Jayne Allen’s Black Girls Must Die Exhausted (Harper, 2021 – first published in 2018) is unapologetically “black,” but it didn’t choose to be so – it just is, and it’s taken far too long for a book like this just to exist on the same shelves as books by white authors about white women withContinue reading “BLACK GIRLS MUST DIE EXHAUSTED – Jayne Allen”
Author Archives: Tommi Powell
CHINA ROOM – Sunjeev Sahota
Sunjeev Sahota’s China Room (Viking, 2021) was another slim selection from the Booker 2021 longlist, but unlike A Passage North, which is a little bit longer, I gobbled it up in one sitting; it’s the kind of storytelling I prefer, and Sahota weaves an intimate and heartbreaking tale of love, independence, hate, and the chainsContinue reading “CHINA ROOM – Sunjeev Sahota”
A PASSAGE NORTH – Anuk Arudpragasam
In continuing with my attempt to read the Booker Prize 2021 longlist, I finally finished Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North (Random House, 2021). While I didn’t hate it, it is certainly at the bottom of my rankings. (It still comes in head and shoulders ahead of Second Place, though.) My issue with the novel isContinue reading “A PASSAGE NORTH – Anuk Arudpragasam”
BEWILDERMENT – Richard Powers
Even though the 2021 Booker Prize has already been announced (Congrats to Damon Galgut!), I’m still making my way through the longlist. Richard Powers’s Bewilderment (W. W. Norton & Co., 2021) received a lot of attention, and I’m not surprised it was shortlisted for the prestigious award. The slim novel of grief and nature madeContinue reading “BEWILDERMENT – Richard Powers”
HARLEM SHUFFLE – Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead is an author I’ve been meaning to read for ages. He’s won the Pulitzer Prize twice; for The Underground Railroad in 2017 and for The Nickel Boys in 2020. I picked up his 2021 release, Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday) as my introduction to Whitehead, and what a sharp, sly read it is. “Carney wasContinue reading “HARLEM SHUFFLE – Colson Whitehead”
RADIANT FUGITIVES – Nawaaz Ahmed
“My mother’s name is Seema. Which means face, something of her I will never see, or frontier, something I must leave behind.” I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Nawaaz Ahmed’s debut novel Radiant Fugitives (Counterpoint Press, 2021). I’d read a blurb months before publication in a failed attempt to get an advanced copy,Continue reading “RADIANT FUGITIVES – Nawaaz Ahmed”
THE WITCHES OF ST. PETERSBURG – Imogen Edwards-Jones
I purchased Imogen Edwards-Jones’s The Witches of St. Petersburg (Harper, 2019) strictly because of the gorgeous, icy blue cover. As stunning as the cover is, it doesn’t begin to do the story justice – this is one of the more captivating premise-wise historical fiction novels I’ve picked up in a while, and I simply couldn’tContinue reading “THE WITCHES OF ST. PETERSBURG – Imogen Edwards-Jones”
DEATHLESS DIVIDE – Justina Ireland
“It’s a curious thing, to watch a town fall to the dead.” After being surprisingly pleased with Dread Nation, I couldn’t wait to start Justina Ireland’s sequel, Deathless Divide (Balzer + Bray, 2020). It’s got a phenomenal cover, and I was eager to have more Jane and Kate. I really wish I hadn’t read itContinue reading “DEATHLESS DIVIDE – Justina Ireland”
DREAD NATION – Justina Ireland
“And I suppose I might have grown up better, might have become a proper house girl or even taken Aunt Aggie’s place as House Negro. I might have been a good girl if it had been in the cards. But all of that was dashed to hell two days after I was born, when theContinue reading “DREAD NATION – Justina Ireland”
GREAT CIRCLE – Maggie Shipstead
“I was born to be a wanderer.” Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle (Alfred A. Knopf 2021) is likely my pick for the 2021 Booker Prize. (And it has nothing to do with the fact a coonhound makes an appearance.) I love the uniqueness of Lockwood’s No One is Talking About This and it’s still my darkContinue reading “GREAT CIRCLE – Maggie Shipstead”
A Girl Named Tommi 