How to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories | 
Brilliant collection of short stories set in the Caribbean. Each story is unique—focusing on everything from lepers to coffin sellers—& covers a wide range of themes. Yanique's writing is haunting, dark, & lush while confronting the stereotypes outsiders & colonists have of the US Virgin Islands, incl. conflict between its habitants. Her writing slowly simmers & builds as she unpacks colonialism, racism, colorism, death, violence, & family. 🏝🌊
BookishFeminist #shortstories #wndb #weneeddiversebooks #blm #blackbooks #pocauthors #authorsofcolor #caribbean #virginislands 8y
TheNextBook I have a feeling this will be perfect for next year's theme. Yes, I'm already planning ahead. 😂 8y
BookishFeminist @TheNextBook 😂 of course you are. What is next year's theme? 8y
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TheNextBook I'm calling it "Keeping it short." I've realized since joining Litsy that I don't read many short stories. That and I haven't read all of Stephen King's short stories either so next year for each book I read, I will read one short story. It gives me the freedom to still read a lot of novels but also read a nice amount of short stories. 8y
BookishFeminist @TheNextBook Ooh I like that! I've considered doing something like that myself, especially because I find short story collections hard to devour at once. I like to break them up but then wind up setting them aside for too long. You're right, this would be perfect for that. 👍🏼 Also I am not surprised this is so you can read more Stephen King short stories. 😂😂 I need to read more of those too. 8y
TheNextBook @BookishFeminist Yes! I can not read large short story collections at once! I've tried and sometimes I'm successful but usually I end up bailing so yeah this theme should help. And of course part of the reason (the entire reason) was because I wanted to read all of Stephen King's short stories and I needed to push myself to do it! 😂 #keepingitshort 8y
RebeccaH I'm so glad you liked this! I wrote a review of it back in 2011 here: http://www.necessaryfiction.com/reviews/HowtoEscapefromaLeperColonybyTiphanieYan... 8y
Seashore Love the cover! 8y
Lola @BookishFeminist @TheNextBook YES re not reading large short story collections at once! I read (am still reading) A Manuel for Cleaning Women for a book club and purposefully did not finish in time. 400 pages of short stories are not meant to be consumed like a novel, IMO. I think the collection suffers for it and my opinion if the work does, too. Best read in small bites. 8y
TheNextBook @Lola small bites! Exactly! 8y
Zelma That sounds fantastic! Like everyone else, I want to enjoy short stories more, but I have trouble with pacing. If I enjoy the collection, I keep reading quickly and they suffer as a result. 8y
BookishFeminist @Seashore Ditto! It's colorful. 😊 8y
BookishFeminist @RebeccaH Thanks for the link! I love all of Yanique's writing at this point, so excited to see what she does next. 8y
BookishFeminist @Lola @TheNextBook Yes! They're short stories for a reason. I can see why you did that too, Lola. I got halfway through Lucia Berlin's book before setting it aside for a while. Her stories are often similar in theme and tone too so it feels repetitive if consumed all at once, but she's awesome and don't want over-consuming her work to sully my opinion and reflection of it. 8y
BookishFeminist @Zelma It really is good! I think you'd like this- these stories are all very different from one another and have a lot of depth. 8y
