Life’s Too Short

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by Abby Jimenez
First sentence: “Wailing.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content:There is lots of swearing, including multiple f-bombs. There is also on-screen sex and talk of penis size. It’s in the romance section of the bookstore.

Vanessa Price is a pretty famous travel blogger, and so when she landed in St. Paul to help her sister give birth (its an unplanned an unwanted pregnancy), the last thing she expected was to end up taking care of the baby full time. But, here she is, without content, not having showered for ages. Coming to the rescue is Adrian Copeland, defense attorney, eligible bachelor, and surprising baby whisperer. As the weeks go on, Vanessa and Adrian grow closer together, figuring out life and babies and family and ultimately how to live your life to the fullest.

I absolutely devoured this one. It’s fluffy and fun, but it’s also got depth as Vanessa is dealing with a family history of ALS as well as a parent who is a hoarder and a half-sister (the baby’s mom) who is a drug addict. Mostly, though, it’s a lot of flirting and will they/won’t they and a lot of spending huge amounts of money on wine and home furnishings (Jimnez knows that a man cleaning is sexy!) and ultimately a very satisfying romance. I read it in a weekend afternoon, and then found out it was part of a “series”, so I picked up the first one.

I can’t wait to devour that one, too.

Audio book: Fox and I

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by Catherine Raven
Read by Stacey Glemboski
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen on Libro.fm
Content: There’s some intense moments. It’s in the biography section of the bookstore.

Catherine is a biologist by education, but mostly she’s a naturalist: she enjoys being in nature, having worked as a park ranger and currently lives mostly off the grid outside of Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The book is basically a memoir of her life, but more its more than that: it’s a reflection on our relationship with nature, and whether or not it’s “appropriate” to befriend a wild animal. In her case, a wild fox.

This is an odd book, reminding me very strongly of Lab Girl. Raven struggles with her feelings of friendship towards something that “supposed to” be an object of her study. It’s most interesting when she”s analyzing literature — most notably Frankenstein, Moby Dick, and The Little Prince — or maybe that’s what I found most interesting. Even with it’s oddness, I found the story compelling possibly because the narrator is really good. She kept the book interesting and entertaining in spite of its oddness.

Not my most favorite book this year, but an interesting one.

Six Crimson Cranes

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by Elizabeth Lim
First sentence: “The bottom of the lake tasted like mud, salt, and regret.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some violence. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore.

Shiori is the only Princess of the Kiata kingdom, the youngest of seven children of the Emperor. She’s basically a good kid, except she has a secret: she is magic. Which is a big deal in a world where magic has been banned. Oh, and she does NOT want to marry the person she is betrothed to. But when she discovers a secret about her stepmother, her six brothers are turned into cranes and Shiori is cursed: for every sound she utters, one of her brothers will die. She is then sent to the farthest reaches of the kingdom, and she has to find her brothers as well as her way back home. Along the way, help comes from the unlikeliest of sources: the same betrothed she was trying so hard to avoid marrying.

I’ve seen Lim’s work around; one of the teens in the teen review group at the store really liked her Spin the Dawn. And I have to admit: Lim has a way with fairy tales. It’s a grand fantasy, with dragons and magic and villains and double crossing, but it’s also, at its heart, a fairy tale, where the main character has growth and learns her lessons and all ends up happily ever after (mostly). Lim was able to keep me turning pages, pulling me in with her storytelling. It wasn’t heavy-handed, and I was genuinely surprised at the twists and turns it took (though I did suspect a few things, but I think we were supposed to). It was a really good story, and one where I am curious to see where it goes from here.

Maybe I’ll even go back and read her other duology, too.

Monthly Round Up: August 2021

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It’s the end of August and school has started, which means reading habits are bound to change. Again. That said, I did read some good books last month.

My favorite:


The Accursed Vampire

It was just so much joy. It made me happy for days. SO glad it landed n K’s radar and she passed it on to me. And the rest:

YA:

A Constellation of Roses
The Summer of Lost Letters
Flash Fire

Graphic Novels

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part 1 vol 2-3
Heartstopper, Volume 1

Adult Fiction

Go Tell It On the Mountain

Middle Grade:

The Elephant in the Room

What was your favorite this month?

Flash Fire

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by TJ Klune
First sentence: “‘Nicky, yes,‘ Seth Gray groaned, and Nick had never been prouder of himself in his entire life.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Extraordinaries
Content: There is a lot of talk about sex (a lot!) and being horny, but no actual. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8), but might be uncomfortable for some in that age group.

Spoilers for the first book, obviously.

Picking up a few months after The Extraordinaries left off, Seth and Nick are in a happy, healthy relationship. Seth has embraced his role as Pyro Storm, and Nick is trying to figure out how to control his powers. Things are looking good, and it feels like the only major decision they will have to make is what to wear to Prom.

But, of course, things are not meant to be easy for our heroes. There are some new extraordinaries in town, some of which may be good, but others… not so much. And, of course, Nick and Seth and Gibby and Jazz are going to have to deal with things that are way out of their league.

I think Klune is my new favorite writer! there is something about his writing and his storytelling that just makes me smile. It deals with serious issues — there are bis in here about police brutality as well as being open to admitting, owning, and rectifying one’s mistakes. I love that there are supportive adults in the book, that the kids are allowed to (mostly) be kids. It’s a joy to read and laugh with. It helps that Klune is brilliant at writing all sorts of relationships, as well as action scenes (important in a superhero book!).

I am definitely glad I picked up his books this year. I can’t wait for the next one!


Heartstopper Volume 1

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by Alice Oseman
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some bullying and a scene of sexual assault. It’s in the graphic novel section of the bookstore.

I had seen this around the bookstore, and picked it up on a whim when we were in Chicago earlier this summer, with no idea what to expect. Turns out, it’s a very sweet love story between two boys – Nick, grade 10, and an out gay kid at the school; and Charlie, grade 11, a rugby player, who is not entirely sure about his orientation (is he gay? is he bi?) but knows that he really likes spending time with Nick.

There isn’t much story-wise: Nick has been having a secret romance with another kid, Ben, who is pretty toxic. He develops a friendship with Charlie when they are placed next to each other in class, and the friendship develops into a crush, but he thinks Charlie is straight. Charlie becomes a really good friend to Nick, but is struggling: he likes Nick as more than friend, but has always assumed he was straight. What did all that mean?

I really enjoyed this graphic novel! I liked that Oseman highlighted that boys can be on the receiving end of sexual assault, I liked Charlie’s open questioning (rather than shutting everything down), I liked Nick and Charlie as characters. The art isn’t super sophisticated, but it gets the job done, and doesn’t detract from the story.

It’s the first of at least a trilogy, and I will definitely be checking those out.

The Accursed Vampire

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by Madeline McGrane
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some blood and gore (um, vampires!). It’s in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Dragoslava knows that being a vampire kid has its perks, but sometimes it’s not the greatest. Especially if you work for a demanding witch who sends you on her most unpleasant errands. The most recent being to fetch a grimoire from a former student and then curse the witch who stole it. So, off Dragoslava goes with their friends to do this job. What they find, though, is unexpected: a home and a family.

Oh this book was so charming! (I’m in the market for sweet, adorable, funny stories right now.) K heard about it on YouTube and asked me to pick it up, and I’m so glad I did. It’s sweet, it’s silly, it’s interesting, it’s well-told, the drawings are adorable, and I loved every moment reading this one. Drago and their friends are adorable and charming, and I adored the adult characters. It was a bit about finding confidence in yourself, a bit about found family, and a bit about being kind.

Exactly what I needed.

Go Tell it On the Mountain

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by James Baldwin
First sentence: “Everyone had always said that John wold be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is violence, some talk of sex, a liberal use of the n-word, and some swearing. It’s in the adult fiction section of the bookstore.

This one is difficult to describe plot-wise. It takes place over one night, as John, the son of a preacher in New York in 1935, goes to the church to clean and pray with his parents and other church-goers. Over the course of the prayers, we learn that John is not the biological son of his father, who resents his mother for not being more repentant for her sin of bearing John out of wedlock. We learn that John is conflicted about his stepfather, and the idea of church. We learn that John’s mother is just doing what she needs to do, and that his aunt — his stepfather’s sister — has held a lifelong grudge against her brother.

There isn’t much of a plot, it’s more of an exploration of the ways in which racism, enslavement, and patriarchy have affected the lives of these characters and the way they use religion to justify or explain or hide from the world. I’m not entirely sure it comes off as favorable to religious people; religion seems like a crutch to escape and a means of punishment rather than a means of worship and service. But that’s my white privilege talking; I have never been enslaved and I don’t know how religion works in that world. It was a fascinating read (possibly not one that I would recommend while on painkillers) and a complex one, even if it lacked plot.

The Summer of Lost Letters

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by Hanna Reynolds
First sentence: “I am going to try to explain.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some teenage drinking and a few swear words including a couple of f-bombs. It’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

Abby Shoenberg isn’t really looking forward to the summer — her best friends will be gone away to camps and she doesn’t want to bump into her now ex-boyfriend around their small Massachusetts town. Then a package of her recently passed grandmother’s letters arrives, and they’re juicy: a series of love letters from an Edward on Nantucket island. The thing is: her grandmother — who came to the US by herself in 1934 before the War, and whose parents didn’t survive the Holocaust — never mentioned this Edward, or that she had ever spent any time on Nantucket. And suddenly, Abby has a plan for the summer: find a job and go live on Nantucket, and do some digging. Maybe she could find not only this Edward but her grandmother’s family: with the war and being so young, she had completely lost track of everyone, especially after finding out her parents were killed.

The thing is: Edward is the head of a very rich business family, with a huge estate on Nantucket, and Abby finds herself reluctantly getting the assistance o his grandson, Nick. And the more they find out, the more time they spend together, the closer they become.

Oh this was just the smart, sweet, interesting teen romance I needed. I liked that while it dovetailed into World War II, it wasn’t set there, and while the war had an impact on the story, I’ m not sure it was the most important impact. I liked that the characters were Jewish, comfortable in their faith, but also honest about antisemitism. I liked the romance; Reynolds has a way with writing chemistry and tension, and I liked the push and pull between Nick and Abby. It felt real. I also liked Abby’s obsession with learning her history; she is right that our ancestors stories mean something, even if they are not always the best or most honorable.

It was an excellent YA romance, fluffy and fun but with depth as well. I loved it.

Ascendence of a Bookworm: Part 1, Vol 2-3

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by Miya Kazuki
Illustrated by Suzuka
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there (vol 2, vol 3)!
Content: There is some violence and talk of death. It’s in the graphic novel section of the bookstore.
Others in the series: Part 1, Volume 1

We pick up where volume 1 left off: Myne is still trying to figure out how to make aper so she can make herself a book. She has got one of her father’s soldiers to teach her the alphabet, she tried making clay tablets but they exploded. She tried weaving paper but it took so much. So she focused on other things: being strong enough to walk to the forest. Heping her friend Lutz with his goals of being a merchant instead of a carpemnter. Figuring out the rules of this world she has found herself in.

It’s not easy: she is always rnning up against limitations with her body and the expectations of the adults around her. But she perseveres and keeps trying to achieve her goal.

It’s really a fun manga; I’m enjoying Myne and her story and the fish-out-of-water element as she brings the knowledge of her former life to this world. It’s a clever concept andit’s really well executed.

I can’t wait to read more!