#5Books: Book recs and Scribd

Have you guys heard of Scribd?

I recently discovered this on Facebook — which yes, dangerous to click on ads there! But it’s pretty cool because I get books and audiobooks AND magazines. and some titles as audios I don’t even see on Audible.

And also, weirdly, or not, sheet music! (and podcasts, but you can get those on Spotify too)

Thus far I am amassing a TBR of doom, and enjoying it!

And yes, I have been looking for these titles on there too 🙂

Black Boy Out of Time

An eloquent, restless, and enlightening memoir by one of the most thought-provoking journalists today about growing up Black and queer in America, reuniting with the past, and coming of age their own way.

One of nineteen children in a blended family, Hari Ziyad was raised by a Hindu Hare Kṛṣṇa mother and a Muslim father. Through reframing their own coming-of-age story, Ziyad takes readers on a powerful journey of growing up queer and Black in Cleveland, Ohio, and of navigating the equally complex path toward finding their true self in New York City. Exploring childhood, gender, race, and the trust that is built, broken, and repaired through generations, Ziyad investigates what it means to live beyond the limited narratives Black children are given and challenges the irreconcilable binaries that restrict them.

Heartwarming and heart-wrenching, radical and reflective, Hari Ziyad’s vital memoir is for the outcast, the unheard, the unborn, and the dead. It offers us a new way to think about survival and the necessary disruption of social norms. It looks back in tenderness as well as justified rage, forces us to address where we are now, and, born out of hope, illuminates the possibilities for the future.

I don’t read memoirs, but this blurb captured me rightaway. Here’s more about Hari Ziyad — has anyone read his work?

Two Wrongs

A brand-new psychological thriller from bestselling author Mel McGrath, about the lengths a mother will go to in order to protect her daughter.

One girl jumped.
And then another followed…

In the city of Bristol, young women are dying in mysterious circumstances. The deaths look like suicides – but are they something more sinister?

Honor is terrified that her daughter might be next. But as she looks for clues as to what really happened to the girls, she stumbles upon a link to a dark secret in her own past – one that she’s kept from her daughter.

Now Honor has the chance to avenge her child for the terrible events of years ago. But how far will she go to protect her daughter and right the wrongs done to her family? 

Avenge her child? Her daughter i the present, or from years ago? Blurbs like this get me every time — things that don’t seem to be connected and that makes me want to read the book even more. It also makes me more primed for disappointment, and nothing being connected. Sighs. I’m a sucker aren’t i?

The Obsession

A classic sort of love story… except somebody might wind up dead.

Nobody knows Delilah like Logan does. Nobody. He makes sure of it by learning everything he can through her social media and watching her through a hidden camera he has trained on her house. Some might call him a stalker. Logan prefers to be called “romantic.”

But after Logan sees Delilah killing her abusive stepfather, he realizes there’s still more about her to discover. His sweet, perfect Delilah isn’t so perfect after all.

Delilah knows she should feel guilty, but all she feels is free. She’s so over the men in her life controlling her. Except Logan saw what she did, and he won’t let her forget it.

Delilah is done being the victim. And she refuses to be a character in Logan’s twisted fantasy. If Logan won’t let her go… she’ll make him

Oh hello, #TeamDelilah, right? Logan doesn’t know what he’s getting into at all. Mind you, doesn’t this sound like a twisted version of You? Which I fully admit I haven’t watched, but I did read some reviews

Quincredible Vol 1

“This is woke comics at its very best.” — The Beat

Invulnerability is a pretty useless superpower if you’ve only got a one-hundred pound frame to back it up. That’s what Quinton West’s life became when he went from small guy who got beat up to small guy who can’t get hurt after the meteor shower dubbed “The Event” gifted him the power of invulnerability but no other powers to compliment it.

But there’s more to Quin than meets the eye, and after some encouragement from his new mentor—a local New Orleans–based superhero named Glow—Quin realizes that he can use his quirky hobby of creating Rube Goldberg devices to outsmart the opposition. But being a hero paints a target on your back, and Quin’s got to risk it all to join the ranks of the superheroes he looks up to. It’s a good thing he can take a punch

This premise makes me gleeful, and I cannot wait to see Quin become the hero he knows he can be.

Mango, Mambo and Murder

Cuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quinones-Smith becomes a seasoned sleuth in Raquel Reyes’s Caribbean Kitchen Mystery debut, a savory treat for fans of Joanne Fluke and Jenn McKinlay.

Food anthropologist Miriam Quinones-Smith’s move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, is traumatic enough without having to deal with her son’s toddler tantrums and her husband’s midlife crisis. Her best friend, Alma, adds some spice back into Miriam’s life when she offers her a job as an on-air cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women’s Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again.

When a second woman dies soon after, suspicions coalesce around a controversial Cuban herbalist, Dr. Fuentes–especially after the morning show’s host collapses while interviewing him. But then, Detective Pullman learns that the socialite’s death resulted from a drug overdose–and an anonymous tip fingers Alma as the pusher.

Pullman persuades Miriam to ply her culinary know-how and her understanding of Coral Shores’s Caribbean culture to help find the killer and clear Alma’s name. While her hubby dallies with his ex-girlfriend, Juliet, Miriam quizzes her neighbors for answers and researches all manner of herbs.

As the ingredients to the deadly scheme begin blending together, Miriam is on the verge of learning how and why the women died. But her snooping may turn out to be a recipe for her own murder.

Yes please, I want (more of) this! A morning show cook turned sleuth? And a dive into Carribbean culture makes this sound so fun!

I hope everyone has a good week. Last week, was the longest short week ie we had a long weekend, and Friday seemed very far away all week!

In other news, I am also currently Watching The Serpent, and it is creepy. It follows the life of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, in the 1970s, and the diplomat that investigates the murders bc no one else wants to (I actually don’t think there’s an accurate count of how many people he killed). The show jumps around to different timelines, and while it is taking some getting used to, the investigation of this junior diplomat is getting interesting — however, this is a show I’m going to need a break from soon I think.