#jayne allen

[emmatmke]

42% of college graduates never read another book after college.

Prioritize reading. Not only does it stimulate you mentally, it also helps grow your vocabulary.

Here is a recent list of books I have read this year:

The House Across The Lake

Before We Were Innocent

Reminders of Him

Yours Truly

Archers Voice

Holly

Happy Place

Confess

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted

The Next Chapter

Exactly What To Say

Damn Good Advice

30% Happier in 30 Days

[bloodmaarked]

➫ monthly book round-up: may 2024

books read: 7 [+17%] average rating: 3.14 [-17%] average speed: 7 days [+6%] total pages: 2,728 [+23%] yearly goal progress: 29/50 [58%] best of the month: the end of men, christina sweeney-baird worst of the month: black girls must die exhausted, jayne allen

4.5* reads:

the end of men, christina sweeney-baird

4* reads:

this is my brain in love, i.w. gregorio

3.5* reads:

the memoirs of sherlock holmes, arthur conan doyle

she's in CTRL: how women can take back tech, anne-marie imafidon

3* reads:

sorrowland, rivers solomon

2* reads:

and so i roar, abi daré

1.5* reads:

black girls must die exhausted, jayne allen

currently reading:

quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking, susan cain

babel, or the necessity of violence: an arcane history of the oxford translators' revolution, r.f. kuang

[queerauntie]

October Reads

This month was my most packed month! I was working a full-time job with a huge commute and I was popping Alice Oseman like a housewife pops Vicodin- desperately. They held me down like I didn't even realize I needed until looking back. My job was really toxic and pushed me to my emotional limits. Alice created a consistently safe space where I could feel hopeful and romantic. Like no matter how hard shit was going, it was going to get better! I can't recommend this author enough, Alice Oseman is the master of young adult fiction. Each story has its own package of wholesomeness. I can't wait to see what they come out with next (including season 2 of Heartstopper!). I will be making a separate post that you can read here to talk about just how much these books gutted me emotionally, but I wanted to get this out! So here's a brief overview of my thoughts on those books!

Alice Oseman Books I read this month:

Loveless (I think this one was my favorite)

This Winter (had no idea it was so short until it was over!)

Radio Silence (this one holds a special place in my heart, it's the first one I ever read, years ago, and because of ADHD I got to read it again for the first time ever)

Solitaire (this poor precious baby tori needs a hug!)

I Was Born for This (Oh but this one was so good too)

As for the 3 non-Oseman books we have:

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

I feel like it's carnal sin to talk poorly about queer art because we get so little of it, we don't want anyone to use it as an excuse not to continue pushing it forward. But after Alice Oseman set the bar, I gotta say I was a little disappointed with What if It's us by Albertalli and Silvera. The characters were sweet but ultimately fell flat. The plot was romantic, but predictable. But I want to give it flowers because it is a story about queer love and you can't help but root for the kids, even if they are a little obsessive.

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted was so so fun! I talked a lot about it in my review here, but to summarize- Tabitha is my girl and I would fight anyone for her!! Including and primarily that fool of a man who keeps playing with her! I was sick of it!!! Ultimately if she is happy I am thrilled, but after falling in love with Tabitha Walker as a character, I just can't accept any less than someone who is as obsessed with her as I am. Is that so much to ask!? With the 3rd book in the series yet to be published, I am eagerly awaiting to hear about how my friend is doing, check in on the beautiful life she's made for herself, and lend an unknowing ear to her stressors and fears. That's my best friend right there! 🥹

Felix Ever After is everything I expected What If It's Us to be. It's still young adult fiction, still frazzled young protagonists, and predictable conflict that seems easily resolved. But what set these two books apart is how well Callender was able to put you in the shoes of their characters and feel the emotions on a real level. It was so sweet and I'll be recommending this book to my trans non-binary sibling because they were very much a Felix when it came to gender exploration! As a millennial queer, it can feel a little intense seeing how much the younger kids grasp onto labels so tightly. Not to say labels are bad, as they can help you learn about yourself, but when it's not the vocab you grew up with, it can seem a little silly. This book helped me understand the journey more personally (and even helped me find a new relationship with my gender!). For that alone, the book gets all the flowers!

Yearly Book Count: 16/??

[judgingbooksbycovers]

​Black Girls Must Have It All: A Novel

By Jayne Allen.

[chanelslibrary]

🌙𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰🌙

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Tabitha Walker has just had an unexpected diagnosis…her window to have kids is closing! Now it’s up to Tabby to balance her relationship with boyfriend, Mark, and her up coming promotion at the news station with her strained relationship with her father all while deciding if now is the time to have a child! Tabby’s grandmother is right… “Black girls must die exhausted!”

This book was so authentic to how Black women, and women in general, are feeling! Tabby and her girlfriends felt like my friends. I know a book (or audiobook) is good when I can’t put it down, and I couldn’t wait to hear what was going to happen next in this story. The humor and authenticity just radiates through this story!

Read if you love:

🙋🏾‍♀️Character driven plot

✊🏽Black/Brown representation

💗Contemporary Romance

👯‍♀️Platonic love

��‍👩‍👧‍👧Blended family/Familial love

CW/TW:

•Infertility/miscarriage

•Suicide attempt

•Gun violence

•Grief/death

•Racism

•Sexism

•Alcoholism

[whitneydaniell]

by: Jayne Allen Published: Apr 11, 2023 Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Adult 288 Pages, Paperback

★★

GoodReads Synopsis:

After a whirlwind year, Tabitha Walker’s carefully organized plan to achieve the life she wanted—perfect job, dream husband, and stylish home—has gone off the rails. Her checklist now consists of diapers changed (infinite), showers taken (zero), tears cried (buckets), and hours of sleep (what’s that).

Don't get her wrong, Tabby loves her new bundle of joy and motherhood is perhaps the only thing that's consistent for her these days. When the news station announces that they will be hiring outside competitors for the new anchor position, Tabby throws herself into her work. But it’s not just maintaining her position as the station’s weekend anchor that has her worried. All of her relationships seem to be shifting out of their regular orbits. Best friend Alexis can’t manage to strike the right balance in her “refurbished” marriage with Rob, and Laila’s gone from being a consistent ride-or-die to a newly minted entrepreneur trying to raise capital for her growing business. And when Marc presents her with an ultimatum about their relationship, coupled with an extended “visit” from his mother, Tabby is forced to take stock of her life and make a new plan for the future.

My Review:

*deep sigh* Still. Hated. It. We're on book #3 and Tabitha still cannot set a boundary or say what she really means. It is so frustrating to read so much about how she is struggling in new motherhood but, she never speaks up for herself when it counts.

Here are a few of my issues with this book and the series:

Tabby doesn't trust herself to make decisions and when she does make a decision, if it doesn't go in her favor she regrets it and then the cycle starts all over again. From Book #1 she has focused heavily on her career but, at every turn when she put her career first and then something else fell off her plate, she regretted it -- see Granny Tab's death in Book #1.

Tabby needs therapy but instead, over the course of the series, she simply dumps her problems on the older women in her life; Granny Tab and Ms. Gretchen.

Tabby is a sometime-y friend and (high-key) she starts the series as if she is jealous of Lexi but ends it as if she is in pity for her. She asks her, "Why" in the context of why she should get married, and Lexi never answers almost leaving the reader to assume that, Lexi herself doesn't know why she got married.

Tabby doesn't set boundaries or communicate expectations when it comes to Marc. Why does a man who you don't want to be with, have a key to your home? Why is he spending the night? Why are you traveling to Florida to see his ailing father, when you just met his mother?! That man didn't want you "like that" in Book #1 and nothing about that has changed. In anger (when true feelings come out) has called Tabby all kinds of selfish and told her that she didn't value family -- why is he still in her life like this?! Let that man be a father and move TF on.

It is never fully explained, what is going on in the Walker household with Diane and Tabby's dad, and why is that side of her life always left up to interpretation.

Tabby relies heavily on her job/career to give her purpose and that is so strange to me. She has great friends, and her mother and her relationship have gotten better -- why is it that work is the only thing that brings her validation?

Can't say that I was surprised by how the book ended, makes sense given Books 1 & 2. I still don't see it for Tabitha Walker but, it was a cute short read. Glad this series is done so that I don't have to jump back into the madness that is her life and I certainly, don't ever want to read about Marc again.

One-Word Summary: Boundaries

Book #1 Review - Black Girls Must Die Exhausted Book #2 Review - Black Girls Must Be Magic

[women-4life]

WOMEN I LOVE ❤️

I also posted this on my tiktok - @_fan_of_people_

and instagram - @_fan_of_people

[arcanespillo]

stills from James Dean: A Portrait (1988) dir by Gary Legon

"James observed classes but did not participate, he couldn't bear to have his performance criticized by the class, he said 'if I let them dissect me like a rabbit in a laboratory, I might not be able to produce again.' At the actors' studio he studied method acting, where an actor learns to utilize every emotion from their real life in their dramatic roles, although this line between acting and life was deliberately left ambiguous, students were warned never to confuse the two, Jimmy repeatedly violated this rule, he succumbed to what the method called the existential fallacy of confusing himself with his creation, it gave a sense of urgency and risk to all his roles"

[oldshowbiz]

1974.

ABC's Wide World of Entertainment presents Hi Ho Steverino - a tribute to Steve Allen.

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (August 29th, 2023)

___

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

A Tall Dark Trouble by Vanessa Montalban

Pride & Prejudice & Pittsburg by Rachael Lippincott

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt

After You Vanished by E.A. Neeves

The Reunion by Kit Frick

My Father, The Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang

What Happened On Hicks Road by Hannah Jayne

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

The Infinity Particle by Wendy Xu

Night of the Living Queers by Various

House of Marionne by J. Elle

All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen

I Feed her to the Beast & the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea

More Than A Thief by Beverly Patt

Let's Never Speak of this Again by Megan Williams

New Sequels:

Never A Hero (Monsters #2) by Vanessa Len

The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games #4) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Reign (American Royals #4) by Katharine McGee

___

Happy reading!

[midnightwitch92]

Sirius black & Penny Wicks

[bloodmaarked]

black girls must die exhausted // jayne allen

first published: 2018 read: 30 april 2024 – 06 may 2024 pages: 418 format: e-book

genres: fiction; adult; race; self-discovery; relationships (romantic/friendship/family) favourite character(s): as much of a cliche as she was (though weren't they all?), ms gretchen least favourite character(s): tabitha (mc, not the grandma) and marc (both separately and together)

rating: 🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑 thoughts: unfortunately, black girls must die exhausted was another dud read for this year - in fact, my lowest-rated book of 2024 - which is a shame as i was looking forward to it with the brilliant title and pretty cover. but it was a struggle to get through. i kept wondering why i would put the book down and have no urge to pick it back up, and once i started getting into the flow of things i realised it's just really badly written.

i feel like the book had nothing to say, or at the very least nothing unique or engaging. it didn't help that the narrative progression was very cyclical - tabitha hangs out with her friends, goes to work, gets her hair done, visits her grandma, and repeat. every time we went back to the grandma's care home i would just think "ugh, this again?"

the point of the narrative is quite clear from the title, but it was just not well-written or expressed. it follows a lot of the struggles and life changes black women deal with (particularly in their 30s), with relationships (inc. marriage and kids), friendships, career, fear of the police, etc. but the way it was written was so trite. it opens with a cop pulling tabitha over in the first chapter, and i could get past that as a shocking scene to pull the reader in, sure. but then every bad thing a (black) woman could possibly experience, was thrown at tabitha on the page, and it just got ridiculous. the contrived drama read like a real housewives script. maybe other black women could relate to one or some of the things she went through. i personally couldn't relate to any of it, and so the emotional impact of it all was close to zero.

tabitha herself was so frustrating and irritating. i don't know that i'd go so far as to call her an unlikeable character, but it was so hard to sympathise with her, and i definitely would not care to know her in real life. she came off as whiny and would dump her issues and non-issues on other characters all the time (on the non-issues front - we had to read about her bringing her career talk with her boss, on page, to at least four separate characters. we had to read about her asking "hey, is this a problem?" to four different people, only for all four people to say, "no, not really", and it was all utterly meaningless in the end). she had a whole scene with her boyfriend marc, where she somehow victimised herself and then dumped all her baggage on him in an expletive-laden rant where he was somehow the villain and we were meant to be sympathetic somehow? and then she kept running back to him, when it was clearly established that they weren't good for each other and didn't want the same things? and the actual guy that might've have been good for her disappeared into the ether? and i see that tabitha and marc are still going through it in their relationship for the next two books? okay then!

all the other characters were bland or annoying. i didn't like granny tabitha as much as the author wanted me to.

also, the writing style didn't work for me. here's a line that made me laugh when i don't think it was meant to: "the air between us was pregnant in the way that i was not..." like it's hard to take a line like that seriously. and there was a noticeably heavy use of italics which was distracting and unnecessary. and i didn't like that tabitha had to refer to her grandmother by name every time she addressed her. this is a back-and-forth dialogue between the two that happens in chapter 28: tabitha: "where did you go after you left there, granny tab?" [she responds] tabitha: "granny tab, what happened to grandpa walker?" [she responds] tabitha: "granny tab... i... how... how did you manage?" like...?? that's not natural dialogue omg. there is plenty of unnatural/over-the-top dialogue in this book and it sounded bad.

anyway. i think it goes without saying that i won't be finishing the rest of the trilogy. this was more of a ridiculous romantic drama (like tyler perry writing for BET) than the title had me believe. i wish it had been better.

[queerauntie]

November Reads

November was a blast, I quit my toxic job and these books really helped me from falling into depression again. Before that job I had been unemployed since July and it was dark y'all. While we aren't fully out of that hole (summer, summer hurry up!) reading has been such a transformative way to heal from the misery I'd been feeling these past few years. Without further ado, November's novels:

Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey (Founder of The Nap Ministry)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Black Girls Must Be Magic by Jayne Allen

Love Radio was a delight. The characters were so cute and well thought out, and their personalities were fun to see interact together, making them a perfect match! While it's a red flag to me when someone is so persistently pesuing someone, I am willing to call it a Doppler/Dahmer (a himym reference ifkyk) situation and lean in. I'm glad I did because Prince ended up being worth the leap of faith. Talk about someone who genuinely wants to show up for YOU, in any capacity they can. So many people (read men) feel like if they have feelings for a girl, the only way they can have a successful relationship is if it's a romantic and sexual one. FAKE concepts like "the friend zone" are their way of telling us they can't love us in any other capacity, because it's not about us, it's about the claiming of us. Prince loves Danielle and he isn't caught up with those ideas and he sees Danielle for who she is, an amazing young woman who's on her journey and deserving of love. Danielle goes through a gutting experience that she deals with throughout the story, and as she's not initially open to romance, Prince doesn't see that as rejection or a "chase" or "tease". He truly hears her and is happy to meet her where she needs and shows up the way a true friend would, which Dani definitely needs at this point. I loved this story, and even though I saw it at Target, it breaks through the Target Tear, I definitely Loved this book!

Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey is a book I've been highly anticipating! I've been following @TheNapMinistry on twitter for months now, her message is simple. Rest is not something we have to earn, we rest because it is our right. Her work centralizes Black People who've had their rest robbed for centuries, reminding them that rest and dreaming are key to liberation. This message extends to non-Black people as an introduction on how to start breaking down our cultural brainwashing and recognize how our complacency upholds capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. When we prioritize resting over the never-ending machine that is American capitalism, we become a wrench instead of a cog. This book, right next to How We Show Up, go right on my required reading for friends and community. This book will also be read again, every time I need a reminder!

The next book on my list was the first major book I read this year, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. While almost all of the books before this were around 6-9 hours, Addie LaRue comes in at 17 hours! It was very intimidating, and I initially was reading the book wrong, I was looking for the rising action to begin and was zooming through the first half thinking it was merely world-building. I was wrong, it was all a part of the journey that Addie herself was on, figuring things out as she went and learning so many important lessons along the way. Once I understood that I needed to be a part of the story with Addie, not a ghost viewing from above, the story took hold of me fiercely and I was completely hypnotized by this world. It was a thrill ride to the end, trying to figure out where it could possibly end, and what solutions could we possibly come to. Another read again to simply be in that world again, and of course, to prep for the hinted-at sequel!

Odd One Out was a book that was recommended by my bestie, this is the book where I started to go "maybe I just don't like male characters..." because there was absolutely nothing Coop could do that I didn't take issue with! The author really had me in the first half because I was ready to fight him for not getting over his crush on a LESBIAN! But bestie told me to give good faith, and I held out hope. Spoiler alert it does not end in a polyamorous ending, I'll rip that bandaid right off for ya cause no one did for me. But the ending was satisfying and I guess if it's vaguely personal, I can't be mad someone got a happy ending!

Black Cake was a haunting and beautiful journey. I've talked about it more here, so please go read that, or better yet, just read Black Cake. It's definitely in my top 10 of the year, it was pulling on the heartstrings, keeping me on the edge, and immensely satisfied by the end. It was a novel I could trust, whether it was a happy or sad ending, you could feel the care and love the writer put into this novel, and it was beautiful to experience this story and I hope it continues to gain lots of attention, it deserves all the flowers!

A Darker Shade of Magic! Wow what an amazing story! This is my best friend's favorite book by their favorite author, so it was LONG overdue that I read this book! By God it was fan-fucking-tastic! It was another Schwab immersive world I couldn't get enough of. I was thrilled that there was an entire trilogy to enjoy, and even more, so that a second trilogy is in the works. I will be talking more about V.E. Schwab as an artist because she is just phenomenal and I am looking forward to reading more of her works this upcoming year!

Black Girls Must Be Magic was somehow better than it's predecessor, how many sequels can say that? But it absolutely felt like catching up with an old friend and I was beyond thrilled for her in this chapter of her life. Healing from the loss of her grandma, Tabi continues to face work struggles and personal problems. But she's been working on rebuilding her support system so she has her besties to confide in and work through those things with, instead of doing it on her own. I am so proud of the growth she's made in this journey, and I can't wait for the third book to come out. I have a few more thoughts about this series here, so enjoy!

I did it, I got through november! Stay tuned, December shall be posted within the next 2 hours!

Yearly Book Count: 23/??

[miscpav]

Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Home Computers (Casablanca Records [!], 1983)

Grammy nominee (!!), Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording

Vinyl rip:

Video by Fran Blanche with the audio and showing the booklet included with the album:

More info: Discogs

Inspired the 1984 video Computability starring Allen and Meadows:

More info/links: waxy.org, IMDb, archive.org

[leehallfae]

“the sky was wide, oppressively so, the ground flat and yellow to the horizon. the tracks themselves, blackened with age, ended in the middle of the field in an upward twist of crooked steel. there was nothing out here but the wind and a scatter of broken bricks, and yet there was this presence of another, a hum, a feeling like a ghost. if lonely had a texture, if the past was a whisper-like sound in the air around your head, that would be it, this ghost.”

— samantha jayne allen, pay dirt road

[whitneydaniell]

by: Jayne Allen Published: Dec 20, 2019 Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance 272 Pages, Audio Book (HH:MM) 07:15

★★★

GoodReads Synopsis:

For Tabitha Walker, her grandmother's old adage, "Black girls must die exhausted" is becoming all too true. Discovering she's pregnant--after she was told she may not be able to have biological children--Tabitha throws herself headfirst into the world of "single mothers by choice." Between her job, doctor's appointments, and preparing for the baby, she's worn out. And that's before her boss at the local news station starts getting complaints from viewers about Tabitha's natural hair.

My Review:

This read was a rollercoaster of emotions (and much like the first in the series), and I don't mean that in a good way.

Same trope. Same foolish mistakes. Same situationship. Same microagressions. Same friend group offering nothing to the story.

I'm invested in this series because I started it but (high-key) wish I wasn't. Allen's writing is all over the place and for me, the story doesn't resonate. The decisions that Tabby makes, the way she talks, and the people she keeps around; it does nothing for me.

Marc -- let's not even go there. How has he made it to book #2?

Ms. Gretchen -- Tabby leans so heavily on these older women (her grandmother Tabitha, in book #1) that it makes me question her friendships with Leila and Lexi.

When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Between Marc and her daddy, Tabitha wants to be loved by men so badly that she will overlook their bad behavior and obvious neglect of her feelings just to have a connection with them. I didn't like how her relationship with her father was just glossed over and made whole because of her baby and the death of Granny Tab. No Sir, we would all need to sit down and talk to a professional if you skipped out on me, didn't maintain a relationship, went off and remarried, had other children that you were there for and, now all of a sudden we're 'cool' -- no!

I'll be reading the next in the series but, can't say that I'm looking forward to it.

Book #1 Review - Black Girls Must Die Exhausted

One-Word Summary: Nope