vumaisbooked

(She/her). 20-something. Local library lover. “A peasant who reads is a prince in waiting” - Walter Mosley. “My taste” = my 2025 top 5. 🦋🪷🫁✨🧳🪺🎨🍒🫧🫀 🫐🔮🧜🏾‍♀️🫙🪼📝🧠🦦🌞🌻

6770 points

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My Taste

Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Reading...

vumaisbooked started reading...

15h

Death of the Author

Nnedi Okorafor

The future of storytelling is here. Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she's suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister's wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she's not sure what comes next. In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life - she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes. What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu's life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world.

vumaisbooked is interested in reading...

15h

The Dispossessed

Ursula K. Le Guin

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life—Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.

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16h

The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas

Brooke N. Newman

For centuries, Britain has told itself and the world that it is an abolitionist nation, one that, unlike the United States, rejected human bondage and dismantled its Atlantic slave empire without tearing itself apart in violence. An abolitionist nation headed by a just, humane monarch who liberated enslaved Africans and recognized their descendants as free and equal subjects of the British Crown. As Prince William put it recently, “We’re very much not a racist family.” When slaveholding nations write their collective history, the enslavers hold the pen. Now, acclaimed historian Brooke Newman reveals the true story: the enslavers were supported by members of the royal family. From the 1560s to 1807, the British monarchy invested in the transatlantic slave trade and built a slave empire in colonial America and the Caribbean, with the labor of millions of enslaved Africans who would see none of its riches. It profited from African slave trading and hereditary bondage, setting the stage for other colonial powers to develop brutal slave systems that remained legal long after full emancipation in the British Empire in 1838. The scars of this history remain visible the world over, from economic inequality and educational and health disparities to racial discrimination and prejudice. Still, Crown officials continue to insist the legacies of slavery “belong to the past.” Newman focuses not on portraits of British monarchs but on their actions and investments that led to the rise and fall of the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery, and on some of the people whose lives it took, placing the struggles and sacrifices of innumerable individuals of African origin and ancestry at the center of Britain’s story.

vumaisbooked commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

16h

vumaisbooked

Edited

Nonfiction books - how to be a better reader

I’ve noticed that I’ll start reading a non fiction book with a lot of excitement. I’ll get into a few chapters and struggle to finish physically reading it and either swap to an audio or leave it paused and unpaused for months/years. For context, I do enjoy nonfiction and I want to read more non fiction books. I’m also reading books and topics I enjoy so enjoyment is not an issue whatsoever.

I also take longer to read non fiction than fiction books with some books (even ones I loved) taking multiple years to finish. I don’t like this at all. It’s very demotivating and it puts me in a reading slump.

All of his to ask: Does anyone have strategies for staying in non fiction books and finishing them within a set time (e.g. no more than a month or 2)?

vumaisbooked wrote a review...

16h

vumaisbooked

Sep 04, 2026

Parable of the Talents

3.5

Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.0

⛓️

⛪️

✨️

3.75/5 stars 🚀✨.

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

While I enjoyed the first instalment, Parable of the Sower, more, I appreciated the direction Octavia E. Butler was bold enough to take here.

The dangers of Christofacism are underexplored in science fiction and I applaud how this novel marks its capabilities. What is done in these novels is being done in some capacity around the world 💔.

The biggest fault for me was the pacing in this novel. It was a bit difficult for me to grasp with A LOT happening in some parts but very mundane activities stretching out for chapters in others. It made it a bit of an effort to finish, but by the ending of the novel I was SAT once again.

Overall - this is a well done ending to such a mammoth duology!

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16h

Fictional(?) Dystopian Societies

Bronze: Finished 5 Main Quest books.

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16h

Parable of the Talents

Octavia E. Butler

This Nebula Award-winning sequel to Parable of the Sower continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren's followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order.

vumaisbooked is interested in reading...

My Government Means to Kill Me

Rasheed Newson

A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s New York City, from the television drama writer and producer of The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air. Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl “Trey” Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships—all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death. Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.

vumaisbooked commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

vumaisbooked

Edited

Nonfiction books - how to be a better reader

All of his to ask: Does anyone have strategies for staying in non fiction books and finishing them within a set time (e.g. no more than a month or 2)?

Post from the Pagebound Club forum

vumaisbooked

Edited

Nonfiction books - how to be a better reader

All of his to ask: Does anyone have strategies for staying in non fiction books and finishing them within a set time (e.g. no more than a month or 2)?

vumaisbooked is interested in reading...

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Holly Jackson

For readers of Kara Thomas and Karen McManus, an addictive, twisty crime thriller with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about a closed local murder case that doesn't add up, and a girl who's determined to find the real killer--but not everyone wants her meddling in the past. Everyone in Fairview knows the story. Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer? Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger. This is the story of an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you'll never expect.

vumaisbooked started reading...

The Housemaid

Freida McFadden

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…

vumaisbooked is interested in reading...

Discipline

Randa Abdel-Fattah

Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 student from a local Islamic college is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer, Ashraf sees an opportunity to exploit his personal connection to the situation for professional redemption. Meanwhile Hannah, who is juggling the demands of new motherhood and family trauma, fights racism in the newsroom. As Israel's bombardment of Gaza intensifies into the final weeks of Ramadan, Ashraf and Hannah must reckon with their choices, values and places in their communities. Will they be prepared to make sacrifices in the pursuit of what is right? With a focus on two of today's most contested fields, academia and the media, Discipline tallies the price we all pay when those with privilege choose to remain silent.

vumaisbooked made progress on...

Parable of the Talents

Octavia E. Butler

79%

vumaisbooked commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

gingerailet

In need of recommendations!!

I need some classical literature recommendations that don't feel too dull while reading. I enjoy gothic literature too and have been enjoying the picture of dorian gray and frankenstein but I really wanna get more into other classic literature books without feeling like its too much of a chore. I've read some russian ones and i just cant stand them anymore + i'd like some books written by women but im not a big romance fan tho. Help!!

Post from the Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2) forum

vumaisbooked

Edited

Thoughts from 61% (page 236)

spoilers

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vumaisbooked is interested in reading...

Icatha - The Soul Eater (Naija Stories Anthology, #2)

Oyinkan Braithwaite

Icatha: The Soul Eater boasts of legends and myths, creatures and lesser gods, superstitions and taboos, in the past, in the present, and neither here nor there. The fables and tales in this collection reflect the worldview that determine who we are and what we believe in.The stories offer a rich panorama of the folkloric heritage of diverse cultures of Nigeria - tales of innocence and triumph, heroes and villains, and of animals, tricksters, and the end of the world. Or so it appears to some of the characters who lived through it.

vumaisbooked commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum

jenniferPagebound

Fall Readalong + Limited Time Quest Updates (9/1/26)

A few quick updates to share - a new app version was released a few days ago, please make sure your app is updated to see all available features!

Limited Time Quest Updates: We've majorly revamped the badge system for Limited Time Quests; now, you can earn the badge for reading just 1 book in the Quest, and finishing subsequent books will unlock decorations on your badge. See below for an example from the new Sponsored Limited Time Quest launched today: The Cozy Crimes of Shady Hallows (note: there is a bug on the app where the 3 decorated versions do not show - a fix will be available in the next day or two! In the meantime, reference this pic or the web to see all badge variations)

Part of our ethos at Pagebound is reading what you want when you want, while encouraging branching out of your comfort zone. With this new setup, you're rewarded for trying even one new book in a Limited Time quest (much like a Readalong!) while also being rewarded for each subsequent read. We hope this encourages folks to try new genres and authors, and alleviates needing to pick up a book you truly do not want to read just for a badge.

Fall 2026 Readalong is live!: Head to the Discuss tab to see the picks - the readalong will run through the end of November!

Small product update in this new version: you can now post from a specific page or % in the book forums even when the book is not in "currently reading" status

We'll be back soon with more major product updates!

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy

1209

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vumaisbooked is interested in reading...

Shady Hollow

Juneau Black

The first book in the Shady Hollow series, in which we are introduced to the village of Shady Hollow, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony--until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case. Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer to Shady Hollow. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy. Vera finds more to this town than she ever suspected. It seems someone in the Hollow will do anything to keep her from solving the murder, and soon it will take all of Vera's cunning and quickness to crack the case.

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The Cozy Crimes of Shady Hollow 🌲🦊🔍

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Sponsored Limited Time Quest (Sep 1-Nov 30, 2026): Welcome to Shady Hollow! It’s a small town populated by friendly animal folks, from birds to bears, where the calm is marred only by the occasional murder.

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