Here's what I read this past month, including what I've been reading to my son!
Stars and Sparks on Stage by Sharon M. Draper: The Black Dinosaurs want to win the talent show, but they're forced to think about more serious things after meeting a new student who was made homeless by Hurricane Katrina. I thought it was handled in an age-appropriate way. My 6-year-old got bored with this one partway through, but I enjoyed it!
Girl Sex 101 by Allison Moon: This was billed as a fully inclusive sex-ed book, and it definitely delivered! Although addressed primarily to queer women, it covers all genders and genitals; the only people who aren't a focus are cis men, and it's not like there's a shortage of information out there about having sex with cis men. In addition to extensively covering trans bodies, it's inclusive of disabled bodies and fat bodies as well. The world would be a better place if everyone read this book before they had sex!
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie: I actually figured one out! I'm so proud of myself, haha. It was fun seeing how all the pieces fit together once I had an idea of what the solution was going to be.
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers: This book had potential, but it never really coalesced for me. Rogers did a lot of telling not showing, and we didn't get to see a lot of the relationship building between characters. Everyone in this book talked to each other very dramatically about pain and monsters and the universe, but that's not a substitute for the real ways that people care for each other.
Dragons and Marshmallows by Asia Citro: This was fun! My son wasn't quite as invested as he's been with some other books, but he enjoyed it and so did I. It's a basic introduction to the scientific method wrapped in a story about magical creatures. This was recommended to me by a lot of different people, and I'm glad it delivered!
Saga, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: This was an enjoyable continuation of the story from Volume 1. It's still a little heavy on the gore for my taste, but there are a lot of funny lines and the art makes it feel like you're watching a movie.
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh: This one was a mixed bag for me. Some chapters were as laugh-out-loud funny as her first book, but the overall question the book kept coming back to was "What do you do when you find out that nothing matters?" and she was still clearly in the middle of that nihilism and depression while trying to mine it for stories worth telling. I'm grateful for what her art has given to the world, and I hope that she can find her way to some more peace and meaning in her life.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab: This was a good, if pretty basic, overview of why it's important to have boundaries and how you can implement them in your life. I think that for anyone who struggles with setting boundaries at all or who has a lot of unhealthy relationships or a toxic work environment, this would be an excellent first step.
Monsters and Mold by Asia Citro: This was a cute continuation of the series. I liked seeing how Zoey again used the scientific method to solve a magical creature's problem, and in this one there is some exploration of how what works in a laboratory may not be practical when applied outside of it! I was possibly more eager than my son to find out what the solution was going to be, haha.
Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor: This was a satisfying conclusion to the story started in Strange the Dreamer. Taylor is an incredibly skilled writer, both on a sentence level and in terms of plotting and character development. What I appreciate most about this story is how Taylor has given us a multitude of morally gray characters, all of whom have done terrible things, but their reasons for doing so are deeply understandable and sympathetic.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The House of the Spirits and Truth & Beauty
Five years ago I was reading: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Friendship at the Margins, and The Girls
Ten years ago I was reading: Sundays in America
No comments:
Post a Comment