“…oga dinma, oga dinma, it will be okay. Today. Tomorrow. Someday.” Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (Amistad 2022) is my favorite kind of short story collections – the kind where the stories weave in and out of each other, building the reader’s connection to a full castContinue reading “JOLLOF RICE AND OTHER REVOLUTIONS – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
THE AS*TROBIOLOGISTS – Olga Gromyko
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re in the Bs. Country: BelarusTitle: The As*trobiologists Volume 1Author: Olga GromykoLanguage: RussianTranslator: Shelley Fairweather-VegaPublisher: Cyborg Protection Union Ltd. (2021) Kissed with the spirit of Futurama meets Firefly, Olga Gromyko’s The As*trobiologists is a hilarious space adventure. I imagine some of the humor is lost in the translation,Continue reading “THE AS*TROBIOLOGISTS – Olga Gromyko”
THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett
“You could never know who might hurt you until it was too late.” I finally got around to reading Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (Riverhead 2020) – it was likely the most hyped on my TBR that had just been sitting there for ages, and it was on my “Must Reads” for 2024. (Yes. IContinue reading “THE VANISHING HALF – Brit Bennett”
BEKA LAMB – Zee Edgell
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re in the Bs. Country: BelizeTitle: Beka LambAuthor: Zee EdgellLanguage: EnglishTranslator: NonePublisher: Heinemann Educational Books (1982) While published just after Belize’s independence, Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb is set in the 1950s. The novel covers mere months in the life of a 14-year-old girl living in a country fightingContinue reading “BEKA LAMB – Zee Edgell”
YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES – Álvaro Enrigue
Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires (translated by Natasha Wimmer – pub date 1/9/2024, Riverhead Books (thanks for the gifted advanced copy!)) is a fever dream of a reimagined meeting between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma in 1519. Edgar Allen Poe once wrote “all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream,”Continue reading “YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES – Álvaro Enrigue”
QUIXOTIQ – Ali Al Saeed
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – ringing in 2024 with the Bs. Country: BahrainTitle: QuixotiQAuthor: Ali Al SaeedLanguage: EnglishTranslator: NonePublisher: iUniverse Inc. (2004) Finding a novel in English from Bahrain was extremely difficult, and QuixotiQ was one of very few options. Had this not been part of my reading challenge, I’d have DNF’d justContinue reading “QUIXOTIQ – Ali Al Saeed”
THE BULLET SWALLOWER – Elizabeth Gonzalez James
“I think a person knows when their parents are gone for good, when the people that brought them into existence have gone out. I think the air gets heavier or the light changes, something like that. I haven’t seen the sun get dimmer yet.” One of my highly anticipated 2024 releases was an early releaseContinue reading “THE BULLET SWALLOWER – Elizabeth Gonzalez James”
PROPHET SONG – Paul Lynch
“Something solid has begun to come loose, it is her heart sliding like gravel.” In what has been a rather lackluster Booker longlist, I find myself a bit surprised at Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song (Atlantic Monthly Press 2023). It’s a novel that tastes like something you’ve read before, only a little more pretentious, and oneContinue reading “PROPHET SONG – Paul Lynch”
THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE – Katherine Arden
“Will you tell her?” asked the mare. “Everything?” the demon said. “Of bears and sorcerers, spells made of sapphires and a witch that lost her daughter? No, of course not. I shall tell her as little as possible. And hope that’s enough.” One of my favorite courses at UNC was one devoted to Russian fairytales;Continue reading “THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE – Katherine Arden”
THE OGRESS AND THE ORPPHANS – Kelly Barnhill
“But it’s best you know this now, at the beginning of this book. Every story has a villain, after all. And every villain has a story.” Kelly Barnhill is an absolute gift to literature, and not just children’s lit. She’s another one of my “heart hug” authors, but her hugs come in the form ofContinue reading “THE OGRESS AND THE ORPPHANS – Kelly Barnhill”
A Girl Named Tommi 