This post originally appeared on the Times Union books blog.
As the end of the month ended with a bang for Halloween and a particularly spooky prompt for the Book Riot #riotgrams challenge, I’ll share a few more recommendations via the challenge along with their photogenic counterparts as the final post to my initial one on October 15th.
Odd & True by Cat Winters
I’ll start with yesterday’s Halloween post that I had waited all month to photograph and share. It is no secret from some of my reviews on my personal blog that I am a dedicated Cat Winters fan. Her writing is atmospheric, thoughtful, and beautiful always touching on topics like feminism, race, and death. In her newest book, though shallowly thought to be a magical story about monsters is really a story of relationships set in 1909.
This post’s inspiration was get spooky.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
And talk about books that go way deeper than the surface story! Lee’s book explores themes of class, race, and sexuality in the 1700s with teenage characters living in the shadow of their parents’ expectations. It’s the hijinks and humor that plays to Monty’s bisexuality and Percy’s epilepsy and skin color as they are robbed by highwaymen and Monty’s little sister secretly (oh my!) learns science rather than truly caring about “being a lady” and attending finishing school. It’s a haul at more than 500 pages, but it’s so easily read that it flew by.
This post’s inspiration was best side character.
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
The next two books explore the female experience and being Latina. In Gabi, her father’s meth addiction and her mother’s decision to have a baby in Gabi’s senior year of high school are nothing compared to her struggles to navigate impending adulthood. Her biting humor told in epistolary form (that I’m sometimes wary of) works perfectly to tell her story. Her voice is engaging and the few illustrations added for effect are reminiscent of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
This post’s inspiration was weirdest book cover.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
Speaking of realistic, remember when I said the next two books were exploring being Latina and the female experience? I just finished this one last night and adored it. It is Gabi with an edge of mystery. Gabi’s experiences are forthright while Julia must uncover the secrets in her own family including her parents’ travel across the border illegally and who her dead twenty-something year old sister really was. Her depression nearly takes her life, but in the recuperation she learns to look at her family with new eyes and appreciate her complexities.
This post’s inspiration was a recent acquisition.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Then there’s the complexity of poetry. And the seamless magic that Kaur weaves in this collection. I have not yet picked up her recent publication The Sun and Her Flowers, but I will in short order. And there’s a reason it is a popular title among teens since Kaur dives into abuse and violence but also love in a roller coaster of emotions with my favorite lines at the end of the book: “i want to apologize to all the women / i have called pretty / before i’ve called them intelligent or brave / i am sorry i made it sound as though / something as simple as what you’re born with / is the most you have to be proud of when your / spirit has crushed mountains / from now on i will say things like / you are resilient or you are extraordinary / not because i don’t think you’re pretty / but because you are so much more than that”
This post’s inspiration was poetry.
I wholeheartedly recommend these titles whether you’re nineteen or forty-nine because they speak to relationships that encourage reflection on who we are. And while we’re months away from the barrage of “best of” the year lists and resolutions for our future selves, all the titles provide a mirror or a doorway to think about ourselves.
Carson’s book was a riveting ending that didn’t quite have the explosions and bang bang shoot ’em up that book number two did nor was it the magic of being introduced to a strong female character, Leah Westfall, in the first (you can never get back that first-read feeling). This book felt mature. It was about each of the ragtag group that trudged through the American west to set up Glory together, all while the pains of prejudice and lawlessness reigned. Carson was so vivid in her descriptions of the west and then California where most of the third book takes place that I actually dreamed of the west. It was a fitting ending and I won’t spoil it for you here, but there is hopefulness for the future of the fictional characters and a completeness to their story.
Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs is an addition to the Miss Peregrine’s series. This book is a collection of short stories written under the guise of a historian for peculiars and tells the tall tales that only another peculiar can tell. Some are light-hearted but some are downright depressing. But it brings out the best in Riggs’ creativity and is a perfectly natural (see what I did there?) addition to the family of books.
The Round House by Louise Erdrich is an adult novel written in 2012 that is a multi-layered and emotionally-draining portrayal of a family torn apart on the North Dakota reservation of the Ojibwe tribe. This is the kind of book you dive into with every fiber of your being and continue to think about after you’re finished. It’s likely a book I will re-read when I don’t often do that.
Into the Bright Unknown by Rae Carson is the final book in her Gold Seer trilogy that I finished about fifteen minutes ago. I bought it on it’s book birthday because I had to have it and finished it within a few days, though if I could ignore adulthood, I could have been done the following day. Carson demonstrates the facets of immigration and race relations in the 1850s during the Gold Rush though it began years before that in the south after Leah’s parents were murdered and she needed to run, hiding herself in plain sight as a boy and meeting up with a band of interesting people all pushing their way west. If I can provide more encouragement to read the series, know that I had at least one night of dreams set in the wild West myself that demonstrates Carson’s command of setting.
Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence is a must-read for librarians (duh) and avid book lovers. Her uniquely humorous style provides glimpses into her reading habits and her life. Her and I are kindred spirits because we share an all-time book favorite The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Her approach had me laughing and smirking making for awkward public interactions. But readers certainly can find ways to incorporate this style– a love letter to your books– into some epic internal conversations or as part of your next book group meeting. Love, Alicia.
And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard has one of my favorite covers. So while it’s not winter and I wasn’t going to dress in all-black, you get the point. This young adult novel features poetry and inspiration from Emily Dickinson in one of the ways I appreciate contemporary YA authors– bringing back the old by incorporating it into the new. The main character has experienced something tragic and is now at a boarding school and channeling Emily Dickinson to heal. The mystery unfolds over the course of the book and readers get to go back in time and revisit some of Emily Dickinson’s best poetry while Hubbard flexes her own poetry muscles and has Emily writing her own which is just as beautiful.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren is an adult biography that I have recommended widely since reading. While I will never know what it’s like to be a scientist, I felt like I understood the life of one, with the added benefits of chronicling Jahren’s personal life alongside her academic one. Without a doubt, it is eloquently written and organized in a studious manner, with three sections being named for plant life weaving these plants into the story of her own life and her lab partner. It’s as serious as it is cerebral with commentary on mental health, family, friendship, and science itself.
The first, Girl in a Bad Place by Kaitlin Ward is a copy I’m reviewing for VOYA, so you can read the full review there, but suffice it to say that when a girl is in trouble, sometimes she finds the path of least resistance and when that path leads to dangerous individuals, it’s important to have a girl friend to keep it real.
And keepin’ it real is what a group of girls in The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed does when a new girl moves in to the house formerly housing another student who moved after a traumatic rape. The school and community’s lack of justice for her and subsequent girls who have tolerated this behavior are ready to stand and fight led by three very unique girls who empower others’ voice. Erin’s autism is useful as she continually discusses how she is underestimated by others. Rosina’s pressures include the conservative Mexican-American expectations of her family as she explores her sexuality and sense of duty. Then there’s Grace, the new girl, who provides fresh perspective couched in a liberal church community that her mother heads. What is admirable and respected in the story are the richness of the voices, but the very real conversations Reed has with her readers.
And while the third book is an adult essay collection with a great deal of sexual content, the rawness of the approach is what won me over. I hadn’t read any of Gay’s other works that include Bad Feminist and Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body so I cannot speak to those but each story while sometimes with similar character profiles or development allows for reflection. I’m the first one to admit I love dark books and this one fits the bill as Cornelius Nepos says “after darkness comes the light.”
Sites like 
Two days after its book birthday, I’m posting about Ann Dee Ellis’ newest middle grade You May Already Be a Winner. I had wanted to post last week when I read it on a sunny day in the backyard in my camp chair, but never got around to it. But now that it’s available, I must so that all can purchase, read, and enjoy Ellis’ work from Dial Books an imprint of Penguin Books.
Readers Be Advised 