How to Be An Antiracist (by Ibram X. Kendi)

I read this as part of a book club for work. There are about seven of us reading it, and it's a really diverse group with a mix of perspectives that has made for great discussion.

Overall I found this engaging and thought-provoking. He challenged some of my ideas, too. I now agree with him that black people can be racist or use racist power structures to their benefit, but I also think it's not up to me as a white woman to call that out. However, I disagree that "microaggression" is not a useful term, as to me it really captures something that I didn't have words for before. I also don't think he was particularly thoughtful in discussing intersectionality. 

In the end, the book's strongest takeaway was that attacking racist policy at the root is the answer, and that sometimes policy change comes first and social acceptance comes later. (As in school integration, or Obamacare, or interracial or gay marriage.)  Supporting antiracist policy and policymakers is important, and talking about how to do that on a micro scale is something I'm looking forward to discussing at our last book group meeting today!

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (by V.E. Schwab)

Such a great premise, and such a great book, reminiscent of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. Addie LaRue, born in France in 1714, makes a deal with a god of darkness. She gets immortality and eternal youth in exchange for being forgotten by everyone she meets. (She's unable even to write, or draw, or speak her name.)

We catch up with her 300 years later, in New York City, where she has figured out how to live with the curse as best she can. Until one day, something incredible happens: for the first time in 300 years, someone is able to remember her. How? And why? And what happens next?

Things I loved about this book: the premise. A perfect ending. Bisexual representation. The character of Addie herself. All the nitty gritty details of how the curse works.  I only have a couple of nitpicks: one is that I found the flashbacks way less interesting than the modern-day stuff (especially when we spent seemingly forever in the 1700s.) We briefly get cameos of famous people who have supposedly sold their souls to the same god, which makes sense in this world (like of course people would sell their souls for genius or fame) but came across a bit silly. And there is one plot hole that drove me crazy the whole book. (Will put it in spoiler tags just in case; RSS readers avert your eyes.)

Addie often will have day-long relationships with people; for example, she meets Toby, a musician, and hangs out with him and takes him home and sleeps with him, on multiple nights. Her night with Remy is described in detail as lasting many hours. And other nights as well (for example, with Sam.)  But how do any of her relationships last over several hours when human beings need to pee? This drove me crazy! And at a dinner party, one person does gt up and go to the bathroom and then forget her instantly so it's not like there's some kind of bathroom loophole. So how are all these dates even happening? Like they are hanging out eating and drinking! Sometimes it's specified that they have multiple beers somewhere and then go hone to have sex. People pee before sex! Does nobody ever have to pee? Does Addie not ever have to pee? 

Yes, this is a nitpick but could I forget about it? No, no I could not. But don't let that stop you from reading this book, it's amazing and I devoured it.

Like a Love Story (by Abdi Nazemian)

I possibly should have quit my queer YA reading spree while I was ahead, with Stay Gold. 

Loved the premise of this book,  a coming of age novel set during the AIDS epidemic in New York. The fear of AIDS, the deaths of so many, and the general homophobia of society reminds us how far we've come since then -- and the fact that the novel ends with a mention of the Pulse nightclub shooting reminds us how far we have to go. However, I had a lot of issues with this book.

• The relationships don't work. I never got a sense of friendship between Reza and Judy, other than he is very good looking and she is a horny teenager. Reza and Art have this love at first sight thing that also only seems to be based on good looks and horniness. (Which is fine and probably realistic, but don't expect me to get emotionally invested, because I won't, and I didn't.) 
• Art and Judy's friendship was the best drawn one, but their fight makes absolutely no sense. Judy decides to reject both of them without finding out what happened, and Art and Reza fail to point out that the big "betrayal" is Art trying to give Reza a flower and Reza saying "I'm not gay." Like, how is this a massive betrayal? It's not. So the giant fight (in which everyone including the adults acts like Reza and Art are horrible people) makes no sense and makes everyone look bad.
• The answer to "The Lord be with you" in a Catholic mass in the 1980s is "And also with you." The fact that "And with your spirit" is in there drove me insane. This is a small thing but as a former Catholic I couldn't let it go by.
• Other reviews have pointed out transphobia and issues of sexual consent, and I agree with those reviews.
  

Mostly though, I just wasn't emotionally engaged. Which sucks, because the premise is so great and there definitely are amazing moments and a deep history here.

Stay Gold (by Tobly McSmith)

This book had me absolutely weeping by the end of it. It is marketed as more light and fluffy than it is, so be forewarned, the main character, Pony, a trans boy, goes through some major shit in this book and it gets dark. There are very detailed content warnings on Goodreads so I won't go into it, but do give them a read-through if you like.

This is a love story between Pony, a transgender boy going stealth at his new school, and Georgia, a popular cheerleader with more to her than meets the eye. I absolutely loved their relationship, their chemistry, and these two characters, even when they broke my heart. Their friendship and banter really captures the chemistry of that high school friends-to-lovers energy.

There is a bit of "trans 101" content, which I don't think is a bad thing, and it helps make it very visceral. (Especially when a character like Georgia is completely ignorant at the beginning of the novel.) The Max character made me really angry in pressuring Pony to come out as trans. However, although there is a lot of "out and proud" messaging, I don't think the novel thinks Max is correct. He admits at the end that he was wrong and it could easily have ended horribly. But I can see why other readers (again, Goodreads) don't like the message that being stealth is somehow the same as "lying" when being out can be so dangerous. I think McSmith gets this but could have emphasized it more.

I was in tears at the end of it and will be buying my own copy in addition to making a donation to the Stay Gold fund, which helps transgender people get gender-affirming surgery.

The Henna Wars (Adiba Jaigirdar)

Yes, it's another queer YA! Who would have thunk it? This one is about two girls in Ireland, one Bangladeshi and one Brazilian-Irish, who create rival henna businesses. It's mainly about Nishat, our Bangladeshi heroine, who has to navigate coming out to her family, racicm and homophobia at school, and other relationships and friendships. It gets a little depressing (the low point is very low) and the "henna wars" are not really very central to the plot, but the ending is charming.

Robopocalypse (by Daniel H. Wilson)

The penultimate category of the Read Harder Challenge was “a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author.” And I will be honest that I didn’t want to read something overly literary (sorry Louise Erdrich) or depressing (sorry, so much indigenous literature). Sherman Alexie would have been perfect, except hard pass forever, I’m not sorry to that man.

Robopacalypse, by Cherokee writer Daniel H. Wilson, seemed perfect. Indeed, it’s a fast paced technothriller in a Crichton-style, which I have a soft spot for (though still grossed out that Crichton turned out to be a climate denier). In fact, Wilson even has written a sequel to The Androneda Strain! I have a soft spot for The Andromeda Strain, so I might even check it out. 

This was a fast, page-turning read, but I have some issues with the writing itself. I love reading oral histories, but if something is supposed to be spoken dialogue, I cannot handle the inclusion of phrases that no human would never actually say aloud. This book lulls you into a false sense of security with all these reasonable sentences (“We spread out in a circle and keep our distance,” okay, sure) and then suddenly you get “He runs one gnarled hand through his stiff black hair.” Who would describe something like that? Nobody. NOBODY. 

Speaking of editing, as you might have noticed above, everything is told in the present tense, even though some chapters are supposedly interviews or transcripts and they are all different POV characters. I suppose one could argue that the person compiling the whole chronology (one character) just loves the present tense. But when it’s supposed to be “a transcript” that kind of breaks the suspension of disbelief.  

And a side note: I appreciated the inclusion of Native characters, both Osage and Cherokee, and the exploration of the culture in a way that just made the characters richer. But, while there are female characters here and there, most of the POV characters (and the characters in general) are men. 

Still, overall this is a great, cinematic story somewhat let down by bad editing. I hear the sequel is better, and I may well give it a chance!