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.

Weekend library loot

When I left my job in January, I posted to Facebook about how I had roughly 450 books on my To Be Read list on Goodreads and was going to try to read as many of them as I could before I went back to work. Last week, I posted an update...that I was up to 606 books on my TBR list.

I...may have a problem?

On a related note, every time I request a new book from the library (support your local library, y'all!), I tell myself that I need to return at least one book for every book I put on hold. And then I come home with this:

Pictured:

Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia

Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake

Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech That Transformed a Nation by Clarence B Jones

My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King

Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical by Sherie M Randolph

The Colored Waiting Room: Empowering the Original and the New Civil Rights Movements by Kevin Shird

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

More Than Enough: Claiming Space For Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by Elaine Welteroth

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas

Spoiler alert: I did not return ten books when I picked these up...and I've got eighteen more books on hold already. 😬 On the plus side, I am already about a quarter of the way through Tristan Strong Destroys the World (SUCH A GREAT SERIES!) and over 200 pages into Five Dark Fates. So only eight books left to go! Plus a few other books that aren't pictured because they were scattered around the house in my various reading places. Good thing my library has a limit of 35 books!

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art - James Nestor

Initial draw: ✰✰✰

Writing style: ✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly.

There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again."

Oof, I have issues with this book. The tl;dr version is that it is heavy on the anecdotal evidence and pseudoscience and incredibly light on any actual evidence. Even the description is misleading...for example, by "Journalist James Nestor travels the world" what they actually mean is that he goes to Stockholm to talk to a fellow self-proclaimed expert on "proper" breathing and later travels to Paris to visit some catacombs and talk to an orthodontist. He does finally at the end of the book talk about a visit to Brazil to talk to a Pranayama expert, but he never visits India, China, Japan, etc to speak with any Buddhists or other practitioners of the ancient breath practices he spends the entire book talking about. No thanks, bud.

Also, bypassing the more passive fatphobia included in his writing, the first thing he brings up when he gets to the topic of proper breathing helping with weight loss is BMI, which...is bullshit? So yeah, going to need more than some anecdotes about the miraculous power of breath and reliance on a "healthy weight" measurement that has been pretty thoroughly proved useless to get me on board there. Add to that that there's no reason a person has to be thin to be healthy and...yeah...

Next up, while I do believe our breath is a powerful tool and that there are techniques we can use to benefit our physical and mental health, all of the miraculous claims of breath seemingly curing incurable chronic illnesses rubbed me the wrong way. He starts off the book saying that there hasn't been much research into how breath can impact our health, but then every anecdotal story he shares is presented as though it is proven medical fact and as though people experiencing these chronic issues are fools for not just breathing better. At the very end of the book, there's like a sentence disclaimer, saying that breathing isn't a cure-all for chronic illnesses, but after an entire book extolling the virtues of "proper" breathing over medication, that seems like way too little too late. The ableism throughout this book didn't sit well with me.

And finally, while this isn't any fault of the author (aside from his decision to include them, I guess), there were a number of studies shared that included some seriously fucked up animal experimentation. As if I needed one more reason to dislike this...hard pass on that shit. I was pretty excited to read this, but it was a letdown for me.

TBR - Pi Day

I know I'm a couple days late, but I couldn't let Pi Day pass without some kind of fanfare. To celebrate, today's Tuesday Book Recs are all in some way math-related (and excellent reads). 

(Descriptions adapted from Goodreads)

1. Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

This historical fiction honors the invaluable role the Navajo Code Talkers played in World War II and  highlights the danger these brave individuals put themselves in and the sacrifices they made even after the brutal and cruel treatment their people had received at the hands of US colonizers.

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone thrives on patterns and rules, so the murder of his neighbor's dog, Wellington, disrupts his world in such a way that he can't help but investigate the murder, following in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes, his favorite detective.

3. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

In this trilogy, Lyra discovers that the world (or worlds, as the case may be) is much larger than she had previously imagined and finds herself a central player in a fierce battle between multiple sides. (Fun fact: my dog is named after this Lyra!)

4. The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Of course the day Kady decides to break up with her boyfriend is the day their remote planet, Kerenza, is attacked by BeiTech Industries. Now she, Ezra, and the rest of the survivors are on the run in a trio of ships, desperate to reach the Heimdall Waypoint and the help of the United Terran Authority before BeiTech's remaining ship, the Lincoln, catches up with them and kills them all. But with resources in short supply, a damaged AI system, and a mysterious illness making its way through the crew of the Copernicus, the Lincoln may be the least of the refugees' worries...

5. Little Gods by Meng Jin

This book pieces together the mysterious life of Liya's mother, Su Lan, through Liya's memories and experiences, the reflections of the father Liya never met, and the reminiscence of Su Lan's former neighbor, Zhu Wen. I wish I could say more about it, because I feel like that might not sound the most enticing, but it's so strange and fascinating. Trust - it's a great read.

6. The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

Since being struck by lightning as a child, Lucy Callahan has had synesthesia, seeing numbers as colors, and has a genius-level affinity for math. She has been homeschooled since it happened and is perfectly content with her life, but her grandma keeps pushing for her to try just one year at the local middle school. Lucy isn't sure what middle school is going to be able to teach her that homeschooling and her online math friends have not, but she agrees to give it a try...maybe she'll learn more than she bargained for. 

And, as a bonus, a couple of pie books!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows

From Goodreads: "January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb..." This book has been on my list for quite some time, and I was almost tempted to watch the Netflix movie a couple days ago, but I feel like I have to read the book first so the movie can properly ruin it. 😉 If any of you decide to read it, let me know and we can read it together!

Llama Destroys the World by Jonathan Stutzman

Ok, yes, this is a picture book. Don't scoff! It is amazing and hilarious and one of my favorites. On Monday, Llama comes across a pile of cake. Now, Llama loves cake, so of course, he eats it all. Little does he know that by Friday this innocent action will result in the destruction of the world...but what will happen when he comes across a mountain of pie? (Spoiler alert: NOT the alpacalypse...that comes later.)

B&B - Three Dark Crowns with a side of biscotti

My book club has been reading the Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake since December. In this series, the island of Fennbirn is ruled by one queen, chosen from a set of triplets born to the previous queen. Typically, each triplet is born with special abilities - one is a poisoner, able to consume poisons without ill effects and wield them against others with expertise; another is a naturalist, gifted with a familiar and able to grow plants and influence animals; and the third is an elemental, able to control wind, water, fire, etc. Their sixteenth birthday begins what is known as the Ascension, a year in which each sister fights for the throne...to the death. Last triplet standing gets the crown.

If you're thinking, "wow, this sounds dark and intense!" Well...you're not wrong. It's also gripping and keeps you on the edge of your seat. And while Pietyr, the unofficial consort to poisoner Queen Katharine, is partial to hemlock biscuits, I can't snack on poison while I read, so for this first Books & Bites post, I decided to go for some chocolate almond biscotti instead.

I modified the chocolate biscotti recipe from Kristine's Kitchen, omitting the chocolate chips and nuts and subbing two teaspoons of almond extract for the one teaspoon of vanilla. They're no hemlock biscuit, but for a non-poisoner like me, I find a couple pieces of these biscotti and a mug of hot chocolate to be the perfect accompaniment to the final book of this series. 

Front Desk - Kelly Yang

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰

Character development: ✰✰✰✰✰

Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.

Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. 

Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.

Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?

It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?"

This book has been on my TBR list for a long while, and even knowing roughly what it was about and hearing glowing things about it for so long, I was unprepared for the heaviness in the book. 

For those who dismiss middle grade books and assume they don't tackle heavy issues, don't be fooled. The cover may look cheerful and light, but this book is not fluff. It gets real right away, with Mia and her parents living out of their car until her dad finally lands a job at a Chinese restaurant. Mia's mom works there too, and Mia is pressed into becoming a waitress as well, until she accidentally drops a full tray of food on some customers and she and her mom both get fired. Her parents decide to take a job as the managers of a motel near Disneyland. On paper, the opportunity sounds like a dream - room and board plus their pay for managing the motel? What more could they ask for? As it turns out...a lot. A lot more. 

The motel owner, Mr. Yao is stingy, dishonest, and pretty transparently taking advantage of poor, desperate immigrants with few other job opportunities. In spite of his almost constant docking of their pay, nearly impossible expectations, and open cruelty, though, Mia and her family are still in a better position than many other Chinese immigrants. After hearing the stories of a few immigrants who visit the motel, they decide to do what they can do help immigrants fleeing horrible situations on their way to better opportunities. It's a risk, given how callous Mr. Yao is, but they can't let these people struggle when they could at least offer them a shower, a good night's sleep, and a hot meal with friendly faces.

Of course, in addition to helping to run the motel, sheltering immigrants and keeping it a secret from Mr. Yao, and worrying about money with her parents, Mia is also going to school...and Mr. Yao's son is in her class. This means on top of everything else, she gets to deal with bullies at school. In spite of it all, though, Mia is always looking for ways to make the world a brighter place, and she works hard to use her words and her writing to do just that. She and her family experience setbacks along the way, and there are some truly terrible moments along the way, but she doesn't let any of those bad experiences break her spirit. Her indominable will and courage become even more impressive when you read the author's note and realize that many of the stories included in this work of fiction actually happened and that Mia's story is true for countless immigrants. 

This book has been on my list for a long time, and even hearing from multiple sources how good it was, somehow it still managed to surpass my expectations. It's an excellent middle grade novel, and I can't recommend it enough!

TBR - Polyamorous Reads

Joel and I were talking a little while back about my least favorite plot devices, and at first I couldn't think of anything that I really disliked. Then it came to me...love triangles. I mean, I get it that sometimes you like two people and you're like I don't know, which do I like more? But it gets tricky because every time I read a love triangle, it goes one of two ways. 

Way the first: One of the people is trash, and the other is obviously the one the author wants the main character to end up with. In these situations, why even have a love triangle? It's 2021, y'all, we don't need to waste our valuable time, energy, and emotions on garbage humans. 

Way the second: Both of the people are amazing, the main character clearly has strong feelings for both, and it feels like an impossible decision to choose between the two. Examples: Tessa, Will, and Jem in The Infernal Devices; Lara Jean's feelings for both Peter and John Ambrose in To All the Boys I've Loved Before. In these situations (particularly the first, because SPOILER ALERT, all three were pretty obviously in love with each other), it seems clear that the answer is not forcing a character to choose between love interests at all but actually going with secret option number three: polyamory.

Talking about all this with Joel, I realized that while I read a lot of queer fiction, I have never read a book with (openly) polyamorous characters in it! This is a travesty and something that I need to remedy immediately, so for my inaugural Tuesday Book Recs post, I invite you to join me in checking out some of these polyamorous reads. 

(Descriptions adapted from Goodreads)

1. An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

Saffron Coulter is an accidental worldwalker who finds herself trapped in Kena, a magic realm on the brink of civil war, after unwittingly traveling through a hole in reality. Once there, her life becomes entwined with those of three local women, and she finds herself tied to the women and to the fate of Kena in ways she never could have imagined.

2. Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

When Alana Quick, struggling sky surgeon, stows away aboard the Tangled Axon, she quickly discovers that the cargo vessel is more than meets the eye. With her sister, Nova, being pursued by someone who will stop at nothing to capture her, Alana must find a way to make it work with the...unconventional...crew, establish her place on the ship, and protect her sister at all costs.

3. The Compass Rose by Gail Dayton

Captain Kallista Varyl, like the rest of her people, believes the Godstruck are mere legends. Until, that is, she calls upon the One for aid and is imbued with abilities that haven't been seen in centuries. Now she must master her new Godstruck power, learn how to unlock the secrets of the Compass Rose, and protect her nation from powerful enemies - alone.

4. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

On the day the world ended, Essun returned home to find her son brutally murdered at the hands of her husband and her daughter kidnapped. What's more, the Sanze, a world-spanning empire, has collapsed, and a great rift has torn across the heart of the continent, spewing ash that darkens the sky. Now Essun will stop at nothing, even as the world crumbles around her, to rescue her daughter.

5. Inda by Sherwood Smith

Indevan is the second son born to a powerful prince who grows up believing his role will be to remain at home and defend his family's castle. Then war threatens and Inda is sent to the Royal Academy, where he learns not only about the arts of war but discovers that danger doesn't always come from the outside.

6. Love You Two by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli

While Pina's friends envy her life with her free-spirited parents, sometimes Pina has to wonder who is raising whom, her or her mother? When she discovers some devastating information about her family, everything she thought she knew about life and love falls apart. Will her family survive her discovery?

7. Luster by Raven Leilani

Edie is an artist trying to find her place in the art world. When she finds herself unemployed and living with Eric, a digital archivist, and his family, she must learn how to navigate not only the complexity of relationships but also a tentative friendship with his wife and becoming a role model for his daughter.

Bonus books:

Adaptation by Malinda Lo

Reese and her crush/debate partner are driving home from Arizona to San Francisco when they are in an accident. They wake up in a military hospital almost a month later, and the doctors won't tell them what happened or where they are. After returning home, only one thing is clear to Reese: she's different. Note: This is a duology, and the polyamory is introduced in the second book.

Kynship by Daniel Heath Justice (3rd book)

The Everland is a world of ancient mystery and shadow inhabited by the Kyn and other Folk. After a thousand years since the last clash between the world of Men and the world of the Folk, the Everland is under siege once more. As the leaders of the Folk strategize how to protect their land against attack, Kyn warrior Tarsa'deshae, exiled after an act of courage goes awry, grapples with her new calling as a Wielder and finds herself swept up in the world of political and spiritual intrigue and the debate between continuing to embrace the old ways or surrendering to the new ways of Men. Can Tarsa'deshae help the council heal her ravaged, wounded world? Note: This is a trilogy, and the polyamory is introduced in the third book.