Weekly Meme for December 21, 2022 – WWW Wednesday

Happy Hump Day and welcome to the WWW Wednesday post for December 21, 2022! WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that answer these three questions (the Three Ws):

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

If you want to participate and you have a blog, answer the three questions above and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. If you do not have a blog, leave a comment with your responses. Have fun, and check out what other participants are reading. You may find your next great read.

***Note: There are affiliate links in this post and if you click on them and make a purchase, we will earn a commission. We appreciate your support and thank you in advance.

Note: All book descriptions are from Bookshop.org.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve already claimed 2023 to be my year of ARCs (lol). Currently, I’m rotating between three 2023 ARCs: two short story collections, Angola is Wherever I Plant My Field and Call and Response, and The Spite House. Pray for me with these short story collections. In particular, Angola is Wherever I Plant My Field is a little difficult for me to get through because of the political context of the stories. There are a lot of words and topics I’m unfamiliar with. I will not be discouraged by subjectively difficult text. Consider it a challenge accepted (wink).

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

Description

A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making–The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts in Texas Hill Country.

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he’s desperate for money–it’s not easy to find steady, safe work when you can’t provide references, you can’t stay in one place for long, and you’re paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you.

When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.

The job calls to Eric, not just because there’s a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it’ll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running.

Angola is Wherever I plant My Field by João Melo

Description

In this collection of eighteen humorous absurdist stories, Melo weaves together postmodernism, postcolonial realities and Angolan history, through an intrusive narrator and author. Angola is Wherever I plant My field will make the readers laugh as they reflect on life and society through stories set in Luanda, Haifa, America, and North-Korea.

Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng

Description

Richly drawn stories about the lives of ordinary families in contemporary Botswana as they navigate relationships, tradition and caretaking in a rapidly changing world.

A young widow adheres to the expectations of wearing mourning clothes for nearly a year, though she’s unsure what the traditions mean or whether she is ready to meet the world without their protection. An older sister returns home from a confusing time in America, only to explain at every turn why she’s left the land of opportunity. A younger sister hides her sexual exploits from her family, while her older brother openly flaunts his infidelity.

The stories collected in Call and Response are strongly anchored in place – in the village of Serowe, where the author is from, and in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana – charting the emotional journeys of women seeking love and opportunity beyond the barriers of custom and circumstance.

Gothataone Moeng is part of a new generation of writers coming out of Africa whose voices are ready to explode onto the literary scene. In the tradition of writers like Chimamanda Adiche and Jhumpa Lahiri, she offers us insight into communities, experiences and landscapes through stories that are cinematic in their sweep, with unforgettable female protagonists.

What did you recently finish reading?

Since the last WWW Wednesday post, I’ve read several books. Five, to be exact, with varied ratings. I hope I can keep the same energy for the remainder of the year. The last thing I need to happen is a reading slump (lol).

Ranking my recently read books from ‘most’ to ‘moderate’ enjoyment would be:

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins – Release Date 1/3/2023

For Lamb by Lesa Cline-Ransome – Release Date 1/10/2023

Fibbed by Elizabeth Agyemang – Release Date 6/7/2022

The Talk by Alicia D. Williams – Release Date 10/18/2022

Underneath the Sycamore Tree by B. Celeste – Release Date 1/3/2023

Have you read any of these titles? Which future releases are on your radar?

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Description

From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album–and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred–and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge–and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle–the birthplace of Frankenstein—The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

For Lamb by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Description

An interracial friendship between two teenaged girls goes tragically wrong in this powerful historical novel set in the Jim Crow South.

For Lamb follows a family striving to better their lives in the late 1930s Jackson, Mississippi. Lamb’s mother is a hard-working, creative seamstress who cannot reveal she is a lesbian. Lamb’s brother has a brilliant mind and has even earned a college scholarship for a black college up north– if only he could curb his impulsiveness and rebellious nature.

Lamb herself is a quiet and studious girl. She is also naive. As she tentatively accepts the friendly overtures of a white girl who loans her a book she loves, she sets a off a calamitous series of events that pulls in her mother, charming hustler uncle, estranged father, and brother, and ends in a lynching.

Told with nuance and subtlety, avoiding sensationalism and unnecessary brutality, this young adult novel from celebrated author Lesa Cline-Ransome pays homage to the female victims of white supremacy.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Fibbed by Elizabeth Agyemang

Description

Elizabeth Agyemang smartly weaves culture, adventure, and a little magic into a dynamic story about stories. Agyemang’s colorful illustrations breathe life into Nana’s journey as she connects with her roots and learns to believe in her own voice. At its core, FIBBED is a bold reminder that stories–and those who tell them–have power. –Booki Vivat, New York Times bestselling author of the Frazzled series

A magical middle-grade graphic novel about a girl who doesn’t lie but no one believes, and who winds up tangled in the web of a trickster spider of Ghanaian lore, Ananse.

Everyone says that the wild stories Nana tells are big fibs. But she always tells the truth, as ridiculous as it sounds to hear about the troupe of circus squirrels stealing her teacher’s toupee. When another outlandish explanation lands her in hot water again, her parents announce that Nana will be spending the summer with her grandmother in Ghana.

She isn’t happy to be missing the summer camp she’s looked forward to all year, or to be living with family that she barely knows, in a country where she can’t really speak the native language. But all her worries get a whole lot bigger–literally–when she comes face-to-face with Ananse, the trickster spider of legend.

Nana soon discovers that the forest around the village is a place of magic watched over by Ananse. But a group of greedy contractors are draining the magic from the land, intent on selling the wishes for their own gain. Nana must join forces with her cousin Tiwaa, new friend Akwesi, and Ananse himself to save the magic from those who are out to steal it before the magic–and the forest–are gone for good.

The Talk by Alicia D. Williams

Description

As a little boy grows into a bigger boy, ready to take on the world, he first must have that very difficult conversation far too familiar to so many Black and Brown Americans in this gentle and ultimately hopeful picture book.

Jay’s most favorite things are hanging out with his pals, getting kisses from Grandma, riding in his dad’s cool car, and getting measured by his mom with pencil marks on the wall. But as those height marks inch upward, Grandpa warns Jay about being in too big a group with his friends, Grandma worries others won’t see him as quite so cute now that he’s older, and Dad has to tell Jay how to act if the police ever pull them over.

And Jay just wants to be a kid.

All Black and Brown kids get The Talk–the talk that could mean the difference between life and death in a racist world. Told in an age-appropriate fashion, with a perfect pause for parents to insert their own discussions with their children to accompany prompting illustrations, The Talk is a gently honest and sensitive starting point for this far-too-necessary conversation, for Black children, Brown children, and for ALL children. Because you can’t make change without knowing what needs changing.

Underneath the Sycamore Tree by B. Celeste

Description

Time is a luxury we don’t all have…

Emery Matterson’s life has been broken for a while. First, she lost her twin sister to an incurable autoimmune disease, then her father left, then her mother fell apart when Emery herself was diagnosed with the same disease that killed her sister. The only option for Emery seems to be to move in with the father she hasn’t seen in ten years, and start over.

Enter Kaiden Monroe, the brooding athlete who has baggage of his own. Kaiden makes Emery feel normal. Hated. Cared for. Loathed. And…loved. Somewhere along the way, Emery finds solace in the guy with the sad eyes.

But everything happens in stages. And nothing good ever lasts.

From fan-favorite author B. Celeste comes an raw, real, and unforgettable story of love and loss between two young people grappling with the harsh reality of invisible disease.

What do you think you’ll read next?

American Horror Story: Coven is my favorite season. A quick glance at the description gave me a taste of that, so I jumped at the opportunity to request a Netgalley ARC of Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown. I really hope I enjoy it. The description buzzwords are definitely in my wheelhouse.

Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown

Description

A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women living under one roof and the family curse that stems back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans

“Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder.” –Ava DuVernay

Generations of Montrose women–Augusta, Victoria, Willow–have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them.

But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the other women have been withholding a secret from Nickie that will end her relationship before it’s even begun: the decades-old family curse that any person they fall in love with dies.

Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, the family is set on a collision course dating back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter–where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love…

“Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists.“
–Sadeqa Johnson, international bestselling author of Yellow Wife and The House of Eve

QOTD (Questions of the Day)

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Reading!