ARC, Books

Book 761: Mediocre – Ijeoma Oluo

As soon as I heard that Oluo was releasing another book I immediately sought out a copy. I couldn’t wait until it was released so sought out a galley ASAP.* I will buy a copy as well, because she’s wonderful. My response is definitely messy, but it’s because she makes me think so much about so many things and I just sort of try to regurgitate all of my thoughts at the same time instead of cohesively sharing them.

First, a diatribe about the early reviews I saw on Goodreads: If you ever needed a reason to read books like this (you don’t), you should take a look at the reviews for this one on Goodreads. Not only have a lot of the 1- and 2-star reviews totally misunderstood the entire book, they have attempted to explain their ratings with the thinnest of reasons that frankly annoyed the shit out of me. Not only are there the men (god fearing Christians if they’re to be believed) who completely missed that Oluo isn’t saying all white men are mediocre, just that the racist-ass systems built by white men reward the most mediocre of them, they straight up appear not to have even read the book, let alone tried to understand it.

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Books

Book 736: Romantic Renovations – Blake Allwood

I stumbled across Blake Allwood on the MM Romance Reader blog with their review of Love by Chance and thought I’d give him a chance (ha!). Allwood isn’t a five-star read for me yet, but there is a lot of potential. I will say though, if he doesn’t hire better developmental and copy editors and proofreaders he’ll never get there for me.

Rather than diving directly into the Chances series that MM Romance Reader reviewed I thought I’d start with a stand-alone. It didn’t hurt that this one was set on a home renovation show.

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Books

Book 733: So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo

Like everyone else, but mostly the white people, in America should be doing, I’ve taken some time over the past few months to further educate myself on systemic racism and oppression in the United States. From discussions at work to dozens of articles and books, it has been 100% worth it to self-reflect and be reminded of things I knew and be introduced to things I didn’t.

I was first introduced to Oluo when I read, “The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black”, a powerful and frank wide ranging interview and reflection on race, privilege, and white supremacy in America. If you haven’t read it yet, go read it.

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Books

Book 708: Hotline (Murmur, Inc. #1) – Quinn Anderson

Along with Walker’s The Weight of It All and Throwing Hearts, I picked this up as part of my Kindle Unlimited download spree after Tim got me a new Oasis for our anniversary.

If I’m honest, I picked this one because it didn’t have the traditional half-dressed/watermarked/super-model handsome cover model on it. Even with the super-hokey heart as an “o”, I liked how clean and simple the cover was. And maybe more importantly, I liked that I got to envision the characters without constantly thinking their descriptions are nothing like the cover models (which yes, I spend WAY too long thinking about this).

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Books

Book 699 & 700: Two for Trust – Elle Brownlee

[I also read this again in February of 2023 and again in October of 2024.]

Holy. Hell.

Apparently, this is the MM Romance novel I’ve been looking for. I had no idea it was what I needed until I read it, and then immediately turned around and re-read it again. I am not joking about this—I finished it in bed one night and then halfway through the next day I started it again and finished it in bed that night.

I mean, this isn’t even that wonderfully written. There’s nothing really wrong with the writing, but there are no surprises, the crises is laughable (miscommunication obviously), and the whole Cinderfella story line is standard AF. But OMG I want it all and I want it again. What is actually wrong with me? I am 100% debating a third re-read, but that’s just ridiculous right?

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