Welcome to What I’ve Been Reading Lately, a feature where I’ll be giving short reviews of what I’m currently reading:
The Davenports by Krystal Marquis
The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it’s 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love–even where they’re not supposed to.
There is Olivia, the beautiful elder Davenport daughter, ready to do her duty by getting married . . . until she meets the charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight and sparks fly. The younger daughter, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love–unless it’s with her sister’s suitor. Amy-Rose, the childhood friend turned maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business–and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen’s brother, John. But Olivia’s best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can’t seem to keep his interest . . . until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers.
Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, The Davenports is the tale of four determined and passionate young Black women discovering the courage to steer their own path in life–and love.
I am finding this one very entertaining so far. Not only is it well-written, but it is also a great example of escapism that gives readers a chance to learn about a time period that they would not have learned about in their history books. This is also perfect for readers who enjoy Bridgerton and Downton Abbey.
Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës by Devoney Looser
Before the Brontë sisters picked up their pens, or Jane Austen’s heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet became household names, the literary world was celebrating a different pair of sisters: Jane and Anna Maria Porter. The Porters-exact contemporaries of Jane Austen-were brilliant, attractive, self-made single women of polite reputation who between them published 26 books and achieved global fame. They socialized among the rich and famous, tried to hide their family’s considerable debt, and fell dramatically in and out of love. Their moving letters to each other confess every detail. Because the celebrity sisters expected their renown to live on, they preserved their papers, and the secrets they contained, for any biographers to come.
But history hasn’t been kind to the Porters. Credit for their literary invention was given to their childhood friend, Sir Walter Scott, who never publicly acknowledged the sisters’ works as his inspiration. With Scott’s more prolific publication and even greater fame, the Porter sisters gradually fell from the pinnacle of celebrity to eventual obscurity. Now, Professor Devoney Looser, a Guggenheim fellow in English Literature, sets out to re-introduce the world to the authors who cleared the way for Austen, Mary Shelley, and the Brontë sisters. Capturing the Porter sisters’ incredible rise, from when Anna Maria published her first book at age 14 in 1793, through to Jane’s fall from the pinnacle of fame in the Victorian era, and then to the auctioning off for a pittance of the family’s massive archive, Sister Novelists is a groundbreaking and enthralling biography of two pioneering geniuses in historical fiction. (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)
Never heard of the Porter sisters but they had lead interesting and intriguing lives. I am reading this as a narrative nonfiction book that really dives into the time period and makes you fell like you are there. You can tell that Looser has done her research with the sharp attention to detail that is shown in this book. Looking forward to reading more!
Rising Above a Toxic Workplace: Taking Care of Yourself in an Unhealthy Environment by Paul White and Gary Chapman
Learn how to thrive in–or escape from–a toxic work environment.
Toxic organizations are rife with conflict, fear, and anger. The environment causes people to have physiological responses as if they’re in a fight-or-flight situation. Healthy people become ill. Colds, flu and stress-related illnesses such as heart attacks are more common. By contrast, in resonant organizations, people take fewer sick days and turnover is low. People smile, make jokes, talk openly and help one another.” – Annie McKee (author, consultant)
Many employees experience the reality of bullying bosses, poisonous people, and soul-crushing cultures on a daily basis. Rising Above a Toxic Workplace tells authentic stories from today’s workers who share how they cope, change, or quit. Candidly they open up about what they learned, what they wish they had done, and how to gain resilience.
Insightfully illustrating from these accounts, authors Gary Chapman, Paul White, and Harold Myra blend their combined experiences in ministry and business to deliver hope and practical guidance to those who find themselves in an unhealthy work environment. (Credit: Northfield Publishing)
I have been dealing with issues with my job, particularly with it being a toxic work environment. So I thought I would read up more about the subject and learn more about techniques on dealing with it.
The List by Yomi Adegoke
Ola Olajide, a celebrated journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is set to marry the love of her life in one month’s time. Young, beautiful, and successful–she and her fiancé Michael are considered the “couple goals” of their social network and seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: “Oh my god, have you seen The List?”
It began as a crowdsourced collection of names and somehow morphed into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. Ola would usually be the first to support such a list–she’d retweet it, call for the men to be fired, write article after article. Except this time, Michael’s name is on it.
Compulsively readable, wildly entertaining, and filled with sharp social insight, The List is a piercing and dazzlingly clear-sighted debut about secrets, lies, and the internet. Perfect for fans of Such a Fun Age, Luster, and My Dark Vanessa, this is a searing portrait of these modern times and our morally complicated online culture. (Credit: William Morrow and Company)
The plot is an interesting and I am enjoying it so far. I also like the timely storyline that is presented here so it will be exciting to see how far it will go.
What I Plan to Read Next:
Disobedient Bodies: Reclaim Your Unruly Beauty by Emma Dabiri
What part of your beautiful self were you taught to hate? We spend a lot of time trying to improve our ‘defects’, according to society’s ideals of beauty. But these ideals that are often reductive, tyrannical and commercially entangled, are imposed upon us by oppressive systems and further strengthened by our conditioned self-loathing.
This book encourages unruliness, exploring the ways in which we can rebel against and subvert the current system. Offering alternative ways of seeing beauty, drawing on other cultures, worldviews, times, and places – to reconnect with our birthright and find the inherent joy in our disobedient bodies. (Credit: Profile Books)
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope. (Credit: Berkley Books)
Every Smile You Fake by Dorothy Koomson
‘Please take care of my baby. But don’t try to find me. You’ll put him in danger.’
Profiler and therapist Kez Lanyon is shocked when she finds a baby on the backseat of her car, with an unsigned note asking her to take care of him.
Kez has a pretty good idea who the mother is – Brandee, a popular social media star with a troubled background, who once lived in Kez’s house. Brandee recently dropped out of the limelight and if the internet rumours are true, Kez knows Brandee’s life is in danger.
Kez is torn. Should she simply take care of the baby as she’s been asked, or should she risk her whole family by using contacts from her previous job to save this young woman? Time is running out for Brandee. Can Kez find her before it’s too late? This is the heart-stopping new novel from The Queen Of The Big Reveal. (Credit: Headline)
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
It’s like I keep stumbling into a dark room, searching for the switch to make things bright again…Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school after being home-schooled all her life. Misfortune has been a constant companion all her life, but even Sade doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.
With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls collectively known as the ‘Unholy Trinity’ and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them–especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to–and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But when it seems people don’t care enough about what happened to Elizabeth to really investigate, it’s up to she and Elizabeth’s best friend to solve it.
And then a student is found dead.
As they keep trying to figure out what’s going on, Sade realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…secrets that rival even her own. (Credit:Feiwel & Friends)
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