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print: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
audiobook: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I feel two ways about this book. On the one hand, I really enjoyed learning about Cuban history and culture. It was fascinating, insightful, inspiring, and educational. On the other hand, the romances in the plot did not work for me at all (or anyone else in my book club). So the conceptual parts about history and culture were fantastic, but the basic plot parts were pretty rough. A mixed bag!

This is the kind of book you want to keep near you just in case you have a spare minute to read a page.

e-book: The Plan by Kendra Adachi
print: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
audiobook: On Her Terms by Amy Spalding

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I‘m taking these two on vacation with me next week.
Immigrant stories are really speaking to me right now even though I feel like I need to continue my women‘s studies course.

Gratz has a talent for writing the truth of difficult situations. He weaves several plots together, making the reader care about each. It makes me want to host a refugee family. The audiobook was a great road trip listen.

It took me longer to get into the 3rd book in the Loyal League series than any of the others. Janeta's perspective was hard to read, as a mixed race Cuban woman initially spying for the Confederecy who didn't understand the horrific system she was helping to perpetuate while also falling victim to. That said, her journey was handled with thoughtfulness and honesty that I think is important to show, and I was eventually fully swept up in the story.

Getting into the last of Alyssa Cole's Loyal League romances and finally starting one of my #AuldLangSpine picks from @Laughterhp @monalyisha

#WeekendReads

"As exiles, that hope is embedded in the very essence of our soul, taught from birth--
Next year in Havana--
It's the #toast we never stop saying, because the dream of it never comes true"

#25Alive

This is a short novella by a grandson of Che Guevara that expresses the disillusionment and lost promise of the revolution in Cuba. Playing on the theme of a “scratched record” that repeats, it is written as 33 very short chapters. While I thought it had potential, I found the repetition of the scratched record theme somewhat annoying. #europacollective #booksintranslation