Beloved Bookishness: A Literary Collaboration (Part 1)

Hello everyone! I’m back with a new literary collaboration with my friend and fellow blogger Danielle Grace. Danielle is also the host of the podcast Young Gifted and Abroad, which focuses on perspectives on studying abroad from past and present students of color. You can learn more about the podcast in our previous interview here.

As we are both avid readers and talk about books on our platforms today we’ll be talking about books that have an impact on our lives, favorites, and our literary habits. Here is part one of our collaboration in which I interview Danielle.

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Book That is Like Comfort Food (ex. A Read That is Chicken Soup For The Soul)

I’ve been reading Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let Go since Thanksgiving, and “warm” is the first word I can think of to describe it. It’s a steamy romance novel about a divorced Black couple in Atlanta (who are also co-parents and restaurant co-owners) gravitating back towards each other after suffering huge losses, so it’s warm in that obvious lovey-dovey, will-they-won’t-they-oh-they-definitely-will sense. But it’s also about grieving, going to therapy, cooking and eating soul food, loving your people, and engaging with your community (or your overlapping communities) in a real way. There’s plenty of angst and longing and regret, but there’s also an abundance of tenderness and Black people (especially Black women) in the South just being themselves. All of that, plus the burnt orange background and the Black woman with the smoky eye and gigantic afro featured on the cover, make Before I Let Go feel invitingly warm. Its essence is warmth, just like comfort food.

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Book That Made You Interested in Another Culture/Language Outside of Your Own

I guess I’d have to take it back to the Madeline children’s books by Ludwig Bemelmans. Starting around preschool or kindergarten, those books (and the animated TV series that was based on them) inspired me to want to learn French and go to France, and made me interested in the world and other cultures more generally.

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Book/Series That You Think is Underrated But Deserving of a Netflix/Movie Adaptation

I certainly wouldn’t call N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy “underrated”, but it was definitely underrated to me because I’m not usually into sci-fi or fantasy. My friend tried to convince me to read it, but I didn’t until they literally put the box set in my hands as a Christmas gift last year. Took me months to really click with it, and then it consumed my life from August through Thanksgiving this year. (No lie, I’m still obsessed; I even got a new tattoo on my birthday because of it!) The Broken Earth trilogy definitely deserves a TV/film adaptation, and apparently one has been in the works for quite a while now, so this is my lengthy way of saying: GOOD! AS IT SHOULD BE! WE NEED IT!

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Book That You Started, But Never Finished and Would Like to Complete One Day

First one that comes to mind is Getting Married in Korea: Of Gender, Morality, and Modernity by Laurel Kendall. I went on a trip to NYC with my high school’s theater program and I found that book in the gift shop when we visited the American Museum of Natural History. I was just getting into Korean media at the time (K-dramas, Korean films, K-pop, etc.) and figured it would be an interesting read. Not for Koreaboo reasons, but because I was genuinely curious about the subject once I saw that there was a book about it. I’ve had it set to “currently reading” on Goodreads since late 2011! I have no idea why I haven’t finished it, but now that I’ve read more Korean literature, studied Korean social and historical aspects beyond my teenaged fandom, and actually visited South Korea, I’m sure Getting Married in Korea would be much more digestible to me now.

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Book That You Think You Should be Taught in School (Academics in General)

The Woman in the Dunes by Abe Kōbō. It’s about a dude who gets trapped in a community where people live in sand pits, all of his attempts to escape fail (or are intentionally thwarted by the people who live in that community), and spoiler: when he finally has a way to climb out, he doesn’t take it. I read that book for a Japanese literature class as a college senior, and at the time I couldn’t understand why he didn’t just leave at the end. Having lived a bit more, I understand now how much life can wear you down and make you tired of trying, even if it’s trying for the things you want most. Sometimes folks simply run out of steam, lose their zeal, have their spirits broken, get overwhelmed by the unknown, get used to playing small, etc. And it’s not always their own fault. In hindsight, I see The Woman in the Dunes as a warning that I needed as a college senior but couldn’t fully internalize because I was judgmental and figured I’d never be like that man. I think that book should be taught to more college (maybe even high school) students, so they can hopefully empathize with people who do wind up trapped in that kind of existential way. Including themselves, if such is the case.

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Book That Sparks Joy (Inspires You to Change Something in Your Life/or Motivates You)

Well it’s not exactly a “joyful” book, but I remember reading this idea in Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom that addiction is an example of the brain not exercising enough impulse restraint, whereas depression is an example of exercising too much impulse restraint. I’ve been dealing with depression since I was a kid, and reading about that idea and the stringent self-control methods that I and the main character had in common in our youth (type-A student and overachiever, perennial rule follower, outsized religiosity) made me realize that I’ve deprived myself of a lot in an effort to cope with my circumstances, and that deprivation and punishment are not as worthwhile as I believed they would be. Transcendent Kingdom has had a huge impact on me relearning to want things from an honest place and embracing frivolousness more, without swinging to another extreme.

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Book That Has an Immersive World That You Would Immediately Want to Travel To In An Instant

The Portable Promised Land by Touré. As dope as Soul City (a retro/futuristic version of Harlem) sounds, and as hilarious as the stories may be, I’m actually not sure about wanting to travel to the world of those stories myself since I remember some of them ending tragically. And one of them is too hung-up on white women for my liking. However! It is one of the most immersive reading experiences that I’ve had in recent years. I was drawn to the book by a story titled “A Hot Time at the Church of Kentucky Fried Souls” because I’m related to Kentuckians (not that the story has anything to do with the state itself, I was just happy to see Kentucky mentioned somewhere), and it felt like such a wild ride but also an immense privilege to read the story collection in its entirety.

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Book That Gave You All The Feels (Made You Sad, Overwhelmed, Happy, Angry)

I read Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden this summer and it whooped my behind, emotionally. It’s initially framed as a mother-daughter road trip story, when it’s really more about a family history of American slavery and generations of Black/Native mothers who had to make impossible choices. I know this novel won’t be for everybody (those who’ve experienced sexual assault/abuse should probably proceed with caution), but with all the anxiety-inducing conversations about reproductive and voting rights happening at the time I read it, Nowhere Is a Place really put things into perspective for me. Made me feel less alone and more grateful for the Black folks who came before me. Also, there’s a group of enslaved people who seize control of a plantation and hold their master hostage for years without anyone knowing! It’s riveting!

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Book That You Wish You, Yourself Had Written Instead of The Author

I can’t say that there’s any book I’ve read that I would want to correct or rewrite myself, if that’s what you mean. But if there’s one book that I wish I could take credit for putting out into the world, it would be Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. It’s one of the few books that I’ve invested the time in to read more than once. I received a free audiobook credit as a gift one year, I chose to use it on Queenie because it was getting a ton of much-deserved hype at the time, and the novel was so all-consumingly enjoyable that I paused the audiobook at the last chapter, went to a bookstore and bought the hardcover to read the novel all over again to completion, and then went back to listen to the final chapter in audiobook form. It’s Black and it’s British and it’s messy, but in recent years I’ve become increasingly more appreciative of “Black girls/women with mental health issues who are figuring life out and making glaringly questionable choices” stories. Queenie is a stunner to read, and I wish I had written it!

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Book That Is Like Your Favorite Food

Ooh, okay. I didn’t start reading romance earnestly until late 2019, and even though Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Party is what made me finally stop being too snobby to give the genre a chance, Sareeta Domingo’s If I Don’t Have You is my end-all be-all. It… is… perfect. My favorite read of 2021. It’s this hot but measured love story between two Black artists that spans multiple cities and continents (though mostly set in New York and London), and there’s this cycle of the lead couple coming together, falling hard for each other suddenly, then pulling away (or being pulled away) from each other, then coming together, then pulling away. With a bunch of complicated circumstances and art nerdery along the way. Until the lovers finally come together for good at the end and it’s sooo satisfying! Maybe that’s the typical romance novel structure, but the way Sareeta Domingo writes it, it’s unlike anything I’d ever read before, or have ever read since. It’s like the pecan pie that I’ve started requesting my mom make for my birthday every year instead of getting a cake. Is my mom revolutionizing all things pecan pie when she makes it? No, that’s silly, that’s not what I’m expecting from her anyway, and pecan pie in and of itself isn’t necessarily revolutionary. But she makes hers with love and intention and focus, with craft, and no part of it is wasted or a disappointment. Same thing goes for If I Don’t Have You.

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Stay tuned for part two next week when the tables are turned and Danielle interviews me with her bookish questions. What books have helped to shape you/impact you? Let us know in the comment section below!