Tag Archives: Family

Bookish Talk, Challenges, Life

Sunday Matters: Organizing

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Sunday Matters

If you are reading this then you are still around! That is something to celebrate. So many bloggers have disappeared from my feed reader. I know many are taking breaks and I have seen some on social media but there’s not a lot of posting going on. We finally have all the time in the world to read and yet some of us can’t. I am finally over that hump but it took all of March and April for me to wrap my brain around this pandemic of ours and settle down enough to read.

Right Now:

I am about to watch church online and then I am going to tackle the beast I call my loft. It’s hardly mine! The kids took it over since the day we moved in. My books are there but as you can tell from the piles there are plenty of other things there too. Stacks and piles. You can’t see the other side but there is a couch and TV and the pup’s fave spot to sleep when the sun is out.

I really need to take everything off and put it back in some organized way. Yes, that is a Christmas box you see. I have no idea where it came from.

This Week:

Tomorrow my daughter has her driving test for her license. Please think good thoughts, pray, whatever. It was very difficult to get this test scheduled due to the backlog of appointments they had from their closure earlier this year.

From the 3rd through the 8th I am on vacation. I had to take some time since I have so many vacation hours on the books but it’s also my birthday on Saturday so there’s that!

Reading:

I finished and reviewed The Vanishing Half. It was really good and lives up to all the hype. That completes my summer reading list! A first.

I am now reading What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Moriarty has become my fave author during this pandemic. This is now the third book I’ve read and I have another one ready to go.

Also, the R.I.P Challenge is back!! Read more about it here, and check out my reading list.

RIPXV

Watching:

Hoarders. Are you surprised? Still fascinated with that show.

I am looking forward to some shows this fall but with all the delays from COVID I am not even sure when they are on. I set the DVR to record them so whenever they air, I should catch them.

Grateful for:

  • Plants. They are really making me happy during this pandemic.
  • Easy meals that don’t cost a lot to make.
  • Whole cream added to my coffee. Just a dash but oh so good. This is in addition to my regular creamer. I am a creamer girl!
Book Review

Review: The Vanishing Half

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The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half
By Brit Bennett
Riverhead Books, 9780525536291, June 2020, 352pp.

The Short of It:

The Vanishing Half is a book that must be discussed.

The Rest of It:

Stella and Desiree are twins, living in the small (fictional) town of Mallard, Louisiana. This town is known for its black, light-skinned inhabitants. As young children, they witness the murder of their father by a group of angry white men, and from that point on, the girls, each affected in different ways, step out of their familiar surroundings to begin lives outside of Mallard.

At first, they do this together. Taking odd jobs, sleeping on floors and eventually making a place of their own to call home. But Stella wants more and eventually leaves Desiree behind to pursue what she feels is a better life. A life that should not be held from her, just because she’s black. Desiree is hurt by the abandonment but at the time, doesn’t fully understand Stella’s choices. All she wants throughout the years is to find her sister once again.

This story is told in several parts and jumps into the present day as we meet Jude and Kennedy, the children of Desiree and Stella. We also meet their significant others and as readers, we are brought into Stella’s world as she makes the decision to pass for white. One day, Stella is mistaken for white and just goes along with  it. The concept of “passing” is one that affects more than just Stella as the story unfolds.

The Vanishing Half is a story about identity. Racial identity as well as gender identity (one of the characters, one of my favorite characters is transgendered). These characters are trying to find their way and their true selves and not without a lot of struggle. Some of Stella’s choices will anger you but Bennett wrote her in such a way, that you can’t hold her choices against her. She feels regret for her decisions but as readers we also see why she made these decisions to begin with.

I really liked how the story was structured and how balanced it was. I appreciated the decision to move the characters to California, particularly Los Angeles because as I can tell you, Los Angeles is accepting of a lot and it’s a place where people find themselves all the time. People can be whatever they want here, so having some of the story set in Los Angeles made sense. I really enjoyed the writing and I was lucky enough to be told about the Los Angeles Times Book Club interview with Bennett right after finishing the book so I got to hear her take on the book and it was just a great talk.

I highly recommend The Vanishing Half. Now, I really want to read her first book, The Mothers.

This book completes my summer reading list!

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.