All the Books I Read the First Quarter of the Year

 Hello there! Since I just started this blog, I thought I'd wrap up all the books I read this year before I started it. Conveniently, that's the first quarter of the year! Here's what I read and what I thought about the books.

Fangs by Sarah Anderson

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"Elsie the vampire is three hundred years old, but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets Jimmy, a charming werewolf with a wry sense of humor and a fondness for running wild during the full moon. Together they enjoy horror films and scary novels, shady strolls, fine dining (though never with garlic), and a genuine fondness for each other’s unusual habits, macabre lifestyles, and monstrous appetites.

First featured as a webcomic series on Tapas, Fangs chronicles the humor, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different. Filled with Sarah Andersen’s beautiful gothic illustrations and relatable relationship humor, Fangs has all the makings of a cult classic."

This was such a surprise. I was struggling to start a book after the New Year and I picked up this little volume because the cover intrigued me. But it was so cute! The couple are a vampire and a werewolf and they clash and mesh in such a funny, heartwarming way. I'd recommend taking a look, it's short and there are so many puns. I freaking love puns.

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"Morrigan Crow may have defeated her deadly curse, passed the dangerous trials and joined the mystical Wundrous Society, but her journey into Nevermoor and all its secrets has only just begun. And she is fast learning that not all magic is used for good.

Morrigan Crow has escaped her deadly fate and found a new home in the fantastical city of Nevermoor. She has also discovered that she has a strange and magical ability. But will her unique talent be a blessing or another curse?

Now that Morrigan and her best friend Hawthorne are proud scholars in the elite Wundrous Society, she is sure that she's found a place to belong at last, but life is far from perfect. Can Morrigan prove that she deserves to be in the Society - or will an unexpected new enemy ruin her new life?"

This series is my new comfort series. It is so cozy and wonderful. I read the first book in 2020 and it helped make that disaster year so much better. I immediately put the next book on order at my library. It did not disappoint! The stakes were a lot higher. We also met the other members of Unit 919 for real this time and it's such a cute little family unit. I love this book UGH.

Maps by Nuruddin Farah

⭐.5

Goodreads Description:

"Winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Nuruddin Farah is one of Africa's most respected contemporary writers. Maps is the first novel in his acclaimed Blood in the Sun trilogy, set in his native land. Askar lost his father in the bloody war between Ethiopia and Somalia, and his mother died giving birth to him. Taken in by Misra, a kindhearted woman, he grows up in a small village. But as an adolescent, a true child of his times, he begins to feel suffocated there and goes to live with his cosmopolitan aunt and uncle in the capital.

In dangerous and turbulent Mogadiscio, Somalis are struggling to recreate a national identity that has been destroyed by the upheavals of modernity and the betrayals of civil war. Askar throws himself into radical political activity in the midst of the turmoil. As allegations of murder and treason are leveled at Misra, Askar's personal sense identity and Somalia's political boundaries will be challenged with a ferocity he could have never imagined."

Listen. I really wanted to like this book. It was assigned for my Literary Theory class at college. However, this book is a Freudian nightmare. I despise Freud. I think his theory is anti-woman and anti-queer and the way he writes about incest makes me super uncomfortable. And this book is Freudian to a T. The main character's relationship with his mother figure is so creepy and I hated it. I gave it points for teaching me about a world event I'd never heard of before and for generally being cerebral in a way that wasn't super overbearing and the play with memory but the Freudian BS killed it for me.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"Jerry Renault ponders the question on the poster in his locker: Do I dare to disturb the universe? Refusing to sell chocolates in the annual Trinity school fund-raiser may not seem like a radical thing to do. But when Jerry challenges a secret school society called The Vigils, his defiant act turns into an all-out war. Now, the only question is: Who will survive?"

This is another book that was assigned for school, this time for Young Adult Fiction. I really enjoyed this. It's at its core a story about how poisonous capitalism is and also about mob mentality. It made me think a lot and I think you could do a really good Marxist dissection of it but my brain isn't big enough for that.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods."

I have read this before but reading it again was so nice. I listened to it on audiobook and while the narrator wasn't my favorite, it gave me all the nostalgia feels. It's also just a generally good story! My favorite character is probably Percy himself. He's just a good kid. I'm listening to Sea of Monsters now and having a great time.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent."

I'd been wanting to read this for a very long time - years - but as this was assigned for my Young Adult Fiction class, I finally got to it. And I'm so glad I did. The writing was absolutely stunning. And the character work was heartwrenching. I own all of Elizabeth Acevedo's works now and I can't wait to get to the other two.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl...

Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables. Adored by his subjects, master of the arts of kung-fu, he is the most powerful monkey on earth. But the Monkey King doesn't want to be a monkey. He wants to be hailed as a god...

Chin-Kee is the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and he's ruining his cousin Danny's life. Danny's a popular kid at school, but every year Chin-Kee comes to visit, and every year Danny has to transfer to a new school to escape the shame. This year, though, things quickly go from bad to worse...

These three apparently unrelated tales come together with an unexpected twist, in a modern fable that is hilarious, poignant, and action-packed. American Born Chinese is an amazing rise, all the way up to the astonishing climax--and confirms what a growing number of readers already know: Gene Yang is a major talent."

One last book assigned by my Young Adult Fiction professor. I had read this when I was younger and didn't really get it. I think the three storylines intersecting confused me. But as an adult, I could see how Yang masterfully weaves together the three stories into a tale about self-acceptance. It's also pretty funny!

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Description:

"With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.

This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her father’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.

In New York, she’s able to ignore all the annoying questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood."

If you've read my review, you already know this is now one of my favorite books of all time. This book means so much to me and I just want everyone to read it. 

So that's 8 books! I'm only just realizing how many 5 stars I've given out. I ain't mad about it - it means I'm having a great reading year so far! How's your reading going?

x Sasha