Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite, Maritza Moulite

The first thing that stood out for me from page one how will-powered Alaine is and on one side that good because she isn’t scared to discover the truth but on the other side that can also get her in trouble. She spoke out for things that she sees as right. I love the little hints of Haiti’s culture in this book since; it’s always great to learn about different cultures than mine.

One quote that stayed in mind is this “We’ve lived in this post-traumatic world for years now. We shouldn’t wait until there’s another tragedy to uplift this country.” It painted this image in my mind of a country that is trying to get back on its feet after the earthquake that happened back in January of 2010 that brought the country to its knees.

We get a taste of the traditional food which will make your mouth water for sure. One of the main characters (Alaine’s mother) was diagnosed with Alzheimer. We see how everyone is trying to process and learn to cope with this new lifestyle, and we see the effects that it has on her and her family. This book has some magical elements that surprised me a bit because I don’t know how everything is going to fit in together, but it does fit well when you see the big picture.

Something else I really liked is the usage of different media like email, diary entries and reports. I also appreciate that this book is its own voices. One negative point is that some parts were a bit slow going, but on the whole, I give this new release a four out of five stars.

Alex

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

I feel that I and this book was love at first sight. However, it took me years to read it because back in 2008, my access was minimal, so I would read any book I was given. So as soon as I got a copy, I knew I wanted to read it, especially since this book is coming out as a movie this year, so without further ado, here are my thoughts.

This book is written from the view of the dog, at the start of the book, Enzo is a pretty old dog, and he knows that his body is giving up on him. We get to read how he met his owner to the highs and lows of family. Enzo felt very much like a human. It certainly felt like he was the glue of the family with a passion for racing cars just his owner.

He has one dream, and that’s to evolve into a human, but he can’t share them because he is a dog. It reads very humanly even if it’s from the eyes of a non-human. It feels that Enzo was what made Denny succeeded in his career as a car race driver. Enzo was Denny’s life guide in a way. I gave this book a five of out five stars and its one of favourite books that I read in 2019.

The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein

Alex

My Thoughts On Girl A: The truth about the Rochdale sex ring by the victim who stopped them by Girl A

A few years back, this story was all over the news. Then one day I was browsing Netflix and came across the series Three Girls, and I found the book Girl A: The truth about the Rochdale sex ring by the victim who stopped them by Girl A. Even from that book title you kind of guess that this book deals with a heavy subject. That’s the reason I avoided reading this book until now.

As we can in the first chapter ‘girl a’ as she became known, had that is considered a ‘normal’ life before her teen years. I’m saying this because this also shows that this can happen to anyone regardless of the lifestyle you grow up in. What was shocking to me was that a person who was once her friend becomes her pimp and force her to be gang raped. The only reason I thought of was that Emma (the pimp) wasn’t strong enough or capable of breaking the ugly cycle she found herself in.

Something else that I noticed was the strength that human beings get when they become a parent to break any bad habits that they might have because now they have another life to take care of, that solely depends on them. I gave this book a five out of five stars because it deserves it.

Girl A: The truth about the Rochdale sex ring by the victim who stopped them

Alex

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

I’m choosing to respect the main character pronouns in this review, because as a transgender myself, I know how painful it is to be misgendered day in and day out. At the start of this book, Ben comes out to their parents as non-binary. All that they were told is to leave. So they had to go with only the clothes on their back. They found a home with their sister and her husband.

Hannah, (their sister) offered Ben therapy, but she didn’t force it on them, which is the best thing to do when it comes to therapy for it to work. Something that made this book real for me is the anxiety and gender dysphoria. I have both and like in Ben’s case, and mine, gender dysphoria and anxiety are connected. I love Hannah’s character and the way she and her husband dealt with everything and helped Ben out when they needed the same.

I Wish You All the Best came out this month and was in the list for my most anticipated book of 2019 and it didn’t disappoint because it was everything I wanted and more. I gave it a five out of five stars.

Alex

I Wish You All the Best

My Thoughts On Maple Creek by Elizabeth Penn

Emily flew back to her hometown after running out of an abusive relationship with her husband who was also, her boss. In this book, there is a bunch of ‘queer’side characters which I didn’t see coming, so it was a nice touch.

In Emily, we see a human who is trying to recover from her past abuse and starting to believe in herself all over again after many years and getting back her freedom after being held, prisoner by her husband.

One of the characters who is a trans guy got attacked with transphobe, and that really hit home. John the trans character got in a fight, and when the hospital doctor refused to care for him because he found that he’s trans, even though it’s illegal not to give medical care to anyone at least it is here, it happened to me before which is real life.

For the first time ever, she takes the time to explore her sexual orientation and for the first time falling with a woman. At first, I thought that the cover was misleading because it shows two females on the cover. The characters take a minute to come out but not in an annoying way like I said in the beginning.

The writing style is flowing, making it easier to fly through the book. My main complaint is that the story-line was too simple for my taste and kind of a copycat of some of the female/female romances I read before.

I must say that I feel that this book needs a bit more of editing and fixing typos. I feel that this book needed that extra push to become a winner and for that reason only I’m giving it a three out of five stars.

Maple Creek

Naked Without A Hat by Jeanne Willis

This book starts stupidly fun to the point where I doubted whether the main character is all there if you know what I mean? Will moved out of his mum’s after an issue with the mum’s boyfriend and a guitar. His new housemates sound like an equally weird bunch. I like Will perspective view of like the sea because it’s never-ending ’never dying kind of way’.

From the very first pages of this book, there is a conversation between Wil and his mum about keeping this secret that will be revealed towards the end of the book which in a way it will set everything in its place. Will does fall in love with a traveller/gypsy

Zara’s point of view is one that I never found in books before so it was an eye-opener for me. What she has to overcome because of her lifestyle is mind-blowing to me. This book does talk about mental disability, and I never thought I would like it as much as I did so give it a chance you won’t regret it. I gave it a four out of five stars.

Alex

Naked Without A Hat

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry (Contributor), Tobias Iaconis (Contributor)

Five Feet Apart is a novel about two people who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis who fall in love. Now with CF, you need to stay six feet apart from another person with CF. I don’t usually read romance or contemporary if it’s not queer. However, I’ve been watching the frey life on YouTube for a few years now, and I found their videos as a comfort whenever I was sick or not feeling right.

Since Mary Frey has Cystic Fibrosis, I watched her battle it daily. So, I always on the lookout for things related to it. Now that I heard about this movie called Five Feet Apart which by the way, is coming out in theaters 15^th March. This film is based on a book with the same title, and I just finished reading so here are my thoughts.

In this story, we meet Stella and Will who like I said, in the beginning, both have CF. They fall in love while being admitted to the same hospital ward. The writing in this is fantastic, so I’m looking forward to watching an excellent movie and while trying to learn more about this condition. One other book that has the main character with CF is Three Amazing Things About You by Jill Mansell (review here) If you haven’t guessed yet, I gave this book 5 stars out of 5.

Alex