Bookwormish, 3rd quarter of 2021
In the spirit of doing things perhaps a little less comprehensively than I usually might, in order to have a hope of getting them done at all.....
VERY TOP BOOKS
Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey! and Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Ukazu - OH MAN. I got sucked in at last. :D Being in fandom spaces, I'd long been peripherally aware of Check, Please! but I guess I'd sort of subconsciously pooh-poohed the concept (despite knowing next to nothing about it)? Hockey bros, but they're gay and fall in love? Sounds like a fannish fantasy... Well, it turns out, yes, it's perhaps a bit of a fantasy, but of the most AFFIRMING, HEARTWARMING, JUST-WANT-TO-SNUGGLE-THIS-BOOK-TO-MY-CHEST kind. Oh goodness. I read the whole series, and then I read it again. (And I've been reading fic for it ever since.)
The Street by Ann Petry - The rare case of a book that I went into knowing almost nothing about it, only that a friend had recommended it. And I'm glad, because the experience was powerful. Searing social commentary that manages to pass itself off as a thriller.
MORE TOP BOOKS
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron - This should come as no surprise, but being told "the way you are isn't actually wrong, and here's science that shows why your way is just one of many normal ways of being" does a person good!
Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo - A beautiful and intriguing novel in verse about the immigrant experience, and the grass-is-always-greener longing for the life we didn't lead.
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943 by Etty Hillesum, introduced by J.G. Gaarlandt, translated from Dutch by Arno Pomerans - Fascinating; in just these couple of years (until she was murdered in the Holocaust) Etty Hillesum's diaries chart her growth from a discontented and directionless young woman to a person with incredible depth and inner resources, who found joy and meaning even in the worst of places.
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS
When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll - Emily Carroll continues to be brilliant, and this book is both gorgeous and frustrating - even after a reread, I'm not sure I "get" it. (But she clearly intended it that way.)
Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina - Coming of age in the "Summer of Sam" - i.e., navigating being a young woman in a world with the constant threat of violence, both public and private, against women. Meg Medina has such a deft hand.
Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater - A very solid follow-up to the first in the Dreamer Trilogy, Call Down the Hawk. That first book gave us a new landscape of possibilities for Ronan, beyond the context of the Raven Cycle. Now this second book explodes that world outward. And asks some interesting morally gray questions. (And now I brace myself to be disappointed by the final book in the series, because Stiefvater has a history of that.)
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, translated from Arabic by Rajaa Alsanea and Marilyn Booth - A very interesting read, for the different cultural perspective it offered. I have to admit, for something that was so controversial in Saudi Arabia, I was expecting it to be a lot more critical of Saudi culture than it was!
Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo - The final installment in a trio of stories that started with Raymie Nightingale; this one is a really lovely portrait of a character who's been taught by life not to trust learning to trust again.
Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston - This was recommended to me as being like Harry Potter but with much better representation and diversity, and it came through on the promise! I did feel outside the target audience and am unlikely to feel invested enough to read the whole series, but I bet it would be great for middle-grade aged kids.
The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor - Slightly disorienting, because it's the only one of Mildred D. Taylor's books where she gives the characters (based on her own family) different names from the ones they have in the Logan family series, and it's set in a later time period. But I'm reading this series thoroughly and completely!
Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton - Came across this by total chance, and it's a wonderful window into a very specific time and place, based on the real experiences of the co-author as an Inuvialuit (Inuit) girl at a residential school.
Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez - The plot here lost me significantly more than in the first book (Sal and Gabi Break the Universe) but it certainly did continue the charmingly goofy and loving world of these characters.
also:
Tinyville Town: I’m a Librarian by Brian Biggs (a very charming board book) - This crossed my desk at the library (have I even mentioned that I finally, finally have a job at the library?) and I fell instantly in love. It's a board book about a day in the life of a librarian, and literally the first thing the librarian character does is declare "I'm very good at answering questions"! And it goes on being charming from there.
.
(Crossposted from this post on Dreamwidth, which is now my primary journal. Comments are fine in either place.)
VERY TOP BOOKS
Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey! and Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Ukazu - OH MAN. I got sucked in at last. :D Being in fandom spaces, I'd long been peripherally aware of Check, Please! but I guess I'd sort of subconsciously pooh-poohed the concept (despite knowing next to nothing about it)? Hockey bros, but they're gay and fall in love? Sounds like a fannish fantasy... Well, it turns out, yes, it's perhaps a bit of a fantasy, but of the most AFFIRMING, HEARTWARMING, JUST-WANT-TO-SNUGGLE-THIS-BOOK-TO-MY-CHEST kind. Oh goodness. I read the whole series, and then I read it again. (And I've been reading fic for it ever since.)
The Street by Ann Petry - The rare case of a book that I went into knowing almost nothing about it, only that a friend had recommended it. And I'm glad, because the experience was powerful. Searing social commentary that manages to pass itself off as a thriller.
MORE TOP BOOKS
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron - This should come as no surprise, but being told "the way you are isn't actually wrong, and here's science that shows why your way is just one of many normal ways of being" does a person good!
Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo - A beautiful and intriguing novel in verse about the immigrant experience, and the grass-is-always-greener longing for the life we didn't lead.
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943 by Etty Hillesum, introduced by J.G. Gaarlandt, translated from Dutch by Arno Pomerans - Fascinating; in just these couple of years (until she was murdered in the Holocaust) Etty Hillesum's diaries chart her growth from a discontented and directionless young woman to a person with incredible depth and inner resources, who found joy and meaning even in the worst of places.
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS
When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll - Emily Carroll continues to be brilliant, and this book is both gorgeous and frustrating - even after a reread, I'm not sure I "get" it. (But she clearly intended it that way.)
Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina - Coming of age in the "Summer of Sam" - i.e., navigating being a young woman in a world with the constant threat of violence, both public and private, against women. Meg Medina has such a deft hand.
Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater - A very solid follow-up to the first in the Dreamer Trilogy, Call Down the Hawk. That first book gave us a new landscape of possibilities for Ronan, beyond the context of the Raven Cycle. Now this second book explodes that world outward. And asks some interesting morally gray questions. (And now I brace myself to be disappointed by the final book in the series, because Stiefvater has a history of that.)
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, translated from Arabic by Rajaa Alsanea and Marilyn Booth - A very interesting read, for the different cultural perspective it offered. I have to admit, for something that was so controversial in Saudi Arabia, I was expecting it to be a lot more critical of Saudi culture than it was!
Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo - The final installment in a trio of stories that started with Raymie Nightingale; this one is a really lovely portrait of a character who's been taught by life not to trust learning to trust again.
Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston - This was recommended to me as being like Harry Potter but with much better representation and diversity, and it came through on the promise! I did feel outside the target audience and am unlikely to feel invested enough to read the whole series, but I bet it would be great for middle-grade aged kids.
The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor - Slightly disorienting, because it's the only one of Mildred D. Taylor's books where she gives the characters (based on her own family) different names from the ones they have in the Logan family series, and it's set in a later time period. But I'm reading this series thoroughly and completely!
Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton - Came across this by total chance, and it's a wonderful window into a very specific time and place, based on the real experiences of the co-author as an Inuvialuit (Inuit) girl at a residential school.
Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez - The plot here lost me significantly more than in the first book (Sal and Gabi Break the Universe) but it certainly did continue the charmingly goofy and loving world of these characters.
also:
Tinyville Town: I’m a Librarian by Brian Biggs (a very charming board book) - This crossed my desk at the library (have I even mentioned that I finally, finally have a job at the library?) and I fell instantly in love. It's a board book about a day in the life of a librarian, and literally the first thing the librarian character does is declare "I'm very good at answering questions"! And it goes on being charming from there.
.
(Crossposted from this post on Dreamwidth, which is now my primary journal. Comments are fine in either place.)