The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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TOMORROW: Join us at 7:30pm Central Time, Friday 26 June to find out if we managed to finish the book club book we both just started over the weekend, and to discuss Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 1). If you’re ready to sign up, you can do so here so you get the link to join the discussion.

Nikki and I placed The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates on hold at our respective digital libraries in late September 2019, the same month it was released as a little book baby out into the world. With the title being selected for Oprah’s Book Club, the wait list was…long. My library has 58 digital copies available to borrow and the current wait time is approximately 2 months. In September, I think the wait time was closer to 4-6 months. Dear readers, we play the long game with our reading life and at times like these we are so thankful to have just the title we need to read waiting to be borrowed. Check out next week’s reading life review for other titles that we were able to borrow for our “Race in America” independent study, most of which we will be sharing with you in the following weeks. But, back to discussing the debut novel of the National Book Award winning author for 2015’s Between the World and Me, who is also known for We Were Eight Years In Power, The Beautiful Struggle, AND being the current author of Marvel comics The Black Panther series. [I am mildly obsessed with the Black Panther movie – saw it by my lonesome in the theatre, pre-ordered it on digital and blu ray back in the day, and re-watched it on Sunday – because those fierce women are #lifegoals.]

I really want to get down deep into the text with my feelings on this book, and in order to do that, I’m going to have to get spoilery, so here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to enjoy Nikki’s feelings, and when you finish scrolling, you’re going to find a little section that you can click to expand in order to read more about Hiram Walker and the cast of characters in his life.  Or, you can click here to jump down now.  

~Ashley

In case you needed another reason to participate in our reader poll, here it is, another confession.  I judge books by their covers.  A lot.  Now, is that the only factor?  No, but it is a factor.  Sometimes I read the marketing copy, sometimes I have recommendations from trusted sources, and sometimes I read online reviews, but I always notice the cover.  

I want to start off with what I knew before opening The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  I knew the cover was just gorgeous and I had a recommendation from a friend whose judgement I whole-heartedly trust.  So much so, that one day while at lunch she suggested a book she just finished and I immediately checked it out from the electronic library.  Yes, pulled out my phone and checked out that title right then and there.  Later, I discovered it was a thriller and I am sure I sent a sassy text or email about that, but I was pages in at that point.  I finished the book, and I really liked it.  She and I have different reading tastes, but over the years, she’s steered me towards several amazing titles.  They are all powerful, thought-provoking, and well-written, at least those that have made it off my TBR list.  

More so than just suggesting amazing titles, she’s also opened my eyes to how simple it is for me and my children to pick up a book and find characters who look like us.  And how for people who look differently than we do, it is not so simple at all.  This all came up to me again recently, when a fellow reader was looking for a specific title and asked about it in the author’s Facebook group.  The author replied that she took the book down for revisions because she now realized she used a harmful plot device (“secondary characters who worship the memory of the confederacy” – the author’s words, not mine).  This is not something I would have thought twice about prior to the kind, challenging words of my friend because of how and where I grew up and what I look like.  However, there are a great many people who don’t look like me (and some who do) who would find that plot device very harmful.  All of this, dear readers, outlines the importance of reading diverse books, because we all notice different things, we all communicate with different words, and we all relate differently.  Books help us feel and learn empathy and how to relate to others, but it’s hard to relate when you don’t understand.  The more I read, the more I understand.  I won’t ever understand what it’s like to walk in the shoes of someone else, not really, but I can understand that it’s different, it’s hard, and it’s not what it should be.  I can know better, and then I can do better.

Now, to really talk about The Water Dancer.  I adore this book.  It’s history, it’s magical realism, and it’s a coming of age tale.  I want so many good things for the characters, and the writing style is just gorgeous.  Add in a satisfying ending and it is everything I want in a book!  I don’t always enjoy books that also feel important because honestly, I don’t like reading about tragedy.  

I want to tell you all about The Water Dancer, but I also don’t want to offer spoilers.  As this book opens, we know we’re in Virginia, and we know that our narrator has had family go “Natchez-way.”  Hiram, our narrator, is in trouble.  He was tasked with driving his brother and they fell into the river when the bridge went out from under them.  Hiram is telling us this story from the future, with all of the perspective that looking back offers.  Throughout the book we learn more about Hiram, who is a slave (or Tasked) and the son of his master (one of the Quality), and about life in Virginia from Hiram’s perspective as he struggles with being the son of his white master, and still a slave.  As I mentioned, this is a coming of age story as we follow Hiram, figure out what Conduction is, discover the power of memory, and learn all about water dancing.  This may feel like the spoilers I said I wasn’t going to include, but it’s all in the first chapter.  As the book continues we meet more characters and get to know them and their stories, which include some of the Tasked being sold to Lockless, Hiram’s home, and being sold away from it.  While this may seem like a distant past, it was put into perspective for me not too long ago when a friend, who is about my age, shared the transcript of an interview with his great-great grandfather, who was born a slave.  When I think about all of the memories I have with two of my great-grandmothers, I’m reminded that generationally, that story could have been told by one of their parents, which makes the plot of this book seem like not that long ago at all.

By now you know endings are important for me.  I liked this one because I have a clear vision of what happens to the characters after I closed the book at the end of the last chapter.  I give The Water Dancer a solid four stars, and while I’m not sure I’ll revisit this title, I will definitely be looking to read more from Ta-Nehisi Coates because he has quite a way with words, and painted a gorgeous, heart-breaking picture of Hiram’s life, and that of too many others.  

~Nikki

I am glad to be able to see the calling out of our muck as white people. It is necessary to see ourselves in works of fiction so that we can use these feelings of empathy and bring them into our lives. I’m living in my muck, are you cognizant of yours?

~Ashley

PS: Click here to go back to where you left off if you jumped down.

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ONLY FOUR DAYS LEFT Join us at 7:30pm Central Time THIS Friday 26 June to find out if we managed to finish the book club book we both just started over the weekend, and to discuss Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 1). If you don’t want to miss out, sign up here.

Unlike the most of the Mondays in this month, we’ve decided to follow the plan we set before COVID-19 hit the scene and conduct a mid-year Reader Poll. Yeah, ok, maybe we’re also avoiding feeling feelings, too. Can you really blame us at this point in the month? [Nikki here: or the year?!] No? Glad we’re on the same page with that.

We wanted the Reader Poll to reflect things about YOUR reading life that will help US bring you the content that you crave. Do you want us to talk about our dead tree libraries, because that’s how you prefer to read your titles? Would you like more information on audiobooks, because you focus on that during your commute to work or while you work out?  But, we also want you to help us get a feel for what you are actually enjoying (or not enjoying) on the blog. Are you tired of Ashley talking about all the personal development nonfiction that she reads and you really want her to pick up a damn biography for once in her life because that’s your favorite and no one talks about them? [Are you sick of Nikki’s confessions because this is for your therapy and not hers?] Maybe you’d be into virtual book club a little more if the titles we picked were new releases because you don’t mind paying real U.S. dollars for something relevant to the current zeitgeist that you would then get to discuss with other people who love books?

Please take five minutes, click here, and answer our short quick list of questions. It would help us out so much. We’re planning to share what we learn, so you’ll also get to know your fellow readers in a few weeks too! 

Now, next Monday will be our regularly scheduled Reading Life Review for the month of June. We’ll probably go a little deeper and talk about where we are in relation to our yearly reading goals and if anything’s changed regarding those goals since the beginning of the year, in addition to the overview of our Reading Life for the month. Basically, we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled feeling of feelings next Monday, after having fun with Virtual Book Club Friday night! 

Don’t forget, you can sign up here to chat about  Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 1). And you can find the reader poll here. 

~Ashley

The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.

Join us at 7:30pm Central Time on (next) Friday 26 June to find out if we managed to finish the book club book neither of us have started yet, and to discuss Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 1). If you’re ready to sign up, you can do so here.   

Sometimes no expectations are the best expectations and help you find a gem of a book!  Such was my experience with The Lioness of Morocco by Julia Drotsen.  I’d heard of the book, with no recollection how, and it was available on Kindle Unlimited with good ratings and lots of them (close to 3,000, averaging 4.5 stars), so it looked like it was worth a try, and I absolutely adored the setting of the last book I attempted to read set in Morocco.  That might be the last book I DNFed, because Ashley advised because I was complaining about all the characters and only appreciating the setting.  It was the right call.  This was so much more fun than the first third of that book (which was more than I should have read in that book).  

Ashley and I have been referring to this book as “lioness” which brings me so much joy because it reminds me of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet which I love!  However, back to The Lioness of Morocco, Sibylla and Alanna are both headstrong women who know what they want and go after it with all they’ve got.  But this isn’t about Alanna, it’s about Sibylla who, when the book opens, is a single, 23 year-old-woman in nineteenth century London.  She is a voracious reader who’s interested in adventure and struggles with the expectations of her upper-middle class merchant family.  Sibylla sees an opportunity in Benjamin Hopkins (who sees an opportunity in her) and they marry and go off to Morocco on an adventure (Sibylla) while pursuing business (Benjamin) on her father’s behalf.  This may seem spoilery, but the title says she’s going to Morocco and the details of the set up are comical.  Sibylla’s acclamation to Morocco is easy and her life has such depth.  There is drama and intrigue in the pages while we explore relationships with Moroccans and Europeans alike.  She travels with a caravan, spending days crossing the desert and she befriends the women of the local leader’s harem, even brokering trade deals with women no man is allowed to see, other than the qaid (local leader) or his eunuchs.  

The Lioness of Morocco  is a book in translation, which isn’t common for me, but it didn’t feel any different.  It was translated from German, which I thought was interesting for a book set in London and Morocco.  It does include romance, but I would put it solidly in the historical fiction category.  Most of the intimate scenes are off camera, although some are described with very little detail.  The women of the harem are not shy about discussing intimate relations or personal grooming, which I found refreshing because such conversations are only awkward if we let them be awkward.  

There were parts that weren’t everything I wanted them to be, despite me giving this book a solid 4 stars.  There is a bit of a mystery that starts during the last 30% of the book that felt like it was reaching too far, especially when the details are revealed closer to the end.  Shockingly for me, I didn’t mind the 20 year jump we made from Part One to Part Two.  Most of the relevant pieces come out through the narrative, so it works. I also feel like there would be more drama as some of the Europeans socialize with the Moroccans, especially as Sibylla’s children befriend children of other religions, but there is no indication it was a big deal (which is perhaps my biggest issue with the text – it feels like it would have been a big deal at the time, and perhaps even now).  Maybe I am just making more of it than would have happened in Mogador with all of the different cultures and faith groups who resided in the city at the time.  One can hope!

There are stories throughout history of women rising up to be leaders, despite the fact that most were not permitted to do such things.  I thoroughly enjoyed this new-to-me tale, which depicted a woman who was about to age out of the marriage mart choosing her spouse, setting her course, and becoming even more of her own person.  Sibylla found her place in the world and made a home for her family there.  A story well-told about such a woman, or such a person really, is always welcome in my hands!  I hope you also find joy and hope in The Lioness of Morocco.  

~Nikki

Julia Drosten is the pen name of German husband and wife writing duo Julia and Horst Drosten. They have written 9 novels, 3 of which have been translated into English, all of which are currently available as Kindle ebooks. The Lioness of Morocco, Die Löwin von Mogador, is an Amazon bestseller in Germany and their first book translated into English. The translation was completed by Christiane Galvani, a professional translator and adjunct professor at Houston Community College in Texas. They focus on historical fiction, and only one of their books is set in present day Berlin. 

We chose this book for it’s availability during our Kindle Unlimited subscription, as a book in translation, and for it being set in a place not populated by white people [even though we realize the titular character is actually an English woman]. Overall, I will give this title 3.5 stars, I thoroughly enjoyed the setting and the relationships between the European merchant class and the native Moroccans in Mogador. I had a bit of trouble with the cadence of the language, both of the narration and dialogue. I suspect it is because of the limitations of translation, but the word choices seem juvenile and limited in their ability to describe things in a more poetic fashion. I was also disappointed in several plot device choices. There really is no need to say what they were, it was just a very obvious choice at every turn to any advanced reader, and I am not only speaking of the mystery aspect that Nikki mentioned above.

If you would like to join us in our armchair travels, I highly suggest an immersive experience. A most excellent, and unofficial, soundtrack to this book would be Loreena McKennitt’s Nights From the Alhambra, a 2006 live recording at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. You can check out the video from her YouTube channel to see this amazing example of Byzantine architecture and hear Caravanserai, a tune with which to imagine travelling on a camel through the desert.

~Ashley