Reading Harder in July

The main thing I wanted to do during summer break was climb, climb, climb as many days a week as I could. I started off really strong, and then immediately got hurt...and then got hurt again...and then got hurt again...and then got hurt again...sooooo yeah, didn't get to climb anywhere NEAR as much as I wanted to, but I guess silver lining, all that not being able to climb meant lots of being able to read time. I finished Apple: Skin to the Core, which was great, as well as The Bennett Women (review to come) and Can You Believe It, which is an excellent resource for teaching kids about how to spot fake information and will be added to my library next week when I go back to work.

Well, five months to go, eight books left to read. For August, I was planning to read 50 Drag Queens Who Changed the World by Dan Jones (#18: Read a book about drag or queer artistry), but the only place I could find it to buy was Amazon, so I started looking at other options, and what the fuck, y'all, I've checked FOUR books, and the only one that I could find at my local book store costs FIFTY DOLLARS. Bogus. Do better, publishing industry. Should have been easier to choose a book, especially now that I have multiple options to try and choose from, but of the four I was looking at there's the $50 option, my first choice that is only on Amazon, one that I couldn't find available anywhere, and finally one that the only place I could find it was Half-Priced Books. Sigh. 

tl:dr After much deliberation and skimming of reviews, I've decided to choose The Art of Drag by Jake Hall for this challenge.

I also chose Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert for challenge #19: Read a romance with neurodivergent characters. Last time I chose a book for a similar prompt it was The Kiss Quotient, which was not a great experience. Sidenote, I was shocked when I went back to grab the link for that review and saw that overall I gave it three stars. Past Dewey, what were you thinking? That book was two stars, for sure. Should I do a thing where I go back and re-review previously reviewed books to see if my opinion has changed?

Anyway, I've read a Talia Hibbert book before and found it pleasant (hey, I also reviewed this one! Get a Life, Chloe Brown), if a little unexpectedly spicy, so I went into this one with a good feeling, especially being prepared to expect some spice. Which ended up being an unnecessary preparation, because this book had none.🤣 (Also, yeah, already finished it...I checked it out from my library's digital collection and couldn't put it down).

So...yeah, Art of Drag, let's do this!

Summer Reading recap

Well...it finally happened. My summer break is coming to a close. And what better way to end the summer than with a recap of all the books I read and maybe some brief thoughts about the ones I didn't review on here? Sounds good to me!

Books I read this summer:

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - Well-documented that I love this book. Finished it the first day of break, so I'm counting it.

2. A Fate Worse Than Death by Nisha Patel - So intense, so stark, so real.

3. Abyss by Pilar Quintana - Could not put it down.

4. Debating Darcy by Sayantani DasGupta - Did I review this? If not, I should have. I honestly can't remember. I could check, but I'm tired. Anyway, it was excellent, and I loved the way she kept true to P&P while telling her own story. (I checked, and I DIDN'T review it?! What was I thinking?) 

5. Dragonboy by Megan Reyes - Did review this. Meh.

6. The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle - Love this book, every time I read it I love it more. Listen to the audiobook! It's so good.

7. Bite Me, Royce Taslim by Lauren Ho - Needed something more. The idea was solid, but the main character was deeply unlikeable.

8. The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family by Sarah Kapit - So sweet, I loved the whole family and thought the story took something innocent and childlike, wanting to be a detective like the character in your favorite book, and spun it in a way that was surprising and deep.

9. Omega Morales and the Curse of El Cucuy by Laekan Zea Kemp - love these books, love these characters. I really enjoy how the whole family is incorporated.

10. Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin - Loved the premise, execution was a tad dull but it was still enjoyable.

11. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe - EXCELLENT.

12. Hey, U Up? (For a Serious Relationship): How to Turn Your Booty Call into Your Emergency Contact by Emily Axford and Brian Murphy - I adore these two, and this was so funny. 

13. A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair - WOW, what a twist! Also, totally thought this was a trilogy, learned at the cliffhanger at the end of this one THAT IT ISN'T?! GAHHHH. Now I have to wait for the next one.

14. The Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar - Reviewed, great idea with meh execution.

15. Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth - So emotional.

16. Disability Visibility (adapted for young readers) by Alice Wong - I read the full version of this and thought it was excellent. This version is also excellent!

17. The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas - Reviewed, loved it loved it loved it.

18. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson - ROCKED ME. Review to come.

19. The Bennett Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi - Pretty solid, nice twist on Pride and Prejudice.

20. Escape from Atlantis by Kate O'Hearn - Not at all what I expected, pretty good though. My one big gripe, the same gripe I have with almost every middle grade or children's book that I read, is...you guessed it...THIS BOOK IS TOO LONG! I read it pretty quickly, and I can think of a handful of students who would power through it, but 450 pages for a kid's book is too many pages.

21. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert - Very sweet and adorable.

The Manifestor Prophecy - Angie Thomas

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

From the cover:

"It's not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool - like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much - like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.

All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she's never heard of...to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed."

📚📚📚 

Ooooh baby, first middle grade from Angie Thomas! I bought this shortly after it came out, and I'm FINALLY getting around to reading it, after way too long of a delay. SO GOOD. I loved the way the action kicked off, and while it seemed like a gargantuan task that Nic, J.D., and Alex were taking on, I thought information was revealed bit by bit in the perfect places. There was so much tension and sense of urgency, but also enough hope that it never got overwhelming or felt impossible. Also, really enjoyed the way small details from early on came back later, and I all around love, love, LOVE J.D. Such a sweet kid and amazing friend. This book flew by for me, and I loved every minute of it.

Second book when?!

😱😱😱😱

October 1st!

The Dream Runners - Shveta Thakrar

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

From the cover:

"Seven years ago, Tanvi was spirited away to the subterranean realm of Nagalok, where she joined the ranks of the dream runners: human children freed of all memory and emotion, charged with harvesting mortal dreams for the consumption of the naga court.

Venkat knows a different side of Nagalok. As apprentice to the influential Lord Nayan, he shapes the dream runners' wares into the kingdom's most tantalizing commodity. And Nayan has larger plans for these mortal dreams: with a dreamsmith of Venkat's talent, he believes he can use them to end a war between nagas and their ancient foe, the garudas.

But when one of Tanvi's dream harvests goes awry, she begins to remember her life on Earth. Panicked and confused, she turns to the one mortal in Nagalok who can help: Venkat. And as they search for answers, a terrifying truth begins to take shape -  one that could turn the nagas' realm of dreams into a land of waking nightmare."

📚📚📚 

This book is a study in contrasts and contradictions. For example, beautiful world building and imagery...but lacking character development. Tons of detail and focus on the mythology of the nagas and garudas...but not enough information for readers (or at least this reader) to really have a grasp on what's happening. I'm curious if someone reading who was more familiar with the naga/garuda stories would have enjoyed this book more having all that background understanding of what the story was inspired by, because the best way I can describe reading this book is that it was like being the person going to see a movie version of a book NOT having read the book. It might still be a decent story...but you're never going to distill all the minutia and little details of a several hundred page long book into a couple hours long movie.

I can't decide if it's better to talk about the things I liked or the things that I didn't first...compromise, alternate?

Thing I loved: All the rich descriptions of Nagalok. The dreamstones dream runners use to collect dreams, all the decor and nature of the realm, the luxurious food, the colorful, beautifully-made clothing...painted a gorgeous picture.

Thing I didn't love: For such a long book, very little actually happened. Like...the synopsis is basically the entire book. Tanvi freaking out because she's starting to remember things and Venkat vacillating between how he can best take care of the dream runners and wanting to be completely loyal to Nayan takes up probably eighty percent of the book, with very little progress actually being made, and there's really no clear "this is the lurking danger" or "here is what you should be concerned about as a reader. It's all very muddy.

Thing I liked: Asha. Very assertive and adventurous. She was super bold and by far the character whose actions and motivations made the most sense. I would be friends with Asha.

Things I didn't like: The other characters, even Tanvi and Venkat, felt so underdeveloped, and it made a lot of what was happening fall flat. I think part of the issue was too many characters, or maybe spending too much time on the same plot points, which meant less time for developing characters. We were introduced to several characters who seemed to be intended as an important part of the story but only showed up a couple times, and even with Tanvi and Venkat, they spent so little time together and their preexisting relationship was never established, so then all of a sudden it was like "oh, they're super into each other, and Venkat has always been enamored with Tanvi and how fiery she was before she went through Dream Runner initiation!" And I was like ....I have seen no evidence to support any of this. What?

So. Anyway. I don't know. Do I think this was a BAD book? No. But to be honest, both this and Shveta Thakrar's last book, Star Daughter, feel like they started with an incredible idea but no clear direction for how to execute that idea. Read it if you want to, but if you don't...you don't.

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.

Dragonboy - Megan Reyes

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

From the cover:

"Blue, River, Wren, and Shenli grew up on different sides of a war they didn't start. Their land has been torn apart over centuries of conflict, with humans taught to fear all things magical, dragons driven to near extinction, and magic under attack. But an ancient prophecy has put the four of them on a collision course with destiny - and with each other - in a mission to heal the fractured realm once known as Haven.

All of them must follow the threads of Fate, leaving behind the lives and homes they know to discover the truth about the seemingly endless war - and the truth about themselves. As the barriers between them begin to crumble, can they unravel the lies they've been taught to believe in order to restore the balance between humans, dragons, and magic before it's too late?"

📚📚📚

It's MGMASFMRS time! I was really hoping to keep up more of a regular rhythm with these posts, but this one took me a long time to read, and I don't think it was just the slump. This is the first book in the Heroes of Havensong series, so I expected it to be heavier on the world building than a standalone, but it went so far beyond what I had anticipated. It's 416 pages (that's too long for middle grade!), and the majority of it felt like setup for the actual story, rather than story itself. I like the premise, and I really wanted to enjoy the book, but it was too much. A lot of repetition of things introduced early, granular detail about some things and then almost no information about others, tons of exposition while light on the action...it needed more balance. 

I would say this book's greatest strength was its character development. Blue is a hugely sympathetic character, and I immediately felt a connection to him. Wren, River, and Shenli are also great, and I loved their relationships with their family members. I think if we had gotten the prophecy referencing all of them working together to save the world and then hit the action earlier in the book, this would be a much different review. Instead, we get reference after reference to the prophecy, we inch toward their paths connecting, we get a couple pages of action, and then...the book is over. I finished it, but it took me almost two months to do so. I don't see any of my students putting that much effort into getting to the end of the story, and even if they did I don't think they would be motivated enough to pick up the next book, even though it ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. 

The second book came out in January, and the completionist part of me wants to get it and find out what happens next, but the part of me that spent so long slogging through this one doesn't think it'll be worth it. If this was a duology I might be willing to give it a shot, but I looked it up and there's going to be at least three books. That's too much commitment after a lackluster first book.

Reboot Rereads Recap

I wasn't sure when to post this, because I was writing reviews for my rereads and it seemed weird to post a recap and then post some reread reviews...so anyway, mid-June recap, here we are! Emotionally, I declare Operation Reboot Rereads a success. Even if the quantity of time I read or total number of books finished didn't go up, I found myself wanting to read more, and that's a victory.  That said...

Emotionally and statistically, Reboot Rereads was a rousing success. I reread a total of seven books, which surpassed my goal, and I also finished Not "A Nation of Immigrants," which I had been working on for quite a while, and read three* other Read Harder books, plus At the End of Everything for my book club. (Very good book, by the way, so many emotions). And now it's summer break, so hopefully this new reading energy carries over into June and July - think of all the books I can enjoy! Delightful.

*I wrote this after my last day of work, a few days before the end of May. Since then, I've read two more Read Harder books, so even MORE impressive!