5/5 stars Field Guide for Accidents , by Albert Abonado (2024) This is Al's second collection of poetry (his first being Jaw , published in 2020), and it is truly something to savor. Abonado writes with scrutiny about his Filipino identity, his immigrant parents, and the challenges of growing up with a (non-white) dual-identity in America. America, which, "at the airport asks for the name of my tribe, compliments me for the Vietnam in the poems another man read. An honest mi

5/5 stars World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments , by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (2020), Illustrator: Fumi Nakamura This is a beautiful debut of nonfiction essays about nature, how the author relates to the world around her, and how and what animals and plants can teach us. The essays include very cool facts about animals and plants, side by side with anecdotes about the author's past - where she grew up, the many different places she live

5/5 stars The Girl in Red (2019), and Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook (2017) , by Christina Henry Trigger Warnings (both...

5/5 stars Those We Thought We Knew , by David Joy (2023) Trigger Warning: Racially motivated violence It's hard not to just copy-paste a...

5/5 stars The Book of Doors , by Gareth Brown (2024) Fantastic book for book-lovers! Cassie works at a bookstore in New York City. She...

5/5 stars Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls , by Kai Cheng Thom (2023) "from the depths of my rage and...

5/5 stars A House With Good Bones , by T. Kingfisher (2023) To me this was reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the...

5/5 The Door of No Return, by Kwame Alexander (2022) TW: Violence, descriptions of the slave trade, mention of rape “Black history began...

5/5 stars Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Törzs (2023) Fabulous. So fun! This is a fantasy-thriller with gothic libraries filled with...

5/5 stars Re-read of Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel (2014) I first read this book in 2017, when the realities of a worldwide...

5/5 stars Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo," by Zora Neale Hurston (2018) Barracoon tells the story of Olualo Kossula, also...

5/5 stars Weyward, by Emilia Hart (2023) I absolutely LOVED this book, but let me get some trigger warnings out of the way first: sexual...

5/5 stars Deaf Republic, by Ilya Kaminsky (2019) This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend two of RIT/NTID's Big Read events,...

5/5 stars The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (2011) I've read this twice before, and the third read was just as awesome. This time I...

5/5 stars The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean (2022) Vampires for book lovers! (with zombies too, kind of). I was planning to wait until next...

5/5 stars Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, The Hand on the Wall, and The Box in the Woods, by Maureen Johnson (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)...

5/5 stars What Strange Paradise, by Omar El Akkad (2021) Beautiful and haunting and cinematic. The narrative follows Amir Utu, a 9-year...

5/5 stars Clap When You Land, by Elizabeth Acevedo (2020) Sixteen year old Camino Rios has grown up in the Dominican Republic (DR) with...

5/5 stars Lanny, by Max Porter (2019) This is such a unique, beautiful, poetic, fantastical little book. If you're a fan of poetry, a fan...

5/5 stars Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, by Lindy West (2016) "Women matter. Women are half of us. When you raise every woman to...