Liara Tamani

“It’s like we’re two trees secretly sharing nutrients underground, two stars orbiting around all the things there’s no language for.”

TL;DR Loved it! A pleasant spin on the usual YA insta-love filled with family, emotions, self-esteem, and teens wondering about their futures.

Lovely! The romance played it straight with the insta-love and fate. Rex and Carli’s love was fluffy, giddy, the slightest bit corny, and light-hearted.

I was surprised that romance wasn’t the only draw show more here. There was a lot of focus on family, upbringing, and the usual growing pains of becoming a young adult. Carli has loving parents who are divorcing for a reason unbeknownst to her, whereas Rex has a hands-off, single father who spends all his time away from home as a brain surgeon. Those different family dynamics definitely affected Carli and Rex in a lot of different ways. Just seeing how both of them handled emotions and their family situations really fleshed out their characters. For one point, Rex’s mom died in childbirth with him, which adds another layer of longing in him for love.

The characters aren’t perfect, and they have a lot of emotional outbursts. Carli was relatable with trying to narrow down her career/life purpose. I, too, hated having to have an idea of what you want to seemingly do for the rest of your life. For that reason, I struggled with picking a major for college. Carli’s also good at basketball, but it’s nothing she wholeheartedly loves. She had so many different interests from art to mythology to random trivia. I liked her! She was level-headed but still playful, just trying to figure life out.

I enjoyed that Rex wasn’t the typical playboy, ball hog star player. He got emotional and desperately yearned for love. He had an ingrained habit of hiding his hurt and pain down low within himself. Obviously, those feelings burst forth at some point. Unlike most YA leads, due to his lack of parenting, he desired a stricter upbringing. I wished at some point Rex went to therapy, a school counselor, or read a book or something. He kept bottling up a lot of his feelings, and he needed someone besides Carli to unload that on. He felt like a real person, and, at times, I wanted to slap him into next week when he acted a dee-diddle-fool. BUT I always get why he behaved a certain way. I like that. I don’t have to agree with a character’s actions, but I understand them.

Cole, Carli’s brother, is a goofy, hopeful romantic who was sensitive and majorly in touch with his feelings. Carli and he get along great. I always adore seeing sibling relationships where they don’t revolve solely around fighting.

Also, I loved Carli’s mom, Barbra. I get so tired of the long-suffering wife who puts up with all her husband’s foolery, so she was such a breath of fresh air.

I enjoyed reading this immensely! The narrative voice felt crisp and authentic. The whole relationship didn't just revolve around sex though there were a bit of some sexual shenanigans. The pacing was great, and I connected with the characters. I would definitely recommend reading this even for non-romance readers or non-sports fans! There is a lot of heart in this story. One thing, at times, Rex was creepyyyyy. Like, You “Joe” creepy. Still, read this!

ending spoiler: I'm glad they broke up. it was too much drama tho the ending is certainly hopeful. show less

YA FICTION
Liara Tamani
Calling My Name
Greenwillow Books
Hardcover, 978-0-0626-5686-5, (also available as an e-book, an audiobook, and on Audible), 320 pgs., $17.99
October 24, 2017

Taja Brown is playing hooky from church in favor of a spiritual awakening. “There’s something moving inside … my body,” she tells us,” tiptoeing across the high arches of my feet, break-dancing on my kneecaps, running figure eights around my hips … skipping up my sides, and climbing up to my shoulders’ show more peaks.” Taja has awakened this morning to the miracle of autonomy—the breathtaking realization that she is a separate being from her parents and siblings—and the knowledge that God is inside her, so much sweeter than “the tasteless lessons [she] swallows in Sunday school.” We follow Taja through first bras and first periods, boys, peer pressure, ambition, loss, and the longing for “space for mystery and mistakes.”

Taja regards the future apprehensively as she witnesses the disappointments and failures of the adults around her, and the death of her great-grandmother. She tests boundaries, eyeing freedom but not quite ready to try; she’s practicing, but still needs the reassuring, safe harbor of home.

Calling My Name is finely wrought young-adult fiction by Houston’s Liara Tamani. Her debut novel about an African American girl coming-of-age in the 1980s in Texas is powerfully reminiscent of, and compares favorably with, Judy Blume’s seminal Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Random House, 1970). Calling My Name is a sensory experience, beginning with the beautifully designed jacket; tendrils of climbing roses, delicate yet strong, curl across it and throughout the pages. Tamani structures Calling My Name in instructive vignettes representative of her journey from middle school through high-school graduation.

Tamani’s writing is lyrical and tactile. A thunderstorm approaches and “a hungry growl rolls through the clouds’ dark bellies.” When Taja’s parents produce a chastity contract for her and her first boyfriend, we feel acutely her humiliation. Tamani uses a father’s job loss to illustrate the singular, selfish focus of teenagers. When Taja’s family visits great-grandmother Gigi, sick with cancer, Taja contemplates the railing on the apartment balcony, “the black paint peeling … the red rust underneath, taking over.”

Passages resonate with the frisson of recognition. “There’s something wrong with my walk when I’m alone and have to walk past a group of boys,” Taja thinks. “They’re everywhere, these stupid, ugly boys. Judging me. Making everywhere I walk feel like a runway.” The exquisite surprise at the first touch of a boy “pulsing and rising and pulsing and rising from a low, untouched place,” and the confusion at the realization that this sensation and love are not the same thing.

Religion features strongly in Taja’s life. Her parents are evangelical Christians, and Taja begins to chafe under the restrictions and to question differing standards of conduct and liberty applied to her and her older brother. God is a source of power and comfort for Taja, as is the memory of her great-grandmother Gigi, a more pagan source.

Taja’s first-person narration is a joy—sensitive, observant, smart, funny, and vulnerable. Taja’s interior voice matures in nuance as she grows from a pubescent girl into a young woman, as she discovers and attempts to sort the many diverse things of this wide world that call her name. Learning to integrate the inside and the out, she tells us, “I’m busy noticing I’m alive.”

I can’t wait to read what Tamani gifts to us next.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less

I had mixed reactions to this book. On the one hand, the writing is beautiful and poetic. It is a book filled with introspection and deeply personal thoughts, which I liked.
But it isn't a novel in any traditional sense. It doesn't tell a story. Most of the 50 odd chapters are unrelated story-wise from each other. Here and there a single thread will carry through several chapters, but only briefly.
Each chapter is one tiny snapshot into Taja Brown's life. All other characters are distant show more secondary players, as all focus is on Taja's own thoughts, personal battles, strengths, weaknesses, etc. When I finished a chapter, nothing compelled e to keep reading, to see what would happen next, because whatever story there was in that chapter (and many of the chapters are pretty much just Taja's thoughts, with no story at all) would not be picked up in the next chapter. An added difficulty is that the book covers many years of Taja's life, from sometime in middle school I gather, up to high school graduation, yet there is nothing at any point to let the reader know where in this timeline we are.
From a literary standpoint, I don't think any of that is a weakness. It just wasn't the kind of book that appeals to me as much as one with a plot, holding it all together. I suppose I'm a bit too shallow to fully appreciate this one, even though I recognize the lovely writing.
Perhaps I should say, this one of the best books I've ever read that I didn't like all that much. show less

Aye! I’m always excited for new fiction with black leads!

STORY:

“‘You can’t control everything, Taja,’ Daddy says in a soft voice, eyes closed to the sun.

‘I know, Daddy. But I can control a lot.'” (pg 227).

Calling My Name by Liara Tamani (384 pages) explores Taja Brown’s childhood to adulthood. It is something of a fictional biography of a young, African-American girl growing up in a conservative Christian background from childhood to adulthood. Of course, you can expect show more first kisses, periods, and dealings with f*boys.

I think it is a good read if you enjoy “slice-of-life/coming of age” stories. However, the writing is so flowery that I get confused often.

I can emphasize with Taja’s upbringing as I have grown up in a Christian home as well though my parents weren’t overbearing with our faith.

Still, unfortunately, the narrative of an ultra-conservative character usually isn’t that fun.

One of my favorite parts is when Taja feels guilty for reminding her father about a promised birthday present. That is a really relatable moment when you first feel “child guilt” because you know your parents don’t have the money but you want something.

Also, I realized mid-way through the story that this is set somewhere between 80’s-90’s. Some of the references are dated like them listening to Johnny Gill. Chile, who out here listening to JG?

Okay, okay... I'm one of those people. XD

A few days ago I was just listening to Johnny Gill's old Arsenio Hall performances. (yes, I know the gif is from Soul Train).

CHARACTERS:
Not too many characters were memorable. I enjoyed the glimpses we saw of Taja's family and would have liked a bit more beyond her mother always disciplining her.

Taja is cool, but she is very whiny and a bit annoying in her narrative.

Naima, Taja's younger sister, is a character that I wished we could have seen more of. Unlike Taja, she's more sure of herself. Taja and Naima's sister relationship is barely displayed save for a few conversations in their older years.

Damon, the older brother, was okay. I like how he tried to overcompensate for his thinning headline at 15.

OVERALL:
This isn't a book I would necessarily read again, but it is nice experiencing Taja's adolescence with her. show less