Alabama sorority rush on TikTok got me. And yeah, I watched a bunch of videos, but like a weirdo bibliophile, I wanted to read a book about it. One of the TikTokkers referenced Rush and a book that I couldn't find at a library. Though Patton is a Bama grad, she wrote about rush at Ole Miss, because I guess it's a bigger deal?

Patton gives us a three person narrative: Miss Pearl, the Alpha Delta Beta house maid; Wilda, the mother of a first-year pledge; and Cali, another first-year pledge, who unlike most of the girls, is not a legacy. In fact, Cali is shamed by her parentage, and keeps it a secret.

Rush is an addictive read with huge race problems from Miss Pearl, who loves the girls in the lily white sorority uncritically and who ultimately serves as a Magical Negro providing forgiveness and comfort to a white lady, and in a way to all the white Alpha Delts. I seem not to have bookmarked the page, but I recall in her author's note that Patton wants her girls to live in a world that doesn't see color.

And yet, addictive (hate?) read.

Essie (Esther) is the youngest in a large reality TV evangelical family/brand, Six for Hicks. Her dad is the preacher, but it's her mom who's calling the shots (pun). Essie has played along for all of her 17 years, even while scheming a way out. Her moment comes from an unplanned pregnancy, and Roarke, the boy she chooses to play her husband.

That description should be enough for you, but I'll add that it's quality white lady literary YA.

I've never read [b:Anna Karenina|15823480|Anna Karenina|Leo Tolstoy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601352433l/15823480._SX50_.jpg|2507928] (or seen one of the movies), so I probably missed some of the nuance of this YA adaptation. It's [b:Gossip Girl|22188|Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl, #1)|Cecily von Ziegesar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1398814332l/22188._SX50_.jpg|3061184] expanded to include Greenwich and three (of six) central characters of color. It's a good read if you can handle poor little rich kid decadence, but I wish it were shorter than its nearly 500 pages.

The book does stray from its inspiration, which a significant change that's signaled by a statement from Vronsky,

We're not living in the nineteenth century. Fuck all these stupid society rules of conduct. We have choices, we have free will, we can do whatever we fucking want.

My sweet spot these days is feminist romance like this story of a fat woman starring on a fictionalized version of The Bachelorette. Bea is a fashion blogger/influencer who drunkenly rants about the lack of body type diversity on the waning in popularity dating show Main Squeeze. When she wakes up the next day, her post has gone viral, and Main Squeeze is on its way to its worst season every, ratings wise.

Cut to a new showrunner and a new lead for Main Squeeze. Despite her clarity in text and pixels, it turns out Bea is still vulnerable to how she's perceived by men, so her reality TV journey has some bumps. Other major characters include asshole ex, a Latine best friend, and a sexed up Frenchman, not to mention Bea's often disappointing producer, Lauren.

It's a fun, fast read with narrative elements that include texts, Slack conversations, Twitter transcripts, and news excerpts.

The Flyy Girls series centers on a quartet of teens attending an arts high school in Harlem, starting with new girl Lux Lawson. Lux joins the student body as a photography major after getting kicked out of several other schools for fighting. She's pissed because her parents divorced, and her dad replaced her and her mother with a new family. Oops--the expulsions get Lux sent to live with Lawsons 2.o, possibly the last stop before military school.

Trying to be a new person, Lux marches up to a group of popular girls and before long is sitting with them at lunch. They think she's a mid-year transfer because she knows someone (partly true), not because of her violent past.

The thing about this novel is that it's a novella. So short! What a great way to get yourself back into reading, if you've been struggling. I read #1 and #2 in a day each.

For a little background, read my review of the first Flyy Girls book [b:Lux: The New Girl|49189703|Lux The New Girl|Ashley Woodfolk|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1583825122l/49189703._SY75_.jpg|73819293]. The second entry is about Micah, who I guess is called "good" because she goes to church? She and her boyfriend Ty are also "good" for now. Micah, who is mourning the death of her brother, thinks she's ready to connect more deeply with Ty, maybe even on the anniversary of Milo's getting killed on his bicycle.

Micah learns some of her brother's secrets and finally figures out how to commemorate his passing. With the other Flyy Girls to lean on, she begins to understand herself a little better, too.

Also a short book--great for readers with busted powers of concentration,

Two Latineaustinites come of age in the restaurant service industry. Pen is an aspiring bakery owner--and the daughter of Nacho's Tacos proprietor Ignacio Prado. Xander just joined the staff. He likes to cook, but he's mostly focused on finding the father who left him and his mother in Mexico when Xander was very young. Xander, who is undocumented, lives with his abuelo now. Pen, after she's fired from the restaurant, lives in a 6th floor, concrete hovel.

The story is simultaneously about family and finding one's independence. It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I was glad, so stick with it! cw: cop who's a good guy

Cary recounts her time at a predominantly white boarding school in Massachusetts--her last two years of high school in the 1970s. Cary is self-aware, self-critical, and in her words indulges in
"recreational fault-finding."

My interpretation of the title is that it's about the unattainable nature of Black excellence being achieved or seen. (But what do I know? I'm a cranky, hormonal, angry, grieving mess right now). The idea of ice also conveys vulnerability, as does this passage from early-ish in the book

Ed Shockley, who graduated in my class, can still remember standing outside the Rectory looking at the grounds and wondering whether his white classmates would jump him in the woods.

It's wild how Black men are so feared when they're in danger from white people all the time

Cary, despite her fault-finding, has the capacity to experience "love and gratitude, hate, resentments, shame, admiration, loss" all at once, as she expresses her graduation feelings. Black Ice is a solid but restrained read. Despite it being relatively short, at 237 pages, it took me what felt like a long five days to finish it.

Note to self: you don't do well with anthologies. Switching universes every 15ish pages does not work for you.

Some of the stories are fun, others less so. Points for racial, ethnic, gender, and sexuality diversity. I think my favorite was Samira Ahmed's funny and informative A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire. Each story was followed with a commentary and question from the co-editors. I found these distracting. I'd rather have had the stories stand on their own without input that took me out of the worlds the authors had created.

When I saw it was over 700 ebook pages, long, I almost didn't bother with Legendborn. But it's an epic Arthurian tale and warrants the time Deonn takes with it. I can be quick to put down a book, and I was not once tempted. The length made me read faster, with more dedication than I often put into book reading these days.

Bree Mathews is a gifted student who is admitted to an early college program, along with her best friend Alice Chen. The girls arrive at UNC Chapel Hill as high school juniors/college freshman. Bree's attendance is hard won, as her mother had been dead set on keeping Bree safe at home. But Bree's mom, like Bree's grandmother, died young, and the choice was taken out of her hands. Bree or "After-Bree" as she refers to her post-mother self, is ever grieving.

Bree and Alice get in trouble their very first night at school, and Bree is assigned a mentor, Nicholas Davis, to help her settle into the school better. Nick seems like Mr. Perfect, but it almost immediately becomes obvious that Nick is hiding something big...something that might have to do with a weird shimmer Bree saw at the hospital when she and her father learned of her mother's fatal car accident. Bree goes all-in, which definitely does not help her stay out of trouble.

I loved the story, characters, and relationships. I wasn't completely surprised by the twist, and I liked how Deonn built to it. My minor quibble is that I'm not super into the love triangle that is sure to come in the next entry in the series, which I would like to read right now tyvm, but it isn't out untl 2020. Aargh!

PS I liked this thank you in the acknowledgments

Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill historians, archivists, librarians, memory-holders, and truth-unearthers, for your work and research.