female authors – ode to shelf-care

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin

little-eyes_custom-157e1e8dc69e4e47029536ab51b87740a5bfe5fb-s300-c85 Originally published in Latino Book Review magazine at latinobookreview.com

In Samanta Schweblin’s Little Eyes, people around the world are delighted by a new technology bringing anonymous online relationships to a new level. Kentukis are small stuffed animals on wheels, like a robot pet—except behind their little eyes are live-streaming webcams controlled by another person connected to the device. Across languages and regions, kentuki “keepers” and “dwellers” are randomly connected when the device starts up for the first time, and people soon realize that this unique relationship is not easily navigated.

The arrival of kentukis establishes a type of hybrid being that is both gadget and human, intelligent and sentient, but with limited autonomy and ability to communicate. Schweblin’s vignettes of different pairs of kentuki users around the globe explore the full spectrum of demented outcomes when this technology is left unregulated. As kentuki users attempt to establish their ideal dynamic, whether it’s as a voyeur, a tourist in another lifestyle, a companion, a caretaker, or a star of their own reality show, the relationships devolve into obsession and emotional turmoil when issues of privacy and freedom surface.

The novel is an exploration of the artificial boundaries we perceive when we interact virtually. It is an epic thought experiment into how these anonymous actors change peoples’ concept of self-identity. The psychological highs and lows that unfold will bring readers deep into the complex lives of these thrilling devices and the power dynamics that users must negotiate.

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July 7, 2020July 9, 2020 by Sam Olvera Categories: FictionTags: 2020 books, argentine literature, book review, female authors, Fiction, global literature, kentuki, little eyes, novel, samanta schweblin, technology, WOC authors Leave a comment

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennine Capó Crucet

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Growing up in Miami, Cuban-American author Jennine Capó Crucet saw her ethnicity represented in every facet of her community. Having never been singled out for her otherness, she experienced many of the privileges afforded to most white Americans. Her race is simply rendered invisible by its prevalence. When she is suddenly immersed into affluent white America as a first-generation college student at a private university, she begins the painful journey of learning what it means to be an outsider and unlearning “whiteness” as the ultimate achievement.

As a college student, she finds little affirmation of belonging in an institution that was meant to help her reach her full potential. The more she advances in academia, the more she recognizes what it requires of her—to essentially erase her brownness in the process of molding herself into a model of white success.

Her poignant, unabashed writing goes beyond statistics about inequality and provides glimpses into her personal struggles—everything from ongoing imposter syndrome in her professional and personal life to choosing a suitable DJ for an interracial wedding. Her essays pick apart the flawed paradigm that shaped her own parents’ aspirations and her decisions as a young woman.

Crucet’s essay collection is not just a reflection on her upbringing and early career—it is a hand extended to all the young minorities in the U.S. who have had to change their name, their hair, their accents, and more, in an effort to thrive and advance in this world. It is a reality check for white Americans. It is a call to action for widespread systemic change, despite the fact that even the smallest acts of reform are often met with derision and defensiveness by the people who continue to benefit from and uphold the status quo.

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“If I stop paying close attention, academia can be a comfortable, recognizable place, one where I am encouraged to buy into the falsehood of a meritocracy that promises the American Dream to anyone willing to work hard. But I’ve come to see the American Dream for what it really is: a lie my parents had little choice but to buy into and sell to me, a lie that conflated working hard with passing for, becoming, and being white.”

April 9, 2020April 15, 2020 by Sam Olvera Categories: Non-fiction, Non-fiction essaysTags: book review, essay collection, female authors, jennine capo crucet, latinx authors, my time among the whites, Non-fiction essays, women of color authors Leave a comment

Hermosa by Yesika Salgado

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In the poetry collection “Hermosa”, Yesika Salgado brings forth a life in multitudes as she writes about her home of Los Angeles, lingering love, the healing power of friendship, childhood memories brought into the stark light of adulthood, complicated deaths of people who were difficult to love, the cultured gender norms in her Salvadoran family, and more. Salgado both grieves for the LA she recognizes as being deformed by gentrification while honoring her deep love for it, reveling in the anonymity of city life and her Polaroid-picture-nostalgia for its nooks and quirks.

With bright, crisp language, Salgado’s poetry is a fiery heart laid open. Each verse thrums with energy as Salgado gives space for every emotion and every detail—from heartbreak to soil tracked into the house, from long, running verses, to just a line or two that needed to be written all on their own. Salgado is a natural storyteller whose pride in all of her brilliant, flawed, and tender self truly shines through in the collection.

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…those were my favorite stories. women doing what women don’t do. I imagined all the beer I’d drink when I got older. I’d chug it down like a cold soda and burp loudly on purpose. I’d cackle big and booming. wouldn’t care when the mujeres say ¡esa nina es tremenda! instead I’d lift another beer and say ¡asi es! ¡salud!

November 30, 2019December 3, 2019 by Sam Olvera Categories: PoetryTags: book review, el salvador, female authors, feminism, gentrification, grieving, latina poetry, latinx, los angeles, love, Poetry, storytelling, WOC authors Leave a comment

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

9780593108178 After coming out as a lesbian to her religious, Puerto Rican family, Juliet leaves the Bronx for the first time to take on an internship with a celebrity-status, feminist author in Portland. She arrives in this alien city characterized by a subculture of “hippie white” both elated by the prospect of living and learning with her feminist hero and wounded by the rift her identity has created between her and her mother.

The summer continues to be an era of firsts for Juliet as she navigates heartbreak, intersectional feminism, and a queer community where notions of relationships and gender are an infinite spectrum. She experiences the pain of racism when it comes from a trusted loved one and the joy of finding women-of-color mentors and confidants. While she spends much of her time researching the lives of bold women whose stories have been nearly erased by history, she also takes on the challenge of redefining what womanhood means to her.

In this novel, Gabby Rivera beautifully renders the earnestness of Juliet’s heart—a young woman eager to love and live authentically. Outside of the confines of the women’s studies classes and feminist book that first inspired her, Juliet comes face-to-face with the hurtful reality that even the feminist community is full of well-intended individuals who are oblivious to their own privilege and supremacist outlook. Rivera explores nuanced themes of accountability and forgiveness, highlighting the importance of respecting one’s instincts and staying true to oneself above all else.

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We could set out words on these sun-drenched branches and let the breeze guide us to resolution. For a split second, I wondered if there was a price to pay for this type of peace.

“Weird is the only way to live,” she said, her faith solid.

November 30, 2019 by Sam Olvera Categories: FictionTags: book review, female authors, feminism, Fiction, Gabby Rivera, Juliet Takes a Breath, latina authors, latinx authors, latinx literature, WOC authors, YA Leave a comment

The Affairs of the Falcóns

514R75L5G6L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_ In the Affairs of the Falcóns, Rivero illustrates the complex politics and emotions at play within a single family trying to make their way as immigrants in a the US: the racism and classism within the Peruvian community, strained loyalties and the dissolution of marriages, children being raised as Americans but frequently reminded that they are outsiders, the economic and political regimes that cause widespread displacement, and the sacrifices people will justify in the name of love and survival.

In Peru, Ana faces constant discrimination and disdain by her own people. As an indigenous, dark-skinned woman from the campo with no assets and the wrong accent, even her own husband’s family is ashamed of her. For Ana, the opportunity to live in New York as an undocumented immigrant is her only pathway to a dignified life where her family is safe from the violence of civil war. No matter how much she struggles to provide basic needs like food, medicine, and a home for her husband and children, it is this desperate hope for a better life, and no fathomable alternative, that drives her forward at any cost.

This novel puts into perspective the nuanced experience of immigrants in the US. Ironically, the fact that Americans have a tendency to group all immigrants into the same identity and social strata is precisely what Ana appreciates about being in New York. She still has no socioeconomic status, but the simple ability to blend in among the immigrant population, to be on equal footing with other Peruvians and Latinos, is a privilege she is deeply grateful for.

The story of the Falcóns is painfully human and inspirational at the same time, as Rivero captures a feeling of desperation and imperfect love in a genuinely empathetic way.

All her life, she’d been made to feel small and inconsequential. Whenever the feeling was too much to bear, she ran. Outside of Santa Clara, her skin, her hair, the way she spoke—all of it only exacerbated those feelings. She couldn’t help but fall into the trap. Lose that accent, lighten those strands. Marry up. Marry light. But marrying Lucho only reinforced how little the world thought of her. She was now the chola in the family.

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July 30, 2019 by Sam Olvera Categories: FictionTags: book review, books, diverse authors, female authors, Fiction, immigrants, indigenous, latinx, latinx authors, literature, melissa rivero, novels, peru, strong women, the affairs of the falcons Leave a comment

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

A1a-mCOkXRL From an outsider’s view, Wang’s identity stands apart from the common conception of someone with schizoaffective disorder—she is ivy-league educated, exceedingly well-dressed, and “high-functioning” when she is not in the grips of psychosis. After being kicked out of her university for her mental health status, Wang begins a never ending journey into a health system whose diagnoses, treatments, and policies are often at odds with her autonomy and humanity.

As her schizoaffective disorder is compounded by PTSD and chronic Lyme disease, Wang strives to embrace the liminal spaces she has no choice but to inhabit. She learns how she might be able to keep herself tethered to reality just enough to find peace and engage with the insights that her psychotic episodes may have to offer. Her essays both illuminate the outer workings of her mental illness while documenting the terrifying ways that her sense of self is swept away time and again.

“When the self has been swallowed by illness, isn’t it cruel to insist on a self that is not illness?” At the core of this essay collection is this simple question. In it, Wang asks us whether it is really an act of generosity when we make a distinction between a person and the illness that makes up their reality (e.g. calling someone a schizophrenic versus a person suffering from schizoaffective disorder). In whose service do we define this boundary, and what is it that we value in other people that makes them worthy of love and respect?

The Collected Schizophrenias offers so much of Wang–her most vulnerable uncertainties and darkest delusions, alongside a wealth of information about the diseases known as the schizophrenias. She presents all of this with a humility and eloquent clarity that make her story unforgettable.

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July 27, 2019 by Sam Olvera Categories: Non-fiction, Non-fiction essaysTags: asian authors, bipolar, book recommendations, book review, diverse authors, diverse literature, esme weijun wang, female authors, mental health awareness, mental illness, must read, nonfiction, schizophrenia, the collected schizophrenias Leave a comment