Another magical short story collection from Kelly Link! These stories are more directly inspired by existing fairy tales than Link's other work, but each one has been moved into the modern day, and generally changed so much as to be only loosely recognizable. A Game of Smash and Recovery, inspired by Hansel and Gretel, does feature a brother and sister; but they have been stranded on a foreign moon by their space-traveling parents, and live by scavenging supplies from vast warehouses left behind by previous inhabitants, while evading the vampires which flutter around the edges of their downed spacecraft. As the younger sister gets older, she comes closer and closer to a realization that neither she nor her brother nor their parents are who she thinks they are. The Lady and the Fox, based on Tamlin, does involve a young woman clutching her beloved to her chest through a series of painful magical transformations, but the woman is a charity case goddaughter of a rich actress who's family hosts ridiculously elaborate Christmas parties in their family mansion. Skinder's Veil, loosely Snow-White and Rose Red, does contain two nearly identical sisters, but the main character is a grad student struggling to finish his thesis who takes on a house-sitting job in a cabin in Vermont that might be visited by immortals. And so on and so on, Link weaves her threads. This one didn't unseat Get in Trouble as my favorite Link collection, but I enjoyed it very much. 

This book is short, accessible and very informative! Price is trans and autistic, and was only diagnosed later in life. He blends narrative of his own lived experience with many interviews and thorough research. This book encourages compassion, self-knowledge, community building, and unmasking- the process of shedding the habits many autistic people employ to hide or mask their autistic traits. As a queer person pondering my own potential place on the autism spectrum, this book was an excellent introduction and gave me a lot of food for thought! 

I really wanted to like this series, but unfortunately, I don't. The pacing feels rushed, the characters aren't very realistic and burst out into outsized emotional reactions that don't feel earned, and at the end of this volume the trans character is outed against his will on a youtube channel with a million followers. I'm going to have to give up on this story. 

Sophos, the heir of Sounis, viewed with contempt by his father and a long series of tutors, was exiled to an island with his mother, sisters, and a small household of servants. He spent his time mostly reading poetry and wishing for someone to relieve him of his inherited responsibilities. Unfortunately, what comes instead is a troupe of attackers who kidnap Sophos, disguise him as a slave, and burn the manor house. Not sure if his mother and sisters survive, Sophos is taken back to the continent, where he is sure a rebellion of Barons waging civil war against his uncle, the king, mean him great harm. Sophos manages to escape and hide himself away among the indentured laborers in a great house, right under the nose of a Baron who might have hand in his kidnapping. From there, Sophos must make a decision: live safely in obscurity; or reveal himself and risk his life and the lives of his family? From this lowly position, is there any way Sophos can re-take his country? I picked this series back up after a 5 year gap since reading the first three. I had definitely forgotten some important information; for example, the fact that Sophos was a major character in book 1. This somewhat lessened the impact of some of the political machinations, but I still really enjoyed my return to this world and plan to finish out the series now. 

This is a story about complicated friendships and creative partnerships, the kind of deep intertwining of lives that an outsider might easy mistake for romantic or sexual but is in fact something closer to a platonic soulmate situation. It's semi-nonlinear, and covers much of the life of Sam Masur and Sadie Green from their meeting in a children's hospital in the late 1980s into their mid-30s and careers. Sam and Sadie become best friends through a chance meeting, and bonded over a shared love video games. A childhood grievance breaks their friendship, and they do not speak for many years until reconnecting in Massachusetts where Sadie is studying game design at MIT, and Sam mathematics at Harvard. Sam throws out a wild idea: in the summer break before their senior years, they should build a computer game together. So begins a tumultuous collaboration that absolutely delighted me, as did the epistolary elements, the mid-book shift into second person narration, and the stories within the story. What did not delight me was the abusive boyfriend who takes up a lot of space in the first 1/3 of the story. If student/teacher relationships and their accompanying unfair power dynamics, marital infidelity, or brief descriptions of physical abuse are a no-go, this book may not be for you. However, when this character mostly exited the narrative I began to enjoy it more and more and I can see why so many people added it to their favorite books of the year lists last year. 

Thien Pham traces his life from a refugee boat leaving Vietnam to a refugee camp to San Jose, California, anchoring memories around specific meals. Each memory is rich with sensory details- the saltiness of fish, the sweetness of rice, the novelty of school lunches in a new country- and build a narrative of a family surviving steep odds. The art is simple but effective, and the story is well-paced and moving. I had the pleasure of picking up an ARC of this memoir at the American Booksellers Association winter institute and enjoyed it so much. 

This series continues to delight! This one follows Stevie and her friends thought the fall of their senior year. They're all thinking about colleges- where to go, how many to apply to. Well, Stevie's friends are thinking about college. Stevie is thinking about how much she'd like to see her boyfriend, currently studying in England, and how much she wants another real murder case. Then David proposes a study abroad trip over Thanksgiving break and Stevie gets both of her wishes. I thought the motive of the murder in this one was less convincing and less clever than most of the previous books, but I honestly didn't care because I was having such a good time watch Stevie crack it (and blunder through very realistic conflicts with her peers). These are some of the best YA mysteries around, and I'm so glad there are more to come! 

¡Leí este cómic en español para practicar y lo disfruté mucho! Una historia simple pero linda.

A nuanced collection of essays from many different perspectives of folks whose gender doesn't fit into the binary. More than thirty contributors' pieces are arranged into five sections, themes around "What is Gender?", "Visibility", "Community", "Trans Enough", and "Redefining Dualities." This book came out in 2019, the same year as my book, and it's interesting to think about how much has changed since then. 

I've had this book on my shelf for ages, picked up at a used bookstore because of fond memories of other Velde books (Dragon's Bait and Heir Apparent made a big impression on me as a pre-teen). Unfortunately, I think I waited too long to read this, as it's a bit too simplistic for my tastes as an adult reader. It's a very short fairy-tale like story about a princess, Jennifer, who is fairly average in every way, who has to rescue a handsome but stupid prince from a curse. Jennifer and a sorcerer named Norman talk their way out of trouble with a witch, a giant, a dragon, an evil fairy and a jinni. The somewhat predicable story is enlivened by gorgeous line art illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman.