Planet Earth Is Blue (by Nicole Panteleakos)

Another Read Harder book, this one "a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability." I don't know if I would qualify this one as not centering their disability because our main character, Nova, is nonverbal, and to what extent the adults around her are able to communicate with her is a key plot point. But arguably other plot points take precedence and it is on the official recommended list so I will count it. 

This book is really good. It takes place in the 10 days before the Challenger liftoff. Nova is a sixth grader who loves space. She is in her eleventh foster home; her older sister is missing but has promised to come back to watch the Challenger liftoff. We alternate between letters from Nova to her sister and the story of Nova adjusting to her newest foster home and classroom, and eagerly awaiting the launch of the shuttle.

The end, as you may predict, is heart-wrenching and I definitely did sob my way through it. But it's also as "poignant and lovely" as the recommendation promised.  Nicole Panteleakos is autistic herself and does a great job of portraying how autism (especially what we might call "severe" autism) was understood in the late 1980s.  Her afterword talks about some of her specific choices in this regard.  

For those of you out there who read children's literature, especially fellow 80s kids, I highly recommend this one.

The Woman Who Would Be King by (Kara Cooney)

This book about the pharaoh Hatshepsut was for the Read Harder Challenge category "a book by/about a non-Western world leader." It was my third attempt at a book for this category so even though I had some issues with it and in another timeline may have given up, I pushed on to the end.

Kara Cooney is a good writer and clearly knows her stuff; her feminist take on a woman in power is obviously something that spoke to me. The trouble is, we don't know a lot about Hatshepsut. Cooney could have written a more rigorous and frankly drier book, which I would have enjoyed more, or historical fiction ala Hillary Mantel, which I probably also would have enjoyed more. Instead, Cooney splits the difference, which makes for a frustrating read. 

For example at one point she speculates that Hatshepsut's daughter may have been standing by her deathbed after Hatshepsut's final illness, rending her garments. Except we don't know how Hatshepsut died, how her daughter felt about her, or even if her daughter was still alive at this time. So what's the point? It tells us nothing. The book is full of speculation like this, seemingly based on what captured Cooney's imagination. Some stuff she dismisses out of hand (like Hatshepsut and Senenmut being lovers) despite the fact that there's more evidence for it than half the other stuff she speculates was happening.

My favorite passages were the ones was where she brings in actual facts; discussions of statuary and monuments and what they might tell us, descriptions of how the mummification process worked, etc.  But this isn't a bad book; in fact I think Cooney's hybrid approach could really work for some readers who don't mind a mix of historical fiction and scholarship. I am not that reader, however.

The Echo Wife (by Sarah Gailey)

Speculative fiction with an outstanding premise: a brilliant scientist's husband has divorced her in order to marry her clone. Complications and twists ensue.

This is a page-turner.  Evelyn, our protagonist, is wildly unsympathetic and probably kind of a sociopath yet somehow you are rooting for her. (Revelations about about her childhood explain a lot.) If you think about it too hard the plot starts to unravel but if you don't, it's a wild and highly enjoyable ride.

Is the ending a little on the nose? Yes. Did I find it immensely satisfying anyway? Also yes!

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color (ed. Nisi Shawl)

I love speculative fiction and was really excited about this collection. I wouldn't say it's all speculative fiction, there's a good dose of fantasy in here as well, which is not my favorite, but overall I enjoyed this and am excited to know there is a second volume in the works. This was for the RHC category "an SFF anthology edited by a person of color." I normally don't read short stories and I'm so glad the Read Harder Challenge nudged me towards this anthology.

My absolute favorite story here is "The Robots of Eden" by Anil Menon. Pure speculative fiction (what if you could have an artificial brain installed to help control your emotions) with an unreliable narrator in a near-future dystopia. Basically all my favorite things! Menon published a young adult novel and I look forward to giving it a try. 

I also enjoyed "Come Home to Atropos" by Steven Barnes, "The Fine Print" by Chinelo Onwualu, "unkind of mercy" by Alex Jennings, "Burn the Ships" by Alberto Yáñez, "Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister" Silvia Moreno-Garcia, "The Shadow We Cast Through Time" by Indrapramit Das, "Harvest" by Rebecca Roanhorse, and "Kelsey and the Burdened Breath" by Darcie Little Badger. Definitely more hits than misses for me in this collection.

Why Mommy Drinks (by Gill Sims)

Okay first of all I have to get this off my chest: the book is British and based on a blog called "Why Mummy Drinks."  They changed the title for the U.S. market, ala Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone. As a marketer I understand this; as a reader I find this condescending. 

This was loaned to me by a mom friend who found it hilarious. It's pretty funny! Very Shopaholic meets Bridget Jones, although the main character does one thing that made me really angry at her until of course it all worked out in the end. I also find it enraging that although she points out the horrible imbalance of household work between her and her husband, nothing actually changes at all at any point.  I guess it's relatable for lots of women but it made me real mad at the husband character and of course, as always, the patriarchy.

Overall it was light enough and funny enough that I would read more in the series. Maybe the hopes that Simon actually learns to pull his weight in one of the later books. (He won't.)

The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam

An enjoyable takedown of startup culture and patriarchy, although the husband is kind of cartoonishly obnoxious, maybe it's on purpose? I loved Asha but wanted to shake her; girl why are you marrying some douchebag you barely know? Also he is a complete douchebag from beginning to end; it may have worked better if we saw something redeeming about him, especially at the beginning? But it's written well so I am guessing Asha is supposed to just have a complete blind spot for this man; we've all been there.

Loved the details of the tech world (interestingly, Anam is apparently married to a startup founder, I wonder what he thinks about all of this) which are both ludicrous and plausible. This novel also explicitly addresses the pandemic in a way that really worked for me, incorporating it effectively without making it the focus.  Overall, an enjoyable read!

Nobody, Somebody, Anybody (by Kelly McClorey)

This was compared to My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which as you may remember I loved, so I had to give it a shot. It's about a self-destructive, somewhat unbalanced young woman working as a housekeeper at a yacht club while she studies for her third and final try at her EMT exam. 

The reviews are mixed and I wouldn't say it's for everyone, but this was a perfect read for me. I enjoyed experiencing our unreliable narrator's mind, even while I also wanted to save her from herself and her terrible decisions. I rooted for her throughout.  Probably not quite as good as MYORAR, but I enjoyed it every bit as much.