SLAY by Brittney Morris: This story — Black girl creates a video game for the Black diaspora that gets picked apart in the media after a tragedy — was unlike any YA novel I'd read before, and I loved it.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson: I didn't know if this would live up to the hype because I'm very picky about my mystery novels, but it was incredibly satisfying and I have a hold on the sequel now.
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford: If you can get past Weatherford's strong pro-Mongol bias, this is a fascinating, well-researched work of nonfiction about a part of history I knew very little about.
Ignore It!: How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction by Catherine Pearlman: I had a lot of issues with this book and definitely wouldn't recommend it as my top parenting advice book, but Pearlman does provide valuable guidance on an area that many parenting books, with their focus on feelings and attachment and play, skip over: sometimes your kid just intentionally does stuff to get attention, and if you can ignore them effectively, they'll stop.
Heartstopper: Volume Three by Alice Oseman: This was another excellent volume in a 5-star series. This one perfectly captures the experience of going on an international school trip, and we see the main characters getting to know parts of each other's lives that they hadn't previously seen.
Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee: I've kind of accepted at this point that this series doesn't have the tightest plotting or world-building, and I enjoy it for the diverse cast of great characters, the snappy dialogue, and the dramatic action scenes.
Heartstopper: Volume Four by Alice Oseman: I love that in this volume, we see Charlie dealing with his mental illness and the boys even get in a fight, but the undercurrent of deep love is still there. And the side characters are just perfection.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells: I found this classic of science fiction interesting on several levels, especially seeing what Wells was more concerned with (commentary on the social structures of his day) and less concerned with (coherent world-building, addressing time travel paradoxes).
Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul by Kyndall Rae Rothaus: This was a super-accessible text that encourages the reader to think about God and the Bible through a feminist lens. Whether you're already steeped in Christian feminism and looking for more inspiration or you're just starting to look for permission to ask questions about the patriarchal structures around you, this is a quick and valuable read to check out. (Don't miss Rothaus coming on the podcast in a few weeks!)
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear: I didn't enjoy the self-improvement, tech/business bro tone of the book or the heavy reliance on white dudes for examples, but I did appreciate the way the author summarized and simplified research and models previously shared elsewhere to give the reader a wide range of options for building desired habits and reducing unwanted habits.
Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock: As much as I enjoyed revisiting a format I loved as a kid (envelopes pasted onto book pages with actual letters you can take out), unexplained magic, a deep connection to art, and an abrupt cliffhanger are all elements that don't resonate with me, so this wasn't my kind of book.
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston: I love McQuiston's books, but I honestly wasn't a big fan of the two main characters here, which made it challenging. However, the big cast of delightfully queer supporting characters and the message about not writing off people or places too early made this an enjoyable read overall.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Fun Home, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, and Abuelita Faith
Five years ago I was reading: Hidden Figures and American Street
Ten years ago I was reading: The Blue Parakeet
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