The Magical Art of Tidying Up (by Marie Kondo)

Okay yes, some of this is a little woo for my tastes. But I already did the KonMari method on my bags and it really did work! I got rid of almost all of them and I could absolutely tell which did and did not spark joy.

The teardowns on Goodreds are priceless though, like this one from Laurie Notaro:

I laughed out loud four times reading this book. Otherwise, it's the ravings of a lunatic. Funniest moments include the author bursting into tears when she discovers a smudge of bathroom slime on the bottom of her shampoo bottle and that she believes if you have 80 rolls of toilet paper in your house, you are a hoarder instead of a Coscto member. This is a woman who has her entire bookshelf in her clothes closet; if I walk into your house and you do not have 200 books laying around that you haven't read yet, I simply don't trust you as a human being.

I do want (and need) to do some decluttering, but I solemnly swear to take Kondo with a grain of Japanese sea salt.

Opposite of Always (by Justin A. Reynolds)

Groundhog Day, except that Jack (our the lead character) keeps going back in time in order to save the love of his life, Kate, from dying of sickle cell anemia.

It's very charming, I love that both Jack and Kate are Black and most of the other characters are POC, but it doesn't define the story. I really loved Jack and Kate as individuals and as a couple. It's super cute!

 Just pretend this is an addendum to my last post, because I don't have a whole lot else to say!

YA Romcom Trio

So I don't know if you've heard but there's this pandemic thing happening. Which means more time for reading, I guess? This weekend I got on a young adult kick and ended up reading three books, which were:

Amelia Westlake Was Never Here (by Erin Gough)

The best of the three. The best writing and the best romance! It's Australian, told in alternating first person, between a super uptight overachiever named Harriet and a rebellious troublemaker named Will (short for Wilhemina). They go to a fancy schmancy school with a secret Big Little Lies-esque underbelly and together they create a fictonal schoolmate named Amelia Westlake. Highly recommend!

Going Off Script (by Jen Wilde)

I didn't realize until the end that this is by the author of Queens of Geek, but that makes sense. It's cute, queer, and quirky, and I loved the setting (the production of a supernatural TV show) but I feel like I know too much about the industry (I have family members who have worked on supernatural TV shows) to fully buy it. No teenager would get this internship, no teenager would be kept on after overstepping bounds, no teenager would get a writing credit, and no studio head would be a black woman.  Unfortunate, but true! Otherwise, it was cute and pop-culturey.

Again, But Better (by Christine Riccio)

Shane goes to study abroad in London, things go horribly wrong, she gets a second chance to put them right. The lead character is 20 (and then in a flash-forward, 26) but reads like a much younger teenager, obsessed with pop culture and unable to take ownership of her life. I did enjoy the dialogue, and Shane as a character, and the idea of exploring a late bloomer. As someone who also didn't get the full college experience (and tried to make up for it in grad school) this really resonated. But Shane seems immature throughout, the names are absolutely ridiculous (her love interest is named Pilot Penn and her best friend's name is Babe) and I would rather not have had the jump in time / magical conceit since it kind of ruins what is otherwise a cute romance.

So ultimately I rate these books A, B, and C, in the above order.

Catfishing on CatNet (by Naomi Kritzer)

This book was the palate cleanser to a crappy week, and did its job perfectly. A speculative fiction young adult novel about a teen girl and her mom on the run, and an AI who befriends her.  Suspenseful, page-turning, and fun. And apparently there's a sequel, which I could really use right now, so type faster, Naomi!

Something That May Shock and Discredit You (by Daniel M. Lavery)

My experience of Danny Lavery: loved his work on the feminist website The Toast, find his newsletter The Shatner Chatner alternately brilliant and impenetrable, quit reading Dear Prudence, and enjoy interacting with him on Instagram. As a person and a writer and a thinker and a humorist, he is a delightful presence in the world.

There are occasional misses among the chapters here, for me, but someone on Goodreads nailed it when they called this "so wonderfully idiosyncratic that it's impossible to imagine anyone else writing it." I often wanted more of the traditional trans memoir, but the way the trans experience is here filtered through literary and Biblical referents really, really worked for me most of the time. It's not possible to really "explain" this "book" in a way that makes sense. All I can do is point you to an excerpt and say if it makes you want to read more, I highly recommend it.

Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story (by Debbie Tung)

As an introvert, this graphic memoir really spoke to me. I screenshotted a bunch of pages and sent them to Ian and then said "just read it, it explains me so well!" I've embraced my introvert tendencies more as an adult and sometimes feel guilty about them, but this memoir and it's message of "you're perfect just the way you are" was a comfort.

The illustration style is also incredibly charming. You can see some of her work (and Debbie herself) on her Instagram account. A great find (and not too annoying to read on my phone's Kindle either) thanks to the Read Harder Challenge.