Author: Tirzah Price

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

Before we get into this week’s pick, I wanted to let you know that Book Riot is running a short reader survey! Tell us more about yourself and potentially win an ereader! It’ll only take a few minutes and you can see the questions and giveaway details at bookriot.com/2020survey.

Now, to wrap up Pride Month, I picked one of my absolute favorite books of the year so far: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune!

Content warning: Talk of past child abuse/neglect (nothing graphic)

Linus is a caseworker with the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He’s thorough, impartial, and his reports are always meticulous. But his personal life is rather lacking, and he dreams of taking a vacation to the sea. When his good work catches the attention of Extremely Upper Management, they assign him a case that throws his entire life upside down. Linus is sent to the seaside, where an orphanage on a nearby island is in need of an evaluation. Six highly unusual children live there with their caretaker, Arthur, and it’s Linus’s job to ensure they’re being well looked-after. But this island holds secrets that could jeopardize their future, and Linus will learn that Arthur is determined to keep his makeshift family together, no matter what he may think of them.

I love the whimsical world building and sense of humor in this book! It makes the story feel like a contemporary fairy tale, and it made me love Linus from the very start. This book is a wonderful journey in which Linus must open his eyes to see that the world contains so much more than he has ever imagined–and that’s a bit scary at first. Mainly because kids he’s meant to evaluate are unlike any he’s ever met, and some of them are still struggling with the effects of adult neglect and prejudice. But Linus must learn to sit with his discomfort and be open to listening and witnessing differences, and along the way he sees how hearts and minds can change. The cast of characters is so imaginative, and the shenanigans that the kids get up to had me laughing out loud in certain parts. The romance that eventually blossoms between Linus and Arthur is sweet and subtle, and so the focus of this book is more on found-family and learning to stand up for the marginalized. If you need a really happy read that will make you laugh and cheer, I promise you this book is just the thing!

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is one of my favorite mysteries starring a bisexual PI, The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka!

Content warning: kidnapping, talk of rape, some violence

Roxane Weary is a bisexual PI grieving her cop dad’s death. She’s broke, she drinks too much, and she is way too dependent on her dad’s former partner. When a woman asks Roxane to look into her brother’s case one last time before his scheduled execution, Roxane agrees reluctantly. She needs the money, but she doesn’t believe there is anything more to dig up on a ten-year-old murder case. But as she slowly emerges from her haze of grief to examine the facts of the case, Roxane realizes that certain things may have been overlooked, and she starts getting pushback on very simple questions. She begins to suspect that there might be something weird going on–and her father’s department might be covering up the truth.

This is a fantastic start to great mystery series (four books and counting) about a tough and sarcastic PI with a great heart. Roxane is a good detective with great instincts, and her connections to the police allow her to make good traction while working slightly outside of the law. This first novel is a whopper of a case–you have an old murder mystery, a Black man who is charged with the crime because of his proximity to the victims, and the growing suspicion that there’s a lot more to this case than first appears. The action is excellent, and it builds to one really explosive ending.

Roxane isn’t at a great place at the start of the series, but she really grows and develops as the series progresses. What I also appreciate about these mysteries is that each one has some really excellent subplots–usually another smaller mystery, some family drama, and relationship woes. Roxane dates both men and women, but her character subverts a lot of tropes, and she’s just so capable and sardonic that you can’t help but want more. Read the books in order, because I promise you’ll care just as much about Roxane’s life as you will about the mysteries she solves. Start with The Last Place You Look, and follow it up with What You Want to See, The Stories You Tell, and Once You Go This Far.

Bonus: The first three books are out now, and the fourth hits shelves next month! Read them now and get caught up in time for the new release!

Happy reading,

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

Continuing our LGBTQ+ readathon for Pride Month, this week’s pick is Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis.

Content warning: sexual assault, conversion therapy, homophobia, talk of political torture and violence

Today, Uruguay is one of the most egalitarian of South American countries. It was the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2013, and it has a large middle class. But this wasn’t always the case. This novel opens in the 1970s, only a few years into a military dictatorship, and follows five women who live in the capital, Montevideo. Anita, Flaca, Romina, Malena, and Paz all discover one another and recognize that they are cantoras, women who love other women. To escape the oppressive environment of the city for a week, they head to a small town on the coast, where they camp on the beach and feel the most free they’ve ever been. They decide to buy a shack there, and over the next ten years that place becomes their refuge from the world as their relationships shift, but their friendship remains.

This is a really eye-opening and incredible book that looks at what life was like under the dictatorship, not just for queer people, but for anyone who dissented. The friendship between these five women is powerful, and they support and love each other like no other. For them, finding their refuge is an awakening to their identities, and they can explore who they might want to be when no one is looking. The effects of these discoveries are felt throughout nearly every aspect of their lives when they return home–relationships are broken off, new lovers are found, political callings are discovered, and new careers are forged. The author also examines how the dictatorship absolutely ruins lives–one woman in this group is never able to process what happened to her as a young woman, and is not given the space to heal while she must remain vigilant against drawing any attention to herself. There are moments of deep sadness and tragedy, but the book ends on such a bittersweet note, reminding readers of how hard LGBTQ+ people have fought for their rights and just how far we’ve come in a few short decades. I can’t think of a better book to read for Pride month.

Bonus: This book just came out in paperback last week, so be sure to pick up a copy!

Happy reading,

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.