Mini Book Reviews: Go Tell it on the Mountain

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Published: September 17th, 2013 by Vintage (originally published in 1953)

Genre: Classic

Format: Kindle, 242 Pages, Own

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

“Mountain,” Baldwin said, “is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else.” Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy’s discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin’s rendering of his protagonist’s spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

My Thoughts:

Now I know why everything James Baldwin wrote has become a classic. His prose and how he layers his stories with deep meaning and metaphor is truly astounding. And that's not to mention how well he knows and loves his characters and he knows how deeply human they are.

But even with all of the acknowledgement I had a really hard time getting through this book. It was hard to follow through time and back each character. I had to look them up and try and remember how each was connected to who. 

And the subject matter of religion and religious hypocrisy was also hard to swallow. I know it's a semi-autobiographical tale of Baldwin growing up in the Pentecostal religion with an abusive stepfather...It looks like it was not easy. Abuse and rancor and self-righteousness abounds.

I'm glad I read it but it wasn't pleasant and I'll never read it again. I've enjoyed two of his other fiction books and so I know I'll enjoy his others. I think this one was closest to his pain and thus the most raw.

I read this one for my Back to the Classics challenge in the classic by a BIPOC author prompt.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Published: January 19th, 2021 by Dutton Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult, LGBTQ+, Historical Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages, Libary

Rating: 4.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the Red Scare.

“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

"Lo's writing, restrained yet luscious, shimmers with the thrills of youthful desire. A lovely, memorable novel about listening to the whispers of a wayward heart and claiming a place in the world."—Sarah Waters, bestselling and award winning author of Tipping the Velvet and The Night Watch

My Thoughts:

I fell in love with Lily. She's a young Chinese-American teen caught up in the Red Square of the 1950s and having to deal with the poopy politics of America and who "counts" as truly American? And dealing with her burgeoning love for another teenage girl Kath. Both of her cultures say it's wrong.

Her and Kath start to hang out at the Telegraph Club where they are able to meet and party with other lesbians and understand that there are people who are like them and how to form bonds that last a lifetime even when society isn't ready for them.

It's a perfect blend of real history, fully fledged characters trying to deal with what the world has thrown at them. And it's a wonderful love story. I can't recommend this one enough. All the feels are here.

The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French

Published: January 17th, 2008 by Penguin Group

Genre: Crime, Mystery

Format: Kindle, 470 Pages, Own

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

In the “compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, itʼs six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone call summons her to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more important, who was this girl?

My Thoughts:

I loved French's first book in the series! Absolute delight with a fantastic setting and engaging characters and good mystery to solve. But I was a little less taken with the second installment, unfortunately. Cass was a character I wanted to follow from the first book so I was happy this one focused on her instead of Rob. But the plot was too fantastical from the start to seem even somewhat believable. A woman who looks exactly like her is murdered! And what do they decide to do? They let her go undercover and infiltrate the home she's been living at with four other flatmates....Really? I've grown up with identical twin friends and even they don't look exactly alike! In what universe is this even plausible? I had flashbacks to reading a Dan Brown novel which touts itself as serious mystery thrillers and yet the laws of physics that normally held things together just don't...

The plot suffered for French's wanting to wax philosophical about who we are compared to who we want people to think we are. 

I hear the third instalment is better! It follows Frank, but he was not one I loved that much in The Likeness but maybe that's a good thing. The plot can't be any dumber...hopefully!

Don't get me wrong. I still love French. I truly love her writing style and her settings in and around Dublin. 

None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio

Published: April 7th, 2015 by Balzer + Bray

Genre: LGBTQ+, Young Adult

Format: Hardcover, 328 Pages, Library

Rating: 3.5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex... and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?

My Thoughts:

I highly recommend this book about a teenage girl who discovers she's intersex. Gregorio is a surgeon and was inspired by one of her patients who came to her for a gonadectomy after discovering she was intersex. She never saw her again and wondered about her life. She decided to write this book to bring awareness and to dispel ignorance and intolerance.

As far as a book of characters and the world they live in, this one wasn't the best. And the ending felt rushed and a bit flat for me. But she's a surgeon! She has other priorities! lol. 

But I still think it's a good read and brings a lot of awareness about gender and biology and culture and how we're all just humans.