My New Arrivals: 12 books I recently received

Whenever I'm feeling hopeless, I try to to find something to look forward to like a get together with my friends or a new book. Since my friends and I haven't been able to hangout consistently for a bit, I've been leaning more into purchasing books from bookshops like SteamyLit and websites like Bookshop.org and Thriftbooks. I also won a giveaway! Here are the books I got recently:

Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too by Ijeoma Oluo

This title is self-explanatory. My hope is that this will give me strength. Oluo is also great writer and storyteller! I enjoyed her other books So You Want To Talk About Race and Mediocre, so I'm sure I'll love this one.

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi

As a lover of all things Octavia E. Butler, this purchase was a no-brainer! Ibi Zoboi weaves poetry, short essays, and primary sources in this small package. I'll likely be reading this book before the end of March.

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

I have read and love just about every book by Kimberly Lemming! In fact, I read the arc for this once back in January and have been singing its praises ever since. When I finally had a little cash to spend, I knew I wanted my own copy of this hilariously ridiculous and hot story.

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

Last month, I attended a Black History event where Kellie spoke about her book and historical heroes which spurred me to purchase her book. As with Oluo's book, I'm hoping this will give me strength and maybe help me work through my own anxieties about our time.

Destiny's Embrace by Beverly Jenkins

Whenever I'm looking for Black joy, I find Beverly Jenkins's books especially suited to my needs. As I Black Latina, I'm often seen as "resilient" and "strong," which can get tiring when all I want is to be given grace and comfort. So here's to self-care!

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

I've been hearing a lot of great things about this book! Okorafor's website describes it as "a book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction." All of that sounds intriguing as hell to me!

Blood & Brujas by Mikayla D. Hornedo

My girl, Carla (@carla_is_reading) has been raving about this book and when I saw the special edition pop up on SteamyLit's website, I was sold. From what I've learned, this is a sapphic fantasy packed with brujas (of course), vampires, and intrigue. Yes, please!

We Belong: an All-Black/All-Queer Sci-fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology edited by William O. Tyler and Viktor T. Kerney

Once again, I was influenced! Fareeha of @fairlyoddfareeha recommended this book on her YouTube shorts dedicated to Black Queer Comics and I knew I had to check it out. Follow her on Bindery here: https://fairlyqueer.binderybooks.com/about/

Purchase here: https://stackeddeckpress.com/product/we-belong-the-all-black-all-lgbtq-sci-fi-and-fantasy-comics-anthology/

Black Apocalypse: Afrofuturism at The End of the World by Tavia Nyong'o

I'll be honest, I don't fully remember how I stumbled upon this book. The title grabbed my attention and so did this description: "Juxtaposing the world-building of afrofuturism and the world-negating of afropessimism to show how both movements have offered us critical resources of hope." Since I've been struggling with pushing myself out of the pessimism that's been sticking to me since last fall, I feel like this might bring me out.

Las Leonas Series by Adriana Herrera

I won this gorgeous set of books in a giveaway and I'm in love. Adriana is one of my favorite authors of all time and this series solidified that for me. It's wonderful to have the full set of the new covers since my copies of the first two books don't match. She also sent me the original art for each of the covers, which was so damn sweet of her!!

I'm extremely grateful to have been able to purchase and/or receive these books. I feel a sense of pride having them and know that they will all bring me wisdom.