Over the last week, my lunch reading consisted of David Levithan’s September 2023 publication Ryan and Avery. Reading the book during lunch was even more delicious than whatever I had brought for lunch that day including a homemade tiramisu cupcake today when I finished it.
The book is a testament to gentle books everywhere. The books that aren’t niche reads for specific teen readers but for the average teen reader but approached with a tenderness that can still be appreciated by teens, allowing them to slow down and feel things. Currently my teens would rather be reading bloody slasher stories and heart-pounding mysteries, but they would make room for this one. Like they would for a similar book, Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elise Bryant.
From the start, meeting Ryan and Avery, one gay teen boy and one teen trans boy, with their colorful coifs, was like meeting them in person. They have their obstacles to overcome but nothing is as sweet as their dates. Chapters are told based on the date but in a nonlinear fashion allowing readers to connect the dots about their relationship because life gets in the way. And by life, I mean bullies, unsympathetic parents, play practice, and their pasts.
Yet the comfort and joy they find in one another is stunningly realistic. The warmth they emit from how they think about one another to how they dress for a date give ME the butterflies of going on a first or second or third date.
Books move us. You’d be a cold-hearted unempathetic heathen to not feel something reading this book.
Last week was spring break. Naturally I planned a lot of reading time into each day along with other relaxing activities, plus housework and to-do list items. There are the quick reads, the fast-paced reads, the slower reads, the savory reads, the brain breaks, and the in-betweens. Based on my interest level or mood, I can tell pretty quickly what kind of book it’ll be.
I had been sent a galley copy of Ali Hazelwood’s YA due out this November called Check & Mate. This is where I confess that while I’ve seen Hazelwood’s books for adults everywhere, I haven’t read one yet, but a YA, now that was music to my high school librarian ears. And it’s punny chess title was also a bonus. Another confession- I’m not an avid chess player, I can rarely hold my own against my teenage sons, but I do play a little. I also watched The Queen’s Gambit. And I have joyously celebrated the return of raucous chess matches in our library (years ago that’s all our teens did was play chess, we had 5-6 that went out per period, then there was a die-off, but now it’s back again).
Back to the book. I picked it up off the pile and thought it would be an enjoyable stopover before the next book. What I got was an intense sprint/marathon battle for the next several hours. I literally wanted to sprint through it to know how it all ends (of course I knew how it HAD to end, but just in case). And I literally wanted to pace myself too because I didn’t want to it to end because if it ended it would be over and I couldn’t go back again.
I loved the prevalence of chess in the story– not too much, not too little. I fell in love with Mallory and her family, especially her littlest sister and the indifference when readers meet Mallory at the beginning of the story. Cue Nolan. Then came the witty banter, the sly hints about the past, the tournaments amplifying the pressure. It was exactly what I wanted. It was exactly what I needed. And when I found out I would have to stay up WAY past my bedtime to pick up my sons returning from a trip, I continued to sip my tea and read. I brought it in the car as I waited in the parking lot. I was thisclose to the end. The boys were back home and it was close to midnight. Do I wait until morning to finish it just so I can extend it a few more hours?
No. I must finish it.
And that I did. I fell into bed tired and book drunk. Is that a thing? It needs to be. The enemies to lovers trope won’t ever get tired in the capable hands of Hazelwood. Nor will romance ever be dead. The last thing that I want to give credit for is the topic of sex in the book, from the humorous scenes to the serious ones. It’s an age relevant topic and I want more of this in YA.
It’s not out until November, so you have plenty of time to sign up for publisher giveaways and preorder it, but put it on your list.
Last week I posted about Of sleepless nights and grey hairs about our upcoming author visit. That even though we’ve been doing them for a decade, it’s still stressful each time. However, like childbirth, you forget the pain and realize that you’d be willing to do it all again. I was certainly frustrated in the days beforehand because our school is currently experiencing a spate of pulled fire alarms, the business office surprised me with additional paperwork that put the visit in jeopardy, and while advertisements were everywhere, students were still surprised when I talked to them about the visit. The Zits comic from about a week prior sums it up:
While some are expected, like the fact that most people wait until the last minute to do anything, so signs ups were fast and furious up until literally minutes before the events started, others were unpredictable. I had prepped Candace Fleming ahead of time of the possibility of a fire alarm and announced the protocols for students during the visit that when it did not actually happen, she was a little disappointed. But I’d rather lower my expectations and be pleasantly surprised than caught off guard.
Ultimately the three presentations went swimmingly. Not only were students fascinated by her topics and pictures and stories, they spent time afterward hanging around her to get their books signed, chat, and take selfies. With a small break after the first presentation, I organized a small lunch with a few female students under the umbrella of finishing Women’s History Month with our female author with female power players in our school (one from our literary magazine, one the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, and one that belonged to the Women’s Empowerment club). It came together with donations from community organizations and a little money from the school and prep work with teachers to engage the students in their classes, particularly from our science department and of course, true crime fans since Candace Fleming’s newest book is the YA Murder Among Friends about the infamous murder of a fourteen year old boy by two eighteen year olds, Leopold and Loeb.
But in the end, the impact of the visits for how few or how many students come is often unseen. I’ll use this example, serendipitously about a month ago, I received an email from a student who graduated ten years ago. He was writing to seek out the librarian to tell her about the impact an author visit at the school had on him because of the turmoil in his life that he was able to meet this author, was gifted a book to have signed by the author, and to share that the library in general was a safe place for him. He wanted to thank that librarian. To borrow a Taylor Swift line, “Hi, it’s me.” This email came a decade later.
Then, there might be the immediate results of the impact. My favorite image is one we shared on our social media after her last session wrapped up. These boys stayed after to have her sign their phone cases and take pictures and were beaming about the connection. It was unexpected. Yet, a joyous reminder that books and human connections are what we all need.
I’ll add, if you’re looking for a visit worth your while, consider Candace Fleming. Her range of picture books through YA meant that when I booked her, several other local librarians jumped on board. In three days, she went to one elementary school, one middle school, and our high school. And the majority of her work is nonfiction, which is what resonated with our students. As she said, she doesn’t have a person light a cigarette in her book, unless she knew it to be true in her research. As an obsessive reader of nonfiction, I love her attention to detail and the stories she chooses to share. She’s also a fabulous human being. We need more Candace Flemings in front of our kids sharing about curiosity and facts. She nor I will likely ever know, but I do hope one or two teens were impacted by her visit and the things she shared.
In just a few short days, our school will host our first in-person author visit since the pandemic hit. And as much as I’m excited to bring a live author back to our school, it’s also the most nerve-wracking experience.
It’s not like this is new. Our school has hosted at least one author each year since 2011. Yet each and every time I have sleepless nights and sprout a few extra grey hairs. The planning and preparation is one thing, from signing the contract and fundraising for the cost (since our school does not support the full cost of author visits, we always seek outside support) to having books for purchase and finding the avenues to get teens excited about the visit.
This year has included a lot of transitions in both our district office and the library’s new space that we moved in to during our major capital improvement project for our campus. These factors add to the nervousness that everything will come together. It never gets easier. Plus, for these high schoolers, this is the first experience with an author visit because of the pandemic. I want to pack the library, but I want the students to want to be there. I want to inspire reading, which is usually the case after the visit. In the meantime, I’m running a reading challenge because of the authors breadth of titles.
As I said, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The elation of the connection between the author and students cannot be substituted, but it’s the responsibility the librarian carries throughout the process that always gets me.
What things do other librarians and hosts do to quell the sleepless nights and reduce the grey hairs before a visit?
Continuing with the theme of Women’s History Month, I want to give a shout out to influential women authors through the lens of my reading experience.
Probably forever, Ruta Sepetys will always be at the top of the list. Having had the pleasure of her company in person does add an additional layer of appreciation for her, but her books themselves mine hidden histories which are captured with elegance and an emotional capableness to reach through the pages of the book to reach the reader on another level. She’s simply the best.
Mary Roach is the queen of curiosity for me. All of her books from the science of the military to cadavers have endlessly fascinated me. Years ago I wrote that she would be an author I’d love to have lunch with just to pick her brain. She’s got a fascinating array of subject areas, but I’ll follow her wherever that curiosity leads.
There is no one more Instagram-poet famous that Rupi Kaur. I follow her as do many of my high school students to see what new and old poems she drops there. Then I scrambled when she publishes a collection to get my hands on a copy and then make sure I have a handful in our library too. I confess to also following her social media to see what dress she’s wearing and to celebrate that this poetess sells out arenas to read her poetry. She’s an experience.
Sarah Andersen of Sarah’s Scribbles fame makes me laugh– every.damn.time. Her humorous take on the extraordinary and the mundane in her comics (but I’d be remiss not to gush about Fangs too) gave me a boost in the mornings when I would read a few pages from her comics with my cup of tea. She’s more than just a writer, she’s a creator.
And when I think about books whose settings and writing envelope me, I think about the atmospheric writing of Cat Winters. She pulled me in with In The Shadow Of Blackbirds and kept me there with all of the other books (and short stories) that she’s written. She’s the ultimate spooky YA writer.
One for the money, two for the show, three to make ready and four to go.
I was thinking about this children’s rhyme when I was contemplating what type of reading goals I could set for myself for 2023. As a practice, I don’t make goals because there’s usually a committee, reviews, and general work around reading (even though it’s never really work) that I’ll always be reading anyway. And I read widely already. So I thought I would highlight each month a children’s book, a middle grade, a YA, and an adult that I read. Here’s January’s books via rhyme–
One for the money: An Immense World by Ed Yong
It made so many best lists for 2022 which is why I added it to my TBR for January and it did not disappoint. Yong, take all my money because as a lover of science titles, this one was lyrical, moving, and insightful for a general adult audience.
Two for the show: How You Grow Wings by Rimma Onoseta
Sisters who grow up disparately loved by their mother, the choices that are made ultimately separate then reunite them in a moving story that brings them full circle. Clever, clever book for young adults.
Three to make ready: Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Short story collections are one of my favorite categories to explore and each of these short stories featuring Indigenous characters can be mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. All of the stories drew from a wealth of experience, storytelling, and heart.
Four to go: The Sun is Late and So Is the Farmer by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin Stead
This children’s book includes a cast of animal main characters, including the four pictured on the cover wondering where the sun is and thus where the farmer is. The vibe of the cover art and title exactly matches the book itself.
When I was making my top lists of 2022 and finishing up the year of reading, I noted that there were a handful of books on my lists (as I narrowed them down and that made the lists themselves) that were series. I have a love/hate relationship with series but I’ve learned to accept them as a natural course of publishing and creativity. Several years ago I decided that if I wasn’t completely obsessed with the first book in a planned series, that I wouldn’t continue reading the series out of obligation. Instead, I would have enough to be able to recommend the series to audiences. And with so many books out there to read, spending time reading ones I weren’t in love with wasn’t making anyone happy.
Enter this comic series, Something is Killing the Children, written by James Tynion IV, illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera, and colored by Miquel Muerto and published by BOOM! Studios. I have read up to the twenty-first issue through Hoopla and looking on BOOM!’s website, it says that issue 21 is available but then I see that there is a fifth published volume that includes issues 21-25, so I’m going to have to visit my local comic book store to check this out. To fill my time and the gap in waiting, it was introduced to me this weekend that House of Slaughter existed, telling the backstory of one of the Orders of St. George and the namesake house that main character, Erica Slaughter comes from in the series.
And Erica as a character is the strongest part of the series. Readers want to follow her journey of slaying monsters and sassing law enforcement. This is in addition to the creatively drawn monsters that haunt the woods and kill children, the gore of the action sequences that are dark and haunting but aren’t so ridiculously bloody that it is gratuitous. On a whim I borrowed the first volume and was shocked by how much I got into the characters, setting, and story because the comic series is a well-rounded mix of it all.
I’ll be over here waiting for the next issue and looking around the house to figure out what my totem would be.
Other bookish people likely do the same thing, right? They plan their last book of a calendar year and the first one of the new year. I have been doing this for a few years now and while they don’t always work out to the five-star reads I want them to be in my head, not all books can be winners and that’s life.
But this year I can confidently say I chose well.
My last book of 2022 was
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I bought this about a month at my indie bookstore on a whim. I rarely buy books that I haven’t read before but the hype around the book has been so overwhelming that I went ahead and bought it. Then it was clear by the beginning of December that I would save it for my last book of the year.
Vacation reading is often trying to cram as many books in as I can while still being productive and extroverted for holiday activities, so I actually waited until December 30th to read the first few chapters and then I could roll into the rest of the book on New Year’s Eve. The problem is that we had company for the better half of the afternoon, but I hunkered down with my champagne and white cranberry and finished about 11:45pm- in time to watch the ball drop and be filled with the love and admiration of Garmus’s writing AND how she created the most loveable and unique characters. It’s as funny as it is sad reminding me of a combination of The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.
So the clock strikes midnight, I toast my cranberry champagne with my husband and kids, get a good night’s rest and wake up knowing that my first book of the new year awaited.
My first book of 2022 was
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
In part, I chose this one because the color palette matched Garmus’s book. It’s a book that I saw a lot via social media and I also have read (and loved) Poston’s YA, plus it came in from the library several weeks ago so it was already on my TBR pile.
Just like Elizabeth Zott in Lessons in Chemistry, Florence Day is a main character I’ll remember. Her voice is unmatchable. With its mix of magical realism and new adult humor, it combines nicely with the sexy romance and Day’s day job as a ghostwriter of romance novels who does not believe that love wins anymore. As a book nerd, Day’s day job makes our word-loving hearts sing. In addition, I’m a cemetery walker who is curious about death, so Day’s family’s ownership of a funeral home and her unique upbringing is My Girl meets The Lovely Bones and would be something a Colleen Hoover reader should check out. The two twists in the last third of the book make it all the more indulgent and creative.
Now, onto a year filled with books in all their iterations with plenty of tea on the side.
And rounding out the last four posts is my young adult top 10 because that’s who I spend the most amount of time reading and recommending for as a high school librarian. I’ve had the best time reviewing all of my reading this year to be able to pick out the top 10 of each target audience and from conferences to reader’s advisory, telling people to READ THESE BOOKS. So here they are!
I get chills just thinking about my reading memories with these titles which run the gamut of graphic to nonfiction, memoir and historical fiction with some of the best darn authors out there. I think in each one of these books there were lines and pages that I Post-it’ed to go back and reread and experiences that made me into a better human being. Plus, the best kinds of books lead you to other discoveries and I can say that each one of them led me to at least one other book or Google search.
Cheers to the book memories of 2022 and the new ones I’ll make in 2023!
Middle grade needs it’s own category this year because I spent an inordinate amount of time reading the excellent selections of middle grade titles this year. It was a banner year for sure. Today I celebrate middle grade and tomorrow I’ll round out my four posts with the best of young adult.
When I look back at this titles as graphic novels, verse, manga, fiction, and nonfiction, I can’t help but celebrate the range, depth, and breadth of creativity and sensitivity for an age of transition. I should know since I have two thirteen year old boys myself. The message of perseverance; the power of individuality; the adventure; the need to remember the past and explore the future– it’s all here in these titles. If you’ve missed any one of these, you MUST pick it up.
Readers Be Advised 