One last month to read hard!

What a great month of reading! As noted, I ended up getting amped for Isla to Island, so that was done before November, which left plenty of time for reading the FOUR books I chose for my remaining two challenges. Black Cake was a beautiful story, so many twists and turns, so many moments of heartbreak and joy. I couldn't put it down. I also really enjoyed Lifting as we Climb, there was so much I didn't know and so many key women of the movement who I either hadn't heard of at all or had only heard bits and pieces about, so it was amazing to learn more about them. I'm currently reading both Cantoras and Information Hunters, they're a little slower-paced than the others, but I'll get them done at some point. (Don't get me wrong, they're good, just not "I can't put this down" types of books)

And now, on to December! My last challenges!

Challenge #13: Read a non-fiction book about nature or the environment. True to form, I couldn't decide! I chose Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Earth Keeper by N. Scott Momaday. (I checked these out super early from the library, and there's a waitlist for Braiding Sweetgrass, so now it's due like...now. Literally today. And I haven't read it yet, haven't even started. I really fucked myself there.)

Challenge #18: Read a cozy book by a BIPOC author. The thing about this one is it isn't always immediately discernable whether a book will be "cozy"? Sooooo I picked three to see if any of them actually qualified - Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee, Her Good Side by Rebekah Weatherspoon, and Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma. I got the audiobooks for Fake Dates and Dating Dr. Dil from the library, so I've already listened to those, and honestly, I couldn't fuckin tell you if they qualify as cozy. I'm not sure I totally understand what does. What I CAN tell you is that I hated Dating Dr. Dil and thought Fake Dates and Mooncakes was okay but a little meandery. I got a hard copy of Her Good Side, and I feel like even if none of the three end up being a cozy book, I'm counting this one as done. Tried three times? That's an A for effort. 

Challenge #22: Read a holiday romance that isn't Christmas. I'm perpetually on a hunt for wintry media that doesn't center Christmas, so I love this challenge for me. I picked The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer and A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli. I started The Matzah Ball today, and I had the audiobook of A Holly Jolly Diwali on hold, but I just checked my wait time and discovered their ownership of their digital copies has expired.😭 The fuuuuuck?! The library system that's closer to my house doesn't have a physical copy, so I've got a hold in and paused at my other library system until December 6th (!!!!) when AT LAST they open their newest branch (!!!!!) which I've been waiting for for LITERAL YEARS (!!!!!!!) because it's in the neighborhood across the street from mine! 😍😍😍 I'm very excited, in case that wasn't clear.

Anyway, that brings us to the end of the year and the conclusion of another Read Harder challenge! We'll meet back here in December to peruse the 2026 challenge list and keep the ball rolling.

Tales from Beyond the Rainbow - Pete Jordi Wood

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: n/a
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"These are the fairy tales that history forgot - or concealed. Tales in which gender is fluid and where queer stories can have a happy ending. From the humble sailor who finds his handsome prince to the transgender market girl who becomes queen, from Europe to Asia via the African savannah, LGBTQ+ folklore researcher Pete Jordi Wood has combed through generations of history and collected and adapted ten unforgettable stories featuring queer characters."

📚📚📚 

*deep breath*

The thing about this book is, I didn't read closely enough and just kind of assumed that Pete Jordi Wood was heading up the collection of an anthology of updated fairy tales by various authors. Why would I assume that? Because Pete Jordi Wood is white, and many of the stories included in this book come from other cultures, and the subtitle of this book is "Ten LGBTQ+ Folk Stories Proudly Reclaimed" and it seems wild and bold to me to declare a collection of stories from other cultures "proudly reclaimed" because you, a white person, is rewriting them.

Like...was there no way to solicit authors from those cultures to put a new spin on an old folk tale?

It was impossible?

So yeah, that's a little sus to me. Related, not a lot of differences between some of the stories. I know they're based on folklore, so maybe those folktales were virtually identical and that's why the reclaimed, amazing, much better spin was also identical, but this seems like a problem that inviting collaboration from authors of that culture likely would have solved. Just saying. It really didn't help that in addition to being incredibly similar, the writing was also kind of flat. 

And then even beyond all that, what topics did this proudly reclaimed, more queer-inclusive book of "updated" fairy tales feature? Transphobia as the driving plot point, in many of the stories. Bury your gays as the driving trope in at least two of the stories. I suppose it's possible that this is just me, but personally when I'm reading a book called Tales From Beyond the Rainbow that boasts updated stories featuring queer characters, I expect more centering of queer joy and less of exactly the same thing that queer people experience in real life, but make it fantasy! 

Anyhow...I was very excited about this book, checked it out from the public library to read so I could decide if I wanted to buy it for my school library. And I'm glad I did, because no, I will not be adding it to my library. Womp womp.

The First to Die at the End - Adam Silvera

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"It's the night before Death-Cast goes live, and there's one question on everyone's mind: Can Death-Cast actually predict when someone will die, or is it just an elaborate hoax?

Orion Pagan has waited years for someone to tell him that he's going to die. He has a serious heart condition, and he signed up for Death-Cast so he could know what's coming.

Valentino Prince is restarting his life in New York. He has a long and promising future ahead and he only registered for Death-Cast after his twin sister nearly died in a car accident.

Orion and Valentino cross paths in Times Square and immediately feel a deep connection. But when the first round of End Day calls goes out, their lives are changed forever - one of them receives a call, and the other doesn't. Though neither boy is certain how the day will end, they know they want to spend it together...even if that means their goodbye will be heartbreaking."

📚📚📚 

Y'all. This review bums me out to write. I LOVED They Both Die at the End, loved it so much. When this book was announced, I was shocked - did not expect this to be a series - but thrilled. I bought it, and then as happens so often it sat on my TBR shelf because there are too many books that I want to read. It sat there until my husband picked it last month as our bedtime book.

We made it a bit over a hundred pages before he decided he didn't want to keep going with it and picked something else. Frankly, it should have been a DNF for both of us, but because of how much I enjoyed the first book, I pushed through solo, clinging to hope that by the end I would come around. I did not.

Truly, not sure this book should exist. The story it tells is meh, a flashback to when Death-Cast first debuted that is not compelling, surprising, or...really anything. And now I'm looking it up and learning that there's a third book coming out, with a fourth planned for next year, and I'm just a little like...why? 

In fairness, perhaps this second book would have been better if it were shorter - it was 576 pages and to say it was repetitive would be an understatement. But also in fairness, this third book is 720 pages. Let me say that again, SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY PAGES. Madness, especially given that the first two books span a period of roughly 24 hours, so I assume this third will follow a similar formula. To quote Lorelai Gilmore, "edit, people." 

I don't know, man. I want to be less jaded, but all I can think is that it's an easy dip into a world that people really loved, so it's being returned to because readers will buy it even if it ends up not being good, purely because they enjoyed that world.

The Duomo is perfection in every form

Ooh, remember back in September when I posted my puzzle review and included my discovery that Ravensburger had a Duomo puzzle? Well, I went on a JOURNEY, y'all, and I discovered that not only do they currently manufactor a 500-piece version, they used to sell a 1000-piece version! Now, the title of that blog post was something about how good 500-piece puzzles are, so obviously I'm a fan. However, if I'm not working within a limited time frame (i.e. on vacation), I prefer a slightly more challenging option, so of course I had to go to Ebay to see if anyone was selling the 1000-piece puzzle.

And they were!

This puzzle, like the Duomo itself, is simply glorious. It was so much fun putting it together, working my way through different sections and then figuring out how they pieced together. 10/10 puzzle.

November Mystery Read

Only two mystery reads left for the year! Last month's was relatively mid - interesting premise but interminably slow pace. Nothing like reading close to 400 pages of basically nothing happening and then getting a "to be continued" for the real action. Especially when the second book in the series doesn't seem to have actually gotten published, so I couldn't even read it if I wanted to. Rude.

But hey, the November book seems promising so far. 

For starters, striking cover with gold sprayed edges. A good sprayed edge is my damn kryptonite. I'm a few chapters in, and it appears this is a multi-perspective book with at least three characters, all of whom are very intriguing. So far it's promising, so hopefully the cover and edges don't end up being the best part!

October Read Harder

My October books were Study Break and Monday's Not Coming, and thanks to fall break I finished both of them pretty quickly. Study Break was very nostalgic and sweet. Monday's Not Coming...possibly one of the most difficult books I've ever read. HEARTBREAKING. And it raises the question, who should be responsible for making sure people, especially kids, don't fall through the cracks? (If you're asking me, everyone - gotta have redundancies to make sure people DON'T fall through the cracks.)

📚📚📚

If you're a numbers person, you may have noticed that I do not share that affinity. You may possibly have also noticed that I incorrectly calculated how many books I needed to be reading over the past several months, which put me at two months left in the year with six prompts left to finish. Whoops, should have been picking more than two books before now. So, hey, I picked three challenges for November, AND I finished one of those already. Go me! 

Challenge #23: Read a wordless comic - I was not excited about this one, but there was a wordless graphic novel on the list of books I've been considering for my school library, so I decided to go with that one. I ordered Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos, read it right away, and LOVED it. Should have been more excited for this challenge, I guess! It was so beautiful, such a touching way to tell a bittersweet story. I'll be adding this book to my school library.

Challenge #8: Read literary fiction by a BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or Disabled author - I had several options and it was very difficult to narrow down to one, so I went with Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson and Cantoras by Caro De Robertis. Ideally I'll finish both, we'll see!

Challenge #17: Read a book about little known history - Look, little known history? Or history I know little about? There were three books I was interested in reading more about, but the library didn't have one of them, so that was helpful in narrowing it down and preventing me from picking SIX books to read this month on top of my book club book, mystery book, and whatever other books I've got going on. Thank you, library! Anyway, I'll be reading Lifting As We Climb by Evette Dionne and Information Hunters by Kathy Peiss. (Like I said, not necessarily little-known history, but definitely history I know little about.)

Middlegrade Microreviews

I've been reading a ton of middlegrade books for this award committee I'm on, and I thought hey, why not share my thoughts on all these books I'm knocking out? So here we go, several brief reviews of the books I've been reading the last couple of months.

1. Monster Tree by Sarah Allen - Started off strong, but ultimately ended up feeling somewhat half-baked. The explanation for the spooky things that were happening and the reason they were targeting the main character didn't track for me, the ending was rushed and unsatisfying, and overall I just didn't find it terribly spooky.

2. All the Ways to Go by Jessie Janowitz - I really couldn't decide how I felt about this one. On the one hand, it didn't really feel like there was anything driving the story forward, so I was like what is this actually about? On the other, I enjoyed it the entire time. So...I guess that means it was good.

3/4. Link and Hud: Heroes by a Hair and Link and Hud: Sharks and Minnows by Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey - I accidentally read these out of order, and that mistake has me conflicted. The thing is, I read the first one (the "first one" being book 2) and was like wow, these boys have some pretty problematic behaviors, and at the end of the day those behaviors end up basically being celebrated, which is wild to me. Yikes. But then I read the second one (the "second one" being book 1), and while it starts with them having some similarly problematic behaviors, in the end it seems like there is more of a "we're learning that there's a time and a place for actions like this and that we should also sometimes think about how what we do impacts other people" message. So now I'm just kind of baffled. Like...not only NO character growth in the second book, NEGATIVE character growth. I guess book one, thumbs up, book two, thumb sideways.

5. A Split Second by Janae Marks - Realistic fantasy, all about the struggle of navigating friendships and conflict. I thought it was very sweet!

6. Not an Easy Win by Chrystal D. Giles - I'm disappointed I didn't like this one as much as I wanted to. I thought the first bit was excellent, but then it just dragged a little too long. If it were shorter, it would have been five stars. I still enjoyed it, but I have my doubts about if the age group it's intended for would stick with it when it slows down.

7. Heroes of the Water Monster by Brian Young - I think this is technically a "companion" novel to another book, Healer of the Water Monster, and I was hoping that not having the context of the other book wouldn't impact my experience with the story, but it did. I think Young did his best to make it work as a standalone, but there were references to the other book and I just felt the lack of context. Outside of that, I thought it was a slow pace but a good story. Very nuanced.

8. My Name is Hamburger by Jacqueline Jules - A historical fiction about a Jewish girl whose father immigrated to the US from Germany to escape the Holocaust. I thought this story was beautiful, I couldn't put it down.

9. The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson - There are two parts to this story. The first, a boy who just moved to the Pacific Northwest with his mom forms a detective agency with two other students at his school to track a sasquatch. This bit, quite fun and enjoyable. The second, the boy's father, who is not on his birth certificate and has never been in his life, apparently decides that twelve years in he wants and is owed a relationship with his son, finds out where they moved, and follows them across the country, ultimately ending up essentially stalking his son until he gets caught. This was treated as an okay thing to do, and that is just BAFFLING to me. As much as I enjoyed the sasquatch stuff, the weird dad stuff tanked this book for me.

10. Glowrushes by Roberto Piumini - This is a beautiful story, but I'm not sure I would consider it a true kid's book? It's an Italian classic, and while it is short and very good, it seemed to me to be something with more adult appeal. I'm also a little baffled at it being included on our award list, because while the edition I read was published more recently, the story itself is from 1987. Soooooo....weird choice. Like I said, though, it's a beautiful story, read it if you can. Hell, read it to a kid and tell me if they like it.

11. The Curse of the Ten Broken Toes by Matthew Eicheldinger - Dude, the main character in this book can be such a little shit, but I loved this. "The Curse" aside, it felt very realistic, and I appreciated that while he had his asshole 12-year-old moments, there were also some genuinely thoughtful and kind moments. This was a fun read, and one that I think my students will enjoy.

12. The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers - Look, I'm not technically done with this one yet, but I love it. I had no idea what to expect, and it has surprised me in the best way.

And...that's it! The Eyes and the Impossible is the last book for me to finish, and then I've read them all. The end of an era...until next year's award cycle!