Hey everyone, I hope you’ve been having a good week! I also hope you’ve been staying safe and healthy!
So far in July, I’ve read four books, and today I wanted to talk about what I finished reading recently.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy!
The Week of July 5-July 11
The first book I finished in July was All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. It’s a thriller centered around the disappearance of a girl in a small town in North Carolina, and how that shook up everyone in the town, especially those who knew her. We start the book ten years after the disappearance, following Nicolette as she comes back to the town for the first time since the disappearance of her friend, and during this visit another girl disappears. It was a fun thriller I enjoyed reading up until the ending (which I thought was a bit to “everything works out perfectly for everyone” sort of a deal), so I gave it a 3/5 stars. I would recommend it if you haven’t read a lot of thrillers and are looking to get into the genre, or if you are looking for something that’s not too complex of a plot line.
The next book I read was a poetry collection called Glamourpuss by Cat Fitzpatrick. Her poetry follows her experiences as a transgender woman, and I really liked it! I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but I love how she plays around with different poem structures and how that affects the tone of each poem. The writing style also made it easy to understand the poems, and so it could be one of those books you could read all in one sitting, or one where you want to sit and think about the poem you just read. I gave it a 4.5/5 stars, and I definitely recommend checking this out if you love poetry and are interested in reading more about the trans experience from a more personal perspective.
The Week of July 12-July 17
Earlier this week, I finished reading The Keeper’s Vow by Francina Simone, which is a YA urban fantasy novel. It follows our protagonist, Katie, as she discovers a new world, and by doing so, learns more about herself and the secrets being kept by those around her. I’m giving a pretty vague synopsis because I went into the story not knowing too much, and it definitely added to the reading experience. Overall, I rated it 3/5 stars, because even though I enjoyed the story and found it a fun escape from everything going on right now, the writing style didn’t always work for me, which took me out of the novel sometimes. However, it is Francina’s debut novel, and I still plan on reading the sequel Darkness Comes at Dawn.
The second book I finished this week was Blackballed: Black American Voting Rights and U.S. Electoral Politics by Darryl Pinckney. It’s a non-fiction essay discussing the history of voting rights for Black Americans, and how that has influenced politics today. I thought there were good resources in the material to use for further research, and I found some of the points brought up super interesting, but overall I gave the book a 3.5/5 stars. The main drawback for me, once again, was the writing style, as it made it hard to get through sections of the essay at times. Especially since I just finished reading Killing Rage by bell hooks (where the writing style clicked with me perfectly and made me want to read more) before reading this book, it was kind of a disappointment. However, there was an excerpt from an article Darryl Pickney wrote for The New York Review of Books titled What Black Means Now included at the end of the book, which I thought was written better for my reading taste. I also liked how it went through each time period in a more distinct way to show the connection between the past and the present. He wrote some other books, and I want to check them out, as although Blackballed isn’t one of my favorite books, I really enjoyed the article from The New York Review of Books, along with the other memoirs and such he mentioned in Blackballed.
Let me know what you’re reading! Are you enjoying your current read, or is it dragging on? Are you looking for the next book to start?
On that note, thank you for reading, and I will see you all next week with a new post! Have a good weekend ✌
-Erin 🙂
While you’re already here, why not check these links out? 😉
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
Medium: https://medium.com/@erin.nord87
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Eclectic Erin 
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