I Am J, by Cris Beam

This has been in my "to read" stack for months. But it just never struck me enough. I even opened it a couple times... but eh. But then last week I opened it, and read the whole thing. It's good. Maybe about what you might expect. A little more than that. But yeah. A trans kid novel. Well done.

The Virgin of Flames, by Chris Abani

I'm doing better at reading the adult novels. This one was a little more--weird? Than I'm used to... I don't know how, quite. It's narrative, with distinct characters and even a chronology to it... but it still felt more abstract than what I'm used to. Jumpy? But I loved it, even when it felt like it was taking me a really long time to read. So much happens, and there are so many characters unlike anything I expected--anyone I expected, I suppose. It's also a super queer book, which I was not expecting at all. Excellent. "Also on the desk, in piles on the floor around the room, crammed onto too-small cases, were books. In every imaginable binding and in every state--new, battered, hardbacks, paperbacks. Black loved books and he loved to read, but sometimes he loved books more than he loved to read. And sometimes, what he loved most about books was the space they left for him between the reading and the imagining. Sometimes he lived there more than anywhere else."

Binocular Vision, by Edith Pearlman

This is a collection of short stories, new and selected, by a writer I hadn't heard of before. Though she's been in Best American, etc., none of these stories were familiar to me. Honestly, some of them were a little boring, I thought, but the last half of the book--the new stories, after the selected ones--were all pretty great. Another book that I can't remember where the recommendation came from. Another book that sat on my shelf of library books for a while before I picked it up, and then I read a couple stories, read something else, read a couple more stories... So good, though. So glad I read these. Wish there were more! I guess I could tell you something about them. Lots of doctors. Lots of Russians. Lots of children. That's something. Just read them, please.

Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay

A great little--chapter book, I suppose? about an eleven-year-old. The blurb on the cover, from Karen Hesse, says, "I'm so smitten with all the McKay books!" and I can definitely see how that would happen. Saffy--Saffron--has an older sister, Caddy (short for Cadmium), and a younger brother and younger sister, Indigo and Rose. All four of them are named for colors, but Saffron is the only one whose name isn't on the color chart up on the kitchen wall. Beautifully done. Highly recommended. About family, and friendship, and family family family.

Bronxwood, by Coe Booth

I checked this out from the library ages ago, and I've looked at it several times, sitting on the shelf, and been surprised that I hadn't read it yet. I read both of Coe Booth's other novels--Kendra, and Tyrell--and loved them. So why'd it take me so long to read Bronxwood? I think it might have to do with not teaching anymore right now... I didn't want to read something I knew I'd be wanting to recommend to students. However, this is a sequel to Tyrell, as it turns out, and I didn't love it nearly as much as I'd hoped to. It's really really good, but I'd keep recommending Tyrell, and say, "Bronxwood is a sequel to Tyrell, but I don't think it's nearly as good. But read it and tell me what you think." But also, nothing's really resolved in Bronxwood. It's like another chapter in Tyrell's life, but it doesn't feel like he figures anything out. Like, nothing. It's frustrating that way. I continue to love Coe Booth, and I'll read anything she writes, but I want more from her, please.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

This book was incredible. Lionel Shriver is a fabulous writer. I also was happy to discover that she's a woman--according to an interview in the back of the copy I'd gotten from the library, her given name is Margaret Anne, and when she was fifteen she started going by a tomboy name that worked for her. All right then. Anyway, this is the story of a woman's son, Kevin, who conducts a Columbine type killing. It's told as a series of letters the mother writes to her estranged husband--the boy's father--right around the boy's eighteenth birthday, the two-year anniversary of his crime. Okay spoiler: The father and the younger sister are not in the story itself, and there are references to how the mother doesn't have the daughter living with her anymore... but it isn't until the second-to-last letter (so page 350 or so of this 400 page novel) that you learn that the son killed his father and little sister that morning before he left for school, after the mother had left for work. So she goes to Kevin's school, finds out he's a mass murderer, goes home still wondering where her husband is and why he hasn't shown up yet to help her through this--then finds the bodies at her house. It's a much more violent book than I usually read. Maybe that isn't even true, actually--I read a fair number of books with violence in them. But yeah, this one takes the cake. It's a hard read. But it's so well done, so beautifully written and so thoughtful about all of this: what it would be like for a mom to be raising a son like Kevin, what it would be like for the dad, what that would do, potentially, to the parents' relationship... But yeah. So glad I'm done with this book. But so glad I read it. Highly recommended.

Tell Us We're Home, by Marina Budhos

I've been reading a ton this summer. That's what happens when you don't have much else to do. At least if you're me. I've watched a couple movies--mostly I've turned them off halfway through, so recommendations needed please! I've walked my dog a lot, which is really good for the both of us and makes us happy. I've written a lot--been working on the damn novel, I want to finish revising and get it DONE! (Ugh, that woman is wearing a lovely comfy-looking white cotton dress--with very visible striped underpants!) But so yeah, watching some movies, walking my dog, writing, reading a ton. I'm trying hard to read outside my narrowest comfort zone, the easiest books, which lately is YA fiction. So I have a non-fiction book going too (currently Jane Kenyon's A Thousand White Daffodils, which I'm loving--more on it when I finish!), some poetry (I checked Kenyon's out from the library, but I'm reading a book I got off a free shelf, I think--ddgf by adf. I don't like it so much, so I'm also sort of reading Revolution -- by -- -- which I love... and want to use if/when I teach a poetry unit again, at least to high school age students), and I'm trying hard to read more adult fiction (this is a long-term, standing goal)--I've been working my way through short stories by Edith ---, which has been great, and now that I'm done with Tell Us We're Home, I'm tackling We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver, which is good and awful. More about that one when I finish it too. Anyway, but this is supposed to be about Tell Us We're Home. Tell Us We're Home is narrated by and is the story of three eighth grade girls in a wealthy little New Jersey town--but they're the daughters of nannies and housekeepers, and very aware of their different place in the world of the town. It's pretty great. Maybe that's all I have to say? It's a YA novel about being an eighth grade girl, and all the issues that come with that, but these girls are dealing with different questions than the other girls at their school, largely because their moms work for the other girls' moms. It's very interesting, and very well-handled, I think. The differences between the three girls and their own families are also really interesting and complexly handled. A nice little novel.