Before the Coffee Gets Cold (by Toshikazu Kawaguchi)

The RHC category for this was "a work of magical realism or fabulism" - it's the first book in a popular Japanese series about a cafe where sitting in a particular seat can send you back or forward in time - for just long enough until the coffee gets cold.

This was made up of four vignettes of different people using the time travel seat, and the community within the cafe itself. 

I was curious as to why Goodreads average was so low and it was pointed out that the book is mainly about women who end up sacrificing themselves - over and over again. Really all four stories kind of qualify here.  (I looked it up and yes, the author is a man.)  I don't know if this continues for the rest of the series but it is a bit striking!) 

That said, I love Japanese literature anyway and its cozy vibes, even if it stressed me out how vague "before the coffee gets cold" is. (Only to find out they have an alarm they can use in special cases... just always use the alarm!)  If you've read beyond this first book, let me know if it's worth continuing! 

BFF Birthday Trip Books

I recently took a trip to Europe for my bestie's 50th birthday. If I hadn't come down with apocalyptic food poisoning, I might have read more books and taken fewer naps! But as it is, I finished four books, and here they are: 

Limelight (by by Andrew Keenan-Bolger)

Written by a Broadway performer about a kid from an abusive household in Staten Island going to a performing arts school in Manhattan. Really impressed me with its writing, since I didn't necessarily expect a Broadway-caliber performer to also be a terrific writer. This is set in 90s New York and has so much nostalgia - down to the kids waiting in line to see Rent at the Nederlander. You also really root for our main character and also appreciate the lack of the fairytale ending whereas still being hopeful and satisfying. Far above average queer YA and highly recommend.

My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook (by Nite Yun) 

I read this for the Read Harder category of "a cookbook about a culture whose food you’ve never eaten" - which is an increasingly difficult category, since I am fortunate enough to have tried a lot of different foods! But I learned a lot about Khmer culture and history from this book, and also appreciated that the author is a local chef whose restaurant I can visit! (She had a pop-up in the East Bay but is now located in the Ferry Building.)  There was enough personal reflection between the recipes that made this a good read, although I will never enjoy reading endless lists of "1 clove garlic, peeled.... 2 shallots.... salt... blah blah blah" that you have to read in order to "read a cookbook."  It seemed really good though, in that the instructions were detailed and extremely clear. 

According to Plan (by Christen Randall) 

Read this YA for the category of "a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns." I am a big proponent of the singular they but it can get grammatically confusing at points, so this is a good category to have.  I thought this book was more successful in some areas (found family, shitty parents, a well-written sibling relationship) than in others (the romance) but was overall a good YA. This book did commit a major sin, which is having our main character, an editor who loves grammar, use the "for Emerson and I" grammatical overcorrection in the text. Please don't do this to me, it hurts me. 

Austerlitz (by W. G. Sebald)

The New York Times released their "100 best books of the 21st century" a couple of years ago, and Ian and I had fun comparing notes. (I think I've read 38, and have loved many of them. There are some DNF's on there though and at least one - Detransition, Baby - that I hated.)   We also each chose a book that the other had not read, that we thought they should.  He chose Austerlitz (which was #8 on the list) for me and I chose The Great Believers (#64) for him.  

I went into this knowing nothing - I saved the introductory essay for the end - and was slowly wowed as this book unfolded itself to me.  Even knowing it was published in 2001, it feels like an older classic novel in its structure (the main character telling the narrator his life story) and its vocabulary (translated from German by Anthea Bell).  Also of course its setting - Austerlitz is growing up in post-war Europe and exploring his mysterious origins. Knowing he was taken in by a Welsh couple in 1939, his mysterious origins aren't hard to guess at, but the way it all unfolds, the way Sebald describes it, the restraint in the way he tells it... well, I understand why it made it to #8 on the NYT list.  If you have any other must-reads from the NYT list, let me know about them!

A Midsummer Equation (by Keigo Higashino)

I do love Higashino, but this was my least favorite Higashino so far, mostly because of the solution to the murder, so I can't really say much without spoilers.  But it didn't quite work for me, even though I enjoyed the setting and the characters a lot.  If the murderer had been an adjacent person instead of the actual person, it would have worked much better.  And (spoiler) if the ending didn't hinge on me sympathizing with a murderer who didn't seem to have a good reason for murdering (end spoiler)

Any rate, this was for the RHC category of genre book in translation and you know I was going to use Japanese mystery for that! This brings me to 7 books read for the Read Harder Challenge, which puts me on better track than I was last year.  Woo! Something is going not horribly this year! 

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat (by Syou Ishida)

A sequel to the delightful We'll Prescribe You a Cat - the book is a little slighter and shorter, the lore is a little more confusing, the characters are a little less satisfying.  But still a cozy read and if you are a cat lover, I recommend you read them both! 

Non-Vacation Vacation Books

I almost took a trip to India for work and fun, but I didn't get my visa in time, so I did not go. But I still downloaded a bunch of books for the very long flight, and spent a full day reading as much as possible to still get the binge-reading travel experience I had been looking forward to. So here are the books that I would have read on my trip if I had been on the trip except I wasn't.

 Endling (by Maria Reva) 

This is in the Tournament of Books, and was spoken of highly in the Goodreads group. A metafictional novel about a woman who is trying to save various species of snails in Ukraine, before and during the Russian invasion. It took me a while to power through this for some reason, but it should be fun to talk about. 

Sorcery & Small Magics (by Maiga Doocy)

I read this for my most dreaded Read Harder Challenge category, romantasy with a queer main character. Obviously the queer part is fine but romance and fantasy are my two least favorite genres. But this ended up being so delightful - a slow burn romance between two sorcerers with an interesting magic system - and I need the second book immediately.  This is exactly why I love the RHC - because I would never have given this book a chance without it! 

The Ten-Year Affair (by Erin Somers)

Another Tournament book, and one I personally enjoyed more than Endling. (For true verisimilitude, this book expired while I was still reading it, so I finished the book in airplane mode.) It's about a married women and her married male friend and essentially plays with the idea of them having an affair in a parallel timeline.  I liked the writing style and the exploration of the grass being greener / the road not taken. It's not judgmental about its characters and not melodramatic - feels grounded and truthful.  Oh, and as a bonus, this was on a number of "best book covers" lists, so it's a RHC check also!

16 Forever (by Lance Rubin)

This is a time-loop YA about a kid who loops back to his 16th birthday every year - except he remembers nothing about the previous loops, and everyone around him does, including the girl he fell in love with last time around. Great premise! Uneven execution. I enjoyed the main characters' family dynamics but our main character just seemed annoying. I didn't understand why the love interest even liked him or why they were drawn to each other, and the ending is super abrupt and fell flat for me. 

When You Listen To This Song (Lola Lafon)

I believe this one was recommended by Ian via the New York Times - a memoir in French about a writer (whose family is Jewish) who spends a night in the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam.  It's contemplative, beautifully written, and beautifully translated by Lauren Elkin. The ending really packs a punch. I wrote down "a gem of a book." 

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (by Baek Se-hee)

I heard about this memoir when the author passed away, and obviously the title made it a must read. Unfortunately, the best part about it is the title, otherwise it's very surface level and not interesting. 

It mostly transcribes conversations between the author and her mediocre therapist that don't really go anywhere or explore anything. I only finished it because it was fast and I'm behind on my goal for the year.  I'm sorry that Baek See-hee is no longer with us, however. 

Canada Books

Yep, another vacation! This time, to Eastern Canada, to visit Prince Edward Island and Lunenberg. Here are the four books I finished on the trip:

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat (by Syou Ishida) 

Read Harder Challenge category: a “cozy” book by a BIPOC author. This is about a mysterious clinic where people go to get prescribed a cat - that somehow ends up solving their problems.  Originally a bestseller in Japan, it is absolutely cozy and charming. The sequel is already on my holds list!

Nobody in Particular (by Sophie Gonzales)

A queer YA romance about a commoner going to boarding school school and meeting a princess in Genovia Henland (I never managed to get used to the name "Henland" which just sounded like "Chickenville" to me.)  Definitely frothy and fluffy, with good chemistry between the leads and an overall cute vibe. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (by Mary Henley Rubio)

I had to get this one on the trip, where I was learning so much about Montgomery's life. I knew she experienced depression and died by suicide but had no idea about 90% of her life story.  (Personally, I blame her son Chester, sex pest and thief, for much of her misery.) This was a long book but I couldn't put it down, and highly recommend it for fans of the author.

The Glass Girl (by Kathleen Glasgow) 

Another YA, very different from the other one, as it is about a 15-year-old dealing with alcohol addiction and some fairly fucked up family dynamics.  She hits rock bottom and goes to rehab, experiencing the peaks and valleys of recovery. The author is clearly writing from experience, and this is unflinching about alcoholism.  The main character is one you can't help but root for with your whole soul.  Really impactful read and very well done.  

Silent Parade (by Keigo Higashino)

I should have a tag just for Japanese mysteries at this point, but here we are again. Part of the "Detective Galileo" series that includes The Devotion of Suspect X. 

As usual, kept me turning the pages - and I wondered how Higashino was going to twist the ending, considering that a lot of things are known at the outset.  Is this a whodunit or a howcatchem? I thought to myself more than once. 

I wouldn't go to this as my first Higashino - I think Malice is my favorite so far - but it's another compelling, complex, satisfying mystery.

Shubeik Lubeik (by Deena Mohamed)

Read for the RHC category "a comic in translation." This was originally written in Arabic and is presented back to front, right to left. It was nominated for a Hugo, among other awards, and takes place in Egypt, in a world where wishes are real and can be bought and sold.

The book follows three "first-class" wishes and the stories of who uses each one.  A woman who has lost her husband, a college student (majoring in wishes) who is dealing with depression, and the man who sells wishes and, for religious purposes, doesn't believe in using them. 

Fascinating glimpse into a culture I know very little about and a unique premise. I didn't think the stories were all super successful - the second one, about Nour, resonated with me the most. I hoped the final story would end a bit more satisfyingly, but maybe the point is - life is life, and there is no perfect way to use a wish.   

Two Weeks, Six Books

I went on back-to-back work trips to New York and Austin, and in the process, finished six books that were across the board pretty good! And two of them covered Read Harder Challenge categories: queer mystery and standalone fantasy.  Here are the books:

Murder in the Dressing Room (by Holly Stars) 

A fun cozy mystery about drag culture. I was convinced I knew the murderer the whole way through the book, to the 99% point, but turns out I didn't! The murderer wasn't really the point though, more an endearing story about a cute, nonbinary main character and an exploration of the world of drag. This is the only book on the list that didn't get a + next to it on my list, but it was cute!

Magic for Liars (by Sarah Gailey)

I was dreading the fantasy category until I found this, detective fiction set in a magic school! (I could call this "genre blending" too I suppose, but it's going to be harder to get standalone fantasy out of the way so I'm sticking with that one.) This is so well done. A woman whose twin sister is a mage - but who isn't magical herself - investigates a murder at a magic school. I loved the main character (in spite of her unlikeability) and really enjoyed all the characters, the treatment of magic, and the way it all played out.  

Lorne (by Susan Morrison)

It was fun to be reading this while I was in New York, and especially since I finally got to see Studio 8H on this visit! I knew many of the stories from being an SNL fan over the years but certainly didn't know all of them - and overall was a fascinating insight to the show and Lorne Michaels as a person.  Highly recommended for fans of Saturday Night Live. 

Newcomer (by Keigo Higashino)

Inventive! It's not only a murder mystery but functions as a set of linked short stories - Detective Kaga is a newcomer to this part of town, as is the murder victim, and as you explore different characters you see their connections to each other and to the victim. Often, the vignettes explore a storyline of a person in the neghborhood, as their secrets are revealed and characters loop in and out of the story. Another great offering from Higashino!

Lover Birds (by Leon Egan)

A queer retelling of Pride & Prejudice, wherein a posh London girl moves to Liverpool and meets Lou Byrne and her four best friends.  There are echoes of P&P everywhere (guess who the four best friends are intended to be) but the conflict between the characters ends up feeling organic, and the main character's struggles to manage her ADHD are really well done. Great chemistry between our main couple also! Just overall loved it. 

When the Moon Hits Your Eye (by John Scalzi) 

Last but not least, my pal John Scalzi's latest! I wasn't hugely into Kaiju Preservation Society but this one I really enjoyed. The high concept premise - the moon turns to cheese - becomes an exploration of shared humanity and how we find meaning in our lives.  It's often clever and funny (classic Scalzi) but also surprisingly meditative and profound at points too. Honestly exceeded my expectations! 

The Book-Censor’s Library (by Buthaina Al Eissa)

A Tournament of Books entry from a Kuwaiti author, translated from Arabic. It's a pastiche of (and explicit homage to) dystopian novels like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 as well as Alice in Wonderland and Zorba the Greek. A Book-Censor starts to read forbidden books, and is drawn into an underground (see: Alice) world of illicit literature.

The plot goes a bit off the rails at the end - I did enjoy the metatexual ending a lot as well as the inversion of Orwell, so maybe I'm just holding the daughter's fate (which made me sad) against the author here. Still, it's going up against James in the first round, and although underdogs win in the ToB all the time, my personal vote would go to James. 

Alaska Books

I spent a week in a cabin in Alaska; due to weather and flight delays, I also spent a whole lot of time holed up in the cabin and in airports and on planes. As a result, I finished a whopping nine books, so this might be a long post! This covers many of my favorite genres: litfic, young adult, speculative fiction, and Japanese mystery.

Asking for a Friend (by Kara H. L. Chen)

Cute YA about Taiwanese-American kids with complicated families who enter a business competition. In fact, the first of two books on this list about second-generation Asian kids! I enjoyed the depiction of Taiwanese culture and as a second-generation kid of immigrants (though not Asian immigrants) a lot of relatability in this one. Cute but not amazing.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (by Seicho Matsumoto) 

I believe this was a new author for me that I got from a recommendation on Reddit.  Slow-paced, lots of minutia which I normally love, but but not enough balance in the other direction, and not enough excitement in the mystery. It's like "here is every detail about a very slow paced investigation, and the killer is the exact person you most medium suspect, and you'll discover that very slowly." Not a must.

True Love and Other Impossible Odds (by Christina Li) 

This was the one that made me cry.  It has lot in common with the first book on this list, as it also deals with the pressure of being the child of Asian immigrants. Bu it's a little more mature (the characters are college freshman), the romance is a Sapphic one (always a plus), and in general it was more affecting (I cried). Of all the YA books (or early adult in this case) on this list, this was by far my favorite.

James (by Percival Everett) 

I've been meaning to read this one since the summer, as it was selected for Camp ToB and is by one of my favorite authors. It's a high concept novel (a loose retelling of Huck Finn from Jim's perspective) and it's by Percival Everett, so of course it's a masterpiece. This will definitely make my end of year best books list and probably be in the 2025 tournament.  It's wonderful.

In the Orbit of You (by Ashley Schumacher) 

Another YA, with good chemistry and a nicely complex love story but an unsatisfying ending that didn't quite ring true. As an aside, I knew the Goodreads crowd would dislike this one because they get very mad when anyone is emotionally (or god forbid physically) cheating in a YA novel, but I cannot be the only teenager with the messiest love life. (A sample of my high school days: I cheated on my first boyfriend by kissing a hot guitar player at a party, he responded by bringing me flowers and forgiving me, which didn't make sense until I catfished him for fun only to discover he'd been having sex with his male best friend for years. We stayed together until I successfully convinced him he was gay. We've been best friends for over 30 years. That's high school for you!)  

Margo Has Money Troubles (by Rufi Thorpe)

I decided based on reading her ToB judgment last year that I had to read something by Rufi Thorpe and indeed, this novel is exactly as smart, fresh, quirky and funny as I expected. 

The Half-Life of Love (by Brianna Bourne) 

This was both speculative fiction and YA; the concept is that you get a twinge when your life is halfway over.  A lot of suspension of disbelief was required because they are scientifically investigating it as if it's some chemical thing but also apparently you're immortal before this happens? Like, what happens if you blow your brains out with a pistol? But it's a love story between a researcher who lost her baby sister and a teenage boy who's about to die.  I didn't love how the ending played out (not in terms of what happens, but in terms of how Finch doesn't get agency over his planned death) but it was an interesting high concept, and I liked September as a character and just generally pondering how we live our lives and what's important. Also I was on a bucket list trip (to see the Northern Lights) so led to some interesting contemplation about the purposes of a bucket list and why this trip was important to me.

True Letters from a Fictional Life (by Kenneth Logan)

I wasn't sure if the characters fell flat for me because I was tired from travel at this point, but my thoughts were echoed on Goodreads and the more I thought about it, the more flat it fell. It's about a sporty kid who's figuring out he's gay but I had a lot of problems with it: there's a lot of homophobic and transphobic stuff that is never challenged or addressed. It doesn't feel like in 21st century Vermont of all places there would be this many people using the f-slur, punching gay kids, assuming gay people are pedophiles, or panicking about gay people getting AIDS. Like the widespread regressive attitudes don't ring true. The romance is absolutely tepid. And I couldn't really visualize any of the characters so they all fell flat. A big miss for me.

Salvation of a Saint (by by Keigo Higashino) 

Last but not least, from the author of The Devotion of Suspect X, another Howdunit.  There was one part of the Howdunit that I figured out very early on; the other part was ingenious and I didn't. I loved the character of the female junior detective.  I loved the entire plotline and the unraveling of the mystery. Goes into my top tier of Japanese mysteries for sure, and a great note to end my vacation reading marathon on!

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling)

My final book of the Read Harder Challenge! (And I just realized I haven't updated my post all year, so I'll get on that.) The category was "a book about media literacy."

This is a book I wouldn't have read without the RHC and it's really great. Some of the data is outdated - usually it's even better than presented - but the 10 tips on interpreting the world around you are evergreen.  Rosling was a Swedish researcher and in this book he presented 10 instincts that we use for interpreting human behavior. 

The very first one, the gap instinct, was a good reminder during election season when things are very "us vs. them" and we envision the country as two polarized groups instead of a spectrum of people when it is, in fact, a spectrum. (Also, registering college voters in person this year was similarly enlightening.)  

Highly recommend this as a very digestible read that will help you interpret the world more clearly, and more hopefully.

The Devil's Flute Murders (by Seishi Yokomizo)

Another Japanese murder mystery! This time I had a really hard time keeping all the characters straight in my mind. I went to Goodreads and I wasn't alone - the cast of characters is large and not always rendered distinctively, and there are a lot of names starting with the same letter.  This is par for the course with murder mysteries but didn't gel for me here.

I also found the pace slow, the translation of the "accents" to be very odd. I enjoyed the reveal at the end even if I didn't fully follow everything (due in part, again, to a huge cast of characters and more being introduced as we go...) For the first time in reading a Japanese murder mystery, I found myself wishing for a western adaptation! The plot is good, but the execution wasn't great.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (by Satoshi Yagisawa)

Read for the"read a book about books" Read Harder category and also recommended by a librarian (although I don't double dip, so the librarian category will be another book). 

As you might have guessed, this is a Japanese novel about a young woman who is a bit adrift in life and goes to live in her uncle's bookshop, the Morisaki bookshop in a famous bookshop area of Tokyo. As with so many Japanese novels, it's restrained and thoughtful and moody and cozy.  And I enjoyed it!

Belize Books

I'm almost done with a sixth book, but here are the five books I finished while on my vacation to Belize:

Birding Under the Influence (by Dorian Anderson)

I avidly followed Dorian's blog about the Big Year he did on a bicycle. In this memoir, he tells the story of his journey while interspersed with the love story between him and his now-wife Sonia, and his problems with drinking and drugs and general addict behavior. I thought this memoir was terrific - well written, candid, structured well, and generally one of the better blog-to-book books I've ever read. Highly recommended if you're interested in reading about a Big Year!

Journey Under the Midnight Sun (by by Keigo Higashino) 

Another Japanese Mystery, and I think the third one I've read by Higashino. This one is pretty long (I would say overly long) and you figure out whodunit pretty early, but the whydunit and will-someone-ever-catch-them elements propel you to the end. Definitely a motive I should have, but did not, see coming, which made the ending hit hard. Not my favorite by him purely because of the overlength, but good nonetheless.

The Long Run (by James Acker)

Queer YA, you knew it was making it on this list somehow. I wasn't sure an athlete love story would be my jam as they've been hit or miss for me in the past, but this one has so much depth, the characters and their relationship are actually wonderful and lovely and I cried of course. Recommended!

Noah Frye Gets Crushed (by Maggie Horne)

This was, vis a vis the RHC, "a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character." Absolutely adorable, funny and charming. full of terrific characters, although I would have liked to see Jessa developed better. I'm actually not a middle grade fan (Baby-Sitters Club notwithstanding ) but this nails it. Horne has got a sapphic YA debut coming out next month, can't wait for that!

Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet (by Molly Morris) 

Love the premise - every 10 years, someone in this small town gets to come back from the dead - wrapped in a queer YA.  I enjoyed it enough to finish it to the end but was my least favorite of these - I found it to be overly quirkified and aggressively 90s (authors need to stop with this).  I was thrown off at the very beginning by the quirky names. The main characters, Wilson and Ryan, are both girls. Ryan's twin brother is Mark, which makes no sense whatsoever as a sibling set. Wilson calls her mother by her first name, Jody, and Jody's ex, a man, is named Cass.  Wilson is named after Wilson Phillips. I was so confused and also, like, why do all the names have to be quirky.  My biggest issue is that the romance didn't fully work and relationships felt inorganic.  I finished it, I guess, is the best I can say!

A Pair of Mysteries

A friend and I got to talking about mysteries we like; we're both fans of Agatha Christie-style fair play mysteries and not so much modern thrillers.  I recommended some Japanese mysteries to him and he talked about some Golden Age writers I might enjoy, like Ellery Queen. So we exchanged recs.

The Greek Coffin Mystery (by Ellery Queen)

Like Agatha Christie, this has not aged well. Sexism, racism, some really awful ableism.  I also didn't much like the writing style. I kept reading because I wanted to give it a fair shake and hear the solution to the mystery, which is clever, and fooled me, which as you know I always enjoy.  But it's really hard to get past the writing, which is depressingly Of Its Time and like I said, not even that good. I think I'll move on from Queen (the nom de plume, by the way, of two cousins, who wrote these books) and try a different Golden Age writer next.

Malice (by Keigo Higashino)

Coincidentally, this popped up on my library holds list, by the author of The Devotion of Suspect X, which I enjoyed. Well Malice was even better! A Whydunit that manages to be so suspenseful, I finished it all in one day.  Now this one, I really recommend. Japanese mysteries are really a goldmine. I'm hoping my friend enjoys my rec, The Decagon House Murders, and if so, I'll tell him to read Malice next.

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up (by Naoko Kodama)

Read for the "manga" category in the RHC.  It's a short manga about a girl who marries her best friend "to shut her parents up" and then ends up developing romantic feelings for her.

There are a lot of flashbacks, which made this choppy and confusing to read. (This may partly be because I'm not used to reading manga, but I had no issues with My Brother's Husband.)  There is some weird sexual harassment going on, flashbacks that don't pay off, a weird focus on the main character's giant boobs?

I mean, it's cute - the grumpy/sunshine dynamic is there and this could have been adorable. But it lacked pacing and depth, for me.

Eclipse Books

We traveled to and from Dallas for the solar eclipse, and we know what that means: airplane reads! We also ended up with massive delays coming home, which meant I finished two books I already had in progress and read a bunch more, and knocked off three Read Harder Challenge categories.  Here's the wrapup:

This Day Changes Everything (by Edward Underhill) 

Young adult romance between two queer kids in marching bands, both in New York to march in the Macy's parade. Cute, although the characters saying "I love you" after one day just did not work for me. The author lampshaded it, but it was still extremely silly.  But otherwise very Dash & Lily vibes,  charming. RHC category: YA book by a trans author.

Just Another Epic Love Poem (by Parisa Akhbari) 

A bildungsroman about a girl in love with her best friend, with whom she has been writing an epic poem for years. The pacing is a bit off at the beginning but then plays out beautifully. There's a lot of poetry that's supposed to be good, and thank god it is good (and the book features a lot of wonderful world poetry as well, especially from the narrator's Persian culture). It goes beyond the YA romance into a beautiful ode to sisterhood and family and I wept on the plane for the entire conclusion. If your YA standards are high, this will meet them. 

Also introduced me to this piece by Kahlil Gibran:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful. How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic (by Jack Lowery) 

RHC category: a book about drag or queer artistry. After considering various books by and about drag queens, I went another direction and decided to read about Gran Fury, the artistic collective associated with ACT UP.  Lowery brings lessons from the height of the AIDS pandemic into today by focusing on the importance of art, collective action, and propaganda. I enjoyed the epilogue, where he traced a line  from Silence = Death to Black Lives Matter, showing that activism through art continues to be urgent and important.

The Core of the Sun (by Johanna Sinisalo) 

I'm guessing Goodreads somehow recommended this for the RHC category of "a work in translation from a country you haven't visited." This is translated from the Finnish and is referred to as "Finnish weird," which explains why it's about a dystopia where there's a black market for chili peppers, and our main character tests the spice level of one by sticking it in her vagina in the first paragraph of the book.  But the main thee of the book is the Finnish society presented here, which has undergone scarily plausible "domestication" of women.  A fascinating page-turner; the only issue was a rather abrupt ending that I wish had been a bit more fleshed out. But Finnish weird, who knew? I'm into it.

Daniel, Deconstructed (by James Ramos) 

Another young adult read (they're good for airplanes). This one is a celebration of all the spectrums: gender, sexual, romantic, neurodiverse, and I enjoyed the autistic MC and his hyper-empathetic lens on the world. The plot is a  bit meandering, but ultimately an enjoyable book, just sweet and hopeful. 

All the Lovers in the Night (by Mieko Kawakami) 

A Japanese novel in translation, by the author of Breasts and Eggs. Although I didn't enjoy it quite as much (a shame, since the narrator is a proofreader) I enjoyed the moody, meditative, slice of life exploration of memory and connection. (The "work in translation" category would have been so easy if I hadn't been to Japan; I love Japanese novels.) 

Phew! I also got halfway through a mystery (a conspicuously absent genre from this list) but that's definitely enough for now. Oh, and I saw totality!

ETA: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (by Benjamin Stevenson)

Already finished it and not worth a separate post. I like the concept of this one, the breaking of the fourth wall, and the ultimate resolution to the plotline was really good. The way it played out was just a bit too convoluted for me, and Ernest isn't really likeable nor does he seem smart enough to pull off all the deductions at the end. Plus everyone is really mean to him for no reason! Idk, as the kids say these days, it was mid. 

The Devotion of Suspect X (by Keigo Higashino)

One of the Read Harder challenges this year is to read a "whydunit" or "howdunit" and this Japanese mystery was recommended in the "howdunit" category. And it definitely fits: you find out who is murdered, and by whom, at the very beginning. Then you follow the trail of the detectives investigating the case and the murderer as they try to cover their tracks.  The question isn't how did the murder occur, but how did the murderer cover their tracks and will the detective uncover the solution.

I thought it would be impossible for this novel to have some kind of twist, but it did anyway, and I loved it. The ending was abrupt (there is a sample of another book at the back, so partly it was that we were not at 100% yet in the Kindle progress meter when it ended) but really works. Another hit in my series of Japanese mystery novels!