Loathe at First Sight (by Suzanne Park)

A feminist romcom set in Seattle's computer gaming industry. My husband works in this industry and everything about it was hilariously (if also depressingly) on point.

Melody Joo is our main character, a junior producer who jokingly pitches a game about male strippers stopping the apocalypse that ends up getting produced. I enjoyed the characters here, especially her Korean parents (reminded me very much of my Dutch parents) and her friends. It was refreshing to have a wedding bridezilla storyline that was handled reasonably. Melody was smart and good at standing up for herself, which I loved.

The weakness here for me was the romance itself. The "Loathe at First Sight" title would have worked better if she actually did get together with the character she loathed, a totally different person from her somewhat generic love interest, who she didn't exactly ever loathe. But I enjoyed everything else so much, I didn't really focus on the romance. Not ideal in a romcom but still made for an enjoyable read. 

(Note that she gets attacked by racist/misogynistic online trolls, and it's quite realistic, and potentially triggering.)

The Lacemaker And The Princess (by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley)

Category is: "a middle grade book that doesn’t take place in the U.S. or the UK" and thus I read this middle-grade historical novel about a young lacemaker named Isabelle who encounters Marie Antoinette one day, and becomes a companion to her daughter. This is based on a real story about a commoner who did become a companion to Marie-Therese at Versailles.

This novel shows the French revolution from both sides: on the one hand, Isabelle lives in the palace, where the royal family is kind to her; on the other she lives in relative poverty, and Isabelle's brother George has revolutionary ideas and works for the Marquis de Lafayette (who I definitely did not envision as Daveed Diggs, similarly to how I definitely did not envision Marie Antoinette as Kirsten Dunst).

This was a solid middle-grade offering, which made me want to go back and reread Antonia Fraser's biography of Antoinette and also visit Versailles. It's 2020, so I can do the former, but not the latter. Someday!

More Queer YA

If you noticed my edits to this post you may have noticed that I'm on a queer YA kick right now, I finished another one last night, re-read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (boy I do not like Leah) and am halfway through my fifth queer YA in three days.  Maybe I'll keep this post in drafts until the time is right to publish.

I'll Be The One (by Lyla Lee) 

This is about a plus-sized Korean-American singer and dancer who joins a reality Kpop competition. I particularly enjoyed: looking up all the different Kpop songs and artists referenced; the complicated relationship she has with her mother, who is vocally ashamed of her weight; and as opposed to the last book I read, the amazing depiction of bisexual characters. No spoilers but one twist in particular made me extremely happy. There is some cartoon-level fatphobia but I can't be mad at it, really, since the message is so good. 

Hot Dog Girl (by Jennifer Dugan) 

Okay this is what I'm talking about! The perfect queer YA. Not super predictable, which I appreciated, and the setting (a dilapidated local amusement park) was so vividly drawn. This was funny and charming, and I absolutely loved the central romance. Highly recommended!

The Meaning of Birds (by Jaye Robin Brown)

This is about a girl grieving the death of her girlfriend from a flu-like illness compounded by asthma, so not exactly escapist fare. I was hoping there would be more of a healing narrative but she's really only starting to heal by the end, which makes for a realistic and touching read, but I really wanted less grief and anger since I am immersed in grief and anger right now. This was possibly not the book for this particular moment in time. 

Late to the Party (by Kelly Quindlen)

This was good but there was something off about it, perhaps a slight lack of a spark from the characters, particularly the main character. I wonder if it was the dialogue? Not sure! It was good but not great, for reasons I can't quite articulate. I feel like I have to keep reading these queer YA novels until I find one I enjoyed as much as Hot Dog Girl. Or well it's been a week since I started this binge, maybe it's time to read something else!

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found (by Mary Beard)

I read this for the category "a book about a natural disaster." I picked this up after our visit to Pompeii a few years ago, but hadn't read it before. 

It is this weird mix of very interesting and very disappointing. Beard is one of the foremost experts on Pompeii, and it's chock-full of fascinating tidbits about the life of the city. I'm glad to have read it on paper too; the illustrations and colored plates really bring everything to life.

But the title ("fires of Vesuvius") implied a focus on the actual disaster that the book didn't pay off. Other than a prologue about some of the bodies found by archeologists, there was very little about the disaster itself, which was a bummer. I would have second thoughts about counting this at all given the lack of focus on the disaster for the "about a disaster" category, except that 1) it took me a long time to read; and 2) it's a particularly awful month in a particularly awful year, so I'm cutting myself some slack.

I also was looking forward to reading about the meaning of the phalluses and the experiences of the brothels but she kind of didn't cover that in much detail. I was like "yay the penis chapter is coming up" (er, no pun intended) but she was kind of snide about tourists not spending that much time in the brothel? Her authorial voice didn't quite win me over. 

Anyway it was okay, the topic was interesting, but I'd rather read another book about Pompeii, to be perfectly honest.

LGBTQ Young Adult Romance

Updating this post because a daily dose of LGBTQ YA is my current comfort reading, and I will probably read another one today to be quite honest.

Girl Crushed (by Katie Heaney)

I was going to highly recommend this, as it was a sweet queer romance with excellent writing. Also there was a bisexual character, which I always appreciate! But it turns out the author has made some biphobic statements in the past, particularly attacking "bisexual women married to straight men" which happens to include me. This made me see the bisexual character (and her commitmentphobia) through a new lens, as this does play into bisexual stereotypes. So I'm disappointed.  Yay amazing writing writing! Boo biphobia.

The Summer of Impossibilities (by Rachael Allen) 

This suffered a tiny bit by having some overly black-and-white characters and wrapped up a bit too neatly but still enjoyed this. Also had some similarities to my own YA in Amelia Grace's story (and makes me think I should potentially make my villains less black and white). 

Date Me, Bryson Keller (by Kevin Van Whye)

 This book of young gay love has a fun premise and great messaging! But it falls short in comparison of Love, Simon, for me. 

I loved Bryson as a character, but found his overall arc not fully believable. I also loved Kai, but found the idea that he, a deeply closeted person, would out himself as part of an extremely public challenge and then be like "but it's secret!" did not quite track. Maybe his subconscious was nudging him to do it, but the opportunities he had to back out and didn't, rang false. 

 There was also a bit of didacticism (didactic-ness?) around the fact that being gay is AOK even if you're religious, but my own similarly themed young adult novel does this too, so I shouldn't throw stones. I see it as aimed towards the young adult audience moreso than adults who are reading young adult, if this makes sense.

Overall I liked it and found it charming! Just not quite a five-star read for me.

Murderbot and Meal

Here are two completely unrelated books that I read this week. (Well, one thing they have in common is that they are both short.)

Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries (by Martha Wells) 

The second book in the delightful Murderbot series! I was actually halfway through the third one and then my library checkout expired, so it will take a bit for it to come back around. But I love Murderbot and am excited to keep reading the series. If you know, then you know. 

Meal (by Blue Delliquanti and Soleil Ho)

Allow me to take a moment to point out how annoying it is when Bookriot creates a category for the RHC and then recommends books that don't fit.  The category is "A food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before" and they suggest Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat? How does that make any sense? I hold myself to a higher standard.

It turns out I've tried a lot of cuisines so was stuck for a bit, until the Goodreads group recommended Meal, a graphic novel about entomophagy, aka eating insects. I once sat across from my husband as he ate crickets in a Oaxacan restaurant, and I had delicious chicken mole instead, because no. I enjoyed learning more about the tradition of entomophagy, even if I have a very typical White westerner reaction to the whole thing. The book was a quick read and the romance was cute.

I find it impossible to believe any restaurant would have a crowd outside excited to eat whole tarantulas, though.

Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You (by Lin-Manuel Miranda)

This was for the "audiobook of poetry" category of the RHC, which means it was narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda.  It seems to be a compilation of bookended tweets, which start off with a "gmorning" and ends with a "gnight" and expresses love, affirmation, and optimism. Here's an example:

Gnight.
This moment will pass.
This fatigue will pass.
Tonight will pass.
But look at you, with the gift of imagination.
You can teleport to where you're happiest just by closing your eyes and breathing.
Then come right back to now, check in with the present.
You magic thing, you.

I'm considering buying the audiobook (this was a library loan) because he's so positive and uplifting, and his messages are so great, I think Mina could use this in her rotation as well. LMM is a treasure. (And, I will never neglect to mention, called me "sweetheart" once outside the Richard Rodgers theater.)