Waiting on Wednesday

(First paragraph from wishfuledings.com blog)

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here, at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you're continuing with WOW, feel free to link those up as well! Find out more here.

I already have a possibly long list of books I want to read, but here are the two I hope to read soon. One is a tale that I imagine everyone has either heard about or have even reviewed and read as well. On Goodreads, I would describe this particular book as a powerhouse, because it may have over 500 ratings, but the average rating is 4.71 stars! And that is before its debut of January 2020! (Something that is rare with even the best of books.) The book I am talking about is titled American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

Another book I am looking forward to reading is also a powerhouse, but this one deals a lot with illicit relationships and the line between permission and coercion. Until I actually got a copy of the book, I actually hadn't heard of it, although I admit that it sounds intriguing as well. On Goodreads, as I am typing, it has over 700 ratings, and average is 4.49 stars! And it is destined to come out in March of 2020. This book is My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins 

Pub date: January 21st, 2020

(From Goodreads:) Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic," American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.

Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with four books he would like to buy--two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a page-turner; it is a literary achievement; it is filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our times.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

(From Goodreads:) Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.

So one deals with illegal immigration as well as a mother/son relationship, while another deals with the issue of consent during the age of youth. Sign me up please! 

What do you think guys? Anyone planning on reading either one of those?