we need diverse books – Page 3

New Jackie Lau with Fake Dating – I was automatically in!

Love, Lies, & Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau

May 3, 2024 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I make a habit of reading Jackie Lau books when I can, and being able to read Love, Lies, & Cherry Pie as an ARC was something I just couldn’t pass up, particularly when the logline for the book is a Pride and Prejudice retelling having a good time with some tropes (Lau tends to always have more than one in her work). The tropes in question are fake dating, forced proximity, and enemies to lovers, and I think Lau did a good job with […]

“The closer you are to life, the closer you are to death, her grandmother had told her.”

Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling

March 4, 2024 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

When I was looking for a historical fiction written by an indigenous author I knew right where to go because back in 2021 the Indigenous Reading Circle was featured in a Reading Women Podcast Reading Challenge, and I’ve been following them on Instagram ever since. This year they are highlighting native women in fiction and Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling, a complicated coming of age set on the Flathead Reservation in the 1940s, was their February selection. The story follows Louise White Elk as she approaches adulthood. […]

“That look was the absolute truth. I know it the way you know things sometimes, bone-deep as loneliness, right in the living room of the heart.”

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela

February 26, 2024 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in my review of The Carrefour Curse there are two tasks in the 2024 Read Harder Challenge that are specifically about middle grades books. Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom is my selection for task 6: read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character. Right off the bat, this is a good book, in fact Nina Varela can write better than most authors I’ve come across in the past year or more. I just wish Middle Grades was an audience […]

Another (Accidental) Picture Book for Me

The Art and Life of Hilma af Klint by Ylva Hillström, Karin Eklund (Illustrator)

February 15, 2024 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

While perusing the Arlington Public Library’s List of Books You May Have Missed Last Year I spotted The Art and Life of Hilma af Klint written by Ylva Hillström and illustrated by Karin Eklund. I vaguely recognized af Klint’s name and popped it onto my list since a YA non-fiction was on my to read and this one struck my fancy, especially once I found out that Hillström is a curator at the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm. Woohoo for museum people writing books outside of […]

Angst, Drama, and Love

For Never & Always by Helena Greer

January 11, 2024 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I’m feeling a little rusty in my reviewing skills and kicking myself for not getting this specific review written when I finished the book because I had thoughts and now, I have fewer. I should probably start by saying that I really, truly enjoyed For Never & Always by Helena Greer in much the same way I did reading her previous book Season of Love. For Never & Always is also a queer romance which unpacks big emotions, specifically grief and trauma responses and like […]

“Sometimes I feel like my brain is a machine built by someone who lost the instruction manual.”

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

October 4, 2023 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I haven’t often re-read books in the past decade as I’ve gone on my Cannonball journey. But sometimes I revisit an old favorite, or earlier books in a series before continuing with the newly published. Due to my personal commitment to reading banned and challenged books it has also meant that our Banned Book Week book clubs have included re-reads. I try to review the re-reads on their own merits – what was the reading experience this time. But in the case of Gender Queer my […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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