Mr. McCane

This is one incredible memoir, and I’m ashamed that it sat on my shelf unread for so long. We follow Richard through every stage of his life: as a child, athlete, comedian, business owner, husband, father, and activist. It’s so well written and well structured that I felt as though I were viewing his life through his eyes.

Although I’m familiar with America’s horrible history of Black people living in America, there’s nothing like hearing individual voices of civil rights soldiers who had boots on the ground. The sacrifices made are unfathomable. Stop what you’re doing and read this book. Same fight, different quarter.

This is my second read by Nguyen Phan Que Mai. I absolutely loved The Mountains Sing and had heard this one was even better, so I dove right in without even reading the synopsis.

During the Vietnam War, many American soldiers slept with Vietnamese women and then left, often leaving them pregnant. The mixed-race children who were left behind were called Amerasians. These children faced discrimination, teasing, and horrible insults because many Vietnamese people still hated Americans. One of the names they were called was “Dust Children.”

Many of these children spent their entire lives trying to locate their fathers. And on rare occasions, there were American soldiers trying to locate the children they had abandoned.

Dust Child takes place between 1969 and 2016 and follows three interconnected POVs.

First, we meet Phong, a half-Black, half-Vietnamese man who is desperately searching for his Black American father who resides in the United States.

Next, we follow 18-year-old Trang (Kim) and her 17-year-old sister, Quynh. The two sisters are trying to earn money for their parents by working as “bar girls,” which, of course, involves prostituting themselves to American soldiers.

Finally, we follow Dan, a white American soldier who returns to Vietnam in 2016 searching for the child he abandoned during the war.

I really enjoyed this book. I wasn’t expecting any Black American representation, and then suddenly, boom, we’re in here too. This author is an incredible writer. I immersive read this book, and I highly recommend experiencing it the same way. It was deeply thought-provoking for me and an easy five stars.

Shen Tao did her thing with this one. It had me locked in. Five stars! Keep in mind that she’s a debut author. I rarely read fantasy, but since three of my favorite mutuals were raving about it (Claude, Dre Reads, and Smitty), I decided to give it a try. And yes, they were spot on!

This is not a romantasy, and it’s definitely not predictable. There are dragons, and this book will take your emotions all over the place!

The Poet Empress is a dark fantasy about a teenage girl named Wei Yin who lives in a small town within a large kingdom. Her town is poor, and her family is struggling financially. In an attempt to help out her family, Wei enters a selection competition to become a concubine for the crown prince.

The whole time, there are rumors that the prince is a cruel and horrible person. Wei has to decide if the benefits of being with the prince will outweigh the consequences. Keep in mind that people are competing not only to become the next emperor, but also the next empress. Everyone in the kingdom is shiesty and lowdown. You can’t trust anyone.

There’s also a magic system that’s easy to understand. The characters basically have to write poems to cast spells.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat, and the ending is straight fire. I loved this book! Check the trigger warnings because this story has a lot going on.

I’m so glad I finally got to read this book.

The setting is the year 2023 in a fictional town (Padua Beach) down south in the Florida Panhandle. Down South is where many people send their pregnant girls. This book focuses on the POVs of three of them.

First, we have Simone, an African American 20-year-old who was kicked out of her parents’ home when she was 16 because she got pregnant. She now lives in the back of her boyfriend’s truck with her twin 4-year-old daughters. She’s like a big sister to a group of other girls who are in similar situations.

Next, we have Emory. She’s a 17-year-old high school Caucasian girl with a newborn. She lives with her grandparents, and they prohibit her boyfriend from entering their home. You can probably figure out why.

And finally, we meet Adela, a mixed-race pregnant 16-year-old from a wealthy family. Her parents sent her from Indiana to live with her grandparents until she had the baby. Apparently she was “embarrassing” the family.

There are other girls in this book, but the story mainly focuses on those three. The chapters are also divided by POV, which I enjoyed.

After being abandoned, all these girls have is each other. This was a good read about sisterhood and watching them band together in a world that does not have their best interests at heart.

You may ask yourself, “Why the hell are you reading a book about pregnant teenage girls?” First, mind your damn business. I don’t like your attitude. And second, I enjoy learning about different situations people go through in life. Pregnant teenagers are a new topic for me to explore in books.

It really bothers me that parents will throw their own children out onto the streets because they got pregnant. That’s a problem. Who throws away their children and grandchildren?

I kept thinking about my wife and I situation. We were both 20 years old when she became pregnant with our first child. Although it was rough, I can’t imagine her trying to navigate that alone. It’s a cold world out there, and I’m grateful we had each other.

I immersive-read this one and enjoyed the hell out of it.

That’s two books in a row I’ve read with horrible parents. (The Darkest Child.)

The Darkest Child is a historical fiction novel that gives readers a look into a Black family during the Jim Crow era. We get to witness firsthand the effects Jim Crow had on the Quinn family. But instead of seeing it through the mother’s eyes, we get the POV of one of her children.

Rozelle Quinn is the worst character I’ve ever read in a book. She’s light-skinned and can pass as white. She has ten children, all by different men. And although she’s horrible to all of them, she targets the darker-skinned children the most. The more I read, the more disgusted I became with her.

Tangy Mae is our main character, and the story is told from her POV. She’s 13 years old, smart, and just happens to be the darkest child in the family. Tangy Mae endures extreme abuse while also trying to stay in school.

The story takes place in Georgia during the 1950s, in the middle of the Jim Crow era. This is a difficult read, so I advise checking your triggers beforehand. The book tackles mental illness, racism, abuse (mental, physical, and sexual), murder, and more. It’s not just one or two awful scenes; this book is raw and will leave you with your jaw on the floor.

I’m glad I read it. It’s a story I needed to experience. I immersive-read it, and the narrator (Bahni Turpin) did an amazing job. She’s probably the reason I kept going. I will never forget the Quinn family. Unfortunately, the author passed away while writing book two. The audiobook includes a few chapters from book two, but the physical copy I had did not.

There were a couple of things I didn’t like, but I’m not sure this story could have been told without them, so I’m okay with it. One issue was that there were too many characters, which made it difficult to keep up at times. But again, Rozelle had ten children, so how else could you write that? There’s no point in going into anything else. This book hurt my heart, and I’m only recommending it to people strong enough for a gut punch.

I’ve been really enjoying these short thriller novellas lately. Octavia Grant’s Cutthroat blew me away earlier this year. After that, Anna J’s The Hunt series equally impressed me. They both have a way of pulling you into the minds of their characters and somehow making you an accessory to murder(s). I find myself not only justifying this ruthless behavior but also low-key finding it satisfying, in a sadistic, Christian kind of way.

Olivia Renee Wallace is a new author to me, but I believe she writes romance. So, when someone asked me to read an ARC of Vengeance, I agreed. Two queens of the thriller genre with a slash of romance, and a title like Vengeance. Count me in.

For years, people knew Tyrone Houston as the quiet, dependable man who ran the Houston Family Funeral Home and Crematorium. He’s a pillar of the community, a devoted father, and a man who treated the dead with care. At least, that’s what everyone thought.

After he suddenly dies, his daughters receive a shocking final request. They must go on a scavenger hunt to uncover who their father really was. And what they find is worse than any nightmare. They’re now forced to make their own moral decisions.

This book is heavier than a backpack full of textbooks on the first day of school. Please check your trigger warnings. There’s a lot of blood, torture, and death. My favorite quote: “If you haven’t gotten right with the Lord, now is the time.”

I enjoyed this read, and my favorite part was the dialogue between the sisters, it felt so real. I also didn’t realize how hot getting busy in a funeral home, in the presence of the dead, could be… thanks, Olivia lol. Can’t wait for book two. Great job, ladies!

I owned this book for about a year and finally had time to read it. I’m actually glad I did. And after hearing about the lawsuit, it all makes sense now.

This book is about a perfect, goody-two-shoes, privileged woman who does everything just right. She hates men, then suddenly meets the “perfect” man. They have “perfect” children and become the “perfect” family. Her husband ends up taking illegal drugs (ecstasy) in what they call a controlled therapeutic environment (MDMA). The FDA does not approve it, but he convinces his wife to try it anyway.

While under the influence, she experiences vivid “memories” of being violently sexually assaulted for years, starting in middle school by a teacher. Suddenly, everything clicks, and she believes she now remembers why she hates men. The rest of the book focuses on her trying to gain sympathy and positioning herself not only as a victim of sexual assault but as its poster child. She becomes frustrated with law enforcement when they can’t make an arrest in this case for obvious reasons. Example: The statute of limitations and the fact that she was high on illegal drugs.

As you can probably tell, I absolutely hated this book. I’ve been working sexual assault cases for seventeen years, and this comes across as deeply unrealistic.

On top of that, her friend in the book (Claudia) is now suing her in real life. Claudia (referred to as Jane Doe) claims the author hired investigators to pose as people interested in purchasing her story for a movie. They allegedly recorded multiple phone interviews and attempted to arrange an in-person meeting to sign paperwork, which raises obvious questions about intent.

According to Jane Doe, she became suspicious after researching them and asking who they really were. They reportedly became defensive and cut off communication. She accuses the author of stealing her story and then hiring a ghostwriter to tell it.

To me, this book reads like someone who hasn’t experienced these events but is trying to center themselves in a narrative for attention. Adding to that, she and her husband reportedly have financial interests tied to MDMA, which makes the situation feel even more questionable.

People also allege that money went to high-profile individuals such as Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Reese Witherspoon. Most likely to help push this book, but this is all speculative.

If any of this is true, it’s deeply troubling. It undermines real survivors of sexual assault and trivializes their experiences.

Oprah, this is strike three: A Million Little Pieces, American Dirt, and now The Tell. No more book recommendations from you.

Minus two stars.

For me, this book hit on so many levels. It gave me some of the same feelings I had when I read The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, that social horror. The kind of horror that’s only relatable to certain groups of people, especially those who grew up in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Imagine if S.A. Cosby and Tananarive Due wrote a book together.

This story follows a mother who has recently lost one of her three sons to gun violence and is desperately trying to protect her other two from suffering the same fate. It takes place in a public housing project in Medford, Michigan (a fictional setting), and includes a supernatural element that makes it stand out.

What’s beautiful about this book is the top-tier storytelling, which perfectly captures the feel of these environments. I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and this book felt so real that I kept having flashbacks to my childhood. Terrible memories of horror, and reoccurring and generational trauma.

The author captures not only how dangerous it can be to grow up as a young Black male, but everything that comes with it: a mother’s screams after losing a child, the emptiness left by absent fathers, the constant feeling of not mattering, and the always present risk of gun violence from guns that seem endlessly accessible for reasons we still don’t fully understand.

I was very impressed by this author. The ending was wild and left me sitting with my thoughts for about 30 minutes.

This isn’t a book filled with jump scares. Instead, it focuses on the horror of living in Hester Gardens. I immersive-read this one, switching between the audiobook and the physical copy. The narrator did an amazing job. This will definitely be one of my top reads of 2026.