The Bookmarker

Hello, my friends & fellow readers! We meet again.

I’m so glad to be back. Life happens, you blink your eyes, and next thing you know you’re funneling an ungodly amount of snacks to 2 small humans who you love with such a fierceness while simultaneously counting down the seconds until bedtime. BUT – this isn’t a mom blog. This is my space. A space I created from scratch and my love for books.

2024 has been a wild ride of a year for me and books. I’ve devoured 35 books already, and I’m itching to share it all with you. Be sure to follow me on Goodreads for real-time updates on my reading life.

We’re doing things a little different these days because, well, time is of the essence and I don’t have much of it. Plus, in full transparency, I really want to get back to reading my book (The Berry Pickers). Introducing *mini reviews* – you’ll get my top of mind opinions & themes, possibly trigger warnings, and why you need to add to your TBR.

Minis #1 and #2, here we go.

MORE: A MEMOIR OF OPEN MARRIAGE by Molly Roden Winter.
*Memoir
*Themes: female desires, communication, polyamorous relationships, exploration
*TW: sex with multiple partners, detailed descriptions of sexual encounters

Let me start by saying – don’t judge a book by its title, and don’t pass this by on the belief that you’ll hate it. I’ll admit, I was super intrigued when I saw this. Open marriage? You mean, having sex with multiple people outside of your partner but with their support? Woah! I can confirm, this memoir is just as juicy as you’d imagine, leaving nothing to the imagination. In a brave, unique, and raw story of Winter’s journey in an open marriage, we get a firsthand glimpse at the ins and outs of the polyamorous community full of lingo, rules, and boundaries. This memoir was fascinating and a beautiful reminder of why I love reading, especially memoirs – the possibility to learn and grow from other’s experiences is endless. I’m in complete awe by Winter’s confidence to be unapologetically herself, opening up about her sexual desires and her most intimate thoughts, buried deep inside.

TAKE MY HAND by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
*Historical Fiction
*Themes: racial injustice, women’s health and bodily autonomy, political impact on women’s health
*TW: adolescent racial/health injustices, medical malpractice

Similar yet oh so different. As much as MORE is a love letter to the female sexual experience and full bodily autonomy, TAKE MY HAND is just the opposite. Set in the Deep South in the ’70s, Civil Townsend finds herself emotionally involved in the Williams sister’s lives, two young adolescent black girls so poor and uneducated they live in a faulty shack made of dirt with their illiterate father and grandmother. When the girls are sterilized without consent, manipulated by the welfare and healthcare system, Civil finds herself thrown into the role as the girls’ voice in a society that’s been set up to fail poor and uneducated black women. Eerily similar and not far off from the challenges women are facing today, nearly 50+ years later, TAKE MY HAND will leave your blood boiling and light a fire to demand a change in our extremely unjust and discriminatory system built to fail so many.