Fifty Words for Rain

What up book people? So it’s May which means it’s AAPI Heritage Month. So it is only right that I highlight a book that looks at the intersectionality of being Black and being Asian. It’s Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie. Separate from the Black book of the day series, I will highlight books by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders periodically during the month of May on my IG page so make sure you follow me over there too. 

This book has several triggers so please make sure you check StoryGraph for warnings. Nori is the illegitimate daughter of a Japanese woman and a Black man that was in the military. The last words her mother says to her before sending her to live with her grandparents at 8 were “If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent…Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.” That likely set the tone for her experience in her grandparents’ house where they hide her in the attic because she is part Black. She is abused and has her skin bleached in chemical baths as they try to make her lighter. She ultimately meets her older half-brother and they create a bond.

This is a book that spans over several decades and it’s a fav of a lot of my bookstagram friends. I loved it so much that it was in the DiversaTea Reads October 2020 box.

I think you will love it.

You’re welcome.

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