May Reads
For me, May was the end of the semester and the beginning of exam reading. In between, I primarily read a lot of fun YA romance and other quick reads. Here are my very favorites from this past month! What have you been reading?
Again, But Better by Christine Riccio. I loved this novel so much. It’s a “new adult” (meaning college age) novel featuring time travel, study abroad, and first loves. If that wasn’t enough, the majority of the book is set in 2011 (when I was in college!!) and it hit me in the feels. The cultural references, TV shows, and general optimism about the world that was possible in 2011 made me so nostalgic for college. It’s also just a really fun, charming book.
Villete by Charlotte Bronte. This book has a kicker of an ending-so worth the wait. I’ve been reading this forever, because it’s pretty long, but I loved it. Maybe more than Jane Eyre (gasp!). It’s got more of a creepy gothic feel, is set in France, and i loved the intellectualism of the heroine. It’s also just really funny in parts.
W.E.B. Dubois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America by The Dubois Center at UMass
This book is amazing. It’s a collection of Data Portraits on African Americans in Georgia and the African Diaspora from the 1900 Paris Exposition. The plates are beautifully conveyed and really emphasis the radical possibilities of combining visual culture and social science. The essays featured in the book are just as generative. This is a stunning book and also totally worth buying and plopping on the coffee table.
In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe. Definitely late to the game on this one, but it is an amazing piece of scholarship. I read it nearly a month ago and i still cannot stop thinking about. It’s a bit of an addendum to Fred Moten’s Undercommons. Love it so much