“So the sign for home is like someone kissing you twice, once near the mouth and once on your cheek just below your eye. Home went from being a place where you eat and sleep to the place where someone loves you.”

The Sign for Home was an incredibly educational, inspiring, and unique book. Arlo is a DeafBlind Jehovah’s Witness college student in need of an interpreter familiar with tactile ASL for his classes. Cyril happens to be just the man for the job, although his atheism and homosexuality don’t go over well with Arlo’s guardian and long-time interpreter.

The story contains so many educational elements about what it’s like to be DeafBlind and what happens when people are ignorant of or noncompliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It is also a very powerful story of friendship that occurs between two unlikely parties, Arlo and Cyril. For the entire story, Cyril is pushing for accessibility, better technology and proper ethics when it comes to Arlo’s needs. Arlo’s guardian, Brother Birch, is absolutely despicable and honestly just did so many things to completely hold Arlo back and ruin his life. Meeting Cyril changes everything for Arlo, including being able to talk about the love of his life.

From what I know via Deaf friends, Blair Fell does an excellent job of portraying the life of a DeafBlind person and I love that he gives us Arlo’s point of view in addition to Cyril’s to really understand the mind of someone who is DeafBlind. I loved the Rochester references considering it’s where I live and the Deaf community here is huge, given NTID at RIT. This book is definitely not one that can be read in one setting based on educational content, assuming that the reader probably does not know that much about being DeafBlind. It’s honestly a lot to take in and is heartbreaking as Arlo’s story unfolds and you see the significant impact that lack of accessibility can have on someone’s life. The portraits of friendship and the story are absolutely beautiful and very redemptive for the heartbreaking elements. While this book was slower paced and I expected the romance to play a more major role based on the book’s marketing, I know that the content is something that will stay with me forever.

Thank you to Atria and Emily Bestler Books for the copy of this ARC.

“It turned out that Death drew all of us close, even if we weren’t aware of it.”

I am finally catching up on my BOTM picks from 2021! I wish I read this sooner. The Keeper of Night is first of all just an absolutely gorgeous book. It’s the first in a duology and follows the story of Ren, who is Half British Reaper and half Japanese Shinigami. She lives in London with the Reapers, but when she can’t control her Shinigami gifts, she ends up having to flee to Japan with the help of her younger brother, Neven.

This book is DARK. I don’t mind that, but if you want a light and fluffy fantasy, this book is not for you. We meet some very interesting creatures as Ren searches for her mother in what she hopes can be her permanent home. Ren and Neven’s relationship is really sweet through most of the book, and honestly Neven is just the best. The narrative on being considered “half” something instead of a “whole” of something and wanting to fit into a place to call home was devastating and powerful. The ending gave both me whiplash and I can’t wait for the next book, coming out in the Fall!

“I am your maid. I know so much about you. But when it comes down to it: what is it that you know about me?”

Molly Gray is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. She loves cleaning, is great at following the rules, loves to help people, and has trouble understanding social cues. This gets her into some trouble when she finds a high-profile hotel guest dead in his bed one day while she’s cleaning.

The Maid was one of my January BOTM picks, and I binged it in a day. I thought this was just such a fun and light mystery read. Molly was a fantastic main character - I’ve heard her equated to Eleanor Oliphant a few times - because she is super awkward, literal, and ignorant. All the side characters play well into the story, and while the mystery isn’t quite that mysterious, watching the whole scenario play out was delightful.

Excellent memoir of a daughter reflecting back on her life growing up as a Korean American with a strong focus on losing her mother to cancer and finding her identity. Loved how candid this memoir was, and it was beautiful on audio since it was read by the author.

While I’ve love a couple other Isabel Allende books, this one unfortunately wasn’t my favorite. I felt pretty disconnected from Violeta, our narrator. The potential of a book about a lifespan from pandemic to pandemic was really intriguing to me, but the pacing was just too slow considering the wide timeline. There was such a focus on other characters and on an unnamed country instead of Violeta herself that even though she was narrating, I didn’t connect with her. She went through so much, but without much emotion. Despite not loving this book, I’ll definitely still read Allende books in the future.

Thanks so much to Ballantine for the copy of this book!