This book is very well researched and compiled, and it shined especially in telling the stories of many of the bar’s patrons. I was most invested in the story when these people were at the forefront, and this book compiles a very personal story about this small specific place, while also broadening the scope to touch on the political climate and contemporary movements. Definitely recommend you pick up this book if you enjoy reading true crime, lesser known or buried history, and/or LGBTQ+ history.

I fell immediately in love with Juliet, and would enthusiastically recommend this sparkling novel. ⁣My favorite aspects were Juliet's family, especially her little brother Melvin, and I love Rivera's extended use of breath as metaphor. ⁣

Super interesting, still processing.

A quick story in the Ninefox Gambit world that expand the backstory of Jedao, a character I continue to thoroughly enjoy reading about. The tone felt different from the novel, and even from the other short story about him that I read.

I was completely charmed by How To Be Happy by Eleanor Davis. Not actually a guidebook on being happy, this strange and moving collection of stories muse on themes of sorrow, happiness and fulfillment.

My favorite stories were Nita Goes Home, which depicts a woman in a future society who lives in a farm community and visits her dying father and sister in their polluted city world; and No Tears, No Sorrow, a story about a woman attending a seminar on how to learn to cry. The shorter comics in this collection were often the most impactful, but can’t easily be described except by saying that they are brilliant pieces of art, and several made me feel seen in deep hidden places that feel a little more healed by the experience. This is definitely a book I will revisit.

Wowww Ann Petry. Brilliant.

LOVED IT! There were like half a dozen plot points which didn’t fit cohesively into the frame of the narrative for me, but I still loved this book completely and utterly. I was charmed by Aster, and loved seeing the world of Matilda through her eyes. This book decisively confronts racism and the power systems which support it, as well as exploring concepts of sexuality and gender, and Solomon shines in these aspects. Matilda is an expertly developed setting, with its own cosmology and religions, social striations, rules, languages, myths, legends, and history. Even if the plot left me a little confused at times, I was propelled through this book and my brain loved it. Solomon is brilliant, and I’m so looking forward to reading more of their creative storytelling and what they have to say. ⁣

This book’s distinctive style charmed me immediately; each chapter begins with a recipe and fades from the description of the preparation into the evolving story of the life of the narrator’s Aunt Tita. Tita, as the youngest daughter of her mother, Mama Elena, is fated to never marry and spend her life taking care of her mother into her old age. Tita rages against this unfair fate, questioning the wisdom of this family tradition which leaves the youngest daughter with no family to take care of her in her own old age. And to whom will she pass down the family recipes and home remedies she learns from the beloved family cook Nacha? To complicate matters, since he cannot marry her, Tita’s love, Pedro, chooses to marry her sister in order to be near to her.

I loved Esquivel’s narration, and the over-the-top imagery and magical elements - flooding caused by tears, and the way Tita’s emotions become infused into her food and affect the people who eat it. In a classically ‘me’ move, I never really bought into the Tita/Pedro romance, which made a lot of the story surrounding their love hard to get invested in. I’m not sure whether their interest in each other was really meant to be based flimsily on nothing (which makes some sense given they fall for each other at a young age, and maybe they are more in love with the idea of each other than actually aware of each other’s personalities) or if it was meant to be a strong romance that just occurred too much off-screen for me to feel it. Despite that qualm, I was quite immersed in this novel’s unique style and evocative imagery.

This book was definitely the exciting ride I expected! I loved all the classic thriller elements of characters who are each hiding something, and the right and wrong suspicions zinging back and forth across its large cast of characters. The characters are lovely well crafted individuals, and I've loved reading so many reviews from folks on here who see themselves reflected in the immigrant experience of the Yoo family. Kim connects all the dots in this narrative brilliantly, and I fully enjoyed the way pieces of information unfolded.⁣
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My one nagging issue was the portrayal of autism, and the relatively unchallenged assertion that "curing" a child of autism was an objectively "good" thing. Some amount of nuance is for sure explored here, but for most of the book the main proponents of accepting autistic children are vilified overzealous caricatures whose viewpoint is mostly lost in the condemnation of their aggressive methods. All autistic adults I've read writing by argue against seeking cures for autism and instead for acceptance of autistic people. Often to me the line felt blurred in this book between advocating for seeking alternative therapies for medical problems, like intestinal pain, and trying to fix the uncomfortable-for-the-parents "abnormal" behaviors of these kids, like rocking or avoiding eye contact, that are just harmless ways of interacting with the world. Of course, parents that want to cure their children of these behaviors and their autism diagnosis definitely exist, and shining a light on them is not bad, but I wish that another side was shown with a little more depth.⁣