Is this book a planetarium? An instrument? A spiralgraph? Or is it potentially the coolest book ever made? Open it and find out, dude.
Like if Harry Potter hadn't been written by a TERF. At its surface, Carry On is an enemies-to-lovers magical romance and chosen one prophecy, but it’s so much more. The magic relies upon the meaning that the spells’ words carry in everyday life, which is absolutely brilliant and centers the power of language in this extremely fun and touching novel.
In this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel, Trung Le Nguyen weaves fables with the story of an immigrant family from Vietnam, using a fairy tale backdrop to relate a boy to his family’s history. Deals with culture, identity, and grief in complex ways, with storytelling as graceful as dance. Heartwarming and heartbreaking from its first panel to its last.
Beauty from a barstool without glorifying the grime. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is an unforgettable memoir of losing and finding oneself in the storm-tossed sea of American masculinity. Reading it is like picking up an hours-long conversation with a stranger at a bar, which is no mistake since Isaac Fitzgerald has made a habit of doing just that.
“Because there was nothing wrong with having Vietnamese daughters. It was how the world treated them that turned it into a curse.” Centered on an estranged family in Orange County’s Little Saigon plagued by a multi-generational curse, Fortunes upends the family’s struggles in endlessly playful and hilarious prose after a psychic portends the hex is finally at its end.
Give this to a rad kid you love!
༼ つ ╹ ╹ ༽つ BOO!
For anyone fascinated by the Greek myths but feeling rudderless amidst a vast sea of choices, the Stephen Fry books are an excellent place to start. I love Heroes because it strikes a perfect, conversational balance between denser reads and that feeling of myths as campfire tales, told to you while looking up at the stars. While by no means comprehensive, Fry is an endlessly charming voice to guide a casual reader through this selection of Greek mythic heroes (Heracles, Perseus, Atalanta and Jason among them).