cosmicbookworm's reviews
309 reviews

Isabel Wilkerson's book "Caste" was sitting on my shelf waiting to be read when an opportunity for a buddy read for her book The Warmth of Other Suns came to my attention. I'm so glad I took the challenge and am thankful for the Bookstagram opportunity to learn from and interact with others who have life experiences far different from my own.

 "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson is an important work that chronicles the Great Migration and explores themes of racism, resilience, and the human spirit. It is impossible to understand American society and its current context if we don't know history. This book is a must-read for everyone, as it offers valuable insight into our shared history. Wilkerson's dedication of 15 years to this project reflects her commitment to preserving and sharing this crucial history. Her masterpiece is historically significant and beautifully written. Wilkerson brings history to life.

Through meticulous research, powerful storytelling, and a novelistic approach, Wilkerson, a journalist turned historian,  recounts the experiences of African Americans who moved from the Southern United States to other regions of the country between 1915 and 1970, fundamentally transforming the landscape of America. Through the personal narratives of individuals like Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, Wilkerson brings to life the challenges, triumphs, and complexities faced by those who undertook this journey. By intertwining these personal stories with the broader context of institutionalized racism, Wilkerson illuminates the societal forces that shaped this mass movement of millions of people.

I highly recommend Wilkerson's work to anyone interested in understanding our past and present. 

In "The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend," Sara lives alone with her books near Stockholm. She observes the world from behind a book and uses books to escape life. Books are her defensive wall. Josephssons Bokhandel has closed, so Sara is now an unemployed bookseller. 

Sara and Amy Harris had been pen-pals for a couple of years when Amy, an elderly resident of Broken Wheel, Iowa, invited Sara to spend a couple of months with her in Iowa. However, when Sara arrived at Broken Wheel, she discovered that Amy had just passed away. Broken Wheel is a small town in Cedar County in eastern Iowa (not southern Iowa), struggling to maintain its relevance.

When Sara comes to Broken Wheel, she is transformed into someone who can brighten the lives of those around her by connecting them with books that add meaning to their lives. She soon becomes a beloved member, albeit one with an expiring travel visa. Through Sara's story, the author weaves a tale of human connection, portraying how shared literature can spark community. 

I find value in this novel with the highlighted themes, which are the importance of human connections and relationships in fostering a sense of belonging and the role of books in shaping personal growth and understanding. It provides a platform for discussions on empathy, acceptance, cultural exchange, and the value of literature in enriching lives and uniting people from diverse backgrounds.

The narrative begins to unravel when Sara's travel visa is nearing expiration, necessitating her return home. The storyline becomes more fractured, with a community rallying for Sara's stay, a suggested arranged marriage to facilitate this, and a romance between a 25-year-old and a 44-year-old that adds intrigue but seems irrelevant. Despite Tom's view that talk is futile, effective communication among the characters could have resolved many issues, and the happily ever after ending may have seemed more realistic. I had a hard time finishing the book because of the disjointed ending.

In his book, "The Sword and The Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.", Peniel E. Joseph, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), challenges the stereotypes we have grown up with about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.  

Martin Luther King Jr. is often stereotyped as a peaceful, nonviolent civil rights leader who advocated for integration and equality through love and passive resistance. Malcolm X is commonly stereotyped as the militant civil rights activist who promoted separatism and self-defense in the struggle for racial equality and advocated for black pride and empowerment. Malcolm X often carries a perception in collective memory as a more radical or confrontational figure, and maybe even dangerous.

Oversimplified portrayals of these historical figures can obscure their true selves. By comparing the lives of King and Malcolm X in a dual biography that covers their lifetimes, focusing on their involvement in the Civil Rights movement, Johnson demonstrates how these two individuals, as well as those who were involved in their movements, aimed to achieve a common objective: securing fairness, justice, dignity and respect for an oppressed community. Johnson's book offers a fresh perspective on the Civil Rights movement.

I highly recommend this book to those looking to enhance their understanding of the Black American experience.

The poems in "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear" revolve around themes of impermanence, loss, resilience, yearning, memory, and the struggle to find meaning and comfort amidst upheaval and displacement. They explore the human experience of grappling with powerlessness and uncertainty and searching for connection, hope, and belonging amid dire circumstances. A must-read for anyone looking for an awareness of the Palestinian struggle.

In Radical Reparations, Marcus Anthony Hunter discusses reparations in seven areas: political, intellectual, legal, economic, spatial, social, and spiritual. Among other things, reparations must involve ensuring representation, seeking restorative justice, repairing the social fabric, reclaiming cultural heritage, and expanding opportunities. Hunter emphasizes that we cannot reduce the idea of reparations to a simple monetary calculation.

I was drawn to this book because of a respect for Dr. Hunter's work. Formerly a high school English teacher, Hunter realized his knowledge gap about the Black experience and began pursuing his self-education. He has a wealth of knowledge from which we can benefit. The book has a beautiful cover and a compelling narrative, but it differs from what I expected. I found it to be disjointed. It includes several lengthy parables that are hard to tie into the discussion. It would have been more helpful to deal with specific reasons for reparations directly.

Despite my disappointment with this book, it is worth your time, even if you choose to skim through the middle part and concentrate on the last chapter. I greatly respect Dr. Hunter's work and look forward to following his future projects.

Thank you, Amistad and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. #RadicalReparations #NetGalley

In "How Ableism Fuels Racism," Lamar Hardwick examines the interconnectedness of ableism and racism, highlighting how both contribute to the marginalization and devaluation of individuals as 'inferior.'  He explores the role the Church has played in both. 

Hardwick confronts the issue that theology has been used to create ableism, racism, sexism, and capitalism and has been used to benefit a protected class of people. This is a message that I feel bears repeating again and again as it is met with continual resistance, especially by those who are among the protected. "Evangelical Christians have an ever-present need to avoid the consequences of being complicit in helping to establish a system that perpetuates bias against bodies that are considered abnormal." Amen.

Dr. Hardwick takes on the idea of "original sin" and that disability results from original sin or the fall. He presents the concept of decentering faith, which is, in his words, an expansion project in contrast to deconstruction, which he refers to as a demolition project.

I appreciate Dr. Hardwick's struggle as an adult who has come to realize that some of his lifelong struggles are due to autism, not recognized earlier in life. 

The underlying question is, "How do we dismantle the image that able-bodiedness equals goodness and that Back bodies are inherently disabled?

Hardwick states it as a fact that disabled people are systematically encouraged to marry only other disabled people without the threat of losing health benefits, saying that marriage penalties shame disabled people into remaining unmarried by threatening them with poverty and death. This is an area that is unfamiliar to me and which I want to research further. There is a chapter where Hardwick discusses a disabled God, and I must admit that this concept flies over my head. Some of his discussion seems redundant even though the book is a relatively short 192 pages. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Brazos Press, for sharing an ebook version  ARC in exchange for an honest review.  #HowAbleismFuelsRacism #NetGalley

Mockingbird Summer is a compelling YA coming-of-age story that primarily takes place during the summer of 1964. It apparently has not been intentionally written as a YA book. The story is centered on the 1960s, the decade I grew up in. However, I was 7 when the main protagonist, Corky, was 13. While Corky seemed just as naive as I was back then, her age allowed her to have life experiences that were not yet a reality for me.

The narrative revolves around Corky, a thirteen-year-old protagonist, and secondary protagonists, 16-year-old America and Mack, who is college-aged. Their relationships with other characters shape the storyline.

Set in the small town of High Cotton, Texas, the arrival of a Haitian family, including 16-year-old America, who can run like the wind, sets off a chain of events that profoundly impacts the community. When America joins the local Baptist girls' softball team, the town's racist residents go to great lengths to impede her participation. Corky gradually understands the racial divisions prevalent during this turbulent period through her admiration for America.

The incorporation of themes and elements from the classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" enhances the storytelling, emphasizing the importance of doing what is right, regardless of the consequences. The book tackles racial divisions head-on, shedding light on the inherent ugliness that can permeate society.

I like the author's statement that while a journalist's job is to tell what is true, a novelist's job is to tell what is truth. She goes on to say "to create a world in which you'd want to live, in which everything is just, even if only in the end." That part is a stretch. Our world is still not just, so I do not believe it is a novelist's job to make it look as if it were.

While the ending is enjoyable, some readers will find it simplistic. The story effectively delivers a powerful message. Mockingbird Summer is a thought-provoking book that will appeal to those who appreciate narratives focused on racial and gender inequalities.

The book "I Saw Them Standing There" begins slowly, but things pick up after the author, a young Beatles fan, meets the band at the Warwick Hotel. We are 1/3 into the book when we find the author standing in front of her beloved band with a bag of Beatles' rubbish she had collected, which starts to drip onto the floor. From there, the story becomes more interesting. 

Debbie Gendler is not your average high school student. She has great courage and persuades her mother to travel with her to London. She even writes a letter to a London publication claiming to be the editor of her high school newspaper, Drumbeats, and expresses her interest in a career in journalism. Gendler's experience as a Beatles fan differed from mine as a 4th grader in a small midwestern town. She had a lot more hutzpah than any high schooler I knew then. This kind of hutzpah gave her some exciting memories to write about. She takes us on a wild ride through her fan club activities, including a trip to Liverpool to meet with the families of the famous group. 

The book is a mix of a lifelong memoir and a scrapbook, but Gendler also includes quite a bit about music, family trivia, and history. Gendler's interest has spanned her life, including a 1980s fan club, a class at UCLA, and personal relationships with the four Beatles and several of their family members. She brings us through the later lives and music of the Beatles members, as well as the legal issues they faced through the years. 

Gendler's early interest in the Beatles became a lifetime of interesting experiences. She takes us through her experiences and down several related bunny trails that sometimes seem a bit unnecessary. It was a fun ride, living vicariously through her storytelling.

Thank you to Edelweiss, Debbie Gentler and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While the ending was good, the overall experience of the book is underwhelming. I do appreciate the central theme of the significance of leaving abusive relationships, as it is an essential topic that warrants discussion. Young women who have witnessed their mothers staying with abusive partners certainly need to be exposed to alternative possibilities. It is concerning that anyone could view someone like Ryle, with his ridiculous outlook on relationships (or lack thereof), as a suitable candidate for marriage. Not only do ladies need to know that it is okay to leave an abusive relationship, but they also need to know how to be careful about who they form long-term relationships with in the first place. There are also several plausibility problems with the story.