Good Reads & Views

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
YA Fiction

What is it? A riveting page-turner featuring an Indigenous teen dealing with issues of predatory colonialism, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), first crushes, and family secrets.

What it’s about: Boulley returns to Michigan’s Sugar Island and the Firekeeper family ten years after the action of her hit thriller Firekeeper’s Daughter in this gripping stand-alone YA novel. A jeep accident wrecks Perry’s plans to spend the summer fishing; she owes her Aunt Daunis for car repairs and now she’s stuck working a summer internship at the tribal museum. Despite her original resistance, Perry becomes engrossed in issues related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) when she learns that a local collector is using legal loopholes to unjustly retain Anishinaabe artifacts and remains. A daring plan to repatriate these artifacts takes a dangerous turn and leads to a connection to local missing and murdered women.

Why you might like it: Characters are vividly drawn--Perry is delightfully snarky and self-aware and supporting characters are experiencing realistic, complicated life challenges. Critical issues like MMIW, sexual assault, grooming, and cultural heritage ground this fast-paced yet thought-provoking heist narrative.

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Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Fiction

Read this if you like: Genre blending, the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, and stories about chosen family, music, and the L.A. food scene, especially donuts.

Featuring: Katrina Nguyen, a runaway trans girl who is an untrained but naturally gifted violinist; Shizuka Satomi, an infamous violin teacher--dubbed the Queen of Hell--who made a nasty bargain with a demon and is searching for a seventh soul to turn in for her own, and Lan Tran, the matriarch of a space alien family running a donut shop that's also a star gate.

What happens? Shizuka discovers Katrina and becomes her mentor with the intention of using Katrina as her final sacrificial soul. But Shizuka’s heart is softened when she develops a crush on Lan, who is simply trying to protect her children from the ravages of a galactic war. Katrina wants to be safe, play her violin, and be herself. An adventurous blend of science fiction and fantasy that’s a hopeful story about identity, acceptance, and understanding.

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Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Fiction

What is it? This fairy tale with a feminist twist features all the required elements: three princesses ripe for marrying off to the nearest prince; three impossible tasks; a witch, a fairy godmother, and an errant knight, and like all fairy tales it has a sliver of darkness running through it.

What happens? Princess Marra is content to work and learn in the convent, but when her two older sisters suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince, she sets out on a journey of revenge and rescue. Along the way she assembles a rag tag crew to aid her mission—a bone dog, a grave witch and her demonically possessed chicken, a disgraced ex-knight, and a reluctant fairy godmother whose wishes sometimes become deadly curses. A funny, sweet, and deeply satisfying romp.

Critics say: “The plot snaps along as quickly as a good joke, and beneath the whimsy, there’s an underlying sympathy and sincerity that enables Kingfisher to handle tricky issues like domestic violence with great compassion and care” (Publishers Weekly); “…clever and bold-hearted...Marra's hard-fought journey from third-string princess to hero will delight fantasy readers” (Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness).

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Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe
Fiction

What it’s about: Building 4950 of the Robert Taylor Homes, where 12-year-old FeFe Stevens lives with her family, is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. FeFe and her best friends Stacia, whose family gang rules the building, and Precious, a church friend, plan to spend their last summer on State Street double-dutch jump roping and exploring the deteriorating projects. When FeFe welcomes a new girl, Tonya, to the group despite Stacia’s dislike of her, the dynamics of the friendship change, altering their lives forever. Compassionate and tragic, this tender and uplifting chronicle of Chicago girlhood is reminiscent of Jacquelyn Woodson’s work.

Critics say: “This is a powerful novel about injustice, the institutional racism that is the foundation of the projects and their policing, and survival... Tragic, hopeful, brimming with love, Wolfe’s debut is a remarkable achievement” (The New York Times); “Wolfe’s deeply compelling characters, sharply wrought settings, and tightly choreographed plot create a concentrated, significant, and unforgettable tale of family, home, racism, trauma, compassion, and transcendence” (Booklist).

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Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong
Nonfiction

What it is: This memoir is an “impressionistic scrapbook” of Wong’s life as an Asian American disabled activist. Wong, who uses a wheelchair and a BIPAP ventilator machine (“I became Darth Vader,” she quips when she acquires the machine) due to a neuromuscular disability, has drawn together a powerful collection of original essays, interviews, blog posts, personal photos, and artwork by disabled artists that address what it’s like to navigate in an ableist society. Wong is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.

Why you might like it: Alice’s candor and ferocity make space and understanding for people living with disabilities. She shares her family stories, her history of “accidental" activism, and her love of pop culture, food, and cats with humor, playfulness, and creativity. Her wit, honesty and rage create an intimate and enlightening portrait of what it is like to face the obstructions and joys of living in a world made for the able-bodied. Empowering and entertaining.

You might also like: Being Heumann by Judith E. Heumann, an intimate and irreverent memoir by the “mother” of the Disability Rights Movement; Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig, a nuanced and lyrical memoir, and the funny and edgy Golem Girl by Rita Lehrer.

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Confidence (Anna and Fin #2) by Denise Mina
Fiction

Read this if you like: True crime podcasts, urban exploration, and treasure hunts.

What happens? True crime podcasters Anna and Finn make their sophomore appearance in this smart, adrenaline-boosted thriller. Their search for a missing woman and a mysterious Roman silver artifact takes them from a Scottish seaside town to a high-stakes art auction to a crumbling chateau. This adrenaline-filled road trip caper features likeable characters and is funny and suspenseful.

You might also like: For another dangerous chase involving a mysterious relic, try Picnic in the Ruins by Todd Robert Petersen. Pretty as a Picture by Elizabeth Little is another fast-paced, subtly humorous mystery featuring true crime documentarians.

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Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton  
Nonfiction 

What it is: A graphic novel memoir that asks, “what do you do when you come from a place that you love passionately but that holds no promise for your future?” 

What it’s about: Its 2005, and 21-year-old Kate is newly graduated from college with a liberal arts degree and no prospects. To pay off her mountain of college debt, Kate leaves her beloved Cape Breton and heads west to join Alberta’s oil rush, where men outnumber women 50 to 1, and loneliness is reflected in the landscape.  

Why it stands out: The graphic panels depict lush beauty—deep snow, starry skies, and the northern lights—but also portray the imposing mass of machinery obliterating the landscape in staggering, gigantic scenes carving scars in the wilderness. Beaton knows what to show and what to leave out, both in the story and in the cartooning. This personal history is audaciously honest, powerful, compassionate and humane, and is laced with deadpan humor. 

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Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Fiction

Read this if you like: Dungeons and dragons, found family, self-reinvention, good coffee and tasty snacks, and slow burn romance.

What it’s about: Viv has had enough of battles, blood, and bounty hunting—she’s ready to hang up her sword—literally. She sets out to fulfill her private dream to own a coffeehouse…problem is, no one in her new town has heard of coffee. But she has a secret, strange talisman that might bring the luck she needs to succeed, if only she can avoid the menacing adversary that threatens her burgeoning success and new-found circle of friends. A charming and heartwarming slice-of-life fantasy.

You might also like: For more cozy fantasy about found family and discovering romance, try The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

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Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
Fiction

What it’s about: Witty, tender, and highly entertaining—like the nightclubs she writes about—Atkinson’s literary novels meet her crime series in this historical romp about the bright young people of 1920s London and the criminal world that regales them. This cat-and-mouse tale features a lively cast of characters who mingle on multiple levels: the infamous and decidedly crooked nightclub owner Nellie Coker and her six children; John Frobisher, the new police detective who is determined to bring Nellie down; Gwendolen Kelling, a librarian and former battlefield nurse who agrees to go undercover for Frobisher; and Freda and Florence, two young runaways with dreams of being on the stage. When the young girls disappear without a trace, Gwendolen risks her undercover job working in one of Nellie’s nightclubs to track them down before they end up in the river like many other missing girls. A triumphant celebration of Jazz Age London.

Critics say: “If Dickens had lived to write about The Jazz Age, he would have produced a novel much like “Shrines of Gaiety” (The Washington Post); “There is the perfect balance throughout of sweetness and heartbreak ... And, as always, there is the unmistakable zest of Ms. Atkinson’s dry wit” (Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal).

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Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Fiction

What it’s about: A medical school dropout, Emma was born with the healing touch, but lost it while working in a nursing home. Feeling adrift, Emma returns to her small hometown to find herself and help her family. Emma's parents are on the verge of divorce, her father Clive is ill and haunted by a charming ghost, her brother Auggie is recovering from addiction, her mother Ingrid feels betrayed and disappointed, and her friend Crystal is an opioid addict and has gone missing. Emma eventually takes a substitute teaching job for a classroom of complicated, charming children, and spends her spare time aiding her father’s search for Crystal. Despite the difficult circumstances, this lovely story about coming to terms with loss and finding one's way in the world is hopeful, joyous, and witty.

Why you might like it: This tender and quirky tale is narrated by a chorus of the town's dead, who have an active interest in, and serve as a cheering section for, the living residents of this small town. Clive’s illness and his interest in the town history result in charming stories about a menagerie of historical, imagined, and real animals. Harnett’s second novel is a big-hearted, magical tale, layered with warmth and generosity.

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