I think I picked this up for the roller derby content. Our protagonist's derby name is Rolldemort. I don't remember her real name without looking it up, but I do remember her best friend's: Sibby. Sibby is her derby wife. They're seniors in a Cambridge high school. Sibby, an Aussie transplant is waitlisted at Tufts, and Rolldemort got into Amherst ED. Speaking of transplants, it turns out a liver condition Rolldemort was born with, but didn't pay much attention to is all of a sudden demanding attention. Other important characters are R's parents, her brother Alex, and Alex's best friend Will. There's a little romance, but as with most of my favorite YA, it's really a story of friendship.

Randall Munroe, of XKCD fame, does what the title says. It's funny, smart, cute, and gets a teeny bit repetitive after a while. Recommended for your bathroom and/or for tween science fans and their parents.

https://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/giddings/lakewood

I don't know their music, so I didn't have any attachment to the musicians. I was just in it for the high school memoir about identical twins. i've always been interested in identicals. For the first half of the book I couldn't always keep track of who was who, but I didn't mind too much. I was surprised that they fought so much, given that the identicals in my life don't seem to fight at all. (Apparently you can't base an opinion on an entire group of people on a tiny sample.)

High school for Sara and Tegan (alphabetically, seems to be a thing. We never learn when or why their band name got reversed to "Tegan and Sara.") was about drugs, best friends, boys for a minute, and then girls. It was the 1990s in Calgary, and accepting their sexuality wasn't easy for either of them.

This is part a biography of the author's mother and part a history of Numbers, which I only knew about because I read Daddy Was a Number Runner when I was a kid. I still have it on my shelf and should read it again, as it's been 10 or 20 years. I was interested in the subject matter--a strong, Black woman making her way in a world where everything was stacked against her, but ultimately found the writing a little dry and gave up. The issue is surely me, not the author, since my social isolation reading concentration is for shit.

Fun book about packhorse book delivery in coal country in the 1930s. Because I'm a snot, I won't call the riders "librarians." The one person who seemed to have any actual library training, Sophia, had to stay back in the library HQ because she was Black. It's billed as a romance, and the book contains multiple heterosexual unions. I think at least one character might have been a little queer. One possible lesbian and one likely asexual. Despite the culminating romances, the book is more about women coming together to fight sexism and an asshole coal tycoon. I am always up for a book about defeating an asshole coal tycoon!

What do you say about the middle book of a trilogy? I don't get the David Eastman attraction. What a horrible guy.

I read/finished an adult, literary book for the first time in a hundred years (where 100 years = since early February). Women of the Silk takes place in 1920s and 30s China. The women in the book work in a silk factory and commit to remaining single, which is the only refuge from being sold into marriage to whatever advantageous boor their family selects for them. When Pei first arrives at the house where girl workers dorm, she thinks her life is over, but despite some harrowing times to come, it's a good move for her. Pei is the protagonist, but the omniscient narration includes the thoughts of Pei's taciturn parents, her friends at the house, and others. There's a little romance, but mostly the story centers friendship.

Kat and Meg are Edmonton high school students isolated by their disabilities, anxiety and ADHD, respectively. They meet because of where they're sitting in science class, ending up attached for a yearlong project. At first, especially to Kat, the partnership seems like a bad idea, but then they discover their mutual love for a video game vlogger, and that opens the door to the girls becoming friends. There are boys involved, but this is a friendship story, and an overcoming personal challenges story. If you don't like to read novels that are only about white people, know that Meg is Black.

It's a quick, fun read, though it may take anxious readers like me a minute to have patience with Meg's ADHD and theoretically ADHD readers may have a trickier time waiting for Kat to ctfo.

Two Missouri girls take a road trip to New Mexico, Veronica for an abortion, and Bailey for a purpose that reveals itself once you're a thousand miles in. Despite being the book's catalyst, the abortion isn't that big a deal. I mean, it's a really big deal that a teen has to undertake an epic journey to save the life she wants for herself, but she's not conflicted about it. A+ for an abortion story. The best friend (gay best friend because there's always one in straight YA these days) is actually a former best friend. Veronica and Bailey's paths diverged when they entered high school, and Veronica started dating a popular boy and Bailey remained closeted with a demon to keep her company in there.

The newfound friendship, even with its bumps in the road, isn't totally believable, but it's still sweet that in the end, the girls save each other.