01 - Bookish with Jess Valera

 

What better time than now to stay home, practice social distancing, meditate, and read some good BOOKS...

Recommendations:

Right off the top of my head, my 2 recs include My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and A Man Is No Woman by Etaf Rum. You won’t believe me when I tell you that both novels are firsts for Russell & Rum.

Debut books that put the LIT in LITerature...

My Dark Vanessa, a new release, tales the relationship and secret affair (or sexual abuse?) between a student and her teacher. The story is told from the students perspective, both in present day (#MeToo movement present day!) and in the past. Once you start reading MDV, I guarantee! you won’t be able to put it down. A fair warning though, it is graphic and can be sensitive to some as it is about sexual abuse.

A Woman Is No Man is a “feminist movement” type book, from another culture, one we know very little of. This book follows two women, a Muslim Palestine-born woman forced into marriage that moves to Brooklyn, NYC. The second: her daughter, a Muslim-American woman. The story explores how they navigate living in America as Muslim women, with traditions and values that are not up for discussion. The moment I finished this book, I think I convinced 4 or 5 people to read it and they finished it as quickly as I did. It’s a story that stays with you, educates you, as well as makes you understand that we as women, are not in this fight alone.

 

 

Sorry I’m Booked Footnote:

Writers and Lovers by Lily King. My bookclub “Sorry, I’m Booked”  (feel free to join! will start reading this other! debut novel, about a woman who finds herself tangled up in an affair with two men, maybe more! you'll have to read. ;)

All I can say is, if you watched Euphoria, this book is by the same author. It has almost 5 stars on Goodreads (best app for books and reviews!) and I am so excited to read this while quarantined.

 

Follow Jess Valera + "Sorry, I'm Booked" on IG for more!