Books by Black women everyone should read
| From rom-com short stories to fantasy adventures to spine-tingling thrillers, there's a plethora of amazing books by Black women to choose from
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Read this if: You love (or, honestly, hate) reality dating shows. Credit: @_ksl One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
Fans of The Bachelorette will love this feel-good romance novel that follows a woman named Bea, a plus-size fashion blogger, who gets hurt by an old crush who re-enters her life only to ghost her. When a tweet thread of her critique of Main Squeeze — a hot reality show where contestants find love — goes viral, she is asked to be the first plus-size woman in the show's history. Bea agrees, even though she is certain she won't find love, but wants to show the world that women who look like her are deserving of a happily ever after. But to her surprise, some of these men are adamant to win her heart. While Bea attempts to decipher what is real and what is fake, her crush from her past struggles to return to her present. The format of this book is adorable! Not only do we get Bea's perspective, but we get transcripts from podcasts, tweets, script snippets from the show, and more. I listened to the audiobook and couldn't stop gushing from cuteness overload. If you need a warm and cozy romance that will lift your spirits, consider this as an option. Get your copy now. —Farrah Penn Long Read: Emily Ratajkowski's New Book Tests The Limits Of Self-Awareness by Scaachi Koul What an impossible task Emily Ratajkowski gave herself — it's admirable, really, her efforts to better understand the arcane, patriarchal, racist, capitalistic measurements of physical beauty that have allowed her to be famous and successful and rich. I know this sounds glib, but I promise you it's not: It would've been easier for her to have spent the 233 pages of her new essay collection, My Body, giving lip service to body positivity or taking control of your own narrative or objectification without grappling with a more complicated story. She could just enjoy her slender body and the career it afforded her without examining how she got here.
Instead, the essay collection, which comes out on Nov. 9, tries to make sense of her childhood, her work as a model, her value outside of her body, and the way men in and out of the entertainment industry have treated her. Honestly, the whole book is pretty depressing, a constant push-pull between Ratajkowski's self-awareness and the greater forces that commodified her. Yes, her beauty has made her successful, but it also means that she has rarely, if ever, had control over her public image and how people perceive her. If there's a question driving Ratajkowski's culture study into herself, it would be: Did I have control over my own career and how I see myself? And I'm not sure she's found the answer. More From BuzzFeed |














