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furyofvissarionFangirl - Rainbow Rowell. I feel like the experience of fandom here is so different & distant from mine, & I can't quite say how much of that is the author not really having a handle on fandom & being a fan, & how much is that yes, there are a ton of different ways to be a fan (& that often mine aren't the ones that get represented anyway). Having said that, I was overall v. charmed by this novel about fannish twin sisters as they start college, navigate fandom vs. "being cool," finding separate identities as twins, plus all the usual first-year student stuff. The love for fandom & fannish activity comes through, pretty adorably, & I appreciated that Cath, the protagonist, struggles w/anxiety -- it was nice to see that handled generally sensitively in a book.
Valmiki's Daughter - Shani Mootoo. I really liked Mootoo's earlier book, Cereus Blooms at Night. This one took a while to draw me in (partly b/c of the super-heavy description of the local area at the beginning, which felt excessive), but ended up really grabbing me by the end. It's about a closeted queer woman in Trinidad, & her equally closeted gay father, & there's a lot about race, class, colonialism, & gender besides, naturally. It's a pretty grim book in a lot of ways, unsurprisingly, & heartrending by the end.
Ich Bin Dann Mal Vegan: Glücklich und fit und nebenbei die Welt retten - Bettina Hennig. I read this mostly because I knew the subject matter would make it relatively easy for me to read in German, but I didn't have high hopes for it (most vegan memoirs/personal narratives in English I find irritating, honestly). She starts off cooing about the detestable Attila Hildmann & w/general skepticism about ethical veganism & related activism. Let's be fair, there's a lot about vegan activists that even sympathetic vegans could poke holes in (though she doesn't touch on the things that would bother me, really: like racism). Anyway, she ends up going on demos & going undercover to a factory farm & even w/my limited German, the horror of the latter visit is conveyed v. much. I don't think I would recommend this book (even to fluent German speakers interested in the subject, I mean), but I am quite pleased I was able to read it & comprehend enough to have an opinion!
Interim Errantry - Diane Duane. Three works from the Young Wizards series to tide us over until the next full-length volume comes out: a novella, novelette, & a short novel, in fact. They're all holiday-themed (Halloween, Christmas, & Valentine's Day), but while I'd normally expect to be irritated by that, I was generally quite charmed (I mean, when it comes to Young Wizards stuff, I'm pretty easy). I do really think that Diane Duane's lived in Ireland enough that she needs someone to beta her stuff for Americanisms in the wrong places -- I've noticed this before, but it seemed even more glaring here.
Court of Fives - Kate Elliott. Creepy as hell, OMG. I thought this was mostly going to be a fun, fast-paced YA fantasy about a girl defying her father to sneak out & play sports, & there's that aspect, but so much creepiness! Be warned especially if you are mildly claustrophobic, like I am.
How to Save a Life - Sara Zarr. There are moments of real emotional resonance in this YA book about a girl whose father died recently, & whose mother wants to adopt a baby &, in so doing, brings another teen girl into their home. The book is riddled w/racial microaggressions, though, really uncomfortably so. Kind of ruined it for me.
Nearly Gone - Elle Cosimano. Creepy, yet ultimately kind of LOL OTT YA fantasy about a girl who can sense emotions when she touches someone, & a chain of murders at her school that all seem somehow connected to her.
Nacht der Hexen - Kelley Armstrong. This is the German translation of Dime Store Magic, & even though I haven't read the original in a while, I was pleased at how much I managed to understand, & how much random new vocabulary I picked up (like the German slang for balls, hahaha).
Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor. I didn't think I would like this as much as I did; the romance contains a trope I really find dull, and... come on, the protagonist is revealed in the first few pages to be an artsy high school student with blue hair and tattoos living some kind of bohemian life in Prague. If you think Karou is some kind of wish fulfillment, well, read on! You're not wrong! Anyway, I did get sucked into the OTT Romeo & Juliet war-between-civilizations plot, because... I'm totally lost when it comes to people agonizing over whether they can change long-held patterns of behavior (both on an individual & a societal level), whether they can break cycles of violence, whether real, lasting change is possible. Note that there's some usage of hamsas & some other cultural stuff that may be more or less appropriative/wince-worthy for some readers. I was able to read around it, but YMMV, obviously!
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - Brené Brown. Many people know Brown from her popular TED talk about vulnerability. I found a lot of this book, on the same theme, valuable, encouraging, & inspiring; there were points where I felt she was v. heterocentric & also not acknowledging how privileged she is. Still, lots of stuff that's v. much worth considering.
Die Schachnovelle- Stefan Zweig. I read this for class. It was much more challenging than reading a contemporary memoir about veganism or fluffy paranormal romance! It involves games of chess w/a champion player on a transatlantic boat journey & one guy remembering, in great detail, his time as a prisoner of the Gestapo. It was interesting, & disturbing, & I am so aware that there is tons of this that I didn't get at all, because I didn't look up words or read with care nearly as much as I should've.
Valmiki's Daughter - Shani Mootoo. I really liked Mootoo's earlier book, Cereus Blooms at Night. This one took a while to draw me in (partly b/c of the super-heavy description of the local area at the beginning, which felt excessive), but ended up really grabbing me by the end. It's about a closeted queer woman in Trinidad, & her equally closeted gay father, & there's a lot about race, class, colonialism, & gender besides, naturally. It's a pretty grim book in a lot of ways, unsurprisingly, & heartrending by the end.
Ich Bin Dann Mal Vegan: Glücklich und fit und nebenbei die Welt retten - Bettina Hennig. I read this mostly because I knew the subject matter would make it relatively easy for me to read in German, but I didn't have high hopes for it (most vegan memoirs/personal narratives in English I find irritating, honestly). She starts off cooing about the detestable Attila Hildmann & w/general skepticism about ethical veganism & related activism. Let's be fair, there's a lot about vegan activists that even sympathetic vegans could poke holes in (though she doesn't touch on the things that would bother me, really: like racism). Anyway, she ends up going on demos & going undercover to a factory farm & even w/my limited German, the horror of the latter visit is conveyed v. much. I don't think I would recommend this book (even to fluent German speakers interested in the subject, I mean), but I am quite pleased I was able to read it & comprehend enough to have an opinion!
Interim Errantry - Diane Duane. Three works from the Young Wizards series to tide us over until the next full-length volume comes out: a novella, novelette, & a short novel, in fact. They're all holiday-themed (Halloween, Christmas, & Valentine's Day), but while I'd normally expect to be irritated by that, I was generally quite charmed (I mean, when it comes to Young Wizards stuff, I'm pretty easy). I do really think that Diane Duane's lived in Ireland enough that she needs someone to beta her stuff for Americanisms in the wrong places -- I've noticed this before, but it seemed even more glaring here.
Court of Fives - Kate Elliott. Creepy as hell, OMG. I thought this was mostly going to be a fun, fast-paced YA fantasy about a girl defying her father to sneak out & play sports, & there's that aspect, but so much creepiness! Be warned especially if you are mildly claustrophobic, like I am.
How to Save a Life - Sara Zarr. There are moments of real emotional resonance in this YA book about a girl whose father died recently, & whose mother wants to adopt a baby &, in so doing, brings another teen girl into their home. The book is riddled w/racial microaggressions, though, really uncomfortably so. Kind of ruined it for me.
Nearly Gone - Elle Cosimano. Creepy, yet ultimately kind of LOL OTT YA fantasy about a girl who can sense emotions when she touches someone, & a chain of murders at her school that all seem somehow connected to her.
Nacht der Hexen - Kelley Armstrong. This is the German translation of Dime Store Magic, & even though I haven't read the original in a while, I was pleased at how much I managed to understand, & how much random new vocabulary I picked up (like the German slang for balls, hahaha).
Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor. I didn't think I would like this as much as I did; the romance contains a trope I really find dull, and... come on, the protagonist is revealed in the first few pages to be an artsy high school student with blue hair and tattoos living some kind of bohemian life in Prague. If you think Karou is some kind of wish fulfillment, well, read on! You're not wrong! Anyway, I did get sucked into the OTT Romeo & Juliet war-between-civilizations plot, because... I'm totally lost when it comes to people agonizing over whether they can change long-held patterns of behavior (both on an individual & a societal level), whether they can break cycles of violence, whether real, lasting change is possible. Note that there's some usage of hamsas & some other cultural stuff that may be more or less appropriative/wince-worthy for some readers. I was able to read around it, but YMMV, obviously!
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - Brené Brown. Many people know Brown from her popular TED talk about vulnerability. I found a lot of this book, on the same theme, valuable, encouraging, & inspiring; there were points where I felt she was v. heterocentric & also not acknowledging how privileged she is. Still, lots of stuff that's v. much worth considering.
Die Schachnovelle- Stefan Zweig. I read this for class. It was much more challenging than reading a contemporary memoir about veganism or fluffy paranormal romance! It involves games of chess w/a champion player on a transatlantic boat journey & one guy remembering, in great detail, his time as a prisoner of the Gestapo. It was interesting, & disturbing, & I am so aware that there is tons of this that I didn't get at all, because I didn't look up words or read with care nearly as much as I should've.