Wren in Black Book Reviews

February 16, 2022

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

“This never knowing, it weakens us,” Bunu would say. “It’s a form of control. They know exactly what they’re doing.” – Ruta Sepetys, “I Must Betray You” Review: I Must Betray You is Ruta Sepetys’s newest historical fiction novel marketed for young adults. I absolutely love how Sepetys manages to take a little known (at […]

February 14, 2022

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

“You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.” – Chris McCandless, in a letter to […]

February 12, 2022

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

“I saw a civilization that could destroy itself before it even reached the nearest star.” – Sequoia Nagamatsu, “How High We Go in the Dark” Review: How High We Go in the Dark is a new and excellent work of speculative science fiction, and in my opinion one of the best works of art (that […]

February 11, 2022

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

“I’m not sure Black people can be happy in this world. There’s just too much of a backstory of sadness that’s always clawing at their heels. And no matter how hard you try to outrun it, life always comes through with those reminders letting you know that, more than anything, you’re just a part of […]

February 9, 2022

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

“But when you were a girl, people could tell you how to walk, how to sit, what to do, where to go, how to think, who to love. And who to obey.” – Charmaine Wilkerson, “Black Cake” Review: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson opens with two estranged siblings, Byron and Benny, who discover some shocking […]

February 7, 2022

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby

“Chopping up your first body is disgusting. Your second is tiresome. When you’re doing your fifteenth, it’s all muscle memory.” – S. A. Cosby, “Razorblade Tears” Review: The title of Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby refers to the way society teaches men that they can’t cry, or they’re weak. The act of mourning itself […]

February 5, 2022

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Love in the Time of Cholera” Review: Giving this […]

February 4, 2022

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

“We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.” – Colson Whitehead, “The Nickel Boys” Review: The Nickel Boys is another one of those books with […]

February 3, 2022

January Reading Wrap Up!

My Monthly Calendar of Reads: January Reading Stats: Books Completed: 21 Books Completed! (That may be a personal record) Pages Read: 6,955 pages total! Five Star Reads (Check the links for reviews!): If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich Ground Zero by Alan Gratz Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman […]

February 2, 2022

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

“I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us. I also know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead. ” – Joan Didion, “The […]