Search

Search only in certain items:

With the Fire on High
With the Fire on High
Elizabeth Acevedo | 2019 | Contemporary, Young Adult (YA)
10
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
With this book, Elizabeth Acevedo has solidified her position as one of my must-read authors. The Poet X was EXCELLENT, and this one is every bit as good, which is awesome, considering the wildly different formats of the two books. The Poet X was a novel in poem form, being the collected poems of a teenage girl. This book is a more traditional novel, written in prose. It loses none of the lyrical, enchanting quality of Acevedo's writing, however.

With The Fire On High centers on Emoni Santiago, a teenage mother struggling to graduate from high school on time. When a culinary arts elective is offered during her senior year of school, she takes it despite feeling like she should be spending her energy on her daughter's future instead of realizing her own dreams. The elective opens up an entire world for her, however, taking her from whipping up magic alone in her own kitchen to being recognized by talented chefs as having something special. The added hours spent on cooking begin to affect her other responsibilities, however, and Emoni struggles to balance everything in her life, a fight that is very nearly upended by the new, very cute boy who just transferred to her school.

Emoni deals admirably with the vast responsibilities of being a parent, the complications of her own somewhat unusual home life (she's been raised by her grandmother after her mother's death and her father's absence), and the pressures of high school. Especially a school where she spent freshman year pregnant. Rather luckily, her daughter's father goes to a different school, so at least she doesn't have to deal with him every day.

Similar to The Poet X, the book deals with the intersection of black American culture and Puerto Rican culture, a combination I've been seeing more and more in Young Adult. (Well, The Poet X was Dominican, but they have very similar worries, mostly revolving around feeling "not black enough.")

I loved Emoni, I loved Malachi (the cute transfer student), I loved Abuela and Baby Girl/Emma. I even didn't mind Tyrone too much. For being a player, he was trying to do right by his daughter. Acevedo has such a talent for characters. Angelica (Emoni's best friend) and her girlfriend were a delight, too.

If you see a book by Elizabeth Acevedo, pick it up. You won't be disappointed. I can't wait to pick up her next book, which appears to be another novel in verse called Clap When You Land, due out next year!

You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com
  
Grounantion by Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That one was quite deep for me because again, growing up in church and being a believer; my family being from the West Indies - my mum’s side from Jamaica, my dad’s side from Dominica - I remember going to church and it was authentic West Indians there in their 40s, 50s that now live in the UK but have kept these traditions, they were singing these songs just without the drums. So when I first heard this, something just went - ‘Hang on?’ I remember being four and hearing this person sing that song but swap Selassie for this or that. It had that same spiritual element I was so used to, just in a very different form. It was like a weird full circle thing for me. It was almost like going back home. These drums are taking me somewhere, but also I'm being carried by these songs I know. It was beautiful to check out more of what Count Ossie was doing and people that were part of his band like Cedric Brooks. He was infusing a lot of the jazz elements that he's hearing from Coltrane or Ornette Coleman. That's deep, you’re deep in the heels of Kingston, aware of Ornette and them man. Like Duke Ellington had to come and visit him, you know, there’s a photo of him and Duke Ellington in the bush. You know he's got something that's important, not only important for culture but it's spiritually important for the Nyabinghi tradition. For me when I heard that record, particularly Grounation, where they’re going through loops for 20 minutes, it’s that thing again with soundsystems where you ‘wheel up a riddim’ or at church when the tune would just keep going. It was something I’d never heard but I also felt like it wasn’t foreign, those experiences are so wicked and that influenced the whole fascination with drum culture and drum languages, spirituality connected to drums, music orientated around the drums. I got into Batá and music for the Orishas and things that are all over the Diaspora in West Africa, the Caribbean, South America. And when you listen to it, the recording’s so rags but it just couldn't work if you put it in Abbey Road. It gave me a bit more confidence when I was doing my record that if I go to someone’s house and I show up with a handheld recorder, as long as it feels right it doesn't matter. Big studio, small studio, my phone as long as it’s got that feeling that I was going for."

Source
  
    Yoga Mudras

    Yoga Mudras

    Health & Fitness and Lifestyle

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Yoga Mudras - Hand Gestures for Energy Flow, Wellness and enhanced Perception. BACKGROUND Mudras...

Perhaps it's my love of lighthouses and lighthouse culture, perhaps it's my overwhelming nostalga for the original televised story Horror Of Fang Rock, perhaps it's just the amazing talent that is Andy Frankham-Allen. Perhaps all three. Whatever it is, Beast Of Fang Rock is a return to form for the Lethbridge-Stewart series. It manages to be a Scooby-Doo style mystery, a classic base under siege story, and an intricate time travel tale simultaneously, not to mention an all-around great yarn. These characters are fully formed and fleshed out, and each brings something marvelous to the party. (And makes one wonder if Frankham-Allen has some sort of inside track to the BBC, what with season 9 episodes turning out to have similar threads!)

My only complaint (and it's a small one) is the Brigadier himself is pushed back so slightly in this one in favor of Anne Travers. But, thats as it should be. This is her story, her time to shine, and Lethbridge-Stewart seems content to back her characterization until he's needed to be the man of action during the thrilling third act. As I said, its a SMALL complaint.

Definitely give this one a read kids!
  
40x40

Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated The Bees in Books

May 10, 2018  
The Bees
The Bees
Laline Paull | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.4 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
***RECEIVED AN ADVANCED REVIEW COPY***


The Bees is the most unique book I have read in my life. I can't say that I have read a book that was completely about bugs. It reminded me a lot of Bee Movie.

Flora 717 is at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to bee culture. She is a sanitation worker. It's her job and the job of the other floras to keep the hive in tiptop condition. But, there is something special about Flora 717. She is bigger than others in her group and she is pulled aside for more assignments besides cleaning. When Flora is taken to meet the Queen, she finds out more and more about the hive she lives in and about the lives of past and future colonies. Flora breaks some rules in good ways and in bad, but throughout it all she must survive!

The Bees in most interesting. Even though it was about bees, I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how Flora was going to handle every situation. I learned a lot more about bees than I may ever want or need to know, but it's cool to get a glimpse into their world.