AKA This Month In Books…
Once upon a time, I maintained a regular “Last Week In Books” aka LWIBooks blog post on my Books and Beethoven blog (cribbed from This Week in Blackness, which might not exist anymore?). I…am not going to be doing that ever again, because there’s just too much to do, but I thought changing it to a This Month In Books would be a worthwhile goal, offering up a reason to compile my thoughts and achievements from the past month (and put me on a monthly writing schedule, which really, I need). Ever since the pandemic ended and I gave up multiple writing meet-ups per week, I have been sort of failing at regular anything, but now is the time to get back on the horse. So here it is, folks, my first (hopefully monthly) This Month In Books!
Over On Book Riot
As you might recall, I am a contributing editor for Book Riot, where I co-host the When In Romance podcast and write content for the main Book Riot site. Here’s what you can read from October:
- I answered the question “Does romance need more older protagonists?” (Spoiler alert, the answer is yes, especially when it comes to marginalized and underconsidered groups)
- All caught up on Superman & Lois, I missed them, and so wrote about Lois Lane and Clark Kent, my one true OTP
- You know how sometimes you’re reading and you notice a theme? I had been reading a lot of books about teachers…but luckily they weren’t in relationships with their students
- In my other life, I help maintain and produce content for my library system’s website, so I take it personally when people don’t know how awesome one can be. Are you using yours?
And of course, feel free to listen to the most recent two episodes of When In Romance, where we talked about how we find and make recommendations, and discuss our Fall WIR Book Club selection, Office Hours.
My Book
Y’all, I don’t know how to express my feelings when I got pass pages in my inbox, but if nothing else this is going to be a gorgeous book. The font, the design, the cover. It’s all great. I’m so excited for people to read it. But of course, with that has also come the horrible dread that people are going to read it. Copies are available to read on NetGalley and Edelweiss already and I have been dealing with the mortifying ordeal of being known—how do I get past that?
Either way, I’m really excited for more people to discover this book, because the contributors have done such amazing work!
And a couple things for you to keep an eye out for:
- Starting November 8, you can enter to win a copy of Black Love Matters AND a copy of Queer Love In Color, which is a gorgeous, amazing book of photography and prose
- Put November 26 on your calendar, because PRH is running a “Reads to Warm Your Body And Your Heart” giveaway, and Black Love Matters is included! Find the books and enter here when it opens.
Other People’s Books
I’ve been up and down when it comes to reading, but I did manage to read a few great books this month! Two of them were for book clubs, which I’m grateful for, because I’m not sure I’d have picked them up on my own (at least not immediately).
Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson
If you are willing and able, definitely listen to this one on audio. Phoebe is an excellent narrator and all of her books have had just a little bit extra thanks to her performance. I was introduced to her when I judged the Audie awards a few years ago, and have been a Major Fan ever since…well, of her books at least. I (ironically) suck at listening to podcasts so I’ve never done 2 Dope Queens and I keep forgetting to watch her specials. But as a writer? Spot on. It’s like getting some personal stories and advice from a best friend.
Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon
This book has been on my radar for ages, but it wasn’t until it became a TikTok hit and Berkley picked it up that I finally picked it up myself—not for any fault of the book, but because I had an ARC and it really helped me out of a slump one night when I couldn’t land on anything else. This book definitely needs a content warning for (assumed) sex trafficking and off-page rape, but once you get past the Bad Aliens and get to the Good Aliens, the bonkersness is just too fun to pass up (with an added caveat that some might consider the protagonists’ first sexual encounter to be dubious consent at most). But it was so easy to read and enjoy, so definitely check it out if you don’t have specific hard limits.
While this one had been on my to-read list, a lot of things are. So I’m glad the LGBTQ+ book club that I run for PCPL decided that this was a good contender for the YA book this year (we only read six together per year because we alternate between facilitated read and book chat). Ryan La Sala has a perfect grasp on annoying, messy teenagers, and I was delighted to jump right into their mess. There’s art, there’s nerdiness, and there’s a second chance at love. Oh, also, there’s a huge cosplay competition. Did I forget to mention that part?
The Wolf of Wall Street by Lucy Eden
No Leonardo DiCaprio here. Lucy Eden is a go-to author for me. I haven’t read all of her books because I simply can’t keep up, but have wildly enjoyed every one I’ve read. This one is a Beauty and the Beast style story featuring a grumpy CEO who turns into a wolf and the executive assistant who gets him into line. I’m not usually a fan of high level workplace romance, especially between boss and assistant, but this one was just too good to pass up.
The Awkward Black Man by Walter Mosley
This was another book club pick (for the Read Black book club that I run for my library—noticing a pattern?) and I’m super glad we went with it. I’d never read Mosley before, though I have maybe seen Devil in a Blue Dress? So while I didn’t start out a fan of the story collection because it seemed like the stories were also about the awful Black man, I had to keep going, and fell in love with a few of these messy, broken characters. I don’t know if I’ll read any of his crime novels, but I might seek out his other fiction.
That Ubiquitous Other
There were about two weeks in October when I needed glasses. My eyesight quickly went from perfect and crisp to “I need to make AO3 bigger on my phone” to “everything I try to read is blurry” to a devastating moment of “I can’t read anything” and nobody is sure why. After about four days I finally went to get some readers, but my oncologists wanted me to get an MRI just in case. (It came back clear, thank goodness.) I was actually kind of feeling how I looked with my purple glasses, but had a lot of trouble keeping them on, finding myself taking them off to wipe my face or something and then going back to my phone or computer before realizing I had forgotten something. And then, almost as suddenly as it had deteriorated, my eyesight was almost back to normal. I still have some moments of fuzzy screens and pages, but for the most part, I can read without them. Part of me is a little annoyed, because I was finally part of the glasses crew (lol), but the rest is just sighing with relief that I’m not suddenly going blind for no apparent reason.
I love it when Black women do amazing, creative things that I never would have thought of, and Tabria really killed it with her Cilloween video. (I know this isn’t bookish per se but she is definitely on my inspiration board for the novel I’m revising next month after not touching it for a year and a half.)
Are you following my page on Facebook? I know we’re kind of wandering away from it, but until then, if you’re on there, follow for more information on Black Love Matters and all kinds of other things!
I feel like that was plenty for now! See you around on the interwebs, and Happy Reading!
—Jess
Note: I have gone back to using LibroFM’s Bookstore Link, with a link to one of my local bookstores. I am not affiliated and do not receive anything when you click on any links here.