Like many of us during quarantine, I reignited my love for reading & have absolutely enjoyed exploring different writers, genres & themes! Each month I hope to share a few of my favorites with you. Whether you are an experienced bookie or a new reader, I hope you find the coziest spot in your space, grab a book, settle in & read with me!

My first pick is Julia Alvarez’s “Afterlife.” This novel will, without a doubt, pull on your heartstrings as it explores themes of complex familial devotion, tragedy, crisis & the struggle to maintain hope, compassion & love when everything seems to be going to sh*t. The narrator, Antonia Vega, is a widow who lost her husband in a car accident. The novel opens up with Antonia’s struggle to, “…comprehend how someone she loved…can be nothing but dust / unread emails, fragments, unpaid bills, memories.” In an attempt to navigate retirement & the death of her husband, Antonia takes up poetry citation to try & find purpose in her new, seemingly empty life. As her birthday approaches, Antonia is still drowning with grief & does not want to celebrate. Until, that is, her three sisters - Tilly, Izzy & Mona - show up and stir the pot, causing gripping drama & introducing complex familial dynamics.

Antonia & the inner workings of her family drama cast no shadow on Mario, an undocumented immigrant working at the farm next door. Mario’s girlfriend, Estela, is traveling north from Mexico with the help of a coyote who demands a financial price neither her nor Mario can provide. Antonia has the means to help, she just isn’t sure if she should involve herself. Through this moral dilemma, Antonia & readers analyze who we consider to be our neighbor & worthy of our help.

In “Afterlife,” Alvarez explores the complex workings of moral dilemmas & private decisions that mirror the workings of today’s society, which is inherently structured to oppress minorities & people of color.

My second pick is Brit Bennett’s novel “The Vanishing Half.” This novel is a multigenerational family tale that discusses issues such as racial identity, bigotry & the keeping of secrets. Covering almost half a century (the 1940s to the 1990s), the novel follows twin sisters Desiree & Stella Vignes. The two were raised in Mallard, Louisiana, a fictional small town founded by their great-great-great grandfather as a place for light-skinned blacks such as he. Bennett describes Mallard, “…like a cup of coffee steadily diluted with cream.” The twins themselves have cream-colored skin, wavy hair & hazel eyes. But just because the twins & their family are fair-skinned does not mean they are free from racism. Desiree and Stella’s father was lynched by a gang of white men & their mother cleans for rich, white families in a neighboring town. Similarly, being light-skinned will not save Desiree & Stella from similar acts of racial violence & injustice. At 16, the twins ran away to New Orleans, but as time goes on, “…their lives split as evenly as their shared egg.”

Looking beyond the themes of race, “The Vanishing Half” explores how someone’s past can shape their decisions & desires, & navigates why people feel compelled to live a life completely separate from their upbringing.

Lastly, for a refreshing, light-hearted rom-com, I recommend reading “Get a Life, Chloe Brown” by Talia Hibbert. WARNING: steam alert! This story is witty, fun & utterly hilarious. Chloe is a woman tired of being boring, so she recruits her super sexy neighbor to help her experience new things. Chloe is chronically ill & after almost dying, she constructs a list of seven items to help her “get a life.” These seven items? Move out of her family’s mansion, enjoy a drunken night out, ride a motorcycle, go camping, have meaningless but enjoyable sex, travel the world & do something…bad.

However, for Chloe, it’s not easy letting loose, hence her need for a teacher, aka her sexy neighbor Redford ‘Red’ Morgan. Red is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle & copious amounts of sex appeal. He’s also an artist, but he never shows his work. The only reason Chloe knows he’s an artist by night is because she spies on him - just a wee bit. When she seeks Red’s help in her mission to get a life, she learns things about him she never would’ve just by the occasional spy sesh…like what he’s really hiding behind his rough exterior.

I loved Chloe’s feisty, independent nature & her ability to navigate through her fears while also tackling tough issues like chronic pain and insecurity.

That’s all for this month. Thank you for reading with me!