Category: Read This Book

This hefty novel unfolds in three points of view, in three timelines. Nina Markov is a young woman growing up in the Soviet Union who dreams of flight. Although war brings terror and uncertainty, for Nina it’s a chance to join the Night Witches, an all-female force that wreaks havoc on the Nazis…until she’s stranded behind enemy lines. Ian Graham is a former war correspondent who is plagued by nightmares of the horrors he witnessed, and now that the war is over and the Nuremberg Trials have concluded, he decides to devote his life to tracking down Nazi war criminals who’ve escaped in the chaos at the end of the war. But one in particular eludes him. And finally, Jordan is just a teenager living in Boston in the early 50’s, and she’s shocked when her widower father remarries a quiet, reserved German war widow with a young daughter. She wants her father to be happy, but there’s something not quite right about her new stepmother and her reticent new stepsister.

All three of these timelines and characters converge in a really breathtaking way, and tell a comprehensive and epic story that you’ll race through. I get a bit weary of all the sanitized World War II fiction, but what sets Quinn’s writing apart for me is that she doesn’t just linger in the war, and isn’t afraid to show the fallout afterwards. Only Nina’s perspective actually takes place during the war, and the other point of views are all about how people had to remake themselves and their lives afterwards, and how hard that it when you’re plagued by PTSD and horrific memories. Quinn also doesn’t shy away from the fact that just because the war ended, justice was served—in fact, it’s usually quite the opposite.

Another thing I like about Quinn’s work is that her novels usually contain some diversity. In this novel, Nina is (presumed) bisexual and the great love of her life is a woman. Her other work also includes characters of color and queer characters, and I appreciate the inclusion of multiple perspectives, especially since WWII books tend to be pretty white and straight.

Definitely pick up this book if you want a sweeping historical that reads like a thriller, but has some gorgeous writing and wonderful character building! And if you like this one, I recommend checking out The Rose Code and The Alice Network next!

This comics collection is from The Nib, “a daily publication devoted to publishing and promoting political and non-fiction comics. We run journalism, essays, memoir and satire about what is going down in the world, all in comics form, the best medium. It was founded in 2013.” I love the variety and range of the contributors and the subjects of the comics contained in this collection. There are comics by creators I’ve mentioned on Book Riot’s All the Backlist! podcast, like Maia Kobabe, Archie Bongiovanni, Mady G, and Melanie Gillman. There are also comics by creators that I think you should know about, like Bianca Xunise, Scout Tran, Trinidad Escobar, and more.

There are comics about coming out and comics about creators just realizing that they are queer. There are hilarious comics about gender reveals and pronouns. This book has many comics on queer history, such as one about Gad Beck, who was gay, Jewish, and fought the nazis (the original 1930s nazis, not the ones we have right now). There are multiple pieces on the ways in which hairstyles reflect and confirm queerness. There are comics on birth control and comics on how some people define non-binary for themselves.

One of the comics I deeply appreciate is titled Decolonizing Queerness in the Philippines by Trinidad Escobar. It is such an important reminder that homophobic and transphobic beliefs in many non-Western countries are results of colonization. It’s so easy for some Westerners to harshly judge these countries’ views on queerness or women’s rights or contraception without acknowledging their own role and the roles of their ancestors in bringing these views to these countries in the first place.

Another piece I appreciated is I Came Out Late in Life and That’s Okay by Alison Wilgus because hey, not all of us knew we were queer since we were 3-years’ old. It’s such an important comic for those of us who may feel left out of the narrative of being and knowing we’re queer since the day we were born.

This is a thoughtfully curated collection that I highly recommend.

Serena Singh is smart, driven, and successful. But now that she’s in her thirties, everyone around her seems to be getting married and having babies. She’s lost so many friends to the trappings of conventional family life, but the last straw is when her little sister gets married and gets pregnant and Serena realizes she needs more friends, STAT. Thus begins her quest to find friendship with people who run at her speed, but it isn’t easy. And when an old boyfriend that Serena truly loved comes back into her life, she knows one thing: She’s not willing to compromise on what she wants out of life. But where does that leave her?

I adored this book so much, and I feel like I relate to it even more since experiencing moving to a new town and realizing that making friends as an adult when your life doesn’t look like everyone else’s is actually really, really hard. I laughed so much during Serena’s misadventures in book clubs, cooking classes, and inadvertently ending up at a sex club (whoops). I also sympathized with her feelings of betrayal by all couples and parent friends, and how she was slow to want to start a relationship with her ex, even as I recognized that her view was at times limiting.

But I think the best part of the book is the unexpected friendship she does find: Another woman at work who, much to her surprise, is married with a toddler. Their connection is wonderful and hilarious, and made me wish my friends lived close. Of course, this friendship also isn’t what Serena expects, so there are challenges that come with it. Lalli writes a story with all the same beats as a romance novel, only the relationship is platonic rather than romantic, and it’s refreshing and exciting.

I think oftentimes we hear about millennial fiction and it gets pigeonholed as “books about aimless twenty-somethings” but I am here for the next evolution of millennial fiction: books about thirty-somethings creating lives they love and figuring out how to balance friendship, love, and family (found and blood) in new ways.

In addition to being intense, Hunger is a very important and sometimes difficult read. Roxane Gay is, in her own words, a woman of size. She wasn’t always “of size.” When Roxane Gay was twelve, she was violently sexually assaulted by a group of boys from her school. She says she “ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe.” When you are big, you are both invisible and highly visible all at once. Everyone has an opinion on your body, but few have consideration for you. Roxane Gay shares, in painful detail, how others try to punish her for her body and how she would crave the punishment and even punish herself. She begins by telling readers that, “The story of my body is not a story of triumph” yet it is a true story. (Side note: Body positivity doesn’t play a role in this book. This is not that kind of book.)

A large portion of the book is a rapid firing of abuse upon abuse as a person of size riding on airplanes, abuse from trolls on the internet, lack of consideration for ability when being a speaker. Will the chairs suit her body? How high is the stage? She also lays bare our society’s normalization of the abuse of fat people on shows like The Biggest Loser.

As I mentioned earlier, this is such an important book to read. It can be so easy to look at a person or a photo of a person and make judgments based on what you see. But you don’t see their story and no one sees your story. Hunger is Roxane Gay stepping forward and sharing her body’s story. It is not always a happy one. She shows vulnerability in her honesty about learning to nurture both her body and her spirit. It serves as a reminder that we’re all learning this and we’re all at different stages in our learning. This book is also a harsh reminder and wake-up call to be considerate of the reality of the bodies of others.

Content warnings: violent sexual assault, emotional abuse, eating disorders and eating disorder ideation, anti-fatness, and verbal abuse.

In this dual timeline, multi-POV novel, Emily St. John Mandel tells the story of how life as we know it falls apart in the wake of a deadly pandemic that kills 90% of the population in mere weeks, and what life looks like twenty years after this collapse. At the center of the story is Kirsten, who was a young girl acting in a production of King Lear with the famed Arthur Leander on the night the virus broke out. Years later, she’s part of the Traveling Symphony, a ragtag group of actors and musicians who travel through what used to be Michigan, performing at every stop and reminding what remains of humanity that “survival is insufficient.” But when they return to a town they’ve visited before, they find it’s been changed by a self-proclaimed prophet who has a dark vision for the future, and the past and present collide.

I loved everything about this book, from its eerie premise to the gorgeous, lyrical writing, and I especially loved how everything and everyone is connected. The connections are sometimes expected, sometimes surprising, often fleeting, but always impactful. The author does a great job of exploring communities and how individuals can influence a community, exploring the symphony, the Prophet’s followers, and other groups that crop up in unlikely places: gas stations, airports, and on the road.

Being a Michigander, I particularly liked the exploration of the various settings and the descriptions of how settlements re-establish themselves across the landscape. Michigan is a unique setting in that it’s a peninsula surrounded by enormous lakes—in some ways it’s sheltered, in some ways it’s dangerous. The author created a convincing setting that was as unsettling as the premise.

Finally, without giving away too much, what really stuck with me, especially on my second read, was the questions about how a major collective trauma like this affects people. For some, the effect is very external, while for others it’s much more internal. Children who don’t remember much about the before times or never experienced them have a hard time bridging the gulf between adults who know what they’ve lost—not just people, but a way of life and a way of understanding their world, and together they must all create a new one. That was the most powerful part of the novel, and one that I didn’t likely fully appreciate on my first read in 2015, but certainly did when I re-read the book earlier this year.

Liz Lighty is a Black, awkward, over-achieving, adorkable senior in high school in Campbell, Indiana, a small midwestern town that is pretty white and affluent and obsessed with prom. You know how some high schools are obsessed with football? Well, Campbell is out of control obsessed with prom and this has gone on for generations.

Liz (or Lighty, as some folks call her), is desperate to get out of this small town and go to Pennington college. Liz’s family does not have a lot of money and the scholarship she is depending on to get her to Pennington falls through; however, not all hope is lost. The people crowned prom queen and prom king get a nice chunk of scholarship money.

The absolute last thing Liz Lighty wants to do is join the competition for prom queen. She hates being the center of attention. Of course her nemesis (and the nemesis’s crew) will try to do everything to stop Liz from winning, which given Liz’s gpa, she might actually have a chance at with the help of her friends. It also means that she is going to have to cooperate with an ex-friend, Jordan.

Liz and her brother live with their grandparents. Her mom passed away young and her brother has sickle cell anemia. Liz intends to become a doctor, like her mom, to do sickle cell research.

But that’s not all! There’s a new girl in town, named Mack. Mack is also an outsider, a skater girl, and not necessarily prom queen material and she’s joined the competition as well, which complicates things because every time she is near Mack, Liz Lighty gets major butterflies. This book is queer and sweet and funny and when Liz and Mack are around each other, even I got butterflies. Also, I went into this book thinking that I was going to be able to predict everything but it’s full of surprises.

Content warnings for racism and homophobia and a deceased parent.

Set in Lucille years before the events of Pet, this novel follows Bitter, Jam’s mother, as a teen. Bitter has had a rough upbringing, but she’s so grateful that she’s found herself at Eucalyptus, a school for teens gifted in the arts. Eucalyptus is a safe haven against the chaos of Lucille, with its constant protests and rampant corruption. And as Bitter’s time as a student comes to an end, she knows she’d rather stay within her safe walls as a teacher than venture out, even if her friends and classmates are tempted by Assata, the rebel group fighting against corruption. But when Bitter’s secret talent for bringing her paintings to life with a drop of her own blood releases strange creatures on her world, Bitter will have to face the conflict head-on.

First off, Emezi is an incredible writer. I was in awe of their turns of phrase, the beautiful way they built this fictional world in spare, striking language, and how they deftly created so many interesting and multi-dimensional characters. They write with a skill that looks easy, so you know it must be well-honed. I loved that we saw the dystopian side to the utopian Lucille that they presented in Pet, and they managed to maintain that allegorical feel of the story while also grounding it in very real details and moments. This is a book about the personal cost of fighting against injustice, and how scary and overwhelming and hopeless it can feel. But it’s also a book that reminds us of the responsibility we have to each other, tying back to their use of Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “Paul Robeson” in Pet, and that despite that hurt, fear, and shame, it’s important to build community and look out for one another.

This is yet another powerful novel brimming with diverse characters and you can really feel the acceptance and love in this story, despite the hate and fear the characters must face. It’s a reminder that love thrives, even in dark times, but you have to be brave enough to cultivate it.

I’ll admit, when I started this book I had no idea what was going on. Reading it is like putting together a complicated puzzle without knowing what the final image is supposed to be. Partway through it starts to show itself a bit before presenting surprise after surprise. How this author fit so much in such a compact book is a magic of its own.

The book begins by introducing Chih and their companion, a neixin named Almost Brilliant who is also a talking bird. Chih is a Cleric from the Singing Hills Abbey and as such, they are a historian of sorts. They travel to a home on Lake Scarlet where they meet an elderly woman named Rabbit. Rabbit was the handmaiden of the Empress, and The Empress of Salt and Fortune is this Empress’s story, as told by her former handmaiden to the cleric Chih.

Each chapter begins with careful descriptions of a few objects, written with the words of someone cataloging the items. The someone, of course, is Chih. Rabbit then tells Chih the deeper meanings and stories of the sometimes seemingly benign objects they are documenting. Together, the objects reflect the tale of the Empress’s rise to power, starting with her being sent from the frosty north to the south, to marry the Emperor and bear him a child. Because she was foreign, she was not really accepted by the royal court and her handmaiden, Rabbit, was the closest person to her. The Empress eventually becomes known for her adoration of fortune tellers and mystics, often having them to the palace. After she has a child for the emperor, she is sent into exile and Rabbit with her. It’s when she is in exile that her real cleverness and power is proven.

In a fantasy world where dragons and their cousins quigutl roam the land, Tess Dombegh is a disappointment to her family. Despite all of her mistakes, she’s determined to make one thing right and help her twin sister Jeanne find a noble husband and marry well. She manages to do just that, but when her actions ruin Jeanne’s wedding, Tess finds herself at a crossroads. Her family is determined to send her to a convent, but Tess doesn’t want to go—she’d rather run away. So she does just that, and sets out for the open road with a vague direction in mind. Along the way, she reunites with an old friend, encounters danger, intrigues of the natural world, and some of the world’s most mysterious secrets all the while running from her past. But it’s just as she’s about to discover an exciting future she never could have imagined that she realizes her painful history must be faced head on.

What I love about this book is that story-wise, it’s the inverse of most fantasy novels. Many of the fantasy titles (YA or otherwise) that you find on shelves are about a high-concept premise first, and then character growth or a character’s personal journey is secondary. This book is all about lovable, messy, misguided Tess who doesn’t believe that she’s worthy of love or a second chance after she makes a mistake, and her self-loathing is palpable by the time the book starts. She’s also surrounded by toxic people who seem more interested in punishing her than showing her even an ounce of compassion, so it’s no surprise she’s miserable and makes the ruinous choices she soon regrets.

But once she strikes out on her own, Tess begins to center. Her sense of humor comes out, and so does her compassion, curiosity, and her fears. While the reader doesn’t know all of the details of her past, you can’t help but love her as she slowly finds her path and purpose on the road. Through a series of misadventures, Tess encounters a variety of people who give her perspective, show her kindness, and offer her a chance at redemption. They also challenge her worldview and all that she was taught about herself and her nature, opening her eyes to the possibility that she’s not broken or bad or ruined, but someone with a bright future ahead of her. The plot, which feels episodic in the first half, starts to come together in an exciting, high-stakes way that sets up the sequel, leaving you breathless to see where Tess will end up!

I read this book for the first time when it released in 2018, and then again recently in anticipation of the release of the sequel, In the Serpent’s Wake. I loved it both times, and in reading the sequel it’s exciting to see all of the clues and connections Hartman planted in Tess for an exciting and fulfilling sequel.

Note: This duology is a companion to Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina duology (Seraphina and Shadow Scale) and it takes place a few years after the end of the events in Shadow Scale. While I love and highly recommend those books, you don’t have to read them in order to understand what’s going on in Tess’s world, but there are some spoilers for Seraphina’s story if you pick up Tess first!

Elaine Welteroth is best known for her phenomenal work at Teen Vogue, where she became the youngest Editor-in-Chief at a Conde Nast publication and only the second African American to hold such a title at Conde Nast. More Than Enough is her first memoir; however, given she is only in her 30s and continues to do amazing things, I’ll bet it’s not her last.

Elaine’s story arc is one that many high-achieving cis women can identify with. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and she was a fearless child who, while doing great things academically and even career-wise, made some boneheaded decisions when it came to relationships. She went through a period of making herself small, trying to fit into boxes that not only weren’t her shape, but weren’t for her at all.

While this is a memoir, there are also some really great pieces of advice in this book. One that resonated with me was when she got a coveted internship at Essence Magazine and they asked her where she wanted to be placed and she said she’d be happy anywhere. Truly what she wanted was to be in fashion. Her mentor told her then and there to always ask for what she wants.

As expected she talks a lot about her experience as a Black woman in a predominantly white industry as well as her experiences among many different subcultures of Black people because hey, we provide a range. And of course, she talks about both holding onto your dreams and working toward them as well as finding you’ve outgrown your dreams or that your goals have changed.