These are the books I read in February 2021 with a rating reflecting my opinion on them. I am leaving books not available in English out for your convenience. At the bottom, I will be sharing some recommendations that fall under the category fiction, non-fiction, or non-fiction political. These recommendations are books I have not read myself, so proceed with caution as I cannot speak to their actual quality.
Read
Making Our Way Home by Blair Imani
I’m a little conflicted about this book. Obviously the history relayed in it is important and serves a great purpose, educating the masses. The art included is beautiful and I enjoyed learning more about these facets of American history. But I found the execution to be less than satisfying. There are a lot of repetitions throughout and a lack of consistent narrative, which may very well be acceptable for a history book, but made for a lesser reading experience. My biggest gripe were are the excessive detours on other historical topics. I really wanted to love this book more than I did, but the author’s execution left me wanting more.
Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jean Bigelow
God, it’s hard go say just how much I loved this book and how much I fell in love with Hazel. This is an amazing book for kids and adults alike that centers around a sympathetic, relatable, and unique-in-all-the-best-ways narrator who is confronted by new challenges and learns in her own way to move forward. There is so much representation in this book and characters are very inclusive and thoughtful on a whole host of issues, from LGBTQ+ issues to race to religion to sexuality. Just an incredible book and an author I’ll definitely try to read more of!
Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce
Per chance, a young woman ends up working for a women’s magazine in 1940s London, whose Agony Aunt isn’t willing to answer any letters that include Unpleasantness. These heartfelt letters don’t leave young Emmy alone, so she secretly starts writing back. This is really a story about the struggles of women during World War II, trying to hold down the fort while somehow never showing fear and always having a defiant sweet smile on their lips. I did enjoy the opportunity to be submerged in the time period and was quite engaged throughout. But I also had a lot of issues, from the pacing to the focus of the story to certain characters and plot points. I enjoyed reading this book nonetheless, but not as much as I had hoped I would.
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley
This is a lovely sapphic love story centered around high school theater and I loved everything second of it. The stylistic execution (including emails, casting lists, blocking charts etc.), the characters, the plot, the love of theater! Just a delightful read. The only thing I wished was that I had been more familiar with Les Misérables before reading this book since it’s featured very prominently. I’ll be sure to re-read this book once I’ve listened and seen the show and it may make this a 5/5 for me!
Wranglestone by Darren Charlton
A harrowing story centered around an atom bomb destroying life in 1980s Germany and one family’s desperate struggle to survive. Honestly that this is marketed as a children’s book is insane because the violence and gore described is intense. While some elements are definitely outdated, especially references to physical and mental impairments, and the the fears of the times of an escalation of the cold war being unfounded, this is still a bone-chilling book and a prescient reflection of the attitudes of the times.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This is a classic about a childhood in the South of the 1930s centered around a trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman. Really the trial that is so remembered about the book and the movie scarcely takes up a third of the book, it’s much more of a meandering tale of a young girl and her brother living in a small town. While the period aspects of this book were very interesting and I was certainly engaged in the events unfolding, the plot seemed uncentered at times, the narration was of varying quality, a lot of the characters were rather unsympathetic, and the stereotypes and slurs hard to stomach. Never mind the challenge of slang and regional dialect posed to my understanding. Reading this once was certainly interesting, but not an experience I seek to repeat
Sherlock: Chronicles by Steve Tribe
Surprisingly for a book about a tv show I’ve enjoyed this fell really flat for me. While the behind the scenes pictures, origin stories and screen grabs from the actual show were delightful, , the excessive inclusion of segments from the books, equally excessive inclusion of often asinine deleted scenes, frequent repetitions, long, drawn out descriptions of visuals and nearly everything as well as the tone of the whole thing just dragged this out. It was often boring at best and mildly offensive and self-congratulating at worst. Never mind the lack of cohesion narratively. Sadly a disappointment.
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
It’s a normal day in the life of Ruth Jefferson, a black labor and delivery nurse, until a series of events that starts with a racist father and a dead baby derails all she’s ever known. This is a hard read, dealing with institutional and deeply intimate racism, laid out in a court case. Told from three perspectives, Ruth’s, her well-meaning but racially uneducated defence lawyer, and Tuck, the white supremacist father, this book is incredibly thought-provoking, engaging, and at times uncomfortable. While the inclusion of slurs was uncomfortable and unnecessary in my view, and some of the later plot developments were a little overdramatic, this is still a compelling book and another good read from Jodi Picoult.
Before I Had the Words by Skylar Kergil
Sadly this book didn’t quite work for me. While the life experience of the author was certainly interesting and I loved the inclusion of poems/songs throughout, the lack of structure throughout the book, including jumping back and forth in time, and well as the narrative style and voice really kept me from being able to relate. It felt like there was a thick piece of glass between me and the author, especially maybe because I was entirely unfamiliar with his youtube presence.
The Wild Chicks: Class Trip by Cornelia Funke
This, alongside Conni & Co., is the quintessential class trip story. It’s got adventures, pranks, and friendships, all the good things of a children’s book. Fun as always!
The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O’Brien
Interesting trilogy focused on the life of women in 20th century Ireland and England, but definitely not my cup of tea, might have picked up the first book of my own volition, but certainly not the trilogy if it had not been required reading.
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
This is a beautifully illustrated fantastical story of a man who makes a deal with death: 200 days to live for the ability to shape matter with his hands. While I was intrigued how the story will unfold and really enjoyed the art style and narrative choices, this really had a ‘manic pixie dream girl saves tortured artist’ vibe which was off-putting to me, felt really old-school in many respects, and just generally was not satisfying enough for a nearly 500 page graphic novel.
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
This is sad and vibrant story of a boy and a girl who become part of each others lives for a moment, only to go off into two very different directions,. I liked the road trip elements and how much of this book was centered around words. The struggles Violent and Finch face feel pretty realistic, except a few elements that felt a bit too pretentious. I also liked Violent and Finch as individuals much more than Violet-and-Finch the couple. Still, a very solid read that dares you to look up.
My Sister, Daisy by Adria Karlsson
This a short and sweet children’s book about a pair of siblings, one of whom comes out as transgender. Told from the perspective of the cisgender sibling, this book handles the subject with tact and heart. The scrapbook-esque art style was really cute and unique. I also loved the mixed race representation! This book will be released September 1, 2021.
Following Nellie Bly by Rosemary J. Brown
This short travelogue style trip following the famous journalist, adventurer, and renowned 19th century woman Nellie Bly’s journey around the globe is a fun and educational experience. Interesting are the inclusion of visuals and the comparison between modern day and the 19th century, as well as the feeling of movement and enthusiasm. This book heavily relies on Nellie Bly’s own account of her journey, at times to excess. In general this book meanders around a bit too much for my taste, While I think the contents of this book could have worked better as a series of newspaper articles, I still enjoyed this trip around the world, especially in a time when travel is impossible. This book will be released May 30, 2021!
Shell-Shocked: Feminist Criticism after Trump by Bonnie Honig
This dense, academic, and complex collection of essays takes an analytical look at contemporary politics using feminist criticism and a varied and relevant collection of media such as movies, tv shows, newspapers, and books. Like most essay collections, I didn’t love or agree with every thing in this book. From only referring to women in describing those affected by gaslighting, “His or her” usage, both of which excludes anyone who isn’t a woman or uses different pronouns, to some overwrought analyses and conclusions, I definitely had a few issues with it. Nonetheless, this is a thoughtful book that seeks to make the reader think and by using media as cleverly as it does, it helps to make the subject matter more approachable to the general public. This book will be released March 23, 2021!
Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon
Rosie is 16, has Down syndrome, and is deeply in love with her boyfriend Jack. When Jack is taken away due to his anger issues and Rosie’s dad keeps his postcards away due to him feeling like Jack is a bad influence, Rose decides to visit Jack herself. Thus starts of an ill-fated December journey through England in which Rose meets lots of good and bad people, and eventually finds her way back to Jack and her home. This was an interesting read and I certainly appreciated the trigger warning in the front, since a few serious issues are brought up, although most not that explicitly. And while I appreciated the use of media such as the postcards and text messages, I didn’t really love this book. I wasn’t able to get invested in the characters or relationships, there are a lot of boring flashbacks, the villain being polish is unnecessary and mildly bigoted, and I didn’t really feel like a lot even happened.
People in Trouble by Sarah Schulman
I really wanted to like this book set in the late 1980s, focused around AIDS, and first published in 1990. Instead what I got was an incredibly unpleasant read filled with unnecessarily explicit sex scenes, racism, anti-semitism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Any book that has a female character comment on her gay lover saying ‘she was effeminate, like a beautiful f*****’ is legitimately horrifying. How this book could be republished in 2019 without so much as a foreword or content warning or indeed republished at all is a mystery to me.
We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman
I liked the idea of this book very much, since I love stories that include letters, text messages etc. The letters themselves were amazing, very diverse, funny, and moving. But pretty much everything else fell flat for me. I just didn’t like any of the characters, found their decisions and journeys boring, unrelatable or trite, and despite some nice queer representation, it was always relegated to the side. Only in the letters, which were mostly off-screen characters, were queer people present, and all the main characters were at best uninvolved and at worst iffy on gender issues. Ben saying every time he talks about his feelings that he is ‘being such a girl’ is really not what a book published only 6 years ago should include. Overall, the idea was great, but the execution wasn’t satisfying to me.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The dystopian aspects of this story were very intriguing, but the characters not so much. I was not invested in any of their relationships and they always felt really cold to me. The narrative style, while engaging and easily readable, was quite repetitive throughout. I would have liked this book more if it had spent less time on its characters and more on its world.
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
I could not put this book about badass fat fashion blogger Bea participating in a Bachelor-esque reality show down! I loved the characters, the drama, the representation, the locations, simply a captivating read! I fell in love with Bea in particular, but also with so many of the characters, with Asher, Wyatt, and Marin being some of my favorites. Seeing gender-nonconformity and aro ace representation in the same story was amazing, as well as the brilliant inclusion of multi media such as newspaper articles, tweets, and text messages. A joy to read!
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
I am surprised how much I enjoyed this novel. Classics can be a mixed bag for me, and I was going into this only because it was assigned reading. But this tale of a young woman who becomes a governess was really captivating, beautifully written, and thoughtful. There were certainly passages that dragged on, but overall I was invested in Agnes’ life and found the plot to be quite interesting.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
I really enjoyed this murder mystery story set in a small town, following along as it slowly unraveled. The main character Pippa was a great protagonist whose determination, grit, and work ethic I really enjoyed. Most of the other characters were really interesting as well and I really loved the inclusion of different media such as sketches, emails, and transcripts. The only thing I had an issue with was the the mystery reveals were a little underwhelming compared to the excellent build up and decimation of clues beforehand.
Across the Tracks to Murder by Alverne Ball & Stacey Robinson
This is a short and accessible graphic novel that tells the history of the Tulsa Race Massacre and the community it impacted. The illustrations are very beautiful and the story is extremely impactful. The only issues I had were that it was a little hard to read in eformat at times and that it is quite superficial. A great entry point for those unfamiliar with the history this graphic novel depicts. It’s out on May 4, 2021!
Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz
Read for VC book club, this fast paced spy thriller set in WW2 arose mixed feelings in me. While very easy to read and definitely compelling, I found the protagonist Michael to be too overpowered, his only real weakness being a fear of heights. He is 13 in this book, but somehow strong and clever enough to solve almost every problem that comes up. Additionally he didn’t come across as someone who has lived in Germany for several years by the time the story begins. Beyond that, something about the whole story just didn’t sit right with me and felt too much like ‘non-Germans good, Germans bad’, like the fact that no one Michael befriends or spends any extended time with is German and not portrayed as evil.
Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
Another compelling adventure! Loved the evolution of the group dynamics as well as the new characters introduced. The stakes are getting higher as well which is super cool!
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
Read for a book club, this is an interesting and accessible look at the first year of the Trump Presidency with a specific focus on domestic and foreign policy. The writing style made this book very easy and engaging to read and I appreciated the unique perspective of Woodward. The main thing that bothered me is that there wasn’t much of a narrative thread throughout and chapters jumped around a lot, especially on foreign policy topics.
The Cleveland Heights LGBTQ Sci-Fi + Fantasy Role Playing Club by Doug Henderson
This is a short tale centered around a group of LGBTQ+ DnD players and their lives in Cleveland. There are quite a few characters and their group dynamics were very interesting. I especially enjoyed Mooneyham’s experience being gay in a corporate environment as well as his relationship with Huey. I didn’t care too much about Ben and his relationship troubles, however. Not a lot happens in this book, which makes it a bit boring. But the twenty-somethings trials of figuring yourself out and what you want to do in life were very well done and realistic in my opinion. As an amateur DnD player I also appreciated the passionate and detail-oriented portrayal of it in this story. If you like role playing games, queer characters, and a slice-of-life type of story, this is the book for you, so look for it on April 15, 2021!
Recommendations
Fiction
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry
“For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob — a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life — hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life’s duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world… and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing.
There’s someone else who shares his powers. It’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.”
Severance by Ling Ma
“Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?”
Political
Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election by Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick
“The authors of Douglass and Lincoln present fully for the first time the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s imprisonment in the days leading up to the 1960 presidential election and the efforts of three of John F. Kennedy’s civil rights staffers who went rogue to free him–a move that changed the face of the Democratic Party and propelled Kennedy to the White House.”
Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson
“Every major decision governing our diverse, majority-female, and increasingly liberal country bears the stamp of the United States Senate, an institution controlled by people who are almost exclusively white, overwhelmingly male, and disproportionately conservative. Although they do not represent a majority of Americans—and will not for the foreseeable future—today’s Republican senators possess the power to block most legislation. Once known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” the Senate has become one of the greatest threats to our democracy. How did this happen?”
Nonfiction
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown
“In April of 1846, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of emigrants led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and fourteen others set out for California on snowshoes and, over the next thirty-two days, endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.”
Storm Chaser: The Terry Law Story by James Gilbert
“Storm Chaser: The Terry Law Story traces the remarkable life of a daredevil minister whose 50 year career in Christian missions and humanitarian work has taken him from Soviet KGB interrogations to Moscow’s evening news, and from Vatican concerts with Pope John Paul II to secret diplomatic missions in Iraq. More than a riveting adventure, Storm Chaser includes key principles to help readers go beyond surviving life’s storms and discover that ‘in the eye of every storm lies the power of God to change your world.'”
The Congressional Report 