1. This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and I want to give a shout out to all my colleagues and teacher friends past and present. They inspire me every day and help me in so many ways. I was going to try to list just how they do that, but I realize that it would just be too much to catalog because it’s just that much and that often. I am just truly grateful to have so many awesome people in my life.
2. Yesterday was Mother’s Day, which I have mixed feelings about in general, though I did have a good day. My younger cousin passed away last week, so I have been thinking a lot about my aunt and other moms who have lost their children. I am also thinking about the fact that I still haven’t gotten my affairs in order, and that’s something I have been putting off for the past year. While I plan to live a long time, sometimes life has other plans, so I really need to prepare for that.
4. I haven’t done any book wrap-ups because I got to the point that I was so far behind, I didn’t know where to begin. But we’re still in the first two weeks of May so I guess I can share these recent reads:
Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J. Sindu
I listened to 3 1/2 hours of this book, and once I realized I was going to miss the book club discussion, I immediately stopped. I was intrigued by the premise, but the main character is hard for me to connect with. Even though it’s a first person narrative, I feel like I don’t understand how she thinks. For example, she’s married to Kris, but she keeps getting mad at Nisha because she’s engaged. So why is it okay for her and not Nisha? Also, I think I would be way more interested in this if I saw more of Lucky and Kris’s dynamic.
There are also some weird writing choices. There’s one part where Lucky wonders how Nisha knows somebody. Then, I swear to you, “forty minutes later” they finish a drive where Lucky doesn’t ask. WHY NOT??? It’s not even the type of thing you would wait to ask somebody. Weird.
There are also some jarring time jumps, which may work better on the page than they do in audio.
So, yeah, I won’t be finishing this one.
As an aside, I am not Sri Lankan, but I found it really odd that Lucky would call her relatives and friends brown in certain situations. She would say, “Whenever I get around brown women, I automatically do x” or “Put me in a room of brown people, and y.” Which…I mean, okay, but also they are all Sri Lankan. That would be like a Jamaican narrator saying “Put me in a room full of black women and I do x” when she specifically meant other Jamaicans. I mean, the Jamaican women may be black, but if it’s a specific cultural response to other Jamaicans, wouldn’t you say Jamaican? Or if a Mexican narrator said “brown” when she meant “Mexican.” That’s weird, right? It’s not just me who thinks that, is it?
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Yeah, so this definitely deserves the hype. It took me a few chapters to get into it and then I was hooked. I will also say that as a black woman whose rage levels are at their peak right now, this really got to some of the stuff that is bothering me, so for that, I am truly grateful.
Reread for book club on 4/21/19:
Ah, this book is SO GOOD. It would be a five-star read for me because the last half is basically unputdownable, but the beginning just takes so long to engage me. (Even this time when I knew how good it was, I had to remind myself to keep reading.) So, yes, good stuff but just give yourself a minute to get into it.
Also, I did listen to some of it on audio (Robin Miles = amazing as always) but it got my minority rage way more activated than reading with my eyeballs so I had to let that go. But! The narrative is amazing. So it was just a thing with my ~emotions~.
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Whew, this one is better than the first–mostly because the world is established so that need to establish the world is gone and also because we find out what happens to Essun’s daughter AND there’s a lot of talk of generational trauma.
Also, at some point when Jemisin was describing Castrima, all I could think is that I understand why some people HAVE to write because imagine carrying all of that around in your head forever. I’m just saying.
So, obviously, I’m reading the third book in Jemisin’s series right now. I do plan on doing a post about all the books when I’m done because, unsurprisingly, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings.
5. I went to see Poms. It was cute, Lots of female friendship stuff, and you know how I feel about senior citizens and teenagers hanging out, so.
Haha, I just found out there was some Poms drama. I love older women who just have no cares to give.
Have a great week, everyone!
The Englishist 
I read about the Poms drama over the weekend, too. My goodness, it did give me pause. Not because of the differing opinions, but because I rather liked seeing some older actresses getting attention. It was a refreshing change from seeing old men cluttering the news cycle.
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…to go step further about the book referencing “brown” women, I probably would ditch that altogether and say, “whenever I’m around my family,” or whoever I’m referring to.
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These women weren’t her family, though, which is why I could see her referring to them by nationality.
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Aaah okay
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Appreciate the reviews. I am in the market for a new read.
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