I read eleven books in February. I tried different genres and enjoyed some Young Adult novels, but my five star ratings were reserved for the types of books that are above and beyond a good book; the books where the characters become part of you or change the way you see the world.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful was immediately critically acclaimed. The seal of Oprah’s Book Club graces the beautiful cover – the painted face of a striking woman, shaded in green and blue.
It’s a good thing I didn’t know it was a retelling of Little Women, because I never enjoyed Little Women, and I probably wouldn’t have read this, had I known. Don’t kick me out of the book club, y’all, it just wasn’t for me.
Hello Beautiful was a wonderful read about four sisters, their parents, the one man that they all loved in their own way, and how families come together when they need each other the most.
It’s also the first book that made me ugly cry since A Man Called Ove by Richard Backman.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
I will read anything Tananarive Due writes, period, forever. She’s a master of the horror genre, and her pen exposes the horrors hiding in America’s past in a way that leaves the reader feeling raw and, for some, complicit.
As nationalism and authoritarian governments take power across the globe, The Reformatory illuminates what type of abuses come at the hands of those with absolute power over those they vilify, using the truth of our past as the lantern.
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
I have a rule – if there is a book that I keep hearing buzz about for an extended time period, I will read it, even if I passed over it the first time I read the publisher’s summary.
Chain Gang All-Stars is one of those books. This novel was on all of the anticipated lists, and won many awards, but it was the constant barrage of five star reviews from readers I know that convinced me.
I originally passed it over because it seemed to me like a reality TV show book, and I don’t generally love those. This is a book about a reality TV show, but is interspersed with facts and trivia about our prison system in the United States.
This book was excellent and I’d suggest everyone read it – it’s a page turner, and a tragedy, and there is beauty in the violence and the quiet resistance of those who could have lost all their humanity but held on to themselves despite unimaginable trauma.