Wild About You (by Kaitlin Hill)

A quick vacation read about teenagers doing a reality competition on the Appalachian Trail.  This was above average and I think one of the standout elements for me was the humor (our main character's voice was delightful and legitimately hilarious. For example, when she's scaring off a bear by yelling at him about the misogynistic nature of the Incredible Hulk, and which Chris is best.) (It's Pine.)

Secondly, her journey is rooted in anxiety and familial trauma that is very well-handled and doesn't get tied up in a bow.  The conflicts are not manufactured but rooted in actual character. So I really liked that part!

I didn't love it so much that I need to go read the rest of her novels immediately - need some more queerness to really hit the spot for me - but I'd absolutely read another book from her in the future.

Great Expectations (by Vinson Cunningham)

Vinson Cunningham worked as a staffer on the Obama campaign; the main character of this novel, David, is a young Black man working on the campaign of an unnamed politician who is obviously Obama. It melds fact and fiction into a story that actually maps in a few subtle ways onto Great Expectations, if you squint a bit.

I feel like I'm going through this year's ToB not really loving anything except, so far, James.  This is a fine read, and Vinson's prose is outstanding, but a little episodic and philosophical, lacking drama or plot, and not particularly compelling. I felt like I'd rather read Cunningham's memoir about his real experience vs. a thinly fictionalized version. 

Sense & Sensibility (by Jane Austen)

Pride & Prejudice is a book I read many times before ever seeing an adaptation of it. Because of that, although I've seen the miniseries a gajillion times, I still have a very strong "book version" of the characters in my head. (Particularly Jane, who I always picture as a brunette even though in adaptations, she tends to be blonde.)  

The opposite is true of Sense & Sensibility: I've seen the Ang Lee film a gajillion times but I think this is my first time reading the book cover to cover. Seems impossible but I think it's true! I've read all the others, including Lady Susan and Sanditon, but I loved the movie so much that I think I only read it in bits and pieces.  It was fun to finally read it from cover to cover and get some book versions of the characters in my head!

I bought this at the Jane Austen museum, along with Northanger Abbey. I read it as part of my resolution to read and/or donate 10 physical books this year but I definitely will be putting this one back on my shelf along with the other Austens. I mean, she's just great, Jane Austen. Every page was great.