Just Eat It (by Laura Thomas)

The subtitle of this book is "How intuitive eating can help you get your shit together around food" and that captures the - sorry - flavor of this book pretty well. Laura Thomas is trying to be all hip and relatable and swears a lot, but she also dismantles diet culture effectively and has messages I really needed to read as I emerge into a new, healthier relationship and mindset around food.

She is from the UK (and I had to buy this book on paper because there's no e-book version at any of my libraries) but the principles are universal.  I loved the insight that nutrition should be additive - adding fiber or veggies or whatever into your diet is supportive and healthy, trying to exclude foods or deprive yourself of foods leads to binging and yo-yo dieting and all kinds of badness.

I kept a journal while reading this and I'm sure I'll refer to it often. And I have to say over the course of reading this book, I've gotten a lot better about listening to my body and being nice to myself about it. Excellent reading experience.

A Short History of Russia (by Mark Galeotti)

Tagged this as "give up" because this was actually the third book about Russian history I attempted for the RHC category of "a history about a period you know little about."  

I selected Russia because I know very little about any period of Russian history, despite growing up in the 80s where Gorbechev's name was everywhere, and having both my spouse and one of my best friends knowing a lot about Russia, including the language.  Plus, with the rise of Putin and Russian disinformation, it seemed like a real gap, which this category of the RHC seemed primed to fill. 

Lenin's Tomb was the one I tried right before this, and I struggled to get through 5% of it because it is long and dense and Russian names are confusing. (Also the problem with Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, frankly.) (Sorry, I love you though Tolstoy.) A Short History of Russia is hilariously breezy in comparison. Gorbachev resumes power and then the USSR ends in like, two paragraphs. It's great.  

But the accessibility belies the fact that it was also an extremely informative overview of Russian history from the 900s to almost the present day.  It twigged some memories of what I have read (a biography of Catherine the Great; War & Peace) but put everything in its broader context. Particularly interesting: Russia became a world power only after (and because of) World War II and the Treaty of Yalta, and apparently at every single point in history, being an ordinary Russian has been depressing as hell. No wonder they drink so much vodka.  Seriously, I could only find like a decade where it didn't sound horrible to be Russian.

I'm really glad to have this lens on Putin and current world events, and if you are interested, like I said, this is really accessible and informative, and I recommend it.

(Oh, by the way, this was published in 2020, and the ending is a little overly optimistic about Russia's relationship with the rest of Europe considering current events, but who knew. The author is active on Twitter and worth a follow if you're still hanging around there.)

Boston Books

As usual, I did some of my favorite reading in airports and on planes, and finished six books on my trip to and from Boston.  Here they are:

The Boleyn Inheritance (by Philippa Gregory) 

A fun page-turner that had the songs from Six stuck in my head the entire time. It's well-researched but repetitive (the phrase"Boleyn inheritance" is in this book 23 times) and not particularly literary in its execution (lol, execution).  But I enjoyed the story, told from the alternating perspectives of Katherine Howard, Anna of Cleves, and Jane Boleyn.  Anna's story gets somewhat less interesting once she leaves court, but I did enjoy the interpretation that as long as Henry was alive and chopping heads off, she lived in fear. Pulpy and fun if you enjoy the time period.

The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers (by Adam Sass)

Could not have been more adorable, and maybe my favorite book on this list. Messy and complex, which I always enjoy as it feels more real than a romcom hitting all the expected beats. Loved the cast, the setting, the queer rep, the plus-sized rep.  The best YA I've read in a while, I think! Adorbs.

Broken (by Jenny Lawson) 

Funny and real, albeit in a "these are blog posts clumped together in book form" format. It works anyway, though, because Jenny Lawson is a great writer! She isn't afraid to explore her own challenges with depression and anxiety and also runs it through with humor, ala Allie Brosh.

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker (by Derick Lugo) 

Read for "an adventure story by a BIPOC author."  I struggled with this category (we are down to the "categories Mo struggled with" portion of the year). I can think of some perfect books I've read in the past, like The Good Lord Bird, Washington Black, or Underground Railroad that I would consider to be "adventure stories" but I've read all of those. Book Riot recommended a lot of fantasy adventure, and fantasy isn't my favorite. So instead I went for the nonfiction adventure, the story of a Black man who thru-hikes the Appalachian Trail.  Derick (better known on the trail as Mr. Fabulous) has a distinct voice and a great sense of humor; this felt like reading his diary, in a good way.  I wished for pictures since he often talked about taking pictures on the trail! But a fun read and unique perspective, so I'm glad I picked it. 

The Stench of Honolulu (by Jack Handey) 

This is an extremely silly book by Jack Handey, of Deep Thoughts fame. It was recommended by the blended family whose wedding was the reason for my trip to Boston, as apparently it is quoted a lot in their household.  Very funny, clever and amusing as you might expect! 

The Bullet that Missed (by Richard Oseman) 

This was the book I saved especially for this trip, the third in the Thursday Murder Club series and maybe my favorite one so far! Absolutely delightful, and this series is a must for mystery fans. It's very funny and charming, and the protagonists are all in a retirement community so it showcases vibrant people gracefully dealing with aging while also solving crimes.  

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (by Lori Gottleib)

Sneaking one more in here since I read most of it on the plane. It's by a therapist who has to go to therapy herself to deal with a traumatic breakup.  I am surprised I was so compelled by this one, downloaded it from the library on a whim and somehow ended up finishing the whole thing! I am dying to know who "John" is (some elements almost have to be true, like the TV show having a therapist, which seems like it would make it possible to deduce...) but regardless, an interesting view of both sides of therapy, and I enjoyed it!

Golem Girl (by Riva Lehrer)

In my last post I referred to an "overly long, overly writery, quite depressing memoir" and this is it! Read for the "book by a disabled author" prompt.  

Many folks in the Goodreads group are choosing books by neurodiverse folks, but I wanted to read something by someone with a physical disability (since I don't really think that neurodiversity = disability). Reva Lehrer, the author, is an artist with spina bifida, and certainly I learned more about the condition and appreciated her unique perspective. I also appreciated her take on the medical memoir - she explicitly says she's not going to go into unnecessary detail about her condition where it isn't relevant to her life story.

Here is more on my criticism: Overly long - especially towards the end, she includes a lot of detail and repetition and there is less of a clear throughline. Overly writery - maybe this is just code for "a lot of words, especially in Yiddish, that I didn't understand." I was grateful for the Kindle translation feature.  Quite depressing - I mean, it's her real life, but damn, this woman has been through a lot and it is a heavy read at times.  But it's also very good! I said that last time too but to reiterate: Riva's voice is unique, her political stances are eye-opening, and her perspective is... ugh I was going to write "inspiring" and that is a terrible choice for a book by a disabled author.  Going to say her perspective is challenging the status quo, in a good way.

I also love the mini-essays on all the included artworks but I'm glad it's presented in epilogue form. Definitely read this one in color so you can fully appreciate the art. 

The It Girl (by Ruth Ware)

I'm in the middle of reading an overly long, overly writery, quite depressing memoir for the Read Harder Challenge - it's good, but I have to do it a few chapters at a time. I took a break to start The It Girl when my library offered me a "skip the line" seven-day loan, and of course, it's Ruth Ware, so once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. I love a good mystery to tear through on a lazy Sunday!

Not to say too much about the whodunit of it all, but I think it's quite a fair play mystery - the clues are definitely there to find.  I saw some complaints that the pacing was a little loose and the middle part was too long, but it was such a page-turner (and a refreshing change from the other book I have going) that it wasn't a problem for me.  

If you like modern thrillers with a bit of an Agatha Christie feel, I definitely recommend it!

A Study in Honor (by Claire O'Dell)

This is a gender-swapped Sherlock Holmes homage, read for the category "a political thriller by a marginalized author (BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+)" in the Read Harder Challenge.

I won't bury the lede: As much as I love Sherlock stories, and love that this one stars two Black women, I had a lot of problems with it.  First of all, we don't even meet Holmes until a third of the way through the book, with the mystery not getting started until well past the halfway mark, this thing is agonizingly slowly paced and then just ends with an abrupt info dump.  This is the first book of a series so I figured it's just a first-book info dump and future books will be structured better. (Based on Goodreads reviews, the pacing of the second one is somehow even worse.)

Second problem: Sara Holmes makes no deductions. Zero. None. No deductions. She sometimes looks people up on some spy device she has and says things about them she's Googled or whatever. HOW IS THIS CHARACTER IN ANY WAY SHERLOCK, THE DEDUCTIONS ARE THE ENTIRE POINT. At one point Janet Watson says "is this another one of your deductions?"  What deductions!  They are completely nonexistent deductions!

More problems: Sara is too ordinary a name for a Sherlock analogue character.  Sara drugging Janet was not charming or cute, although fairly Sherlocky, I will grant you. Sara calling Janet "my love" was weird. Was this suppose to be a romance? As much as I adore a Sapphic romance, it did not work for me. Janet somehow is the first person narrator but is also, separately, keeping a journal that we read excerpts of? The whole thing is her journal. So, what?!

Okay one more thing I found this on Book Riot's rec list for this category  and it wasn't until I got to the end that I realized, even though the two main characters are both Black, the author is white.  She fits the challenge because she is a lesbian author.  But she wrote from the point of view of Janet, a Black character, and Sara is also Black. I leave it to non-white readers to decide how well she pulled it off, and there was enough subtlety there to make me think she was thoughtful about it, but... still kind of didn't sit well with me?

Things I liked: god, this thing was promising. The backdrop is a new American Civil War, basically a very near future alternate history.  Janet is a really good character, her PTSD is handled well, and her device (she has a robotic arm) is incorporated well. There is some fun tech here, like self-destroying paper.  I enjoyed Hudson Realty and the fancy apartment.  I read to the end, really hoping these were first installment kinks that would be worked out in future installments but... maybe not. 

Pachinko (by Min Jin Lee)

I read this for the Read Harder Challenge category "the book that’s been on your TBR the longest."  I don't really keep a TBR list so I really wasn't sure how to approach this. But I meant to read Pachinko for the 2018 Tournament of Books and then people have been recommending it. I checked it out of the library in March 2018 and at least seven times after that. So it clearly was a longtime TBR and also one I found it hard to read, so on two levels, this seemed to fit!

I thought the beginning was slow (probably why I kept not finishing it or hooking into it) but indeed, I loved it by the end. It's about Koreans living in Japan, who were born there but still not considered native Japanese. The history of this population and the challenges (and racism) they face were fascinating, and explored through really wonderful characters and evocative descriptions of life in Japan. And I loved the title… to me, it evoked the little balls dropping and how small actions and decisions kept impacting the next generation.

Everyone I know who has read this multi-generational family saga has loved it; I think multi-generational sagas intimidate me somewhat? But I ended up loving it too. And feeling like I accomplished something, after finally getting through it!

A Raisin in the Sun (by Lorraine Hansberry)

Read for the RHC category "a classic written by a POC."  I've read so many of the greats, especially by Black American authors: Beloved, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Invisible Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God, etc. But I'd never read A Raisin in the Sun.  (Title from a poem by another of the greats, Langston Hughes.) 

I wasn't familiar with Lorraine Hansberry either, or even that this classic play was written by a young (she was 29 when she wrote it) woman.  It's marvelous, of course, and still so relevant.  It's about a family living in Chicago who comes into some money and considers using it to better their lives. Of course, this isn't without complications.  (Next paragraph will have some spoilers.)

The introduction in the edition I read talked about how easy it is to misread the play, looking at this family as a universal American family and the ending as "oh yay, they move into their new house!"  In fact, race is crucial to understanding these characters, and the ending has echoes in Hansberry's life: her house was firebombed by a white mob and her family had to leave Chicago.

I'm so glad I decided to read this play; it's wonderful.

Weekend Reads and Deep Thoughts

I think I got all the tags for this diverse assortment of reads, which I finished over the weekend. 

Happily Ever Island (by Crystal Cestari) 

Okay, this would have been an instant-DNF if not for the Disney angle; the writing is very tell, don't show and reads extremely young for a romance between alleged college-age adults. The chemistry of the romance pairings isn't amazing (the two leads could have fallen in love, making for a better developed romance, but instead they each have their own underdeveloped love interest).  The suspension of disbelief required for this magical Disney island is off the charts (none of it makes any sense, this review by Abigail on Goodreads nails it). The book is produced by Disney and is straight-up propaganda. But did I finish the whole thing and enjoy all the Disneyness of it all? I absolutely did. But this is for Disney mega-fans only.

Husband Material (by Alexis Hall) 

The sequel to Boyfriend Material and has the same Bridget Jones type of vibe. It shamelessly borrows the structure of Four Weddings and a Funeral, although the throughline isn't as well-established. But still laugh-out-loud funny and an enjoyable read.  

Sad Cypress (by Agatha Christie) 

A Christie that is very good, not mind-blowing, but extremely solid. The characters are compelling, the solution is satisfying.  The racism, while unfortunately present as it is in most of Christie's books, is at least minimal.  (Can they do a "cut back on the racism" edit of these books already?) Recommended for Christie fans.

70. Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (editor Joshua Whitehead) 

A Read Harder pick for "an anthology featuring diverse voices."  I bought this from the publisher on paper to support the editor and authors. My favorite parts were actually the editor's note at the beginning and the final two stories! The editor's note from Joshua Whitehead has been in my head since I read it, for two reasons.  

Firstly, he interrogates the typical notion of post-apocalyptic fiction by asserting that for indigenous people, we have already been living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. And I was like oh my god, of course we have. I realized how deeply my colonialist mindset had been embedded. Of course this is the dystopia. And not just in the "post-Trump-era" way that white people think of it, but in the post-colonial, post-slavery, post-indiginous genocide, post-smallpox and Columbus way. We've been in the dystopia all along. (Whitehead focuses the stories in this anthology on post-apocalyptic hope for native communities, and this is why.)

Secondly, there are a lot of queer stories here, and Whitehead brings up Annie on My Mind as the first queer YA with a happy ending. It was published in 1985, when I was 10 years old. I probably discovered it when I was 13 or so.  And in every other book I read, the protagonists were white and straight and cis.  No wonder I devour queer YA now.  No wonder it took me so long to realize I was bisexual, as I had absolutely no framework to think about it before that. And my child at age 10-13 will be growing up with a world of representation that we didn't have a generation ago. It's really amazing to me.

Anyway, that one paragraph in the introduction made the book worth it, but the stories are also enjoyable all the way through, and I recommend checking it out!

Honor Girl (by Maggie Thrash)

I read this for the "read a nonfiction YA comic" part of the Read Harder challenge.  It's a graphic novel memoir about a girl's coming of age at a summer camp in Kentucky.

I didn't love the art style - in particular, how difficult it was to tell so many of the background characters apart. (The fact that they are all white did not help... I understand this was set in a very white area and was nonfiction so I understand, but they could still have been better differentiated.)

The bittersweet nature of the story is good, and it's subtly told. I did get confused at one point when it seemed to be stated that two characters had never kissed, but then I swear a few pages earlier they did kiss. I went and looked back to see if there was any clear indication it was a fantasy or dream, but didn't see it. Maybe I missed some obvious graphic novel signal that I'm just unfamiliar with.  At any rate, this wasn't my absolute favorite but it was fine.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This One Looks Like a Boy: My Gender Journey to Life as a Man (by Lorimer Shenher)

This Read Harder challenge was "a memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary"; Lorimer Shenher is a trans man who experienced dysphoria throughout his life, as well as PTSD stemming from an investigation of a notorious serial killer when working as a detective. He ultimately transitioned late in life, at age 50. 

I enjoyed Shenher's writing and his story; it was only written a few years into his transition but he still has thoughtful observations about male privilege and exclusionary politics. His story makes the pain of dysphoria visceral and understandable.  He doesn't get into genital dysphoria (I know from Detransition, Baby that not all trans people experience this) but obviously that's an understandable elision.

Ultimately his story is compelling and I enjoyed the read.

The Killer Angels (by Michael Shaara)

I read this for the "read an award-winning book from the year you were born" category: The Killer Angels, an historical novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the year I was born.

Not sure how I landed on this book as I am not usually a person who reads war books or historical novels or books with only white men in them, plus this has a ton of battlefield description (and I hate descriptions of scenery) yet this was so compelling I couldn't put it down. It is written from the perspective of some of the key players at Gettysburg, both Union and Confederate, and is completely vivid and humanizing.  

I did have to look up the author's assertion that Robert E. Lee was "against slavery." He wasn't. There are some issues with how the author engages on the topic but "the South claims this war isn't about slavery but it's totally about slavery" is definitely articulated.  But Shaara is more interested in exploring the battle itself and the heroic actions of men on both sides and on those terms, it's a compelling story.

This is like, the opposite of a book I thought I would read and enjoy. And yet, I loved reading it.

Florida Vacation Reads

I had much less time for reading on this trip, but still managed a bunch on the flights (and one long layover).  Mostly fluff.

Kissing Ezra Holtz (and Other Things I Did for Science) (by Brianna R. Shrum) 

Great Jewish representation with a charming main character. Jewish culture was important to both characters and this characterization felt very rich. Fun writing, sex-positive, kind of effortless-feeling and overall a delightful romcom.  Possibly my favorite of the YAs on this list.

Sorrow and Bliss (by Meg Mason)

It's not all YA on this list: this is literary fiction that was longlisted for the 2022 Woman's Prize in Fiction (and thus qualifies in that category for the Read Harder Challenge). I loved this.  Funny but also so emotional. (My notes read: "It's a JOURNEY.")  The main character is dealing with mental illness, complex family relationships, and the breakup of her marriage, yet it's still also somehow fun?  Not sure how Meg Mason did this but highly recommend.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler (by Casey McQuiston)

Possibly one of my most-anticipated books of the year and weirdly, the second book on this list with kissing in the title. Casey McQuiston's first YA and it's a F/F romance: my expectations were sky high. It has some great stuff, especially the side characters, but the third-person narration didn't work for me, the main character was just this side of unlikeable, and I appreciated the complexity of the love interest but ultimately I wasn't all that invested.  Not bad per se but I was super disappointed.

Loveless (by Alice Oseman) 

Recommended by reader S. as a possible better alternative for the asexual/aromantic category of the RHC, and it definitely was. (This aspect of the book is front and center.) It started out super slow, with the main character - despite being Very Online and super into Tumblr culture - not even having heard of asexuality and being extremely slow on the uptake about it.  I would absolutely have DNFed it at this point but I pushed through and it really picked up at the halfway mark.  I ended up loving the characters even if there were some unrealistic elements (like how many asexual people happened to be in her life). I think this is more for a younger audience than for me, but I ended up enjoying it, ultimately.

And They Lived… (by by Steven Salvator) 

I tried to mix it up a bit with some sci-fi but ended up DNFing the one I started because it wasn't great and I was super tired by this point, not sure if I'll pick it back up or not. The Kindle gods meant I had this on my phone on the airplane and it ended up being a really great, moving coming of age story that deals with both homophobia and body dysmorphia. Thumbs up on this one.

Cleveland Book Bonanza

We just took a trip to Cleveland and between layovers, flights, being snowed in, and a general very relaxed pace visiting grandma, I finished nine books. So settle in and let me try to remember what they were all about. 

Best Travel Writing of 2021 (by Jason Wilson, ed. Padma Lakshmi) 

For the Read Harder category “Best _ Writing of the year book for a topic and year of your choice.”  I put a bunch on library hold in different genres and years and went with what was available first. I'm guessing that the pickings were slim for travel writing of 2021. I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why I love travel and why conversely I have hated not being able to travel during the pandemic, and was hoping this volume would explore that. It touches it on it a bit in one essay but mostly, not really. There are some real standouts here (particularly The People of Las Vegas by Amanda Fortini) but also some real clunkers. Not an essential anthology.

Cards on the Table (by Agatha Christie) 

Waiting for Death on the Nile to be available from the library (having seen two adaptations of it recently) and in the meantime downloaded others that I don't think I've read that I saw on "best of Agatha Christie" lists.  This is decidedly middle of the road though, in my opinion. Read on a plane, which was basically the perfect place to read this. The other Christie I read (see below) is much better. 

Being Mary Bennett (by J.C. Peterson)

One of my favorites of these books! Very funny, charming, and just enough winks to Pride and Prejudice to make it fun. I loved Marnie, our main character and the groundedness of this with authentic problems and an avoidance of the "if he would only just let me explain" thing that muddies up so many formulaic plots. Truly a standout YA romcom and if this is your thing, I highly recommend.

She Gets the Girl (by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick) 

Another winner, an alternating point of view romance between two girls who are both college freshmen. Good chemistry between the leads and I loved the backstories and complex issues each of them had.  The better of the two alternating point of view romances on this list, although this one was the PG-13 version while the other was more NC-17.

The Candy House (by Jennifer Egan)

Wow, literary fiction! What a novelty! I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad and this sequel(ish) novel is right up there with it. However you felt about Goon Squad will accurately predict how you will feel about Candy House. Which is not to say it's not full of originality and spark because of course it is. I really enjoyed it and was left wanting more of multiple plots and characters. Who knows, maybe Egan will revisit this world again!

The Body in the Library (by Agatha Christie) 

As mentioned, this was more like it. This would even make a good Kenneth Branagh film! Of course it's a Miss Marple and I was never a Miss Marple fan (actually I'm not even really a huge Poirot fan, I just like Christie's plots) but true to form I enjoyed the plot and the characters here.

Light from Uncommon Stars (by Ryka Aoki) 

I've heard great things about this Hugo award nominee. The main plots include: a transgender runaway who is a violin prodigy; her teacher, looking for a seventh violin player to damn to hell; a motley crew of aliens who run a donut shop in Southern California. It's got fun and quirky elements but also sexual violence and darkness. I was invested in Katrina's story throughout but thought the whole space refugee thing was wildly undeveloped, the "I damned six people to eternal torment" glossed over (?), and overall I thought despite a ton of potential it didn't stick the landing.

Remember Me Gone (by Stacy Stokes) 

A great premise (a girl whose family has the power to erase memories thinks she might be missing her own memories) that should have been amazing but the writing doesn't match up to it.  Once we discover  what is really happening in the town, a lot of plot holes emerge. Entertaining enough to read on the plane - this time, on the flight home.

Love and Other Disasters (by Anita Kelley) 

A woman and a non-binary person compete in a Top Chef-style cooking competition and fall in love.  I enjoyed the central characters and their chemistry, but the competition felt like an afterthought and a lot was unrealistic. (The contestants aren't sequestered? They get cell phones the whole time? They go sightseeing because they have weekends off? No to all of this.) The description of the other contestants and food are also glossed over. So it was cute but not as textured as it could have been.

Phew! Those were all my reads and my brain might need a break now. 

* * *

Bonus book:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (by Jesse Andrews)

This was my brain break book. Much funnier and more original than I was expecting, although very dated in some ways in its handling of the Black characters. Overall I enjoyed it though, it was a quick and fresh read.  

Dare Mighty Things (by Heather Kaczynski)

This is part of a series of two books; I didn't know that when I started reading it, but it was abundantly clear at the end (and really the last chapters when we realized we weren't going to get to the space part in this book).

Cassandra Gupta is recruited for a secret NASA program where she competes with 25 other young people for a spot on a secret mission. This book covers the training and testing they do on the candidates, and Cassandra's journey in trying to outlast the others and be the one selected in the end.

I enjoy speculative fiction grounded in science, so I enjoyed the milieu of the book, as well as the characters. I read this for the "book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character" and honestly her asexuality was barely addressed and not really relevant. I'm going to count it anyway but I'll still try to find a book where this is more central to the plot. 

The cliffhanger ending didn't work for me and I'm still deciding if I enjoyed it enough to read the next one.  I think I did?

Two Tahoe Reads

I always feel awkward about putting two books in a wrapup post. Three is fine! But two seems like the wrong number. Still, nobody actually cares at all so I will press on. I read two books while on vacation this weekend in the Lake Tahoe area.

The Maid: A Novel (by Nita Prose)

I love the (unreliable, of course) narrator here, a maid named Molly who is clearly neuroatypical in some way. This is a page-turning thriller and a fun, fast read. However, the ending is super disappointing, with multiple deus ex machinas. (Or is it deuses ex machina?) I wouldn't be surprised if the ending changed from an earlier draft, since one seemed to really fit with the clues and what is here.... doesn't, really.  There are also a few out-of-character moments that really seem off given all we know about Molly. This had so much potential but I wanted a more satisfying structure.

Mistborn: The Final Empire (by Brandon Sanderson) 

One of the Read Harder challenges this year is to "read a book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes." I am not much of a reader of high fantasy (I've read the Lord of the Rings books and that's pretty much it) and my friends have been recommending Brandon Sanderson to me for more than a decade.  Given his Kickstarter success recently, it seemed like a good time to try him once again. (I've tried in the past and have failed in the past.)

The first 200 pages or so of this book were the usual slow going. A lot of extensive worldbuilding, which I find tiresome even when done well (and Sanderson, to his credit, does it very well). But I was determined to make it through a Sanderson novel this time. (Plus I was on vacation with my Sanderson stan friends and I had promised.) By the time I hit the halfway mark though, I was all in. The world was built, and Sanderson's plot and characters pulled me forward. All my predictions for the ending were wrong but it all fit perfectly and was so satsifying. This is the first book in a trilogy and now that I've made the investment, I think I might see it all the way through!  

The Trees (by Percival Everett)

When I read the description of this (a series of Mississippi murders connected to the lynching of Emmett Till) I was expecting a dark exploration of America's sins.  But somehow this book is... hilarious? While still somehow also confronting the legacy of lynching that continues (via police shootings) to the present day.

I loved So Much Blue and I heard such good things about The Trees that I decided it was a must-read before the Tournament of Books. (Not that my predictions mean anything. So far three books have been knocked out and two have advanced. Guess which three of these books are the ones I've read.)  Regardless, this book is absolutely amazing and I recommend it highly.

Southwest Vacation Reads

Between airports, planes, and staying in Zion without any internet, I read five books on vacation last week, and I'm here to catch you up on them. 

Glimpsed (by G.F. Miller) 

A young adult take on the "fairy godmother" and the first of two Cinderella-themed YAs on this list.  (Also Mina and Ian are reading Cinder so we're all in the alterna-Cinderella canon these days). Really cute romcom with especially charming chapter titles.  Though our main character's family suuuuuuuucks.  This one was cute.

Cinderella Is Dead (by Kalynn Bayron) 

Super good, and notably well-written (which I rarely ever notice in YAs unless the writing is actively bad).  The premise here is that Cinderella has been dead for 200 years and her story has been used as an excuse to form a society that oppresses young women. Our protagonist, Sophia, fights back.  Good twists and high stakes makes this a satisfying read.

Beautiful World, Where Are You? (by Sally Rooney) 

Read for the Tournament of Books, I was pretty annoyed by Normal People and was not looking forward to this but I have to admit, I enjoyed it a lot, about 100 times more than Normal People, specially the Alice-Eileen letters and the less-than-omniscient narrative voice.  Some incredible insights on what it means to be human that I'm still pondering. Would never have taken the chance here without the Tournament of Books so as ever, I owe you one, ToB!

Not Here to Be Liked (by Michelle Quach) 

Another YA, and this one manages to explore both Asian-American life/diaspora and unabashed feminism in a romcom wrapper. Cute and a worthwhile read! This is one I'd recommend to teens especially highly.

Our Country Friends (by Gary Shteyngart)

My first Shteyngart.  I thought this sagged a bit in the last section but overall found it witty and otherwise delightful. I can't see it beating The Sentence in the play-ins but the Tournament can be a fickle mistress so you never know. A great vacation read, despite its premise of people in Covid lockdown during 2020. 

Jane Austen at Home (by Lucy Worsley)

For the category "read a biography of an author you admire," I chose this one, especially since my dream Jane Austen pilgrimage to England might actually happen this year. Fingers crossed.

I loved it. Lots of detail and sources, some speculation but always grounded in facts and evidence, definitely the best Austen bio I've read to date.  I may need to purchase this one so I can re-read it while I'm visiting Chawton and Steventon and Bath and all the other Austeny places.

Oh, I should mention, the lens of this biography is the houses and homes where she lived. There are so many fascinating parallels between her life and her novels to discover here. At times you can see echoes of Jane in one of the Dashwood sisters, or Anne Elliot, or even Miss Bates. The places she visited are the ones she is able to vividly describe, like Bath or Lyme. If you're an Austen fan, this is a must-read.

The Sentence (by Louise Erdrich)

Unbelievably, this is my first book by Louise Erdrich. And it's so good, I don't know what I was waiting for.  (I was about to say it is amazing on the sentence level and then realized that was a potentially confusing pun. But it is amazing on the sentence level nonetheless. As well as on other levels.)

This both qualifies as a RHC book (a book set in a bookstore) and is a contender for the Tournament of Books, so I saved two birds with one stone, as my child likes to say. I don't know how Erdrich somehow managed to write a novel about 2020 that feels correct. I feel like any other novelist would need some distance from the events of 2020 - Covid, George Floyd, Trump - before writing a novel about it all, and yet she manages to thread the needle perfectly, even with a novel set in Minneapolis that engages with those events directly. She has perspective, somehow, and the novel shines as a result. How is that even possible!?

Anyway please tell me which Erdrich is your favorite so I can add another book to my library wait list. And let me know how depressing it is on a scale of 1-10 so I can prepare myself.