A beautiful book in verse about migrant farm workers and the fight for fair treatment and workers rights. This book is set during the time that Caesar Chavez was actively campaigning for migrant workers in California. The main character is a young girl with an abusive, alcoholic father, so do check content warnings. 

Fight Night is an excellent book that I find hard to describe. It is both sad and hilarious, telling the story of a grandmother, pregnant mother, and daughter experiencing the grief of a father who is gone. 

Told mostly from the point of view of the child, it is both simple and complex- hitting hard truths about life in the voice that sometimes only children have. This book has a lot to say about life and death, without feeling too heavy. 

If you want to laugh through some tears, this book is perfect for you. 

God of Sperm is an informative, interesting biography of Cappy Rothman, a doctor who pioneered sperm research and revolutionized reproductive health in the 1970s. 

The title seems funny, but it is the nickname Cappy earned amongst his peers and patients and there are very few jokes in this book. In the beginning we learn about Cappy’s childhood via stories of his mafia boss father. Norman Rothman was deeply involved in Cuba and while interesting, this section feels a bit out of place with the rest of the book. 

I enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on how forward thinking Cappy was to research make infertility in a time when all blame was placed upon women. I also appreciated the honesty that was shown about his personal life with his wife and children. 

Overall this was an informative book that I would recommend to anyone curious about the history of IVF and other infertility treatments. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review. 

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is the most honest, vulnerable memoir I've ever read. Matthew Perry is perhaps one of the most famous actors of the 1990s, how could you have missed the cultural zeitgeist that was and is Friends? While I was not a fan of Friends, I really loved his tender openness in this memoir and I'm so glad I read it. 

In this book, Perry discusses numerous relationships both romantic and otherwise as they relate to his past and to his journey with addiction. Perry has experienced addiction in many forms and he has a lot of wisdom about sobriety, and I loved his honesty about how the journey hasn't been linear for him. He openly explains the roots of insecurity that stem from his childhood and how his trouble committing to lovers has impacted his life. 

While I loved this book and I feel terrible critiquing it, it is far from perfect. There are things I would change as far as editing for smoothness in the storyline and I think he could have shown a bit more acknowledgement of his incredible privilege as an affluent white man. But really, I think he focused on his story and his emotional experience as an addict trying to stay clean and I can't fault him for telling that as he did. Not perfect, 5 stars, 100% recommend. 

These Silent Woods is a character driven novel told by a father who is raising his young daughter deep in the Appalachian woods far from society. What we do not know as the story begins is why the father, Cooper, and his daughter must live this isolated life. As the story unfolds, we learn bits and pieces about Cooper's past and what brought him to this situation. 

It is a sad, beautifully written book about a father's love and a daughter's desire to learn more about the world. The reveals feel emotional and raw, but not necessarily shocking. The ending is beautiful and neat, but not perfectly so. I really liked this book. 

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is a beautiful sweeping novel telling the story of four siblings who visit a fortune teller as children. The fortune teller predicts the exact date each of them will die with shocking accuracy. The story subtly raises essential questions about how that kind of knowledge might impact how one chooses to live. 

After receiving their fortunes individually, we then dive into the lives of each individual sibling in the order in which they pass from this world. Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya live very different lives with various degrees of connection to each other and their mother. Each story is bittersweet, and Benjamin weaves in historical accuracy to their character arcs. 

If you love the idea of a book about what happens when people know when they are going to die, this is the book to pick up. It is magnificently written and paced so that you will never want to put it down. I think it will be one of my favorite books of all time. 

My Darkest Prayer is another gem from SA Cosby, full of complex and flawed characters and a mystery that’s about the journey as much as the resolution. 

I love how SA Cosby uses his characters to reflect the issues in our society as well as its potential, and that doing the right thing is never about perfection or moral absolutes. The setting also comes to life with richness.

Nathan works for a funeral home in south eastern Virginia. When a local reverend dies by suicide, Nathan is highly suspicious and even more leery that no one else seems interested at all. As he dives into the reverend’s former life, Nathan finds himself an unlikely ally in an adult folk star and surrounded by other interesting individuals. 

The mystery is enjoyable and tenuous, with a satisfying conclusion but I adore SA Cosby for characters he brings to life that feel so real, so firmly entrenched in the ugliness of our world. I highly recommend this for fans of his other works or anyone who enjoys Southern characters and small town drama. 

Fake Like Me is the story of a painter living in NYC whose studio and apartment burns with 8 very large painting inside. Mere months away from a huge show and under contract, the painter only admits to one painting be burned and she must find a studio to recreate the others (an act of fraud) as quickly as possible. 

The painter finds space upstate with a group of artists called Pine City. Pine City is a group of four artists, once five, but three years ago one of their own committed suicide in dramatic fashion. Carey Logan, the aforementioned artist, is the role model of the painter. In fiction as in real life, there are few successful female artists and the road is lonely. Entering the world of Pine City, the painter must not only recreate eight massive paintings on an unrealistically tight timeline, but she also feels compelled to solve the mystery of Carey Logan's suicide for herself. 

Pine City is closing ranks and becoming more elusive and evasive than ever. Will the painter get answers to her questions? What happened to Carey Logan? Will the painter be able to recreate her work in time and without being found out? This slow moving, visually decadent book will keep you turning the pages to discover the truth and see what happens next. 

After We Were Stolen is so well executed and nicely written, you'd never guess it is a debut novel. Beyfuss tells us the story of two teenagers who escape from the commune where their parents were abusing them and preparing them for the end times. Avery and Cole escape while every one else, including eight other siblings, die in a tragic fire. 

What Avery and Cole discover after running away is even more shocking than how they grew up. Avery narrates us through her trauma and finding a way to live in a world she was never prepared for. At the center is a mystery she both must solve and does not want to solve- did anyone else survive? How did the fire happen?

I think this book is great for fans of dystopia, family thrillers, and isolated mysteries. The prose was lovely, concise and full of feeling. The characters were believable and relatable, even coming from unspeakable, unimaginable trauma. I highly recommend this book, it is on my list of top mysteries this year.