Book reviews of titles that have helped shape my Millennial experience, and other self indulgent musings.
ABOUT ME
Despite being judgmental and a bit of a book
snob, I'm pretty fucking awesome! I mean,
look at my current view in the picture to the
left. You know you wanna kick it with me and
my geek squad. That's because books make
cool housing decor, like super nice accessories.
When you walk into someones home and see
a wall of spines, especially leather-bound
spines, you automatically think highly of that
person.
Working around books also helps you score
dates with hot, smart people, generally
speaking, so of course, my first job was at a
library as a Page. Of course, I worked at a
Barnes and Noble in my 20's through my
mid 30's! You better believe I wasted an
exhaustive amount of years as a Liberal Arts
major to get my BA in English Lit. And you already know that my wedding was book
themed, right? I always wanted to be that Bookish babe with a bodacious brain, but my problem was, and still manages to be my collection. Both a problem in a lack of
substantive titles that help shape a generation and by having titles on my shelves that are simply for optics. Dust growth and yellow stains damaging the pages while the spines stand unbroken. I love to start a book and leave bookmarks in them because there's just something else that I just have to get and start immediately instead. Not even half-assed attempts at reading the books that don't keep my attention. This is my toddler brain attention span for crappy stories with crappy protagonists. For me, owning them is just as sufficient because it makes me look well-read, and optics are important for me.
I'm superficial. So are most people in my generation. But I grew up being told what to read by people who didn't look like me, didn't live like me, and possibly didn't even like me or other people who looked and lived like me. So I have more than earned the right to be cautiously selective about the supposed Great American Novel! I can denounce the canon, and refuse to let "those" guys determine what books should shape my world and place within it, and don't act like this is the first time you've heard someone say these words. At this point, the idea of the canon has to be expired, right? I'm not in school and don't have kids that are either, it's not a thing anymore, right? Oh God, tell me people realized its a lie! They don't still put stock into those opinions, right?
That's what this site is for, sort of. I am using this space to "reclaim my time" as a not so young adult. I will read the books I want and speak to me on a personal level. I will read the books that I wish I could've read as a queer black female in high school during the '90s. As a young adult, I didn't read lit that was within my age range. I went from reading Fear Street and Babysitters club books in Elementary School to reading Richard Laymon and Anne Rice and Linda Goodman's Star Signs because I didn't care about Ender or his space games. I was put off by flies and certainly didn't want to read about their Lord. Rye bread was best with Rueben sandwiches, not catchers. All the stories I was required to read were about adolescent white boys and those same boys ignored me in school, teased me in the hallways, but I needed to find a way to connect with them. That was YA for my generation. So swamped with crappy required reading, that none of us found the time to sit with books for "us". We were on the edge of Gen X, Millenial's grasping desperately for some type of identity. Something that sets us apart from the rest. It was the age of Pop Music, Boy Bands, the death of real Hip Hop and Grunge. The birth of Harry Potter and Pixar cartoons and we were all stuck in some strange grey area of trying to belong.
I'm going to do a few things on this site:
1) Read and review books that should've, could've, and would've been required school reading if I ruled the world
2) Read and review current YA because yo, authors get it these days! Diversity, inclusion, varying perspectives being explored. Teens are getting a taste of the world and adults could benefit from reading those titles too!
3) Make lists of things because lists make me happy and keep my thoughts organized.
4) Shamelessly plug my favorite literary websites, blogs, and products. If you don't want to read stuff like that, don't click on that tab, but I know you're curious, so that's why I'm gonna do it!
And,
5) Vulnerably post my creative writing.
This is me, Candice! Friends call me "Candi". Cute pic, right! Married, Masters in Management, and Mommy of two fur babies. And yes, I met my spouse while working at the bookstore because of course! I like the color pink, but refuse to wear it. My favorite things, in no particular order, are Miles Davis, bubble baths, candles, teddy bears, Billie Holiday, cheeseburgers, Spotify playlists, Alphonso mangoes (specifically!), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, N'Awlins, heavy rain with rumbling thunder throughout the day, elephants, lip balm, Mozart piano concerto No. 23, and cheese. Also, I happily struggle with procrastination, stress eating, and ADHD.
