 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 hates 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.
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 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
 While Kiese Laymon hasn't always lived in the South, "Heavy" is an homage to his home state, Mississippi. (Photo credit: USGS on Unsplash.) By Anya Shukla I’m doing this text a disservice by reviewing it after only one read; “Heavy” is laden with layers, allusions, and double-meanings. (English teachers would have a field day with this memoir.) I desperately want to spend 2-3 weeks with this book and go through it carefully, underlining and cross-referencing until I get everything. But that is not the way I have set up this challenge. I plan to re-examine “Heavy” at the end of the BIPOC Book List. Consider this review provisional until I can uncover and understand this memoir in the ways that I would like to.
 While America calls itself a land of immigrants, this sign isn't exactly accurate. (Photo credit: Katie Moum on Unsplash.) By Anya Shukla I am a child of documented immigrants. While I can relate to many aspects of “The Undocumented Americans,” obviously I cannot connect to this book like undocumented Latinx immigrants or relatives of undocumented Latinx immigrants might. I write this review as a reader with few personal connections to or knowledge of the undocumented community.
 According to Amazon, “The Wedding Date” has been enthusiastically endorsed by Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Bookriot, and nine other publications that I am too lazy to write out. (Photo credit: Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash.) By Anya Shukla As a romance connoisseur, I first started reading this much-hyped book several months ago… and got as far as the first 10 pages. But I knew I had to finish the novel for this list. If “The Wedding Date” was good, I could use my review to paint a hero’s-journey-style redemption arc; if it was bad, I’d employ my signature snark.
 Fun fact: Priyanka Chopra Jonas was so attractive as a teenager that when she traveled to her tutoring sessions by rickshaw, a line of boys would follow behind her on bikes. (Photo credit: Atharva Tulsi on Unsplash.) By Anya Shukla Review: After her success as the leading lady in ABC’s “Quantico,” a string of superhit Bollywood movies, and her highly-publicized wedding, Priyanka Chopra Jonas has become a household name in both India and America. In “Unfinished,” her 2021 memoir, the former Miss World attempts to provide an insider’s look at her life.
 I'm going to be reading a lot of books this year. (Photo Credit: Robert Anasch on Unsplash.) By Anya Shukla When I applied for a gap year, I told my college that I would spend time “reading and thinking deeply about a list of 50 of the best books of all time.” So far, I have spent as much time “thinking deeply” as I have outside my house (I leave my room so infrequently that it takes several minutes for my eyes to adjust to the sun when I do). Yes, I have read more books by September (238, to be exact) than some people would read in a lifetime. But I wouldn’t exactly call books with shirtless men on the covers and titles like “Beautiful Bombshell” high-class literature. I need to get of this semi-tragic state of affairs. Not the least because I am literally running out of moderate-to-well-written romance novels to read.
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