An Expanse of Blue

 

Rating: 5 out of 5 |  for a big "mirror, window and sliding glass door" -- in verse -- for ʻopio kanaka.

My Thoughts:

Finally, a novel in verse, similar to The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, and When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez but for Pacifica, and specifically Hawaiian teens. The characters are in the diaspora (Western Washington), but they are in a Hawaiian community. Aouli lashes out at her father, at her sister, at her mother, at the church. There is so much going on and no one really sees her. . .until Nalu.

• The good: This novel in verse uses poetic elements like white space and concrete poetry strategies to help the reader feel her frustration and the breaking of the pieces of her. This is perfect for reluctant female readers as Nalu is dreamy and Aunty Ehu is someone we all have in our family.

• The tolerable, but unfortunate: While the story is contemporary, the cover art feels disconnected; the character appears older than Aouli and Kaia, and the styling, from the earrings to the perfectly neat tita bun--doesn't quite capture the raw, youthful energy of the vere.

• The relatable: I think the characters and situations will be very relatable to local teens. It is both global and ʻāina grounded. That is the highest praise I can give.

From the Publisher:

Aouli Elizabeth Smith is adrift: unheard at home and an unbeliever at church, fighting her sister and losing her best friend. Overflowing with feeling, she pours her secrets and herself into her song journal when the world threatens to sweep her away. The one place she feels tied down to earth is at her Aunty Ehu’s house. Those joyous Saturdays with her extended Native Hawaiian community living in Western Washington are precious to her. Under the maple trees, the fragments of her life fit together, if only for an afternoon.
Then, an unspeakable truth about her father shatters this one perfect corner of her life.
As Aouli’s world constricts around what others wish she could be, language fails her. But when a new boy, Nalu, turns up with eyes that seem to pierce right into her soul, maybe it’s love that can give her the words to set herself free.

Publication Information:

• Author: Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams
• Publisher: Heartdrum
• Publication date: May 19, 2026
• Print length: 464 pages
• Reading age: 13 years and up

Mahalo to Heartdrum books, NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the digital advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. 

The Emperor of Gladness

Rating: 4 out of 5 This is an adult novel - complex, poetic. It languishes in a continuous cycle of tragedy and hope.

My Thoughts:

With a name like Ocean Vuong, I expected the writing to be poetic -- and it really is. Sentences and phrases stopped me; I had to catch my breath. The author is a word caster.  It begins with Hai, the protagonist, set to commit suicide; but across the river is Grazina, a widow who convinces him to come and talk to her.  He never leaves. 

The journey of Grazina and Hai, who she calls Labas, is a journey through dementia, loneliness, despair, and hope. He is hiding out after lying to his immigrant mother about going to medical school, while also acting as a caretaker to another man's mother. 

 This is about mundane lives. This is about living outside the liminal edges of the American dream, not just as immigrants,  but also as the uneducated, the poor, and the marginalized. 

I was curious about the title, expecting a "big win" that never quite happens. However, I did some research into reviews and scholarly articles, and it seems like the title could be a nod to the Wallace Stevens poem "The Emperor of Ice-Cream."  As Austin Allen notes in the Poetry Foundation, the connection provides a haunting perspective on reality and appearance.

Finally, some of the quotes I had to write down:

“Words cast spells. You should know this as a writer. That's why it's called spelling, Labas.”

 “How strange to feel something so close to mercy, whatever that was, and stranger still that it should be found here of all places, at the end of a road of ruined house by a toxic river. That among a pile of salvaged trash, he would come closest to all he ever wanted to be: a consciousness sitting under a lightbulb reading his days away, warm and alone, alone and yet, somehow, still somebody's son.”

From the Publisher:

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

Publication Information:

• Author: Ocean Vuong
• Narrator: James Aaron Oh
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: May 13, 2025
• Listening length: 14 hours and 5 minutes

Love Makes Mochi (Love in Translation)

 

Rating: 3 out of possible 5  Teacher's Scale: A solid buy for school libraries or Scholastic fairs; great for those interested in yukata couture, Tokyo and queer love.

My Thoughts: 

I originally picked this up for the title, but quickly discovered that Love in Translation is a curated series under the Joy Revolution brand (much like the Rick Riordan Presents imprint). Each book features a different author representing a different culture, following a similar "creative internship abroad" hook.

While the series follows a reliable formula--protagonist travels to a new country (Japan, France, India) meets a local guide, and finds both love and artistic success--this entry stands out as the only one featuring a queer protagonist. In all, love and creative success ensues. 

What I loved most were the atmospheric details. The walks through Tsukiji Fish Market and Ginza felt incredibly authentic -- especially the glazed fruit skewers and tamago, which are staples of our own visits to Tokyo.

This is a quintessential "believe in your gifts" first-love story. While Lilyn faces the pressure of designing a collection that blends her goth aesthetic with traditional yukata couture, the conflict never feels heavy-handed. It's not angsty or stressful; instead, the story lives up to its title--it is soft and sweet as mochi.  

From the Publisher:

Lilyn Jeong is living her best life—in Tokyo! She gets to learn from the legendary yet notoriously terrifying tailor Mrs. Matsumoto. Getting a glowing recommendation from her could be Lilyn’s ticket into her dream fashion school.

So when Lilyn is tasked with designing an entire collection, panic sets in. She has only weeks to figure out how to mix her goth aesthetic with traditional Japanese style. Thankfully, Mrs. Matsumoto’s rebellious, tattooed, rainbow-haired daughter Yua offers to help.

But going on cozy dates with this cute girl is way easier than sewing yukatas. Can Lilyn find a path forward in fashion and love? Or will she watch as everything falls apart at the seams?

Publication Information:

• Author: Stefany Valentine
• Publisher: Joy Revolution
• Publication date: January 27, 2026
• Print length: 320 Pages
• Book 3 of 3
• Grade level: 7-9

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

 

My Thoughts:

This book about Lou, a Métis young woman living in Canada, is lots of bitter. Readers need to be warned that this may be triggering. There is radical racial violence, sexual violence, and emotional violence.  The author has a trigger warning at the beginning that warns us about the trauma coming, including traumas faced by Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. The author does this because according to Ferguson, "Your health, happiness, safety, and well-being matter more than reading this book." She even says that if readers are not ready, it is ok to stop reading or even never read this book. As a teacher, I appreciate that last part. Young adults, even middle level readers need to understand that books can be too much of a mirror, a window, even a sliding glass door (Rudine Sims Bishop). Reading, at its best, should be a visceral experience. So if a book just does not grab you, or if a book grabs you too much and starts to push you into dark spaces that you do not want to go into, then abandon the book. According to the author, that is fine, even encouraged. For teachers, it should be ok for our own students to abandon books too. When we force people to read, that is when we lose them. I am just writing this because I know the research. I know the best practices for raising lifelong readers. I appreciate that Ferguson starts the book off in that way.

The problem is, once I started reading, I forgot her advice completely. The voice of Lou, her observations and descriptions, her family, the situation of getting the Ice Cream Shack ready on this, her final summer before college, even Homer, her old dog that surfs on top of the picnic table in the back of her F-150 pulled me in. The niggling warning beep Lou's complex attitude toward her boyfriend does not give me enough warning for the four-alarm fires that are coming in this book. It is graphic and complex. It is a visceral explosion. The bitterness is deep and rotten, but I was already too far in and I forgot to breathe.

Yes, there is sweet. Eventually. And there is an understanding of one's self, eventually. Lou comes to some realizations much later than the reader, but it did make me look up the Ace Umbrella spectrum again. I read all kinds of stories because love is love, however, this one gave me pause. I am rethinking that mantra. I did not understand the difficulty Lou has, however, it was good to read about it. Someone that passes into your own classrooms will need this book.

From the Publisher:

Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice-cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.

But when she gets a letter from her biological father—a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life—Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists.

While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her father forever.

The Heartdrum imprint centers a wide range of intertribal voices, visions, and stories while welcoming all young readers, with an emphasis on the present and future of Indian Country and on the strength of young Native heroes. In partnership with We Need Diverse Books.

Publication Information:

Author: Jen Ferguson (Métis and White)

Publisher: Heartdrum (May 10, 2022)

Hardcover: 384 pages

Aniana Del Mar Jumps In

 

My Thoughts:

Ani is a 7th grade swimming prodigy, but Papi is the only one who comes to watch her. Ani would love to see her family in the stands, including Mami and her baby brother, but Mami is haunted by the ocean, so even if Ami is only in the pool, the two of them are keeping a secret from Mami. This secret, though, is literally destroying Ani's life. 

When Ani is debilitated with a mystery illness over the summer, not only is she not allowed to swim, but Mami makes her feel like the lying is her punishment for her illness. Ani wishes that she could speak up for herself and explain how swimming saves her and makes her feel free, but she does not want to hurt her mother, even if it hurting her instead. 

This novel in verse captures the physical and emotional pain Ani is going thorough by playing with poetry forms and concrete imagery. This was a powerful read full of waves of panic and pain, and hope. 

From the Publisher:

Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani is forced to reveal just how important swimming is to her. Mami forbids her from returning to the water but Ani and her doctor believe that swimming along with medication will help Ani manage her disease. What follows is the journey of a girl who must grieve who she once was in order to rise like the tide and become the young woman she is meant to be. Aniana Del Mar Jumps In is a poignant story about chronic illness and disability, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.

Publication Information:

Author: Jasmine Mendez

Publisher: Dial Books (Mar 14, 2023)

We Deserve Monuments

 

My Thoughts:

This story is about dysfunction and secrets. The passive but supportive peace makers seem to be the two men, but Avery's dad is always gone playing music and her grandfather has been dead since Avery's mom was a little girl. 

The women, Mama Letty, her mom and Avery all have their own demons to tackle in order to better understand each other. Added to that is the pressure of taking care of Mama Letty and getting to know her before she dies.  She is hard to get close to, but I found the Mama Letty character as misunderstood and grieving. Unfortunately, Avery's mother pays the price for her mother's pain. 

Although the three friends, Avery, Simone Cole and Jade Oliver represent a more contemporary friendship that bridges race and class, this little southern town is still ensconced in racism, classism and homophobia. It is not safe for any one as the family in power, the Olivers still have all the power. For Avery, who did not grow up in the south, this is a jarring way to live and she has difficulty filtering the truth. The question from the publisher is a great anticipation question prior to reading this book. 

Next read could be Where the Crawdads Sing. 

From the Publisher:

What’s more important: Knowing the truth or keeping the peace?

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family―whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer―Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance―the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell―or if some things are better left buried.

Publication information:

Author: Jas Hammonds

Publisher: Roaring Books Press

Publication date: November 29, 2022

The Noh Family

 My Thoughts:

If you are a fan of Dynasty style villains in Korea, K Drama, soap operas, Crazy Rich Asians, plot twists and life in high society, this book is for you. It is a fast read where readers get sucked in to the story even if we know that there is a huge pile up about to happen. The Devil Wears Prada ending also will leave you speechless. 

Since I do not watch K Dramas, I didn't get the plot references, but Chloe was a likeable character and I was rooting for her.

Definitely the Korean version of China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich, book 2) for YA. It will be a great beach read or perfect for a staycation indoors with air conditioning. 

From the Publisher:

When her friends gift her a 23-and-Me test as a gag, high school senior Chloe Chang doesn’t think much of trying it out. She doesn’t believe anything will come of it—she’s an only child, her mother is an orphan, and her father died in Seoul before she was even born, and before her mother moved to Oklahoma. It’s been just Chloe and her mom her whole life. But the DNA test reveals something Chloe never expected—she’s got a whole extended family from her father’s side half a world away in Korea. 
 
Turns out her father's family are amongst the richest families in Seoul and want to meet Chloe. So, despite her mother's reservations, Chloe travels to Seoul and is whisked into the lap of luxury . . . but something feels wrong. Soon Chloe will discover the reason why her mother never told her about her dad’s family, and why the Nohs wanted her in Seoul in the first place. Could joining the Noh family be worse than having no family at all?

Author: Grace K. Shim

Publisher: Kokila

Publication date: May 3, 2022

Bonus: Grace K Shim Introduces the Noh Family

I'm Not Dying With You Tonight

 

From the Publisher:

Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she's going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school.

When both girls attend the Friday-night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together.

They aren't friends. They hardly understand the other's point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they're going to survive the night.

This book is perfect for:

• Sparking conversations about prejudice and the racial tension that exists in America
• Parents and educators looking for multicultural and African American books for teens
• Fans of Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, and Jason Reynolds

My Thoughts:

This YA book is a co-written product from two female authors: Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal. It is about one chaotic night and two girls from very different backgrounds trying to survive while also facing very in your face scenarios that bring forward race relations, privilege, stereotypes and trauma. 

I like that the two authors were able to switch characters from one chapter to another and therefore bring their individual voice to the characters, but just like the awkward first day in a new school, I found the beginning of the book until the booth fight a bit stilted and awkward for both characters. Perhaps Lena and Campbell needed to play into cultural stereotypes first so that the rest of the night could show their own growth and awakening. Although I was going to abandon this book, once the need to escape school started, the story sucked me in quickly. 

I think this is another option to sit on the classroom bookshelf along with The Hate U Give, Dear Martin, and Long Way Down (in order: Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds). Another urban African American experience writer: Nikki Grimes, Between the Lines.

Don't Ask Me Where I'm From - Audiobook

 

Author: Jennifer De Leon

Narrator: Inés del Castillo

My thoughts: 

The narrator is easy to listen to. I was surprised when 7 hours went by so quickly. Part of it is the great story line, but I do think that the narrator keeps the story moving at a steady pace and the "reader" invests those hours in this very strong and like-able main character, Lili or Liliana. 

When she finally breaks through her mother's wall of silence and depression to find out that her father has been deported and is making his way back to America through a coyote, I just had flashbacks to another very powerful read: We Are Not From Here.  Liliana's story of being afraid for her parents, but also being afraid of the kind of racist backlash that could harm her family is definitely a centrifugal  book to other YA books around community, identity, the contemporary immigrant experience for children here and children making their way here. Another book coming out to read from after this book is the tween book Cuba in My Pocket (not out yet, but it will be posted here in August, 2021) about the authors's father's story when his family sent him from Cuba to America alone in order to escape being recruited for Fidel Castro's Young Rebels. 

This particular book starts great conversations around walls and how our walls represent parts of our identity. I can see this as a book club or alternative read to We Are Not From Here. 

From the Publisher:

First-generation American Latinx Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.

Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall - or rather, walls.

There’s the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana’s dad left - again.

There’s the wall that delineates Liliana’s diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy - and white - suburban high school she’s just been accepted into.

And there’s the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can’t just lighten up, she has to whiten up.

So what if she changes her name? So what if she changes the way she talks? So what if she’s seeing her neighborhood in a different way? But then light is shed on some hard truths: It isn’t that her father doesn’t want to come home - he can’t...and her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable.

But a wall isn’t always a barrier. It can be a foundation for something better. And Liliana must choose: Use this foundation as a platform to speak her truth, or risk crumbling under its weight.    

Update: (08/18/21)

The publisher actually sent me a hard copy of this book so I am giving it to one of my teacher cndidates for their future classroom library but I wanted to share these other resources freely:

1.   The author, Jennifer De Leon tells a fabulous story about a proposal in the Boston Library but also how she won a key to that same library that led to the draft of this book "Jennifer De Leon's Marriage Proposal story"
2.  Simon and Schuster Publishing is sharing a reader's guide for this book that can be adopted, adapted, or used as a template for student discussion.

b, Book and Me

 

My thoughts:

I wanted to "tag" this as a minority lit YA book, but it is not. This YA book is translated into English from its original Korean. The south Korean culture, the lived experience of its youth, the environment that these teens are growing up in seems contemporary, however, I am not sure if my shock is just part of my "Americanness." In other words, I felt that this story was so foreign to me and I found that I could not fully "translate" the story. That did not make it bad, just confusing. 

This is the story of poverty and coming of age, bullying and relationships that cannot be judged by American perspectives. I believe that it is my own ignorance that explains why it took so long to finish this. 

From the publisher:

Best friends b and Rang are all each other have. Their parents are absent, their teachers avert their eyes when they walk by. Everyone else in town acts like they live in Seoul even though it's painfully obvious they don’t. When Rang begins to be bullied horribly by the boys in baseball hats, b fends them off. But one day Rang unintentionally tells the whole class about b’s dying sister and how her family is poor, and each of them finds herself desperately alone. The only place they can reclaim themselves, and perhaps each other, is beyond the part of town where lunatics live―the End.

In a piercing, heartbreaking, and astonishingly honest voice, Kim Sagwa’s b, Book, and Me walks the precipice between youth and adulthood, reminding us how perilous the edge can be.

Best YA Contemporary 2019

I was looking forward to reading the sophomore book from Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give author) On The Come Up, but it did not have as much potential as the following three books. I chose them for their usefulness in the classroom (#1) or just because this is a story that is not shared.

1.  Dear Martin 

Why:

Teri Lesesne wrote a book called Reading Ladders  that basically talks about a way to start with what students are interested in and "rung by rung" connect students from their preference to more complex reading. I would like to say the Dear Martin is a rung to lead to The Hate U Give, however, I don't think it is a rung, I think it is a parallel scaffold to talk about social injustice, racism, finding a voice and literature as a catalyst for social activism.

2.  My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life

Why

YA authors are doing a great job of highlighting often marginalized protagonists and making them the moral center of the very diverse and booming multicultural YA literature scene. I am enjoying how books like To All the Boys I've Loved Before and this book, My Flawless. . .  highlight multicultural characters who seek to embrace and normalize their different cultural backgrounds and values as part of their coming of age stories. They are not trying to abandon one culture for another, but seek to understand as well as respect each side of themselves. This is not about melting into a generic American pot, but embracing and owning what makes each character special. 

3.  Don't Date Rosa Santos 

Why

This is cute, cute, cute. I think the relationship with Rosa and Mimi, the complication of her mother and her very loyal friends are characters that you want to root for. Even Cuba is a magical character that pulls all of the characters in very interesting ways. 

The Sun Does Shine

The Sun Does Shine: How I found life and freedom on death row

From the publishers:

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence—full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.

My thoughts:

In education, we call things like grit, values, persistence, work ethic, faith, and collaboration as "soft" skills. They are off content skills that are not graded or tested, but students who have these soft skills seem better equipped not just for school but for life. 

The wrenching memoir of an innocent black man who spent 30 years on death row in Alabama not for any crimes he committed but for being poor, black and convenient is really a model of how these soft skills helped Mr. Hinton to survive on death row. He not only survived, but he helped others, even if it was just to help others to escape their minds for a little while. 

This is a story of compassion and unconditional love. In this world of #blacklivesmatter, this is a story of hope, faith and love. 

Digital galley provided by Net Galley and Macmillan Publishers for an honest review

Published March 27, 2018

The Sun is Also a Star

Description:

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? 

My thoughts:

This book grabbed me from the prologue and stirred up the science nerdy girl that has been dormant in me for so long.  Yoon starts with Carl Sagan talking about making apple pie from scratch, not just with raw ingredients. No. It's Carl Sagan. He is talking about an apple pie from nothing at all. Big Bang, black holes, suns, oceans, life coming up from the muck. 

To make a thing as simple as an apple pie, you have to create the whole wide world.

That last line in the prologue is the essence of this book right there. If this were an essay, it would be the thesis. Worlds must collide. Dark matter, tides, extinction-level events. This is about two teenagers and romance and alternative worlds. It is about science and physics and the problem with immigration and race and ethnicity in America. This is about one day in New York. It is about broken dreams and loneliness. It is about time. 

And finally, as a former chemistry major who borrowed a chemistry book from my future husband and switched to English literature once we were together, this book is all about chemistry. 

A Girl Like That

From the publishers:
Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don't want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that. This beautifully written debut novel from Tanaz Bhathena reveals a rich and wonderful new world to readers; tackles complicated issues of race, identity, class, and religion; and paints a portrait of teenage ambition, angst, and alienation that feels both inventive and universal

My thoughts:
Before the reader even gets to know Zarin and Porus, they are dead, their spirits holding on to each other and talking as plainly as if they were taking a ride in his jalopy car about both profound and mundane things. The story of how they got there is slowly revealed in the rest of this novel through the perspective of these two characters but also through other characters and the misconceptions that these characters had or the things that were done. Time is interesting in this novel because it goes both forward and backward. It also deviates from the main characters into side stories that the main characters would never know about. The storytelling was so novel and the culture presented so foreign to me that as I got to know more about this world and these lives, I was hoping for some miracle at the end, but that was not to be.

This is a cultural story as much as it is a love story. It is a story about social mores that are unfamiliar to the American psyche. This is also an immigrant story, perhaps a story similar to our own dreamers. The author, Ms. Bhathena, in her author's note defines this story best:

My own story is different from Zarin's and Mishal's. Yet it does not make their stories any less true, nor does it diminish the reality of living in a world that still defines girls in various ways without letting them define themselves.              This book is a love letter to them all.

Publication date: Feb. 27, 2018

When Dimple Met Rishi

My thoughts: 
My public library system has ebooks. That is not a new thing. It is just a new thing to me, but seriously, it has messed up my life and made working and sleeping very difficult.

Ever since Oyster (the Netflix for books) went out of business, I have been totally depressed and I have not been reading much for pleasure. However, who knew that my public library looks like Oyster with the same depth of books, and for FREE?! Fool. Where have I been all this time?

I am not sure why, but one of the categories that pops up in my library loan browser is Asian authors/characters, so I notice I have been reading a lot of minority literature. This book about two Indian American teens was just devoured because it is not just a romcom, but because it has just enough push and pull of filial piety and the conflict that family and culture causes to be interesting. That is why I like minority literature or stories with characters of different cultural/ethnic groups because there is that added conflict and tension of culture/place/spirit.

Plus, this story is just cute. I am not a cutesy reader, but it was cute in a good way.

Note: I have a hard time with audio books but I also liked the audio book of this. Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC, narrated by Sneha Mathan and Vikas Adam.

From the publishers:
The rom-com everyone’s talking about! Eleanor & Park meets Bollywood in this hilarious and heartfelt novel about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage.

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.