A Lover’s Discourse came recommended by a very good friend with very good literary taste, so I did not question a thing about the book when I picked it up. I went into it blind. Finding out that it was actually a philosophical treatise on the language we use as lovers was the least jarring of discoveries. Depending on what type of person you are, and what type of relationships you’ve been in, A Lover’s Discourse functions more as a mirror, and it can be a painful and […]
Better than 50 Shades of Oh Creepy Stalker No
Somebody, somewhere, recommended Push the Button as an alternative for those who are interested in reading about 24/7 BDSM lifestyles, rather than 50 Shades of BDSM Doesn’t Work That Way (and also as a book with persons of color as the protagonists). I don’t remember who, now, but I am ever curious so I picked it up. I’m afraid I’m about to damn the book with faint praise: it wasn’t terrible. Certainly it was a quick read, and I liked Star/Nicole and David even if […]
Anger Management
Disgruntled is the story of Kenya Curtis, her family, and her community in West Philly. They are, as the title suggests, disgruntled and with good reason. The story begins in the early 1980s when Kenya is about 10 and follows her for almost a decade. Solomon tells a rich, detailed, powerful story in a mere 287 pages and shows wit, intelligence and humor throughout. Themes dealing with race and class feature prominently and should engender lively discussion among readers. The novel begins with “The Way […]
Egyptian Nights
Target: G. Willow Wilson’s Cairo. Art by M.K. Perker Profile: Modern Fantasy, Urban, Middle Eastern, Graphic Novel Cairo is, in many ways, a prototype for G. Willow Wilson’s later novel, Alif the Unseen. They are stories of clashing cultures. Both the complex internal clash between Islamic hardliners and the culturally diverse youth of the Middle East, and the more external, if no less complex conflict between encroaching western culture and the entrenched lifestyles of Muslims. By necessity, Cairo is more spare, crashing through a much […]