Tag: historical fiction

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June 2025 Books

Books Reread

George Allen & Unwin

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien*
What a nice comfort book to read in these trying times. When Frodo’s uncle leaves him an enchanted ring, Frodo is pulled into a struggle to save middle earth. Peter Jackson’s movie is excellent and that is in part because he had great source material. A classic. It was nice to visit Tom Bombadil again too.
4/5 barrow-wights

New Books Read

The Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao***
Iron Widow book 2
CW: see content warning from the author at the beginning of the book
I won’t do a little summary of this book, because I don’t want to spoil the first book. This book was good, but I wouldn’t say I really enjoyed it. The first book was fun. I loved how Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi interacted with one another and how they took on the establishment. In this book they almost don’t interact at all, which I found disappointing. I liked the examination of Laborism and the continued themes of feminism, especially how Zetian is learning her own shortcomings as a feminist. But the first half of the book dragged a bit. Still fascinated by the world. I’ll probably still read the next book.
3.5/5 suits of spirit armor

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang***
Gods Beyond the Skies book 1
I love when authors thank each other in their acknowledgements. It was a coincidence that I happened to pick this book and Heavenly Tyrant up at the library at the same time, but I loved seeing both authors thank each other in the acknowledgements. Ruying has the power to pull the life force from someone’s body, but she is one of a conquered people. When a conquering prince discovers her power, Ruying is forced to become his personal assassin to save her family. But the prince is charismatic. He seems to want peace and unity between their people as much as she does. As Ruying is drawn in by his promise of peace, she must learn to trust herself to do the right thing for her people. I enjoyed this. I liked seeing Ruying’s character develop throughout the book.
3.5/5 blessings from Death

Tor Nightfire

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle***
**Book Hangover Alert
This one was fun. Screenwriter Misha made it in Hollywood by writing queer horror movies, but then the studio tells him he has to kill off his gay leads right at the culmination of their relationship. Despite being closeted in his hometown in Montana, Misha is ready to stand for his principles until he starts being menaced by monsters from his own movies. Are these crazy stalker fans or something more sinister? I really enjoyed this. Great tension building. Important themes about technology and art and capitalism (spoiler: this book is anti-AI) that I was left thinking about long after the story ended. My one critique is that I hated the dialogue tags. This is probably just a personal quibble.
4/5 horror monsters

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: ableism, Nazis, racism
Stiefvater’s adult debut is a sparkling historical fiction with elements of magical realism. After Pearl Harbor, the US government requisitions several luxury hotels to house Axis diplomats and foreign nationals in the hopes that if the diplomats are well treated, the American diplomats in Germany will be as well until a prisoner swap can be arranged. Hotel general manager June must figure out how to host the enemy, keep her staff under control, and balance the mineral water springs that flow beneath the hotel which return the same energy they are given. I can’t say enough good things about this book. I don’t feel like I explained it very well, but just trust me, you should read it. Gorgeous prose as always. Interesting and compelling characters. Magical and ethereal setting that fills you with longing. I adored it. I also loved seeing the themes of disability in this book, especially a consideration of the way Nazis were persecuting disabled people, which I think often isn’t talked about enough. My only caveat about this book is that you should not read about a luxury hotel while staying at a budget hotel. Lends itself to too much comparison.
5/5 dachshunds

Indiana University Press

Earth Before the Dinosaurs by Sébastien Steyer
A book I read for research. This book has gorgeous illustrations. It went a little more in depth on evolutionary history than I needed it to. I really just wanted to know what kind of animals were alive in the Carboniferous and Permian periods.
3/5 dimetrodons

Camp by L.C. Rosen
This was a very fun, easy read. Randy has been coming to queer camp as a theater kid for several years now, but this year he has a plan to catch the eye of butch gay boy Hudson who has never so much as looked at him. All he has to do is give up theater, his friends, his style, and everything he loves about camp. But when Hudson looks at him in his new masculine clothes, it’s all worth it. Or is it? I enjoyed this. I read it very fast. I did think maybe there was some trauma that didn’t really get fully addressed and it did seem like there was kind of a lot of sex for a YA book. I try not to be a prude (and I am and 100% against banning books), but I do think sexual content in YA books should be approached differently than in an adult book.
3.5/5 painted nails

Books I didn’t finish

University of Chicago Press

Time Travelers: Victorian Encounters with Time and History edited by Adelene Buckland and Sadiah Qureshi
This book was just a little more niche than I needed it to be. I read it as research for a novel I’m thinking about, but a few of the essays were more academic and focused than I wanted. I read the essays that interested me and skimmed the rest.

*This book only includes straight white cis people. 

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Heavenly Tyrant to learn about Laborism, overthrowing fascist regimes, and the subjugation of women in many different government systems. Read To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods for a fantasy inspired by the true events in Manchuria during WWII under Russian and Japanese subjugation. Read Bury Your Gays for queer rep in horror (with a happy ending!) and a critique of AI and the commodification of art. Read The Listeners to learn more about the Nazis and disability. I’m not marking Camp as a Book for a Social Conscience, not because it doesn’t have good representation, or because you shouldn’t read it, but just simply because I don’t think it will make you a better person if you read it. Which again doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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May 2025 Books

Books Reread

Scholastic

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater*
**Book Hangover Alert
One of Stiefvater’s more underrated books I think. Like the Chincoteague pony swim, except the horses are cursed, carnivorous monsters. Every November the flesh eating water horses come out of the ocean and any man brave enough can capture, train, and race one in the Scorpio Races. But this year Puck Connolly, the first girl to enter is racing, and she has everything to lose. I love the characters and, as always, I love Stiefvater’s prose.
4/5 flesh-eating horses

Penguin Teen

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao***
See content warnings from the author at the beginning of the book.
Reread this one because the sequel is FINALLY out! When her sister is killed by a celebrity pilot, Zeitan joins the army–which sacrifices girls to power crafts that can fight alien invaders–not to sacrifice herself but to seek vengeance for her sister. I listened to the audiobook this time, and really enjoyed the narrator’s performance. She was a perfect choice for Zeitan. You can read my original review here. I gave this book a 4 last time I reviewed it, but I think that’s a little low.
4.5/5 heroic forms

New Books Read

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick*
This book was super fascinating. It traced the early discoveries of ancient creatures in the early 1800s, the people at the forefront of these discoveries, and the way Victorian thought had to shift to make room for new ideas about how old the earth is and what kinds of creatures lived here before us. This is a very readable popular science book.
4/5 fossils

Titan Books

The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth***
The Undetectables book 1 of 3
This one was so fun. When three lesbian teenage witches formed the Undetectables detective agency, no one would take them seriously. But several years later, when they get the chance to investigate a real case, they can’t pass up the chance, even as the occult serial killer gets ever more dangerous. I loved the humor and the characters. I also loved the representation of a character with EDS. It’s so nice to see a protagonist with a chronic illness and see how it actually affects her life and the kinds of accommodations and work arounds she finds. I also loved that we got to see her grappling with the way her perception of herself and the way she perceives how her friends think about her since becoming disabled. I think it was written in a really relatable way.
4.5/5 ghosts with cat ears

Babylonia by Constanza Casati
CW: slavery, war, gore
A sweeping historical fiction about the only known female ruler of the Assyrian Empire. This one was really cool. I didn’t know much about Assyrian Empire before reading this. I liked the world, the plot, and the characters, though the prose was a little snoozy at times.
3.5/5 leopards (how come the leopard never got a name??)

Doubleday

All that Remains by Sue Black
A nonfiction book by a forensic anthropologist sharing fascinating tidbits from her long career. Black does a good job balancing science and story, as well as the somewhat voyeuristic interest many of us have with the dead with the utmost respect for human remains.
3.5/5 bones

Tor Teen

Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth***
I binged this in a day. A retelling of Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Knight. Student vice president Viola Reyes and student president and star running back Jack “Duke” Orsino can’t stand each other. But when Duke is injured in a game, he finds solace playing online role-playing game Twelfth Knight where he meets veteran player Cesario. But Cesario is actually Viola’s online alter-ego, the male persona allowing her a safer space in the gaming community. Can these two resolve their differences and learn that neither of them is who the other thought? This was really fun. My only critique would be that it maybe could have been a little more queer (it was a little queer, but come on, it’s Shakespeare).
4/5 cosplays

Liveright

Impossible Monsters by Michael Taylor*
This one was a lot like Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, though more in depth, more academic, and more focused on the interaction of science and religion through the 19th century. The tension between science and religion came from the shift from the study of science as a way to appreciate God’s creation to the discoveries in science refuting religious beliefs. It was super fascinating.
3.5/5 species

Books I did not finish

Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith
This is an absurd YA dystopian book. I think I could have really enjoyed this, but it was too long and too repetitive and the humor got really old really fast. I think the concept was interesting and the social critique was probably cool, though I didn’t finish it, so I can’t really analyze it.
1/5 weird androids

*This book only includes straight white cis people. 

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Iron Widow for a Chinese-inspired fantasy about a girl discovering her feminism. Read The Undetectables for queer and disabled rep in paranormal mystery. Read Twelfth Knight to learn more about women and people of color in the gaming community.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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April 2025 Books

New Books Read

The Home for Wayward Girls by Marcia Bradley*
CW: child abuse, trauma
We had to read this for the MFA graduation residency. It was. Not great. Loretta grew up on a ranch where parents sent their troubled daughters. But the Home’s prerogative is not rehabilitation and Loretta suffers from her abusive parents just like the girls sent to the home. Characters were very flat. The protagonist came off as a Mary Jane. Once she escapes the Home, everyone is always telling her how special she is and it came off really unbelievable. I understand the impulse to make it clear to readers that even someone who has been through something terrible can have a happy ending, but the way it was done here seemed like it minimized her trauma and the trauma of others who have been through these kinds of institutions. Made it feel trite. Also the nonlinear structure killed the tension because we knew from the start that Loretta was going to escape the Home and be happy and successful. 
2.5/5 buttons

The Dragon’s Promise by Elizabeth Lim
I don’t think I enjoyed this quite as much as the first one, but it was still good. Shiori must fulfill the promise she made to her stepmother and return to dragon pearl to its rightful owner, along the way reckoning with dragons, demons, and magic hating citizens. I love the characters and the fantasy world. Shiori is such a good character (and so are Kiki and Seryu), and Lim does a good job of characterizing all her brothers even though there are 6 of them. 
4/5 dragon pearls

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell
A nonfiction book all about people whose professions revolve around death. Funeral directors, embalmers, executioners, large scale disaster managers, crime scene cleaners, cryonics caretakers, death midwives the people who take your body when you donate it to science. It was fascinating and Campbell writes with inquisitive compassion as she puzzles out her own obsession with death. Did make me wonder if I should include more of the gross, gritty details of bodies that I mostly left out of my novel.
4.5/5 donated bodies

Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis
**Book Hangover Alert
Loved this. A sapphic historical fiction about two sisters running a scam as mediums. I liked the use of multiple perspectives to show us the unreliableness of our narrators. I know why the timeline was organized like all of Sylvie’s chapters up to the reveal, then Charlotte’s chapters rewind to the beginning, take us through the events of Sylvie’s chapters, and then go to the end. That’s how she preserved the big reveal at the end of Sylvie’s section, but then when we switched to Charlotte and had to rewind I was like WAIT but what happens NEXT?? It was still really good though. 
4.5/5 toads

Hank’s Big Day: The Story of a Bug by Evan Kuhlman
We read this as our story time book at the museum this month. A very cute story of a roly-poly’s day out with his friend Amelia.
3/5 roly-polies

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: grief; (The author does include content warnings at the beginning of the book)
I ADORED this. Like A Man Called Ove meets The House on the Cerulean Sea. Cursed with immortality and the ability to see ghosts, Peter finds ghosts and sends them on their way, wandering from place to place, unable to return home. But when a tricky ghost keeps him in town longer than expected, Peter finds himself growing closer to the residents than he has to anyone in centuries. I loved the characters and the found family and the plants and the ghosts. Cool magic system and ghost rules. Just loved the cozy vibes. 
5/5 minty ghosts

(the book photography gradually gets less and less inspired)

Ocean’s Godori by Elaine U. Cho***
**Book Hangover Alert
The Alliance book 1 of 2
This was so fun. A disgraced pilot trying to find her place in the universe must help her best friend, heir to a controversial tech empire, when he’s framed for the murder of his family. She and her misfit crew set off on this epic space opera. It did have the learning curve of other sci-fi where they throw you in and you have to figure out what words mean and there are a bunch of characters and you’re like what is going on for the first little bit. But not nearly as frustrating as like Dune! I loved all the characters and I’m super interested in the conspiracy (it’s the first in a series which I forgot as I neared the end with mounting anxiety that we wouldn’t wrap everything up. We didn’t). 
4.5/5 vultures

The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez***
**Book Hangover Alert
An author retires to a barrio in the Dominican Republic where she builds a cemetery to bury all the notes from stories she didn’t write. Those untold stories weave together with her own story and the story of the woman she hires to care for the cemetery. A quiet, lit-fic book that asked a lot of really interesting questions about storytelling and who gets to tell stories and what happens to stories that aren’t told and the line between truth and fiction. Nice use of omniscient POV and weaving together of so many different people and stories. I liked that she didn’t tone down the Spanish for an English speaking audience. I liked working for it a bit. 
4/5 sculptures

Bear by Julia Phillips*
I read this because bears are my favorite animal, but it wasn’t really about bears. It was about more sad adults. It wasn’t bad, I just didn’t like it. Sam is waiting for the day she and her sister can leave their home and dead end jobs on San Juan Island. But when a bear appears on the island, Sam’s sister realizes she may not want to leave. The prose was good, the characters were complex, the plot had an air of inevitability about it. But the moral of the story was “you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.” And (spoiler) the bear dies. Very sad. 
3/5 bears

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson*
**Book Hangover Alert
Mistborn book 1 of 7
This was really good. In an ash-filled wasteland ruled by the immortal and divine Lord Ruler, rebellions never work. But a rag tag crew is forming to challenge the Lord Ruler and the nobility and it might just be one street urchin with a power she hardly understands that will be the key to overthrowing the Empire once and for all. It might be a bit on the long side with a bit of a slow start but the last quarter of the book was action packed. This is only my second Sanderson book but I can already tell he always comes up with really interesting, innovative magic systems. He also did a good job explaining the magic system in bits and pieces so I wasn’t overwhelmed with information and I felt like I was figuring it out as the characters used and learned about it. Could have probably had at least one more important female character. This is a high fantasy book that had the right amount of romance for me. 
4.5/5 metals

Yimby: Yes! In My Back Yard! by Sheryl Recinos***
Full disclosure, someone in my MFA program wrote this book, so I’m a bit biased. A response to the “Not in my backyard” anti-homelessness and immigration slogan, this children’s book welcomes all people and advocates for housing for all. It has gorgeous illustrations and an important message.
4/5 advocates

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
**Book Hangover Alert
Thursday Murder Club Mysteries book 1 of 5
I loved this. At a retirement home outside of London, some of the residents solve old cold cases for fun, but when the builder for an expansion of the property is murdered, they suddenly have a real case to solve. This was just so darling. So fun, so British. I liked the multi-POV and the way Joyce’s journals were incorporated. Super excited about the film they’re making too.
4.5/5 mysterious photographs

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green***
**Book Hangover Alert
Everyone should be required to read this book. Green writes so beautifully and informatively about the history, present, and potential futures of tuberculosis. I felt the same kind of frustrated longing reading this book as I did Braiding Sweetgrass–that we as humans could choose a better, kinder path, and we keep choosing not to. Capitalism sucks.
5/5 treatments

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline***
CW: sexual assault, drug use
Winnie and her father live in and care for the cemetery, but low revenue might force them to leave. When ghost tours reignite interest in the cemetery, Winnie thinks this might be the way to save the cemetery, but when a real ghost shows up, she has to decide whether to save her home or her new friend. I liked the depictions of OCD and the LGBTQIA+ and Native representation. It did feel like there wasn’t very much urgency in the main plot, and we were more worried about getting the ghost’s backstory, but I still enjoyed it.
3.5/5 ghosts

Books I did not finish

This year the only goal I set for myself was not to finish any books I wasn’t enjoying. I’ve already failed this goal several times this year, but I’m trying to do better. There are so many books I want to read. I don’t want to waste time reading books I don’t like.

Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr*
Bernie Gunther series
This was boring. I didn’t feel invested enough in the mystery to keep reading. It was a bit of a tits and ass book, but I could have gotten over that if I was invested in the mystery.

The Basic Kafka by Franz Kafka*
I’ve read The Metamorphosis and I really like that story, but I wasn’t really into any of the other stories in this collection. “The Judgement” was pretty good, but I just wasn’t into these enough to keep reading. Plus I think I’ve already seen the best lines from Kafka’s journals and letters on Tumblr.

*This book only includes straight white cis people. I’ve heard Brandon Sanderson has started to write more diverse casts in his more recent books.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Keeper of Lonely Spirits for some mature LGBTQIA+ romance. Read Ocean’s Godori for a Korean inspired space opera with LGBTQIA+ rep. Read The Cemetery of Untold Stories for Dominican rep and history. Read Yimby: YesI In My Back Yard! for compassion and social justice. Read Everything is Tuberculosis if you care about the future of humanity. Read Funeral Songs for Dying Girls for mental health, LGBTQIA+, and Native rep.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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March 2025 Books

New Books Read

Disney Hyperion

Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
Trying to earn the rest of his college recommendation letters, Percy takes on perhaps his most dangerous quest yet: pet sitting for Hecate. Still enjoying these. Sad that I’m now caught up and have to wait for the next one. 
3.75/5 hellhounds

Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon
Super fascinating biography of one of the most interesting and skilled Renaissance painters, Caravaggio. Graham-Dixon does a good job of blending art historical analysis with biographical information, evaluating the various sources we have about Caravaggio’s life. My only complaint is not a fair one; I appreciated Graham-Dixon’s commitment to only verifiable facts supported by documents, but I would have liked to hear the salacious rumors and conspiracy theories too.
3.5/5 duels

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: slavery
This was really good. An expert in octopus behavior gets the opportunity to study octopuses on a remote island where strange happenings have given the island a reputation for being haunted by some kind of monster. The scientist discovers the octopuses have their own language and culture and must figure out how to communicate with them raising questions of what it means to be human. I loved the multi-POV (a shocker, I know) and the way the storylines built into one another, giving us little nuggets of information together with the quotes from fictional books written by two of the characters before each chapter. The quotes and timelines all build his themes of intelligence, communication, isolation, humanity, memory, and sustainability. The only thing I thought was not great was the dialogue. I know it’s hard to have expert scientists talking and make it so the reader (who is not an expert in octopus behavior, AI, or human communication) understands what’s going on. But there were places where the dialogue felt unbelievable because I was like that character doesn’t need that explained to them. I do, but they don’t, so why would you say that? Also, why was this the title? I think they could have done better on the title.
4.5/5 octopuses

New York Review of Books

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin***
I read this because I needed a translated novel for my StoryGraph challenge and this book said it was an LGBTQIA+ cult classic. A queer coming-of-age set in 1980s Taipei. I did not like it. It was about sad adults in bad relationships, which is my least favorite genre of adult novel. I liked the parts about Lazi’s friendships and the parts about the crocodile, but thought all the parts about Lazi’s romance were awful. Maybe it was the postmodern structure. I tend not to like postmodern novels.
3/5 crocodiles

The Morningside by Téa Obreht*
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: war, genocide (implied), war crimes
I loved Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife so I was excited about this one. In a not-so-distant future, refugees Silvia and her mother come to live at the Morningside, a once-luxury apartment building in a city slowly being swallowed by rising seas caused by climate change. Silvia doesn’t know much about the Old Country’s history or why they’ve been running for so long. Her aunt Ena, the super at the Morningside is the only person who will talk about it, sharing impossible stories from their homeland which transform the way Silvia sees her world, bringing magic and folklore into their very building. (That blurb was hard to write and didn’t nearly do justice to this book.) I loved the way it blended folklore and magical realism. I love her prose.
4.5/5 black dogs

The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag***
A sweet LGBTQ+ graphic novel. When Morgan meets a selkie who says they’re destined to be together, Morgan must confront her homosexuality and learn to stand up for herself and what she believes in. Lovely art and a super cute story.
3.5/5 selkies

Outlawed by Anna North***
**Book Hangover Alert
This was so good. Like The Handmaid’s Tale if the handmaids became outlaws in an alternative history Wild West. Driven from her home for being barren, Ada joins the Hole in the Wall Gang of other misfit and outcast women led by the charismatic Kid. Ada dreams of helping other women like herself and the Kid promises to help with this dream, if the gang can pull off the heist of the century. This book was so unique and so salient.
4/5 outlaws

Red Tower Books

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros*
The Empyrean book 1 of 5 (?)
I wasn’t crazy about this. After training her whole life to be a scribe, Violet must enter the Riders’ Quadrant where only the strongest survive. Violet must figure out how to survive the cutthroat military college, which involves bonding with a dragon. For me, this book would have been better without the romance. Now, I know that’s what drew many people to this book, so if that’s what does it for you, that’s great. But for me Violet’s mooning over Xaden was frankly annoying and got in the way of all the far more interesting things that were happening at the school. Clearly there was more going on with the war than the cadets were being told. There was more going on with the rebellion from 5 years ago than is taught in history classes. There was something really important about that folklore book Violet’s dad gave her before his death. And Violet wasn’t paying attention to any of those things! For supposedly being super smart, she seemed slow on the uptake to me. The story also felt very predictable. I kept seeing things about readers being surprised by twists in this book, but I was like what twists? Yarros’s language is also very repetitive, which is especially noticeable in the audiobook. I counted 11 “my chest tightens” (and one “my chest tightening”). There were also 11 “his jaw flexes.” And that doesn’t include all the other slight variations of those phrases (“my chest squeezes tighter,” “my chest draws tight,” “his jaw works,” etc.) Not to mention how much Violet’s shoulders dipped and scalp tingled. There were a few characters I liked (and Andarna, of course) but not enough to read the rest of the books. Also I just have to note the audiobook narrator for Xaden. What in the Matthew McConaughey frat boy was that voice?? So I don’t know if the last chapter didn’t land for me because it was bad or because of the narrator. I would have been interested in Xaden’s perspective earlier in the novel because he actually had shit going on, but I think in that final scene it actually would have made more sense to be in Violet’s head for reasons I won’t say because spoilers.
2.75/5 dragons

Counterfeit by Kristin Chen
Such a fun unreliable narrator! Ava is dealing with a rocky marriage and a difficult two year old when Winnie, an old roommate from college, reappears in her life. Before she knows it, Ava’s been pulled into Winnie’s counterfeit handbag scheme, which seems like very little risk for high rewards. What could go wrong? This one was so fun. So readable, such good characters. Because the narration is Ava talking to a police detective, the dialogue seems summarized and like telling the action when it really is showing. I got used to this eventually, and I can see why the author did it this way, but at the beginning it kind of bothered me.
3.5/5 Birkin bags

Homebody by Theo Parish***
A lovely graphic memoir about Parish’s journey to discover their nonbinary identity. I love the graphic medium for memoirs. I really enjoyed this one. Very sweet, inspiring, and likely just what some young person needs.
3.5/5 homes

William Morrow

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo***
In colonial Malaysia, Li Lan the daughter of a respectable Chinese family looks forward to her marriage to a handsome, kind young man from the Lim family. But when the heir to Lim family dies under suspicious circumstances, the Lims suggest Li Lan become a ghost bride for the dead heir. His spirit plagues her in dreams and she must journey to the Plains of the Dead to unravel the mystery and gain back her freedom. This was so cool! I listened to this right after Fourth Wing and it was hard not to compare them. Choo’s prose is so lovely and evocative, and not a bit of this story was predictable. I loved learning more about ghost marriages and funeral practices in this time and place.
4/5 horses for the dead

Icarus by K. Ancrum***
**Book Hangover Alert
I loved this. I almost cried on a plane reading it. Icarus has been helping his father steal and replace all the art in Mr. Black’s house with forgeries for years. But when he’s caught by Helios, Mr. Black’s son, Icarus must reevaluate what’s important: money and his father’s ancient vendetta or friendships and the childhood he’s missed. I have to say it again: I loved this. Gorgeous, spare prose. Unputdownable. I loved Icarus and all of his friends, and I loved Helios. Such a cool take on the myth.
5/5 art heists

IYKYK *sobs*

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins***
**Book Hangover Alert
Hunger Games prequel
CW: death of children, corrupt governments
Poor Suzanne Collins out here screaming into the void for people to wake up and notice that their government is corrupt and the power is held by those who control the narrative. In this prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, we see the 50th annual Hunger Games and 2nd Quarter Quell, in which Haymitch Abernathy was reaped. It was very, very good. Very sad, obviously, but very good. I still love that reading Collins’s prose doesn’t even feel like reading at all.
5/5 mutts

*This book only includes straight white cis people. The Morningside is all just straight white cis people as far as we know, but also there’s no romance and it’s in an invented country. Gives eastern European vibes. Fourth Wing technically does have one nonbinary person and I think several gay or bi people, but all of the mains are straight, white, and cis.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Mountain and the Sea for a meditation on humanity, sustainability, AI, and communication. Read Notes of a Crocodile (if you want to, I guess) for a cult LGBTQIA+ classic and view of what it was like to be gay in Taipei in the 80s. Read The Girl from the Sea for a sweet fantasy coming out story. Read Outlawed for feminism and LGBTQIA+ rep in an alternate Wild West. Read Homebody for a nonbinary memoir. Read The Ghost Bride for a Chinese inspired fantasy. Read Icarus for a queer coming of age. Read Sunrise on the Reaping to understand propaganda and authoritarian governments.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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February 2025 Books

Books Reread

Scholastic

Holes by Louis Sachar
**Book Hangover Alert
Felt compelled to read this again the other night so I did. A great book to binge. I just think this book is perfect. And the movie is also perfect. I love the way the storylines all interlock and come together. After being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile correctional facility where he digs holes all day in the hot sun. The book explores the fates of Stanley’s ancestors and the local history which all converge on Stanley and what he may or may not find buried in the dry lakebed.
5/5 yellow spotted lizards

New Books Read

Henry Holt

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells*
The narrator attends a dinner party where the hosts claims to have invented a time machine. He relates his adventures in the far future and his guests are unsure what to believe. I read this as research for a project I’m thinking about. I just wanted to see how Wells approached the time travel aspect of the novel and the frame narrative. Those things were both interesting. I wasn’t that interested in Wells’s future world and future people. I couldn’t figure out if it was racist or it was a critique of racism.
3/5 crystals

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton*
Love’s Academic book 1 of 2
So silly and fun. A Victorian historical fiction, this one also a lite fantasy and a romance. The Ornithological Society puts on a competition to catch a rare bird and win Birder of the Year (and also tenure!). Beth Pickering is determined to win, but handsome, roughish Devon Lockley keeps getting in the way, and there’s something more going on–a conspiracy, a rigged contest, dangerous magical birds threatening the public–and only Beth and Devon, working together can figure out what’s going on. The focus was on the romance and the humor which both worked beautifully. I would have liked a little more world building. The dangerous magical birds were fun, but I was curious if there were other magical animals? How prevalent magical bird attacks are for the general population? If it’s possible for humans to use magic in this world? I also was kind of expecting there to be some real bird facts, but no, just bird puns lol.
4/5 magical birds

Tor.com

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo***
The Singing Hills Cycle book 1 of 6
A nice little fantasy story. The structure was kind of interesting and used artifact type things at the beginning of each chapter to unite the present day storyline of a scribe who is hearing and recording the life of an older woman who had worked for the empress. I do really enjoy Vo’s prose.
3/5 magical birds (a theme this month?)

Counterpoint Press

The Crime Without a Name: Combatting Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in America by Barrett Holmes Pitner***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: fascism, genocide, ethnocide, racism
Fascinating. A linguistic and philosophical examination of the United States’s particular brand of fascism and racism. Holmes Pitner argues that we do not have the language to describe our own history and traumas and therefore cannot fully understand, process, or move forward from them. He proposes the word ethnocide to describe when a people’s culture is destroyed, but the people themselves are not (think Native American boarding schools or the Trans-Atlantic slave trade). Holmes Pitner does a good job of breaking down his argument and explaining it very clearly. He also has some interesting ideas about how to build culture in a non-exploitative way. Should be required reading for everyone. My only qualm was that it was published in 2021, when Holmes Pitner clearly had some hope about moving past Trump with Biden’s presidency, so reading it now in the year 2025 is somewhat disheartening.
4/5 ofrendas

Bloomsbury Publishing

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas*
CW: torture, slavery, fantasy racism
Crescent City book 3 of 3 (?)
I did not love this one. I think Maas’s style is a bit repetitive, though clear and easy to read. (I counted 3 “the column of her throat”s in this book, one “the column of her spine.” Wasn’t counting “his/her mouth kicked up at the corner” but I should’ve been.) This is the third book in the Crescent City series and to me it felt like the last, though my roommate thinks there will be more. I don’t need more. I liked the first one, which was kind of a murder mystery (so on brand for me). And I remember thinking the second was pretty good too. But I wasn’t crazy about this one. It was too long, for one thing. Maas has a lot of characters and POVs, which is something I like doing myself, but I don’t feel like her characters are different enough from each other. All the women seem the same and all the men seem the same. I also thought the world building was a little shaky. I like the idea of the fantasy creatures and magic in a technological city where people are using phones and cars, but I don’t think the development of technology makes sense. I would assume humans invented it because they can’t use magic, but the technology is all powered by magic, so that doesn’t make sense and it isn’t explained (unless I forgot from an earlier book??). There’s also kind of a weird blending of Christian and Norse mythology that just feels kinda haphazard. And finally, it’s a white savior narrative (or a “save the poor, ugly, powerless, downtrodden humans who can’t save themselves narrative” even though absolutely none of the main characters are human). 
2.5/5 shifters

Disney Hyperion

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
**Book Hangover Alert
Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 6 of 8
Still delightful. In his senior year of high school, Percy must get three letters of recommendation for college by completing quests for the Gods. When Ganymede’s chalice goes missing, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover must track it down. Lower stakes than most of the other books in the PJ universe, but still clear stakes and motivations. Nice to see the way Riordan keeps developing characters we all know and love so well, and lovely to see the gang back together.
4/5 cups

The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec***
**Book Hanover Alert
CW: slavery, death, child abuse
Ugh. This was so excellent I don’t know what to do with myself. After an ominous prophesy ties together the fates of three girls in circa 900 Norway, Gunnhild runs away from her abusive mother with the seeress who made the prophesy in order to become a witch too. Ten years later, the farm of her two friends is attacked by witches and one of them abducted. Gunnhild swears to help Oddny find her sister and the two women must join the hird of the future king of Norway I don’t feel like I did a good job with that summary, but please believe me that it’s really good and you should read it. Really nice prose. Great world building and immersion in the narrative. Compelling characters. And I did read this right after House of Flame and Shadow and I was thinking a lot about the place of smut and sex scenes in novels and I wasn’t crazy about any of the smut in HOFAS. I didn’t think it was particularly arousing or narratively satisfying. There is only one real sex scene in The Weaver and the Witch Queen and it’s not at all explicit, but I found it SO much more effective. It was subtle but still arousing as we’d been building up to this moment for half the book with the tension between these characters. It was just really well done.
5/5 sparrows

Delacorte Press

Small Steps by Louis Sachar
Holes book 2 of 2
Can’t compete with the masterpiece that is Holes, unfortunately. Taking place after Camp Green Lake, the story follows Armpit as he tries to get back on his feet after his stint in the juvenile justice system, taking small steps toward a better future. His plans for a quiet life are threatened by a ticket scalping scheme run by X-Ray, another former Camp Green Laker. I did enjoy this, although the sense of impending doom was almost enough to make me stop reading. I really just wanted Armpit to be happy and safe after all he’s already been through. I would also have appreciated seeing X-Ray’s perspective which we don’t get in the novel. I feel like I would have had more empathy for him if we’d gotten to be in his head sometimes. But as it was written, I just felt like X-Ray was dragging Armpit down.
3.5/5 counterfeit tickets

Tor Books

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson*
This was so fun. I’ve been meaning to read something by Sanderson for forever (can I call myself a fantasy fan if I haven’t read anything by him??), so I asked a friend where I should start. She said Mistborn or Tress. I put Mistborn on hold at the library, but this one was available, so I ended up reading this one first. Tress is an ordinary girl on an ordinary island, but when the boy she loves is captured by the Sorceress, she must leave the Rock and sail the spore sea with pirates to bring him back. I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed the world and the concept of the spores. I loved the narrative voice of the story which was very funny and a unique way of telling the story (from a side character in this story, though a character that appears in Sanderson’s other works, I gather). The story was a pretty simple fairy tale but done in a refreshing way.
4/5 spores

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier***
CW: animal death, slavery, parental death
A really nice fantasy inspired by Pacific Islander mythology and culture. A seadragon egg can provide a wish, but at what cost? Hanalei is exiled from her island after her father steals an egg to save her life, at the cost of the princess’s. But the princess’s son is still looking for another egg to save his mother and Hanalei may be the only one who can help him. I really enjoyed this. My only beef with it was that spiders don’t blink. They don’t have eyelids. The author says twice that the spider character blinks. Which is a dumb tiny thing to be annoyed by. Also, fair warning, one of the animal companions died, and I was mad about it.
3.5/5 fruit bats

Peachtree Teen

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White***
CW: gore, body horror, religious trauma, death, dysphoria, transphobia, homophobia, genocide
I don’t know, this book was kind of a bummer. Not that it wasn’t good and maybe necessary for some people. But it did not improve my mental state to read it. In a near-future post-apocalypse, religious fanatics have spread a plague to nonbelievers, decimating the planet. Benji, a transman and carrier of the final weapon of the religious fanatics escapes the colony in a search for freedom. He finds a community of queer kids resisting the Evangelicals but there’s only one way for them to truly be free. It was incandescently angry (justifiably so). It did have too much gore for me, and I also think I would have got more out of it if I had some religious trauma or even any religious background. Somebody needs this book but it isn’t me.
3/5 monsters

*This book only includes straight white cis people. The Time Machine was written in 1895 so we’re not surprised. The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love is just a historical romance with no representation (I guess there was one gay kiss). Yes, I know House of Flame and Shadow has a couple of gay characters and a couple characters that are not white. But none of the main couples are gay or not white. None of the smut is gay or diverse. Tress of the Emerald Sea might have included a few nonwhite, characters, I don’t really remember any of the descriptions. Everyone was straight and cis as far as we know.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Empress of Salt and Fortune for LGBTQIA+ rep and Asian inspired fantasy. Read The Crime Without a Name to learn about fascism and racism in America. Read The Weaver and the Witch Queen for LGBTQIA+ rep in Viking historical fiction. Read Dragonfruit for a Pacific Islander inspired fantasy. Read Hell Followed with Us for LGBTQIA+ rep.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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January 2025 Books

Books Reread

Disney Hyperion

The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro***
CW: trauma
Still on my reread every Percy Jackson book kick. Nico and Will must journey to Tartarus to save an old friend. You can read my original review of this book here. I think I liked this one a little more on my second read. I was just reminded about the troglodytes because I’ve read the Trials of Apollo books recently. The first time I read this book I hadn’t read those recently and I did not remember who they were. So having that context was nice.
4/5 stories for Gorgira

HarperCollins

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, sex trafficking, rape, sexual harassment, racism, domestic violence, alcoholism
Still excellent. I don’t have much more to say about this than what I said in my first review. It’s Erdrich at her best. A little more serious in theme than some of her other works, but moment of her humor still shine through. I’m upping my rating of this one, I think.
5/5 blue bull costumes

W. W. Norton & Company

Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew***
I read this very recently, but I read it again because I assigned it to my students for my English 102 class for this quarter. I think it was even better the second time, and my students have been responding really well to it. I’m upping my review for this one too.
5/5 prosthetic feet

New Books Read

Henry Holt and Co

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi***
Legacy of Orïsha book 3 of 3
It seems like it’s been a long time since the first two books from this series came out. And I do not remember the first two books super well. But I have to say I’m disappointed. Zélie, Tzain, Amari, and Inan must work together to face a threat from forces outside Orïsha who’ve been waiting to strike until the country is in chaos. Four first person POVs and I couldn’t tell them apart without checking the chapter heading. Barely any thoughts, feelings, or interiority coloring the way any of the characters were observing the world or what was happening. I felt like I was in a little robot screen rolling around watching what was going on. Also not great world building. Here in this third book we’ve just found out that there are more civilizations within 2000 miles of the island country we spent the first two books in. And none of the characters knew about them?? Geography education in Orïsha leaves something to be desired. Especially because the people in the 2 new countries speak the Orïshan language?? And you’re telling me the despot king from the first 2 books wouldn’t have tried to conquer these other places?? Anyway, can’t remember if the first 2 books were also bad or if I just knew less then.
2/5 dreamscapes

Simon and Schuster

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer***
**Book Hangover Alert
Excellent. Author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer returns with a long essay focusing on how the natural world creates abundance and thrives on reciprocity and suggests a way for our human economies to mimic that structure. Like all Kimmerer’s writing, it’s hopeful, thoughtful, well-reasoned, based in both science and indigenous wisdom, and leaves me full of longing for this world that we could be living in.
4/5 serviceberries

Wednesday Books

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz*
**Book Hangover Alert
The Anatomy Duology book 1 of 2
The Drexel MFA program bought this book for me during the residency we had in New York City. When one of my cohort mates saw my choice he said “Corpses. That tracks.” So I guess I have a brand. In Edinburg in 1817, Hazel is sure she’d be an amazing surgeon, but she’s a girl and no teachers will take her on as a student. So Hazel strikes up an agreement with a dashing resurrection man so she can continue her studies. But they’ll discover a much bigger, darker plot affecting the poor of Edinburg. I loved this. It was dark and gritty but also followed a girl just trying to chase her dreams and falling in love along the way.
4.5/5 corpses

Forever

In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker
There’s a secret in Yarrow, Kentucky, a summer the whole town forgot and a death they were never able to properly grieve. Two magical families must come to terms with their connection and remember so they can heal (that was not a good blurb, I’m sorry. I don’t want to try again). I liked the magic system in this book. It was also cool to see this take on auras and the language of flowers. At the beginning of the book, I didn’t like the way the flashbacks were separated from the narrative and italicized. It made the narrative flow a little clunky like they were just thrown in there. Later it made more sense because Parker wanted to make it clear to the reader what things were memories stolen by the Bonners, but I was put off by it at first, especially for memories that weren’t stolen, just flashbacks. 
3.5/5 tea leaves

Penguin Random House

Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong***
This was a really cool way to do a memoir. Wong writes a multimodal memoir that includes essays, podcast transcripts, photos, art, crosswords, and all kinds of other things. I’m familiar with Wong’s work, but this book made me feel like I knew her personally.
3.5/5 cats

Android Press

Real Sugar is Hard to Find by Sim Kern***
This is a speculative fiction short story collection that imagines a lot of different possible futures, some hopeful, some not. It’s really great. My favorite stories in the collection were “The Lost Roads,” “Real Sugar is Hard to Find,” “The Propagator,” and “Unwhole.” They’ll definitely stick with me.
4/5 obsolescent hot wheels

William Morrow

Chlorine by Jade Song***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: trauma, grooming, body horror
Goodness but this was good. Swimming is Ren’s life and she’d do anything to become a mermaid and live forever in the water. Anything. Incredible prose and tension building. Super cool magical realism. I was also a swimmer, and a butterflier to boot, all through grade school so I can definitely relate to the obsessive nature of competitive swimming that Song describes.
5/5 butterfly races

Tin House Books

Smothermoss by Alisa Alering
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: murder, hate crimes
Two women are murdered on the Appalachian Trail in the 1980s. Two local girls, sisters are pulled into the mystery, terrifyingly real and otherworldly. I loved the magical realism of this. It was also super atmospheric and did such a good job of evoking place, making the mountain almost a character in its own right.
4.5/5 rabbits

Berkley

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas*
Lady Sherlock book 1 of 8
This was so fun. A spin on Sherlock Holmes, where Sherlock is actually Charlotte, a woman disgraced from society and trying to survive on her own in Victorian London. I really liked the take on Watson and I’m looking forward to reading more of these.
3.5/5 murders

The MIT Press

The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope by Daniel Greene***
This one was dense but good. There’s a perception that access to technology or skills based training is enough to alleviate poverty and it’s often left up to schools and libraries to provide these things. Then when poverty persists, it’s blamed on individual failings or the failings of schools and libraries, not recognizing that they are criminally under resourced. Greene’s ethnography examines several sites, a school, a library, and a startup, to examine where this perception comes from and how this solution to poverty falls short. Greene’s analysis is well researched and well reasoned. Just frustrating that we’re still putting the burden of solving systemic problems like poverty on individuals and institutions like schools and libraries that can’t do everything.
3.5/5 computer men

Calla Editions

Dinotopia by James Gurney*
Dinotopia book 1 of 4
It’s worth reading this book for the art alone. A man and his son are shipwrecked in the 1850s and eventually wash up on the shores of Dinotopia, an island where dinosaurs survived extinction and live in peace and harmony with the humans that have washed up there over the years. This was delightful, both just to look at the art and also to imagine a world where I could ride a dinosaur as public transit.
4/5 dinosaurs

*This book only includes straight white cis people. I loved Anatomy but it does only include straight white cis people. A Study in Scarlet Women is also very straight white and cis, though it does engage with themes of female agency. I had to mark Dinotopia as only including straight white cis people (there are a few people of color) but I feel compelled to add that it also includes dinosaurs.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read The Sun and the Star to see more LGBTQIA+ rep in fantasy and a nice healthy gay relationship. Read The Night Watchman to learn about the termination of Native American tribes, a very important piece of history. Read Against Technoableism for a disability studies primer. Read the Legacy of Orïsha series for a richly imagined world based on African history and mythology. Read The Serviceberry for indigenous wisdom on climate and economics. Read Year of the Tiger to learn more about one of the biggest names in disability justice. Read Real Sugar is Hard to Find for LGBTQIA+ rep in speculative fiction. Read Chlorine for a queer POC horror. Read The Promise of Access to learn more about the systemic problems related to poverty.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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December 2024 Books and End of Year Roundup

StoryGraph book total: 123

Number of pages read this year: 43,795
My goal this year was 45,000 words on StoryGraph, and while I didn’t quite make that goal, I feel it’s important to point out that I read a LOT of things that weren’t on StoryGraph this year including but not limited to scholarly articles, student essays, Paper Dragon and Under the Sun submissions, writings by my workshop team members, MY OWN NOVEL (so many times. I’ve read it so many times) so if you count all that, I’ve definitely surpassed that goal.

Number of new books read this year: 101

Number of books reread this year: 22

Number of books by women, trans, and nonbinary people read this year (only counting new books read): 66

Number of books by BIPOC this year (only including new books read): 31

Number of books by disabled authors this year (only including new books read)*: 8

*This can only include authors I know are disabled. More on the list could be and I might not know.

Breakdown by genre (only counting new books read)
-Fiction: 72 (Fantasy: 28; Science Fiction: 10; Graphic Novel: 9; Historical Fiction: 6; YA: 4 Classics: 3; Literary Fiction: 3; Romance: 3; Middle Grade: 3; Mystery: 1; Thriller: 1; Short Stories: 1)
-Nonfiction: 25 (History: 7; Memoir: 5; Science: 3; Disability Studies: 3; Art: 2; Politics: 2; Biography: 1; Literary Criticism: 1; Nature: 1)
-Poetry: 4

First book of the year: The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

Last book of the year: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Most read author of the year: A tie between Neil Gaiman and Rick Riordan (I read 8 of each)

Best books of the year (in no particular order; not including rereads):
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
Tethered to Other Stars by Elisa Stone Leahy
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
Pet by Awaeke Emezi
Devil is fine (below)
Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt (below)

Worst books of the year:
City of Thieves by David Benioff

Books I didn’t finish:
Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown (below)
The Chaos of Empire: The British Raj and the Conquest of India by J. Wilson-Wilson
Twilight Territory by Andrew X. Pham
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn by Amira El-Zein

December Books Reread

Version 1.0.0

True Biz by Sara Nović***
Book Hangover Alert**
CW: discrimination, ableism, audism
Still fantastic. I went to an author event where Nović spoke about this book, and it was so good. I felt like I had to read it again. I still really enjoyed it. You can refer to my previous review, so I don’t repeat myself, but here are some things I didn’t note last time: I liked the formatting choices for the dialogue. I just took a class on dialogue, so I was hyperaware of the dialogue as I was reading. Especially since so much of the dialogue in this book is sign language, I thought Nović’s choices were really effective.
5/5 cochlear implants

December New Books Read

Devil Is Fine by John Vercher***
Book Hangover Alert**
CW: grief, racism
Following the death of his teenaged son, the unnamed narrator inherits a piece of land from his estranged white grandfather, intended for his son. When the land turns out to be an old plantation, full of buried secrets, and the narrator stops being able to distinguish reality, he must confront his grief and his inherited trauma. This was so good. I don’t even really have anything else to say. It was just really good. I liked the way the book is constructed as the narrator speaking to his dead son. I like how meta it is. I liked the magical realism. The narrator is flawed and a bit annoying, but still very compelling. As someone who works in museums, I loved the engagement with the ethical question of the role of museums when dealing with human remains, especially those of slaves.
5/5 jellyfish

Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins***
Book Hangover Alert**
CW: death, homophobia
This book was really cool. We love an experimental form. Told entirely in obituaries, Remember You Will Die weaves forward and backward through time to tell the story of an advanced AI and her daughter, missing and presumed dead. The way the obituaries connect and tell the story not just through what they say, but also what they don’t say, was really cool.
4/5 obituaries

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens*
It’s winter, so Dickens season. This book has been on my to read shelf an embarrassingly long time. Probably at least a decade. Set during and before the French Revolution in London and Paris (the proverbial Two Cities), the story follows Dr. Manette and his daughter and critiques both the bloody methods of the revolutionaries and the excess and greed of the upper classes that led to the revolution. I enjoyed it. This book has more plot than many of Dickens’s other books, but less vibes. I kinda like the vibes more, I think. None of the characters in this book are very memorable the way the characters in David Copperfield or Oliver are. Not to say it isn’t good, because it is. I just thought I would like it more than I did.
3/5 guillotines

Indiana University Press

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer***
CW: ableism, forced sterilization, institutionalization
I read this in preparation for my class on accessible futures. It’s really good. Kafer examines the idea of the future and where disability fits into imagined futures. She deconstructs the idea that there is no place for disability in the future.
4/5 ableist billboards

Holiday House

Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt***
Book Hangover Alert**
I loved this. When Jack’s mother, a Vegas casino tycoon, goes to jail for her shady business practices, Jack is sure rival casino owner is behind it–I mean, she’s not any shadier than any of the other casino tycoons in Vegas. So Jack calls in reinforcements–his best friends, a group of teenaged asexuals he met online–to pull off a heist that will save his home, his mom, and put the right person behind bars. This was so fun, and we love to see that ace representation!
5/5 blackjack hands

A Jingle Bell Mingle by Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy
Christmas Notch book 3 of 3
CW: grief
Randomly read this without reading the first two books because I didn’t realize it was a series. It’s okay though, each book focuses on a different couple so you don’t necessarily have to read them in order. Though I certainly would have had a better introduction to the characters if I had done that. In the first chapter I was like wow that was a lot of people and names, and I feel like I was supposed to know who they were. In Christmas Notch retired pop star and famous sad boy Isaac Kelly and part time porn star and part time screenwriter Sunny Palmer are both on a deadline. He needs to write one last album for his record label and she needs to write the screenplay to a new Christmas blockbuster. The only problem is he hasn’t been able to write music since his wife and muse died and she’s hit a dead end tracking down the story of a Christmas miracle that happened in Christmas Notch. So they decide to team up: Isaac will help Sunny research this miracle, if Sunny helps Isaac find a new muse. Except maybe he’s already found one: her. Overall I enjoyed this, though it was too spicy for my tastes. And the town’s Christmas mystery wasn’t really too much of a mystery. But Murphy and Simone do a great job writing fun, compelling characters even if they do suffer from the perennial problem of romance novel characters: being stupid, insecure, and unable to see the love interest is into them.
3/5 photo booths

Grand Central Publishing

Born Both: An Intersex Life by Hida Viloria***
A nonfiction memoir charting the life of activist Hida Viloria and her work to end Intersex Genital Mutilation and gain equal rights and recognition for those born intersex. I definitely learned a lot from this memoir. If your only exposure to intersex experiences is Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, you should read this. Eugenides isn’t an authority.
3.5/5 motorcycles

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter*
This was a very fun holiday read. Two antagonistic mystery writers are invited to the Scottish mansion of prolific mystery writer Eleanor Ashley for Christmas with her family. When Eleanor disappears from a locked room without a trace, Maggie and Ethan must learn to work together to unravel the mystery of her disappearance. I liked it more than The Jingle Bell Mingle, mostly I think because it was a mystery, not just a romance, and it wasn’t as spicy. Very fun. Good banter, good construction. Nice character arc for Maggie.
4/5 mistletoe plants

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
A cozy fantasy. Teller of small fortunes Tao travels from place to place, telling only small fortunes, trying to avoid the notice of the kingdom’s magefinders, who recruit magic wielders to serve the crown. Tao joins up with a rag tag band of misfits looking for the vanished daughter of a mercenary for hire. This book was kind of nice. It was cozy fantasy, but unlike Legends and Lattes, there didn’t really seem to be much of a goal for the main character. The ending was excellent though. Very heartwarming, very lovely. Not sure the book earned it though.
3/5 fortune cookies

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins*
This book has been on my to read shelf since maybe 2009 or 2010 (sometime before Mockingjay came out but after I’d read Hunger Games). Very embarrassing. When Gregor and his two year old little sister fall through a grate in their New York City apartment’s basement, they fall in to the dangerous world of the Underland, where giant bats, cockroaches, spiders, and rats live in fragile peace with the humans of the Underland. Gregor must join a quest to save the Underland and maybe even save his father, who had disappeared several years before. Collins really knows how to write a narrative that you are comfortable finishing in one sitting. You just want to keep turning the pages. Her work is so easy to read, it doesn’t even feel like you’re reading. Anyway I really enjoyed this. I mostly grabbed it to finally get it off my to read shelf. I wasn’t expecting to like it that much now that I’m not in the target audience, but now I’m thinking I might just read the rest of the series.
4/5 crawlers

Books I didn’t finish in December

AK Press

Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown
I wanted to like this. I picked it up because I was looking for a short story to teach in my class and this collection looked like exactly what I was looking for: science fiction stories of hope written by intersectional writers of color. But I didn’t really like any of the stories. And I did want to keep reading, because maybe there were some good ones and I just didn’t get to them?? Anyway, the editors said they asked people across social movements to contribute, which is a cool idea, but they also added that many of these people had never written fiction before, and I was like oof, I can tell. The best stories were Terry Bisson’s and Levar Burton’s, but both of those were excerpts from novels, not stories commissioned for this anthology, so I would recommend just reading them on their own in their entirety.
1/5 futures

*This book only includes straight, white, cis people. A Tale of Two Cities is an old book written by a white man so we’re not surprised. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is just a book that has no diversity. Gregor the Overlander has no romance, so maybe not all the characters are straight. They are all white though.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read True Biz to learn more about the Deaf community. Read Devil is Fine for a look at the legacy and trauma of racism and slavery. Read Remember You Will Die for LGBTQIA+ representation in sci-fi. Read Feminist, Queer, Crip for an intersectional look at the future through a disability studies lens. Read Aces Wild for ace representation. Read Born Both to learn more about one of the pioneers of intersex activism and the discrimination that community still faces.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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September 2024 Books

Books Reread

Disney Hyperion

The Tyrant’s Tomb by Rick Riordan
The Trials of Apollo book 4
Continuing on my big Percy Jackson reread, here is the 4th Trials of Apollo book. I have to admit, I didn’t remember this one very well. It’s a good one though. I love that we get to meet some more Roman campers and spend some more time with Reyna. I don’t remember if I thought this the first time I read this book, but Reyna strikes me as kinda ace, and I love that for her. Love the way Apollo develops each book as well. Uncle Rick is really a master of the character arc.
3.5/5 ravens

New Books Read

Feiwell & Friends

My Dear Henry by Kalynn Bayron***
Remixed Classics series
CW: racism, homophobia
Last month I read the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so obviously immediately I had to read a retelling. This was fun. There’s a lot of homoerotic subtext in the original (there was in much of the literature of the time which was about men doing manly things and included almost no female characters or love plots. This was in response to literature from earlier in the century which was mostly written by women and featured romantic relationships as the main plot). But I digress. In this version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, our narrator Gabriel Utterson is in love with his classmate Henry Jekyll, but begins to worry about him when Jekyll breaks off their relationship and the mysterious Hyde appears. Nice to read a historical fiction that deals with queerness and race in history.
3.5/5 love letters

Random House

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
CW: n-word, racism, domestic violence, misogyny
This was my binge book for September, and I had a delightful day doing nothing but reading this book. Weaving forward and backward in time, this book tells the story of two women running a cafe in a small town in Alabama. But it also tells the story of the whole community and all the lives they touched with love and good food and the life they might have ended? (Just a little casual murder that’s never been solved.) This one has more serious themes than the other Fannie Flagg book I’ve read, but it still has her signature humor. Kind of reminded me of a cross between To Kill a Mockingbird and a John Irving novel, which doesn’t seem like a combination that should work, but it does. I liked the structure of it, the way it had the frame of Ninny telling Evelyn the story of Idgie and Ruth and then the flashbacks to them mixed with the newspaper bulletins and the development of Evelyn’s story arc in the present. Certainly there are a few things that didn’t age super well, but overall still a relevant story. Nice to see casual LGBTQIA+ rep in older books like this one.
3.5/5 fried green tomatoes

Random House Worlds

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid*
CW: marital rape
This one was very atmospheric. Foggy. Moorish. Very weird to listen to it at the same time I was reading The Pairing. Very different vibes. You know me, I love a feminist retelling. Reid reimagines the story of Macbeth through the Lady’s eyes. A young girl from a French court, Roscilla comes to uncivilized Scotland to wed the Thane, aware of the power of her unhooded gaze to hoodwink men. Macbeth has other profane secrets and ambitions though and Roscilla must learn to navigate this new court and hold onto whatever power she can find.
3/5 veils

Macmillan

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
The polar opposite of Lady Macbeth. This one was fun. Kit and Theo broke each other’s hearts so when they accidentally end up on the same food and wine tour of Europe, three weeks together seems like it’s going to be unbearable. But they’re adults right? They can be friends again. They can start a friendly competition to see who can sleep with the most locals on the tour, right? What could go wrong? Unless they’re still in love with each other. This wasn’t my favorite of McQuiston’s books, but it was fun. I savored it one city at a time. I liked the way McQuiston positioned food and decadence and the beauty of Europe in summer and the pursuit of pleasure against sex to state the simple truth that we deserve to be happy and to be made to feel good and to enjoy this beautiful world that we live in and enjoy all the delights it has to offer. This book is very spicy, if you’re into that.
3.75/5 French pastries (I guess I’m doing .75s now? I do it on StoryGraph sometimes but I was only doing half points on the blog)

Flatiron Books

Hera by Jennifer Saint
CW: rape. There’s a lot of rape in Greek myths
Oh, look, another Greek myth retelling. This one is larger in scope than many retellings, tackling the whole life of Hera from her birth to when the influence of the gods began to wane. Hera is often cast as the villain of much of Greek mythology, but Saint does an amazing job of making her a well-rounded, sympathetic character whose motives we understand, even if we don’t agree with her actions. It wasn’t my favorite of Saint’s books, but it is a good one.
3.5/5 peacocks

Liveright Publishing

Swimming Pretty by Vicki Valosik***
This is a nonfiction book about the history of synchronized or artistic swimming which is of course wrapped up in the history of competitive swimming, but also, less well known, is its connection to the history of women’s rights. Valosik takes us all the way through the history of swimming in this fascinating study. The prose is at times a little textbook-y and hard to get through, but for the most part the subject is interesting enough for it not to matter. There are also lots of pictures, so that was nice.
3/5 ballet legs

*This book only includes straight, white, cis people. (Which is maybe historically accurate for Lady Macbeth.) Swimming Pretty focuses on straight, white, cis people, but Valosik acknowledges the history of segregation and racism and access that discouraged people of color from joining the sport.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read My Dear Henry for a story that deals with race and homosexuality in Victorian England. Read Swimming Pretty to learn about how access to sports like swimming advanced women’s rights.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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July 2024 Books

Books Reread

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
CW: n-word, racism
This is the third time I’ve read this book (all three times for a class), and I think I got the most out of it this time. Before a backdrop of 1930s Alabama, six-year-old Scout comes of age and learns empathy. Her father Atticus is the lawyer defending a Black man against accusations of raping a white woman, the implications of which will shake the town and challenge Scout’s worldview. It is really well crafted and all of the pieces fit together really nicely to create a pretty nuanced depiction of racism in the south and childhood as one learns empathy. Reading it today it’s easy to look at it like a white savior narrative, and it does have elements of that, for sure, but it did have a profound impact on the way white people perceived race in the 1960s.
4/5 gifts in the tree

Disney Hyperion

The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan
Trials of Apollo book 3 of 5
CW: child abuse
I haven’t reread the last two books in this series and I don’t honestly remember them very well, but I think this one is my favorite in this series. Notwithstanding the Sad Thing that happens. (No summary of this one since it’s in the middle of the series). Nice to spend some time with Grover and some new dryad friends.
3.5/5 aloe remedies

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins***
**Book Hangover Alert
The Hunger Games book 1 of 3
CW: death of children, PTSD, alcoholism, gore
Just like the first time I read this book, I did it basically in one sitting. So happy when a book I loved when I was young still holds up as an adult. In a dystopian future America, the authoritarian Capitol chooses two children from each of 12 districts to fight to death in an arena as retribution for a failed revolution 74 years ago. When her younger sister is chosen, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her place, sparking a revolution that will shake the Capitol. I do think I definitely got more out of this book as an adult. Collins has written such a good critique of authoritarianism, class politics, and the media.
5/5 tributes

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins***
CW: death of children, PTSD, alcoholism, drug addiction
The Hunger Games book 2 of 3
The first time I read this book, I thought it was totally cliche that Collins *Spoiler* sent Katniss back to the Hunger Games. I was like ‘can’t you think of any other plots??’ But reading it now, I understand that that was the only course of action for Snow and the worst possible thing that could happen to Katniss. It is inevitable in the course of the building revolution. I am also a bit mad at my past self and all of my peers who were ‘team Peeta’ or ‘team Gale’ when really the point Collins was trying to make was that it’s fucked up that they’re trying to force Katniss to choose between them when if left to her own devices, she’d probably be ace. But for her own survival, she has to participate in this charade with Peeta and deal Gale being a whiny bitch about it.
4.5/5 former victors

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins***
CW: death of children, PTSD, alcoholism, drug addiction, physical and psychological torture, sex trafficking, suicidal ideation, mass murder
The Hunger Games book 3 of 3
The first time I read this book I was like ‘wow, why does Katniss spend so much time whining and hiding?’ But now I realize that Collins actually wrote a very accurate portrayal of PTSD and it’s honestly crazy that Katniss wasn’t more traumatized than she was. I’m also really interested in the examination of propaganda in this book. Everyone should read this book and then apply this knowledge about the way BOTH SIDES use propaganda to further their cause to the way we consume media.
4/5 propos

New Books Read

Harper Collins

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty***
The Daevabad Trilogy book 3 of 3
CW: genocide, fantasy racism
The thrilling conclusion! These books were so good. I highly recommend this series. I won’t summarize it at all because I don’t want to give anything away, but believe me: you want to read these books.
4.5/5 crocodile gods

Del Rey Books

Red Rising by Pierce Brown*
Red Rising Saga book 1 of 7
CW: attempted rape, attempted suicide, murder of children, slavery, violence, misogyny, eugenics
I got this book to listen to on a family road trip because I thought my dad would like it. Darrow is a Red, the lowest caste, a lowly miner on Mars. After the execution of his wife for daring defiance, Darrow joins a group of rebels to infiltrate the Golds, the highest caste and plant the seeds for revolution. I enjoyed this dystopian sci-fi. I’m not sure I enjoyed it enough to read all 7 books. I thought the pacing was a little slow, and it took Darrow a long time to figure out his shit. But it was an interesting concept and I am interested to know how Darrow takes down the Golds and liberates the Reds. Alas, that probably won’t happen for 5 of 6 more books.
3/5 Reds

Tor Books

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
I’ll be honest, this was kind of a passive listen for me. As one of the last magicians with the power to travel between parallel worlds, Kell acts as an ambassador for Red London. But when a smuggling job goes wrong, he has to team up with a thief from Grey London to destroy a dangerous magical object. It was very enjoyable, though I don’t feel like I was paying that much attention to it and I already don’t remember it super well.
3/5 Londons

Knopf Doubleday

The Tower by Flora Carr***
**Book Hangover Alert
This book was so good. I really love this genre of historical fiction based around a real person and imagining some aspect of their life (Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein, Hamnet, and The Marriage Portrait are other examples). This book follows Mary Queen of Scots and her retinue as they are imprisoned in the tower at Lochleven. This was one of, if not the best, example of third person omniscient point of view I’ve ever read. It was really well done and very effective. I loved all the characters and I love seeing queerness in historical fiction.
4/5 lute players

Astra Publishing House

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell***
CW: child abuse, gaslighting, trauma
This one was so fun! Shesheshen, a monster, is just looking for someone to lay her eggs inside, someone who will make a good nest. But this is complicated by monster hunters determined to kill her and the new feelings she begins to have for one of the monster hunters. This was a light, fun ace monster romance! Very enjoyable.
3.5/5 monsters

City of Thieves by David Benioff*
CW: cannibalism, starvation, war, death, forced prostitution
This was the opposite of fun. I would have stopped reading it if I wasn’t reading it for class. During the siege of Leningrad two young men are tasked with finding eggs for the wedding cake of some higher-up in the Russian army (can’t remember who). It was really awful. I hated everything about it. It was a poorly constructed frame narrative, the external plot was not well connected to the characters’ internal wants, no development of any significant themes, no critiques offered of the idea that the Russian higher-up should be able to have a dozen eggs for a wedding cake when everyone in Leningrad is starving to the point of cannibalism. Also it was what my friend calls a ‘tits and ass’ book, which just means it’s a book written by a man about a man who can only think about women’s tits and asses, despite being in a life and death situation. It was so bad.
1.5/5 eggs

Yale University Press

Victorians and the Prehistoric: Tracks to a Lost World by Michael Freeman
I read this as research for a novel, and it was super interesting. It was cool to learn about what the Victorians knew about the history of the earth and what they thought about all the new fossils and things they were suddenly finding. It was fascinating how they attempted to fit these things into their worldview and cosmology.
3.5/5 fossils

Henry Holt and Company

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo***
**Book Hangover Alert
Excellent. This was such a cool book, combining historical fiction of the Qing Dynasty in China, folklore and mythology of the fox spirits, and a detective novel. It was so good. We follow Snow, a fox on a mission of vengeance to kill the man who killed her cub. But there are a lot of strange disappearances, rumblings of revolution, and charismatic figures around. Can Bao, a detective hired to discover the name of a woman found frozen to death in an alley, unravel all the tangled threads and discover if foxes are real and involved? I loved the strong voice of Snow and the characters of Bao, Tagtaa, and Shiro, all so different and well painted.
4/5 foxes

*This book only includes straight, white, cis people. Though I suppose in the Red Rising society they literally engineer the people of each class to have the skin color and hair color of their class so the fact that they’re all white with golden hair is actually a critique.

**Book Hangover Alert indicates the kind of book that will leave you full up on love. Satisfied, but wishing the book never had to end. You’ll be laying on the floor with no idea what to do with yourself (other friends have called this feeling Good Book Depression or say that certain books necessitate Floor Time). This is the kind of book that gets its teeth in you and won’t let go easily. After the last page you’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. You’ll bother all your friends trying to get them to read it so that you won’t be alone in your Hangover.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Even though the Hunger Games trilogy isn’t incredibly diverse, the themes of anti-authoritarianism, class critique, and critique of the media make these books you should read for your social conscience. Read The Empire of Gold to read a wonderful fantasy set in an Arab-inspired world with LGBTQIA+ themes. Read The Tower for a feminist and LGBTQIA+ historical novel. Read Someone You Can Build a Nest In for a cute LGBTQIA+ fantasy. Read The Fox Wife for a fantasy inspired by folktales of foxes.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQIA+ experience, feminism, BIPOC experience, social and political issues, history, identity, class, disability experience, immigration, gun violence, poverty, colorism, environmentalism, and more! The goal of these books is to diversify the stories we’re reading, grow our empathy for those who are different from us, and amplify voices who are often silenced.

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Top 100 Books of the 21st Century (Krista’s Version)

I read through the list The New York Times published of their top 100 books of the 21st century (I’ve read 11). They did not included nearly enough fantasy, sci-fi, or children’s books. And I looked at the readers choice top 100 books posted by The New York Times (I’ve read 36). Better, but still not perfect.

Just so personally offended that perhaps one of my least favorite books of all time was on BOTH lists (Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout). Also Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides was on both lists. Did you know Eugenides wrote that because he read a memoir by an intersex girl and he thought it didn’t do a good enough job capturing the emotions of intersex people. So clearly a cis white man is the guy to fix that problem. The book is fine but that backstory gives me the ick, so you won’t find it on this list.

Anyway, apparently I won’t be happy until I make my own list that is biased toward fantasy and YA.

My criteria is (1) books I’ve read that (2) I loved and which (3) also had staying power that were (4) written after 2000. I’ll be honest, the numbering system is kinda just based on vibes. I don’t know that I can really claim to like some of these books more than others.

100. Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum, 2013, YA
99. Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky, 2019, poetry
98. The Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross, 2022, fantasy
97. My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer, 2008, YA, historical fiction
96. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht, 2011, literary fiction
95. All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater, 2017, YA, fantasy
94. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, 2018 nonfiction, essays
93. The Overstory by Richard Powers, 2018, literary fiction
92. A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross, 2022, fantasy
91. Lobizona by Romina Garber, 2020, YA, fantasy

90. Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher, 2001, YA
89. Legendborn by Tracey Deonn, 2020, YA, fantasy
88. Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones, 2013, nonfiction, biography
87. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, 2021, historical fiction
86. The Bonestter’s Daughter by Amy Tan, 2001, historical fiction
85. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, 2022, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
84. Atalanta by Jennifer Saint, 2023, historical fiction, fantasy
83. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, 2019, fantasy
82. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, 2018, YA, novel-in-verse
81. The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart, 2020, YA fantasy

80. In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, 2023, sci-fi, LGBTQIA+
79. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, 2020, literary fiction
78. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, 2005 middle-grade, fantasy
77. The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty, 2020, fantasy
76. Greywaren by Maggie Steifvater, 2022, YA, fantasy
75. Uprooted by Naomi Novik, 2015, fantasy
74. Felix Ever After by Kacen Calendar, 2020, YA, LGBTQIA+
73. A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman, 2012, contemporary fiction
72. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, 2017, YA
71. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, 2021, YA, sci-fi, LGBTQIA+

70. As You Wish by Cary Elwes, 2014, nonfiction, memoir
69. How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler, 2022, nonfiction, essays
68. Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee, 2016, historical fiction
67. The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar, 2020, literary fiction, LGBTQIA+
66. The Phoenix Dance by Dia Calhoun, 2005, YA, fantasy
65. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult, 2004, contemporary fiction
64. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, 2013, literary fiction
63. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, 2005, YA, historical fiction
62. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, 2019 literary fiction, LGBTQIA+
61. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stievater, 2011, YA, fantasy

60. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, 2021, romance, LGBTQIA+
59. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, 2022, literary fiction
58. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, 2022, historical fiction
57. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer, 2002, YA, historical fiction
56. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, 2012, YA
55. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, 2017, fantasy
54. Ithaca by Claire North, 2022, historical fiction, fantasy
53. Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, 2022, historical fiction, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
52. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, 2022, sci-fi
51. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, 2020, fantasy, LGBTQIA+

50. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, 2019, YA
49. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, 2004, historical fiction, fantasy
48. Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong, 2022, poetry, LGBTQIA+
47. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, 2019, romance, LGBTQIA+
46. Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, 2001, YA, fantasy
45. American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 2001, fantasy
44. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, 2009 YA, fantasy
43. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, 2000, YA, fantasy
42. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, 2019, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
41. Babel by R.F. Kuang, 2022, historical fiction, fantasy

40. The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley, 2000, YA, fantasy
39. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, 2003, YA, fantasy
38. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, 2006, middle-grade, fantasy
37. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, 2006, literary fiction
36. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 2020 fantasy
35. Bright’s Passage by Josh Ritter, 2011, historical fiction
34. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, 2005, fantasy
33. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, 2018, fantasy
32. The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson, 2022, YA, LGBTQIA+
31. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, 2015, YA, fantasy

30. Elektra by Jennifer Saint, 2022, historical fiction, fantasy
29. Cinder by Marissa Meyer, 2012, YA, sci-fi
28. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, 2019, graphic memoir
27. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, 2020, literary fiction, fantasy
26. Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong, 2020, nonfiction, essays
25. Circe by Madeline Miller, 2018, historical fiction, fantasy
24. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, 2017, YA
23. The Martian by Andy Weir, 2011, sci-fi
(Project Hail Mary is the one that is always making the lists, but The Martian is inarguably better)
22. True Biz by Sara Novic, 2022, contemporary fiction, LGBTQIA+
21. The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, 2021, YA, thriller

20. The Last Report of the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, 2001, historical fiction, LGBTQIA+
(I was happy to see a Louise Erdrich on the readers choice list but shocked not to see one on the regular NYT list. We can argue about which one since they’re all good, but this one is my favorite.)
19. Untamed by Glennon Doyle, 2020, nonfiction, memoir, LGBTQIA+
18. When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, 2022, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
17. The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan, 2004, YA, poetry, LGBTQIA+
16. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, 2001, literary fiction
15. Under the Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer, 2005, YA, historical fiction
14. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, 2008, YA, dystopian
13. Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo, 2023, fantasy
12. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, 2012, YA, fantasy
11. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, 2003, contemporary fiction

10. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, 2006, YA, fantasy
9. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, 2012, YA, fantasy
8. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, 2005, middle-grade, fantasy
7. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, 2011, historical fiction, fantasy, LGBTQIA+
6. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, 2020, sci-fi
5. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, 2016, historical fiction
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, 2011, historical fiction, fantasy
3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 2004, literary fiction
2. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, 2014, literary fiction
1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, 2013, fantasy
(I mean really? No Neil Gaiman on either of those two NYT lists? Inconceivable)

Honorable mentions from the 1990s

Stardust by Neil Gaiman, 1997, fantasy
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, 1997, YA, fantasy
Holes by Louis Sachar, 1998, YA
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, 1990, YA, fantasy
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, 1990, fantasy
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, 1995, YA, fantasy
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, 1997, YA, fantasy
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, 1993, dystopian

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