BOOKS
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REVIEWS

She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan
Review ​By Kiara Timo
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Joan Morgan, the creator of “Hip-Hop Feminism”, has returned with her first book in nearly two decades with an intricate dissection of the enigmatic history, purpose, and impact of Ms. Lauryn Hill. In her book, She Begat This: 20 Years Of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Joan Morgan analyzes an album that has been both celebrated and debated on by nearly all Hip Hop platforms within this past year as the generation it was initially released to reminisces over what the album meant to them, while the new generation reframes the meaning and the significance of the album and applies it to what society looks like today. Published by Simon & Schuster, She Begat This is a book for Hip Hop heads and black history/music historians as it provides a clear insight of how the album has remained on a pedestal during the new millennium.​  Read More

How To Not Get Shot: And Other Advice From White People
D.L. Hughley and Doug Moe
Review ​By Kiara Timo
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Actor, author, radio host, a legendary stand-up comedian, and of course one of the “Original Kings of Comedy”, D.L. Hughley has written a book to save the lives of black people, specifically black men. Why? Because black and brown men are still getting unjustifiably murdered and the law continues to fail to hold their killers accountable. America’s refusal to systemically address police brutality has caused an immense amount of literary responses to the issue, mostly by academics, you want to use logic to convey to white America why their actions, or lack thereof, is both harmful and problematic to the identity of America. Hughley uses a different approach. Dripping with sarcasm and frustration, D.L. Hughley has presented the world with a best-selling f*ck you, also known as, How To Not Get Shot: And Other Advice From White People. ​​  Read More

Your Duck is My Duck
Deborah Eisenberg
Review ​By Kiara Timo
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With wit and ease, Deborah Eisenberg explores identity in her short fiction collection, Your Duck Is My Duck. All of the characters featured in these short stories have different personalities and interests but one thing rings true, perspective is everything. Eisenberg alternates between providing her insights through the use of dialogue and the speaker’s thoughts. Her realist portrayal of human existence is a work of literary art. Most of the characters featured in this collection are young adults contemplating their future or older adults reflecting on their past, as Eisenberg shows readers how we are the creators of our own personal disasters.
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The Great Believers
Rebecca Makkai 
Review ​By Matthew Johannes
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In her novel, The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai tells the story of a group of friends coping with the fear of death against the backdrop of the 1980's AIDS epidemic that ravished the Gay, Lesbian, and Bi population of the United States, especially in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. As with the works of art about this epidemic that came before it, The Great Believers serves a twofold purpose, both to entertain the reader with its artistic values and to reclaim and draw light to a historical tragedy that was pushed under the carpet in its own time. When the AIDs epidemic was in full swing, it was never treated as an emergency by the right-wing administration and as such, it fell on the shoulders of artists, like Rebecca Makkai, to tell the true story.  Read More

​What Truth Sounds Like 
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Review ​By Kiara Timo
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How do we know when we are being told the truth? Is the truth simply factual or does perspective and experience play a role in determining what one’s truth is? According to Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, the answer is all of the above. A sociology professor at Georgetown University, Dr. Dyson uses his latest book, What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America, to narrate a moment in time when a privileged cis-gendered straight man had to come to terms with the fact that the identity of America was not the achievement of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but the past, present, and future implications of institutionalized racism, sexism, and oppression. Read More

A Citizen's Review
Review of Citizen: An American Lyric By Claudia Rankine
​By Matthew Johannes ​

A Fresh Outlook 
Review of The Bucket List By Georgia Clark
​By Margaret Mallison ​

It has been said that art is the key to social and political change. While protests and doctrines can express ideas and concepts, only art can penetrate into the hearts of the opposition and the lukewarm and convey the underlying emotions at the heart of the social issue. If this is true, and art is one of the strongest weapons for change than it does not seem a great leap to say that literature, and in particular poetry, stands as queen among those non-violent weapons.  Read More

Meet Lacey Whitman. She’s a twenty-something millennial juggling burgeoning ambition and an acerbic wit in a high-powered fashion company. She, along with her whip-smart business partner Vivian, are in the process of creating an app with a new take on personal shopping. Her so-called “perfect life” is tilted off of its axis after a routine gene test comes back positive for the BRCA1 gene. Read More

​BTSM Top 5 Picks

1. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row 
​by Anthony Ray Hinton, Lara Love Hardin
2. Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
3. Well, That Escalated Quickly by Franchesca Ramsey
4. Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer
5. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

BTSM Watchlist

I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyonce by Michael Arceneaux 
Release Date: July 24, 2018

The Incendiaries: A Novel
by R. O. Kwon
Release Date: July 24, 2018
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