Category: Read This Book

As a kid, my mom introduced me to Egyptian, Greek, and Roman mythology, reading me story after story. Later, I picked up a middle grade book called Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. But all through college and into grad school, I pored over English translations of the original texts, horrified that the original stories were little like the child-friendly versions I’d first read. In Divine Might, I was delighted to rediscover these mythic figures again, but this time retold for modern times. 

We are now in a golden age of myth retellings. Everyone and their mother’s brother has been trying their hands at these myth-inspired tales, but few authors are as good as Natalie Haynes. A Thousand Ships, her retelling of the fall of Troy, made her name here in the U.S. (She’d already written other myth retellings, which were only released in the UK.) She possesses a unique way of viewing these age-old stories, teasing out ideas that make readers think about familiar characters in whole new ways.

While Haynes is more known for her fiction, Divine Might is nonfiction, each chapter examining different goddesses and their stories. Haynes steps back and asks, who is telling these women’s stories? When are these stories being told? How would these stories have been received in ancient times versus how are they perceived now? Haynes’ holistic way of viewing mythical goddesses invites readers to reexamine their own assumptions about these divine figures.

Haynes’ prose is intimate, like a friend chatting with you over coffee. She’s funny, charming, and heartwarming—sometimes all in the same paragraph. In a world saturated with myth retellings and reimaginings, Haynes’ work stands out time after time, establishing her as one of the best in the field. Everything she touches is gold.

Most kids wouldn’t be thrilled to move to a National Quiet Zone, where internet, radio, and microwaves are banned…but seventh-grader Simon is more than okay with his family’s move. No internet means that he can start over at his new school and not worry about his new classmates googling him and discovering that he’s pretty well known—as the only kid in his fifth-grade class to survive a school shooting. Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, is certainly a unique place, and Simon finds himself making two new friends and weathering the challenges of a new home while keeping a big secret. But even in a place where there’s no internet, the past will inevitably catch up with him.

This is the funniest book about the aftermath of a traumatic book you’ll ever read. Simon has an upbeat, lightly sarcastic personality, and he can tell a good story. He uses this humor to deflect attention and as a coping mechanism when life gets tough. At the beginning of the story, he doesn’t really reveal what he endured two years earlier, but readers will pick up on the clues he drops, especially based on his phobias and fears. The friendships he makes, particularly with a girl named Agate, are really lovely. Agate doesn’t fully understand what Simon is going through, but her sensitivity and kindness prove invaluable, especially when she hooks him up with a golden retriever puppy to foster as part of his service dog training. (Don’t worry, nothing happens to the dog!)

I also really loved the relationship between Simon and his parents. His dad is a deacon and musician and tries to be sensitive to Simon’s needs. His mom is a funeral director and mortician, and she has a slightly dark sense of humor but is fiercely protective. Simon very much feels like the school shooting is a tragedy that happened to him, but as Bow demonstrates, this sort of crime affects an entire family, and his parents are doing their best to hold them all together. As Simon processes his trauma and learns how to deal with unexpected curveballs (including tornado sirens, a very mean peacock, a plan to fake an alien message, and a lot of emus), they’re with him every step of the way. This book broke my heart and made me cry, but it also made me laugh aloud, and I was rooting for Simon every step of the way.

I’ve been reading a short story a day through December as an advent calendar of sorts, and Temple Folk might be my favorite. The stories revolve around a community of Black Muslims, each with their stories to tell and secrets to hide.

In “Due North,” a young woman keeps being visited by the spirit of her father, a well known and respected Imam. Her estranged, queer brother arrives for the funeral, and they discover that their father requested to be buried in the graveyard of a Christian church he used to pastor. In “Nikkah,” Qadirah struggles with adjusting to the idea that her best friend is getting married and moving out of their shared apartment. But when Qadirah joins a Muslim dating app and starts talking with a man who lives across the world, she begins to see a new future for herself.

So many of these stories center around Black Muslims, or former Muslims, specifically characters confronted with choices around their faith. Who should they marry? Should they cover their hair? Should they call out the men they see cheating on their wives? These big questions put the character in tight spots, and they soon discover that this moment in their lives, and the decisions they make, will determine their future forever.

Together, these stories create a portrait of a Muslim community, with the temple at its center. Each story fills in another piece of the greater whole. The stories connect together and overlap in unique ways. They share themes and ideas, forming this well-rounded short story collection.

The audiobook is performed by an ensemble of narrators—Amir Abdullah, Chanté McCormick, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, Jade Wheeler—who rotate performing each of the stories. This creates a unique voice for each story, easily moving the listener from one story to another.

Sister Holiday has been a nun for about a year, and she’s not your typical Catholic nun — she’s queer, in her early thirties, heavily tattooed, and she chain smokes and often has a hard time not swearing. But she’s really trying her best to fit in at the New Orleans convent, where she also teaches at St. Sebastian’s Catholic School. But one night, she’s sneaking a smoke out back when the school catches on fire, and a man dies in the flames. Deeply suspicious about who could have committed the arson, Sister Holiday begins to conduct her own investigation. And when other Catholic institutions also go up in flames, she and the New Orleans fire investigator become certain that an arson spree has just begun, and there’s no saying when it’ll stop — or who they’ll burn along the way.

I have to say, I think all I need to say to sell this book is “queer, chain-smoking, tattooed nun solves crimes,” and who wouldn’t want to read that? But I’ll go on, in case you need more prompting. I really loved Sister Holiday’s character. It’s evident from the beginning of the book that she has Gone Through Some Things before becoming a nun, and the author doles out information about her previous life in small doses, weaving it between the present day drama. But this isn’t a Sister Act situation where Holiday is running from a sad or scary past — she truly has faith. She also struggles with her faith. As someone who was brought up in a heavily Christian environment (I even went to a parochial school, what!) I really appreciated that aspect of Margot’s character and her struggle. She has a hard time with people who seem to trust easily in God, and she sometimes lashes out, struggles with patience and frustration, and lets her emotions and her thoughts get the better of her. She also has a healthy dose of contempt for Catholic leadership that rolls in driving expensive cars and makes indiscriminate budget cuts to the convent and the school without understanding their needs (a contempt I also share, Sister Holiday!). But at the end of the day, she also knows that she wants to be a force for good in her community, and she knows that she can be that force for good by serving…and by finding that arsonist.

As for the mystery element, I think it was done well. It’s not an especially twisty mystery — there are very few suspects — but what Douaihy does well is get at the essentials of character. There are so many interesting, unexpected, contradictory people in this book! I found myself reading as much for the characters as I did for the whodunnit, and the New Orleans setting felt compelling and real. The mystery concludes with a satisfying wrap-up, but Douaihy leaves it open for more Sister Holiday mysteries, and I’m happy to report that a sequel is hitting shelves in the first half of 2024: Blessed Water!

Tl;dr: Pick up this book if you like a little irreverent humor and unlikely sleuths!

When I first read Ling Ma’s Severance, I was mesmerized. It follows the story of a woman working the daily grind of a publishing job with no end in sight when an illness breaks out in China, eventually spreading to the US. Little did I know that just a couple of years later, real life would echo that story. Just last year, Ma published Bliss Montage, a collection containing eight short stories. Each piece is surreal, unique, and disturbing, all in the best ways.

In “Office Hours,” a college student is invited by her professor to start taking naps on his couch. As her professor sits and grades at her desk, she luxuriates in this time on his couch. She’s full of mixed feelings, unsure of exactly what her time with her professor means. In “Los Angeles,” a woman lives with her husband and a host of her ex-boyfriends, all on the same property. But as time passes, her ex-boyfriends begin to leave, making her far more depressed than she realizes.

But my favorite story is “Returning,” the story of a woman married to a man from a fictional country. As their marriage slowly falls apart, our protagonist is stuck in her seat while her husband quickly exits the plane with all of her belongings, including her passport. When she finally gets off the plane, she realizes her husband has entered the country without her, leaving her stranded in the airport. In flashbacks, we see the history of their relationship, messy and relatable in all of its complexity.

Ma’s stories each have this surreal, fantastical quality to them. You’ll be reading a story that feels based in realism, and then she introduces something close to magical or otherworldly. And she ends her stories with the kind of ambiguity that makes you long for more.

Mary Craven is not a pleasant girl, but then again, her life hasn’t exactly been very pleasant despite her many privileges. Growing up unloved, unwanted, ignored, and friendless in turn-of-the-century Toronto, she spends most of her days in sullen silence. When her parents are tragically killed in an accident, her life changes forever when she’s sent to live in her uncle’s manor on the Georgian Bay. Everyone says there’s no one there but Indians and wilderness, and Mary believes that at first…but then she meets Flora, the young Métis woman employed by her uncle. Flora shows her kindness for the first time and opens her eyes to the beauty of nature and the breathtaking wonder of the Georgian Bay. And soon, Mary discovers a secret garden on the property and then a sickly cousin she never knew she had stashed in the attic. These discoveries make her feel a fierce love she’s never experienced before…but when her uncle’s new wife returns, everything and everyone that Mary now cares for could be in jeopardy.

I have to admit, The Secret Garden isn’t my most favorite of classics, but I loved this retelling. I loved that Cherie Dimaline, a Métis author, was able to take a classic story that is steeped in colonialism and give it her own twist—one where the Métis characters are portrayed respectfully and honestly, and the colonialism is confronted and talked about. I also really loved the setting of the Georgian Bay at the turn of the century and the descriptions of nature and the ways of living that persist even as white settlers encroach upon the land. There is such love and respect for the setting; it really came alive. Mary’s emotional journey was really lovely to read as well. Like in the original, Mary is quite contrary and bitter, and she echoes some of the more racist thoughts and opinions held by the white people around her. If you’re the type of reader who gets secondhand embarrassment when characters in books say or do awful or embarrassing things, this book is going to make you cringe! But Flora recognizes that Mary’s life has been small and without a lot of love, and while she refuses to take Mary’s abuse, she also gently opens Mary’s eyes, and Mary does the work to examine her own biases. Her friendship with her cousin Olive, who has been similarly lonely and mistreated, also helps as Olive is part Métis, and the girls form a really lovely bond. Mary also has a queer awakening when she meets Flora’s younger sister, which is a relationship that is so sweetly romantic that you can’t help but root for them. The challenges they face feel very real and immediate, but I loved how they came together to fight for their found family and their home.

I inhaled the audiobook in a span of about 24 hours. It was narrated by Brenfy Caribou, and I highly recommend the production if you read via audiobook! But either way, don’t miss this inclusive and thought-provoking classic retelling!

I have long been a fan of Roxane Gay’s writing, and this compilation of some of her essays spanning a decade does not disappoint. There are dozens of essays in this book, a few book reviews, and some celebrity interviews as well. The author, like many of us, loves to give her opinion and to give advice and you can sense her revelry in the act of doing so, even during some of the more heavy pieces.

This book is divided into seven sections, including “Identity/Politics,” “The Matter of Black Lives,” and “For the Culture.” She includes so many of what I consider to be her greatest hits, like “Cops Don’t Belong at Pride,” “How to Build a Monument,” “Who Gets to Be Angry?,” and “Dave Chappelle’s Brittle Ego.” I was overwhelmed by the amount of things that have happened in the past ten years and I nearly got whiplash as I bounced from essays on the Trump presidency to Chadwick Boseman to a beautiful memorial essay of Toni Morrison. I was also rocketed back in time to essays about the mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, the murder of Sandra Bland, and the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Not all the pieces require readers to reflect on the horrors of the past ten years, and the composition of this book is skillfully balanced with intelligent book reviews, entertaining and thoughtful critiques of films and shows, and even some hilarious observations like the ones included in “Why the Beach is a Bummer” and “Why Are Most Father’s Day Gifts So Terrible?”

The author’s celebrity profiles are brilliantly written in such a way that a few were of people about whom I initially was indifferent, but after reading Roxane Gay’s profiles, I found myself endlessly fascinated. There are nine profiles included, ranging from musicians like Nicki Minaj, Janelle Monáe, and Madonna to actors like Sarah Paulson and Tessa Thompson.

Finally, there are a few choice pieces from her “Ask Roxane” column, which I deeply appreciate as a person who loves to give advice myself. From cover to cover, this book is an excellent and wide-ranging read.

I LOVE short story collections. I’m not sure what it is about these kinds of books, but they are like a perfect array of gems collected together for us to admire. As a sort of advent calendar this year, I’ve been listening to a short story a day. It’s been so lovely to start my days with these mesmerizing stories.

Back when I first started working on the bookish internet, I participated in a 24-hour readathon. My favorite read from that weekend was Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble, a fantastical short story collection that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

So, for my first short story collection this year, I started with Link’s White Cat, Black Dog. Link gives readers retellings of fairy tales, each with her own special twist. In one story, the youngest son of one of the world’s richest men is sent on a quest to find the best dog in the world, but instead, he finds a marijuana farm run by talking cats. In another story, a man travels into the magical world to rescue his husband. In another, a PhD student is asked to house-sit for a very strange house owner.

Each of these stories takes you to another world, a sort of modern retelling of the fairy tales that we all grew up hearing. But in Kelly Link’s hands, these stories come alive in a whole new way. She has this way of capturing readers’ attention and keeping it with every page. Perhaps it’s the magic of winter nights or maybe the holiday sparkle, but every story seemed like just what I needed on any given day.

Kelly Link’s love-awaited debut novel The Book of Love is set to come out in the first half of 2024 — I can’t wait!

I have a huge regret about reading this book, which is this: I will never again be able to read it for the first time.

This book is set in a steampunk Cairo in 1912, where djinn and other magical creatures live side-by-side with humans and have for the past 40 years. The world-building of this book is so incredibly intricate and luscious. A man named al-Jahiz changed the world when he ripped open the veil between the magical and the human world. When that happened, he vanished. Now, in 1912, there is a secret brotherhood of wealthy British men in Cairo dedicated to worshiping al-Jahiz, thinking they have the right to the power he had. In the very first chapter, a man in a mask shows up at a meeting of the secret brotherhood. He claims to be al-Jahiz and then slaughters them all.

Fatma el-Sha’arawi is an agent working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, and she is one of only two women who work there. She also wears fantastically tailored suits. Feminism has not come very far in Cairo in 1912, and she has had to work incredibly hard to get the respect she deserves, but she is damn good at her job. She is now tasked with finding and apprehending this al-Jahiz impersonator, but every time she thinks she learns something new, a dozen new questions pop up. Nothing is what it seems to be, and she has to deal with some amazing characters, both human and djinn alike.

This book has everything: magic, murder, mayhem, sapphic romance, badass women, clever twists and turns, and some absolutely hilarious comedy. I was shocked at how funny this book was because I wasn’t expecting it. I laughed out loud multiple times, and it just endeared me more to P. Djèlí Clark’s writing.

Margot Murray has just broken up with her longtime girlfriend and isn’t feeling very festive this holiday season. In fact, the only thing she wants is to get away from her apartment and life and not think about her. So she agrees to do something mad: Pose as her new friend Ben’s girlfriend and go home with him for the holidays. His family owns a boutique hotel in the countryside, so it’s the perfect escape — and she’s a lesbian, so it’s not like she needs to worry about playing with Ben’s heart. Ben’s sister Ellie is home from abroad, itching to put down roots, and she wants to make a life for herself in the family business. The only problem? Her family thinks she’s flighty and rash, and she’s determined to prove them wrong this holiday season. Except, when her brother Ben brings home a girl who is clearly a gold digger who wants him for his money, she has to go about breaking them up.

This is a bonkers setup, but I was totally on board with the intriguing falling-for-your-fake-date’s-real-sister premise, and Samuels does a great job of creating a dreamy countryside getaway setting that I would definitely pack my bags to visit if it were real. This book leans heavily on mixed signals, misunderstandings, and other hijinks, and it’s a dual POV so it’s definitely funny (and occasionally cringe!) to read about how Margot selling her role as Ben’s boyfriend is just making Ellie even more suspicious and determined to expose her. I also enjoyed the supporting cast of characters, which include Ellie’s grandpa, her parents, a sister and nephews, and one very pregnant dog. This book does pack a bit of an emotional punch that I wasn’t expecting — partway through, it’s revealed that Margot’s ex, whom she loved very much, is actually emotionally abusive and manipulative, which Margot is in denial about. Ben and Ellie’s response to supporting Margot through this revelation, and giving her the tools she needs to process and space when she needs it felt very sweet and supportive, and serves as a nice way for Margot to discover what love is supposed to look like, especially as Margot tells Ellie the truth about the fake dating scheme and the women start meeting up secretly. Overall, this is a rather tame romance, but certainly sweet, and perfect if you enjoy Hallmark Christmas movies with a fabulous setting — but with a sapphic twist!