10) Reckless Eyeballing by Ishmael Reed ( Read more... )

I'm officially in love with Percival Everett, I think.

It started when I learned that he'd written a book called A History of the African American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond as Told To Percival Everett and James Kincaid. My sense of humor is too cocked for me to not be drawn to such a long and ridiculous title. Benjamin Rosenbaum's ( Read more... )

I borrowed all of these from the library, but they don't have a lot else in common - the first is a YA, coming of age (or responsibility) novel, set in contemporary Pakistan; the second, a literary novel that mixes general and personal histories to create various identities (in families, in cultures, in racial/ethnic groups); and the third is a ( Read more... )

Three reviews, as I'm trying to catch up on writing these up!

'Blonde Roots' by Bernadine EvaristoBefore reading 'Blonde Roots' I had it described to me as an alternate history novel, set in a world in which Europe was colonized by the Africans. Having read it, I'm not sure that's what it is at all. I mean, it is on the surface, but the world is ( ( Read more... )

#20[b]: A Right to Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury, Aaron McGruder
2003, Three Rivers Press

This is hilarious. I remember reading The Boondocks on and off while it was running in newspapers (more off than on; I was moving around a lot and not all my papers carried it), and I remember being sometimes impressed but often lukewarm on it. I remember ( Read more... )

I just finished reading Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and felt compelled to post about it to this community and extol its virtues to anyone who would listen ( Read more... )

41. Bernardine Evaristo, Blonde Roots.Oh, this was awesome. :-D ( Read more... )

Since I'm failing at making time to post about books (here and elsewhere), I figure I will pare the number of potential tasks down by only reviewing books that haven't been posted here before. I'm doing great on numbers so far this year!

I grabbed this off the library shelf, because who could resist the title? A Case of Exploding Mangoes turns ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I've just finished reading a satiric late19th-century Japanese novel originally published in installments. It's been published a variety of ways: as ten installments in a magazine, as three shorter books, and as one very hefty volume. I have the hefty volume.

It's about a nameless cat, written in a very formal, stuffy way (the cat uses the royal "we ( Read more... )