Book Reflections

One of my reading goals for 2023 was to read more books from my TBR "pile" and I could've done more, but 11 out of 49 total books read is not terrible. It definitely feels like more than I've gotten through in previous years. Now on to 2024 and more reading funsies! 2023 TBR Reads A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown Added to TBR: April 2021 Removed from TBR: February 2023 Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender Added to TBR: February 2021 Removed from TBR: April 2023 Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire Added to TBR: January 2019 Removed from TBR: April 2023 In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire Added to TBR: January 2019 Removed from TBR: May 2023 Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire Added to TBR: January 2019 Removed from TBR: May 2023 Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger Added to TBR: November 2021 Removed from TBR: July 2023 A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair Added to TBR: March 2023 Removed from TBR: August 2023 Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassand...

Content Tags: Murder, Mystery, LGBTQIA+ Description from  Storygraph : The global phenomenon returns with the third book in the One of Us Is Lying series, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen M. McManus. When someone from the Bayview Four’s past resurfaces, history begins to repeat itself—and the consequences are deadly. The third time’s a charm. It’s been almost two years since Simon died in detention, and the aftermath has been hard to shake. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren’t killers. Then a new generation outwitted a vengeful copycat. Now the entire Bayview Crew is back home for the summer, and everyone is trying to move on. Only, this is Bayview, and life is never that simple. At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad joke: Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the Bayview Crew disappears, it’s clear this “game” is serious—and whoever’s in charge isn’t sharing the rules. Or maybe there aren’t any.   Bronwyn. Cooper. Addy. Nat...

Content Tags: YA, Natural Disaster Description from  Storygraph : Atlanta is blanketed with snow just before Christmas, but the warmth of young love just might melt the ice in this novel of interwoven narratives, Black joy, and cozy, sparkling romance—by the same unbeatable team of authors who wrote the New York Times bestseller Blackout! As the city grinds to a halt, twelve teens band together to help a friend pull off the most epic apology of her life. But will they be able to make it happen, in spite of the storm? No one is prepared for this whiteout. But then, we can’t always prepare for the magical moments that change everything. From the bestselling, award-winning, all-star authors who brought us Blackout—Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon—comes another novel of Black teen love, each relationship within as unique and sparkling as Southern snowflakes. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I absolutely loved  Blackout by this sam...

Content Tags: YA, Mystery, Comedy, Fatphobia, Prison Industrial Complex, Child Abuse Description from  Storygraph : This winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award features Stanley Yelnats, a kid who is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake: the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime, punishment, and redemption. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ This book is one of the few book to movie adaptations that I feel does the book full justice and representation. I sa...

Content Tags: Arthurian, LGBTQIA+, Violence Description from  Storygraph : She left all she knew to find who she could be . . . She grows up in the wild wood, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake drift to her on the spring breeze, scented with promise. And when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she decides her future lies at his court. So, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and sets out on her bony gelding for Caer Leon. With her stolen hunting spear and mended armour, she is an unlikely hero, not a chosen one, but one who forges her own bright path. Aflame with determination, she begins a journey of magic and mystery, love, lust and fights to death. On her adventures, she will steal the hearts of beautiful women, fight warriors and sorcerers, and make a place to call home. The legendary author of Hild returns with an unforgettable hero and a queer Arthurian masterpiece for the modern...

Content Tags: LGBTQIA+, Abandonment,  Crime, Mental Health Description from  Storygraph : Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down. Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Re-reading the synopsis after having read the book, it feels a little misleading. Firstl...

Content Tags: Speeches, Injustice, Racism Description from  Storygraph : Activist, teacher, author and icon of the Black Power movement Angela Davis talks Ferguson, Palestine, and prison abolition. In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine. Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle....

Content Tags: YA, Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Abandonment Description from  Storygraph : In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk ab...

Content Tags: Murder, Drugs, Stress, Violence Description from  Storygraph : Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out—he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again. So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say . . . . . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school—and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.  It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still ha...

Content Tags: Retelling, LGBTQIA+, Murder, Piracy Description from  Storygraph : Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee, a thrilling YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island. 1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Xiang has grown up with stories about the Dragon Fleet and its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Dragon Queen, all her life. Xiang desperately wants to set sail and explore--mainly to find her father, a presumed dead crew member of the Dragon Fleet. Her only memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry. But the pendant's true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. Rumor has it that the legendary Dragon Queen had one last treasur...

Content Tags: Retelling, Substance Abuse, Death, Manipulation, Violence Description from  Storygraph : She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world. . . . When Aladdin discovers Zahra's jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn't seen in hundreds of years--a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra's very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes. 

 But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity--only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart? As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of the Aladdin story from acclaimed author...

Content Tags: Essays Description from  Storygraph : A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I ear-read this book over a very  long stretch of time when doing various tasks and such. That combined with my memory being absolute trash means I don't remember all of the essays or the exact content of them. But I do recall most of the essays being really thought provoking.  The narrator of the audiobook also narrated The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, so I definitely kept picturing Starr Carter as Roxane Gay. Bahni Turpin is an excellent narrator with such a memorable, powerful voice. Book Reflection Wrap-up: How did the book challenge or change your perspective or opinion on something? One of the essays discussed content/trigger warnings and Roxane Gay doesn't agree with the necessity of using them. Her perspective was basically that you are responsi...