Melinda's Reviews

Acho has given us quite a gift, both in the form of his viral hit video series Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man and his new book of the same name, a companion to or a continuation of these vital conversations. Each chapter addresses a key question about race relations, racial injustices, and systemic racism. Acho gives frank, thoughtful answers, provides historical context, encourages further self-examination, and offers steps for moving forward. It is an important, hopeful, necessary antiracist resource. — Melinda

Don’t let the title fool you. Leila Cobo’s rich oral history of Latin music in the United States goes far beyond the 2017 hit song, covering the past 50 years of progress and influence in the global music market. Cobo, the Latin music lead at Billboard, uses her knowledge and access to select 19 landmark songs for which she interviews the artists, musicians, and players, allowing them to tell the story of the song’s moment. Decoding “Despacito” is a triumph and a celebration—one that should be read with each song playing in the background. — Melinda

Lucky for us, Jerry Seinfeld has been meticulous about saving his written comedy bits over the course of his career and he’s selected his favorites for this generous collection. Organized by the five decades that his time doing Seinfeld and stand-up spans, it treats us to gem after gem of observational humor, as well as inside moments of the life and process of one of our greatest performers. A perfect gift—this book could not come at a better moment. — Melinda

Meichi Ng’s smart, funny, honest book of illustrated personal essays captures all the feels of growing up and finding one’s place in adulthood. Full of absurdity, awareness, and universal truths in all their most comic, most awkward, most endearing forms, this sweet little blue blob of non-gendered protagonist is a great storyteller, an emotional touchstone, and my new best friend. Perfect for fans of Allie Brosh and Jomny Sun or anyone in need of a humorous dose of youthful tenderness. — Melinda

What do you get when you combine Steve Martin’s quirky humor with New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss’s iconic illustrations? So much joy, a welcome escape, quite literally something for everyone. A Wealth of Pigeons is both a delightful collection of cartoons and the story of their collaboration in comic strip form. It exudes warmth and humanity—a singular treasure to be enjoyed on repeat. — Melinda

This necessary anthology of Mexican and Mexico-based writing is crucial to a more complete understanding of the long history of border relations and immigration policies, their past and present effects, and our current exacerbated political crisis. Using Trump’s wall as a launching pad, Boullosa and Quintero provides a platform for more than 20 Latinx writers, including Valeria Luiselli, Yuri Herrera, and Guadalupe Nettel, creating an important resource of diverse voices, experiences, and reports from the other side of the Southern border. 
— Melinda
 

K-Ming Chang’s debut novel is delicious to read, equally beautiful and grotesque, harrowing and tender. Told across three generations of Taiwanese American women, Bestiary is intimately recognizable and audaciously new: an immigrant journey, a love story, a family saga, a coming-of-age tale. All are exploded by imagery, mythos, and experimentation, where girls grow tails, damage is done, truths are built and shifted, and the reader is drenched, filled to the brim with wonder. Comparisons to Maxine Hong Kingston and Helen Oyeyemi are apt, but Chang’s promising young voice is all her own. — Melinda

Toni Jensen’s poetic memoir in pieces is a beautiful exploration of her life as a Métis woman, one who is tied deeply to nature, affected by the men around her, and critical of the gun violence that prevails over all. This intersection frames her book and her life, as she reports on trafficked Indigenous women, stands with pipeline protesters at Standing Rock Reservation, and returns to her own family, seeing it all and asking questions with grace and intelligence. Truly a gorgeous and important read. — Melinda

In 1958, Riva Lehrer was born with spina bifida, and has since spent her life as a force to be reckoned with. Golem Girl is her frank, intimate, liberating memoir, spanning her childhood spent largely through a medical lens, her early adult life as a student, creative, and lover, and finally finding her place as a renowned visual artist and disability activist whose collaborative portraits reveal and celebrate people of all shapes and abilities, and whose work explores Disability Culture, gender, queerness, physical identity, and freedom of self. Enhanced with full-color artwork and personal photographs, this book is powerful and a joy to discover. — Melinda

On the front cover of her life-affirming book, Sebene Selassie self-identifies as Nerdy Black Immigrant Tomboy Buddhist Weirdo and I am all for it. You Belong is the perfect self-help companion in this year of disruption, tumult, tragedy, and disconnection; Selassie does not shy away from the current moment, but meets us in it and provides us with tools. Whether you are just beginning or need a refresher course, Selassie’s thoughtful, joyful, multi-disciplinary work will help you reconnect, and her own personal stories will be a welcomed friend along the way. —Melinda