Books and Sensibility

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Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

354 pages | Balzer + Bray | Contemporary | Release Date: 5/5/2020

Felix’s last name is Love but he’s never been in it. And he desperately wants to be. Even though society makes him feel unworthy of love because he is queer, trans and Black.

When a transphobic art gallery targeting Felix goes up at his prestigious NYC art school he thinks he knows exactly who did it—his best friend’s ex, Declan Keane. Taking revenge into his own hands, Felix initiates a catfishing scheme and…nothing goes as planned. 

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AudioFile’s 2020 Best Young Adult Audiobooks

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Today we are excited to present AudioFile’s 2020 Best Young Adult Audiobooks. AudioFile Magazine is the place to find audiobook reviews, narrator interviews and recommendations. For avid listeners don’t forget to subscribe to the AudioFile Magazine Podcast.

Raybearer

by Jordan Ifueko| Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

We Are Not From Here

by Jenny Torres Sanchez| Read by Marisa Blake

Stamped

by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi| Read by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi [Intro.]

The Black Flamingo

by Dean Atta| Read by Dean Atta

Punching The Air

by Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam| Read by Ethan Herisse

Kent State

by Deborah Wiles| Read by Lauren Ezzo, Christopher Gebauer, Christina Delaine, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, Korey Jackson, David DeVries

Click here to check out all of the of AudioFile’s 2020 Best Audiobooks

Black Friday Read-a-Thon Quote Challenge

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Good Morning #BFRat Participants! Now that you’ve started it’s time to share! Comment below with a quote from your current read and you’ll be entered to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card. You must be signed up for the Black Friday Read-a-Thon to eligible

Our Black Friday Readathon TBR #BFRaT !

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This Friday, Jess and I are co-hosting the Black Friday Readathon with Alysia from Mocha Girls Read and readathon founder, Amber from DuLivre! We’re getting our TBRs together to spend all day reading, playing games, and giving away prizes. There is still time to sign up for the Black Friday Readathon here.

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Book Review: Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

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Unrated | 352 pages | Park Row | Contemporary | 6/16/2020

Trigger Warning: sexual assault, incest and domestic violence

Saving Ruby King examines the past and present of Southside Chicago’s Calagary Baptist congregation after the murder of Alice King. I feel like this could be a read-a-like to The Mothers by Brit Bennett because it’s the story of a specific Black community told through multiple POVs that moves through time.

Alice’s daughter Ruby is left to contend with her abusive father Lebanon–an ex-con who is holding a dark secret over Calgary’s hard-working preacher.

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Audiobook Review: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

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320 pages | Titan Books | Historical Fantasy | 11 Hours 56 mins

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

What if instead of The South rising…the dead did? More than a decade after the zombies or “shamblers” began to roam, Black slaves and Native Americans have been forced from the fields and into battle schools to become protectors or Attendants for whites.

Justina Ireland’s re-imagined history is a unique concept that combines historical fiction with action, adventure and light horror as her battle-tested heroine Jane stops fighting to save white people and starts fighting to save herself. At first, I  had a hard time with this book because I went in expecting this to be a book about an alternate-universe antebellum zombie apocalypse, but really this is just the setting as the shamblers are the “new normal”. Once I was able to adjust my expectations and our main character is taken from the world she knows and dropped into the untamed wild west, I found this to be a solid read. …

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