thriller – Krista Beucler

June 5, 2026June 5, 2026

May 2026 Books Read

Books Reread

On the Cover of My Bonny Light Horseman, a soldier dressed in a French uniform falls off the back of their horse. More soldiers follow behind brandishing weapons — Harcourt Children’s Books

My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer
**Book Hangover Alert
Bloody Jack book 6 of 12
Continuing my reread of this series. This is one of my favorites out of the series. In this book, Jacky is recruited as a spy by British Intelligence. She’s back in disguise, this time as a messenger in Napoleon’s army. Just as charming and full of hijinks as the other books in the series. I’m particularly fond of her French Clodhoppers and Captain Bardot.
5/5 legions of honor

The cover of Dungeon Crawler Carl shows a man in a leather jacket and boxer shorts and a Persian cat running away from a goblin driving a bulldozer at them

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 1 of 8
I made my dad start listening to this on a road trip we did to Missouri. He liked it, but thought there were too many rules and things to remember. I won’t review it again. But you can refer to my original review here.
4.5/5 achievements

The cover of A Wrinkle in Time shows three children in what looks like a blue egg. Breaking out of the top of the egg is a strange winged creature — Yearling Newbery

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle*
If you had asked me if I remembered this book, I would have said not really. But then I relistened to it and I actually remembered basically all of it. It’s a weird one, but a good one. It’s a classic for a reason. Meg Murray and her prodigy brother Charles Wallace must travel across space and time to rescue their father. The novel deals with authoritarianism, assimilation, coming of age, and more.
5/5 beasts

New Books Read

The cover of We Fell Apart shows the hazy silhouette of a girl on a colorful background

We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart*
We Were Liars book 3 of 3
CW: Institutionalization
Though these books technically all stand alone, I would still read them in publication order. When Matilda receives an email from her famous and estranged father, whom she has never met, she travels to his crumbling castle on Martha’s Vineyard to uncover the secret of the family she has never known. I really enjoy these books. They have a really nice modern gothic feel to them. I will say, however, that the voice for all three books kinda sounds the same even though there is a different protagonist for each one.
4/5 paintings

The cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries shows the text surrounded by drawings of flowers, bones, and mushrooms

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett*
**Book Hangover Alert
You know me, I love a Victorian inspired voice, an epistolary novel, and footnotes. This book was everything I wanted. Cambridge professor of dryadology Emily Wilde heads to the far north to study the faeries of that region for her encyclopedia. But when she discovers the town is plagued by Fae who steal girls, Emily must put her theories into practice. Very cozy and fun. Loved the academic take on faeries and folklore.
5/5 small ones

A black cat with its tongue just poking out peers over the corner of an open copy of Winter's Orbit — Forgot to take a picture of the cover of this book so please enjoy this picture of my cat instead.

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell***
CW: domestic violence
Everything I wanted as more. I binged this in two days. Pitched as Red, White & Royal Blue meets Ancillary Justice, which was spot on. Big fan of the world, the characters, the romance, the yearning. The only thing I didn’t love were the names of all the characters. Just didn’t really roll off the tongue. I’ve already forgotten all of them.
5/5 arranged marriages

On the Cover of No Body No Crime, a plane crashes in the lower right and in the smoke rising up behind it, we can see two women running, being pursued by dark figures

No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe
Very enjoyable. Like reading an action movie. PI Mel is sent to find the girl she’s been in love with since she was 16, who disappeared without a trace at 18. She’ll uncover the secret that’s kept Chloe in hiding for all these years. This was a fun, easy, fast-paced read. There were moments where I thought some of the action and the bad guys were a little unbelievable, but if it had been an action movie, I totally would have accepted it, so not sure where that resistance came from.
3.75/5 peacocks

The cover of On Earth as it is on Television, a UFO hovers at the top, it's tractor beam shining down on the author's name. — Hyperion Avenue

On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane*
We listened to this one on a road trip. I was trying to find something everyone would like and I think I succeeded. After aliens arrive in ships that hover over 12 (? maybe more, I can’t remember) major cities, then mysteriously depart, humanity must grapple with the implications. The novel follows 3 families in the wake of the visitation. This book has: rowdy children, humor, talking cats. It was a good time.
3.75/5 cats

The cover of She shows a sensual woman removing what looks like a cloak or veil in a cave. — Longmans

She by H. Rider Haggard*
CW: racism, misogyny
I read this for research. It’s a good example of the male quest romance genre. Holly and his adopted son Leo travel to Africa searching for the truth of Leo’s history which was hinted at by an ancient pot sherd left to him by his father. I liked the voice (though if you’re not into Victorian lit you probably won’t). I liked the adventure. It did drag through the middle. I did not like the racism or misogyny, obviously. Something interesting about the male quest romance is that it was a reaction to the successful novels by women that dominated the first half of the 19th century and were mostly about women and domestic affairs and romance (Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot). These novels center men’s relationships with each other and often have few to no women in them (think Treasure Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth). I was fascinated by the love triangle between the two men and She, especially because their bond to each other was just as strong if not stronger than their bond with She (and proved to be the bond that won out in the end). She is also evil and demonstrates why a matriarchal society will never work (allegedly). I also appreciated the frame narrative, the footnotes and the ‘editor.’
2.5/5 lions

The cover of Not for the Faint of Heart shows two girls dressed in Robin Hood type clothes riding a white horse.

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher***
**Book Hangover Alert
A very fun Robin Hood inspired sapphic romcom. Robin Hood’s granddaughter who was raised in the Merry Men must confront whether the organization still lives up to it’s mission when they kidnap a healer with more romantic views of the famous Merry Men. Very funny. Good characters, good banter, nice queer representation. I didn’t need the one sad thing that happened to have happened, but I guess it’s fine.
4/5 arrows

Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce***
A nice little novella I picked up at the library as a treat. After her estranged aunt’s unexpected death, Phee must take on the arrangement of her funeral. It’s a lovely little meditation on grief and family, and it’s set in a very intriguing fantasy alternate Reconstruction era. Would love to read more set in this world.
3.5/5 caskets

The cover of Funeral Girl shows a wallpaper style pattern of skulls, coffins, and flowers and leaves.

Funeral Girl by Emma K. Ohland
What do you do if you’re terrified of dying but you live in a funeral home and your parents are funeral directors? Oh, and also, you can raise ghosts. That’s Georgia’s life. And when a boy from her school dies in a tragic accident, she raises his ghost looking for answers about the afterlife, but gets a little more than she bargained for. This is a nice YA book. Really nice themes of friendship and grief and death.
3.5/5 scrapbook pages

The cover of The Murder at the Vicarage shows a headstone with the title inscribed on it. — Collins Crime Club

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie*
Miss Marple book 1 of 12
I have to be honest, I’m not sure my full attention was on the audiobook while I was listening to it, but I did still enjoy this. After a murder occurs at the vicarage (who’d have guessed, right?) a dear old lady who never misses anything solves the murder. Now as premises go, that’s excellent, right? And the mystery was very fun and the ending was quite satisfying. I think the thing that didn’t quite work for me was the POV. The story is told from the first person perspective of the Vicar. And he’s like fine. It would be more interesting to be in Miss Marples’s head, but if we were in her head, then we’d know from the start that she’s the smartest person in the town and we’d lose that subversion of expectations. Curious about the POV for the rest of the books in the series. Are they all told by the Vicar? Other people in town? Does Miss Marple get to narrate one? More research is necessary.
3.5/5 exploding crystals

*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 Winter’s Orbit for queer rep in sci-fi. Read Not for the Faint of Heart for a queer Robin Hood retelling. Read Psychopomp and Circumstance for Black characters in fantasy and an alternate Reconstruction era.

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.

April 1, 2026April 14, 2026

March 2026 Books

New Books Read

The cover of The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark shows a fire made of pages of text on a black background

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
CW: murder, sexual abuse of children
A thriller/mystery about a woman hired to ghostwrite her estranged father’s memoir about the unsolved murders of both of his siblings in their teens. I enjoyed this. It was a propulsive and easy read. The prose was nothing special, but it kept us moving.
3.5/5 film reels

The cover of The Vegetarian by Han Kang shows a woman's silhouette gazing into the sky on a red background

The Vegetarian by Han Kang***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: institutionalization, eating disorder, domestic violence
I don’t know how to blurb this book. It was really good. Weird, but good. Here’s the blurb from Wikipedia: “The Vegetarian is a three-part novel set in modern-day Seoul and tells the story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and home-maker, whose decision to stop eating meat after a bloody nightmare about human cruelty leads to devastating consequences in her personal and familial life.” I don’t really feel like that does it justice, but I guess it’s not wrong? I don’t know, it fails to capture the weird atmosphere and mood throughout. I also thought the POV choice was interesting as in each part of the novel we switch POVs but none of the main POVs are Yeong-hye herself. You could talk about a lot of different themes in this book, but I think the patriarchy and expectations of womanhood and wifehood, as well as disability in Korea are the ones that stood out most to me.
4.5/5 bloody dreams

The book Pests by Bethany Brookshire held up in front of a disgruntled gray tabby — Pip offended at the implication that she might be a pest

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire***
Nonfiction. It’s what it sounds like. Brookshire examines the vertebrates that humans across the globe consider pests (including but not limited to rats, mice, pigeons, pythons, cats, horses, elephants, wolves, bears, and deer) and how and why these animals receive that designation. I thought this book was fascinating in the way Brookshire interrogated the way humans conceptualize animals and nature and where they belong and don’t belong (deer in the forest far from my house = good, deer in my hard eating my garden = bad). She brings up a lot of interesting things to think about when it comes to how we can manage invasive species, what we consider nature (where animals should be) and human spaces (where animals should not be), and how we can share this planet we all live on.
4/5 rats

The cover of Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood shows a ship sailing on a sea of barbed wire waves

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood*
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: death of a child
A retelling of the Tempest in which a retired theater director uses a production of the Tempest put on in a prison as a way to get revenge on those that forced him into retirement. Atwood is just so clever. I loved the layering of the play within the novel which is itself the play and the themes of prisons, literal, societal, and mental. It was also funny! ( I mean so is the Tempest)
4.5/5 swimming caps

The cover of The Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson shows a child sitting facing away from the viewer in the window of a ruin, looking at a burning building in the background — 37 Ink

Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson***
CW: racism, racial slurs, assault, child abuse
Look, I’ve read a lot of WWII historical fiction, okay? There’s a lot out there. But this book was unique in its subject and perspective, so we’ll allow it. In 1950s Germany, Ethel, the wife of an American officer, discovers an orphanage of half-Black children fathered by African American service members during the war with German women. Many German women felt they couldn’t keep the children, whether because of prejudice or economic concerns, so Ethel works to get the children adopted by American families. Woven into Ethel’s narrative is that of Ozzie, an African American service member stationed in Germany in the late 1940s and Sophia, an African American teenager in the 1960s who is one of the first to integrate her boarding school but who longs to learn the truth of her history. You can see how all of these threads will intertwine. I enjoyed this. I thought Johnson’s writing was well researched and evocative. It seemed to me that there were maybe more non-racist white characters than was believable (but I’m not the one who did the research and I wasn’t alive then). And one more thought is a spoiler:
Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

I loved the happy ending, but it did feel a little unbelievable that Sophia just ‘always felt she didn’t fit in’ and then conveniently just happens to meet another kid who was one of these adopted babies from Germany and then manages to actually find her family and it turns out they really did want her after all. It’s the fantasy of all children who grow up in unhappy homes that they’re actually adopted and parents who want them are somewhere out there and they were just separated by an accident of faith. But how likely is that story really? I did also think it was a little weird that they never once mention Katia’s unique hair color in his storyline. I know she was trying to keep it a mystery that Sophia is that child, but it was pretty obvious…

4/5 nuns

The cover of Voices by David Elliot shows a young girl in armor before a gold halo made up of words

Voices by David Elliott*
CW: death
A novel-in-verse about the last hours of Joan of Arc’s life. Elliott weaves in real quotes from the Trial of Condemnation and the later Trial of Nullification. We also get poems from Joan as she waits on pyre and poems in a variety of voices from the people and objects around Joan including her parents, the saints and angels guiding her, her sword, her armor, her clothing, the candle that lights the pyre, the fire itself, and more. I really enjoyed this. I thought the structure was fascinating. Elliott uses specific poetic forms for different voices and I was a big fan of the concrete poems in the collection. My only quibble was that I hated the font chosen for Joan’s poems.
4/5 voices

On the cover of Semi-Well-Adjusted-Despite-Literally-Everything, the author Alyson Stoner smashes their face against glass as though peering at the viewer as an animal in a zoo — St. Martin’s Press

Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything by Alyson Stoner***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: body dysphoria, religious trauma, domestic violence, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, drug and alcohol abuse , sexual assault
If you think you don’t know who Alyson Stoner is, yes you do. Child actor known for Isabella on Phineas and Ferb, ‘the little white girl’ in the Missy Elliott video, Caitlyn in Camp Rock, and many more, Stoner opens up about the addictiveness of fame and the damaging way the industry works, especially in relation to minors. This memoir was not as painful to read as Elliot Page’s but I still think there are a lot of people who owe Stoner apologies. I thought the memoir was well written and the chapters were well structured. I was happy that in the end
Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

Stoner is on their way to healing and a much more healthy relationship with work and their body and using their platform to advocate for minors in the industry.

4.5/5 call backs

The cover of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath shows a bird's eye view of a bear walking through a forest holding a shovel and dragging a bag that is trailing blood — IDW Publishing

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
CW: murder, gore
Adorable serial killer? This book is pitched as Dexter meets Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town and that is correct. Adorable bear Samantha is an upstanding citizen in her small town, but when she visits the city, anyone might find themself her victim. But when someone starts terrorizing Sam’s town, she must stop the serial killer before they ruin the town or unmask her. The art in this book is really incredible. It’s dark but it was fun.
3.5/5 newspaper articles

Books I did not finish

The cover of The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart shows too snakes snarling at each other

The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart
This pains me so much because I LOVED Stewart’s Drowned Empire series, but I’m still trying to achieve my goal of not finishing anything I’m not enjoying. Life is too short. I’m not super good at it but I’m trying. I read 200 page of this book and was STILL not into it, so I finally gave up. I think the problem was that with so many POVs, by page 200, it still felt like we were on page 50 in the development of the narrative. I think Stewart should have focused on just Hakara and Rasha (and this from someone obsessed with writing huge casts and multi-pov stories *sobs*). It just wasn’t working for me. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and I didn’t feel like I totally understood the world and I wasn’t interested enough to want to. Very sad about it.
1/5 altered

*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 lying 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 Vegetarian for great Korean literature. Read Pests to learn more about humans’ relationship to nature and how we can all thrive. Read The Keeper of Lost Children for an untold story of African Americans during WWII. Read Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything to learn about how capitalism destroys everything.

August 31, 2025June 2, 2026

August 2025 Books

Books Reread

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien*
Such a comforting reread in these trying times. I think The Two Towers is still my favorite book of the series, but of course this one is good too. I love Merry and Pippin’s friendship in this one, which I think is shown in even sharper relief because they aren’t together for most of this book. Once again, the book is split into ‘what everyone else is doing’ first, and then ‘what Frodo and Sam are doing.’ I also forgot how much more stuff there is after they (spoiler) destroy the ring. I did also listen to the appendix this time as well, which I think I skipped the first time I read this book.
4/5 fell beasts

New Books Read

The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas
CW: abduction of a child, murder
This one was fun! A spooky thriller set in a run down museum, it’s a little Night at the Museum meets Jurassic Park plus a murder mystery. Paleontologist Simon Nealy returns to the Hawthorne Museum where his sister disappeared in their childhood determined to finally figure out what happened to her. But the museum is haunted by the ghosts of prehistoric beasts. Can Simon help all these restless souls find peace? Overall I really enjoyed this. Good tension building and fun concept, although I did predict the murderer almost immediately and I did feel like I had a few unanswered questions by the end.
3.5/5 dino ghosts

Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere by Peter D. Ward and David W. Elhert
I read this as research for a future project, though it was perhaps not very helpful for that. I still read the whole thing though because it was interesting. The authors’ main argument was that the level of oxygen in the atmosphere on prehistoric Earth was the main driver of speciation. They argued that in times of low oxygen, there was more species diversification, then in times of high oxygen levels, those species which had developed very efficient breathing were able to grow much larger and dominate. I thought their arguments sounded convincing, though I don’t know that I know enough about chemistry or geology to comment. This book also came out in 2006 and I don’t know if there are any updates to the research since then. It did not answer the question of whether humans could have breathed the atmosphere in the Permian, which was not necessarily in their research purview, but it is an important question to me.
3/5 species

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro*
I had kind of a hard time getting into this one. In a post-Arthurian Britain where no one can retain long-term memories, an older couple named Axl and Beatrice set off in search of their son. I read in Maggie Stiefvater’s review of this book that it reminded her of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi though she found Piranesi “warmer and sadder.” I would agree with that assessment. I liked the exploration of memory and grief and conflict, but it didn’t fill me up or unmoor me the way Piranesi did.
3/5 she-dragons

W. W. Norton & Company – I really dropped the ball with this one. I could have photographed the copy I read in the museum in front of a bear diorama, but I didn’t

Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie***
I always try to read something on-theme in the museum so this was my latest nonfiction pick. Dickie writes about each of the eight bear species we have on earth with clear-eyed compassion. Each chapter focuses on one bear species where she charts the ecological and social threats to each species. I learned a lot from this book, and I hope everyone reads it so we can work together to save these wonderful animals from extinction.
4.5/5 bears (duh)

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson***
CW: mass shooting, death, grief, suicidal ideation
**Book Hangover Alert
I loved this. Full disclosure, Jen was my mentor at Drexel’s MFA program, so I am a little biased. This book is a Sapphic Orpheus and Eurydice retelling set in Chicago. After losing her sister in a mass shooting, Charlie finds herself able to see ghosts–but not her sister. Searching for her sister’s spirit, she stumbles upon a lighthouse at the edge of the lake run by the Ferryman who ferries souls to the underworld every night. But Charlie finds more than she bargained for in the Station Master’s daughter Nera. It was so excellent. I loved the multi-POV narration. I loved the world. I loved the concept. I loved the remnants scattered throughout the narrative. I loved the prose.
5/5 remnants

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 1 of 8
These books are all the rage right now. And for good reason. They are really fun. When the Earth is turned into a huge mining site for extraction by the Borant Corporation, all surviving humans are thrown into the Dungeon, a real life video game beneath the Earth’s surface televised for the whole Universe. Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat Princess Donut must team up to survive the Dungeon. It’s a little Hunger Games meets Squid Games meets Ready Player One. Perfect for fans of DnD. It was really fun, and I highly recommend the audiobook because the narrator was excellent.
4.5/5 achievements

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor***
The Nsibidi Scripts book 1 of 3
This was so fun! A Nigerian inspired fantasy, Sunny, an albino American-Nigerian living in Nigeria, discovers she’s a Leopard-person gifted with magic. She joins her peers to learn to control her magic and the young Leopard-people must discover the secrets of the Black Hat serial killer menacing children near their village. I loved the developing friendship between Sunny, Chichi, Sasha, and Orlu. I thought the world was really cool. I started a new tag on StoryGraph for books about Magic School that Aren’t Hogwarts. So if you’re looking to fill that void without supporting a terrible person, check this one out!
3.5/5 juju knives

*This book only includes straight white cis people. Once again the classics, which is unfair but still true.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Eight Bears to learn more about these wonderful creatures, conservation, climate change and what humans can do to reverse the detrimental effects we’ve had on the environment. Read The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World for Sapphic fantasy and Jewish representation in fantasy. Read Akata Witch for Nigerian inspired fantasy.

November 17, 2024December 2, 2024

October 2024 Books

Books Reread

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic
**Book Hangover Alert
All for the Game 1 of 3
CW: ableism (including slurs), drug abuse, child abuse, rape, torture, self-harm, homophobia, death, alcoholism
I got these gorgeous Rainbow Crate editions of all these books which I hadn’t read since high school. But man, the chokehold these books had on me then. So I reread them, and let me just say, Sakavic can keep the pages turning. I was just as enthralled this time as I was the first time I read these books. Neil Josten needs to keep his head down and stay hidden from his father’s people, but when he gets the chance to play exy at Palmetto State University, he trades safety to play the game he loves.
5/5 exy sticks

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic
**Book Hangover Alert
All for the Game 2 of 3
CW: ableism (including slurs), drug abuse, child abuse, rape, torture, self-harm, homophobia, death, alcoholism
I won’t summarize either of the next two books to keep the reviews spoiler free. I’m a big fan of Sakavic’s characters. She writes messy, traumatized, extremely lovable people.
5/5 knives

The King’s Men by Nora Sakavic
**Book Hangover Alert
All for the Game 3 of 3
CW: ableism (including slurs), drug abuse, child abuse, rape, torture, self-harm, homophobia, death, alcoholism
The thrilling conclusion. I was really struggling to do all the things I needed to do because all I wanted to do was read these books.
5/5 black armbands

New Books Read

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson***
CW: homophobia, bullying, sexual assault, slurs
I read this book in celebration of Banned Books Week. This book is part memoir and part manifesto and aimed at a young adult audience. Johnson shares their story of discovering and uniting all the pieces of their identity (nonbinary, gay, and African American). The book addresses queer youth who might be able to relate to parts of Johnson’s journey. I’m not the target audience for this book, but it’s very important representation for the community that is the target audience.
3/5 cowboy boots

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: racism, cultural appropriation, rape, grooming
This book was so, so good. High school student Perry is looking forward to a summer of fishing and relaxing when she gets roped into an internship at the tribal museum. At first annoyed at having to spend all this time with dusty objects and the weird curator, Perry discovers the tangled legal web that surrounds Native American artifacts pledges to work to return her ancestors and cultural heritage to her tribe. As someone who works in museums and has worked at the National Museum of the American Indian, I loved reading this book.
5/5 warrior girls

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
CW: murder, statutory rape, rape, drug use, drugging, drug abuse, animal death
I read this book partly as research for my own novel. High school student Pip has decided to solve a murder for her capstone project. A few years ago, a student at Pip’s school was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend who subsequently committed suicide. But something’s not adding up for Pip, so she’s returning to this closed case to see if she can crack the real murderer, without getting into danger herself (spoiler alert, she does get herself into danger). I really liked the structure of the novel, where we had third person narration following Pip, Pip’s first person journal entries, and interview transcripts and police reports. I like that there were some parts of the mystery I as a reader could solve myself just ahead of Pip, but I wasn’t able to solve the whole mystery. I didn’t like that 17-year-old Pip ends up with 20-year-old Ravi at the end of the novel. This wouldn’t have bothered me when I was in the target audience of YA, but it feels weird to me now.
3.5/5 persons of interest

Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: rape, misogyny, homophobia, conversion therapy, torture, gang rape, suicide, marital rape
This book was so, so good. The content warnings look scary and they should not be ignored, but none of that stuff is gratuitous. It’s in the book for a reason. Five lesbians in Uruguay find community, connection, and love during the dictatorship by buying a shack on the beach. The story charts the years before, during, and after the dictatorship as these women learn to love and resist and survive. I also think it’s important to read books like this as an American because it is because of my government that Uruguay and many other countries in South America even experienced these dictatorships.
5/5 sea lions

Metamorphoses by Ovid
CW: rape. So much rape.
I liked reading these stories, many of which I was already familiar with. I also liked examining this theme of bodies transformed which I think is super interesting. There is a lot of rape. I’m also not super crazy about the Rolfe Humphries translation, though admittedly I haven’t read any others.
3/5 trees that used to be women

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
CW: grief, dead bodies, some gross description
This is a nonfiction memoir about Doughty’s time working in a crematorium in the Bay Area and how she came to go to mortuary school and developed her philosophy around the Good Death. I’ve read Doughty’s other books and watched her Ask a Mortician YouTube channel, and I think this is her best book. Her memoir is full of interesting anecdotes, amusing description, and philosophical questions as she takes the reader on a journey to face death and death culture in the US. She also reads the audiobook, and it’s excellent.
4/5 brand new crematory floors

The Meadow by Barbara Bosworth and Margot Kelley
I got this book after seeing Bosworth’s beautiful photos from her Meadow series at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The book combines Bosworth’s photographs with Kelley’s beautiful writing on the subject of a meadow the two women visited many times with a variety of different people with different expertise, who helped them see the meadow in a new way each time. I thought there would be some things I could potentially use in the class I teach about the relationship between image and text, and I was right.
3/5 meadows

Dr. Mütter’s Marvels by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
Randomly decided to read this book since I’m currently living in Philadelphia. This is a biography of Dr. Mütter, a surgeon and physician in the early 1800s who founded the Mütter Museum here in Philly, one of the largest collections of medical specimens. It was interesting to read about the state of medicine in the early 19th century (spoiler alert: it was bad), especially around the first uses of anesthesia. The book also set Mütter up in opposition to another doctor of the time, Dr. Meigs. Aptowicz sketches the two men, showing the care and empathy Mütter had for his students and patients and the lack thereof that Meigs showed. Mütter was also a true man of science, ready to adopt new practices and change his views when presented with new information, while Meigs was not. It is also my own personal opinion supported pretty much only by vibes that Mütter was gay (Aptowicz does not make this claim, just so we’re clear).
3/5 marvels

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley***
**Book Hangover
CW: racism, slurs, microaggressions
In the near future, the British government has figured out how to time travel. Our unnamed narrator is a handler for a refugee from the 1840s. I really enjoyed this book. I loved Bradley’s spare, funny style. I thought she did a really good job with her historical characters. I also loved the examination of authoritarianism and radicalization; it was well done and very thought provoking.
5/5 time refugees

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read All Boys Aren’t Blue to support banned books and intersectional stories. Read Warrior Girl Unearthed to learn more about Native communities and the problems they’re still facing in the world of museums to reclaim their ancestors and cultural artifacts. Read Cantoras to learn about queerness in Uruguay in the 1970s and 80s and understand the impacts of the USA’s meddling in the region. Read The Ministry of Time to learn about authoritarianism and radicalization and how structures of power and oppression replicate themselves even in our own minds.

Reads marked as part of the Books for a Social Conscience series will regularly address topics like race and racism, colonialism and post-colonialism, LGBTQ+ 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.

January 1, 2024January 1, 2024

December 2023 Books and End of Year Roundup

End of Year Roundup

StoryGraph book total: 120 (includes all books, new and reread, and the two Seanan McGuire short stories)

Number of pages read this year: 44,021 (hours listened to audiobooks converted to pages)

Number of new books read this year: 98 (I did not count the two Seanan McGuire short stories on my spreadsheet)

Number of books reread this year: 20

Number of books by women, trans, and nonbinary people read this year (only counting new books read): 68

Number of books by BIPOC this year (only including new books read): 28

Number of books by disabled authors this year (only including new books read)*: 1

*This can only include authors I know are disabled. More on the list could be and I might not know. Definite room for improvement in this category!

Breakdown by genre (only counting new books read)
-Fiction: 76 (fantasy: 41; science fiction: 7; YA: 7*; historical fiction: 5; classics: 4; literary fiction: 4; thriller: 2; dystopian: 1; graphic novel: 1; mystery: 1; romance: 1; children’s literature: 1)
-Nonfiction: 21 (essays: 4; memoir: 4; true crime: 3; art: 2; biography: 2; graphic format: 2; reference: 2; autobiography: 1; history: 1)
-Poetry: 1
-Play: 1

*Many of the fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction books I read were also in the YA age range.

First book of the year: Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater

Last book of the year: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Most read author of the year: David Mitchell (8 books) and Rick Riordan (8 books)

Best books of the year (in no particular order; not including rereads):
Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater
The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin
A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (below)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (below)
Ithaca by Claire North (below)

Worst books of the year:
The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu
Friday by Robert Heinlein (apologies to my father)

Books I didn’t finish:
Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir

December Books Reread

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Book 1 of 5 Heroes of Olympus
I remember the first time I read this book, I was a little disappointed because Percy isn’t in it and I missed him as a narrator. But rereading it, I was happy to return to getting to know Jason, Leo, and Piper, who I had grown to love throughout the series. This is the first book in the Heroes of Olympus series, which follows the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This book follows Jason Grace, who wakes up on a bus with Piper and Leo with no memory of who he is. He, Piper, and Leo, all half-bloods, end up at Camp Half Blood where they must go on a quest to save Hera, queen of the gods, get Jason’s memory back, and maybe figure out where Percy Jackson disappeared to. It is excellent. I love that the Aphrodite kids finally get a redemption hero in Piper.
4/5 baseball-bat-wielding satyrs

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Book 2 of 5 Heroes of Olympus
And Percy’s back! This book follows Percy as he wakes up missing his own memory and must make his way to Camp Jupiter, a camp for Roman demigods. He meets Frank and Hazel and learns of the disappearance of Jason Grace from Camp Jupiter. Percy, Hazel, and Frank must go on their own quest and unite Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter for the impending fight with Gaia, foretold in the Great Prophesy. I love Frank and Hazel so much, so it was nice to reread this one.
4.5/5 gold-eating horses

New Books Read

The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak*
Do you ever binge-read things not because you like them but just because you want to? I didn’t think this book was amazing, but that did not stop me from reading it in like two days just because I wanted to spend the whole weekend reading. It’s a thriller. I’m realizing I don’t really like thrillers. CIA agent (whose name I can’t remember) gets a tip that an American politician is about to be assassinated, but her superiors don’t believe the tip. When the American politician dies, she is pulled into a Russian plot to destabilize the US, and the more she learns, the more she suspects her father, a former CIA agent, is somehow wrapped up in the intrigue, relating back to something that happened when he was stationed in Helsinki when she was just a child. The characters were pretty flat; the plot was reasonably entertaining. I kept waiting for a twist that didn’t really come, and the ending didn’t feel totally wrapped up. But it was okay.
3/5 Russian oligarchs

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
**Book Hangover Alert
This book was the spooky vibes I was looking for when I read The Stranger Upstairs. Opal is a young woman just trying to take care of her younger brother after the death of their mother in a small town slowly being poisoned by the nearby power plant. Out of desperation and strange curiosity, Opal takes a job as a housekeeper for the town’s most mysterious young man at the local haunted house. But Opal will learn there’s much more to the house, the young man, the town, and her own past than she ever knew. It was delightful. I loved Opal and her found family and the house and the spooky vibes.
5/5 spooky creatures

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins***
**Book Hangover Alert
*This book includes only straight white cis people
Prequel to the Hunger Games Series
CW: war, death, oppression
This book somehow ended up with all three designations. Yes, it only includes straight, white cis people, but I think it is at least partly intentional, as it supports the repressive society Collins is creating. And I still believe this is a book that will help improve your social consciousness, despite that lack of diversity. Collins writes an incisive critique of war, fascism, and the sensationalization of news and reality TV. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a young Coriolanus Snow growing up in the Capital and shows how his involvement in the development of the Hunger Games leads to the games we see in the Hunger Games trilogy 64 years later. I know this book came out in 2020 and Collins probably wasn’t explicitly basing it on the Israel/Palestine conflict (and let’s face it, there are many authoritarian regimes to be inspired by–not least her explicit Roman Empire references), but it’s impossible not to draw parallels between the propaganda of Israel and the outsized reaction of the Israeli military following the October 7th Hamas attack. As the United States slides toward fascism, I feel like Collins was like, “You guys apparently didn’t get it when I wrote the first three Hunger Games books, so here’s another one. Do you get it now?!”
5/5 sponsors

Reading Pictures by Alberto Manguel
I read this in preparation for a class I’m going to teach in the spring. It is a series of essays about how to interpret art. It was fascinating and I enjoyed it very much. I plan to use several of the essays as readings for my class.
4/5 paintings

Zeroville by Steve Erickson
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: child abuse
I don’t even know how to write a review for this book. It was very weird. In a good way. Movie fanatic Vikar moves to LA in 1969 to work in the movies. He works as a set builder and movie editor and through dreams and the movies he sees, begins to make a momentous discovery. Vikar read as an autistic character to me, and I thought that was well done. I also liked the way Erikson played with form in this novel, from the chapter breaks and numeration, and the way his scenes sometimes read like individual frames in a movie. Wild.
4/5 movies

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: sexual assault, oppression, war, abuse, torture
If you’re looking to learn more about Palestine, but not really feeling history/nonfiction books, this is a great choice. The story follows Nahr, a Palestinian growing up in Kuwait, where her parents fled to from Palestine, and her journey to return to Palestine and work for the freedom of her homeland. The prose was lovely; Nahr’s journey from thoughtless teen to mature woman was beautifully done. And I also feel like a learned a lot about the Palestinian conflict, without having to read history.
4.5/5 dances

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen*
This retelling of The Nutcracker was fun for December. It was deliciously dark and I really enjoyed it. Clara and Natasha are twins, blessed or cursed at birth by their godfather Herr Drosselmeyer, Clara to be light and Natasha to be dark. The sisters grow up and apart with these designations coloring all their relationships. The Christmas they turn seventeen, Herr Drosselmeyer returns with enchanted gifts: a nutcracker and a clown that seem to be more than just toys. That night the girls cross into the Kingdom of Sweets, and Natasha takes the chance to seize her own destiny. I was just a little disappointed there was no Mouse King in this retelling. I love a good Mouse King.
3.5/5 sweets

Ithaca by Claire North
**Book Hangover Alert
Book 1 of 3 House of Odysseus
You know me, I’m a sucker for a Greek myth retelling, especially a feminist one. This book tells the story of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, as she waited twenty long years for his return. If this is a story you think you know, you’ve never heard it told by Hera, queen of the gods. I loved it. It was excellent. I’m excited to read the rest of the books.
5/5 warrior women

Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson*
Book 1 of 7 Kingdom Keepers
I’ve been meaning to read these for a long time. They’re fun for us crazy Disney nerds. Finn and four other kids are chosen to be holographic hosts at the Walt Disney World parks. But the kids quickly learn that it wasn’t just a quick acting job; every night when they go to sleep, they wake up as holographs in the Magic Kingdom. They must work together to save the park from the forces of evil. It’s fun. It’s not amazing or anything. But a quick, easy read.
3.5/5 Small World dolls

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
**Book Hangover Alert
Book 1 of 2 Six Crimson Cranes
And we go out with a bang! My last book of the year was excellent, thanks for asking. This book has everything; a beautiful map, a lush, Asian-inspired fantasy world, evil enchanters, magic, dragons, a plucky young heroine, and just a little sprinkling of romance. I adored it. Shiori is dreading her betrothal, but she’s got bigger problems. Magic has been banned in Kiata, and Shiori has a natural talent. After Shiori learns her stepmother is also an enchantress, her stepmother curses her and her six brothers and banishes them to the outskirts of the empire. Shiori must figure out how to break the curse and save her kingdom.
4.5/5 paper birds

*This book only includes straight, white, cis people.

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! First a caveat: I have decided that simply having queer people and/or people of color in a book is not enough to qualify it for the Books for a Social Conscience distinction. That sets the bar too low. So while in the past I would have included The Heroes of Olympus books, Starling House, Ithaca, and Six Crimson Cranes, I will not be including them in the new system. We love representation! Don’t get me wrong, but honestly at this point if you don’t have queer people and/or people of color in your book, like what are you doing? I will now be including a new designation: *This book only includes straight, white, cis people.

Anyway, read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes for a critique of fascism, war, and media. Read Against the Loveless World to learn more about the Israel/Palestine conflict, particularly how it affects women.

November 6, 2023November 6, 2023

October 2023 Books

Books Reread

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang***
**Book Hangover Alert
Lots of rereading this month. I reread Kuang’s Yellowface, even though I just read it in May, because Kuang came to speak to my MFA cohort. She was fabulous. So smart and so kind. This book was also just as good the second time. I really admire how Kuang created the character of June–someone who we don’t like, who is not a good person, but is still compelling and complicated, and I have to keep reading about. (About the photo, Kuang told us in one of her chats with my MFA cohort that one of the early design drafts of the book had a maneki neko on the back cover, which is not relevant at all to the story. They’re Japanese, not Chinese, but I guess maybe the designers were like ‘they’re stereotypically Asian? And the book is about Asian stereotypes as perceived by white people?’)
5/5 angry tweets

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians book 4 of 5
This is the Percy Jackson book that I remembered the least about. It was nice to reread it and get to see more of Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Tyson.
3.5/5 hundred handed ones

Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston***
**Book Hangover Alert
Still gay. Still slaps. You can read my original review in the January 2021 blog. I wanted to reread this after seeing the movie, which I think Amazon Prime did a great job with. Of course a lot of the details are missing–there’s only so much of a 400 page book you can put in a 2 hour movie. I was sad Alex’s sister June disappeared, but she was kind of combined with Nora. I was also a little sad the movie cut the Rafael Luna subplot and much of Henry’s family drama. But my biggest beef with the movie, I think, is that the president wasn’t divorced. I really appreciated the family dynamics in the book.
5/5 historical love letters

*A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The project I’m writing for NaNoWriMo this year is a retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in a high school a la She’s the Man and 10 Things I Hate About You. So I reread the play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream involves many couples and a lot of confusion as Oberon, king of the faeries and his sidekick Puck do a little matchmaking that doesn’t go quite as planned. I don’t think this is Shakespeare’s best comedy, but it is still great and it’s the first Shakespeare story I remember reading. I also saw it performed at the Globe in London and it was most excellent. So I had fun reading it and underlining good lines and being inspired for my NaNo project.
4/5 faeries

New Books Read

Teach the Torches to Burn by Caleb Roehrig
Part of the Remixed Classics series
In the realm of Shakespeare retellings is this Romeo and Juliet retelling. It’s unfortunately not set in a high school, but is set in the original time and place. The story follows Romeo, who is gay in this version, and explores the question of controlling one’s own destiny. I enjoyed it. It wasn’t how I would have done an R&J retelling, but that is okay. I did really like that Juliet was ace. One thing I struggle with in Shakespeare adaptations is the language. In my opinion the best options are: 1) keep Shakespeare’s language no matter what else you change (this is why Baz Luhrman’s R&J works and the 2013 movie with Hailee Steinfeld does not) or 2) stick to contemporary language (see She’s the Man, 10 things I Hate About You, and Rosaline). Where the Hailee Steinfeld movie goes wrong is by not using Shakespeare’s words, but still trying to use some kind of old fashioned language. It’s just bad. This novel I felt did try a to sound a little old fashioned in its prose which really bothered me during the first half. I eventually got used to it, but I thought Roehrig should have just stuck with a more contemporary voice.
3.5/5 torches

*Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
CW: murder, gore, body horror
I love an Erik Larson history book. Thunderstruck follows the development of Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless communication technology, interwoven with the story of Hawley Crippen, a mild-mannered doctor who becomes an unlikely murderer. Larson seamlessly weaves these two seemingly disparate stories together. I wasn’t as interested in all the technical discussion of Marconi’s invention, but Larson does do a pretty good job of making it understandable for those of us who don’t know much about science or technology.
3.5/5 wireless messages

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Legends and Lattes book 1
This book has been described as a warm hug of a book, and that is 100% correct. Leaving a life of adventuring, Viv opens a coffee shop in a city that’s never heard of coffee before. With her newfound friends, she has to learn to solve problems without her sword. I just adored it. I love a good found family trope. I love a low stakes reading experience. I love two strong independent women falling in love.
5/5 cups of coffee

*The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin
CW: alcoholism, murder, depression, anxiety
This was my Book of the Month for September and I must say I was disappointed. I’m in general not much of a thriller reader but I thought I’d try it. It sounded spooky and fun for autumn. It was not really that spooky and not really fun. I also wouldn’t say I found myself ‘thrilled.’ Sarah Slade and her husband move into a spooky murder house with the intention of fixing it up and selling it. But Sarah’s Instagram perfect life isn’t perfect IRL. Her marriage is failing and it seems like the house doesn’t want to be fixed. The main character is really unlikable, and while I don’t think that’s a problem in and of itself (see June from Yellowface above), I didn’t find the main character compelling in any way. I didn’t care if she lived or died. I didn’t care if anyone in the story lived or died (except for the cat! I was concerned when the cat almost died). One more complaint which is a spoiler: Read More: SPOILERS AHEAD

I also didn’t feel like Matlin actually decided what the deal with the house was. Was the house actually alive and driving people crazy? Or was it just carbon monoxide poisoning? Instead of the ending feeling ambiguous and open for the reader, it just felt like Matlin didn’t make a decision.

2.5/5 poisoned cats

In Mercy, Rain by Seanan McGuire
Wayward Children companion
This isn’t a novel, it’s a short story companion to the Wayward Children books, but I’m including it on the blog anyway. I usually grab one of the Wayward Children books from the library every time I don’t have anything to read on Libby because my holds won’t be in for a few weeks. But this time I discovered I’ve read all the Wayward Children books that are currently published. So I checked out this short story and the next one. This one is a story about Jack, one of our enduring favorite characters from the series, and it explores her training with Dr. Bleak and her meeting Alexis.
3/5 lightning strikes

Skeleton Song by Seanan McGuire
Wayward Children companion
I’m so glad McGuire wrote this because I’ve been wondering about Mariposa ever since we met Christopher in the first book. I always love exploring new worlds with McGuire’s characters, and this little tidbit was so fun.
3/5 bones

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green***
**Book Hangover Alert
The Carls book 2 of 2
I had to stop in the middle of this one because it returned itself to the library, but I finally finished it! I really enjoyed this book, possibly even more than the first one, though to be fair, I didn’t remember the first one amazingly well (I read the wikipedia page on the first one before I read this one). I liked the examination of power and technology. I liked the found family trope and all the characters (except Andy was a little annoying sometimes).
4/5 alien presences

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! First a caveat: I have decided that simply having queer people and/or people of color in a book is not enough to qualify it for the Books for a Social Conscience distinction. That sets the bar too low. So while in the past I would have marked Teach the Torches to Burn, Legends & Lattes, and the Wayward Children stories, I am not counting them under the new system. We love representation! Don’t get me wrong, but honestly at this point if you don’t have queer people and/or people of color in your book, like what are you doing? I will now be including a new designation: *This book only includes straight, white, cis people.

Anyway, read Yellowface for a nuanced look at anti-Asian racism and racism in general in the publishing industry. Read Red, White, & Royal Blue not only for LGBTQIA+ representation, but also for how those identities interact with life in the public sphere. Read A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor to explore technology, power, and privilege.

*This book only includes straight, white, cis people.

June 1, 2022

May 2022 Books

New Books Read

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
**Book Hangover Alert
I loved this book. It was my March BOTM pick and I loved the mystery of it and the magic of maps. Shepherd really managed to instill a sense of wonder in the art of looking at and learning from maps. I feel like I appreciate maps in a whole new way now. I also liked the development of Nell’s character and the growth of her found family throughout the story.
4.5/5 gas station maps

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
There are spoilers in this review. I feel like they aren’t really spoilers because this book has been out for over 150 years, but just in case you want to read it (which I actually don’t recommend) don’t read the spoilers. I’m not sure why I finished reading this book. It’s definitely way too long. And only the parts about Anna Karenina are interesting. I did not care about Levin and how much he liked farming and that he found God in the end (spoiler alert, I guess?). Also, if I had a nickel for every time the death of a horse early in a Victorian novel foreshadowed the death of the leading lady, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice (another spoiler, I guess). All in all, you should just watch the Kiera Knightly movie instead, even though Vronsky has terrible hair and a bad mustache.
2.5/5 unfaithful partners

Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia***
This was an adaptation of a play arranged for Audible. It addressed some important themes for young women, especially young women of color from underprivileged backgrounds. It’s a story of a young woman trying to balance the expectations of her family and cultural roots with finding her own freedom growing up in the UK.
3/5 pretty hijab pins

I Live a Life Like Yours by Jan Grue***
Grue spoke at a panel on disability and creativity at the Bay Area Book Festival which I went to a few weekends ago. I really liked the panel and thought Grue had a lot of interesting things to say, so I went and read his memoir. I like his writing style and how scholarly it was. It wasn’t simply a catalogue of his own experiences, but a story very much in conversation with disability theorists.
3.5/5 wheelchairs

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
CW: racism, unnecessary killing of fish and sharks
This was an old book I think my dad was trying to get rid of but I stole it. It’s a fun adventure story. It is a very “boys will be boys” thing to decide to float across the Pacific in a wooden raft just because no one would publish your theory about how the South Pacific islands were populated. It’s also a very white man thing to say “no, of course there’s no way primitive people from Peru could have sailed all the way to the South Pacific in wooden rafts” even though both Peruvians and Polynesians had stories about people who left before the Inca rose to power and sailed west (Peru’s story), and ancestors who arrived from the east and peopled the islands (Polynesia’s story). But I digress. I enjoyed reading it, even though I had a hard time getting over the author’s torment of sharks for no apparent reason (boredom?) and the fact that they just chucked all their trash into the ocean as they went. I know they’re certainly not the first or the only people to litter in the ocean, but it still annoyed me. It also annoyed me that Heyerdahl felt like he had to mention the skin color of every person they encountered who wasn’t white. It is certainly a product of the 1950s. I also can’t get over that they actually developed film on the raft from their film cameras.
3/5 balsa rafts

Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
CW: domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking
This was a solidly average book. It was enjoyable but not special. I liked learning about the music business and I liked how it highlighted the misogyny in the industry, especially in country music. I liked the full cast audio recording, especially as Dolly Parton reads one of the characters. I did feel like there were some story threads that were dropped and never got resolved, and I would have appreciated being able to solve at least parts of the mystery on my own as a reader before we were just told at the end. I liked that Annie Lee was trying to be a strong independent woman, but it got annoying that she would never ask for help and needed rescuing in the end.
3/5 guitars

I felt like I should have gone to Muir Woods to take a picture of this book but this tree by my apartment had to do.

The Overstory by Richard Powers***
**Book Hangover Alert
I’m still not really sure I’ve processed this book. It was really good. But I wouldn’t necessarily say it was enjoyable to read. It’s about trees. About forests and about ecosystems and about sentience that humans have no right to destroy. It will probably change the way you think about trees and it will probably make you very sad about deforestation, like it made me. But there is a grain of hope at the end? That I might not ever live to see?
4/5 redwoods

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders***
CW: genocide, fantasy racism, transphobia (mentioned)
This was exactly what I hoped it would be: a queer escapist space fantasy. I loved the focus on strong friendships and bodily autonomy and consent. I loved that every character shared their pronoun in their introduction and I loved that all the characters asked for permission before they touched each other. It was a fun read and I’m excited to read the rest of the series. My only real criticism is that I wish fewer of the aliens had died and that more aliens had gotten to be major characters, apart from the Earthlings.
3.5/5 universal translators

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston***
CW: homophobia, religious trauma
This one was fun. I picked it up at the Bay Area Book Festival after I heard McQuiston speak on a panel, and I also got it signed! I don’t think I liked it quite as much as McQuiston’s first two books, but it was still a fun read. I liked the exploration of queerness in the context of a small southern town and a religious school.
4/5 pink notes

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande***
CW: alcoholism, PTSD, domestic violence, child abuse, neglect
A memoir of a young immigrant from Mexico trying to make her way in the United States. This isn’t an easy story to read. Grande has faced a lot of really difficult struggles. But in her story we can learn more about immigrant experiences and the realities of the ever elusive American dream.
3.5/5 first generation college graduates

Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson
CW: PTSD, death
This book was fun! It was exactly the monster-killing, sisterhood vibes I was hoping for. I really appreciated that the main character was struggling with trying to decide whether to be a part of a toxic organization and try to change it from within, or to quit and get out of that space. I relate to that struggle. There were just a couple things I didn’t like as much. I do resent a little bit all the insinuations that Girl Scouts just sell cookies. I also thought it was gross that the author kept pointing out whenever Kelsey slurped spit off her braces. While this is a believable character trait, it’s gross and I don’t want to read about it. There were a couple of sections of the book inexplicably in verse and I feel like it was necessary or really added anything, but overall I enjoyed it.
3.5/5 mulligrubs

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong***
**Book Hangover Alert
Who gave Ocean Vuong permission to write like that? This is his third book, second poetry collection, and I think it’s his strongest. He’s always been amazing but he’s just getting better. Favorites include “Beautiful Short Loser,” “Dear Sara,” “The Last Prom Queen in Antarctica,” and “Woodworking at the End of the World.”
4/5 ants on the page

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson***
**Book Hangover Alert
CW: see Author’s Note at the beginning of the book
I adored this book. I bought it after hearing Ferguson speak at the Bay Area Book Festival and the only regret I have is that I didn’t get it signed by her. We love that Native and asexual representation so much. This book was just so well done, I don’t even know what to say. I loved the characters; I loved the struggle of balancing your identity with what other people want you to be; I loved the sense of community and the focus on the land. Also I just really want to eat all the ice cream described in the book.
5/5 reds

***This book is part of my Books for a Social Conscience series! Read Diary of a Hounslow Girl to learn about balancing cultural and familial expectations with finding freedom and identity. Read I Live a Life Like Yours to learn more about disability experience through a non-American lens. Read The Overstory to grow your empathy for trees, the earth, and the environment. Read Victories Greater than Death for a diverse sci-fi story. Read I Kissed Shara Wheeler for an exploration of queerness in the context of a small, southern, religious town. Read The Distance Between Us to learn about the immigrant experience. Read Time Is a Mother to learn more about AAPI and LGBTQ+ experience. Read The Summer of Bitter and Sweet to learn about Native and asexual experience.