I’m writing this on Sunday and I’ve been on a bit of a writing spree. It occurred to me that I have a bunch of things that I want to write about but I just haven’t been writing. I need to fix this. I have commentary on things around me. I have funny things to say. At least I find them amusing. I have books to read and review because once upon a time I said, “Sure! That sounds interesting” to a bunch of review books that were due at the end of January/early February and surely I’d get them read by then. (Must power-read this week!) For the love of all that is bloggable, I went to freakin’ FRANCE in NOVEMBER but you wouldn’t know about it from reading my blog.
I need to get to writing.
I’m that person. I’m the one holding up the library line because this book is past due and I haven’t sent it back to the library. I feel bad (mostly about the fines accruing) but I’m in the first term of the presidency. I’ll be done soon except time reading this is time I’m not power reading those review books.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
“Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.”
This is my current audiobook. It is going to be the group read for Blackathon in February. (See my TBR post to learn more.)
This book is making me so angry. Not angry in a “This book is horrible” kind of way. Angry in a “I’m going to reach into this book and slap Xiomara’s mother” kind of way. This is pushing all my buttons. Her mother treats her as less than and assumes the worst about her because she is female and uses Christianity to support her abuse. I may be a midwestern ex-evangelical white woman and not a Dominican Catholic teenager but I’ve seen this too much to not get real angry while listening.Â
I read The Poet X last year. Great book. My weekly updates
I say those reviews for the review books will help an author in a month’s time so don’t angst too much and finishing Becoming is a great cause. Happy power reading.
I like it when a book makes me want to engage with the characters even if the engagement is an urge to punch one of them. Good luck power reading this week. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
I am in the early part of Becoming, since I’m reading it along with fiction books that are on my list. Loving it, though. Enjoy your week, and here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
You went to France! That’s awesome. I want to go there someday. The Poet X is on my TBR list, so hopefully you like it. Have a great week!