Category: Read This Book

The Pace family is taking their annual vacation, and this year they’re headed to Montepurso, Italy, where they’ve booked a stay at the beautiful, remote Villa Taccola. The weather is gorgeous. The views are incredible. The food is next level. The wine is flowing all day long. And the locals seem pretty nice. There are even a few neighborhood kids for the young ones to play with. Truly, it would be the ideal vacation…if not for a couple of major issues.

For one, there’s the family dynamics. The Pace family, just like every other family, has their issues. Anna and Benny are twins, but they’re not on the same page. Anna feels like she’s constantly ostracized by the rest of the family for her life choices, and Benny is so go-with-the-flow that he refuses to stick up for her. Meanwhile, their older sister, Nicole, is super controlling and wants to plan every moment of their trip down to the minute. No one else is allowed to say anything about it, and her husband and her two kids are so used to it that they just reinforce her behavior. Then there’s their judgmental mother. And their father just refuses to talk about anything. It’s a weird group of personalities that end up clashing at every turn.

But that’s not all. The Pace family is also contending with supernatural forces in Villa Taccola. Whenever they leave the villa, they come home to strange surprises, like bugs everywhere and furniture overturned. Someone is lurking behind Anna, breathing on her neck when her back is turned, and maybe even licking her? Oh, and those kids Nicole’s daughters have been playing with? They might actually be ghosts. There’s a strange tower in the villa that’s locked away and hidden, but everyone keeps hearing scratching noises on the other side of the door. The villagers try to warn the Paces that something is wrong with that house, but most importantly, they must not open that tower.

This book was such a wild ride that kicked off immediately from page one and then relentlessly delivered scares all the way to the last paragraph. But somehow, Diavola also fit in a lot more. I know this isn’t supposed to be an ideal vacation or anything, but wow, all of the beautiful writing about Italy made me want to go really bad. It felt like a little escape from my really bad month, reading about the food, the wine, the locales, the museums. This book was also really funny! Terrible family vacations are incredibly relatable to everyone, right? You kind of have to laugh at just how bad this particular family vacation is, from start to finish. Funny and engaging family drama, compelling travel writing, and a scary story: this book really has it all.

In the fall of 2023, Dr. Ned Blackhawk won the National Book Award for his nonfiction The Rediscovery of America, a history of North America that intentionally centers the perspective of Indigenous Peoples.

From the colonialism of New Spain to Native American Sovereignty in the Cold War Era, Dr. Blackhawk details the major events that impacted the lives of Native peoples. As readers, we receive a macro-level look at the major movements of Indigenous groups, including their cultures, politics, and economic strategies. Dr. Blackhawk also notes what non-Indigenous scholars have often missed or underappreciated in their works that center colonialist perspectives of the United States.

Dr. Blackhawk’s work reinforces that Indigenous history cannot be ignored; it’s an integral part of the fabric of America’s existence. Every chapter of The Rediscovery of America could be a book — or many books — on its own. But it’s not meant to be an end-all-be-all history. Dr. Blackhawk provides us with a summary, a starting place for the study of Indigenous histories on Turtle Island. And with its extensive notes and annotations, The Rediscovery of America gives readers even more resources to study in the future.

The audiobook edition, performed by Jason Grasl, was recently released, making this much-needed history available and more accessible to a wider audience. With his performance, Grasl maintains listeners’ attention through every chapter, making this nonfiction book feel like a page-turner.

Well-researched, detailed, and deeply impactful, The Rediscovery of America is a must-read for any history lover.

I had so much fun reading this book, and I think it is a necessary read for those of us who tend to be grammandos: people who like to correct other people’s grammar and judge them by it. This book has helped me unlearn a lot of things about grammar and punctuation that I had practically embodied as part of my identity. In this book, she encourages us to turn away from the grammando part of ourselves and instead embrace our inner wordie, who is curious about language and fascinated by the ways in which language evolves and changes over time.

One of the things I love about this book is the kindness the author exudes. Her curious tone makes this book so approachable, which is something that books about grammar and punctuation rarely are. So many of us grammandos can be too firm on grammar rules when in reality, spoken language is different from formal written language, and also, many grammar and punctuation rules fall to pieces depending on the situation.

She digs into things that many people hold to be true, like the idea that “ain’t” isn’t a word and the idea that double-negatives are always incorrect. She writes specifically about the word irregardless, which is an absolutely delicious chapter. Dr. Curzan also talks about how current usage of the word “literally” adopts the definition of “figuratively,” and that’s okay. We know what people mean, even if they say it in a way that would make Strunk and White cry. One of my favorite chapters is on the pronunciation of “ask” as “aks,” and that is something that has had me unpacking some internalized white supremacy for years. I’m amazed at how many of our current grammar and punctuation rules can be traced back to “One guy liked it this particular way and wrote it in a grammar book.”

This is a definite must-read for anyone who cares about words.

I’ll be honest, I hopped into this book thinking it was going to give me big The OC vibes. I was super excited about that, especially because I just did a big rewatch of all four seasons. Instead, The Daydreams is more like High School Musical, which I was not mad about at all. If you love early 2000s pop culture, especially early 2000s TV, I think you’ll love this book. This one is also perfect for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six.

Back in 2004 (which was 20 years ago, OMG), a little TV series called The Daydreams launched four young actors into superstardom. There was Summer, the innocent girl next door and the biggest rising star of the show; there was Noah, the leading man, and Summer’s love interest, both on and off the screen; Kat was the show’s villain (think Sharpay, and I promise this will be my last High School Musical reference); and Liana was the best friend. Every week on the show, the foursome would sing and dance and act out a story that bled into their real lives. The world ate up every moment of it. Then, on their live finale, everything fell apart.

Since then, Summer, Noah, Kat, and Liana have all gone in different directions. Noah is an A-list actor. Kat left showbiz to become a successful lawyer. Liana married a famous athlete. And then there’s Summer…whose life following the series has been a bit of a trainwreck.

With everyone hungry for 2000s nostalgia these days, it’s no surprise that the fans begin clamoring for a The Daydreams reunion special. Each of the former stars has their own reasons for agreeing to do the special. But there was also a reason everything became so disastrous all those years ago. Will this reunion be the big moment that heals all of those former wounds? Or will this only dig up old secrets and open up old wounds?

You’ve never seen The Daydreams, obviously. It isn’t a real show. But after you read this book, you’ll feel nostalgic about a show that never existed. From the first to the final page, this book was just such a fun experience. It’s like watching the best 2000s teen show while reading the juiciest celebrity gossip while also catching up with an old friend (or four). I hope you’ll love it as much as I did!

Sloane Crosley met her best friend Russell when he hired her to work as a publicist for a well-known paperback imprint at a major publishing house. At first, their relationship was awkward — strange, even. But eventually, Russell became her best friend. Sloane remembers how she would visit Russell and his partner at their country house outside the city. She remembers long, boozy lunches full of office gossip and scandal. But when Russell dies by suicide, her whole life feels like it’s been turned upside down.

Around the same time Russell dies, Crosley’s apartment is broken into, and several expensive pieces of jewelry are stolen. She somehow feels that if she finds a way to recover at least some of the jewelry, she’ll be okay. These two events — Russell’s death and the robbery — become inextricably twisted together in Crosley’s mind, impacting the way she grieves for her friend.

Crosley’s grief doesn’t make sense to her. She keeps pausing, wondering if this is how she should be feeling. She keeps asking, how do you process a friend’s death when they were the one who chose to end their life? Why does she care about jewelry that she didn’t even really like anyway? Why does everything in her life feel so wrong now?

Crosley lays out her messy grief process on the page. She doesn’t have all of the answers. She’s not even going to pretend to. Instead, she’s honest about the ups and downs of grief, the highs and the lows of it. Crosley structures her book around the stages of grief, but if anything, her memoir proves that the process of grief is never that straightforward.

This graphic novel is a memoir about a very specific time in the author’s life. It is the story about when her girlfriend, Diana, came out as trans and how they navigated their relationship and her transition together. They decide to share their story so that folks can have some insight into one version of the reality of transitioning. Every trans person has a different story and so, Sara and Diana are sharing theirs.

I am completely biased in my love for this graphic novel because so much of it mirrors my and my wife’s experience. Yes, of course there are difficult things to deal with, like coming out to folks (for both of us!) who may not be as accepting as hoped for. There’s misogyny and transmisogyny and transphobia and homophobia and all the things that can scare people into staying in the closet. What this comic also captures, though, is some of the absolute joy that occurs as well. The joy that happens when your girlfriend tries on gender-affirming clothing. The happy surprise when grandparents understand more than you had expected them to. The warmth that happens when some of your close friends embrace you both fully as your authentic selves. There is also the awkwardness of coming out to various people. It’s never “one-and-done.”

The comic is written from not only a place of sharing, but also offers educational bits on transgender folks and transitioning. It’s a really good example of what can happen in some relationships, especially when the people involved want to stay together. It can take a lot of learning, unlearning, and inner work that some people aren’t prepared for or aren’t interested in doing.

It is an absolutely lovely comic that doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff while also highlighting the good stuff. There’s always more good stuff than expected, and it’s really important to keep that at the forefront.

This Thing Between Us is a little book. Almost square in shape and only 272 pages. But there’s a lot going on within these pages, and this cosmic horror really packs a punch. Just look at that cover. You know something wild is going to happen to these people. And every time you think you have a handle on where this story is going, it takes a big left turn and goes somewhere weirder. Are you in?

When married couple Vera and Thiago buy an Itza — the “world’s most advanced smart speaker!” — for their new condo, Thiago isn’t fully committed to the new contraption. Vera, however, just had to have it. After all, with all of the weird things happening in their home, she thought a high-tech home device would bring them a little joy. [Narrator: It didn’t bring them any joy.]

Instead, with the Itza in their home, things get weirder. Strange packages start showing up at their door, and the Itza plays eerie music and projects strange lights on the wall in the middle of the night. Thiago can’t help but wonder…is the Itza trying to send them some kind of message? Is the house trying to talk to them through their new speaker?

But before Thiago and Vera have a chance to explore the strange happening in their house further, Vera unexpectedly dies, leaving Thiago behind to pick up the pieces and unravel the mysteries of their condo and their demonic Itza all by himself. When things become too intense for Thiago to bear, he does the only thing he can think to do: escape the city and find solace in a secluded cabin in Colorado. But there is no escaping the evil that tore apart his life back in Chicago. It follows him everywhere, and it is slowly causing him to unravel.

This Thing Between Us is such a bone-chilling horror novel featuring imagery that is truly the stuff of nightmares. But this book is also such an intense, emotional exploration of grief. I found myself underlining giant passages from this novel, lines about grief, loss, and love that I will hold close to my heart for the rest of time. The story is told from Thiago’s perspective, as if he is telling the story to his late wife, Vera. In this way, the story gives insight into this marriage even after Vera’s death, and the reader is given an intimate look at how the loss of Vera has lasting effects on Thiago’s psyche.

Just talking about this book makes me want to read it for a second time and get haunted by this strange story all over again. I gave this one five very enthusiastic stars, and I think you’ll love it too.

I’ve read just about everything Leslie Jamison has put out, and while her writing has matured and changed over the course of time, she still writes some of the most incredible prose. She has a way of writing a sentence that reads like magic. Previously, she has investigated the personal lives of others, researched writers and other artists who struggled with alcoholism, and explored her own experience with sobriety. This time, she’s writing about the birth of her daughter and her divorce from her daughter’s father. 

Splinters looks at Jamison’s splintered identity — as a daughter, mother, wife, girlfriend, artist, academic, writer — and how these many facets of who she is have informed her art. The memoir is divided up into different sections, each examining a state of mind or a phase in Jamison’s life. They build on one another, giving us a more complete picture of Jamison’s lived experience.

Jamison loses herself in her new daughter, discovering a new love of her life while simultaneously trying to cope with the disintegration of her marriage. Her divorce is messy and complex, the bitterness lasting years as they both struggle to figure out a way to co-parent their young child. Jamison explores sex and dating, wondering how on earth she can start over with another person, but try again she does.

I particularly enjoyed the audiobook edition, which she reads herself. Much of the listening experience feels like we’re sitting across from Jamison at her favorite grungy diner as we listen to her describe these many facets of her personhood. Listening to her narrate her story feels like we’re witnessing her verbally process her experience of early motherhood and all of the messiness that has entailed.

The level of oppression and injustice that people of color face in the United States is overwhelming. It can be difficult to know where and how to stand up, fight, and add your voice to the call for justice, equality, and safety. Many of the books I’ve read on social justice are prescriptive — that is, they offer some ideas of steps that can be taken by readers to help society move forward. This book is similar but comes at it from a different angle.

Be a Revolution is a series of conversations between Ijeoma Oluo and a variety of activists. While all injustices are connected, these conversations dive into the specific thing that each activist or activist group is combatting and how. Oluo makes the connections between the particular fight and antiracism as a whole while also exploring how even small groups of activists and communities can make positive change. Each chapter makes it very clear that there is no one right way to be an activist. It is also clear that each of these activists works in community, and not only is that preferred, but it is absolutely necessary for progress.

The chapter titled, “Punishment, Accountability, and Abolition” made something click in my brain and offered me a fundamental shift in understanding of the subject that I hadn’t yet grasped. This book also dives into gender justice and bodily autonomy, labor and unions, environmentalism, education, and arts. This book is the first time I really took a look at art and the art world through a social justice lens, and again, my mind has been expanded.

While this is not a light read, it is a necessary one.

Emily Austin’s debut novel Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead was a big hit with readers and critics alike (and yes, we did talk about it here in this very newsletter)! But I think I might like her sophomore effort, Interesting Facts About Space, even more. This book had me laughing out loud, bursting into tears, and basically feeling all the feels from the beginning to the final page.

Emily Austin has already established herself as an expert at creating characters that are compellingly flawed and incredibly lovable in their idiosyncrasies. This book introduces readers to Enid, a woman who spends her free time listening to true crime podcasts, obsessing over space trivia with her mom, and picking up women on dating apps. These are the only things that keep Enid’s anxiety at bay when she’s confronted with her greatest fear: bald men. Or when she worries that someone has been following her and snooping around her apartment while she’s away.

Enid’s family life is stressing her out as well. When she was a child, her father left her mother and started a new family, leaving his old one behind. Now Enid’s father is dead, and her half-sisters and stepmother want to have a relationship with her after all these years. As Enid’s life spirals out of control, she wonders who she can trust, what’s real, and what’s just her mind playing tricks on her.

Based on that description, you might think this book is going to go down the mystery/thriller route, but that’s not the direction Austin is going with this story. Sure, that would be fine, but this story is more about the mysteries of Enid’s heart, her repressed emotions and memories, and her journey to self-discovery. Just set aside whatever expectations you have for this story, and allow yourself to go for the ride. What you’ll get is a story that is endlessly rewarding and heartfelt. And while it’s still early in the year, Interesting Facts About Space is on track to be one of my favorites of 2024.

Bonus rec! Emily Austin is keeping busy this year. Last month, the author released Gay Girl Prayers, a poetry collection in which Austin reclaims Catholic prayers and biblical passages to empower the LGBTQ+ community. So if you can’t get enough of this author, make sure to check out her poetry too.