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3⭐️ Really liked the overall story, but felt that it could have used some more editing. I can see why the book won the #nationalbookaward, but felt it was slow in a number of places and it felt at times like the author was trying too hard to make the story more compelling. #2022 #fallreads #fiction #historicalfiction #bookreview #bookstagram #americancivilwar

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Is this a thoughtful musing on racial injustice or a heavy-handed, self-indulgent dose of metafiction? Both? I‘m conflicted. Parts are clever and meaningful while others are quite vexatious; the narrator, unreliable. It‘s stylistically busy, though I do appreciate how the stories converge. How this won the #NationalBookAward, idk, though. Should make for an interesting #bookclub discussion, regardless!

So I am having a nice bookish morning today! Happy Weekend everyone! My breakfast is a glorious peanut butter cheesecake from a bakery that is also an American Bookstore here in Krakow. The book wo n the #nationalbookaward for best book in translation. I am reading it for the book club #borderless

It arrived! #bookmail #nationalbookaward

This one is definitely up soon!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The final leg of John Lewis‘s civil rights battle was tumultuous and often violent, yet they admirably continued to protest in peace. What he and other unflinching activists helped achieve was just ... well, there are no words to articulate it properly. This is a difficult, very powerful graphic memoir series. History in this format is just brilliant! #nationalbookaward

5⭐️ This book is memoir, genealogy, history, geography. It is a history of New Orleans East pre- and post-Katrina. Broom uses the house she grew up in, as the youngest of 12 kids in a blended family (both of her parents were widowed with kids when they met), as the focal point. It is so well written and is simply fascinating. #memoir #nationalbookaward

The 2019 National Book Award for Poetry winner—and now I have read all of the finalists. This was not my favorite among the finalists, but it is solid. Sze lives in New Mexico, and most of the poems in this collection bring up the desert—the weather, flora and fauna, fire, seasons. Some focus on urban life, others on Sze‘s Chinese heritage. Mushrooms, peonies, and spotted towhees come up several times. #poetry #nationalbookaward

I loved this poetry collection! There is a section on her parents‘ lives as immigrants and her own experiences growing up in an immigrant community. Also lots of Nature and travel poems. This was a finalist for the 2018 NBA for Poetry. #poetry #nationalbookaward

Another 2019 National Book Award for Poetry finalist. This book is full of excellent poems a about Derricotte‘s life: as a child, as an adult, as a black woman who can accidentally or intentionally pass for white and how that makes her feel. Because this is an anthology of her work over time, it is not always as cohesive as a typical collection, but it‘s good. #poetry #nationalbookaward

Another National Book Award for Poetry 2019 finalist. I found some of these poems to be very powerful, others are over my head. Perhaps due to lack of shared experience? The focus here is his life as a gay black American man/son. His father is in many of these. Definitely worth the read. #poetry #nationalbookaward