There was a football player, a murder and a overturned death row sentence. I’m not taking about a movie. These are the books I read in February. I never set goals for how many books I plan to read. I just move from one book to the next based on what sounds interesting or what was recommended. Somehow that’s led to me reading seven books each January for the last few years. I usually taper off a bit and do well to get in four a month.
Well, 2021 is apparently changing things. Not only did I read my normal seven books in January, it seems I did the same in February. March is off to a great start, too. I’m not complaining. I read some stuff I really liked. I even zoomed through one hopped up on way too much espresso. I’m looking at you chai latte with TWO shots!
Let’s get to what I read
The first book was Fumbled by Alexa Martin. I’ve read books by her before. She writes romantic stories that are easy to get lost in. She’s always a good choice when I’ve been knee deep in reading the heavier stuff. This one follows a couple who met in high school and broke up before it was revealed that the woman was pregnant. Now, he’s a pro football player and he happens to make his way back into her life – he just doesn’t know her 10 year old kid is his.
They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery follows some of the most prominent cases of police brutality and outright murders in the Black community. The writer had been a reporter covering many of these cases and had a first hand account to the details of the cases. It was hard to relive all these cases and beyond upsetting and he moved from one to another. There are way too many. All unnecessary.
I moved on to Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. This book was made into a movie recently. I had the book for a while but wanted to read it before I watched the film. It’s another one hard one to read. Bryan Stevenson is an attorney that works tirelessly to get Black people off of death row. The cases against them are flimsy and steeped in racism. Some are outright made up. He works to prove their innocence and get their lives back. It’s maddening what happens in this country.
Let’s lighten things up, yes? The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory was a good, fun read. She’s another author that’s good for an escape. Remember when I mentioned binging a book earlier hopped on espresso? Yeah, this is the one. I had a grande chai latte with two shots of espresso at 6:30 at night and that thing kicked all the way in when I should have been sleeping. So when I started reading this book before bed, I never got sleepy. I just kept reading until I realized that it was 6am!
Having only a few pages left, I finished the book. I like her books because the characters carry over from book to book. Each book just focuses on someone new. This one starts with an encounter in an elevator with a mystery man who was too embarrassed to be going to his ex-girlfriends wedding with no date, so he asked the stranger in the elevator to join him.
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi was such an interesting read. Some parts of it really caught me off guard and had my jaw dropping. It’s all about trying to figure out what happened to Vivek Oji who turns up dead in the beginning of the book. His body is dropped off on his mother’s front porch and no one seems to know what happened. The one person no one expects is the one who knows EVERYTHING.
I jumped with into Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory. Since the books all tie together, I feel obligated to read them all. Luckily, I really like her books. The thing that sticks out to me is that in a few of them the Black main character doesn’t feel like she’s good enough for her non-Black love interests. She’s always wondering why they would like someone like her. That bothers me. I don’t know why I didn’t pick up this thread until this particular book.
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston was next on my list. I have read a few books by her. My favorite being Barracoon. It was her interview with one of the last enslaved Africans in this country. That book was enlightening and heartbreaking at the same time. This book is full of short stories. I liked them for the most part. It’s just jarring to read Black folk speaking so harshly to each other or the men threatening to beat the women. I take it as this was the time and era she lived in and a reality for her. It’s just not the norm in my personal space. Aside from that, she’s definitely a creative storyteller.
Well, that’s what I read in February, what have you been reading? Any suggestions on what I should read next?
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