TBR - Puppies and Caffeine!

Guess what! Today is National Puppy Day, and March is Caffeine Awareness Month. I was pondering what topic to do for today's Tuesday Book Recs, and I thought puppies and caffeine? 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮 These are a few of my faaaavorite things! 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮 Why not combine them? So, for your reading pleasure, I give you...books featuring adorable pups and/or delicious caffeine.

1. American Panda by Gloria Chao

Ok, so Mei actually drinks hot chocolate, which teeechnically isn't caffeinated, but still. I love the cover art for this book, and the book itself is even better. (I reviewed it way back when...I almost said a little over a year ago, because it was January 2019, but then I realized...2019 was two years ago. Gulp. Time is a construct.) Mei is seventeen, in her first year at MIT, and on track to become a doctor, but ultimately she has to decide if she wants to follow her parents' plan for her life or choose her own identity. This book is beautiful and was even more wonderful than I expected it to be.

2. City of Bones, et al. by Cassandra Clare

Yes, this is a series about demon hunters, werewolves, vampires, and such, but it also features a shocking number of references to coffee, and I lowkey love how specific Cassandra Clare gets with the characters' coffee preferences. (Black with lots of sugar? Seems weird to me, but to each their own.) Also, Luke makes a joke to Clary about being a werewolf, not a golden retriever, and you know...hell hounds and stuff. So you could even consider this a two-fer.

3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Yeah, I've included this in multiple book lists at this point, so it's pretty well-documented that I love this book about Cath's experience her freshman year of college, trying to acclimate to college life, make friends, and balance real-world expectations with her fan fiction obligations. Levi, love interest and perfect man, works at Starbucks and keeps Cath in the coffee throughout her first year at school - and I want to try his pumpkin mocha breve concoction.

4. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Another well-documented favorite! Simon has been exchanging anonymous emails with a fellow student, and he's pretty sure he's falling in love with him...which is a little tricky, since he doesn't actually know who Blue is IRL. To make things even more complicated, another student read Simon's emails with Blue, because their school library clearly does not take student privacy seriously enough, and is now blackmailing him. Ew. Dick move. Fortunately, Simon has an adorable doggo, Bieber, to keep him company and brighten his days during what is otherwise a challenging, frustrating time.

5. This Book Just Ate My Dog by Richard Byrne

That's right, it's a picture book! Look, I may not be working right now, but I'm a children's librarian to my core, I can't turn it off. As the title suggests, the story starts off with the book eating our main character's dog...and things only escalate from there. This book is adorable, funny, and super interactive, so it's a lot of fun to read with littles (or to yourself, picture books aren't just enjoyable for little kids!) Give it a try, what have you got to lose?

6. The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas

It's spring break ten years after Veronica Mars has graduated from high school, and she's back in Neptune, working at Mars Investigations and trying to solve the mystery of a young woman's disappearance from a party. While I'm sure Veronica drinks coffee on at least one of her many stake-outs, any Marshmallow out there will know that this book is obviously included on the list because of the inimitable Backup.

7. Throne of Glass, et al. by Sarah J Maas

I'm going for a record with titles that start with "Th" here. This series is difficult to summarize because...it's a lot. But to get you started, notorious assassin Celaena Sardothien has just been released from enslavement in the salt mines of Endovier by the Crown Prince in exchange for serving as his champion in a competition to appoint a new royal assassin. Along her journey, Adarlan's Assassin will acquire a very adorable puppy, Fleetfoot, who I worried about constantly throughout Celaena's adventures. (Spoiler alert: She's totally fine.)

8. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Dimple has just graduated and is ready for a break from her somewhat overbearing mother, which is coming in the form of a summer program for aspiring web developers. Rishi, romantic to the core, has been accepted to the same program, and when his parents break the news that Dimple, his future wife, will be in attendance, he is ready to turn on the charm. But with Dimple dead set against their arranged marriage, wooing her may not be as straightforward as he expects it to be. Fun fact: I originally chose to read this book solely based off the cover. Also, the iced coffee Dimple is enjoying on said cover may or may not feature heavily in her first meeting with Rishi.

9. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

YEAH, I'M GOING THERE. Is this book the first that ever made me sob over fictional characters? Yes, it is. Did I cry in front of my entire fourth grade class when we read it together? Of course I did, have you met me? Do I to this day not understand how the entire class wasn't in tears? Yes, duh. Was I in a classroom full of 9-year-old sociopaths?! I don't understand. I'll be honest, I haven't read this book in...a number of years...so I'm not 100% sure it stands the test of time, especially having been written in 1961. 😬 But I couldn't put together a booklist about dogs and not include Little Ann and Old Dan.

10. You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman

Ariel Stone is under a lot of pressure to be the perfect student so he'll get accepted into Harvard, and when he fails a Calc quiz, he starts to see his precarious Ivy League dream slipping away. I was by no means considering going Ivy League for college (ASU, baby, this nerd went full party school and never once attended a party), but this book brought me back to the stress of trying to be at the top of your high school academic world. Honestly, people who say that high school was the best years of their life...what? Anyway, while it did end up being a stressor by virtue of being yet another commitment on Ariel's never-ending to do list, one of his few reprieves from academic pressure was his time volunteering at a rescue, where he and his little sister got to spend time with their favorite puppy. Dogs make life better, even when you're shitting your pants about getting into a good school and figuring out what to do with your life.