 This week, California sunshine won out over my love of literature. Photo credit: Julian Myles on Unsplash. By Anya Shukla Yeah, yeah, I know I was SUPPOSED to be reviewing “The Fifth Season” this week… but truthfully, I wasn’t in the mood. I went to California on vacation, and the 90 degree weather coaxed me outside, sunscreen in hand, book tossed carelessly on the hotel bed behind me. So instead, I decided to cobble together some short reviews of the BIPOC books not on my original list that I read these past few months.
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 "Moth Smoke" explores elitism amongst the 1990s-era Lahore jet-set. Photo credit: Syed Bilal Javaid on Unsplash. By Anya Shukla I will confess that I always start a BIPOC book out with good intentions and a solid attention span. But as the week drags on and my Starbucks shifts pile up, I find myself less focused on understanding what I'm reading and a little more interested in churning through the last few chapters so I can hit my self-imposed deadline. This time, however, the elevated level of prose in “Moth Smoke” forced me to pay attention all the way through. This is an adult book for adult people. English nerds (myself included) would have a field day with this one.
 For most of her life, Homiera Qaderi lived in Afghanistan's third most populous city, Herat. Photo credit: Ali Mosavi on Unsplash. By Anya Shukla At some point in her life, every girl makes a list of the top ten reasons that she dislikes men. #1 on mine? The way most of them act in this book. (#2 is their ridicule of my beloved romance novels. Guess what, dude? I’m learning about healthy relationships, so you can just sit at home and cry because no one will go out with you.) Several times during this memoir, I wanted to scream and/or punch something. If you are a woman, or you care about women, I hope you do the same.
 In "The Marrow Thieves," nine Indigenous people travel north amidst fear and environmental destruction. Photo credit: Colin Lloyd on Unsplash. By Anya Shukla One of my favorite novels—a novel quoted in the epigraph of “The Marrow Thieves”—is Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” a brilliantly haunting, visceral read about a boy and his father traveling in a post-apocalyptic world. I am 95% sure that “The Marrow Thieves” alludes to “The Road” in several ways (though I’d need to re-read the two books to make sure). Both take place during the aftermath of environmental ruin and spotlight the moral failures induced by global destruction, both contain ragtag travelers and carts and bandannas. Just wanted to point that out so people know that I’m an intellectual :P
 "My art comes from and explores the truth: the ugly truth and the beauty of truth as well," says Lash O'Cain. By Anya Shukla Lash O’Cain is drawn to artwork that questions contemporary culture. The 20-year-old press operator is primarily a writer—she creates poetry, songs, short stories, and screenplays— and plans to pursue film at college in the future. Yet despite the diversity of disciplines, O’Cain’s pieces have a clear focus on our shared humanity, her personal identity, and the ways in which the two intersect.
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