Check Out this Week's Recommendations! (Female Authors Edition)

Daisy Jones & The Six

This book attempts to find out the reason why the iconic 1970s rock group and their lead singer Daisy Jones split up. In the late sixties, Daisy was coming of age and decided to spend her time sneaking into clubs, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. In her twenties, she starts to get noticed not only by her voice but her unmatched beauty. Meanwhile, a rock band called the six is also rising, but during their tour, this lead singer has some unexpected news, leading him to meet Daisy and discover that together they might reach their wanted success.

As amazing as the premise sounds, it gets better. The author has a very unique way of capturing the story and she does it in documentary form. This perspective leads to this piece of fiction feeling very realistic and getting very attached to the characters. These really feel like real artists and like you are listening to their real stories. This whole concept comes together very nicely when you are able to read the lyrics to some of their songs. The vibes are truly ~immaculate~.

Purple Hibiscus

This story is set in Enugu, Nigeria, where our main character Kambili lives with her family. She and her older brother Jaja live a very privileged life with their conservative family, completely isolated from the hard realities of the outside world. When Kamibili starts realizing that things are not as amazing as she thinks, she and her brother are sent to live with their aunt, a university professor. Now more than ever they are finding out what life for the majority is really like and returning home is not that easy since as she now has to find a way to alleviate tensions and keep her family together

Purple Hibiscus shows a reality that probably isn’t very present in our life. The reality of African countries isn’t the typical dinner conversation topic in Uruguay, so it is very eye-opening. The perfect world the main character lived in also allows the reader to explore this topic along with Kambili forming a connection with her. Overall, a must-read.

The Poet X

The Poet X follows Xiomara Batista, a young girl that lives in Harlem. She discovers slam poetry which she uses to better understand her mother, religion and the world itself. Since she started to grow up Xiomara has a lot she wants to say but feels unheard because of the laws of the church she is rigorously expected to follow. This impulses her to write and when she is invited to join the school’s slam poetry club, she has to find a way to keep it a secret because she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems, and she refuses to be silent.

This book is truly fascinating. The whole thing is beautifully written in free verse which is a very unique way of storytelling and one that you may not often see. It deals with the struggles of trying to fit in a very conservative family without losing yourself in it. But besides representing the struggle there is a nice portrayal of using art as a coping mechanism. This wonderful story is definitely worth giving a try.

Honey Girl

This book follows Grace Porter, a 28-year-old woman who recently got her PhD in astronomy. Just after getting it, she decides to go to las vegas with her besties and well, she ends up drunkenly getting married to a random woman. When she goes back she realizes she is unfulfilled with her life, she is tired of meeting her father's expectations, she struggles to find a job and is hugely burned out. So she escapes her troubles by visiting her stranger wife leading her to finally find out what it’s really like to be an adult

This is a very cute gay romance that has the peculiarity of not centering around the fact that it’s gay. This kind of representation is rarely seen and it’s very refreshing. In the topic of representation, the main character is a black woman in STEM which we stan. Another point to make here is that this isn’t a romance about teens like pretty much every other book, so we deal with a lot of themes of self-discovery in different ways than coming of age.

The Vanishing Half

The book talks about a very intriguing situation. Our main characters are black twin sisters, they grew up in a small southern black community, but their adult lives couldn’t be more different. One sister stayed in the neighbourhood she grew up in and lives there with her black daughter, while the other sister completely hides her past from her whole family and remains white-passing.

The story is very moving as it deals with emotional family themes as well as exploring the American history of white-passing, something that not many people are aware of. It also deals with issues of race in general with a focus on a person’s past which is something they can never truly get rid of and the importance of someone’s roots.

Beloved

Beloved tells the story of Sethe a former slave that managed to escape to Ohio but is still far from free. She went through a lot of unthinkable horrible things and she has to live every day of her life with those memories. However, these are not the only memories that hunt her. She had a baby who died without a name and lay in a tombstone engraved “beloved”. While she deals with all this trauma she unexpectedly meets a teen called beloved.

This book is extremely well written, if you are the type of person to pick up a book for beautiful quotes this is the book for you. Nevertheless, if this isn’t your appeal it has many other great qualities. The book deals with intersectionality specifically what it is like to not only be enslaved but what it is like being a woman slave. It also mixes it with motherhood making a very unique perspective. The characters are also wonderfully written because it deals with their psychology. Moreover, there is an interesting use of time, so this is a book you won’t want to miss.

Bibliography

Acevedo, E. (n.d.). The Poet X. [Image]. Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/Poet-X-Elizabeth-Acevedo/dp/0062662813

Acevedo, E. (2018, March 6). The Poet X. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33294200-the-poet-x?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Sq5GeCNfpo&rank=1

Adichie, C. N. (n.d.). Purple Hibiscus. [Image]. Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Hibiscus-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie/dp/1616202416

Adichie, C. N. (2003, October). Purple Hibiscus. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14569052-purple-hibiscus?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=nAcAn4hofG&rank=1

Bennett, B. (n.d.). The Vanishing Half: A Novel. [Image]. Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Half-Novel-Brit-Bennett/dp/0525536299

Bennett, B. (2020, June 2). The Vanishing Half. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51791252-the-vanishing-half?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=BhFjJCdbhP&rank=1

Morrison, T. (1987, September). Beloved. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6149.Beloved?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=CZ9bFPaQUv&rank=1

Morrison, T. (1987, September). Beloved. [Image] Amazon.com. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6149.Beloved?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=CZ9bFPaQUv&rank=1

Reid, T. J. (n.d.). Daisy Jones and The Six. [Image]. eBooks.com. https://www.ebooks.com/en-gy/book/96260599/daisy-jones-and-the-six/taylor-jenkins-reid/

Reid, T. J. (2019, March 5). Daisy Jones & The Six. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40597810-daisy-jones-the-six?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=s9G73IH35S&rank=1

Rogers, M. (2021, February 23). Honey Girl. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49362138-honey-girl?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=EiDf6YBLA6&rank=4

Rogers, M. (n.d.). Honey Girl: A Novel. [Image]. Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Morgan-Rogers/dp/0778311023