I reclaimed my love of reading in 2015 and since then, I have been exploring the diversity of reading options out there. Care to read about my adventures?
Originally published in the Sunday, August 7th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News “What is life if we don’t repeat our stories?” - Boubacar from “Liquid Twilight” by Ytasha Womack I am always mindful about what I want to review for Emancipation Day. It’s important to continually re-examine the history of slavery and colonisation, and …
Continue reading Africa Risen: A showcase of African speculative fiction
Sisterhoods and motherhoods are complicated affairs, filled with love and joy as well as chaos and betrayals. The Mothers by Brit Bennett is a book that shows these complex relationships by following the lives of three young African Americans and exploring how their connections with their mothers – biological, adoptive, or just the elderly church …
Continue reading Love, Shame and Betrayal in Brit Bennett’s The Mothers
Originally published in the Sunday, June 5th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News Dear reader,The review below doesn’t fully capture just how much Patsy affected me as a reader. From the first line, I was punted back to my childhood, to the moment that I, too, stood in the American Embassy line waiting to go …
Continue reading Queer Immigrant Realities showcased in Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy
Seraj Captures the Moon by G. Willow Wilson and Sara Alfageeh Cast your eyes westward on Sunday Evening and you may just see it: the crescent moon hanging low on the horizon, signalling the end of Ramadan. In just a few hours, billions of Muslims around the world will jointly celebrate the holiday at the …
Continue reading Once Upon an Eid: an anthology of childhood hope and joy
April finds me in a mischievous mood, the joyful memories of Easters past working their way around my subconscious. It’s a season of quick laughter and a hunger for fun, which made me crave a book about tricksters and mischief-makers, and the chaotic energy they radiate. For this reason, I am returning to the first …
Continue reading Chaos is Power in Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Originally published in the March 13th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News Last July, I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing This One Sky Day/Popisho by Leone Ross. I love this book, and its masterful medley of magic, mystery and melancholy still lives in my head rent-free to this day. Just last week, on …
Continue reading Leone Ross explores the diversity of women’s experiences in Come Let Us Sing Anyway
Dear reader, Did you know that February is International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo for short)? The point of this month-long challenge is to slow your communication down, return to pen, paper and post-office, and write one letter a day to anyone locally or abroad, stranger or friend. I can feel your confusion. You came here …
Continue reading Letters and Lovers rule in This is How You Lose the Time War
- originally published in the January 23,2022 edition of the Stabroek News I was introduced to Elizabeth Acevedo back in 2020 when I read “Gilded”, her contribution to the short story anthology A Phoenix First Must Burn. Her tale about a young Taino metalmancer starting a revolution in the colonised Dominican Republic was one of my …
Continue reading A teen mother triumphs in Elizabeth Acevedo’s With the Fire on High
-- Originally published on December 12, 2021 in the Stabroek News Last December, I had the pleasure of reviewing a gift: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, which sits on my bookshelf as one of the best books I have ever read, and I was happy to share it with my readers last year. Thankfully, Ifueko herself …
Continue reading Behold the Saviour Empress in Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko
-- Originally published on November 14, 2021 in the Stabroek News Photograph of Premee Mohamed I love cosmic horror. There is something unsettling about one day finding one’s self battling against giant incomprehensible forces older than humanity itself. Add a dash of action/adventure to the mix and set it in the early 2000s and I …
Continue reading The triumphs and woes of genius in Premee Mohamed’s Beneath the Rising
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