Category: Read This Book

I’ll admit, when I started this book I had no idea what was going on. Reading it is like putting together a complicated puzzle without knowing what the final image is supposed to be. Partway through it starts to show itself a bit before presenting surprise after surprise. How this author fit so much in such a compact book is a magic of its own.

The book begins by introducing Chih and their companion, a neixin named Almost Brilliant who is also a talking bird. Chih is a Cleric from the Singing Hills Abbey and as such, they are a historian of sorts. They travel to a home on Lake Scarlet where they meet an elderly woman named Rabbit. Rabbit was the handmaiden of the Empress, and The Empress of Salt and Fortune is this Empress’s story, as told by her former handmaiden to the cleric Chih.

Each chapter begins with careful descriptions of a few objects, written with the words of someone cataloging the items. The someone, of course, is Chih. Rabbit then tells Chih the deeper meanings and stories of the sometimes seemingly benign objects they are documenting. Together, the objects reflect the tale of the Empress’s rise to power, starting with her being sent from the frosty north to the south, to marry the Emperor and bear him a child. Because she was foreign, she was not really accepted by the royal court and her handmaiden, Rabbit, was the closest person to her. The Empress eventually becomes known for her adoration of fortune tellers and mystics, often having them to the palace. After she has a child for the emperor, she is sent into exile and Rabbit with her. It’s when she is in exile that her real cleverness and power is proven.

In a fantasy world where dragons and their cousins quigutl roam the land, Tess Dombegh is a disappointment to her family. Despite all of her mistakes, she’s determined to make one thing right and help her twin sister Jeanne find a noble husband and marry well. She manages to do just that, but when her actions ruin Jeanne’s wedding, Tess finds herself at a crossroads. Her family is determined to send her to a convent, but Tess doesn’t want to go—she’d rather run away. So she does just that, and sets out for the open road with a vague direction in mind. Along the way, she reunites with an old friend, encounters danger, intrigues of the natural world, and some of the world’s most mysterious secrets all the while running from her past. But it’s just as she’s about to discover an exciting future she never could have imagined that she realizes her painful history must be faced head on.

What I love about this book is that story-wise, it’s the inverse of most fantasy novels. Many of the fantasy titles (YA or otherwise) that you find on shelves are about a high-concept premise first, and then character growth or a character’s personal journey is secondary. This book is all about lovable, messy, misguided Tess who doesn’t believe that she’s worthy of love or a second chance after she makes a mistake, and her self-loathing is palpable by the time the book starts. She’s also surrounded by toxic people who seem more interested in punishing her than showing her even an ounce of compassion, so it’s no surprise she’s miserable and makes the ruinous choices she soon regrets.

But once she strikes out on her own, Tess begins to center. Her sense of humor comes out, and so does her compassion, curiosity, and her fears. While the reader doesn’t know all of the details of her past, you can’t help but love her as she slowly finds her path and purpose on the road. Through a series of misadventures, Tess encounters a variety of people who give her perspective, show her kindness, and offer her a chance at redemption. They also challenge her worldview and all that she was taught about herself and her nature, opening her eyes to the possibility that she’s not broken or bad or ruined, but someone with a bright future ahead of her. The plot, which feels episodic in the first half, starts to come together in an exciting, high-stakes way that sets up the sequel, leaving you breathless to see where Tess will end up!

I read this book for the first time when it released in 2018, and then again recently in anticipation of the release of the sequel, In the Serpent’s Wake. I loved it both times, and in reading the sequel it’s exciting to see all of the clues and connections Hartman planted in Tess for an exciting and fulfilling sequel.

Note: This duology is a companion to Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina duology (Seraphina and Shadow Scale) and it takes place a few years after the end of the events in Shadow Scale. While I love and highly recommend those books, you don’t have to read them in order to understand what’s going on in Tess’s world, but there are some spoilers for Seraphina’s story if you pick up Tess first!

Elaine Welteroth is best known for her phenomenal work at Teen Vogue, where she became the youngest Editor-in-Chief at a Conde Nast publication and only the second African American to hold such a title at Conde Nast. More Than Enough is her first memoir; however, given she is only in her 30s and continues to do amazing things, I’ll bet it’s not her last.

Elaine’s story arc is one that many high-achieving cis women can identify with. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and she was a fearless child who, while doing great things academically and even career-wise, made some boneheaded decisions when it came to relationships. She went through a period of making herself small, trying to fit into boxes that not only weren’t her shape, but weren’t for her at all.

While this is a memoir, there are also some really great pieces of advice in this book. One that resonated with me was when she got a coveted internship at Essence Magazine and they asked her where she wanted to be placed and she said she’d be happy anywhere. Truly what she wanted was to be in fashion. Her mentor told her then and there to always ask for what she wants.

As expected she talks a lot about her experience as a Black woman in a predominantly white industry as well as her experiences among many different subcultures of Black people because hey, we provide a range. And of course, she talks about both holding onto your dreams and working toward them as well as finding you’ve outgrown your dreams or that your goals have changed.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a pediatrician who was working in Flint in 2015, running a pediatric internship program for new doctors, and serving her patients, many of whom lived in poverty, in a holistic, community-based way. When her patients started asking her if the water in Flint was safe to drink, her first instinct was to say, “Of course!” After all, if it wasn’t safe, even despite the rumors to the contrary, the city officials would say something, right? Wrong. Once the lead poisoning was brought to her attention, she saw the devastating effects it had on her youngest patients and she immediately sprang into action, relying on her colleagues, patients, community leaders, and various governmental officials who were also concerned but were being ignored by the higher-ups to not only gather the data, but put together an IRB-approved study in record time that showed definitively that Flint’s water was being poisoned, and force the state and city government to take action.

This was at times a really harrowing read, because it becomes clear very quickly that Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s trust in the authorities and scientists who work to keep public drinking water safe was completely misplaced—although through no fault of her own. Who among us wants to believe that those in power are willingly ignoring the signs that the drinking water isn’t safe? She talks about how it was hard for her to believe at first, but when faced the truth, she was physically sick and couldn’t just sit by. But it wasn’t as simple as calling up public services and telling them her patients had lead poisoning…she had to prove the poisoning was coming from the water, and then she had to prove that Flint’s recent changes to the water supply were at fault. I’m impressed with how she made what would normally be a boring process of filing a lot of paperwork to get her study off the ground sound riveting, but that’s in part because it was absolutely urgent—kid’s lives were in imminent danger.

Aside from the high stakes recounting of her realization that the water was being poisoned to successfully exposing the crisis, I really enjoyed Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s contemplation of what we owe each other, how we ought to look after our neighbors, and how an alarming lack of empathy or care can lead to a devastating loss of life. She fought hard, not just to expose the crisis, but to hold those who looked away accountable for their part, and she succeeded, to an extent. But she also grieves for the families and kids who were affected, whose lives are forever changed by the malfeasance of those in charge of contaminating Flint’s water supply, and that’s sometimes difficult to read.

Overall, this is a moving book that’s part science, part environmental and public health exposé, and part examination about what it means to be community-minded. I highly recommend it!

Shetterly grew up in Virginia and her father worked for NASA. Hidden Figures is nonfiction about the African American women who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) which eventually morphed, with other groups, into the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA). While the film version concentrates on NASA, and a few women, the truth is that African American women started working at NACA during WWII. It was only supposed to be a short commitment, but then it turned into so much more. The women started as mathematicians, or as they were called, “computers.” There was East Computing, where the white women computers were, and there was West Computing, which had the African American women.

I thought the book was better than the movie (and I liked the movie). The book offers so much more context and gravitas to what these women were achieving, especially during segregation, the Jim Crow Era, and the Civil Rights Movement. Shetterly points out how the racism in the U.S. was damaging (and still damages) how other countries viewed (and view) the U.S. and questioned the U.S. as a global superpower when our own citizens were not being treated fairly. It really lays bare the hypocrisy of opposing the treatment of Jewish people in Europe while here at home, our own citizens weren’t being afforded basic human rights.

I had no idea how incredibly significant the West computers were not only at NACA, then NASA, but as part of U.S. history. They not only were integral in aeronautics and the space race, but in integration as well. In addition to Katherine Johnson, we read about Dorothy Vaughan, who paved the way, and Mary Jackson, who went from computer to engineer, which was rare for African American women, especially at that time. The book also teaches us about so many more of the women and a handful of the African American men that we never hear about in the history books.

Shiori is the princess of Kiata, the youngest daughter of the emperor. She’s been betrothed to a young man from the north for as long as she can remember and she’s not happy about it: She’d rather stay close to her beloved brothers, and find her own future. So on the day of her betrothal ceremony, she runs away and falls into a lake, where she happens to meet a dragon. Dragons are rare and magic is taboo in Kiata, but Shiori can’t help her excitement at befriending a dragon, or the secret magic inside her. And it’s just as well, because not long after she discovers that her stepmother is hiding her own magic, and she and her brothers are cursed. While her brothers transform into cranes each day, Shiori is left with a bowl over her head and the loss of her voice, and she’s banished from her home. If she wants to break her stepmother’s curse, she’ll have to complete a series of impossible tasks, all while trying to stay alive.

I loved this retelling of “The Wild Swans,” with details mixed in from Japanese fairy tales and other Asian culture. Shiori is a headstrong and stubborn protagonist who is maybe a little silly and naive at first, but when she finds herself banished, alone, and cursed, she draws upon previously unknown strength and resilience within to find her brothers and figure out a way to break the curse. Along the way, she finds herself entangled with a political plot to overthrow her father and wreak havoc on Kiata, which is complicated by the fact that she must remain silent or risk her brothers’ lives, and she learns that her perception of court politics and the other nobility might not be entirely accurate. She also finds herself in the very last place she expects: Her betrothed’s stronghold, where she learns that there is more to him than she initially believed. The magical details and the political intrigue were quite fun, and new reveals and twists sent me racing to the end, which provided a few surprises and have left me really eager for the sequel, The Dragon’s Promise, out later this year.

As a bonus, I loved how much Shiori loves food, and all of the fun foodie descriptions in this book. Shiori learned to cook from her mother and enjoys it because it makes her feel close to her mother’s memory, and finds herself working in kitchens and connecting with other characters through food. This book made me hungry while reading, and I would love nothing more than to order a feast of the food mentioned in this book! Consider yourself warned!

I’m a big fan of Nagoski’s Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, which I recommend every chance I get and wanted to also recommend Come As You Are. This book is focused on the sex lives and the sexual response cycle of cisgender women. This is because there is a bunch of research on the sexual response cycle and sex lives of cisgender women and not a lot of research on transgender women or nonbinary folks. That being said, a couple of the trans folks in my life have read this and told me they still were able to get some helpful information out of it. The language is definitely gendered, especially around anatomy, and that can turn some people off so I’m making sure you’re informed before you pick this book up.

Nagoski offers fresh ways of looking at things and dispels a lot of common myths around sex, such as the ideas that “women don’t want sex as much as men do” and “women that have a high sex drive have more testosterone.” One of the main, recurring focuses of this book is the Dual Control model of the sexual response cycle which is the idea that there is an accelerator and also a brake and sometimes they work together and sometimes they work in opposition. Nagoski fills the book with both anecdotes and advice on how to “turn on the ons and turn off the offs,” or to put it another way, how to press on the gas and ease up on the brake.

One of the things that Nagoski talks about that I deeply appreciate that is not talked about enough in sex ed is context and the power of context to either hit your gas pedal or hit your brake. And that the context that does one or the other for you may not be the same that does it for your partner. There’s also a context worksheet that helps you figure out these things for yourself as well as other questionnaires that can be helpful in figuring out your own brakes and gas pedals.

Come As You Are is a fun, informative read which I highly recommend.

Poppy and Alex have been best friends since the end of their freshmen year of college, when they shared a ride back to their hometown. They’re total opposites: Poppy is outgoing, upbeat, always down for an adventure. Alex is quiet, reserved, prefers to stay home and read. The one big thing they have in common: They like to travel. They begin a tradition of taking a summer trip each year, and that becomes a touchstone for them as they move from their college days and head into their thirties…but they haven’t gone on a trip in two years, since the big fight. And now Poppy is desperate to mend their friendship by coaxing him on one more trip. But in doing so, she’ll have to confront the confusing tangle of emotions she has about the true nature of their relationship.

Emily Henry’s characters absolutely shine through in this book. They’re so smart, funny, and multi-faceted. I loved how she plumbed the depths of Poppy and Alex’s friendship, giving them a beautiful and complex backstory, so many inside jokes, and plenty of shared history that made them leap off the page. They felt like real people, and their connection was so genuine. I also loved that Henry takes readers on a series of vacations throughout the years, going from their broke college days to the swankier vacations they’re able to afford later thanks to Poppy’s job as a travel writer, showcasing a bunch of fun vacation and travel settings. Of course, these vacations are never just simple trips, but an opportunity for the characters to explore what they want out of life and what matters most to them, and each trip brings them closer to admitting their true feelings for each other. The varied experiences and funny mishaps are all very memorable, and make me want to pack a suitcase and go anywhere just for the sake of an adventure.

While the book is light on plot and heavy on character, Henry cleverly uses flashbacks to all their previous trips together to build to the moment where it all went wrong, interspersed with scenes from their present day awkward vacation where they’re tentatively finding their way back. The emotional heart and the humor are spot on, and you’ll be rooting for these friends-to-lovers to find their happily ever after. It’s a fun trip, as decadent as any getaway!

This book absolutely blew my mind. Wilkerson examines the social hierarchies that exist in the U.S., such as race and class, through the lens of a caste system: the insidious underlying system of hierarchy that uses socially constructed identifiers like race, class, and so forth to maintain the privilege of those at the top and to keep those at the bottom, well, at the bottom. This book shows that if the caste systems of the United States, India, and nazi Germany were to be in a Venn Diagram, the diagram would practically be a circle.

I’d heard for years that the original nazis in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s had studied Jim Crow laws in America and it’s where they got some of their most disgusting and depraved ideas. I’d heard this, but I didn’t know the details. Readers: this book gives details, even details about the things done here in the U.S. that the nazis thought were “too extreme.” Yes, some facets and views of white supremacists in the U.S. were “too extreme” for the nazis. Wilkerson goes into horrifying detail about violence and lynchings and abuse so major content warnings there.

She writes about what she calls the Eight Pillars of Caste, those things that need to exist to uphold this framework. Things such as the idea of heritability, that your caste is determined by your family. Also an idea of purity versus pollution and certain groups being inherently superior versus the inherent inferiority of other groups.

While this book taught me a lot about history, this is not a history book. This is an examination of a still existing framework in which we live that affects everything from the media we consume to the healthcare we do or do not receive with the punishments and backlash that happen when someone dares to try to step out of the caste system, or do something above their perceived caste.

This book is a harrowing and necessary read to understand race in America.

Teddy Crutcher is Teacher of the Year at Belmont Academy, and if you ask he’d say he’s motivated by his students. He wants to teach them about more than just English. He wants to see them succeed. What very, very few people realize is that Teddy’s tactic for teaching his students a lesson can be rather unconventional at times. But Teddy sees it as part of his job, going above and beyond to prepare his students for the real world, and well, the real world isn’t always fair or kind, so why should he be? The last thing Teddy expects is a series of mysterious deaths at Belmont to throw an uncomfortable spotlight on the school, which comes dangerously close to exposing his secrets.

This is a real rollercoaster ride of a book (and my first Downing book, as recommended to me by my All the Books co-hostess with the mostest book recs, Liberty Hardy!) and it kept you guessing. Teddy Crutcher is such a great villain because he totally and completely believes that he’s within his rights to mess with people’s lives and that he’s doing what’s best for the students, even if he’s actively ruining futures and hurting people along the way. We also get to see the viewpoints of other characters—teachers, students, former students—and their differing perceptions of Teddy and the events unfolding at the school, which offers a wild take on how a few small actions by one person can snowball into an epic mess. This is a thriller where I genuinely didn’t know where it would lead (and sometimes I didn’t even know who to root for) but it was so cleverly put together that I couldn’t stop reading. If you want to escape your life for a bit and read about some people behaving very badly (and sometimes getting what’s due to them, but not how you expect) and you want to be surprised, pick up this book.

Bonus: I listened to the audio, narrated by David Pittu, and it was great!

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!