Category: Read This Book

Katsa lives in a world where kingdoms are always at war and some people are born Graced—they have mismatching eyes and an extraordinary skill. Katsa, with her one green and one blue eye, has a Grace for killing. As the niece of the king, she is often dispatched to do his dirty work, and she loathes this role. She tries to rebel where she can, but despite her physical power, she’s trapped in an unfair system. But when she secretly rescues a kidnapped royal, she finds her match in Prince Po, a Graced fighter who seems to see right through her. And as they uncover the mystery of the kidnapping, Katsa finds she’s more powerful than she thinks…but that they are all in more danger than they imagined.

This book made a huge splash when it first debuted in 2008, and 15 years later it still holds up. Katsa is physically capable and strong, yes, but her power isn’t in her ability to kill easily—it’s in her heart, and how she cares deeply about what kind of person she is, even when she believes she’s trapped. Cashore writes a really thrilling story of a powerful young woman who can take on men far stronger than her, but what makes Katsa’s story so memorable is the care that Cashore takes with her emotional arc. Katsa has to learn that there is power in holding back, and power in deciding for yourself what kind of person you will be. This is a fantasy novel that has it all—magic, royal intrigue, political machinations, adventure, survival, and of course, romance. Prince Po is a fantastic hero and counterpoint to Katsa’s hotheaded bravery and their will-they-or-won’t-they energy is so tantalizing. The stakes are high, and payoffs are amazing.

Graceling functions as a standalone novel, but there are more fantastic books set in the Graceling Realm (and yes, Katsa and Po make appearances!) that I highly recommend as well. My one suggestion? Make sure you read them in order: Graceling, Fire, Bitterblue, Winterkeep, and Seasparrow.

Back in 2014, I read My Brilliant Friend for the first time. I don’t remember how I learned about the book, but I took advantage of summer break to read the first few books in the series. As I read about Elena and Lila’s life-long friendship, I felt swept away by the story, completely engrossed in their lives. I was in the middle of grad school, and this was my first venture into contemporary Italian Literature. I began learning about the stats of how few women writers are translated into English.

Elena and Lila grow up in a lower class neighborhood in Naples. Both girls are bright, voracious learners, but Elena’s family pays for her to continue her education while Lila’s does not. This single point in their lives marks a divergence in their futures that follows them for the rest of their lives. Over the course of four novels, we follow Elena and Lila from girlhood into middle age. There are husbands, children, affairs, and deaths—and each of these events changes their lives. And we, the readers, wonder if this will be the thing that breaks Elena and Lila’s friendship forever.

Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet opened up a new world of women in translation for me. I began seeking out books by women in translation from all around the world. Women in Translation Month became one of my favorite reading events of the year. But that’s the power of a single book, right?

Now, My Brilliant Friend is coming out as a graphic novel, and readers will have a whole new way to experience Ferrante’s story. The illustrations are gorgeous, and it gives Ferrante fans—both new and old—a chance to look at Elena and Lila’s lives from a different perspective.

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.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of the American President. Henry is the “spare” to England’s heir. They can’t stand each other, but when an altercation at a royal wedding makes headlines, both counties need some damage control. Forced proximity on a press tour isn’t what Alex has in mind for saving face, but he’s actually surprised to see a genuine side to Henry…and even more surprised when they strike up a texting relationship that leads to a real romance. But as they navigate their feelings and the intense pressure they each face, can their relationship evolve into something real?

I have this thing where if I don’t jump on the hype machine of a book right away, the longer I wait, the more nervous I get about reading a book because sometimes the hype gives me unrealistic expectations. It can be a book that I will likely enjoy and find very fun, but if it doesn’t blow me away, then I get it in my mind it’s disappointing. So I try to avoid disappointing myself!

Well, I finally read this one and it did not disappoint. The romance and the friendship that evolves between Alex and Henry is delightful, of course. McQuiston takes a really bonkers (fun!) premise and runs with it, leaning in all the way, and the confidence of the writing means they pull it off really well. But there are so many other elements I loved and was pleasantly surprised by — I love the side characters. Writing really great secondary characters is a hard task, and there are a lot of them in this book, but I loved them all and enjoyed all that they had to offer to the main characters and to readers. I was actually really impressed with how the politics played out, as well. It felt like a fantasy version of our world, don’t get me wrong — but a fantasy version I could believe in, and one I enjoyed spending time in and wasn’t so shiny and perfect that it didn’t still feel like realistic fiction. I also don’t read many romance novels that stretch out over more than a year’s time, and I thought McQuiston handled the pacing masterfully! This is a thick romance book, over 400 pages, but I breezed through it, and now I understand the hype!

Bonus: The movie adaptation just came out on Amazon Prime, and it’s fairly faithful, although some things are omitted or tweaked for length. I recommend both!

Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish treasure. When she won the Nobel Prize a few years ago, I swear I could hear Poland screaming for joy. She has written several novels, including Flights and The Books of Jacob. But Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is her only mystery novel. The story goes that Tokarczuk was working on The Books of Jacob but knew she wouldn’t have it done in time for her publisher. So she sat down and wrote this one instead before returning to work on The Books of Jacob. No wonder she won the Nobel!

The mystery begins when Janina, an older woman living in a remote Polish village, discovers her neighbor, who she calls Big Foot, is dead. Another man in the neighborhood had come to her about not seeing Big Foot for a while, so they both ventured over to the man’s house and discovered the body. The police come and check out the scene, and Janina goes back to her life of translating William Blake’s poems. But other bodies start turning up, and the police remain clueless, so Janina starts an investigation of her own.

All mystery lovers are probably familiar with the older lady detective story. I mean, that’s the entire premise of Murder She Wrote, possibly the best mystery series of all time. But Tokarczuk is ready for her readers’ assumptions. As the story continues, Tokarczuk turns what could have been a very predictable plot on its head. And by the end, readers have no idea what’s about to go down.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones has given us a beautiful translation that perfectly evokes Janina’s curmudgeonly attitude. You can hear Janina’s voice in your head as she complains about the ridiculous number of incompetent men she’s constantly surrounded by throughout the story.

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.

Margo is the most enthusiastic employee at her small town’s library. She checks books in and out with warmth, her co-workers love her, and she enjoys the reassuring routine of her days and the order of the public library. Until one day, a new reference librarian is hired. Patricia is young, elegant, and observant. And Margo doesn’t like her one bit — she feels watched and judged, and before long Patricia has discovered Margo’s secret: Her name isn’t Margo, and she’s wanted…for murder.

I was really intrigued by the power struggle that Sims sets up between Margo, who sees the world as an adversarial place, and Patricia, who is coming off of her own bitter disappointment and finds herself intrigued by Margo. This story is told in alternating perspectives, and it’s almost funny how wildly Margo and Patricia misjudge and misunderstand each other…but the consequences are far from funny. For a moment it seems like they could be friends, but when the realities of learning each other’s secrets become apparent, a quick and brutal power struggle ensues.

This is a book that might leave you with more open-ended questions than answers, but it’s a fascinating character study set against a very particular backdrop. As someone who has worked in small town libraries before, I really liked the idea of a book set in a library (it’s so rife for drama, believe me) and there were some situations and characters that were very believable — the patron who always is looking up porn on public computers, the unreasonable patrons who never want to pay fines or bills, and the patrons who take up so much time and feel entitled to your time and attention. But the library setting wasn’t totally and completely believable for me. Margo is one of three full-time employees in addition to the director and Patricia, and all they do is shelve and sit behind the circulation desk. There is no mention of programming, outreach, or part-time clerks or pages to shelve books, let alone volunteers. There is no children’s librarian, and one would presume that if the library finally got funds to hire a new full-time staff member, a director would go for a children’s librarian rather than a reference librarian who doesn’t do anything other than write in a notebook all day. If you can overlook this, though, it was really fun to have a psychological thriller set in a library!

Bonus: I listened to the audiobook, which was very well performed by Maggi-Meg Reed and Carlotta Brentan.

You might think you know where this short story collection is going, but then the story turns in a completely different direction. Such is the masterful storyteller that is Bora Chung. Admittedly, I had to steel myself for a second as I headed into this collection as it’s full of violence and revels in bodily horror. But I am so glad I picked up this collection. It’s stunning.

In “Snare,” a man discovers that he can collect gold from a fox’s blood, so he traps her and makes himself rich at the cost of her suffering. But soon the fox is dead and he must find a new way to make his money. “The Frozen Finger” follows a woman who is in a car accident and wakes up and can’t remember where she is or how she got there. A mysterious voice beckons to her, trying to help her recover her memories. “Embodiment” centers around a woman who discovers that she has spontaneously become pregnant and the doctors tell her she needs to find the baby a father ASAP or the baby won’t make it. In the title story, “Cursed Bunny,” a bunny lamp carries a curse to a rich family, which slowly eats away at their lives. But every curse comes at a price.

Chung’s stories often read like dark fairy tales. Over and over, she examines the things that haunt us. Each story is incredibly sinister, and the imagery evoked from the prose stays with you long after you’ve finished reading. Chung doesn’t shy away from the “ick” factor. In fact, she seems to relish it, daring readers to admit when they feel uncomfortable. 

This is the first book I’ve read by acclaimed translator Anton Hur. His translation is seamless, beautiful in its stark grace on the page. There’s just something about his translations that captures the essence, the feeling of Chung’s prose.

And bonus: the ebook version of Cursed Bunny is on sale this week for $3.99.

In the 2050s, after the U.S. government really crapped the bed when it came to its pandemic response, other countries closed their borders to folks from the U.S. This made the folks in the U.S. upset because freedom or whatever so the government teams up with big private companies to really get a move on with a space colony they refer to as The Colony.

All of the wealthy in the U.S., mostly white people, go off to space and leave everyone else behind to deal with poisonous air and other awful environmental catastrophes. Of course, those who went to The Colony can’t just leave people alone so the people still in the U.S. on Earth are being over-policed by robots. Also, The Colony is still just absolutely gutting the resources that are still left, such as literally tearing down houses and taking the bricks among other things.

The folks still in the U.S., mostly Black and Brown, have been doing the best they can with what they have been left. What is going on in the book is a direct reflection of what goes on in Black and Brown neighborhoods in reality when these neighborhoods are victims of gentrification. After turning everything to garbage and flying off to space where the next couple of generations get kinda cyborged out, people start coming back to Earth from the Colony. They wait for the Black and Brown people in the houses on Earth to get foreclosed on or evicted and then the Colonizers move back. With wealthy folks coming back, there are now domes built so that there can be clean air for them, etc.

This novel is told through many interwoven vignettes of folks both from the Colony who are manifest-destiny-ing their way back to the United States and folks who were left behind and the generations after them. Yes, it is sci-fi but I think what really grabbed me about this book is that it felt so close. So within reach, not that this world is something I would want to grab. It just feels so possible and that made it both a mesmerizing and terrifying read.

Content warnings for rape, violence, police violence, and racism.

Mae “Mud” Sawpole has been living in California for the last decade, where she went to college and headed a successful start-up. It’s about as far away as she can get from her home on the Kiowa reservation in Oklahoma, but when her beloved grandfather calls and tells her he needs her to come home to deal with a problem within the tribe, she gets on the first plane. When she arrives at the airport, he’s not there…and instead, Mud uncovers a tangled conspiracy involving illegal oil drilling, tribe politics, a predatory antiquities dealer, and missing tribe valuables. And her grandfather is missing. Over the course of a single stressful, chaotic day, Mud must unravel the mystery, find her grandfather, and perhaps discover her true destiny. 

I’m always really impressed with books that manage to distill an entire mystery plot into a single day’s time. It’s an impressive feat of pacing and plot that really has to work if you’re going to pull it off well, and Rowell pulls it off wonderfully. From the moment Mud lands in Oklahoma and realizes her grandfather is missing to the very end, the character introductions are balanced well with plot twists, exposition, and thoughtfully placed flashbacks. I really liked Mud’s character — as a teen she left home because she never felt fully respected or accepted by her tribe, ostensibly for her looks, but there was also the quiet heartbreak of not being able to love her secret girlfriend in public. Coming home is complicated by her lingering feelings for her first love, her conflicting feelings for her family and tribe, and the pull she feels for the life she has made for herself in California. But with each passing hour spent back in Oklahoma, Mud comes to the slow realization that this is not only home, but where she’s meant to be — and she’s the only one who can solve the mystery and keep her family and her tribe safe from those who would take advantage of them.

This is the first in a promised series, and I definitely plan on reading them all! Bonus: The audiobook was really gripping!