This memoir provides a look at a life I could never fully understand because it’s not a position I would ever have to be in. Which is exactly what I look for in memoir writing.
When Javier was nine, he made the journey from El Salvador (through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sanora Desert) to join his parents in the states. It doesn’t matter to me what someone’s belief on the border are – this should be required reading. This can help one better understand not only what someone goes through to get to the states, but also why.
Beyond that, the writing is beautifully done – which shouldn’t come as a surprise once you know Zamora is also a poet. It’s engaging – I couldn’t put it down. I gobbled this up in about three days and immediately started telling everyone who would listen why they needed to immediately read this.
New York Times Bestseller • Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography • Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award
A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this “gripping memoir” (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family.
Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • One of the New York Public Library’s Ten Best Books of the Year
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence…
A magic system based on language and translation? Sign. Me. Up.
In addition, the writing itself is lovely; the story is entertaining and pulled me in immediately.
This is a great start for anyone who is interested in Fantasy but feels overwhelmed by the thought of epic fantasy. This story is built within our world (1820s London), historical in a well-researched way, and deals with some of our real-world problems (around at the time, but which can also be applied to today) – and also happens to have a system of magic.
Okorafor does in ninety-six pages what it takes most SciFi/Fantasy writers hundreds of pages to do.
I was immediately drawn into this world – the main character, Binti, the magic system, the society is all so creative and engaging. Conflict drives us forward from the start – and it doesn’t let up the entire time.
I was assigned this story through a bookclub, and I’m so grateful. It was refreshing to read Fantasy that wasn’t European- or American-based. (I did go on to read the entire trilogy, and I would recommend the entirety of it.)
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.
Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the…
Antony Melville is a Speedster like his mother, able to run a mile in 5.3 microseconds, and also shares her love for inventing. Or so he’s told. Not long after he was born, his mother died under mysterious circumstances, and his father is locked in a lifelong battle to enact revenge on the man he believes to be responsible. He turns to his inventor son to make his plots come to life in the forms of weapons – which Antony makes sure to sabotage so no one will actually be hurt. Antony, you see, comes from a line of villains, but he wants to be good.
Terrell Goode is a hero with the ability to create fire in the palm of his hand – and the son of the man Antony’s father suspects for his wife’s murder. Terrell wants to help his do-good parents make their city a better place to live, but his father refuses, not wanting a target on his son’s back, as well.
Once the two boys start dating, Antony's father's machinations don't take long to come to light, putting a strain on their relationship. Even so, Terrell vows to help Antony get to the truth of things – while Anthony continues to do whatever he can to stop his father from making a life-altering mistake. But what Terrell and Antony discover along the way about the killer’s true identity, nobody is prepared for.
