I’m back with another episode(?) of This Month In Books, which might be a little interesting because I’ve mostly been reading Teen Wolf fanfiction after making my way through the entirety of the six-season show in a very short amount of time (thanks, chemo brain fog!). But I have done some reading and writing that might be of interest!
Book Riot
As you might recall, I am a contributing editor for Book Riot, where I co-host the When In Romance podcast and write content for the main Book Riot site. Here’s what you can read from November:
- I might have a different idea of what the word “cozy” means than most people but you know what this was my list lol
- If you have Kindle Unlimited, have I got the list for you
- I tapped into my librarian know how to talk about the idea of “doing your own research”
And we had a blast doing recommendations on two whole episodes (one much longer than we…usually go) of When In Romance plus a bonus one from the first.
My Book
Y’all. I recorded a few pieces of my audiobook today! I may record a podcast every other week, but I rarely hear my own voice that much at one time. It was weird, but very very cool. (The rest of it will be recorded by professional narrators, FYI.) And that was on top of what’s been a pretty nice week, book-wise (even if the rest of the world sucks):
- We got a STARRED REVIEW from Kirkus Reviews!
- And this one from Publishers Weekly definitely has some quotables!
- If you haven’t entered this giveaway, you definitely should. It’s for more than just my book, and they all look pretty great!
- The Tucson Festival of Books author list went up last week, and your girl is on it! I and a few other contributors will (hopefully) be hanging out next March and maybe talking about Black Love Matters and Black love in general.
Other People’s Books
I started a lot of books this month, but my actual finished number is much lower than that. I read Lean On Me by Pat Simmons for my work book club, and Bombshell by Sarah MacLean for the Nerdette Podcast Book Club, which was hella fun and you should all listen to it.
And here are a few books I really want to highlight and squee about:
Fifteen Hundred Miles From the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa
(Look, I’m just gonna copy over my review from Goodreads)
The way these boys have my whole heart <3 <3 <3
Julián lives a relatively good life. He’s got good friends, isn’t terrible at school, and loves to play on his soccer team. But he’s not out, and he doesn’t particularly know what to do about that before leaving Corpus Christi for college. Overly drunk at a party, Jules comes out on Twitter. A mutual who he’s been friendly with on his secret gay twitter account shoots his shot, and they start a long distance relationship of DMs, facetime, and phone calls. Meanwhile, at home, his coming out leads to consequences, but Jules keeps moving.
The moment I actually picked it up, after a few days of hesitating thanks to the author’s careful author’s note, I was all the way in. Julián is my precious child and I will love and keep him forever, and I LOVE the friend group Villa has surrounded him with. It’s not an easy sunshine read, but it’s worth it if you can.
Rep: Julián is a gay, Mexican American cis teenage boy; Mat is a gay, Vietnamese American cis teenage boy; side characters of various races and sexual/gender identities
CN: on page child abuse; homophobic slurs in multiple languages; mention of suicidal ideation; mention of farm and wild animal death; depressive episode; financial struggle; machismo; taunting; pre-sexual encounters; off page sex; toxic and abusive parents; dead mother; Catholicism; untranslated dialogue in multiple languages; lots of food descriptions; excessive drinking; extensive social media use
The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams
(Ditto this one)
Y’all. This book. THIS BOOK. I gotta talk about this book. While I am not averse to books with fitness plots I didn’t have this one at the top of my list, but some trusted friends were shouting about it and it showed up on my doorstep (thanks, Berkley!) and I wanted to read a newer fat positive romance for a group challenge at work (our RA team is doing a few of the Read Harder tasks) so I figured hey, why not.
Y’all.
Denise Williams killed it.
As someone who has had interesting relationships with her body and exercise and food, I went into this book well aware of the fact that it might affect me the wrong way, and Denise prepares you as a reader with such care before we even start, I knew I would be able to read it. And then I fell head over heels in fucking love with Britta. She is a magnificent, funny, lovable fat Black woman, and even when I wanted to give her a stern talking to she had my whole heart. (And I guess Wes is cool too lol.) Their journeys are joyous and heartbreaking and whole, and I love them to pieces.
Story: Britta, a longtime editorial assistant, pitches a story that might get her a coveted permanent writing position at the lifestyle magazine where she works. She’ll use a new fitness app that posits itself as super body positive and write about the experience. Wes, one of the company’s CEOs, decides to take a client for the first time in a while, and the pair become easy friends. But what do you do when that friendship could lead to either something great, or catastrophic results for your career?
CN: exercise; discussion of food choices; reference to off page disordered eating; over exercising; checked and unchecked anti-fatness; journalistic ethics questions; emergency hospital visit; toxic/complicated family relationship; effects of drug use (side character); reference to overdose (side character); hateful social media comments; brief fake dating; only one bed; sexual activity on the page; epistolary elements; pining; wedding (side characters)
Thanks again to Berkley for the review copy! (Note: Berkley is my publisher)
(This one is actually from IG so it’s formatted slightly different)
I’ve been playing a lot of book roulette recently and realized I needed a palate reset—and this graphic novel was sitting there just staring at me. Two hours later, and I’m dreading the wait for volume two (I know the whole thing is online but I like it in print). I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this was both dark and delightful.
Story: Persephone gets dragged to a party, where Aphrodite overhears Hades saying the younger goddess is more beautiful than her. The Goddess of Beauty blackmails Eros into roofying Persephone and leaving her in Hades’s hands. Things don’t turn out as expected.
CN: physical abuse; sexual trauma; gaslighting; toxic romantic relationship (not between protagonists); toxic family relationship; complicated parental relationship
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
Apparently I hadn’t even marked this one as read on Goodreads so no extensive review (I’ll try to write one soon enough that has complete content notes, sorry). This is Emezi’s memoir in letters that touches on their youth, their experience with writing and publication, their journey through exploration and actualization of their non-womanhood. I listened to this on audio, which means I got to spend a long time with Akwaeke Emezi talking to me. It was like they were telling me a story (which I know, all memoirs are, but when it’s the author, there is something different about it). There are so many content warnings, including body and gender dysphoria, suicidal ideation, witnessing death and dead bodies, sexual harrassment and assault, and so much more. But if none of these are hard limits, definitely give this one a try. You learn so much not just about the author, but about life.
The Ubiquitous Other
I finally managed to put a few books on PangoBooks! Not a lot, but I just want to sort of figure out how it works. I did pull a few books off the shelf to take directly to my local used book store, instead of waiting for someone to buy them off me. But I really need to get on it, so I can get these stacks off of the floor…though at least I finally sorted them into genres and stuff. But they’re still on the floor.
The one place I have had time to read has been my daily wait before getting radiation treatment. It’s usually about 10 minutes, though it’s lasted up to an hour due to Circumstances. But that’s the one time I’ve managed to make my way through something (right now, The Geek Who Saved Christmas) in guaranteed microbits. But hey, I finished chemo!
That’s plenty, I think! Thanks for reading, have a good December! If you celebrate any of the holidays, happy eat-drink-and-be-merry time!
Jess
Note: I have gone back to using LibroFM’s Bookstore Link, with a link to one of my local bookstores. I am not affiliated and do not receive anything when you click on any links here.