<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[author results for Reid-Benta, Zalika]]></title><description><![CDATA[author results for Reid-Benta, Zalika]]></description><link>https://gateway.bibliocommons.com/v2/libraries/allendale/rss/search?query=Reid-Benta%2C%20Zalika&amp;searchType=author&amp;view=grouped</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:43:21 GMT</lastBuildDate><item><title><![CDATA[River Mumma]]></title><description><![CDATA[Issa Rae's Insecure with a magical realist spin: an exhilarating exploration of diasporic community and ancestral ties, and an homage to Jamaican storytelling by one of the most invigorating voices in today's literature.

Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won't stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store. Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity River Mumma appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb.

Alicia doesn't understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can't remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail coworker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart. She doesn't know if her childhood visions have returned, or why she feels a strange connection to her other coworker Mars. But when the trio is chased down by malevolent spirits, they realize their tenuous bonds to each other may be their only lifelines. With the clock ticking, Alicia's quest through the city broadens into a journey through time-to find herself and what the river carries.

"A love letter to culture, home, and coming of age-and will spark important, relevant book club conversations, too. What a ride! I loved every moment."-Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky]]></description><link>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C16606856</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C16606856</guid><category><![CDATA[EAUDIOBOOK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Reid-Benta, Zalika]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/16606856981</comments><format>EAUDIOBOOK</format><subtitle/><language>eng</language><image_url>https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9798892731553/MC.GIF&amp;client=lakep&amp;type=xw12&amp;oclc=</image_url></item><item><title><![CDATA[River Mumma]]></title><description><![CDATA["This quirky, fizzy, charming debut surprises and amuses. Reid-Benta writes beautifully, drawing on Caribbean mythologies to create a fast paced and entertaining tale. It's rare to find a novel written with such humour and heart." -T. L. Huchu, USA Today Bestselling author of The Library of the Dead
	Issa Rae's Insecure with a magical realist spin: River Mumma is an exhilarating contemporary fantasy novel about a young Black woman who navigates her quarter-life-crisis while embarking on a mythical quest through the streets of Toronto.
	 Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won't stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store. 
	 Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity, River Mumma, appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb. 
	 Alicia doesn't understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can't remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail co-worker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart. She doesn't know if her childhood visions have returned, or why she feels a strange connection to her other co-worker Mars. But when the trio are chased down by malevolent spirits called duppies, they realize their tenuous bonds to each other may be their only lifelines. With the clock ticking, Alicia's quest through the city broadens into a journey through time-to find herself and what the river carries. 
	 Energetic and invigorating, River Mumma is a vibrant exploration of diasporic community and ancestral ties, and a homage to Jamaican storytelling by one of the most invigorating voices in today's literature.]]></description><link>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C16485753</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C16485753</guid><category><![CDATA[EBOOK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Reid-Benta, Zalika]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/16485753981</comments><format>EBOOK</format><subtitle/><language>eng</language><image_url>https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781645661375/MC.GIF&amp;client=lakep&amp;type=xw12&amp;oclc=</image_url></item><item><title><![CDATA[Frying Plantain]]></title><description><![CDATA[Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle - of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a "true" Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother's rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too "faas" or too "quiet" or too "bold" or too "soft." Set in "Little Jamaica," Toronto's Eglinton West neighborhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig's head in her great aunt's freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother's house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents.

A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. In her brilliantly incisive debut, Zalika Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society.]]></description><link>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C12888670</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C12888670</guid><category><![CDATA[EAUDIOBOOK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Reid-Benta, Zalika]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/12888670981</comments><format>EAUDIOBOOK</format><subtitle/><language>eng</language><image_url>https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781487008178/MC.GIF&amp;client=lakep&amp;type=xw12&amp;oclc=</image_url></item><item><title><![CDATA[Frying Plantain]]></title><description><![CDATA[Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle - of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a "true" Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother's rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too "faas" or too "quiet" or too "bold" or too "soft." Set in "Little Jamaica," Toronto's Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig's head in her great aunt's freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother's house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents.

A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. In her brilliantly incisive debut, Zalika Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society.]]></description><link>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C12701365</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S981C12701365</guid><category><![CDATA[EBOOK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Reid-Benta, Zalika]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://allendale.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/12701365981</comments><format>EBOOK</format><subtitle/><language>eng</language><image_url>https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=9781487005351/MC.GIF&amp;client=lakep&amp;type=xw12&amp;oclc=</image_url></item></channel></rss>