Longer review to follow. I thought I would like this book more, given how many of my friends loved it. Intrigue certainly abounded, but this book was so wordy and it lost me a few times because of it. I think if the first 40% were about half as long it would have helped tremendously.

Priya Krishna collaborates with her mom, Ritu Krishna, to present a glorious array of her mom’s best “Indian-ish” recipes developed over years of adapting Indian traditions for American ingredients and the palates of her American food loving kids, plus incorporating ingredients and dishes discovered in her travels. And let me tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever read a cookbook that had me this excited about trying the recipes. I want to cook EVERYTHING. These dishes look so delicious, and the book is full of drool-worthy photography (ht photographer Mackenzie Kelley and food stylist Judy Kim). Krishna constantly emphasizes how easy Indian cooking is, and seriously the bulk of these recipes have three or fewer steps and about a dozen ingredients. Bonus, if you’re vegetarian, so is almost every recipe in this book.⁣
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I like reading cookbooks straight through by reading all the introductory material and the blurbs about each dish, and this book delivers a lot of great content in those spaces. I loved learning the genesis of each dish, and Priya Krishna is so funny I was laughing out loud multiple times while reading. The book is such a bounty of love, between daughter and mother, and family and food. It’ll absolutely warm your heart, and make you want to jump into the kitchen to try Ritu Krishna’s variation on saag paneer using feta or aunt Sangeeta’s mom’s quinoa kheer. Thoroughly recommended.

Deeply personal, meandering, a treasure. Longer review likely to follow.

I was so stoked to revisit one of my favorite settings and see the way the world was shaped by the events of the Mistborn trilogy and the 300 years since. Sanderson delivers another thrilling ride with unique characters, new magics, and plenty of feels-inducing references back to my faves. It was wildly interesting seeing the ways the real people of the Mistborn trilogy became history and lore, and the way religion and culture developed as a result of their actions.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender is a young adult contemporary about self discovery, with a sweet dash of romance, about a Black queer trans guy named Felix. After a somewhat slow start, I found myself pretty completely in love with this novel. Felix’s journey is a hard read at times, he is targeted with a big public transphobic attack followed by continued anonymous bullying, and struggles to feel totally supported by even those closest to him, like his dad who helped fund his transition but can’t seem to come around to consistently saying Felix’s name. The challenges Felix faces are all too realistic, but so too is his resilience and profound character growth throughout this novel. This is the kind of book that has me feeling heartsick the next day that I don’t get to keep spending time with these characters.⁣
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Cw for transphobia, bullying, deadnaming, homophobic parents

Wow, this book is as life-changing as I’ve heard. I feel like I understand American history in a way that I never did in school growing up, and now I’m continually seeing the world around me through Kendi’s framework of antiracist ideas battling two kinds of racist ideas - segregationist and assimilationist. One of the biggest takeaways from this book for me was Kendi’s argument that racist ideas have been developed to support racist policies, rather than the other way around, and that’s been so instructive to understanding both history and the present. Plus it’s turned me into a person who wants to read hefty history books!

To read this book, you've gotta grit your teeth through quite a bit of 1960's sexism/racism/homophobia

This is a phenomenal memoir. Tobia intentionally and successfully disrupts the genre of “trans memoir” that’s historically gained small traction, a “born in the wrong body” narrative about an individual who transitions and happily conforms to the gender binary. And Tobia is clear in stating that there is nothing wrong with that trans narrative, and that it’s valid and good and some people’s experience, but that can’t be the only story, or only framework through which we understand transness. In this thoughtful and hilarious memoir, Tobia discusses triumphs and trauma, and frankly dismisses the notion that trans people need to share a nonstop-traumatic story to be valid. I hope it’s acceptable to look up to someone who’s younger than you, because Tobia captivated me with their passionate activism, their vulnerability and strength. (How weird is it to get steadily older and then suddenly find that people younger than you are publishing memoirs you want to read?)⁣
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I’m still processing a lot of personal thoughts and feelings that came up for me reading this book. Gender is such a big complex topic, and I especially appreciated the way Tobia discusses how they’ve been both hurt by gender norms but have delighted in gender expression too. Their recollection of advocating for themself at a young age was so precious and powerful, and I love the way they grew up and reclaimed that fire to fight for themself. And it’s so vital how that extends to others, and the dream that future kids like them will grow up in a world more full of acceptance because of the work they and other trailblazers are doing to change culture to its core. ⁣

I stayed up til almost 2 am finishing All City by Alex DiFrancesco, a climate change fueled dystopian that feels very much in conversation with Butler’s Parable novels and Severance by Ling Ma. ⁣
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All City imagines a future New York City decimated by a powerful superstorm that leaves much of the city flooded. The wealthy have evacuated, and the novel follows a motley cast of those left behind. Alternating perspectives follow primarily a young woman named Makayla, and a genderqueer person named Jesse as they land in a community together, making their homes in vacant luxury apartments in an abandoned building. DiFrancesco weaves in a mysterious Bansky-esq artist who paints murals throughout the city, seemingly to call attention to the plights of those left behind. There's a stark tension between the exhortation of those who fled to return and rebuild against the unparalleled freedom carved out in the abandoned city by those without the resources to evacuate. ⁣
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The book does feel a little young, perhaps due to the characters' ages, and the ending fell somewhat short in resolving some of my biggest questions, but still it was undeniably un-put-down-able and emotionally full. Reading dystopians during a global pandemic won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if the genre is your jam I'd definitely recommend this novel as an intriguing offering for the canon. ⁣
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Cw for rape, transphobic/homophobic violence, suicide, drug use/abuse, violence against animals, a (really well done) scene dealing with the complexity of period induced dysphoria during a disaster.