Author: Patricia Elzie

I have read an increasing amount of books about various forms of activism and systems of oppression in the last few years, and I know I’m not alone in this. It’s pretty overwhelming. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of oppression, the varieties of oppression, and the sheer number of things that need to be done or ways that people can show up to fight. I become immobilized from trying to make a decision because I am one person, and there is just so much.

This new release has helped me take steps toward action. The first main idea of this book is narrowing your focus because you can’t do everything. Once you decide where you’re going to focus your activism energy, the book encourages you to take consistent and sustainable actions. It is very easy to get burnout, and this book aims to avoid that.

The author has created four activist archetypes to help readers figure out what kinds of activism they would thrive participating in. Are you someone who likes to work in the background or run the show? Or maybe you’re the headliner who makes the speeches? Williams makes it clear that not everyone can be the Beyoncé of the rally, and we need all types of folks to go up against oppression. As the author says, a lot of activism isn’t glamorous, and it shouldn’t be.

There is a lot of pressure for each of us to create our own unique thing and be the loudest out there, while what needs to be done is the opposite. Activism needs to be done in community because that is how it moves the needle, and this book not only has a chapter on finding community but also weaves the thread of community throughout. This book also includes short interviews with activists around the world interspersed throughout the chapters. They talk about what their specific activist focus is, what keeps them going, and how they practice self-care. In addition, each chapter also has reflection questions and key takeaways. Finally, the fantastic illustrations help tie the messages together while also adding to the impact of the writing.

This young adult anthology has 14 stories about mermaids (or rather, merfolk because they aren’t all maids), and there is such a wide range of stories: sweet, creepy, hilarious, vengeful, enraging, exhilarating, heartbreaking, and more. The variety keeps it super interesting, and the pacing and organization of the stories flow really well.

There are some stories, like “We’ll Always Have June” by Julian Winters, that are contemporary, and the merfolk in this world aren’t known by humans, in general. Other stories, like Preeti Chhibber’s “The Dark Calls,” don’t even bother with humans. This story keeps us with the merfolk under the water and dares to imagine going even deeper. Kalynn Bayron’s “Return to the Sea” will definitely squeeze your heart in a few different ways when you read it. In this story, merfolk are not only known to humans, but they live among each other, work together, and go to school together. Of course, there are humans who love to appropriate merfolk culture without actually having an ounce of respect for them or for the ocean. Two specific stories, “The Deepwater Vandal” by Darcie Little Badger and “The First and Last Kiss” by Julie Murphy, reminded me why I love the short story format so much. Both stories in themselves are as fulfilling a read as reading an entire novel, and they just hit all the right notes.

Some of the stories are historical fantasy, and I appreciate that not all the stories take place in the United States. It’s so refreshing to have merfolk from various cultural backgrounds and also just merfolk as their own culture and not just a Hans Christian Anderson mermaid “but make them brown.” The characters in these stories have real depth (pun intended). There were also stories that made me laugh out loud, like Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s “Shark Week” and others that brought tears to my eyes.

I enjoyed the wide exploration of how the humans react to mermaids: awe, fear, disrespect, adoration, etc. I had so much fun reading this anthology, and I hope you do, too.

This book is integral in bridging the gap between knowing many of us need rest and practical tips on how we can get that rest. How do we actually rest? What the heck is rest aside from napping? Divest from capitalism, sure, but what does that even look like in reality when we live in a capitalist society? Rest Easy by Ximena Vengoechea is the book I didn’t even know I needed, and now that I’ve read it, I need to share it with everyone.

Ximena Vengoechea wrote another book I love titled Listen Like You Mean It, which pulled from her knowledge as a User Experience Researcher at large tech companies. As one can imagine, she got really burned out from that job plus being an author plus being a new mom, so she decided to put on her researcher hat and look into what rest is because she really, really needed it. She experimented with so many types of rest, interviewed a ton of people, and read a bunch of writing about rest not only in the United States but elsewhere. In this book, she shares not only some of her research but also the actual activities (or non-activities) that she found were restful.

At the beginning of the book, she addresses the social, racial, political, economical, etc. reasons why rest may not be accessible to some folks or why some folks look at rest in different ways depending on their situation and background. She digs into not only how others get in our way but also how we get in our own way of rest. The way a lot of us “rest” now, by shoving all our rest into our days off of work, is not sustainable and not actually helpful, according to Vengoechea’s research.

The author writes about why it is important to rest for resting’s sake and not only so that we can do more, even though rest can promote creativity. She also explains how rest doesn’t only mean being still and how things like exercise, knitting, baking, and other hobbies can be rest. The hallmark of rest is that we generally feel better after we do it, which is why she says that mindlessly scrolling the internet doesn’t usually count as rest.

As soon as I finished this book, I felt I needed to give it a reread. There is just so much in it that I want to absorb and try to implement in my every day.

Marion Shaw has grown up in the South of Prane in the slums. In this fictional world, the South and the North are at odds in almost every way. Marion’s parents died when she was younger, leaving her with her abusive older brother, Raul, who depends on his maudlum addiction to numb him of his physical and emotional pain. Marion is a maid in town, and she’s pretty much the only source of money to be coming into her and Raul’s home.

Marion dreams of so much more, and she knows there is money to be made in the North. The nobles of the North have peculiar tastes, which is to say, they drink blood. If a person is lucky enough to be chosen and brought on as a bloodmaid, they would be set for life after their few years of service. They live in the great noble houses of the North, existing in opulence and luxury, and they would regularly be bled for their masters and mistresses. It is understood that after their tenure, bloodmaids are given a large pension to remain in luxury for the rest of their days. There are 24 great houses in the North, and Marion dreams of leaving Prane and becoming a bloodmaid, which is super frowned upon in the South. Southerners think it’s disgusting and depraved, but Marion sees it as a way to a better life.

Marion spots an ad in the paper for a bloodmaid. She sneaks out on her brother to go be “interviewed” and meets a taster who bleeds her and offers her a place in one of the great houses. Marion agrees and leaves Prane, not without a lot of difficulty and violence. But when Marion arrives at the House of Hunger, that’s when the real story begins. The house employs a number of bloodmaids, all of whom serve the Countess Lisavet Bathory. Countess Bathory has an exceptional need for blood, which is why she employs so many bloodmaids. Of course, things are not what they seem, and the bloodmaids vie for rank and attention.

Content warning: there is a lot of blood and gore in this book, as well as taxidermy. Humans aren’t the only beings harmed in these pages.

Our protagonist and narrator is Shay Johnson, a biracial Black superstar student at TK Anderson Magical Magnet School. Shay’s parents aren’t wealthy, so they’ve sent her to this well-resourced high school in order for her to have a better chance at success. The specific success they hope for would be winning the Brockton Scholarship. The Brockton Scholarship guarantees a full ride to her top university of choice, a university that her family could not afford to send her to otherwise.

The scholarship is not only based on GPA but on extracurriculars both at school and outside of school and magic levels, which are tested regularly by blood tests. There is a giant leader board at school that broadcasts who is in the top spot for the scholarship, mostly based on GPA and magic levels. Shay’s fiercest competition is Ana Alvarez, her nemesis. Shay and Ana use every opportunity to drag each other, and the competition is fierce.

Shay is an absolute genius when it comes to potion work, and the whole school knows it. She is the head of the potions club, and she has a part-time job at a potion shop with her best friend Lex. Lex is in that time between high school and college, where she is trying to get into the college of her choice, or really, any college at this point. Shay’s mom thinks that Shay and Lex are dating ever since Shay came out to her parents as a lesbian, so it’s always awkward to mention Lex at home.

To add to the drama, there is a teacher. The drama teacher, actually, Mr. Brockton, as in the head of the scholarship committee for the Brockton Scholarship, which his very wealthy family gave a lot of money to create. This year, Mr. B has chosen an aggressively diverse musical for the drama club to put on. There aren’t many students of color, and Mr. B not-so-subtly lets Shay know that her eligibility to win the scholarship would increase if she did the musical. He may have told Shay’s enemy, Ana, the same thing. Shay is really weirded out by how comfortable Mr. B seems to be with being physically up in her space. She thinks she might be overreacting, and she definitely doesn’t want to ruin her chances to win the scholarship.

I had fun reading this book! I like that it’s set in Florida. Not all stories featuring witches or prestigious schools need to be in New England, and I found this refreshing. Content warnings for racism, homophobia, and abusive adults, including grooming.

We begin on Ben Rosencrantz’s 30th birthday. Ben was an English professor in the Pacific Northwest, and he recently divorced his husband and moved back to the Salt Lake City area. He now helps run his father’s board game shop as well as takes care of his father, who is having some health issues. Ben’s heart is really tender from having to leave a teaching job he loved, from the divorce, from his father’s deteriorating health, and also not expecting to be moving back in with his father at age 30.

The board game shop is named Of Dice and Decks, and it’s in a small, tight-knit community of shops in the Sugar House neighborhood, the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows each other and some of the elders have been around since Ben was a kid. Ben doesn’t mind this, and while it’s not ideal, he still loves the community he grew up in, and there is a certain amount of comfort he gets from being around people he has known his whole life. Of Dice and Decks is not doing well financially. Ben’s father added a bit of a coffee shop element to it, and folks do come in for their caffeine, and that may be the main thing keeping the shop afloat.

Ben is at Of Dice and Decks when an incredibly shady guy named Clive comes in. Ben doesn’t know him personally, but he does know that Clive is always trying to sell some kind of knockoff or something to his father (who turns him away every time). As you can imagine, Clive gives off really bad vibes. He goes into the shop, telling Ben that he has something to offer him that Ben is not going to want to turn down. He finally verbally wears Ben down, and Ben takes him to the office to hear what Clive has to say before throwing him out. Clive claims to have an original copy of The Landlord’s Game, which is a game that actually existed, and that Monopoly basically stole its idea from. Copies of The Landlord’s Game go for a lot of money, and Clive is trying to offload this game fast. Ben turns him away, and late that night, Ezra, the florist from next door (and possible love interest?), and Ben are alone in the game shop when there’s a knock at the door. It’s Clive, with a knife stuck in his chest.

This quozy mystery was a ton of fun, and I’m excited for the series to continue.

Our heroine is a Black rapper who goes by the moniker Duchess. The nods to reality in this book are heavy-handed, and it’s absurd in the most delightful way. Duchess (her real name is Dani) is always on the move working, whether it’s as a performer or with her own skincare line, Mela-skin. In fact, there are some major corporations interested in partnering with her line.

Of course, there are people getting in Duchess’s way. One of them is Samantha Banks, a pop star who keeps riding on Duchess’s coattails and creating beef where there is none. Duchess has tried to ignore her but the bad press is getting in the way of her success with Mela-skin. Another person who is getting in her way is her manager, who keeps trying to play up Duchess’s sexuality as if she is a one-dimensional character, and he’s keeping her from expanding and from accepting some amazing opportunities.

Our hero is Prince Jameson, grandson of the Queen of England. Prince Jameson has been able to mostly stay out of the spotlight and do what he wants, shrugging royal duties to instead be a philosophy professor at a university. Unexpectedly, the Queen volun-tells Jameson that he will be the forward-facing royal for a benefit concert in honor of his deceased grandfather. Jameson is at a pub when the royal project manager asks him to name some musical acts that should be in the concert. He only listens to long-dead composers so he pulls aside a lad at the pub and asks his opinion and the lad names Duchess. Jameson submits her name, sight unseen.

He eventually looks up her music videos and he is simultaneously incredibly turned on and also thinking he may have made a mistake in including her in the benefit concert for his deceased grandfather. Still, he will be an absolute gentleman and do his best to give her a lot of space because he could very easily fall into debauchery. His plan would have worked, too, if she didn’t show up early and he had to host her at his estate for the couple weeks before the concert.

This book is incredibly steamy and has explicit, open-door sex scenes. Content warnings for racism and discussion of the death of a parent.

Luna O’Shea just got fired from her job as the incredibly proficient executive assistant of a practically useless CEO. She did not see this coming, and the HR person’s “reasons” had the pungent odor of anti-trans microaggressions. She desperately needs someone to talk to, and since her roommate Simone isn’t home, Luna decides to go to where she was working so they can talk in person.

Simone is a chef and is working on the set of an upcoming reality cooking show. While Luna is at the place where they will be filming, a moody trans man with a vape and a French accent goes storming through asking every woman around if they’d pretend to be his girlfriend for 15 minutes. He offers to pay any takers one thousand dollars and he seems desperate. Luna ends up being the one to do it and so she hops on a video call with this guy’s grandfather, who just happens to be a wildly famous French chef. The grandfather is suspicious why his grandson and Luna’s fake boyfriend, Jean-Pierre Dominique Gabriel Aubert-Treffle, is in New York. Jean-Pierre decides a fake girlfriend is the best excuse and so Luna gets looped into the chaos.

Apparently, Jean-Pierre’s entire inheritance depends on a test, which is a passable recreation of his grandfather’s famous French cuisine menu. Upon learning that Jean-Pierre has a girlfriend, the grandfather says that she should also have to take part in this cooking test. Once they hang up the phone, Jean-Pierre asks Luna to continue this farce through the cooking test and in turn, he will pay her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The biggest catch? Jean-Pierre is absolutely terrible at cooking and Luna is pretty bad at it as well. Luna, however, is an optimist and not about to turn down such a large amount of money. They quickly discover that while they’re both transgender, how they view the world and their places in it are wildly different and it leads to a number of arguments. That makes the fact that they fall for each other surprising to even them.

While this book is related to Chef’s Kiss by the same author, it totally works as a standalone. It is hilarious and sexy and wonderfully queer.

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Adina Walker goes to Edgewater Academy, a prestigious private school full of rich and mostly white students. Adina is neither. Edgewater Academy was founded by the Remington family, and Adina is in the same graduating class as the Remington heir, Pierce Maxwell Remington IV.

The book starts on graduation day, just after the ceremony, and Adina is seething with anger. Her best friend, Toni, the other Black woman in her class, is trying to cheer her up by inviting her to go to the bonfire that night. Something happened during the school year when Adina lost her cool, and her former “friend” Esme made sure that Adina’s admission to Yale was rescinded.

The Remington family puts on a competition after graduation called The Finish. A group of young women is hand-picked by the family to compete for two weeks at their estate. The winner basically gets the world handed to them. The Remington family could get Adina’s spot at Yale back in a single phone call.

Adina doesn’t want to go to the bonfire or really see any of these clowns she graduated with ever again, but Pierce is going to be there, and if anyone can get her an invite to compete in The Finish, it’s Pierce. She finds him, and they have a furtive conversation, but before Adina can ask him for an invite to The Finish, they are interrupted and make their way back to the group. Adina’s following actions surprise Pierce, and he starts to see Adina in a new light, though Pierce’s brother, Graham, advises against even considering inviting Adina to The Finish. The girls who get picked for The Finish are always white and extremely wealthy.

The next morning, Adina receives a personal invitation from Pierce Maxwell Remington IV himself for Adina to take part in The Finish. Twelve girls are chosen to prove their vigor, valor, and ambition to the Remington family. The winner receives infinite opportunity and support from the Remington family. When Adina arrives at the competition, her cell phone and connection to the outside world is taken for the two weeks of the competition. It is not what she expects. It is much, much more horrifying than she ever imagined.

If you’re a reader who enjoyed The Hunger Games, then you really need to get your hands on this book. Content warnings for racism and a lot of violence.

Jo Koy is a household name in many Filipino American homes. He is a stand-up comedian and if you, like me, have read many comedian memoirs you know they can be real, real dark. Jo Koy describes his father as the poster boy for white America. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, he met Jo’s mother while in the military and stationed overseas for the Vietnam War. Jo’s mother was born and raised in the Philippines and she would travel around as the business manager for Filipino bands that would go from base to base and give concerts.

Jo talks about growing up on different military bases as his family moved around before finally making a home in Tacoma, Washington. He also talks about the struggles of being an immigrant kid with a demanding mother and trying to fit into a place not known for its diversity. It’s a memoir and so of course, there is a lot about his family and the stories are also about growing up with three siblings, a single mom, and a mostly-absent father.

Woven through all of this is the constant thread of Jo’s desire to be a stand-up comedian. He was born in the early ’70s and he talks about listening to stand-up on cassette tapes and eventually convincing his mother to get HBO, which was the main source of stand-up comedy in the 1980s.

Jo was not good at school, he was terrible at driving, and he was the worst at holding down a job but he didn’t care, because all he wanted was to be on stage. His mother wanted him to have a full-time desk job with benefits and even at the end of the book I’m not entirely convinced she is 100% behind his career, even though he’s really successful. He definitely tells the story of how he finally got on stage, repeatedly bombed, repeatedly got on stage again, and hustled hard to get where he is.

Sometimes when I read a memoir by a comedian, I feel a bit let down because I can tell their comedy is best behind a microphone and not necessarily in a book. This book, though, I laughed a lot in every chapter even though there is also some incredibly difficult content woven throughout.

Content warning for violent schizophrenia, child abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, and violence against a person with mental illness.