5-Star Predictions: End-of-2017 Edition

There's a series of booktubers and bloggers who are sharing some books, that they plan to read in the near future, that the expect to LOVE.  They expect to not "like" these books, but wholeheartedly, thoroughly, and completely adore them.  For those of us who read prolifically (and also those of us who don't) it can be difficult to read something and have 5-star feelings about it.  Often, there's a plot that doesn't seem to live up to your expectations, a twist that you see coming a mile away, some inherent sexism/racism/"other"ing that is problematic, or a much-hyped book by which you're generally underwhelmed.

Even when readers have a wheelhouse of things they love, and a book is marketed/blurbed as containing all of those things, it can still let you down.  That's why, with trepidation, I'm listing a few books, which I hope to read in the last of 2017, and that I *hope* I will rate as 5-star reads.

Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
I've absolutely devoured Ward's other works, which sit at the intersection of race and class in the modern American South.  Her latest novel is a story about Jojo, a mixed-race teenager, and his black mother who go on a road trip to retrieve his white father, who is being released from prison,

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
Although there are quite a few interesting pieces in this collection, I am most interested in the essay on the importance of keeping a notebook.  I've always loved stationary and notebooks, ever since I was a young child, and I'm looking forward to reading Didion's musings on the topic.

Eve Out of Her Ruins, by Ananda Devi
A Mauritian novel in translation, this story focuses on four young adults struggling against the violence and fear that pervades the Mauritius that tourists don't see.


Women, Race, and Class, by Angela Y. Davis
An intersectional feminist work from before the term "intersectional feminist" existed.


Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi
In this time where there is so much fear, anger, mistrust, and "alternative facts" in the world, Kendi's book about the progression of racist thought throughout history is a welcomed read!

Look: Poems, by Solmaz Sharif
A poetry collection exploring the bizarreness of war, this collection includes words and phrases from an actual military document: The US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms.  I look forward to reading how the poet melds these two forms into one.




Librorum annis,