So, I decided to try doing quarterly round ups of favorite books, the idea being that then when I do my annual round up, I will be able to select from those. I'm sure this will make doing an annual roundup up of ten (or fifteenish) much easier and not turn my annual round up into a list of forty. We shall see.
Angie Thomas' On the Come Up - I started out reading this and then switched to audio (thanks, library!) and found I really liked listening to it. All respect to the reader, I'm not sure she has a career ahead in rap, but it helped to animate those sections. The story is about Bri, who feels like the least helpful member of her struggling family, and is focused on making it big as a rapper so she can change that. Angie Thomas writes some of the best, layered sibling relationships. It was also a really modern look at the choices we make about living up to or defying stereotypes.
Rachel Spangler's Edge of Glory - This is the story of two winter Olympians, a skiier and a snowboarder. It is a slow burn, but also just a really great look at two athletes who do not have time to be distracted, unless of course, they just are.
Balli Kaur Jaswal's Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows - This is an enjoyable book, a story about a woman trying to find her real career, and stumbling into this class full of widows who turn out to really want to write sexy stories. As a romance reader, I would say, the sexy stories are often shown in snippets or they cut away for laughs. The overall story about the challenge of finding your space as an immigrant, or first gen, even years later, and how freeing having the chance to speak freely can be, was great.
Anand Giridharadas' Winners Take All - I do read non-fiction. I also did this one in audio. It is a sobering look at how our current capitalistic construction is basically set up to perpetuate the status quo.
Talia Hibbert's Mating the Huntress - This was a fun werewolf hunter meets werewolf novella that is especially enjoyable if you wondered about some of the issues of fated mates stuff.
Sara Rees Brennan's In Other Lands - Speaking of riffing off other fantasy tropes, this book made me exceedingly happy as it poked fun at literally every thing I have ever whined about in fantasy. The main character is super snarky and barges into everything, so you have to be willing to go with that, but I snickered and texted someone halfway through that they had to read it.
Kris Ripper's Gays of Our Lives - This is the first in a series about a small California town that has an active and social LGBTQ community. This story features the classic grumpy hero and the ball of sunshine hero, and I just adored it to pieces. And immediately bought the next one.
Alyssa Cole's Once Ghosted Twice Shy - This novella has math banter. And normally I try not to keep recommending books in the same series, but, oh, hello, I literally finished A Princess in Theory and did a Twitter search because I was sure someone had already asked about Likotsi, and they had and I was so, so ready.
Becky Albertalli's Leah on the Offbeat - This might be my favorite of the series, which probably says something about me. Perhaps that snarky gloom and doom heroines are my catnip. Or something. But I enjoyed Leah and was glad to spend a book with her.
Mia Garcia's The Resolutions - I read this in one day, specifically New Year's Day. This book is a wonderful story about four friends who decide to make each other's resolutions. And one of the characters is so clearly struggling with the burden of living up to this, all while smiling and telling everyone that everything is fine, that I do not think I could have read this over a few days and not really been mad at everyone. So, for me, the one day read was the way to go. It does all get resolved and the journey was well worth it.
