Rashmila Maiti

Woman of Light is Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s first novel, after her collection of her debut collection of short stories, Sabrina and Corina. FBC has a podcast episode on the novel’s themes and the quotations that stood out to them. This multigenerational novel was beautiful and magical.

Release date- 3rd May, 2022.
CW: Rape, Incest, Mutilation, Sexual Assault.
Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne, is back with her second novel, Elektra. A retelling of the Greek myth of Elektra, the origins of the Trojan War, and the curse of the House of Atreus. Told from the viewpoints of three women, this novel is an excellent insight into Greek history without remembering the extra dates.
The three women in the story are: Clytemnestra, Cassandra, and Elektra.

Release date- May 17, 2022.
Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera is a multigenerational novel, set in New York, with flashbacks to the Dominican Republic. Set primarily in Nothar Park, a principally Dominican part of New York City, it follows the Guerreros. Vladimir and his wife, Eusebia, and his daughter, Luz have been living in Nothar Park for twenty years. However, the Park is going to be demolished for the construction of luxury condos, as a part of gentrification.

The Hookup Dilemma by Constance Gillam is a romantic novel featuring Rashida Howard and Elliott Quinn. Set in Atlanta, the opening chapter features a hook-up between Rashida and Elliott. Both make the idea of hook-ups utterly normal, without any guilt or regrets. However, later they realize that they are on the opposite ends of a property dispute. Elliott’s family construction business wants to buy a neighborhood where Rashida’s grandmother lives.

I was not a fan of romances. If you had asked me a year ago, if I read romances, I would emphatically deny. But in the midst of the pandemic and at the urging of my podcast co-host, I decided to read romances. And I am so glad that I did. I read Josie Silver’s One Night in December last winter and I enjoyed it. Steadily, I started reading more romances. However, one thing that I truly believe is the universe will give you a book when you need it.

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho is an Own Voices novel focusing on two Taiwanese-American women, Fiona and Jane, who are friends since the second grade. Fiona Lin and Jane Shen are wonderful and flawed characters. Set in Taiwan, Los Angeles, and New York, the novel spans a lifetime of female friendships. The narrative is not linear, going back and forth in time. The novel is narrated in alternating voices of Fiona and Jane.

just femme & dandy is a biannual literary & arts magazine for and by the LGBTQIA+ community on fashion that privileges underrepresented and marginalized writers and artists. Being an anti-racist, pro-Black space, the magazine prioritizes submissions from artists of color. And they pay! $50 USD per text-based submission and $150 USD per multimedia submission. I interviewed Addie Tsai, the founder & co-editor in chief, and Sarah Sheppeck, the co-editor in chief.

Becoming Heroines: Unleashing Our Power for Revolution and Rebirth, by Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, is a non-fiction book that focuses on ways to becoming the heroine in your own life. Although aimed largely at a white female audience, the book provides actionable items, practical exercises, and a road map to not only become the heroine in your own life but also become an all of various marginalized groups.

Saumya Dave is writer, resident psychiatrist, and co-founder of thisisforHER, an organization that “improves mental health awareness and education for women and girls through unique art therapy group workshops.” I interviewed Dave on her real life inspiration behind the two novels, mental health balancing various roles, releasing books during the pandemic, and her favorite TV shows.

Book review: ‘Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resistance’ By Megan A. Smetzer

In “Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience,” Megan A. Smetzer explores how Tlingit women have beaded beautiful, detailed and colorful designs for over 150 years. Smetzer is a white artist, author and lecturer in the department of art history at Capilano University in North Vancouver.

“Punch Me Up to the Gods” by Brian Broome is a somber memoir that focuses on Blackness, queerness, poverty and addiction. Despite such strong and difficult themes, the memoir is funny in places and hopeful in others. The language is also deceptively simple and almost journalistic, where Broome seems to be reporting things that happened to someone else.

Between the Bliss and Me by Lizzy Mason is a young adult novel focusing on mental illness, romance, and how family history can affect the plans of a teen. Eighteen-year-old Sidney Holman has decided to attend New York University (NYU), instead of her mother’s preferred Rutgers University, as a way to rebel and move out of the apartment that she shares with her mother. Sydney’s father, who left her when she was a child due to drug addiction, is a schizophrenic, Sydney learns that he is living ...

Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity by Jill Louise Busby (also known for her online persona Jillsiblack) is a collection of essays on social media, racism, tokenism, liberalism, identity, and fame. The essays also discuss white fragility, and the performance of being woke among progressives and liberals and incorporating diversity practices by companies and corporations.

Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer is the debut novel of Jamie Figueroa. Her bio on her website states that she is “Boricua (Afro-Taíno) by way of Ohio and long-time resident of northern New Mexico.” Boricua is a person from Puerto Rico by birth or descent and the Taíno “were an Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida.” The novel is set in the tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas (translated as the City of Three Sisters) over a weekend.

Know My Name is Chanel Miller’s memoir where she writes about her life, including her now highly publicized sexual assault in January 2015 and the events that unfolded after that.
The memoir focuses on the day of the assault as well as the court case, People vs. Turner. Turner was convicted of three charges of felony sexual assault.