Mid-Year Book Freakout 2023
1. Best book you've read so far this year
Well, I reread Spinning Silver/Naomi Novik again… But besides rereads I really loved two non-fiction books: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood/Nathan Hale. It’s a graphic novel with the characters being represented as animals, so I was really nervous at first that it would make light of something tragic but it didn’t at all, and I think the illustrations emphasized the horrificness while still being appropriate for its intended audience (4th graders). (It also finally convinced me to pick up Maus.)
The other was The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos/Judy Batalion, which was an extensive following of a number of women resistance fighters in the ghettos, which is a subject that I hardly know about.
2. Best sequel you've read so far this year
It absolutely has to be Ribsy/Beverly Cleary, the last in the Henry Huggins series. I was nervous because it follows Ribsy the dog rather than Henry the human, but it was great. I liked the look at all the different families (except one) and Ribsy’s perspective. It nearly made me cry even/exactly when the good things were happening.
Also, special mention to The Chalet School in Exile/Elinor M. Brent-Dyer for acknowledging the murder of Jews by regular citizens back in the first year of WW2 when that’s something plenty of people refuse to admit to this day. (Though maybe it was easier then when it was an enemy country.)
3. New release you haven't read yet
All of them lol. I’ll choose six notables (one for each month):
The Dos and Donuts of Love/Adiba Jaigirdar--I loved Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating so much! I’m so excited about this I’m nervous
The Luis Ortega Survival Club/Sonora Reyes--I love a story about messed up experiences in high school
The Home for Wayward Girls/Marcia Bradley--See above
The Mimicking of Known Successes/Malka Ann Older--I heard it described as a Sherlock Holmes type mystery in space, and I’ve really wanted to read something by this author for a long time but this was the first book that really caught my eye
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride/Roshani Chokshi--It is my favorite sub-genre (fairy tale retelling) of a fairy tale that I find really interesting (Bluebeard) by an author I already know I enjoy
Sorry, Bro/Taleen Voskuni--Jews often feel that they have a lot of common with Armenians (for good reasons) so I’m really interested to read this story of someone claiming both her culture and her sexuality (even my mom was interested and she tries to not be homophobic but she winces at bi characters)
4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year
Delicate Condition/Danielle Valentine. This absolutely sounds like a book that is going to make me cry.
5. Biggest disappointment
Catherine, Called Birdy/Karen Cushman. This seemed like a book that would be right up my alley--historical, mg, epistolary, rebellious and funny main girl character--but it just fell flat for me in so many ways.
Leave It to Beaver/Beverly Cleary surprised me by actually being pretty good, which you don’t usually expect for a novelization of a tv show. It wasn’t her best work, but I do want to read the rest of the series.
And, then, one I saved for here, Top Secret/John Reynolds Gardiner. This was recommended me as a funny, gross book and it was that (admittedly, a bit light on the grossness but what was there was good), but it also very much talked about repressing creativity for bad reasons and I loved that.
7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)
A.J. Sass. I read Ellen Outside the Lines in one night and immediately put two more of their books on my tbr.
8. Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character
Just the one? Well, Ead Duryan from Priory of the Orange Tree/Samantha Shannon is exactly the type of character I love; but have you read about the angel/Uriel Shtetler from When the Angels Left the Old Country?! It thinks in such an interesting way about things and so it changes in a very odd way. (Also, it becoming more ‘human’ doesn’t make it stop using it/its pronouns!)
9. Book that made you cry
Ribsy, I’ve mentioned, but I don’t think any other book made me cry.
10. Book that made you happy
I reread The Girl With the Silver Eyes/Willo Davis Roberts to see if it still held up after over a decade since I first read it and it absolutely did. It acknowledges that grown-ups can make mistakes while trying to help children and that children have the right to defend themselves from that as well as actually evil adults. Also, read this fanfiction of Katie as an adult.
Riding Lessons/Jane Smiley also made me happy because it didn’t attempt to pathologise a kid whom I think would be pathologised today.
Tagging @ninja-muse @bookcub @opalescentswan @books-are-portals and @gigilberry (Only if you want to, obviously.)
