I'm continuing to enjoy my project for the year of reading books of a specific cover color each month. February was gray; March is pink. It's forced me to set aside preconceptions about a book or what I think I'm in the mood for and just read a wide variety within a specific parameter (though it turns out the pink books on my TBR are mostly nonfiction!). Here's what I've read in the past month.
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson: There were elements of this that I really liked: the trial scenes, the mystery, the lush descriptions, the historical elements of Japanese internment and discrimination. On the other hand, there was wayyy too much in here about male characters and their penises. If this had been a shorter book with more mystery and less penis, I think I would have liked it a lot better.
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson: Sanderson is a talented writer, and I enjoyed spending more time with these characters, even if this felt a little heavy-handed at times, like he was writing with an agenda. The central mystery was engaging, the characters are delightful, and I laughed out loud multiple times.
It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by danah boyd: Through interviews and ethnographic studies of teens across the United States, along with research from other scholars, boyd looks out how teens use the social internet and what adults get right and wrong about it. I appreciate that boyd approached this topic with a scientific lens and pushed back on some of the alarmist rhetoric about kids and the internet. I think sometimes she pushes too far in the other direction, but it's nonetheless a helpful counterpoint to much of the discourse that tends to drive these conversations.
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia: Far from the cis-friendly, cookie-cutter trans narrative, this is a real, messy, humorous recounting of Tobia's experiences starting from childhood grappling with societal expectations for their assigned gender and then eventually the complex journey of discovering their own gender identity. I loved this from start to finish and would highly recommend, especially on audio.
The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend: Advice on Queer Dating, Love, and Friendship by Maddy Court: I would not recommend this at all. There are a handful of gems throughout (mainly from the guest contributors), but mostly I was frustrated by the advice provided here. More than once I said out loud, "Did you even read the question?" It was disappointing.
We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib: This was good, but I wanted more from it. It was short and felt disjointed; the story of their childhood was interesting, but then we make a sudden pivot to only talking about their queerness, something not really mentioned in the first half of the book, and they elide their journey of self-discovery to get to that point in a way I found odd for a memoir.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Only Plane in the Sky, It's Perfectly Normal, and Killfile
Five years ago I was reading: I Shall Be Near to You, The Body Keeps the Score, and Freddie Ramos Takes Off
Ten years ago I was reading: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Borderlands, Cold Sassy Tree, and The Book of Mormon
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