Writing reviews for CBR is not easy. I can’t just relax and read something. I read books with the upcoming review in mind, analysing their building blocks, paying attention to details, overthinking them. As a result, I sometimes finish them and -unless I straight out loved a book- have no idea how I felt about them. Did the story touch me? Did it make me think? Would I recommend it to others? When that happens, I like to go on Goodreads and read other people’s […]
I am trying to figure out the audience here.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
I need to say straight away that I love the novel Kindred, which I read for a Black Women’s Writers class in college. It was an inspired choice to put on the syllabus that also included Song of Solomon, Brothers and Sisters by Bebe Moore Campbell, Dessa Rose by Sherley Anne Williams among others. I think that that novel is a tremendous combination of sci fi, 1970s Black writing, political fire, angst, and a few other things all tied into one great novel. It shares some really important themes […]
Terrifying time travel
How have I never read anything by Octavia Butler before? This book was fantastic, and I have got to find more of her work — does anyone have any suggestions?? Kindred stars a black woman named Dana, who lives in California in the 1970s. On her 26th birthday, she starts to feel dizzy, then suddenly finds herself on the side of a riverbank next to a drowning boy. She saves the boy, almost on instinct, and later realizes that she’s traveled back in time & […]
Be the Change You Wish to See in the World
The Parable of the Sower, by the brilliant Octavia Butler (author of Kindred), is a piece of dystopian fiction set in California in the 2020s. It’s not clear precisely what happened, but rule of law and access to utilities, education, and basic necessities have been severely curtailed. Our narrator is Lauren Olamina, a teenager who lives inside one of the remaining walled communities on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Lauren is a “sharer” or “feeler,” i.e., a person who has a condition called hyper empathy […]
Why didn’t I read this sooner!?
This is straight up going to be one of those reviews where I don’t do the book justice, in this case it’s mostly because I feel kind of overwhelmed by what I just read. I wish I had time to sit down and re-read it, pen in hand, and then attend a series of lecture classes with likeminded people where we totally dissect it and wallow around in its lovely nuance. Maybe I just miss grad school. (The people and the atmosphere and the stimulating discussion, […]