books read: 2024 july

[meitachi]

Started the new job! Reading will go down next month as I acclimate, I guess. Most of these were done before I started, but I'm trying to carve out evenings and weekends again -- balancing it with life errands/chores and also other social things. Making friends? Just being friendly with colleagues at this point, and also working on getting my office together. (I have an office!) It'll eventually feel more like me.

1. Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor - Shorter than I anticipated and honestly...nothing particularly new, as someone who follows politics and is civically engaged. Yet it could still have been a good read even if not groundbreaking, but it was snarkier than I felt necessary (the jokes were not that funny) and honestly the quotes/contributions from their podcast guests felt more useful or meaningful.



2. Ring by Dong Ye - (Webtoon) M/m angels in an ambiguously religious heaven, mostly an excuse for wings and halos and magic amid angelic bureaucracy. Switches between cute chibi moments and extremely NC-17 sex. Also surprise mpreg! This was entirely cotton candy: light, sweet, insubstantial, and not as good as you it looks.



3. The Door in the Air and Other Stories by Margaret Mahy - Series of middle grade fairy tales from a New Zealand author. A few were really creative and memorable, and I enjoyed them.



4. Yotsuba&! Vol 5 by Kiyohiko Azuma - The most delightful slice-of-life stories, a reminder to enjoy every day. I love Yotsuba's evolving relationships with everyone here.



5. Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller - A delightful children's book about two friends in NYC solving sock mysteries. Touches on immigrant childhood, feeling out of place, not making assumptions about what other people are dealing with, and jealousy over friendships -- all while being extremely funny and charming. So glad Chanel Miller got to write something so light.



6. The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo - (Singing Hills Cycle #5) Ngl, I was unsure about this when I started it...but it paid off, and I continue to love this series. Chih is fantastic. Lovely descriptions as always and a wonderful mix of creepy and delightful magic.



7. Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin - A collection of short stories translated from Spanish (Schweblin is originally from Argentina, now living in Germany). A mix of magical realism and horror, sometimes with social commentary, sometimes just a slice of family life. Trying to read more translated authors (who aren't just East Asia) and I enjoyed this.



8. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard - Long, but I finally committed to it! A cozy fantasy but set in a space empire, so sort of sci-fi as well. But truly this is an ultimate woobie fic about being overlooked and underestimated but finally recognized and acknowledged by having done All the Good (within bureaucracy even!) and backed by the love of the most special and powerful friend of all (the Emperor). The feelings and relationships drive this, and I don't know if it's good writing necessarily (the prose is good!) but it's emotionally satisfying for when you do you want goodness and trying to do the right thing winning out over bigotry and dismissiveness. It's the 900-page SFF equivalent of coming back to your high school reunion as a hotshot with a great job and your date is an A-list celeb. Or whatever. I did enjoy it! I don't know if I'll read the sequel.



9. The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed - A dark fairy tale adaptation about rescuing children from a grim and menacing forest, where unicorns are monsters and so are men and elves. Well written! Nothing about it character-wise particularly compelled me though. I did like the author's prose and may try some of her other books, but I have a long TBR list...



10. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World by Ada Limón - Absolutely lovely. I sometimes struggle reading collections of all one author, but I've discovered I like a themed collection with works from all kinds of authors because it's fascinating to see how they interpret the theme and showcase their own styles.



11. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine - Those who grew up with this book love it more than Ella Enchanted. This was lovely -- adventure, romance, sisterly love, dragons and danger, finding courage -- but my heart lies with Ella still (and Char).



12. Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation by Diane C. Fujino and Robyn Magalit Rodriguez - Fascinating topics but absolutely dry and often too reliant on jargon. Also extremely California-biased, which is understandable given the work and history of the authors, but there's such a lack of coverage on the work of AAPI groups and people in non-traditional spaces (Midwest, South). It's also very university-centric, which -- higher ed has a role, but is also very limiting.



13. The Last Word by Elly Griffins - Technically book 4 in a series where I read book 1 and skipped the others; this kind of stands on its own though. Can't take any of it too seriously or literally, plot-wise, but it made for a fun, light read where I enjoyed the characters and the weird solution. Very much referencing its time though: lots of mentions of COVID and the war of Ukraine.

Watching the Olympics during this F1 summer break. Sports!