It's Monday! What are you reading? - January 4

 

Currently Reading:

Asher's Garden by Derek Rey
Date Started: January 1, 2021
Goodreads Summary: 
Asher and his best friend, Lucie, are twelve years old and just starting the summer after their sixth grade year. After a horrific accident, Asher’s brother is locked in a coma when a mysterious businessman tries to buy the apartment building where he and Lucie live. While he and Lucie are trying to save their home, Asher discovers a secret about himself that he is afraid to reveal to Lucie; Asher can slip between this world and another world where giant bugs take on human qualities and personalities. Now Asher not only must save his own home, he must help his new friends in the Garden World protect their home from a malevolent, magical being they call the Painting Man.

Little Thoughts: I became friends with Derek on TikTok of all places.  I followed his journey of publishing his book.  I'm only a few chapters in but I'm enjoying the set up and believe I'm about to enter into the world where giant bugs rule!

Black London: Life Before Emancipation by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina  
Date Started: December 31, 2020
Goodreads Summary: 

Gerzina (Vassar Coll.) has written a fascinating account of London blacks, focusing on the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Because of a paucity of sources from blacks themselves, Gerzina had to rely primarily on glimpses through white eyes, especially those of antislavery advocate Granville Sharp. Gerzina is quite adept at culling evidence of a rich, complex black life, with significant interaction (and intermarriage) with the white community. Although subjected to much discrimination, London blacks never suffered as much as their American counterparts. The author rightly concludes that blacks have played an important role in the life of London for much of its history. A very valuable work; highly recommended for major libraries.

Little Thoughts: Reading this for the 1st JASNA NJ Book Discussion of 2021. Only a chapter in but really already fascinated by the information on the lives of Black people in London that is left out of so much literature and history. 

Currently Listening:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Date Started: December 22, 2020
Goodreads Summary: 

Journalist and podcaster Phoebe Judge reads Wilkie Collins' the Moonstone about a mysterious and apparently cursed gem stolen years ago from India.

Little Thoughts: A little bored by the story but enjoy Phoebe's voice so I'll finish listening to the story. Interested in seeing who stole the Moonstone. 

Check out my Goodreads 2021 Challenge to see what I've read this year. 

Check out my Goodreads 2020 Challenge to see what I've read last year.