Normally I would be posting about my top reads for the second quarter of 2020. However, with today’s climate and the fact that it’s LGBTQ month, I thought I would talk about some of my favorite black and queer books instead. This is not a comprehensive list. It’s just the books that I’ve really enjoy, learned from, or would recommend to a friend. If you would like a full list of my diverse reads, check out my diverse book reviews. I hope everyone is safe and healthy during this time.
If you have some recommendations, comment below. I’m always adding to my TBR list.
Happy Reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 79/175
Red, White, & Royal Blue
By Casey McQuiston
Alex’s life is the perfect blend of dreams come true and chaos - his mother is the first female President. With his life now on a stage and his mother up for re-election, nothing can go seriously wrong. Like an altercation with a Prince across the pond. After a horrifying tabloid scandal, Alex and Henry are forced to play nice and convince the world that they’re friends. But the more time they spend together, the more they learn that there’s something behind all the angst. The two set down a dangerous path that could ruin their lives and Alex’s mother’s re-election.
The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.
These Witches Don’t Burn
by Isabel Sterling
Hannah's a witch, but not the kind you're thinking of. She's the real deal, an Elemental with the power to control fire, earth, water, and air. But even though she lives in Salem, Massachusetts, her magic is a secret she has to keep to herself. If she's ever caught using it in front of a Reg (read: non-witch), she could lose it. For good. So, Hannah spends most of her time avoiding her ex-girlfriend (and fellow Elemental Witch) Veronica, hanging out with her best friend, and working at the Fly by Night Cauldron selling candles and crystals to tourists, goths, and local Wiccans.
But dealing with her ex is the least of Hannah's concerns when a terrifying blood ritual interrupts the end-of-school-year bonfire. Evidence of dark magic begins to appear all over Salem, and Hannah's sure it's the work of a deadly Blood Witch. The issue is, her coven is less than convinced, forcing Hannah to team up with the last person she wants to see: Veronica.
While the pair attempt to smoke out the Blood Witch at a house party, Hannah meets Morgan, a cute new ballerina in town. But trying to date amid a supernatural crisis is easier said than done, and Hannah will have to test the limits of her power if she's going to save her coven and get the girl, especially when the attacks on Salem's witches become deadlier by the day.
All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Rashad is absent again today.
That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all…
Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.
And that’s how it started.
And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.
Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.
Cuz that’s how it can end.
The Art of Starving
by Sam J. Miller
The Art of Starving centers around Matt - a boy struggling with life since his older sister decided to disappear one night. Question is, what made her leave? Matt is determined to discover the truth. First stop, the bullies that make his life a living hell. Their ringleader was the last to see his sister before she left. In his search, Matt learns that the less he eats, the more heightened his senses become making him the man he always wished to be: strong and sure. Eventually, his abilities lead to acceptance in the group making him wonder, why did his sister really leave?
The Wayward Children series is about children searching to find where they fit in. And when that isn’t available in their world, secret doors open up for them, taking them exactly where they’re meant to be. Some children stay forever, perfectly happy behind the doors, but others find their way back to their original worlds forever changed, fighting to return even if it could mean death. They might have missed their families. They might have missed the comforts of home. Yet still they try to find their doors back. Out of her own door, knowing the struggles of the returning children, Eleanor opens a home for these children, hoping to make each stay as logical or illogical as she can for them. Together, the children can commiserate and grow and hopefully find their door again. These books are about their travels, their pasts, and sometimes their futures.
