Others: Overwhelmingly positive Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.
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Nafissa Thompson-Spires
2018 · 224 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive"Calling to mind the best works of Paul Beatty and Junot Diaz, this collection of moving, timely, and darkly funny stories examines the concept of black identity in this so-called post-racial era. A stunning new talent in literary fiction, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class in these compelling, boundary-pushing vignettes. Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. Some are darkly humorous--from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids' backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide--while others are devastatingly poignant--a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture. Thompson-Spires fearlessly shines a light on the simmering tensions and precariousness of black citizenship. Her stories are exquisitely rendered, satirical, and captivating in turn, engaging in the ongoing conversations about race and identity politics, as well as the vulnerability of the black body. Boldly resisting categorization and easy answers, Nafissa Thompson-Spires is an original and necessary voice in contemporary fiction"--
What made the match, strongest first
Suzanne Collins
2008 · 384 pages · 48 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveThe Hunger Games is a 2008 dystopian novel by the American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the perspective of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the future, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle royale to the death. The book received critical acclaim from major reviewers and authors. It was praised for its plot and character development. In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew upon Greek mythology, Roman gladiatorial games, and contemporary reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008. The Hunger Games was first published in hardcover on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic, featuring a cover designed by Tim O'Brien.
What made the match, strongest first
Audre Lorde
1982 · 256 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive"Zami, a carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers." --Back cover A "biomythography" describing the author's childhood and coming of age and the relationships to other women that informed her life.
What made the match, strongest first
Matthew Desmond
2016 · 442 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveEvicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a 2016 non-fiction book by American author Matthew Desmond. Set in the poorest areas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the book follows eight families struggling to pay rent to their landlords during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Through a year of ethnographic fieldwork, Desmond's goal in the book is to highlight the issues of extreme poverty, affordable housing, and economic exploitation in the United States. Evicted was well-received and won multiple book awards such as the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. The Pulitzer committee selected the book "for a deeply researched exposé that showed how mass evictions after the 2008 economic crash were less a consequence than a cause of poverty."
What made the match, strongest first
John Steinbeck
1952 · 602 pages · 11 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveSteinbeck considered East of Eden to be his masterpiece. In his journal, Journal of a Novel (often read as a companion to the novel) he notes that “this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write Set primarily in the Salinas Valley in the early twentieth century, the novel traces three generations of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – as they grapple with the ever-present forces of good and evil. From this plot emerged some of Steinbeck’s most fascinating characters – many of whom are modeled after people in his own life. Part allegory, part autobiography, and part epic, East of Eden was an ambitious project from the start – a gift to Steinbeck’s sons that was meant to teach them about identity, grief, and what it means to be human. Tinged with biblical echoes of the fall of Adam and Eve and the rivalry of Cain and Abel, this sprawling saga has captivated audiences everywhere for generations. It is through the popularization of East of Eden that the Salinas Valley was truly transformed into “the valley of the world”; a place where everyone is able to find a piece of themselves in the golden, rolling hills.
What made the match, strongest first
Reni Eddo-Lodge
2017 · 272 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveIn 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote on her blog about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanised, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge has written a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today --
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itGirl. Woman. Other. So this one, I think I should still put it in nonas if, if only because of how I treated Arbor reality. And this is currently my favorite in that section of our tier. Yeah, I just I love how this author writes.
Loved iti always thought that general fiction was not my thing and this book proved me wrong this book is written like an epos of a multi-generational character profile
Loved itit's just so incredible to see how skillful she writes these characters and what i particularly liked about it is that you'll be reading about i don't know a mother a mother character you'll be reading her perspective and the way she thinks about her daughter
Loved iti thoroughly enjoyed it i did a wonderful review where i was gushing like mad i say read it even if it doesn't have punctuations get over it and read it anyway it's really good
Loved iti feel like bernie dean evaristo does such an amazing job of creating these super interesting compelling complicated characters
Loved itI just adored it and I definitely want to go and read other books so it deserves all the praise it's getting and yeah I highly recommend it.
Loved itI absolutely adored this book the minute I read it I knew it was just going to be fantastically it was one of these books or you just like know that it's just amazing and that everyone else is gonna do it as well ... it was my best book of the year definitely
