The Hate U Give and Year End Round Up

So. Where have I been? What have I been doing? Well...not much, admittedly. I totally missed posting for the Cephalopod Coffeehouse on Friday for which I did have a book I was supposed to finish but didn't quite. Being annoyed with myself for not finishing the book I sat down on Friday night and did so.

The title of this book is a reference to Tupac who said that Thug Life stood for 'The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.' According to Khalil, what this means is that "what society gives us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out."

I really liked this book a lot and I recommend it to everyone, but especially to white people. In it you will meet Starr, the unlikely hero of the story, a black girl who lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. Then Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer, and soon after his death is big news. Some call him a thug and a drug dealer. Others protest yet another case of an unarmed black man being gunned down by the police. But everyone wants to know what really happened that night and the only person who knows that is Starr. The problem is that telling the truth could endanger her life and the lives of her family.

I loved Starr and the way she tries to balance her two worlds. I adored her family, her two brothers Sekani and Seven, her most awesome parents, and Black Jesus. At the beginning of the book Starr's daddy, an ex-con gone good, says a morning prayer to Black Jesus, asking him to "watch over my babies today. Keep them safe, steer them from wrong, and help them recognize snakes from friends...Thank you for Sekani's miraculous, sudden healing that just so happened to come after he found out they're having pizza at school today..." Afterward, Sekani says, "Daddy, why you put me on the spot like that with Black Jesus?"

Yep. There's a lot of humor like that, and a lot of wisdom that comes from both Starr's parents, her Uncle Carlos, and her boyfriend, Chris, who happens to be white. This makes for lots of good conversations, like at the end when Starr and Chris and her brother Seven and friend DeVante are hanging out and Chris says "Okay. Why do some black people give their kids odd names? I mean look at you guys' names. They're not normal."

"My name normal," DeVante says, all puffed-up sounding. "I don't know what you talking about."

"Man, you named after some dude from Jodeci," Seven says.

"And you named after a number! What's your middle name? Eight?"

"Anyway, Chris," Seven says, "DeVante's got a point. What makes his name or our names any less normal than yours? Who or what defines 'normal' to you? If my pops were here, he'd say you've fallen into the trap of the white standard."

I believe I've fallen into that trap myself. But now that I know about it, be sure I'll be avoiding that shit, as Starr might say.


I highly recommend this book to everyone!

Now for my year end stats.

This year I doubled the number of books I read. I still didn't read a lot, but it was waay better than 2016

Books read in 2017

1. We were Liars by E. Lockhart
2. Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin
3. The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
4. Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
5. Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
6. Pretty Girls by Karen Slaughter
7. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
8. Armada by Ernest Cline
9. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
10. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
11. The First Fifteen Lives of Henry August by Claire North
12. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
13. The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
14. Seed by Ania Ahlborn
15. Meddling Kids by Edgar Canter
16. The Kept Woman by Karen Slaughter
17. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
18. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

If I had to pick a favorite it would be #11 but I also have to give a shout out to #18. You will never think of Christmas quite the same.

Next year I hope to get into the 20s, and here are The Books on my TBR list:

The Immortality Game by Ted Cross

The Raven Cycle #3 Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

The Mermaid’s Sister by Carrie Anne Noble

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The First Salute by Barbara Tuchman

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

The Book of Dust Volume One La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

After Life by Marcus Sakey

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

I've also watched a few shows...like Season Two of Stranger Things (awesome), Dark (also awesome), Jessica Jones (wicked awesome, especially David Tenant as the villain. He's sooo good), Criminal Minds, Longmire, and, just started Westworld. Desperately awaiting the next season of Supernatural to come to Netflix.

Lastly, I leave you with a pic of some of my stocking stuffers.

Note the Buffy Mad Libs? I might've squealed a little when I pulled that out of my stocking...

Happy New Year all!

Goals? What goals?

So. I’m nearing the end of Season Three of Buffy and approaching The Ascension. God, I love the Mayor. He’s so cheerfully evil. He’s my favorite kind of evil. You want him gone, but damn he’s entertaining! Sort of like Crowley in Supernatural. Not like Geoffrey in GOT. He couldn’t die soon enough, imo.

Meanwhile (huge sigh), it’s still winter, even though I wish it wasn’t. But...(and by the time spring gets here you’ll be sick of hearing me say this)…only 57 days til spring! I know it's just a date but it means the end of winter is in sight.

That’s what I wish it looked like out on my porch. Alas, it’s more like this:

(ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but I think I've illustrated my point)

But I digress. Let's talk about goals. I thought I'd keep myself honest by mentioning them once in a while. As far as books go I've done well so far, having read three whole books, all of which I enjoyed. I'm currently reading The Bone Clocks. I am also making progress with my revisions, and I've sent out a few queries on my scifi,  NO REST. So that's good. As far as exercise and food...well, not so good. I have been walking every morning and soon it will be light enough to walk at night when I get home, which will help. But. I found these awful Boston Creme Muffins with a chocolate glaze that are just soooo good...I really need to stop buying them.

But nevermind me, how are things with you? Enjoying any shows? Getting outside? Eating anything awful?

Felled

So. Buffy. And for those who don’t watch feel free to skip this part. Anyway. I’m at the end of Season 2, and things are getting good. Spike and Buffy are about to have a chat about Angel. I love when good and evil come together—briefly—to ally against a greater evil, and Spike is so good at being bad. He’s like Billy Idol if he ever became a vampire. The other great thing about watching Buffy is there isn’t that urgency to binge watch like there is with something new, which gives me a break from writing, but not an excuse to stay away.

As for revisions, I am now up to Chapter 31, which is more than the half way point. I would probably be a bit further along if I hadn’t been felled by a horrible head cold that basically stole 2 days away from me. I don’t know about you but head colds ruin my creativity. I did however finish reading The Girl from Everywhere (which I will review for the Cephalopod Coffeehouse at the end of the month), read Pretty Girls over the course of Saturday and We Were Liars Saturday night.

Lastly, I did get to see Rogue One over the holidays but I didn’t like it as much as I hoped. I would however go see it again to make sure. Loved the Imperial droid and seeing a few familiar faces. Couldn’t help but think of Carrie Fisher.

Now, tell me how things are going with you. Anything new or notable?