Read Harder: Return of the Updates

Guess who's back on track, babyyyyyy? I've been on a tear of great books: Parable of the Sower, so intense and incredible; Not "A Nation of Immigrants," holy shit, the amount of history we are not taught; Nikhil Out Loud, simply adorable; A Fate Worse Than Death, thought-provoking as hell; Abyss, couldn't put it down; Indian No More, also couldn't put it down (I should have reviewed it and didn't, but shout out for telling a great story in less than 250 pages); The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family, an excellent middlegrade story about figuring out who you are and how to be true to yourself in the face of other people's expectations and while navigating ableist assholes. Home run after home run.

I finished the above books early enough that I also started on the books I chose for July: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe for challenge thirteen, read a comic that has been banned; Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth for challenge fifteen, read a YA nonfiction book. I'm skipping challenge fourteen for now, read a book by an author with an upcoming event and then attend the event, because I couldn't find any upcoming virtual events and don't want to go to an in-person one. We'll see if I go back to it or not, but either way, challenges thirteen and fifteen are in the bag. I finished Gender Queer in a day - such an excellent read - and I'm about halfway through Apple: Skin to the Core, also very, very good. I guess I should look further ahead and pick new books for July...

Hmmm. Challenge sixteen is pick a book based solely on the title, so I went through my TBR list on The Storygraph (superior to Goodreads in basically every way, if you're still using that Goodreads bullshit) and landed on The Bennett Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi. What's the twist? I don't know! But I'll take any Pride and Prejudice content. Gotta read 'em all. And challenge seventeen is read a book about media literacy, so I picked Can You Believe It by Joyce Grant, which I hopefully will be able to add to my school library after I read it! Oh boy, taking the full summer break off may have meant not getting paid for two months, but it has been a huge boon for my reading.