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs
Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
My Brother's Husband Vol. 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Other mentions:

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole
Big Love (tv show)
Serafina and the Black Cloak book trailer
Biltmore Estate
Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty
Over the Rainbow Booklist final bibliographies for 2018
Heavy Vinyl (comic series)
Backstagers (comic series)
Boom Studios
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Phoenix ComiCon (formerly known as)
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Related Episodes:

Episode 051 - Dreaming in Books with Karen
Episode 127 - The Sadness Between Books with Bianca Escalante

Stalk us online:
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Bianca is @bianca on Litsy

Review: Bottled Goods (Fairlight Moderns): Longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction 2019

Bottled Goods (Fairlight Moderns): Longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 by Sophie van Llewyn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had not heard of this book before it was announced as one of the Women's Prize long list. It is a short read told in flash style, like lists and little vignettes, set in Romania during the Ceaușescu era (1970s.)

Alina married a man in a lower class and really starts to regret it when his brother leaves the country without permission, making them a new target for the secret police. Mix that kind of oppression and intrigue with a folksy fantasy element and you end up with a unique read! I loved the ending, at least how I interpret it. If you read it, let me know so we can confer.

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Review: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you have followed Ruth Reichl through her memoirs, this takes place between Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise and My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, telling the story of her experience as the editor for Gourmet Magazine up until its shocking closure. I feel this memoir is for foodies first, but will also be of interest for anyone in publishing or the arts. The people working for Gourmet cultivated an environment of creative exploration and perfection that made the magazine what it is, and I loved reading about each person's contributions and how the magazine reflected the changing culture of food in the United States. There's an entire chapter, for instance, about the publication of "Consider the Lobster" by David Foster Wallace, which I had no idea was first published in Gourmet!

In a different voice, I can see how this story could be obnoxious. So many famous people, so many fancy meals and expensive restaurants, so many trends in food and fashion. But Ruth Reichl is so direct, honest, and open that the story transforms into something more heartwarming than it feels it has the right to be.

Unlike My Kitchen Year which is sometimes referred to as a cookbook (although I personally still feel it is more memoir than recipe), this memoir only has 3-4 recipes. I have my eye on that chocolate cake that helped her establish kitchen credibility with her staff. If I make it, I'll come back to post a link here.

This book comes out April 2. I received an early copy from Random House through NetGalley.

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