I read the books in the trilogy too quickly, one after the other. I recommend not doing that. Also, why the fuck is Stevie with David? He is The. Worst.

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.

4.5 rounded up. Haben Girma is deafblind woman from the Bay Area of Eritrean descent. She was born deafblind, but her sight and hearing were stronger when she was young and diminished over time. She is a high school valedictorian and Harvard Law grad who has spoken about disability rights around the world. Her book is comprised of linear, present tense, autobiographical essays that detail defining moments and key passages from her life. They're bite-sized, but full of nutritional value, as Girma educates the world and the reader about disability and what a brilliant, funny, person is attached to the braille reader or the guide dog if say hi instead of averting your gaze.

It's the kind of book you want to recommend to people, even as you're reading it.

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.

I was glad to get sucked into this book, since reading under quarantine has been hard for me. Truly Devious is centered on girl detective Stevie arriving at an exclusive boarding school for exceptional high school juniors and seniors. She is determined to solve a crime that took place at the Vermont school over 80 years prior. She's joined in her dorm by an engineer, a published novelist, an artist who was raised on a commune, a YouTube star, and I'm not sure if the other kid, David's, speciality is.

Before Stevie can identify Truly Devious (that's how the murderer signed their first threat), another mystery emerges, and she is treated to her first dead body. She hadn't fully accounted for that reality of murder.

I would have given the book 5 stars, if it weren't for the "To be continued" ending. I think books in a series should stand on their own, and I don't like the feeling that I've been manipulated.

Marva is a serious voting enthusiast, and at 18 is getting to pull the lever for the first time. She's pissed at her boyfriend, Alec, who for reasons that never become clear, isn't voting. Enter Luke, a disenfranchised voter, who obviously Marva has to help vote. I forget which state they're in, California, I think, but it's a state that has same-day registration, not to mention school is held on Election Day. Is that really a thing? It's the November election, not a primary, and Marva is so committed that she misses a calculus test to help get Luke to the polling place for his former residence. Luke teases Marva for going to a fancy school and driving a Volvo, which annoys her, but she still thinks he's cute.

As the day progresses, they talk about race (they're both Black), class, and other topics, they get to know each other better. Luke even meets Marva's parents, who immediate like him better than ignorant white Alec.

It's a readable, but not the most satisfying. Also the Eartha Kitty (Instagram cat celeb) plot line was totally wack. If one of my cats was ever missing, I would freak the hell out and wouldn't worry about one dumbass kid with other resources getting his vote on.

Thanks, NetGalley and Disney for the DRC.

Sometimes I don't like story collections because they're uneven, but you know what? You can skip the ones that don't speak to you! I wouldn't say these stories are uneven in quality, which is uniformly high, it's just that one likes what one likes.

Ibi Zoboi sets the stage for what kind of book about Blackness this is going to be with this statement

If global Blackness had a rating scale of one to ten, the Haitian Revolution has got to be at level ten, being the most Blackest thing that ever happened in history.

That is a bold, stirring opening. The stories themselves aren't overtly radical. Unless you think living a Black life is radical, which apparently it is in the United States and other places in the world. Instead the stories are more intimate. They're not about police violence, protests, or other issues that provoke. A lot of them are about crushes and love because that's often the main thing teenagers are thinking about.

Chuna, now Robin, Ha, was moved from Seoul, Korea to America, Huntsville, Alabama, no less, when she was 14, without her knowledge or consent. Her mom says they're going to visit her "friend" Mr. Kim, and before she knew it, Chuna was Robin starting a high school with no ESL program and little help from the kids in her step-family. Disappointingly she knows nothing about K-Dramas and K-Pop, so she can't connect with people through either of those popular media. Instead, the graphic memoir tells Robin's story of finding friends through her love of comics, manga, and anime.

I read it in a day and recommend it.

An agender white kid of privilege, Sasha, sleeps on a city bus. A Black kid with a juvenile record, Richard, sets fire to Sasha's skirt. In a world that leans toward the polemic, many people have strong feelings about what should happen to Richard, even in Oakland where the teens live.

"They couldn't figure out who to root against," [Sasha's father] Karl explained. He grinned. "It was a really hard time for the neo-Nazi community."

This might be a joke that is funnier to the melanin deprived than Black people. The deck was stacked against Richard. Despite being agender, with parents who still forget their pronouns, and having been set on fire, Sasha gets by alright. They have a solid group of friends, they go to a great school, get into the college of their choice and find their people there. Richard, who did a really fucked up thing (he thought the skirt would spark for a second and go out), isn't as alright.

Slater tries to tell the teens stories even-handedly, and I think succeeds, but there's still something that rubs me the wrong way about the book. Even though it's about the kids, is the author somehow centering herself, as the historiographer? It reads like an episode of This American Life, where listeners/readers are treated to a fascinating true story that doesn't entirely impact them. Still, Slater highlights important realities that people need to understand, like

Transgender people are the victims of an astonishing amount of violence. One out of every four trans people has experienced a bias-driven assault, and the numbers are even higher for trans women, trans people of color, and people who identify as neither male nor female.

This book, which is meant to be even-sided, does make one strong argument, and that is that trying juveniles as adults is fucked up. Or at least that's what I got from it. One of Richard's supporters says,

"Not that it's not a horrible crime," one explained, "but it's also a crime to try a child as an adult."

CHILDREN ARE CHILDREN. In fact, per Inside the Teenage Brain, brains are still developing into one's twenties, and that immaturity regards understanding consequences.

There's also a missed opportunity identified in the narrative: transformative justice. The kids and their families were interested, but the fucking DA wouldn't pursue it. The DA also withheld material from Richard that might have impacted how Sasha's mother spoke of the crime at sentencing.

Slater provide a timeline of gender-neutrality milestones. Did you know that Australia has been allowing people to put an X on their documentation since 2013, and for the same amount of time Germany has provided "indeterminate" as an option on birth certificates?!? Ever fair, she also has a section of juvenile incarceration stats, identifying African-Americans' disproportionate share of the population and the risks they face while incarcerated--and how much it costs to keep them in jail, which seems like an out of place stat, meant for rich and white people, who might be more convinced by the economics of imprisonment than the injustice of it.