Books have saved my life more times than I can count. Books taught me how to build new worlds, new realities for myself. Books provide me with a safe place to escape to when I need rest. Books introduced me to magic and manifestation. Books are my oldest closest friends. There’s always room for more of them!

During COVID I have had more time to read than ever before and I’ve been taking advantage of it! I read very quickly and voraciously, which means that I regularly devour my entire wishlist and still have an appetite for more. I am currently in need of some solid recommendations. Some of my favorite writers are Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison (but lord I can only read each book once a decade they’re so HEAVY), Gayle Jones, Morgan Parker, Nnedi Okarafor, NK Jemisin, and Cherie Dimaline. As the graphic says:

I read in english, portugues, french, spanish and arabic.

I prefer books by people who are Black and/or Indigenous and who identify as women, queers, transfolk, non binary folks and/or femmes.

I tend to like:

speculative fiction

sci fi

historical fiction

fantasy

critical theory

social movement histories

poetry

character driven books

books with delicious language

I really struggle with books that have clunky language ( I love Octavia Butler but it took forever for me to get into reading her because I couldn’t deal with her way of writing). I struggle with books that do too much explaining rather than showing. I can’t deal with books that have no pot or character development.

I’m currently reading The Alchemist for the first time! It’s printed in Spanish, Portugues, French and English. So I’m co-reading them all as a way to stay sharp and get more comfortable with vernacular forms of each language. Bonus point if the book you recommend is available in multiple languages!