Rae's Reads and Reviews

I’ve been seeing the Black Booktuber Tag floating around YouTube and I wanted to hop on the trend… but I don’t have a booktube. Instead, I’ll be answering the questions here and tagging black bloggers!

Check out the original tag here and the playlist of The Unfriendly Black Hotties taking on the tag.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself!

My name is Rachelle but I go by Rae online. It’s literally a nickname I gave myself because no one else gave me nicknames growing up, I don’t even know how to explain that story.

I’m 20 years old and a full-time college student. I’m majoring in English and Psychology because I love over-analyzing things so why not make it into a career?

2. Who’s a black author you love that a lot of people don’t know about?

Someone that I personally love and who I think more people need to talk about is Renee Watson. I had never related to novels the way I have with her novels until pretty recently. I talk about This Side of Home a lot and that’s for good reason.

3. Favorite book about the black experience?

This one is tough y’all. Black experience is literally my specialty on this blog. I’m going to make this one super personal to me and pick:

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika and Maritza Moulite

This appeals to me in particular because I’m Haitian and I’ve been looking for Haitian stories for me to connect to. Dear Haiti, Love Alaine was that story and one that I need every Haitian American to read asap (but please read it if you aren’t Haitian, too).

4. Favorite book by a black author?

Why would you make me choose? Let’s just go with the first one that popped into my head:

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

When I tell you I CRIED while reading this. It’s such a beautiful story about loss and self-discovery. I really wish I had a physical copy of my own for this.

5. Recommend a black + queer book

I really need to do better when it comes to reading queer books. I’m pretty sure I’ve only read one black queer book and that’s one I read last month.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

After watching the tag videos I’ve got a lot more added to my TBR and I’ll try to bring more focus to these novels.

6. Recommend a book with a black person on the cover

Do you want me to just leave my bookshelf or… If you’ve been following along you already know I have a personal obsession with black people on book covers. Extra brownie points if it’s an illustrated cover. One book came to mind and then it brought the other one to mind so:

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

I love the 90s vibes of this cover. I’m all hear for bright colors and bright covers. Let Me Hear a Rhyme made me think about:

Monday’s Not Coming

Last summer was wild with this one. Monday’s Not Coming is a psychological roller coaster in all the best ways.

7. Recommend a book by a black author that makes you happy 🙂

I’ve already talked about This Side of Home so I guess I’ll have to find something else to gush over. Oh, I’ve got one!

Slay by Brittney Morris

I love this novel. I actually just gave my copy to my younger cousin in the hopes that it’ll get her into reading too.

8. Talk about a book by a black author that’s coming in 2020

I’ve got quite the list going for these new releases. I just keep hearing about all these amazing sounding books from black authors. I was originally going to say Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson but now I’d like to mention one I found out about from Jocelynn of JocelynnReads.

Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe

The author is Haitian! I literally found out about this today but I’m already so excited to check it out. I need this in my hands now!

9. Tag some black book bloggers!

I’ve started getting into more black bloggers and booktube lately and now that most of my summer classes are over, I finally have time to binge. With the exception of Zezee, I found most of these bloggers on Twitter recently. Please check out all of their pages!

I tag: Saoudia ~ Zezee ~ Emmie ~ Lila ~ Keeana ~ Kim ~ Cindy ~

Do you have a favorite black blogger? Tag them below!