But when I got hurt, my mom was livid, as if I had maliciously damaged her property.

from page 23 is an encapsulation of the the fierce but confusing love Zauner grew up with from her mother.

Is there a German word for the wonderful-terribleness of books like this one? (Which reminds me, my friend Alenka turned me onto a great book podcast The Worst Bestsellers where a librarian and aspiring children's book author discuss terrible books.)

Ivana Trump tells us what an amazing mother she was to her kids and you can be, too, if you don't accept nonsense. There are 50 pages of photographs, too. Some choice quotes

I'm often asked about the secret to mothering success.

Am I alone in calling bullshit on that one? The entire Trump clan arrived exactly on time. I learned early on that they were punctual to an extreme....When Donald arrived in a boardroom, or took his seat on an airplane and the door closed, that was that....Donald once left Don Jr. standing on the tarmac for being five minutes late to the airport.She doesn't say how old Jr. was at the time. I wonder! Speaking of Don Jr.

Donald said, "What should we name him?"
"Donald Junior," I said.
"You can't do that!"
"Why not?"
"What if he's a loser?"

Ah, the first blush of paternal love!

There are multiple references to the Kennedys, which is interesting in light of the QAnon theory about JFK Jr. coming back and serving as Trump's running mate. They hired JFK Jr's nanny (and apparently she hated Ivana).

"Non of us have attitudes or egos."

writes Eric Trump in one of the many fillers from the kids, backing up Mom's claims. Here's one from Ivanka

During my punk phase in the nineties, I was really into Nirvana. My wardrobe consisted of ripped corduroy jeans and flannel shirts. One day after school, I dyed my hair blue.

Even I know that's grunge, not punk. I'm imagining her designer ripped jeans lol.

It'd been a rough couple of years for the children. They'd been through more in their young lives than many adults with ever face in theirs.

referring to her public divorce and the kids' grandfather dying. And this is a woman who grew up behind the Iron Curtain.

The parlor floor includes the entryway, a powder room, and Dorothy's and the in-house lawyer's office.

Her home includes a room for her lawyer! Maybe that came in handy during her recent "fall" to her death?
Finally, on raising normal, unspoiled rich kids,

medium-ticket items, like a new handbag or pair of skis

Are handbags and skis comparably priced?!? Did you ever have a handbag as a child or teen that cost three figures?!?

Maybe it was reading [b:Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself|55278169|Turning Pointe How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself|Chloe Angyal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604382594l/55278169._SY75_.jpg|72778475] or having Covid, but when I was out of library books on my tablet, I grabbed this old favorite from my bookshelf. It's a middle-grades novel before that term existed, published in 1936 and chronicles the lives of three adopted, orphan sisters in London. They aspire to be an actor (Pauline), chauffeur (Petrova), and ballet dancer (Posy). Lucky for them, their financially struggling guardian puts them in stage training school, where they can learn the skills to earn money upon turning twelve. (Can you imagine? And it worked!)

Something I didn't get on earlier reads--I hope the Doctors and Jakes and Smith were lovers! I also didn't know that [a:Noel Streatfeild|2951738|Noel Streatfeild|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1291700168p2/2951738.jpg] was a woman!

I wish I could get access to the BBC series from the 1970s!

When you don't know who your dad is but then you do and he's the Crown Prince of Japan. Izumi (Zoom Zoom to her mom and her annoying-but-lovable best friend Noora)(Izzy when she doesn't want to stick out in her mostly white, Trumpy California town) finds out about her dad accidentally, and it's Noora who does the sleuthing that identifies the 39-year-old DILF who impregnated Izumi's mom when the two were undergrads at Harvard. Izumi's mom (sorry I don't remember her name) had her reasons for not revealing Izzy's existence to His Imperial Highness or HIH's identity to Izzy.

Shortly after Izumi contacts HIH, she receives a delegation that invites her to Japan. There she meets her personal Imperial Guard, her cousins, her lady-in-waiting, and...her dad. Culture clashes ensue, along with love and betrayal, and the feeling of looking like everyone around you after years of being othered.

A couple seconds tick by. "Ah. I see. You're having the whole born-a-different-race-in-white-America existentialist dilemma."

"There's a name for it?"

"Sure is."

"What's the antidote?" My heart expands with its last little bit of hope.

"I'm not really sure there is a cure. Some things are just meant to be felt."

Squad is queer werewolf girl power graphic novel that's a quick read--if your near vision doesn't suck and you have to enlarge each ebook page as you go. Still, the story is cute enough and I like how the illustrator does a lot with lines and shadows. Maybe because I was struggling with the text, I got more into the art?

A trio of Black Muslim teens become girl boss bloggers. Bri, a dancer from DC starts the blog, You Truly Assumed, accidentally, not realizing it wasn't set to private. Next to join is Zakat, an artist from Lullwood, Georgia, and the administrative team is rounded out by Farah, a coder and designer from California. The blog brings together the three girls, who previously hadn't met, as well as serving as a reflective space for the larger community. Of course it also attracts negative attention, because America.

I appreciated all three stories and how the young women and their families and friends learned together. It's a pretty wholesome book and a fast read.

Every year from 2 to 12 Chandler students are admitted to a writing workshop called The Circle, led by Professor Douglas. The students are required to become family to each other, as well as critique partners. The story is told in the five students' alternating voices. Beth is an anxious townie, Spence a rich kid from NYC with a white dad and Indian supermodel mom, Ramin has fled Iran's sexuality repression, Brunson took care of her family while her mother battled cancer, and Freddy is a...pole vaulter. They're all water signs. (Professor Douglas is a lesbian)

It's like a group coming-of-age story, and it doesn't into the typical traps/tropes. There are mean kids (and adults), but Circle teens are genuinely committed and to one another. Also just about everyone is queer.

I want to draw attention, as well, to the book's content warning, which is also genuine and kind.

This book contains descriptions of sexual abuse, physical abuse, homophobia, and hazing. I tried to portray these issues with sensitivity, but please proceed with caution and care. My hope is that this story will help those who have experienced these traumas to feel less alone. If you need help, there are resources listed in the back of the book.

Boy meets girl and has hot sex then messes up, and he loses girl, then they make up and have hot sex then he messes up again and loses girl, and that goes on for another time or two until boy and girl realize they're meant to be and team up against boy's asshole brother.

The boy in this scenario is a step-prince of a fictional Danish-speaking country, and the woman is in HR at an academy that kind of sucks, pedagogically, so she's not super committed and goes along with it when the boy announces their (fake) engagement. There's money in it for her and her sick sister, so that helps.

It's an okay read, maybe a little long. Much sex and healthy domination.

There's something about lounging in a bath of blood that makes me want to stay until my fingers shrivel enough to show the outline of my bones.

is how this witchy novel begins. It's the day of Voya's bleeding. At 16, she's a little late to the party, but her impossible Calling task, which she must complete successfully in order to become a witch--and save her family's powers and her half sister's life--is a hefty one. Maybe it was delivered later than most so that Voya would be able to handle it.

Voya lives in a multigenerational household with her parents (and stepmother), half-sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, and Granny, the matriarch of the family, in a culture where matriarchy literally rules. It's a long twisty book with nasty surprises and bad things happening to good people, and backstory that takes its time unfolding. It's a little long for my taste, but still enjoyable, and I already put the second half of the duology on hold.

We learn from the afterword or acknowledgments that the Jodi Picoult/Jenny Boylan co-authorship started with a dream of Boylan's and was nurtured with a Twitter DM exchange, which is awfully sweet. I don't think I've read Picoult before, and I've only read Boylan's nonfiction. Their collaboration started I believe as a shared outline and each other writing one character's chapters. They say that with extensive editing, each can't entirely tell which parts she is responsible for. I share that just because it's interesting, not entirely germane to my review. However, I do think it's a smart way to give dual narrators a different feel from one another.

Boylan's character is Lily, who started senior year at a new school and almost immediate fell in love with Asher, whose mother, Olivia, is Picoult's narrator. Olivia is a beekeeper, of all things, and her narrative is skillfully entwined with what seems to be deeply researched and rendered beekeeping lore that bumps up the novel's literary cred. I believe Picoult is perceived by the Franzen crowd to be a lightweight, but I'd say she's boxing above her weight class.

Both main characters have depth and relatability. I was particularly in sync with Olivia, despite having little life experience that is similar. The one weakness with Lily is the author's need to explain and justify certain things, which says more about readers than the writer.

When the story becomes a legal battle, Olivia's brother jumps in, giving this depressing, but accurate advice to his client

Remember the whole point of a trail is that it's an adversarial process. We're supposed to attack each other, in the hopes that the truth is the only thing left standing after the carnage. I'm going to do the best I can.

And here's Lily comparing Jesus Christ and Charlie Brown

Actually, I sometimes think there is something very Jesus-like about Charlie Brown--his heartbreaking patience, his endless suffering.
You have to admit the show would have a different ending if, after he and Linus bought the sad little Christmas tree, the other kids in the Peanuts gang came after them with a hammer and some nails.

Lol, who even knows. Lily's mind is full of eclectic knowledge. In the same way Olivia furthers her story with bees, Lily's is embroidered with trenchant factoids.

As I write this, two weeks after I finished reading the book, I'm realizing it really made an impression. I look forward to digging into other novels by both writers. The one disappointing element, alas, is the final whodunnit.