Is summer over yet? I'm normally a person who likes the heat, but man, it's wearing on me right now. I'm ready for autumn. I want cool weather, pretty foliage, and to be able to curl up with a good book by the fireplace. At least August was a good reading month. Not only did I finish rereading The Throne of Glass series, I also read a bunch of other great novels.
1. Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz
I am making an effort to consume more books about the gender spectrum. When I was in early elementary school, I remember my mom watching Sally Jessy Raphael or Geraldo, and seeing an episode on transgender people. It immediately made sense to me that you could be born into the wrong body. Though I was born a woman and identify as a woman, I was a tomboy as a kid. The fact that I was a girl who liked some boy things, made being born in the wrong body seem not only feasible but completely understandable. As an adult, I want to understand the experience and journey better. Lizard Radio does an exquisite job of just that.
Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? people ask, and Kivali isn’t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? Now she’s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she’s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider. But she has a gift—the power to enter a trancelike state to harness the “knowings” inside her. She has Lizard Radio. Will it be enough to save her? A coming-of-age story rich in friendships and the shattering emotions of first love, this deeply felt novel will resonate with teens just emerging as adults in a sometimes hostile world.
2. The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
I was hooked from the very first sentence of this book: The gravedigger's children were troublemakers, but I reserved judgment because I've read too many books (especially young adult fantasy books) that have amazing beginnings only to dissolve into a cliche. Or it could be that I've just read too many young adult fantasy books and they all start sounding alike. But The Bone Houses lived up to it's opening sentence. It reads like a fairy tale in the making and I loved every minute of it.
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn ("Ryn") only cares about two things: her family and her family's graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don't always stay dead.
The risen corpses are known as "bone houses," and legend says that they're the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?
Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the deeply-buried truths about themselves. Equal parts classic horror novel and original fairytale, The Bone Houses will have you spellbound from the very first page.
3. Holes by Louis Sachar
I'm pretty sure someone in college once lent me this book. When I picked it up again, I only vaguely remember what this middle grade novel was about. I'm so glad I reread it. It's got everything a good book should have. Depth. Humor. Emotion. I'm debating if I want to watch the movie now.
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.
4. Normal People by Sally Rooney
I watched the BBC Three/Hulu mini series first, and I will admit I enjoyed the TV show a smidge more than the book. However, the book really takes you inside the characters' heads and how mental health influences thoughts and how thoughts influence interpretations and how that influences behavior. I don't think I've ever read a book that captures thought processes so well and so interestingly.
Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
5. Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked this book up. I know that I didn't expect the author to show her uncle so much compassion. This wasn't a book written out of hate or bitterness or revenge. Part case study, part biography, part memoir, it was simply an explanation for why Dr. Trump's uncle is the way he is. I'm glad I read it.
Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.
A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.
Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.
Bonus Book: The Last Season by Eric Blehm
This is one of my favorite non-fiction books and one of my favorite books to reread. The story is a bit sad--it's about a ranger who goes missing in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park--but it's beautifully written and made me put the national park on my bucket list.
Destined to become a classic of adventure literature, The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada, the mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.
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