![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstar) wrote2021-11-16 04:09 pm
Bookwormish, 2nd quarter of 2021
So I'll just share this as it is, with my thoughts mostly complete. Not sure whether I'll do posts for the third (long since fled) and fourth (racing toward its close) quarters of this year. I was thinking I was going to come here and say that I'm probably going to have to stop writing these quarterly round-ups entirely – but rereading this one reminded me how much I enjoy doing these! So, we'll see. Maybe I'll do a very abbreviated list of just top favorites, of the 3rd & 4th quarters squished together, at the end of the year?
Dunno... Anyway, here's what I wrote for the second quarter of 2021:
Well, life seems to be stuck on its hardest setting, so here’s an abbreviated version of my books post for the second quarter (March–June) of 2021. To keep this manageable, I’m going to make it a challenge to myself to express myself in a SINGLE SENTENCE about each book(!) although I’ll of course allow a few exceptions if there are cases where I really have a lot more to say. Let’s see how it goes…
VERY TOP BOOKS
Let the Circle Be Unbroken and The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor (as well as one of the short stories in the series, The Friendship) – Taylor is one of those authors who is SO GOOD that I keep asking myself, How is she so good?? She makes every little plot element captivating, from the mundane to the beautiful to the terrible. I’ve been rationing out this series, trying to savor it as long as possible, but I’ve inevitably reached the point where there’s only one book left and I’m already sad about it!
MORE TOP BOOKS
Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh – A thoughtful coming-of-age story that’s brief but covers exactly the ground it needs to, and leaves the character at a refreshingly realistic point, growing into herself and what she wants in life, but without everything being unrealistically wrapped up and perfect.
The Seas by Samantha Hunt – Weird and rather wonderful; I read this because I’m always low-key seeking out various perspectives for the selkie-inspired story I keep thinking I’ll write one day, and while this take on that type of theme was a lot darker than mine would be, it was still an intriguing one.
Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth – A memoir about growing up Onondaga/Tuscarora, from the author of the wonderful YA novel If I Ever Get Out of Here. This memoir really served to remind me that the trauma of the boarding schools is much, much more recent than I think, and still has an enormously heavy impact on so many Native American families.
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine – More probing reflections on racism and humanity.
Little Red Rodent Hood by Ursula Vernon – Another series I’m sad to see end, this one because it’s so very charming; I especially liked in this one that there’s some moral ambiguity…is Little Red the innocent victim here…or is it the weaselwolves??
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS
Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams – I think Stacey Abrams may well save America.
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry – Fun, not quite as deep-diving as I’d hoped, but a fun tale of a girls’ field hockey team discovering witchcraft…or possibly just their own human power.
Pansies by Alexis Hall – A sweet romance that left me thinking about the ways we end up programmed into beliefs about our own identities.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall
SOME BOOKS ABOUT WRITING:
The Anatomy of Curiosity by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
The Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control – and Live to Tell the Tale by Alice Mattison
FAVORITE REREADS:
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
.