Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge: (More Than) Mid-Year Progress Report

August 20, 2018 |

I’m taking on the Book Riot Read Harder this year. I’ve tried in the past, but each time I’ve tried, I’ve found myself feeling too pressured to read certain books over others. I don’t know what clicked this year, when I realized that the point of those categories was to stretch myself in ways that could still work for my reading life: I don’t have to read something in a completely different genre or category to find a book within, say, YA or adult nonfiction, that perfectly meets the goals of the category. It’s a stretch beyond the comfort zone, without feeling like I need to read for the person I think I should be, rather than the person I am.

For those unfamiliar with the Read Harder challenge, the goal is to read one book from twenty-four different prompts throughout the year. The idea is that you’d read two books a month to fit the challenge. You can, of course, do it however it works best for you, but when you break it down to two books per month, it feels super manageable.

One of the things that’s made this work well for me this year, aside from a shift in my thinking, is that the spreadsheet I like to use to track my reading includes a space for tracking titles which might fit the challenge categories. This means every time I finish a book, I’m able to flip through the tasks and see if it fits. I’ve found myself naturally picking up some books that fit, without ever once wondering if it would fit a specific prompt. That makes the challenge even more enjoyable for me, since it’s nice to see that I’m able to naturally pick up books that hover just beyond my normal reading diet.

The year is more than half over, and I thought it would be worthwhile to not only see where I was in terms of progress, but to also consider and solicit ideas for the remaining categories.

Completed Tasks

A book published posthumously

I picked up I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara for this one, and I listened to it on audio. This was right before an arrest was made, so seeing that hit the news after reading the book made the experience that much better.

An engaging and engrossing exploration of the Golden State Killer, and further, an engaging and engrossing exploration of putting together an investigation of a crime pieced together in part by the author and the notes she left upon her untimely death.

The book and the story of the book sell.

The audiobook was great, and the introduction by Gillian Flynn a nice touch. I’m a fan of journalistic true crime, a la In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, so this one scratched that itch nicely.

A book of true crime

Another one I did on audio, and this time it was You All Grow Up and Leave Me by Piper Weiss. An absorbing memoir/true crime read about Piper Weiss’s life intersecting with Gary Wilensky. Wilensky earned her trust, as well as her family’s, but it was through this grooming behavior that allowed him to then pursue further attempts at relationships with his young clients. His attempts to capture and seduce one of his students went terribly wrong, which led Wilensky to end his life, and Weiss’s book is an attempt to not only explore who he was and what drew him to behave this way, but it’s also a look at how being a teenage girl is a land mine of men like Wilensky. Weiss is privileged and well-off in Manhattan, with access to so much, yet a man like him was able to gain her trust, her parents trust, and the trust of so many others like her.

This is an exploration of why not her, and yet, why her at the same time. It’s a book about the way adults groom and earn the trust of young victims, about the ways that those advances can be brushed aside and ignored.

It’s hard to say much more. Weiss is, by all accounts, as average as someone with her status could be, and her experiences with Wilensky are as a victim without being “the” victim. In a lot of ways, this makes her story relatable and something so many women will identify with.

The audiobook for this was great. Brittany Pressley gives a great performance and offers up just enough intonation to give more depth to the book itself — her voice sounds like a teen girl, on the cusp of adulthood, and here, it works perfectly.

A comic written and illustrated by the same person

I’ve actually read a number of titles that fit this task, but the one I logged was Thornhill by Pam Smy. Jane Eyre The Secret Garden set in 1982 and 2017. It’s creepy, delicious modern-set gothic horror. The art is fantastic, the story completely engrossing, and a super fast read.

Ghosts! Dolls! An old as hell creepy abandoned house! There’s so much to love. All the trope-y goodness.

A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)

I counted Girls Burn Brighter by Shaboa Rao for this one, and I wrote more in-depth about this excellent adult fiction title with tremendous teen appeal earlier this summer.

This is about friendship: the fierce, fiery kind of friendship that exists between two girls who understand their place in the world as girls, their place in society as girls in India of a lower class, their place in society as girls who can only rely and depend upon one another. Savitha and Poornima only spend a small portion of the book together, but it’s the spark between them that keeps them connected through tragic event after tragic event.

What I loved most is what they carried of one another inside them. Poornima saw Savitha as the brave, self-assured girl, but in the end, Poornima pulls that same energy to find Savitha again, who has found herself in a situation not unlike the one Poornima was in during her marriage. Lost. Adrift. Alone.

A book about nature

I listened to the audiobook for an Alex Award winning book called The Wasp That Brainwashed The Caterpillar by Matt Simon. It’d been on my to-read since it was named an award winner, and during the weeks I was cleaning my house to prepare for the move, this one was one I devoured on audio.

If you love the bizarre adaptations of nature, then this is the book for you. I happen to be someone who digs these weird facts and stories, and this book was a DELIGHT to listen to. At times on audio, the jokes didn’t seem to deliver as well as they would in print, but in addition to being really interesting, this has a lot of humor packed in what can sometimes be downright horrifying for humans to think about.

A western

One of my favorite YA books this year was the title perfect for this task: Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist. Set in west Texas in 1877, the story follows Willie (real name: Daisy, but that’s too dainty for her) as she has to find her father, as he’s stolen a load of money from McAlister. McAlister promises revenge if that money is not returned.

The thing is: no one steps out of Glory alone. Outside of the gates are the shakes. The shakes are hungry, vicious, and will turn you into one of them in an instant. Willie has little money, but needs to hire herself a hunter to help her track down her father in another town. Enter the Garrett brothers.

Willie leaves behind her brother and twin brother and sister as she goes, but not for long. Micah can’t stand the idea of her venturing alone, even with the hunters, and he, along with neighbor Sam, catch up with the crew on the journey.

Enter the shakes.

Berquist’s first novel is the perfect blend of western and horror. The pitch “True Grit” meets “28 Days Later” is absolutely spot on. From page one, I was riveted and loved the entire arc of Willie’s story and character. The exploration of grief and guilt is thoughtful and thought-provoking, particularly as Willie sees herself to blame for a lot of the mess that occurs. Saying more would be a spoiler, of course.

The writing is pitch perfect, with descriptions of desolation in the desert palpable. Every minute I was not reading this, I was thinking about it and thinking about Willie.

Bonus: there is not a romance in this book. Sure, there’s a kinship that emerges between Sam and Willie at the end, but we know nothing more will be coming of it.

And then there’s what happens when they find Pa and ask him what happened to that money. And what happens when they return to Glory to face McAlister again.

Mega appeal to fans of westerns, of zombie stories, and to books that are fast paced and action-packed (but without making your head spin). The 500 pages speed by, and it’s a stand alone, perfectly contained read.

A comic written or drawn by a person of color

I chose one that had a person of color who did both (which would also fit the task “a comic written and drawn by the same person”). Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker was one of my favorite comics in a long time. Perfect and sweet with outstanding art.

Didn’t even end up putting the bookmark on a page because I read it cover to cover in one big, quick gulp.

A romance novel by or about a person of color

Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date did both. I gulped this one down while on a trip out to Boise earlier this year, and I discovered the joy of reading a romance novel while enjoying an adult beverage by myself at the hotel bar. It’s a lovely, flirty, and fun read that plays with the fake relationship trope (which I’ve come to discover is one I like quite a lot). The publicist for this book just sent along Guillory’s next book, The Proposal, and I can’t wait to read it.

An Oprah Book Club selection

I used to devour the Oprah Book Club books as a teenager. They were such a nice way to ease into different types of adult literature beyond the classics. For this task, I went with her most recent pick, The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton.

What makes this book less brutal to read is knowing that Ray walks out of prison and away from the death sentence he was handed as an innocent man.

What makes this book more brutal to read is knowing there are many other Rays sitting on death row who may never see that fate.

I’ve always been fascinated with prison stories — fiction and nonfiction. I’m firmly against the death penalty, and believe that we have the means as human beings to do better when it comes to criminal justice and rehabilitation. Ray’s story isn’t about crime and punishment, though. He was an innocent man who, prior to being framed for murders he didn’t commit, made some sophomoric mistakes that he has no problem owning up to. Those mistakes were borne not from evil but from desperation and from his own background growing up poor, black, and outside Birmingham. It was those very things that led to his wrongful conviction.

Ray is an unbelievably positive human throughout his story. He waited 30 years for justice, and despite the fact nothing was ever expected of him on death row, he didn’t sit and wait for the inevitable. He not only fought for his innocence, but he made his life and the lives of those around him better. He began a book club with fellow inmates that helped give them all something to look forward to, a way to pass time that allowed camaraderie in what is otherwise a lonely place. He kept faith, over and over again, despite the fact he saw the cards stacked against him.

We’re lucky he can tell this story. But what a damn shame he has to.

A book of social science

I have so many titles to pick from for this task, in part because I read exclusively nonfiction on audio, and much of that nonfiction leans toward social science. But I noted Votes for Women by Winifred Conkling for this task. This is a compelling, engaging, and balanced look at the women’s suffrage movement which doesn’t shy away from the racist attitudes of some of the movement’s most well-known (and historically beloved) leaders. Complete with interesting images and great back matter, this is a book for readers looking for a solid history of the American push for the right for women to vote. I’ve read more than one book on this topic for young readers, but this is the first one I’ve read which doesn’t shy away from the ugly.

Hand to readers who love nonfiction, to budding feminists, and to any reader who needs a starter history of the women’s movement. Other reviews have noted this reads like a textbook, but I disagree. This is narrative nonfiction at its best; the challenge is that, with such a simultaneously broad and limited topic, the focus can dwell on certain aspects more than others, meaning some readers might not be as engaged with those aspects as others.

In terms of writing, I especially loved how this was bookended with the decision in Tennessee — the decision for ratification of women’s suffrage came down to a vote there, by a man influenced by his mother. Little page time is given to that, and instead, more time is spent showcasing what it was the women did to help get that man to that point.

A one-sitting book

This one could have worked for a number of books. I’m generally not a “read it in one sitting” kind of person, even for short books, but if I don’t have plans for the day and am really engrossed in what I’m reading — be it 100 or 500 pages long — I can do it. I used Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough for this one. Perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys, McCullough’s debut verse novel tells the story of Artemisia Gentileschi in the early 1600s. A young painter, apprenticed by her father — who was, of course, profiting from her work — she dreams of capturing the true essence of the women whose stories her deceased mother told her into her art. But when she is raped by a potential client, her life turns upside down and she turns to the strength of those women to find her voice and speak up and out about what happened to her.

Powerful, moving, and despite the setting, utterly contemporary, this is a book about women, about power, and about discovering the ways your voice, by virtue of being female, can change your life (for better or for worse). The writing is gorgeous and evocative, made more painful and raw by how this book could be set today and still resonate.

This was the second historical novel about women and power I’d read in a short time span — Circe by Madeline Miller being the other — which is far less about women’s place in history and much more about women’s place in contemporary society. For as much “progress” as we’ve made, we’ve barely moved.

A first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series

I picked up Somaiya Daud’s forthcoming Mirage for this one after seeing so much buzz about it, and I wasn’t disappointed. This one was well out of my normal reading area, and I’m really glad I pushed myself. Taken from her home which has been ravaged, Amani is pulled into the royal palace of the Vathek Empire. She’s nearly identical in appearance to the Princess, and her job will be to play the role of the Princess in situations where danger could arise. Amani doesn’t want that — she wants to be at home, with her family, dreaming, reading poetry, and in a place not dominated by a society like the Vathek’s. But she doesn’t get what she wants…..

She has to make what she wants to happen do just that.

A really lush fantasy about identity, about truth, and about trust. Who do you trust in a world where you have few you can depend on? And what happens when you’re torn away from them? Amani’s voice and determination propel her forward in this story and allow her to make decisions that put her life at risk for the betterment of her own people.

There’s a romance here, built perfectly within the narrative. It’s dangerous and forbidden but doesn’t detract Amani from her bigger goals and purposes.

A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author

I thought this one might be tough, but then it turns out a book I’d picked up because it was by a YA author I love — Katie Williams — fit the task perfectly. Tell The Machine Goodnight is her first foray into adult fiction.

A smart, savvy, and funny novel about our culture’s obsession with technology and happiness. Pearl’s job is to run the Apricity, which doles out the steps one needs to take in order to become happy. Some of those steps are bizarre — wear a velvet suit, cut off the tip of your right index finger — while others are pretty benign — write poetry. Then there are those who get advice which is so startling, it comes without a real list of steps to take. Pearl’s son Rhett falls into this last category, and Pearl is dead set on figuring out how to make her son, who suffers from an eating disorder, to be happy.

Wrapped into this are the stories of other people in Pearl’s world, including her boss (who seems to get promotions and demotions left and right, as one does in Silicon Valley), her ex-husband (who she is still somewhat in a relationship with), and her ex-husband’s new wife (who harbors a pretty terrible secret she won’t tell the husband but we get to become privy to). The revolving voices can at times get a titch confusing, but there’s something somewhat logical in that confusion. This is, after all, a tale about how technology can mess with us when we become too dependent upon it.

At heart, it’s a book about what it means to be human, good, bad, pretty, and ugly. I devoured it in a single afternoon. It’s science fiction with a literary bent to it.

A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image

My local library puts its new comics in a space on the new books shelf, which I absolutely love. It’s given me more opportunities to pick up comics when I might otherwise forget how much I enjoy them. That said, the one I wrote down for this task was Imagine Wanting Only This by Kristen Radtke and I remember nothing about it. I should have maybe put New Shoes by Sara Varon here instead. My notes from Goodreads call Radtke’s book a quick read and worthwhile, but uneven and at times, a stretch (which, fairly, she explains away a bit as her grasping to understand everything and pretending even when she doesn’t).

An essay anthology

I could have noted so many for this one, as essay anthologies are something I gravitate toward in my reading life. It’s weird whenever I see people say anthologies aren’t popular or ask “who reads them?” The answer is me! It’s not just that I like them from the writing standpoint. I also love seeing how they’re constructed, what all they accomplish, and whether or not they’re successful. I also just like reading well-thought pieces from people who are passionate about something. For this task, I hit the jackpot with They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib.

An outstanding collection of essays about music, race, and life in contemporary America. Hanif is a black Muslim who grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and his writing on being who he is in that Midwest space is out of this world good.

All of the essays have a connection to pop culture, and most to music, and it doesn’t matter whether you know or like any of the thematic threadings of the pieces. They’re about much, much more.

(And that Carly Rae Jepson piece!)

Those who love and laud Roxane Gay would do really well to pick this up, too.

For a little taste of what made this collection so grand, I have to share the link to one of Abdurraqib’s pieces in the New York Times about why Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill is the album American needs right now.

Outstanding Tasks

If you have any great recommendations for these categories beyond what I’ve noted as possibilities, let me know! Nine tasks in a little over four months is easy enough, and given how much I am reading with the inclusion of audiobooks in my daily life, I feel this is totally doable.

A classic of genre fiction

I’d really like to read a classic contemporary romance for this one, but I am a little unsure what that might be. I’m not too worried about finding one in time, though, since I also know there’s a whole swath of amazing horror classics to enjoy, too. I’m toying with picking up a Shirley Jackson or maybe another Stephen King read (after It last year, I might go for something a lot shorter, though!)

A book of colonial or postcolonial literature

This is a tough one, but a title on my radar for audio is A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Men and Women Fighting Extremism in Africa by Alexis Okeowo. Are there any really solid YA titles that might fit here? I’d love to hear any ideas.

A children’s classic published before 1980

My summer reading goal includes a full read of Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery, so as soon as I start on that, I know this will be an easy task to tick off.

A celebrity memoir

I’m kind of surprised this one is still left. When I was taking stock of my progress on the challenge, I immediately went and put Retta’s So Close To Being The Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know on hold at the library.

A book of genre fiction in translation

I picked one up on my last library trip on a lark, and I think it’ll fit the challenge perfectly. Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin and translated by Megan McDowell is a horror novel translated from Spanish.

A book with a cover you hate

Honestly, this one will be easy when I go through my bookshelves. There are a lot of covers I just plain dislike among them. I’m curious: what might you choose for this task? What book covers are just not working for you?

A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ Author

I guess technically I have accomplished this already a few times this year looking at my list, but I want to go into the book with one of these things at the forefront of my mind (in other words, I know White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig fits, but I didn’t go into the book knowing Roehrig identifies as gay — I looked it up afterward). On my library checkout list right now is Sherri L. Smith’s Pasadena, which I have been wanting to read for a long time and know will work perfectly here.

A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60

This task is one I sort of suspect will be the last one I do. When you read a lot of YA, finding a book where the protagonist is over 60 ends up being nearly impossible. Any suggestions of adult fiction or nonfiction I might enjoy? I wonder if a memoir would work well here.

An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

So many options for this one. I’ve been assigned Virginia Woolf a few times and never read it. I’ve also been assigned a few other titles I didn’t bother with or that I just plain didn’t like. I’m a nerd who has kept track of every book read since high school, so I need to peruse that list and go with something that conjures up immediate disgust.

Are you taking part in the Read Harder Challenge this year? I’d love to hear how you’re doing!

Adult Books With Teen Main Characters: Three Recent Reads

June 11, 2018 |

As much as I am a huge reader of YA, one of my other big reading loves is adult books with teen characters at the center. Having read so much of both, finding those sorts of markers which separate YA from adult has become a little easier through the years. Where YA has an immediacy to it and a specific type of voice and perspective, adult fiction with teen characters comes with a little bit greater sense of self-awareness, reflection, and slight removal from immediacy. It tends toward being less about emotions in the moment and more about consideration of those emotions and what it is they might mean. That isn’t to say YA doesn’t have that, but it’s done so differently.

But one of the things I really dig about adult books with teen main characters is that often, they have tremendous appeal for teen readers. I think about how I read as a teen, and I read a lot of literary fiction. YA was around, of course, but I didn’t gravitate it in the same way I did adult fiction. The happy medium came with adult books but with characters who were around my age.

Here are three books that hit shelves so far in 2018 and feature both teen protagonists, as well as solid appeal for readers — teen and adult — of YA. Interestingly, all three are also debut novels. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one or more of these books pop up somewhere on the Alex Awards list or its associated vetted nominations list next winter. As a bonus, for readers seeking more inclusive books, all three of these fit the bill.

Brass by Xhenet Aliu

In many ways, this book rang like the kind of book readers who loved the film Lady Bird would want to pick up. Told through two points of view eighteen years apart, Brass is the story of a mother and a daughter during that pivotal year.

Elise is a waitress at a local diner and hopes the job will add up to enough money to get her out of her small industrial town. But when she meets Bashkim, a line cook at the restaurant, the course of her life is changed because she’s fallen hopelessly in love. The problem is Bashkim is married. Well, that’s one of the problems. The other is, during the course of their relationship — whatever it is — Elise finds herself pregnant.

Luljeta is the daughter borne of that relationship. Her grandparents are Lithuanian immigrants and her missing father, Albanian, so she struggles to find a place in the community and with herself being a relative outsider. She’s been rejected from her dream college and now suspended from high school for the first time, Luljeta decides she needs to unravel a bit more about her own heritage and the mysterious man her mother had a relationship with that eventually lead to her existence.

This is an emotionally-gripping story that doesn’t necessarily traverse new territory. It’s a character study of two fascinating female characters growing up in a stark, impoverished, hurting small town in Connecticut. The way Aliu weaves in what it’s like to be the child of an Albanian immigrant and the way that feeds into identity is well-rendered. It’s not a speedy read, but it’s one that’s worth savoring. The sometimes tumultuous relationship between Luljeta and Elise is center stage, and given the choice Aliu made to tell their story in interweaving ways at the same time frame in their lives is smart and makes their current situation even more powerful.

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao

Rao’s debut novel begins in India, following two girls who develop a fast, tight friendship. Poornima feels something special when she first meets Savitha; after Poornima’s mother had died, things became lonely for her, but Savitha quickly fills that hole with her vivacity, her attitude, and her unwavering dedication to being herself. This, despite how it sounds, isn’t a given. Savitha comes from one of the poorest areas of a poor community, and she is able to show to Poornima how to fall deeply in love with the littlest pieces of day-to-day life. For once, Poornima feels a sense of hope she’s not yet felt. She is able to see something more than the upcoming arranged marriage her father is trying to find for her.

Finding a partner for Poornima isn’t easy. She’s not desirable to the wealthier-by-comparison families for a number of reasons, including the color of her skin. And when a match is finally made, it’s a marriage of abuse, of lies, of deceit.

But before that even comes to fruition, Savitha disappears. Now locked in this marriage, Poornima would do anything to get out and more, do anything to find the girl who she so desperately loved. And when Poornima gets out from the watchful eye of her husband and mother-in-law, she begins to travel into a dark, painful underworld in India, hoping to find her best friend.

The book ends in Seattle, and it’s that interim space between that marriage and Seattle where so much unravels. This is a book about the way men abuse women, both on the domestic front and on the larger, external front. It’s about human trafficking, too, and about the lengths that women seeking a way out will go to find that hope.

And in the end, this is a book about how fiery, how fierce, and how loyal girls can be to one another. Savitha and Poornima only spend a small portion of the book together, but it’s the spark between them that keeps them connected through tragic event after tragic event.

Great writing and great voices really make this one sing.

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

Clocking in at just over 200 pages, Speak No Evil packs in two exceptionally powerful plot lines: that of Niru, a privileged son of Nigerian parents in the US who is gay but is being forced to lose this part of his identity due to his parents’ expectations and that of Meredith, the white girl who had befriended Niru and found herself angry that he didn’t lust for her in the way she felt he should. The first three-quarters of the book are his story; the last quarter, hers, though arguable, it is her side which really impacts his in the end.

There are a lot of loose ends here and a lot of pieces, but this is a story about a first-generation African American boy coming to terms with his sexuality, which defies his parents’ beliefs. It IS a tragic queer story, but it’s also one that we don’t hear enough.

Note that this paragraph is a significant spoiler, so jump down if need be (though, honestly, the read alikes will tell you many things here, too). Speak No Evil is, ultimately, about how a white girl’s lies lead to the death of Niru in the hands of police. It’s about how much she allows herself to dwell in this, how she blames herself, and ultimately, Iweala does a tremendous job at looking at the ways white people can exploit that pain in ways that benefit them and give their lives an arc they’d otherwise not have. So, naturally, the queer black character dies, but she gets no redemption arc. She has no real sympathy or empathy. She’s exceptionally typical, and it really works here.

Pass this book along to readers who love The Hate U Give, How It Went Down, Dear Martin, or Tyler Johnson Was Here. This is about the intersection of race, privilege, and social power.

What I’ve Been Reading Lately: Reviews of Recent Contemporary YA Fiction

May 22, 2017 |

After I wrote about the way I read seasonally, my interest to read picked up significantly. It’s almost as if acknowledging it meant that I gave myself permission to follow my own reading desires and that sort of permission opened up the reading floodgates. Which isn’t a complaint. I’ve been reading a lot of really great stuff.

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandya Menon

Looking for a teen romantic comedy featuring two brown lead characters? This is the ticket. With mega appeal to fans of Jenny Han and Amy Spalding, this book will be flying off the shelves.

Dimple has her heart set on spending the summer at a coding conference in San Francisco. She wants to create an app that helps launch her to success and to meeting one of her coding heroines, a woman she believes will open many doors for her future. Dimple doesn’t believe her parents will let her go, especially since it’s her last summer at home before college. So when they do say she can attend, she’s excited and thinks her parents have finally loosened up the need to have control over her future.

But then she meets Rishi.

Rishi knows that he’s being set up to marry Dimple. His parents have him attending the same summer coding program as Dimple so they can meet before the inevitable marriage to come. But the moment Rishi encounters Dimple, he frightens her and she’s unable to accept the weird, creepy things he’s saying to her about being her future husband.

Perhaps….Dimple’s parents forgot to tell her something about why they’re letting her attend this coding program over the summer.

While this book isn’t perfect — there are some serious pacing issues, particularly in the last third of the book — it doesn’t matter. Readers are in this one for the two characters who are well-drawn, engaging, funny, and who manage to have a happily ever after. What matters is the ride to get there, and it’s really enjoyable to see both of them going fully after what their hearts desire with romance and in their dreams outside of a relationship. This one is written in a third person point of view which alternates between Dimple and Rishi’s voices, making the pages really fly by.

In A Perfect World by Trish Doller

When Caroline’s mother takes her dream position in a clinic in Egypt, Caroline’s less than pleased about leaving her friends, her boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend), and comfortable Ohio life behind. Egypt is nothing like home, and more, now she feels like an entitled and privileged American with her own driver and tour guide for Cairo.

That changes when Caroline meets Adam. He’s Muslim, and she knows that their relationship — even being seen together outside and around town — wouldn’t be a good thing to pursue. But he is the son of the person who is helping their family out and she can’t help but notice he’s cute, he’s driven, and he’s eager to take her out and about, even if it’s without much emotion attached to it.

Of course, you can guess what happens.

Doller’s book is a dazzling look at life in another culture through the eyes of a relatively privileged white girl who not only knows it, but acknowledges it, particularly when it comes to what her mother’s dealing with at her job and what she sees while being driven around by Adam. In a lot of ways, this was reminiscent of Anna And The French Kiss, but with an Egyptian setting and a little more frankness about how Caroline’s experiences are rare and at times, privileged-as-hell. There is great respect and interest paid here to getting Egyptian culture, as well as Muslim beliefs, correct, and Adam himself is a really well-rounded, complex, and interesting character who, as Caroline discovers, showcases how people who believe and live lives different than those in America can have just as many interests, desires, and complicated feelings as they do.

Readers who’ve liked Doller’s previous works will enjoy this one, as will those who’ve loved Stephanie Perkins’s romances and the relationship complexity that authors like Siobhan Vivian explore.

That Thing We Call A Heart by Sheba Karim

This book begin rocky for me, with what felt like a lot of information and, perhaps, an incorrect starting place. But as I kept on and moved into the second part of the book, I was suddenly unable to put it down because of how much had been built up.

Shabnam’s spending her last summer at home before heading to University of Pennsylvania and when her great uncle is in town from Pakistan, she’s voluntold she’ll be taking him out. Shabnam isn’t excited, especially since she’s not as invested in her cultural heritage as much of her family, including her great uncle. It’s also possible she told a bit of a lie about her uncle in the classroom and now she’s spinning it over in her head.

But it’s on that first excursion with her uncle that Shabnam meets Jamie. He’s cute and he’s white and he has a job opportunity for her at the pie shop his aunt owns. The job would be pretty easy and only for the summer, and Shabnam, blinded by her interest in Jamie and by what sounds like a nice way out of her house every day, says yes.

Of course, there’s the set up for the summer romance of her dreams. He’s so cute! He’s so interested in learning about her Pakistani heritage! He’s curious about how much she’s invested into her Muslim beliefs!

This isn’t the real focus of the story, though. The driving force here is the fractured friendship between Shabnam and her former best friend Farah. Farah, the only other Muslim at their posh private high school, is there on scholarship. She’s a loud, proud feminist. And she’s made the decision in the last few months to begin wearing the hijab. This sort of declaration of faith is what caused the rift in their friendship, as Shabnam felt that was a step back from everything Farah believed and everything she herself believed about her best friend.

With Shabnam in love and needing to tell someone, she flies back to Farah, ignoring all of the ways she’s ignored her and treated her poorly. Farah allows Shabnam back in, but it’s with reservation; Shabnam doesn’t see it, but we as readers do, especially as we begin to see how terrible a character Jamie is. Jamie loves Shabnam’s culture, and there’s a particularly stomach-churning moment when Jamie takes Shabnam to his aunt’s home, wherein she begins to see all of the cultural artifacts from around the world, which Jamie brushes off as “she’s just so interested in other people’s cultures,” like he is. But the more he presses her for her story and the more he presses Farah, the more we begin to see how he treats Shabnam not as a romantic interest but as a cultural curiosity.

He fetishizes her culture.

This book doesn’t have the happily ever after that would make it a romance, but I’d also say this isn’t really about romance or love at all. It’s about a crush, but more than that, it’s about friendship. Farah doesn’t go easy on Shabnam when they rekindle their friendship. In fact, she’s pretty frank and real with her about how terribly Shabnam has treated her and how little support and love she’s shown. In many ways, it’s Farah who is the most compelling character in this story, but it’s also clear why this isn’t her story. It’s about Shabnam coming to understand the ways people can misunderstand choices and how those meaningful choices people make don’t necessarily change who they are.

While reading this book, I kept thinking back to the comic that Wendy Xu wrote and drew for Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World and I can’t help as seeing them as a really worthwhile pairing to one another for understanding what happened between Shabnam and Jamie. They’d make an excellent pairing, and readers who love a good friendship story will want to pick this up.

Review: CERTAIN DARK THINGS by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

October 24, 2016 |

When is the last time you found yourself reading a vampire book and being completely and utterly unable to do anything else until you found out what happened?

That’s what happened with me and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s just-released Certain Dark Things. Moreno-Garcia blew me away with her novel Signal to Noise last fall, and when I saw she had a new book releasing — one about vampires in Mexico City — I knew I had to have it, even though I’m generally not a reader of vampire stories. But there’s something about the pitch, vampires in Mexico City, that took me in, and Moreno-Garcia utterly delivered with a fast-paced, engaging, and lushly written story that will appeal to teen readers who love their vampire stories with grit and with adult readers who are fans of similar stories.

Certain Dark Things could be considered a paranormal story, though it’s not a romance. There is a love story within it, but if we take the traditional definition of a happily ever after defining the romance genre, this does not fit (that’s a tiny bit of a spoiler, but nothing that readers don’t see coming immediately). While the paranormal plays a significant role in the story, this book falls neatly into the genre of urban fantasy; it’s reminiscent of the style of DJ Older’s Shadowshaper or Rachel Vincent’s Shadowbound series.

Told through alternating points of view, Moreno-Garcia’s story begins with Domingo, a garbage-collecting homeless street kid, stumbling upon Atl, an Aztec-lined vampire. She sees him as an easy and tasty treat and he is taken with the idea of her being a vampire. The trouble, though, is that Atl needs to get out of Mexico City and into a place where she is safe, both as a vampire and as a vampire tangled up in a great war. Mexico City, as we learn nearly immediately, is a safe place where vampires are not welcome, and yet, there is still a great rivalry within the city limits. Atl knows getting out and getting out of Mexico all together may be the only way to survive.

Hitch? There’s Domingo. And there’s the challenge of finding a way out of the city and to freedom without being caught or without being hurt by rival vampires.

Moreno-Garcia excels at world building in this story. It’s not just the setting which pulls the reader in and makes a world where vampires live alongside humans feel possible; she also weaves in some fascinating Aztec folklore which enhances Atl’s background story and makes her as intriguing to us as readers as she is to Domingo. In many ways, we as readers are the character Domingo. We become fascinated initially by the premise, but then we’re unable to let go because we’ve been sucked deep into a dark and inescapable story. Even the “bad guy” vampires in this story have a solid backstory, making their eagerness to take down Atl plausible and understandable (despite it not something you want to happen).

One of the most intriguing characters in the story is the single mother Ana, who works as a cop and finds herself entangled in this battle between rival vampires. She’s hard edged, and she’s devoted to her daughter, and it’s through both of those qualities that she keeps pursuing this case, even when the cards seem to be stacked against her.

Likewise, the relationship between Domingo and Atl is well done and as realistic as one can imagine a human-vampire love story to be. Domingo’s background is equally as fascinating as Atl’s, which is something worth noting: he might be a “street kid,” but his story is given as much due time and explanation as the vampires in the city. There is respect for his situation and he’s not rendered as some dumb kid. He is, in fact, quite savvy and his loyalty to Atl and her troubles is sweet without being saccharine or hard to swallow.

Certain Dark Things has a plot that is this straightforward, but it’s in the aforementioned world building and in the development of solid voices and gorgeous prose that Moreno-Garcia’s story is more than “straightforward.” The language is poetic, and the descriptions, including the brutal ones, are visual and arresting. This book is indeed gritty and dark, so it’s the kind of vampire read you’d hand to those teen readers you know are digging into books by Anne Rice (which isn’t a knock on her books, but rather, a means of explaining exactly the kind of reader who will absolutely devour this title).

It’s wonderful when an author whose initial work you read leads you to wanting more of their stories, and it’s made better when they ask for your trust as a reader in a book that’s wildly different from the one you initially loved. Certain Dark Things made me fall in love with a vampire story, even though those aren’t the sorts of books I tend to go for. There is so much here to dig into and so many of the hallmarks that made me love Signal to Noise were present here, despite the books being so radically different. I’m certainly going to pick up more of Moreno-Garcia’s books, especially when I’m looking for something that diverges from my usual reading.

If you haven’t picked up a vampire book in a while or want to get your hands on a unique urban fantasy that’s brimming with folklore, legend, and the magic of Mexico City, this will not disappoint. That it’s a stand alone read clocking in at just a bit over 300 pages makes it more impressive. It’s tight, well-executed storytelling.

Dare to Disappoint by Ozge Samanci

November 26, 2015 |

We are taking part in the blog tour for Ozge Samanci’s Dare to Disappoint today. You can and should check out the entire schedule for the tour here and visit those sites for even more peeks into the book and process behind it (it’s neat!).

I know very, very little about Turkey. The only history I know is what I learned in my Western Civilization course freshman year of high school and a little bit from European History my senior year. Even in those cases, the bulk of what’s taught is very historical — centuries past — with little or no exploration of more contemporary events.

Ozge Samanci’s Dare to Disappoint was a really worthwhile read for me, since it was and is a reference point for this particular area of history now. This personal memoir looks at what life was like growing up in a country that itself was learning to grow up and find an identity.

Samanci is a second child in a family where her older sister excelled. This was the case in school and in other venues, and her parents were pleased with her. Ozge, on the other hand, was far less interested in her studies. Sure, she completed them — this is a key element of the story, as the Turkish education system is very different than the US system — but she didn’t excel nor quite have the passion for it in the same way her sister did.

The bulk of this story centers around Ozge coming to terms with what it is she wants to be doing with her life. Does she want to become an explorer? An actress? Go on to a good college to make her parents happy at the expense of her own happiness? Can she work to make both her dreams in theater and her parents dreams for her education happen simultaneously? These questions frame the entirety of the story in a way that any reader, no matter where they live, wrestles with. But what makes this stand out beyond that is the historical context. We learn along the way the values and systems that exist in Turkey and how they shift over the course of Ozge’s childhood and adolescence. Where once few choices existed, the growth in consumerism and imports meant that choices one had in every arena from eating to clothing to one’s future shifts and adjusts. It’s in those cultural changes that Ozge further marinates on the questions of what to make of her own life.

This should easily explain the book’s title Dare to Disappoint.

What’s most standout in this particular graphic novel, though, is the art. Samanci utilizes mixed materials to create her story. While the bulk of art is what you’d expect in terms of drawings, there are a lot of unexpected surprises that go in to creating an image:

On the bottom right-hand page, you can see how Samanci weaves polished rocks into the art. There are other examples of this throughout, including found art collages, buttons, and even some unexpected surprises (which you’ll see further down this post!). This design is really friendly and appealing, which makes it a nice contrast to some of the heavy political elements in the text itself. Which isn’t to say those parts are hard to read or unnecessary; instead, what Samanci is able to do is balance those topics with her own personal, singular, teen experience. It’s relatable, rather than above her head — except when it is!

My biggest criticism, though, is that a lot of Ozge’s own experiences post-realization of what it was she wanted to do with her life is given short shrift in the end. It wraps up almost too quickly. I found myself wanting much more than I got, in particular because I saw so much of her growing up process along the way. There were pages and chapters dedicated to her education and her experimentation, but her wake up call that she wanted to be an artist and draw comes very late in the story and the journey through that realization — rather than the journey to that realization — isn’t here. I suspect this might be so there’s room for a second memoir that goes through that journey, but I wouldn’t have minded another chapter here, just to give me more of a taste for how this happened.

Readers who love graphic memoirs will want to pick Dare to Disappoint up. It’s not necessarily a straight read alike to Persepolis, as the angle on this particular book is much more about the journey to finding one’s passion in life, but readers who want to be better global citizens or read stories about real people in other parts of the world will find those elements interesting to think about in comparison. Readers who are fascinated by the art here will want to spend time at the artist’s Tumblr, too, which showcases her unique style of mixed media. This book is perfectly fine for younger teen readers and has great crossover appeal to adults, too. The toughest elements for younger readers may be some of the political elements, but they’ll skip over them to follow Ozge’s personal story and lose nothing for it.

***

One of the unique elements of Samanci’s style is she’s not only working in illustrations, but she also creates collages out of various items throughout the book. This adds a whole new layer to the story. Here, she’s sharing a little bit about an unusual — but brilliant — item that found its way into the finished edition of the book.

Miniature Muffin Cup

There was an amazing store where I lived: Tom Thumb Hobby and Crafts. Unfortunately, they moved somewhere far. This store was full of paper, beads, miniature houses, model making materials, sewing and baking supplies, and many more. Tom Thumb was so mind opening for a comics artist like me who combines comics with collage. While wondering in the store I saw the miniature muffin cups. I thought, I can make skirts with these in my collages. As if my editor Margaret Ferguson read my mind, a couple days after I bought the muffin cups she suggested me to put a skirt on the main character in one of the frames. My miniature muffin cups took its place in Dare to Disappoint.