5 books for spring!
Are these really spring-y books or are they books I read as the weather warmed up to spring?
…Does it matter?
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted - Suleika Jaouad —A gorgeously written memoir of how when she was 22 years old, Suleika was diagnosed with cancer that absolutely blew up her life. She had to spend the next four years in and out of the hospital, putting her life on pause. Once in remission, she had to re-figure-out who she was and what she wanted out of the rest of her life, so headed out on a cross-country roadtrip. This is particularly resonant as we figure out how to wake up after a year of quarantine!
What’s Mine and Yours - Naima Coster — A ~sweeping family saga~ about the impact of school bussing on two students in North Carolina. Gee is a young Black man; Noelle is a half-Latina with a white mom, Lacey May (who moves around the world as such.) Their lives intersect in a school play and get messy. There’s a little twist at the end made the book infinitely better as a whole.
The Fourth Child - Jessica Winter — Super-Catholic teenager Jane gets pregnant and marries the guy who knocked her up; 15 years later she’s got three kids, is wrapped up in the local pro-life activist group, and decides to adopt a little girl from Romania to complete her family. Meanwhile, her eldest daughter, Lauren, is figuring out who she is, gets entangled with the high school drama program (and, ahem, teacher), and pushes back on her mom’s activism. The end is a bit rushed but there is some very good religion/coming-of-age stuff in here and extremely good ‘90s place-making.
Infinite Country - Patricia Engel — A short but perfectly told story of a family split apart by immigration policies that includes a love story, parenthood, deportation, teenage-girl-making-trouble tales, and five different narrators who show up at the perfect times. I really liked this.
Act Your Age, Eve Brown - Talia Hibbert — The third in the Brown sister series (first two not necessary but also good!) in which Eve, a messy chaos-muppet, ends up working for Jacob, a B&B owner on the autism spectrum who benefits from a little chaos. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ on the 4 🌶️ scale.
Get my complete reading list here. Let me know what you’re reading! If this was forwarded to you, please subscribe.