GOodbYe 2020!
2020 fucking sucked, but being indoors and trying to shut out the madness around me lead me into a world of fiction and non-fiction, a lot by black women, and I’m not mad at that at all!!!!!
Made a lot of new GR friends, joined a dope book club where I’ve gotten bomb rec after bomb rec, started one of my own, and had some laughs and moments that surprised and inspired me.
My favourite, most magical, read of this year was my experience reading Alice Walker’s, The Color Purple. I didn’t realize what I’d been missing all my life.
I started to figure out Netgalley with the help of GR peeps that was fun.
My second fave read of the year was The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee. My heart shook when I read that work. I felt this movement all over me, it hit me hard. I bought that immediately after reading it.
Pew by Catherine Lacey was another fave. Eye-opening, reflective of the times, a masterpiece of writing. I read that a few months ago and enjoyed The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw, today, as my final read of 2020, but my 4th (maybe tied third) fave of the year. Just a critical and crucial examination of the topics of interest to me: black women, truth, love, recovery, peace.
Other works I really loved this year include:
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata This Is Major by Shayla Lawson (SO. DAMN. GOOD!) The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance & Power by our hometown hero Desmond Cole The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark The Awkward. Black Man: Stories by Walter Mosley
And a phenomenal memoir by Mariah Carey, Michaela Angela Davis, The Meaning of Mariah Carey — an artist I’ve always loved, finally speaking the truth. Black women!!! Black women!!!
Honorable Mentions; other reads that charmed me to no end and that I loved and got my life with were:
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman — so good reminded me to cherish my friendships during these hard pandemic times. Invest in the ones I love by reaching out and keeping the lines of communication open, especially as we go through new chapters of life with and without each other. I loved this read.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig — charming, endlessly charming, very wise, pandemic friendly.
Luster by Raven Leilani - black women behaving badly, I loved it - I enjoyed it, I relished this story.
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans was intense and the viewpoints I needed. Drifts by Kate Zambreno The Terrible by Yrsa Daley-Ward — if it’s good enough for Beyoncé, it’s good enough for me. The Stranger by Albert Camus was also my first Camus read and it was a unique piece of literature and quietly profound to me.
I also really liked Such a Fun Age, hilarious but relatable! Lastly, Group, really inspired me.
All in all, I had a fun time reading this year, I’ve had such a fun time meeting new people and getting new recommendations!
Here’s to 2021, a year with more and more reads, the good, the bad, the ridiculous, the insane, all of it, hopefully! I want more recommendations, I wanna try a buddy read, I want to read more Sci-Fi and shit over 400 pages, I never think I can hang on for that long, but I met some Sci-Fi reading women this year and listening to what they read has been intriguing my mind in little ways.
I want to finally watch the movies to the books I’ve read this past year lol I always say that I will, I read the book and then fell satisfied and forget about the movie lol — I want to read more things pertaining to Black History, Women’s History, more poetry. I want to read more first hand accounts of living your truth and experiencing transformation. Or, you know, the importance of taking shit day by day. I want to see something new with every page, or see myself in places I ain’t never seen before, or we never are much. I want so much, too much lol!
So many goals for 2021, and I can’t wait to reach or ignore every single one of them, lay down on the ground and read instead.
Best wishes for a new year! 🎉🥳🎉
- Things Read in the Dark
