November Wrap Up: finished my reading goal!

That’s right! I’ve read over 75 books this year and am still going! I’d like to thank a year of COVID and being a CYBILS panelist for this achievement.

Henna Wars

By Adiba Jaigirdar

This was an interesting romantic-coming-of-age-addressing-racism book. It also took place in Ireland I found that fact fun and I thought I’d let you know. I recently wrote a blog post about it if you’re interested in reading it! Nishat’s story is on I think many will relate to, and some will learn from, and that’s a lot of what contemporary fiction is all about right?

Turtle Under Ice

By Juleah del Rosario

I’ll actually be publishing the blog post about this book in a matter of days, so if it interests you, keep an eye out for the post! This is a book of verse following two sisters dealing with their shared and separate grief. I really appreciated how the author explored grief, and I’ve really been enjoying books of verse!

Clap When You Land

By Elizabeth Acevedo

You probably have heard of this book, and if you haven’t it’s okay because you’re hearing about it now. This is another book of verse that explores family and grief (similar to Turtle Under Ice but very different). The poetry in this book is beautiful and I felt that the tensity of this book worked really well. The pulling in different directions that family and grief bring were really well portrayed and described.

Place I’ve Taken My Body

By Molly McCully Brown

I read this book for class. It’s a book of essays about the McCully Brown’s experience, reflection, and spiritual journey with cerebral palsy. McCully Brown is a poet and it really shows in her essays which I love. I think that poets make incredible essayists. I also really enjoyed McCully Brown’s voice and how she thinks and explains things. I will for sure be reading more by her and I recommend this to those who like books of essays!

Legendborn

By Tracey Deonn

I’ve been waiting in horrible anticipation for this book and getting my hands on it was very exciting. Bree is a very lovable heroine and I think she’s not only fun to read, but she’ll be very inspiring in ways we haven’t seen since Katniss and possible Aelin. I was super impressed with the magical system, the depth of issues Deonn tackles, and how she manages to subvert ALL my expectations about what was going to happen in all the best ways.

Everything I Thought I Knew

By Shannon Takaoka

I am a huge fan of realistic stories that deal with deep issues that also have an inexplicable magical or scientific phenomenon. One of my favorite books of all time is Places Only We Know has this kind of phenomenon. This book does as well, and I loved it. The main character had a heart transplant and not only had her life changed for obvious reasons due to that, but there are unexplainable things happening. Memories she doesn’t recognize and longings that she never had before. It’s also a great exploration of senior year and trying to discover one’s trajectory. I’ll be writing a review on this book soon!