The Secret Astronomers: A Novel in Notes by Jessica Walker

 genre: young adult fiction

In a West Virginian high school library is an old, and I mean OLD, physics textbook.  If you happen to find this book, you'll discover the notes between two students, strangers, and the mystery they try to uncover.  One of these students was born and raised in a West Virginian holler and another is a transplant from San Fransisco with family ties to the area.  Their different ways of looking at the world will show up time and and again as they get to know each other and as they navigate the complications of high school life.

I really appreciate creative storytelling, and I found this book to be just the kind of creative that surprises me.  This epistolary story is told in the length of a textbook with drawings and doodles and artwork all over pages that teach us about how scientists understood our world back in the late 1800s.  The mystery isn't some kind of huge reveal but by the end I realized, the mystery isn't the point.  The point is that these two students have stretched each other's minds, they've examined their own biases and also recognized biases in others.  City vs rural and liberal vs conservative, that is a part of this book too and I liked they even when they called each other out, they managed to still stay connected.  Four stars for creativity and a good example of how to handle it when people show up in ways that we know don't feel good.

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston (audiobook)

 genre: contemporary romance/time slip

Clementine is a career-focused publicist, good at her job and proud of how far she's come.  Even with all the pleasure she's finding at work, though, a gaping loss is leaving her at odds with everything she's always loved.  Here is where the time slip part of the book comes in: the apartment that her aunt left to her in her will is actually a finicky portal in time that takes certain residents back in time seven years.  And seven years ago, in Clementine's apartment, is a young and ambitious cook who wants to be a chef - and soon seven years seems like hardly anything at all and also everything, at the same time.

This is a fast paced romance with a dreamy love interest and a deeply grieving main character.  Her grief is a big part of this story and how Clementine shows up in the world and in her relationships.  I have to be honest, this book's writing is super repetitive.  I heard certain phrases SO many times that I just really wanted the author to stretch.  I just could NOT suspend my disbelief enough, for some reason. I think because my brain just had so many questions about how the time slip could work and I couldn't sort them out.  So for a fun story to pass the time, it really did that.  My weekend chores flew by as I listened.  But as a written work, it didn't live up for me as much as other books in the genre.

The Last Suspicious Holdout: Stories by Ladee Hubbard

 genre: fiction short stories

This compilation of stories have just enough familiar threads between them that people and places pull at strings in your mind as you read.  There are neighborhoods where it seems like second chances don’t exist and homes with love that takes the edge off all the hard outside the door. Drugs and poverty and everyone cheating on everyone else but sometimes a tiny ray of hope.  I’m not a particular lover of short story collections in general, so my hot take should be taken with that in mind.  I actually wanted more connection, I think, more familiarity so I could dig a little deeper into their experiences.  What I do know is that it is always good for me to spend time in my mind with lives that are both so different than mine while also built of the same longing for community and family and the kind of stability that can be a foundation to build on. 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (audiobook)

 genre: epistolary fiction

When we meet Sybil Van Antwerp, she has already lived most of her life.  She has retired from her work in the law, her children are grown and she takes pleasure in all the ways one can entertain one's self.  What makes Sybil's life unique, though, is that for hours each week, Sybil dedicates herself to her correspondence.  With a piece of stationary and a pen, her life is expounded and explored and, like other epistolary novels, we as the readers are left to piece together what is said and unsaid as we read both what Sybil puts out into the world and what comes back to her.  And the task is such an engaging one.

I know I'm the last person ever to listen to this book and yes, you all were right, the audio is absolutely the way to go.  The voice of each of our letter writers and recipients and how these people interact with the indomitable Ms. Van Antwerp make the book move along quickly.  Keeping everyone straight does take a little brainpower but soon I felt like these were familiar old friends.  As much as Sybil can be a tricky person, as the book goes on we can understand why and my heart filled with so much compassion for her and for the people that she loves and that love her back.  I just kept FEELING so much as the years of letters went by: grief, hope, more grief, joy.  I think what I also really loved about this book is that it reminds me that life can constantly be full of surprises - new people and new experiences - and that it is never to late to find peace.

Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards

 genre: historical fiction

In medieval Bruges, the Church is the scaffolding on which a life is created.  And if you want to be close to God, you'd better have a man with some kind of authority to be your guide.  For Aleys, who is raised on the stories of female saints, Jesus is more than a tale.  He is a real presence that she soon realizes she needs to dedicate some part of her life to - but its not as though a medieval woman can just go ahead and do what she wants without everyone around her having an opinion about it.  And the weight of some opinions can lead to disaster.  

The lovely book centers, first and foremost, women who have a desire to have their own kind of relationship with a divine being that feels tangible to their own lives.  Aleys is a gorgeously written protagonist.  She is passionate and capable and her journey as a religious person is such an intriguing one. While Christianity is no longer my spiritual home in the way it once was, my grandmother prayed to the saints for me and my heart still knows the pathways of belief in a divine being.  There is so much of value in this pages that reach toward the realms of miracles and saints and things we cannot understand but dearly want to.  I loved the focus on the written word and how it is so powerful that popes and kings lost their minds over common people having access to it.  Canticle is a slow read, and while there is definitely plot there is mostly Aleys's inner life and the inner lives of the men of the church that have power of her mortal body - but what you come to realize is that no one has power over Aleys's beautiful soul.

I, Medusa by Ayana Gray (audiobook)

 genre: mythology, fiction

What we do we know of Medusa?  She has snakes for hair.  She can turn a person to stone with her eyes.  But how did she get to this place?  What is HER story?  This is an origin tale about power and powerlessness, set on islands and in cities, in castles and temples.  It is about fickle Olympian gods and simpering lesser gods and mortals with seemingly little to offer except service.  It is about priestesses and sisters and finding your own purpose. 

It got a little repetitive for me, as Medusa has to face her own rage over and over again, sometimes managing it well and sometimes really making her own life harder, but I liked that we could understand her motivations.  As a coming-of-age story, we are watching Medusa learn some really hard and upsetting lessons about body autonomy and consent, shining a sharp contrast between those who can get away with hurting others and those who just have to standby and either watch people get hurt or get hurt themselves.

This was an interesting re-telling and if you enjoy Olympian Myth stories, I would recommend this one.  The audio is solid.

Homeschooled: A Memoir by Stefan Merrill Block (audiobook)

 genre: memoir

Stefan’s early life with his parents and brother is practically idyllic. He knows he’s loved, he feels safe and secure, the world is a good place. But then, near the end of elementary school, they move from Indiana to Texas and his mom’s way of looking at reality starts shifting. She stops trusting institutions and starts mourning the loss of her little boy. And so she pulls him out of school and starts doing something that is still fairly eccentric: she homeschools him. And this is when Stefan’s life takes a turn that he and his family will never come back from.

Wow. I listened to this book in one stretch on a car ride from Maryland to New York and I was engaged from beginning to end. Engaged, horrified, stunned, all of it. His mom isn’t a horrific “abuser” but you can just watch the trauma and the disorganized attachment manifest itself. It is a hard look at homeschooling and the absolute necessity of making sure kids are protected from parents who willingly or not really can hurt their kids in all kinds of ways. If you liked Educated, I think you’d like this. Author reads his own audiobook and he did a fine job.

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (audiobook)

 genre: speculative horror

While Noon hasn't lived in Mercy in years, it was home for her entire childhood. Devastated by a hurricane, it is now awash with a red algae bloom and people are disappearing. Does some kind of monster lurk under the bloom or is the bloom itself a monster? Alone with her mom on their shrimp trawler, they sail the coasts shrimping and keeping their eyes out for Noon's lost father and brother. Noon, though, feels something off inside and it's not just the itch on her skin. Her relationship with her mom, her otherness as the child of Vietnamese immigrants, her female body - something is brewing beyond the storm on the horizon.

Oh this is way more of a horror novel than I'd anticipated, ha ha. There is nasty, creepy stuff happening in here and I had to really stretch my brain to go with the flow, so to speak. I really liked the audio, I will say, listening to the mom's Vietnamese helped me imagine both her and Noon so much better. I appreciated the immigrant aspect and Noon's desperation to belong to herself. It's a bit mysterious, a bit upsetting, and NOT for everyone. There is a LOT of inner dialogue that sometimes get repetitious and it's on the cusp of being an adult novel but it definitely more young adult overall. But it is unique story from a unique perspective and while it's not necessarily my cup of tea, I was definitely interested enough to listen to the end.

In Limbo by Deb J.J. Lee

genre: graphic memoir/coming of age

I picked this up off a table at the library advertising books from a Korean perspective.  And while the author, known in America as Deb, lived the first three years of her life (while as an adult the author goes by they/them, in the book Deb uses she/her) in Korea, she then immigrates to American with her family.  This separation from her extended family and her family's native culture is at the swirling heart of this novel about mental illness and the pain of not knowing how to feel like you belong anyway. The art is powerful as Deb struggles to figure out where she can find peace on her own terms.  Her relationships are tricky, especially with her mom, and I wish I'd gotten to know more about her mom's own issues.  Clearly something is going on there.  

I have so much compassion for Deb and for all those for whom belonging feels like an elusive fantasy that can only happen for certain people.  I know I've been in that space myself but my struggle was not so dark and deep.  I'm so glad Deb is still here to tell this story and give hope to others who feel this same kind of pain.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (audiobook)

 genre: contemporary fiction/thriller

When Rowan washes ashore on a remote island not far from Antarctica, she can hardly believe she's alive.  The island IS remote - but it's not empty.  A father, Dominic, and his three children are caretakers of the lighthouse and while there used to be teams of researchers using this island as a base - they are no longer there.  With tides reaching ever higher and storms that can break even the strongest spirit, Rowan knows staying on this island isn't sustainable - but what in the world to do about it?

I wish I'd known that this was the same author as Once There Were Wolves, because I would've listened to it sooner.  I adored the writing in that book and this one did not disappoint.  I felt like I was there on that wild island, watching as our changing climate brings the kind of destruction our planet maybe cannot come back from.  The plot wasn't fast moving - but it didn't drag for me at all.  There were so many questions that weren't answered how I'd anticipated.  It's very character driven, as we experience the present and learn about the past through the eyes of Rowan and Dominic but also the children.  It is heartbreaking (truly) and surprising and sometimes incredibly moving.  There is death here, and loss and a wild desire to save what can still be saved.  It is not for the faint of heart, this book, but it made me feel deeply and the audio was truly well done.