Before our mothers spent Saturdays scrubbing stovetops to R&B classics they were girls children of Detroit, Brooklyn, Newark, and other Black cities across the country. It’s the desires and identities of those adolescents author Jasmine Mans explores in her second book of poetry, Black Girl Call Home.
“Tell me who my mother was before she was my mother,” Mans says, quoting her work. “I think that’s a very important thing. Often we see these matriarchs and we never consider that.”
Mans’ words cloak those the world dismisses as “strong Black women,” in much-needed empathy. “All of those women, from my mother to my grandmother, to Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, we revere these people, but it’s important to bring them back to this most simple form: they are women,” Mans says. “They bleed, they got their periods, they cried, men left them.”
Luster by Raven Leilani review â a millennial novel for the ages
This acerbic debut, about a young black womanâs relationship with a rich white couple, will be among the yearâs best
Raven Leilani: âunexpected details and cynical insightsâ. Photograph: Miranda Barnes
Raven Leilani: âunexpected details and cynical insightsâ. Photograph: Miranda Barnes
Sun 17 Jan 2021 05.00 EST
Luster sails into 2021 on clouds of praise, vapour trails of hype streaming behind it. âThe most delicious novel Iâve read,â says Candice Carty-Williams; âbrutal â and brilliantâ opines Zadie Smith. Perhaps she would say that, being Raven Leilaniâs mentor and former tutor at NYU.
New voices and stories help balance the books Independent.ie 10/01/2021 Emily Hourican
The pandemic has been, broadly speaking, good for books, in that reading is a vital survival tool for many of us. Books aren t hard to buy online - no faffing with sizes or colours - they are relatively cheap, and usually quickly delivered (kudos to the amazing Irish bookshops that do this so efficiently).
However, the pandemic has not been equally good to all books, favouring established and big-name writers over the new and emerging. When buying online, readers tend to stick with what they know - or rely on algorithms that predict what they ll like, based on previous purchases (I say nuts to these algorithms; they fail to take account of my broad and eclectic taste. Just because I love John le Carré does not mean I want an endless list of spy thrillers…). When buying online, readers do not browse, or chat to those wonderful ambassadors for books - booksellers.