The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a coming of age story written in poetic verse. Xiomara Batista attends Catholic high school and forced by her mom to attend catechism classes. Her mom has a very strict idea of what her daughter should be. Boys are definitely off limits. Thus, she pours all her teenage angst into her prized notebook. Also lots of feelings about her classmate named Aman. It’s only when she joins the poetry club does she begin to find her voice. Unfortunately, she […]
Mirrors that don’t reflect reality
I received Boy, Snow, Bird from an earlier CBR book exchange, but it had been collecting dust for a few years. I finally had a reason to pick it back up when my Mocha Girls Read book club selected it for a fairytale’s retold theme. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel is a VERY loose version of Snow White set in the 1950s. Boy Novak runs away to a small town to escape her abusive father. She meets a man named Arturo who isn’t quite a prince, but he […]
Skewer the rich
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan was the April Mocha Girls Read book club selection. The story revolves around the romance between Rachel Chu and Nicholas Young. The two NY based professors are in love. Nick invites Rachel to spend the summer in Singapore with his family. Nick is the best man for his friend Colin Khoo’s wedding. The plan is to get the big event over with and travel around Asia. Sounds fun, right? However, Nick fails to explain exactly how extensive and wealthy […]
That Bee Life Hustle
The Bees by Laline Paull, another MGR read, follows an unusual worker bee named Flora 717. The entire novel is written from her perspective. It took me a few pages to realize Flora was an insect! It becomes rather obvious that she has a monotonous existence. She is essentially as garbage bee working sanitation for the hive. Her belly is unusually big, apparently seen as ugly by society. Somehow she is able to talk, unlike other worker bees. She is curious about other parts of […]