Books Read in September 2024

*Book group selection | Bolded means favorite

Picture Books

*Time to Make Art by Jeff Mack
*The Spaceman by Randy Cecil

Middle Grade

*Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
*Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

Young Adult

*Ash’s Cabin by Jen Wang
Geek Girl by Holly Smale
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Grownup Fiction

Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly
Between Two Strangers by Kate White
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams

The Bridesmaids Union by Jonathan Vatner

Vatner’s Carnegie Hill charmed me by being about self-involved rich people, but also incredibly relatable. I was less charmed by the Bridesmaids Union because the main character really needed to say no. And she didn’t. Repeatedly. So the novel could happen, I guess?

I’m also quite happy that my era of attending weddings was much more low key than the one this book depicts.

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Weiner finds an interesting and multilevel way into #MeToo.

Grownup Nonfiction

The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther by Ruth E. Carter

Young Nonfiction

*Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States by J. Albert Mann

Books Read in August 2024

*Book Group Selection | Bolded Means Favorite

Picture Books

*Let’s Go! by Julie Flett
*Ursula Upside Down by Corey R. Tabor
*Just Like Millie by Lauren Castillo
*Aloha Everything by Kaylin Melia George and Mae Waite

Middle Grade

*The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
*Plain Jane and the Mermaid
by Vera Brosgol
*With Just One Wing by Brenda Woods
*A Little Bit Super: With Small Powers Come Big Problems by Leah Henderson and Gary D. Schmidt

Young Adult

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
*The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian
Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin
In the Age of Love and Chocolate by Gabrielle Zevin
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Grownup Fiction

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
The Hunter by Tana French
The Searcher by Tana French
The Hole We’re In by Gabrielle Zevin
Stand Your Ground by Victoria Christopher Murray
The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict
Margarettown by Gabrielle Zevin

Carnegie Hill by Jonathan Vatner

Considering this books was populated with a bunch of rich people who want for little and are kind of spoiled, this was a surprisingly compelling novel. Kudos to Vatner for sketching a guy who could have been odious with a lot of nuance.

This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison

Don’t let the exclamation point fool you. This is an overall downer of a book.

Young Nonfiction

*The Bard and the Book: How the First Folio Saved the Plays of William Shakespeare from Oblivion by Ann Bausum and Marta Sevilla

Grownup Nonfiction


Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West

Recommended reading: the three chapters where West chronicles her loss of love of stand-up comedy.

Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford

Books Read in July 2024

*Book Group Selection | Bolded Means Favorite

Picture Books

*Two Together by Brendan Wenzel

Early Chapter Books

*Born Naughty: My Childhood in China by Jin Wang, Tony Johnston, and Anisi Baigude

Young Adult

*Break to You by Neal Shusterman, Debra Young, and Michelle Knowlden
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Grownup Fiction

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
But How Are You, Really by Ella Dawson
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
Honey by Isabel Banta
A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Need Blind Ambition by Kevin T. Myers
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

With a decades-spanning plot and two instances where I gasped “No!” this was pretty much my perfect read.

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Sometimes the dial on historical fiction is turned too much to the side where we establish scene by naming songs and describing clothes and hairstyles. That was the case here. While Frankie’s story resonated with me, I kept getting pulled out of it by too many historical details that didn’t add anything to the plot.

Young Nonfiction

*Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire by Paula Yoo

Grownup Nonfiction

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae

Unpacking the Trunk: Books Edition

Being the reader I was and am, I made sure to stock my growing-up trunk with important books from my childhood and adolescence. In no particular order:

I was given this Little House set when I was still a baby, so I got the yellow box edition. My friends who had their own set usually had the blue box edition. I liked the yellow one better. But then the next iteration was a nice gingham theme. I would have gone for that one too.

You can see that these books were read many times. First they were read to me, then I read them on my own, then I read them every summer. Sometimes I started at the end and ended at Little House in the Big Woods. When that happened, Mary regained her sight, rather than lost it.

My friend Cindy had a tiny book called the Paper Bag Princess, and I loved it so much (despite being in high school and thus “too old” for it) that she made me my own copy one Christmas.

She had fun adding the commentary on the back, which she adapted from actual blurbs on books in her possession. “Now a spectacular film from Orion!!” cracks me up.

My favorite Little Golden Book to read at my Grandparents’ house. It was originally my Aunt Carol’s book, and the paper dolls aspects had been lost years before I found it. I looked for my own copy for years before finding one in the toy store in Seaside during this trip. I did not include the book in my chronicle of the trip, and I have no idea why as it had been a decades-long quest. Anyhow, this was the original one.

Oh, Alice. This book, so many feelings. It was fun to listen to the series of episodes the podcast “You’re Wrong About” did, starting with Go Ask Alice Part 1. I also read Rick Emerson’s Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries, so it’s been a big year for Go Ask Alice.

This might have been my entry into Chris Crutcher. I loved how the descriptions of cross country running made me want to be a runner.

I read a lot of Cynthia Voigt, but these two made the cut. This is a loose sequel to Jackaroo, and I didn’t know how to pronounce the main character’s name Birle, so I stopped in a jewelry store in the mall and asked. Because we didn’t have the internet to pronounce things for us back then.

And here’s Jackaroo. My historical fiction preferences are quite clear.

When I watched the film The Princess Bride I had no idea there was a book! When I found this, I loved it so much I read it aloud to my family.

Fannie Flagg was a favorite author once the movie version Fried Green Tomatoes was released, and I read the book. But the description of the Miss America pageant in this book was hilarious, so I went with Daisy Fay over Fried Green Tomatoes.

Who the heck wouldn’t count the Outsiders as an important book from their youth? Probably kids now, as I’ve recently reread it and found it a bit stiff. But I sure loved it then. I also like this cover. It’s very of its time.

This is the book in my collection I find most cringeworthy. I really, really, really liked it though when it was released. At least my bodice ripper entry has a classy cover on it.

Here’s the book that probably no one has heard of. I loved the New York City immigrant 1940s experience. And it was also really sad. This one, I’m holding onto. Will I read it again? Maaaaaayyybeeee? What if it’s not that good?

A book I always thought of as a good companion to this one, though contemporary, was Walk Through Cold Fire by Cin Forshay-Lunsford. It’s too bad I didn’t track down a copy for the trunk as they seem to be scarce. There are currently three copies available on Thriftbooks and the prices range from $112 to $129. I’ll keep my eye peeled for it to turn up somewhere for a normal price.

I was a huge fan of The Secret Garden, but A Little Princess has always been my favorite Frances Hodgson Burnett book. And one MUST read the version with Tasha Tudor illustrations.

More historical fiction. This one took place in Hungary, pre-WWI.

And this sequel took place during the war. I’m pretty sure my mother read these as a child, and thus they came into my life. Good choices.

And another classic. I read this book several times, both as assignment and on my own.

And that’s the tour of my books. I hadn’t realized how few would be contemporary. Really just Running Loose. I’m a diehard historical fiction fan and have been since I was a child.

Books Read in June 2024

*Book Group Selection | Bolded Means Favorite

Middle Grade

*Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston
*Mid-Air by Alicia D. Williams
*Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar

*Next Stop by Debbie Fong

I wouldn’t mind going on this kind of tour.

Young Adult

The Atlas of Us by Kristin Dwyer

The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram

Where is Jackson finding so many t-shirts with tags in them? My shirts have had the tag info screen printed in them for years.

Grownup Fiction

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Face blindness was a thing in YA literature a few years ago. In a standard grownup romance novel, it makes for an interesting plot. The villain was a little too uniformly evil, though.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Somewhat of a difficult read due to the everyday sexism, but also very entertaining in the rejection of that sexism.

I tried hitting my eggs with a knife rather than cracking them on the counter or the bowl and found it a good technique.

Little Free Library find.

Grownup Nonfiction

Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments by Gary Taubes
Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars by Richard K. Bernstein
Sugarless: A 7-Step Plan to Uncover Hidden Sugars, Curb Your Cravings, and Conquer Your Addiction by Nicole M. Avena (strangely not listed on Goodreads…)
Keto QuickStart A Beginner’s Guide to A Whole-foods Ketogenic Diet by Diane Sanfilippo

Books Read in May 2024

*Book Group Selection | Bolded Means Favorite

Picture Books

*Ahoy! by Sophie Blackall
*The Last Zookeeper by Aaron Becker

Middle Grade

*Kyra, Just for Today by Sara Zarr

No matter the protagonist, Sara Zarr writes them so you root for them and also want to give them a big hug. It was also interesting to see how holding together the household and being A+ in that category meant that she had trouble keeping up in school.

*The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

Nice job writing about 1999 and providing a sci-fi twist. I love Entrada Kelly’s characterization.

*The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy

It’s an age-appropriate book about a member of a cult! The story traces Fern’s attempts to get back to the cult, the place she has been the happiest, and also her evolving thoughts about life outside the cult. There’s also an idyllic California beach town and people who help Fern and her mother adjust to their new lives.

Young Adult

*Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson and Ekua Holmes
*Icarus by K. Ancrum
Wide Awake Now by David Levithan

Young Nonfiction

*American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky by Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein
*My Antarctica: True Adventures in the Land of Mummified Seals, Space Robots, and So Much More by G. Neri and Corban Wilkin

Grownup Fiction

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

The Partner Track by Helen Wan

Hoo-boy do I dislike the law office culture on display in this novel. Wan kept me reading through my dislike with a well-formed main character to root for.

Grownup Nonfiction

The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job Faster by Steve Dalton

Breaks the scary task of networking down to efficient and manageable tasks.

The Job Closer: Time-Saving Techniques for Acing Resumes, Interviews, Negotiations, and More by Steve Dalton

The companion to the 2-Hour Job Search, this book also got me to stop obsessing over resumes (strive for error-free—no one really reads them all the way through) and cover letters (he gives a framework) and made updating my LinkedIn profile a breeze. He also discusses how to interview, how to negotiate, and how to get off to a great start at your new company.

Dalton’s two books are making my job search less of a herculean task.

Beyond Getting By: The Financial Diet’s Guide to Abundant and Intentional Living by Holly Trantham and Lauren Ver Hage

This wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I’m looking for a process to decide who to donate money to as well as something to help me understand the tradeoff of increasing my retirement contributions another percentage point annually given my current percentage.

While this didn’t meet my needs, it was full of good information and written in a breezy style. I suspect that the 32 hour workweek won’t be widely adopted in my working lifetime as it has at the Financial Diet, but it would be nice.

Rebel With A Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian by Ellen Jovin

A good book for the room in your house where you spend time intermittently and need something you can pick up and put down. The grammar information was good, and the writing about grammar was engaging, but I found eventually found repetitive setup of each vignette tedious. Her descriptions of the people visiting the grammar table were particularly annoying annoying after a while.

Books Read in April 2024

*Book Group Selection | Bolded means favorite

Picture Books

*The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn by Shawn Harris

Middle Grade

*Alterations by Ray Xu
*Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell

*Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu

Just the right amount of middle-grade creepy. (Which is my top threshold for creepy.) I was feeling “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Were you?

Young Adult

*Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline
*Conditions of a Heart by Bethany Mangle
*Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros
*Louder Than Hunger by John Schu
Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber
*There Goes the Neighborhood by Jade Adia

Young Nonfiction

*Climbing the Volcano: A Journey in Haiku by Curtis Manley and Jennifer K. Mann


*The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions by Giselle Clarkson

This is my kind of tiny-detail science book.

Grownup Fiction

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker
Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Grownup Nonfiction

Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries by Rick Emerson

Probably not compelling at all if you aren’t familiar with Go Ask Alice. Incredibly gripping if you are familiar.

Books Read in March 2024

*Book Group Selection | Bolded means favorite

Picture Books

*Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin by Michelle Meadows and Jamiel Law
*My Block Looks Like by Janelle Harper and Frank Morrison

Middle Grade

*We Still Belong by Christine Day
*Not So Shy by Noa Nimrodi
*Eagle Drums by Nasugraq Rainey Hopson
*The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn by Sally J. Pla
*The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba, Avery Fischer Udagawa
(Translation), Yukiko Saito (Illustrations)
*Between Two Brothers by Crystal Allen

*The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman by Mari Lowe

Really gets into those lonely middle school feelings. Cover art gripe: the girls are wearing roller skates, not rollerblades.

*The Jake Show by Joshua S. Levy

I really felt for Jake; it’s tough to be saddled with parents whose vision of their child doesn’t take into account the child’s vision. I needed to suspend my disbelief for a major plot point, but a great read overall.

Young Adult

Shut Up, This Is Serious by Carolina Ixta
*Pardalita by Joana Estrela; Lyn Miller-Lachmann (Translator)
*In Limbo by Deb J.J. Lee
*Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez

*Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler

Two different romances in one novel? Yes, please!

*Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian

Stories of three young men (sneaky historical fiction: two are from prior decades.) Period details were solid, including the contemporary ones. Also good: the journeys of the characters.

Young Nonfiction

*She Persisted: Wilma Mankiller by Traci Sorell
*Log Life by Amy Hevron
*Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava by Gary Golio and E.B. Lewis

Books Read in February 2024

*Book group selection.
Favorites are bolded.

Picture Books

*Benita and the Night Creatures by Mariana Llanos
*Rock Your Mocs by Laurel Goodluck and Madelyn Goodnight
*Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck and Jonathan Nelson
*Hanukkah Upside Down by Elissa Brent Weissman and Omer Hoffmann
*Fox Has a Problem by Corey R. Tabor
*Henry, Like Always by Jenn Bailey and Mika Song
*Later, When I’m Big by Bette Westera and Laura Watkinson (Translator)
*Not He or She, I’m Me by A. M. Wild and Kah Yangni
*Dancing Hands: A Story of Friendship in Filipino Sign Language by Joanna Que, Charina Marquez, Fran Alvarez (Illustrator), and Karen Llagas (Translator)

*A Letter for Bob by Kim Rogers and Jonathan Nelson

Oh man, I can remember every single time the old family car was traded in for the new family car.

*How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee by Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison

Rage-inducing re: spelling bee, and I felt such a sense of loss reading that Cox spent her working life as a domestic employee. Such a waste.

Middle Grade

*Something Like Home by Andrea Beatriz Arango
*Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford
*Ruby Lost and Found by Christina Li
*Cross My Heart and Never Lie by Nora Dåsnes and translated by Matt Bagguley
*A Sky Full of Song by Susan Lynn Meyer

Young Adult

*The Collectors edited by A.S. King
*Salt the Water by Candice Iloh
*Fire from the Sky by Moa Backe Åstot and Eva Apelqvist (Translation)
*Forever Is Now by Mariama J. Lockington
*I’d Rather Burn Than Bloom by Shannon C.F. Rogers

*Stars in Their Eyes: A Graphic Novel by Jessica Walton and Aśka

I found the hip mother and her relationship with her child incredibly grating. No teenager is that much of a comedy team with their mom. And about sixty percent of the story was incredibly artificial conversations written to fill in backstory for the reader. Also annoying: not using the names of the copious pop culture references. We know what is being discussed when a character references Bader and the Duke. So just use Vader and Luke.

The graphic part of the graphic novel did a great job conveying what it’s like to navigate a con with a prosthetic leg.

*The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Shannon Gibney

It’s early, but I’m betting this is the youth media award winner that is the most literary fiction-ish.

*Tilly in Technicolor by Mazey Eddings

Centers the story around the neurodivergent kids.

*The Long Run by James Acker

I’m a sucker for teenagers exploring outside their boxes, so this book warmed the cockles of my heart.

Children’s Nonfiction

*Jovita Wore Pants by Aida Salazar and Molly Mendoza
*Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series by Traci Sorell and Arigon Starr

*Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes by Traci N. Todd and Shannon Wright

Without picture book biographies, how many fewer interesting people would I not know about?