Review: "Papa Drew a Thousand Birds" by Maren Amini and Ahmadjan Amini

Papa Drew a Thousand Birds by Maren Amini and Ahmadjan Amini
Translated to English by Marianne Martens
Published November 2026 via Levine Querido
★★★★

What a lovely and complex look at Afghanistan of the past. Papa Drew a Thousand Birds takes us through Ahmadjan Amini's childhood and upbringing in Afghanistan—a very different Afghanistan than the one in the news today. This is an Afghanistan that finds its way onto the hippie trail; one in which dreams of being an artist are, if not encouraged or even really tolerated, not really much more than an oddity that the family is embarrassed by.

Maren Amini, Ahmadjan's daughter and the first author listed here, shows up minimally in the book itself—the story is really about Ahmadjan's life up to a point before Maren is grown up—but the combination of what is in the book and the fact that the two wrote this together speaks volumes, more than an extended plotline could. There's a really wonderful, almost wordless call-back to Ahmadjan's childhood at one point when his own children are small, and it's such a perfect illustration of...where he was and how he understands it now.

The art is quite simple. It has a style that makes me think "European graphic novel", though unfortunately my language for graphic novels is limited and I can't really elaborate on why that's the case. I suppose I'd hoped for a bit more color (that cover!), but it's evocative despite the simplicity. Readers who are familiar with the epic poem "The Conference of the Birds" (I am not) will likely get even more out of this, but it's not necessary to have read the poem first. Would absolutely recommend.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Immortal" by Christopher Pike

The Immortal by Christopher Pike
Published 1993
★★★

I got it in my head recently to read a few old Christopher Pike books that I read in childhood. As with many of the books I read as a kid, I really don't know how this one ended up in our house; it isn't and wasn't in my family's usual genres. (Maybe my sister; she definitely went through a Greek mythology stage.)

I'd forgotten some significant things here, like how present the Greek gods storyline is; Pike made up his own additional mythology for the sake of this story, and it works well. It's been long enough since I read this that I'd forgotten some key details, which is always nice, and honestly? This was fun. I remember Pike's books being treated as sort of...trashy fiction...or very pulpy, anyway, and although it's not that this isn't pulpy, in many ways it could comfortably hold its own against more recent YA. Josie and Helen aren't squeaky-clean, and neither do they particularly want to be; for their trip to Greece they want nudist beaches and R-rated summer flings and just maybe to beat the other in a game of boys.

With all that said: This is absolutely a book written for horny teenaged boys. I suspect this is a theme in Pike's older books; as I write this, I'm reading (rereading) Master of Murder, and, well...we'll come back to that theme. I don't know that I can really recommend this as a first-time read—but it was a nice bit of nostalgia.

Review: "Baby Steps" by Chelsea Frank

Baby Steps by Chelsea Frank
Published August 2026 via Hot Goss
★★★★

Avery is nearing the end of law school, and the future seems bright—except for the matter of her pesky eating disorder. Oh, and also the unplanned pregnancy that she doesn't discover until it's late enough that her options are limited. And thus she finds herself flying across the country for treatment she doesn't want in order to support a pregnancy that she doesn't really know how to process.

The combination of pregnancy and an eating disorder is not entirely new in fiction, but it's unusual—offhand I can only think of one, though I'm sure there are more (honestly, I'm sure I've read more, I just can't think of many at the moment)—and I like different takes.

This is semi-autobiographical (inspired by the author's real-life experiences, says the book), although of course I don't know which parts are more directly from real life and which parts are fully fiction. (Although: I checked out Frank's Instagram while I was confirming that I'd read somewhere that it was semi-autobiographical, and she tells a story about her teenage-years bully showing up to treatment at the same time she was there—and that's something that's not in Baby Steps, and it's kind of fascinating to me because it's the sort of thing that feels too perfect(ly awful) to be reality, and in a novel people might say "this is unrealistic"...and yet.)

At any rate. By and large I found this to be a quick read, with a nice balance of figuring out the eating disorder and figuring out pregnancy. The cast is relatively diverse, and I really appreciated that this didn't devolve into romance—not that romance and eating disorders can't coexist, obviously, but I've read a few too many "my romance helped cure me" books and also a few too many "now that I'm magically cured I'm ready for romance" books. I also like that Avery isn't always all that likeable; she has her moments, but she's also deep into difficult stuff and mostly not that interested in making herself more palatable just to make someone else's life easier.

Other things I wasn't as sure about. There's a friendship late in the book that comes in, burns bright, and falls off the page again, and I wasn't really sure what the point of that section was; I found myself wondering whether that was one of the more autobiographical bits that maybe should have been left in real life. And...there are a couple of plot points that are very standard in eating disorder fiction, and I might have preferred that the book go in a different direction.

3.5 stars (and a cautious rounding-up), then, for a mixed bag but a read that kept me engaged.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Laboratory" by Emily York

Laboratory by Emily York
Published September 2026 via Bloomsbury Academic
★★★★

Everyone has a mental image of a laboratory—test tubes and beakers, perhaps; lab coats; a microscope or two. But what is a laboratory really, when it's divested from the imagination and brought into real life?

We're back in my favorite nonfiction series, and this time it's all about science. In some ways I think this book is broader than "laboratory", but then, science is a field rather than something tangible. One of York's points, though, is simply about how broad the definition of a laboratory can be, much bigger than something constrained to chemical reactions and safety glasses.

Like many of this series, Laboratory dips a toe into what AI means for the future (and present, for that matter) of the material at hand, but it also touches on topics ranging from building a social sciences lab to historical and not-so-historical instances of staggeringly unethical medical experiments. (File under Things I Would Read a Whole Book About!)

I love the range of these books; some are broad and some are narrow and all of them take me somewhere I didn't expect and teach me something I didn't know. This one is on the broader side of things, but it also pushes the reader to think outside the box a bit.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: Short story: "Just Say I Do" by Catherine Walsh

Just Say I Do by Catherine Walsh
Published November 2026 via Amazon Original Stories

It's the eve before Chloe and Robbie's wedding...and as much as Chloe wants to marry Robbie, she didn't want it this way. She'd pictured something small and intimate, or at least something on the more relaxed side. Instead, thanks to family excitement, she's getting a whole Production.

This is part of a collection of holiday romance short stories, and it is very predictable fluff. That's not a criticism, just a statement of fact—sometimes what you want is predictable fluff, and it's clear from very early on in this story exactly how things will eventually go down. What's interesting to me, actually, is that in some ways this story is the climax from a full romance novel, plucked out and rejiggered to fit the shape of a short story.

No real surprises here, then, but perfect for a quick read on the subway or a day when you just want something light and largely drama-free.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Living with Strangers" by Robin Rosenbluth

Living with Strangers by Robin Rosenbluth
Published October 2026 via She Writes Press
★★★★

Rosenbluth's childhood was happy and stable—until her mother died, and everything went downhill. But her childhood is only half the story here; the other half is the year in college that Rosenbluth spent in rural Kenya, teaching primary school and learning Swahili (and some of the local languages) and generally finding a kind of stability she didn't have growing up, despite cultural divides and the temporary nature of the placement.

I picked this up because I gravitate (and probably will always gravitate!) toward stories of people moving to other countries, and I'm especially fond of the more off-the-beaten-path stories; never mind Paris, give me a memoir about someone moving, for the short term or the long, to North Macedonia or Western Sahara or East Timor or South Africa (see what I did there?). I mean, give me the Paris book too, but it's a lot easier for me to get to Paris than it is to get to rural Kenya. It's worth noting that I'm always also a bit trepidatious about books where people from the Global North go off to somewhere in the Global South, especially when the experience was some time ago; there are just a lot of ways for that to go wrong, in the doing or in the writing.

Happily, Rosenbluth avoids those pitfalls. She went to Kenya in 1973 as part of a college program (she attended Friends World College, which I'd never heard of but which sounds fascinating; students spent their entire four years traveling and living in different places and learning about the world), but it sounds like even then she was aware of not just her White and American privilege but also of the...let's say the dangers of assuming that privilege means knowing more, and also the inherent problem of White people swanning in and thinking they can fix things. It's clear that she knew her role there was limited, and that in the long term (in the short term, for that matter) it would be better for a local to have her teaching position, and that she wasn't there to change anyone. It's a better book for the perspective. Also, I think, a better book for the fact that she kept extensive journals (a college requirement) during her travels; I assume she was able to draw on those to keep the memories feeling fresh and the stories feeling fleshed out even fifty years down the line.

The juxtaposition of Rosenbluth's time in Kenya against her childhood took some getting used to. This isn't a criticism, just a reflection of the fact that she really did go quite far afield of what she knew. I'll let most of the details stay in the book, but I will say that Rosenbluth was left, from a shockingly young age, to parent her even younger sister and generally take care of the household (while her father, having left to live with his girlfriend, occasionally dropped by to leave some paltry grocery money and to criticize her housekeeping skills). When somebody finally stepped in, Rosenbluth and her sister were sent to live first in a children's home and then with a foster family, the latter of whom provided material stability but not emotional support. (Just as some people should not be parents, some people should perhaps not be foster parents.) As Rosenbluth observes, this experience prepared her for living in other places...though I wish that kind of resilience and adaptability could be bottled, because I think it's the exception rather than the norm.

Altogether an engrossing read.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful" by Elena Dudum

They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful by Elena Dudum
Published October 2026 via Atria
★★★★

I will never have the authority of proximity. I have its absence. Distance is the condition of my inheritance. I am who I am, because someone else left. (loc. 3181*)

A memoir of family and generational trauma and what it means to be Palestinian American. Dudum's grandparents immigrated to the US as young adults, and Dudum's parents (but mostly her father) were determined that she would not forget their history; she would not forget how much was lost to their family. As a child, Dudum wasn't interested; she just wanted to fit in. As an adult, she started to understand where her father's lectures were coming from.

You don't have to look far to know why I was interested in this book at this point in time, but the book isn't about current events—it's about growing up in a culture that tells you that the place your family is from no longer exists, that you must mean your family is from Pakistan, that you have no right to do so much as visit the place your ancestors are from. That it is not your, shall we say, Birthright.

There aren't a lot of answers here—mostly, there's a circling of facts and context as Dudum's understanding of the past gradually comes into clearer focus, and as it also becomes clearer how few people around her know enough to say something coherent on the matter. This is the sort of story that doesn't really end; it changes shape as time goes on. Written a couple of years later, I suspect this would have to take yet another shape. Don't read it for current events as they stand, but read if you want a better grasp on some of the things surrounding those current events and for a diaspora perspective.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Raising Bilingual Bambini" by Eric Dregni

Raising Bilingual Bambini by Eric Dregni
Published October 2026 via University of Minnesota Press
★★★★

Having lived in Italy and Norway as adults, Dregni and his wife were determined that their own children would be bilingual by design rather than only starting to learn a language as a teenager or older. The plan was simple: Dregni's wife, Katy, would speak to them in English, while Dregni would speak to them in Italian. And somehow, this works.

Kids' brains are so much more flexible and so much more receptive to new language, but gosh, I love the way kids' brains work:

At first, my mother wants to give away the secret to Eilif that I do indeed speak English. But she finally goes along with the ruse, explaining to Eilif, "Your papà needs some English lessons from his grandmother too. We'll help him out."

The irony is that Eilif hears me speaking English all the time to Katy and everyone else. Directly to him, though, I only speak Italian. Somehow, he accepts this disconnect. (loc. 126*)

At some point they must have figured it out for real, of course, but it sounds like Dregni and his wife really committed, as he describes multiple instances of the kids calling him out for speaking English to them—as in, that was rare enough that they noticed.

A lot of the book ends up being less about raising bilingual kids and more just about raising kids, and all the chaos and cuteness that brings. The "moving to Italy" part of things is actually only three months, which is too bad—I mean, I can't fault Dregni and his wife for that! Moving abroad is an enormous commitment, not to mention a logistical nightmare with kids; it's just that as much as I love a travel memoir, I even more love a relocation memoir. Ah well. It's fun and fast-paced, though. 3.5 stars for me; I'm rounding up because I read it at just the right time for this sort of book (heavy on the lighthearted anecdotes), though in a different mood or a different week I might not have gotten so much out of this. (Recommended to people wondering whether they should pursue parenthood, though; even as someone who does not have kids I think it captures the chaos well.)

As for what Dregni's kids did with that hard-won (hard for Dregni and his wife, that is) Italian: Well, you'll have to read the book to find out!

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "The Wings of a Falcon" by Cynthia Voigt

The Wings of a Falcon by Cynthia Voigt
First published 1993
★★★★★

Oh man, this book. Major spoilers below.

I picked this book up in a secondhand bookstore in the late 90s. I'm still not entirely sure why—maybe my book tastes were less established, maybe it was just a phase, I don't know. Fantasy, or fantasy-esque books, never called to me terribly loudly...except The Wings of a Falcon did. I read it, and I read it again, and I scoured various bookstore shelves until I also found and read Jackaroo and On Fortune's Wheel and Elske, and then I came back to Wings and read it again. I cannot overstate how much I loved Wings of a Falcon—I am a voracious reader now, I was a voracious reader then, and there was a period of several years when I consistently identified this as my favourite book. It's been years since my last reread, but I've recently been going through some of my childhood books (partly so I have a record of them on Goodreads), and when this one came up, I couldn't resist.

(Major spoilers, I said. If the above paragraph has tempted you, at all, read no further.)

What fascinates me so much is that I don't think this book would be published in its current form today. (It was republished in 2015 or so, sure, but not published new.) There are so many reasons for this: there's limited romance, when today "YA" is often synonymous with "romance lite"; characters who could take up an entire book drop from the page when the main characters move on, never to be heard from again (in a contemporary book, Nikol would probably show up again and again as the Big Bad); intensely serious themes are treated as matter-of-fact (war, women having very little agency over their lives and their bodies, the risk of incest in certain situations). But most of all: Oriel is not entirely good.

I wish I could read this again for the first time, because I still remember the gut punch at the end of the book, when Oriel is killed and Griff takes over the story. Up until that point, Oriel has been positioned as the hero: Griff is his moral compass, yes, but Oriel has strength and charisma and his wits about him, and he is determined to use those gifts to rise as far as he is able. This holds true no matter what context they find themselves in: On the miserable island of their youth, Oriel dreams of becoming the Damall (effectively a slavemaster who trades in boys, and the only adult on the island); in the freedom of town, he positions himself to inherit a saltwell (and the wealth and prestige that comes with it); captured by Wolvers (perhaps akin to Vikings), he knows that he too could find success as a Wolver, if that is where life leads him. It's Griff who is Oriel's checks and balances, but it's also Griff standing behind Oriel and supporting his decisions at every turn.

Oriel is a leader from the beginning—and in a contemporary YA book, he'd be the hero throughout. But for all that Oriel is a leader, and seeks to be a good one, he is...not always a good person. He is not terribly troubled by the idea of throwing the weakest to the Wolvers, as it were. His relationships with women are complicated, not that he sees them as such—that is, he views his love as true and unerring, but his interest in women throughout the book is built on what he might be able to achieve through them. He falls into a relationship with one woman; he sets off to pursue (with the first woman's understanding) another woman who can offer him far more material wealth and power; he learns that the first woman is pregnant with his child, and he asks "What will you do?" because as far as he is concerned, that child is really no business of his. (If this book were set in the present day, Oriel would absolutely be a would-be politician instead of a would-be earl.)

Oriel's death is, as I said, a gut-punch near the end of the book. I remember, hazily, how wrong it felt at first to have Griff take over the narration. He wasn't supposed to be the hero, after all; Oriel was finally getting all that he'd worked for. And yet...the farther into Griff's short section we get, the clearer his strengths. He does not have Oriel's vision or charisma or drive—but he does have a gift for seeing people, for thinking ahead to consequences, for seeking to do the right thing even when it is not the easy thing. And yet...in a contemporary book, I think it is Griff who would die near the end, if anyone did (maybe Griff would just be seriously injured), and his death would be a final turning point for the hero that is Oriel. The book is far better for not being my imaginary contemporary version.

I wish I could read this again for the first time—but also, I don't know what I would make of it now, if it had not been such a formative part of my childhood reading. I hope I would still love it. I still have my original copy, and I hope I'll still love it in another decade or two.

Review (Deutsch): "Adele möchte die Welt umarmen" von Sabine Bohlmann

Adele möchte die Welt umarmen von Sabine Bohlmann
Herausgegeben 2026 von Silberfisch
★★★

Adele und ihre Geschwister wollen noch ein weiteres Kind—sieben ist natürlich die perfekte Zahl. Der Arzt hat gesagt, dass es nicht möglich ist...und so müssen die Kinder einen Plan machen.

Deutsch ist für mich keine Muttersprache, und ich finde Hörbücher für Kinder nützlich (einfacher als Hörbucher für Erwachsene zu verstehen!). Hier haben wir eine mehr oder weniger einfache Geschichte: Ein paar Kinder wollen ein Geschwisterchen, und ihr Plan ist, gute Taten zu vollbringen und dann zu später Stunde eine Zeremonie zu haben. Es gibt hier viele gute Lektionen für Kinder (z.B. nette Dinge, die man ohne viel Mühe tun kann), aber ich habe die Prämisse ein bisschen komisch gefunden—viele Kinder wollen, okay (auch mir komisch, aber etwas das viele Leute wollen!), aber so specifisch eine Zahl...

Die Autorin hat das Hörbuch selbst eingelesen. Die Stimme ist klar und gut verstandlich, aber mir war es auch ein bisschen hoch (die Erzählerin der Geschichte ist ein Mädchen). Gut aber für Kinder! Ich denke, dass ich der Serie nicht fortsetzen werde, aber für ein Kind aus entweder einer grossen oder einer ganze kleinen Familie könnte sie spannend sein.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review (Deutsch): "Die Nervknödel" von Maria Kling

Die Nervknödel von Maria Kling, gelesen von Karoline Herfurth
Herausgegeben 2026 von Silberfisch
★★★★

Milla und Mats wollen ein Haustier...Mama und Papa wollen kein Haustier. Und dann finden Milla und Mats im Garten drei Nervknödel...

Als Hörbuch war das ganz lustig—viel Energie, verschiedene Stimmen, etwas für die Kinder, aber auch für die Erwachsenen. Was Milla und Mats lernen, ist natürlich, dass Elternsein (auch wenn die Kinder Nervknödel sind) ganz, ganz schwer ist.

Ich denke an Das Klugscheißerchen: Die Geschichte ist anders, aber das Gefühl ist ähnlich; hier ist ein Geschichte für Kinder, die Kinder erst später komplett verstehen werden. So viel Chaos! So viel Geduld...und auch so viel Ungeduld. Ich wurde das Buch definitiv Kindern empfehlen, die Haustiere wollen...und auch vielleicht Kindern, die kleine Geschwister wollen.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.

Review: "Sunflowers and Lavender" by Maisy Valais

Sunflowers and Lavender by Maisy Valais
Published April 2026 via Yellow Jacket
★★★

Very cute, very fluffy YA story about two girls who experience a combination of infatuation at first sight and inability to act elegantly upon that infatuation. I picked this up as part of my trawl through my library's graphic novel collection (sometimes one is in a mood, and sometimes that mood is graphic novel), and why yes, since you asked, I did pick this one largely based on the cover.

As established, it's very cute; it's also extraordinarily thin on plot, with little happening other than the girls seeing each other, becoming incoherent, and falling all over themselves to fail to ask the other one out. I enjoyed the read (manga lovers in particular will appreciate the art), but it also felt like something that could be a long-running, high-energy, low-plot comic strip with significant soap-opera vibes...and while that can be great in the right circumstances, I'm not sure it's one I'd keep reading.

Review: "The Holiday House Swap" by Lauren Appelbaum

The Holiday House Swap by Lauren Appelbaum
Published October 2026 via Forever
★★★

Phoebe needs a reset after unexpectedly losing her job. Arden needs a step away from her unrequited crush. When they meet on a house-swap site, it seems like a perfect fit: They'll each get to step out of their normal lives and experience something new. And If that "something new" happens to come in the form of a new crush for Arden and a rekindled relationship for Phoebe, well...

I think I'm going to do this one rapid-fire.

– House-swap stories are a classic at this point (The Holiday, anyone?), and it's nice to see some relatively unusual choices of location (Seattle and Florida).

– That said, Phoebe's house-swap proposal is sketchy as all hell, and it only works that Arden says yes because Arden is so naïve. It would have made a lot more sense to me if Phoebe had at least fleshed out her account with photos instead of just saying "you'll love it!" (Also, Arden not mentioning on her account that she has a cat is a giant mistake.) And Arden gives Phoebe free run of her car? Is this a thing?

– The book avoids making the setup too cringe—Phoebe loses her job, yes, but in a fairly understated manner; Arden has a crush, but it's also a quiet one. This wouldn't rate a mention except I've read too many books that open with spectacular failure after spectacular failure, and I don't really enjoy being embarrassed for characters.

– The characters lean a little...intentionally chipper and quirky? maybe? for my tastes. Phoebe squeals in delight and runs all the way around the house when she gets to Florida, for example, and Arden's cannot-handle-zero-stars-of-heat-at-a-Thai-restaurant spice tolerance feels designed to be cute and inoffensively odd (one of those things that shows up just long enough for a meet-cute and then is never mentioned again). On the whole they just both felt very vanilla to me, I think.

– I don't know how likely it is that two strangers on a house-swap site would immediately start texting each other their personal business, but it mostly works for the book. Really don't love one woman's panicked text telling the other that she might want to come home early, though. What's the second woman meant to do? Buy a(nother) last-minute ticket to go home? Decamp to a hotel at her own expense? They're both adults; if the first woman wanted out, she could quietly find herself somewhere to stay with a friend, or just suck it up. (It works out, of course, but I kept imagining being in that second woman's shoes and thinking that I was going to need to scramble to find an expensive backup plan.)

– Staying vague here, but at one point one man is put out because of a woman not being willing to sacrifice personal dreams to move to be with the man. The woman feels guilty about this, and I was ready to be annoyed at romance novels and the expectation that men's dreams come first...but then the woman points out that the man never offered to give up his dreams, and the whole thing improved.

– I've never seen a character order so much food in (as opposed to picking it up herself) as Arden does in Seattle. I get that she's not used to having delivery options, but my gosh. If she can afford to order in every day on a Florida kindergarten teacher's salary, it's because the delivery drivers are even more wildly underpaid than she likely is.

– I know Arden is inexperienced, but being upset in the same breath that the guy she's having a holiday fling with doesn't introduce her to her coworkers—and in the same breath acknowledging that she's only known him a few days (too little time to even have this conversation with him)—is a lot.

– Phoebe in particular does some solid growth, eventually, which is nice. I liked that she's never portrayed as bad, just perhaps overly focused and guarded, or at least prone to deflecting; she doesn't need to change who she is, just needs to learn to take some leaps.

– I thought for a while that this was going to be a closed-door romance, partly because it's a while before things move (and not least because Arden gets hot and bothered by the idea of the physical contact involved in Jenga(??)—rather aggressively innocent, no?), but there is in fact some open-door action. Do with that what you will; I don't mind either way but in the context of the book was a bit surprised by the turn it took.

This got longer than I intended! So much for rapid-fire. Overall...it was okay. I never really connected with the characters, but it was a quick read.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Extra Large" by Tyler Page

Extra Large by Tyler Page
Published March 2025 via First Second
★★★

Thoughtful look at body image, internal and external pressure, and the absolute horror that is middle school. Much has been written about the pressures on girls at this age, but I've seen a lot less from the perspective of a tweenage boy.

The premise is pretty simple—Page was a bigger kid, which hadn't bothered him until middle school...at which point everyone's bodies started to change, and kids started being more cruel about calling out differences, and it occured to him that his weight could be one of those differences. Some of the themes here are unfortunately common (e.g., Page's father deciding to lose some weight, and criticizing Page's mother's weight at the same time); other things, while also common, I don't see in graphic novels as much. I really liked the way Page portrays himself trying to deflect criticism by passing it on to others; it's not a good look, of course, but it's also a very real thing. He doesn't belabor the point (I'm guessing it took until well past middle school for Page to process this fully), but it's clearly something that made an impression.

The art isn't really to my taste; it's fine but reminds me of...Foxtrot, I think? As ever, no shade whatsoever to the drawing skills, which surpass mine not so much by a mile as by a marathon; just a matter of personal preference in long-form graphic works.

Review: "Get a Grip" by Alyson Shelton

Get a Grip by Alyson Shelton
Published October 2026 via West 44 Books
★★★

Kelly's life is a happy one, filled with gymnastics, supportive parents, a brother she's close to and a brother she tolerates. But when her brother Michael, the one she's close to, dies in an accident, everything is turned upside-down.

This is a novel in verse, written for a hi-lo audience—which is to say, high interest level for teenagers who have relatively low reading skills. Think complex themes (in this case, grief and the complexities of friendship) but simpler language. I'm not the target audience here, but I like seeing what's out there (and also...I like gymnastics stories).

This one flies by. I like the mix of themes, and that the book is set in the 80s; it was a different world for gymnastics then, and also a different world in terms of how quickly you could contact other people and so on. Kelly can't just look up her new gymnastics teammates on Instagram; she has to get to know them slowly.

At times I would have liked certain plot points to have a bit more room to breathe. We never do find out what exactly happened to Michael, for example, and when another character gets engaged his father has to ask who the fiancée is—can you imagine a parent you live with (and have a reasonable relationship with) not knowing who you might be getting married to? Maybe that would have felt more normal in the 80s (though i have my doubts), but to my 2020s eyes it's anything but.

All in all, though, I think younger readers will appreciate this one—it'll be an especially good one for school libraries the next time the summer Olympics rolls around.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Foreign" by Sonora Jha

Foreign by Sonora Jha
Published October 2026 via HarperVia
★★★★

Katya has rebuilt her life—started over in Seattle, built an academic career, raised her son to be someone she can be proud of. But then, when he's visiting his grandparents in India, he runs away—and everything she thought she knew crumbles.

I read this almost entirely for the setting. My spouse is Indian (and, as it happens, from the same region where Foreign takes place, though that wasn't clear to me until partway through the book), and I'm always curious about books that will tell me something new about places I don't know enough about. Here, Katya is local...sort of. And also not really. She's from India, but she grew up in a city and with a comfortable amount of privilege (the same can be said for my spouse); the book takes place in a village in a part of Maharashtra beset by the problems of rural poverty. She speaks the language and understands the context better than many, but she's functionally a foreigner here.

Parts of the book are clearly inspired by Jha's own context—single mother, immigrant, journalism—though beyond that it is impossible for me to guess how much might be true to her own experience. In any case, the book is not really about Katya; more, it's about the plight of rural farmers facing problems that are not of their own making and that are largely or entirely out of their control: drought, crop failure, pressure to marry their children off well, rising prices, decreasing returns. Suicides have risen, which is another key point of Foreign; one of the farmers Katya ends up spending time with is at clear risk for suicide (poverty, desperation, moneylenders at the door), and one of the stress points of the book is that surviving family members of a farmer who has committed suicide get a government payout...if the government decides that they've met exacting criteria. In other words, the family might lose not only someone they love but also the primary breadwinner in a household already living hand-to-mouth, and not get the financial reprieve their loved one had hoped for.

I've seen a couple of reviews criticizing Foreign for, well, writing for foreigners. And that's probably true: I don't think this is a book written for people in rural Maharashtra, or even those in Mumbai. But then, it makes me the right reader for it, because this is simply a context and an ongoing problem that I don't know very much about. I'd be very interested to read a book by somebody who has lived this reality rather than researched and reported on it. And at the same time, this makes for a good starting point for those of us who are just, erm, curious about everywhere.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Guard My Heart" by Sabrina Fedel

Guard My Heart by Sabrina Fedel
Published October 2026 via Delacorte Romance
★★★

For Ryleigh, hockey is just about everything—or, if not everything, it's at least her first love and (she hopes) her ticket to an elite university. Dating is definitely not in the plan. An attractive Canadian hockey player is definitely not in the plan.

Formula 1 books are on the rise, but in the meantime the sports romances all seem to be hockey hockey hockey. I suspect we all know what is responsible for this...and while I don't have a particular affinity to hockey books (no objection, of course, just no specific interest), here we are.

There's quite a bit to like here. First, although Ryleigh is good—she's a goalie and she knows her stuff—she's not the best or the strongest one out there. She can hold her own, but her last season was rough, and she knows that her college options may be limited. On the one hand this feels like a small thing (obviously not everybody can be the best!), but on the other hand I read so many YA books that have quite a lot of wish fulfilment in them—teenager gets a major publishing deal, wins a major science prize, is valedictorian, etc.—that it's always nice to read about teenagers who have dreams but a) have to work for them and b) have to be realistic about those dreams.

The romance is also nice. Ryleigh is a little prickly at first, but she loosens up once she starts to trust Jett a bit; Jett, for his part, manages to be an all-around good guy. (Having read one too many "she's a doormat and he's a raging asshole" books, it's always a relief when he's not a raging asshole. Did I say one too many? I might have meant a hundred too many.) There is a wee bit of wish fulfilment in their romance (he's the hottest new thing at school, smart and attractive and as sure a bet for the NFL as you can get, and he's spending all his free time with Ryleigh, etc. etc.), but I'll take that if it means we get a decent person in the mix.

I do have quibbles. First, Ryleigh is quite small for a hockey goalie (probably for a hockey player at all), and this is mentioned repeatedly—enough to remind me of the romance trend of "she's so little and he's so big, oh my" that, well, I wished she'd just been a bit taller and it wasn't a plot point. Second, there's a mean-girl plot, and although it's not the most dramatic mean-girl plot I've seen, I'm of an age where I'd just rather see more about platonic friendship and less about mean girls who are on the prowl. And finally...there's significant discussion in the book of what schools might be possibilities, and Cornell is one of the schools in play. The potential for a scholarship is one of the discussion points here, and it's not an insignificant one—Ryleigh's one of several kids, her family isn't wealthy, they're probably still paying off medical bills, etc. But: The Ivy League schools don't give athletic scholarships. This policy has been in place since the 1950s, and they (including Cornell) only give need-based scholarships. Now, I'm not saying that this policy has never been flaunted—I'm sure that creative recruiters have found ways to sweeten the deal for student athletes. But generally...as I understand it, it's not a thing. I did read an ARC, so this might be fact-checked and corrected before publication, but in a book that is so enthusiastic about hockey I found it a bit odd that nobody looked into what scholarships are likely from what schools.

Overall fun and nicely balanced; a couple of Fedel's other books have been on my radar for a while, and it's probably time to track them down.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "A Very Merry Detour" by Court Behr

A Very Merry Detour by Court Behr
Published October 2026 via Dial Press
★★★

Alaina had Christmas all planned out...but those plans didn't involve getting dumped. Then she made a plan B (mostly involving chasing down her ex and trying to win him back)...but it didn't involve a blizzard-induced car crash in Utah. It also didn't involve a stranger rescuing her, or being forced to rely on that stranger's goodwill in the lead-up to Christmas. And it didn't involve the stranger making her question her sexuality...

This is a sweet, feel-good romance, full of holiday vibes (and a lot of hot chocolate). There's a lot to like here—the conflict is largely internal, which is to say that the heroines each have to figure some things out but there's no real villain of the story, no evil ex or greasy-haired homophobe lurking in the corners to take them down. (Folks, I have read a lot of queer romance. I know by now what things make me specifically tired.) Priscilla is a little stilted at times, and Alaina a little intentionally kooky, but they're both fundamentally good people who are trying to do right by the people around them. Similarly, the secondary cast feel like they'd be fun to be around, which is not always a given.

I would have liked more open, honest conversation between Alaina and Priscilla, and perhaps a longer time frame. This isn't one of those books where all the conflict could be solved by an honest conversation, which is great, but the fact is that there are a lot of barriers to a relationship that they don't really discuss. Like: They live in different states. Alaina thought, until she met Priscilla, that she was straight. Alaina is actively pursuing her male ex for most of the book (spoiler warning) right up to the moment when she tells Priscilla that she could stay in Utah to be with Priscilla rather than going to New York to try to get her ex back. None of these is insurmountable (though, "if you don't want me I'll go see if my ex does" is not a great way to propose a relationship), (end spoiler warning!) and it's also completely understandable that either of them wouldn't necessarily want to discuss all this with someone they've known less than a week. But if I were in Priscilla's shoes—hot stranger crash-lands in my life, she talks a big game about how she's straight and trying to get her male ex back, we make out despite her professed straightness and I earn a toaster,* she uses the last of her savings on a ticket to New York visit said ex, and then (with the NY trip still apparently on the agenda) within a week of meeting she decides she wants to stay with me and make a go of a relationship...yeah, I'd have some concerns. And questions! Nothing wrong with taking a minute to figure out your sexuality, nothing wrong with taking a minute to figure out what you actually want, nothing wrong with realizing you want something different than you thought...just, it's a lot for the characters to get through in a week, and without being super comfortable having big conversations with each other for most of that week.

So all told it makes for an enjoyable winter holiday romance, complete with all the winter activities you could dream of (makes me want to go winter camping!). It also has a relationship worthy of U-Haul jokes** and not enough communication for my admittedly picky liking, so do with that what you will.

*I might be showing my age here; do people still make this joke?

**There are not enough of these in queer romance, to my great regret.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Review: "Out of Left Field" by Jonah Newman

Out of Left Field by Jonah Newman
Published March 2024 via Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
★★★

A semiautobiographical graphic novel about baseball, identity, and being true to yourself. I recently made a list of a whole bunch of graphic novels that my library has that interest me, and this was (surprise!) on the list.

It's a story that takes a longer path than some—the entirety of high school rather than, e.g., just a summer or a year. Jonah (the book version) has a lot of growing up to do over the course of those four years, from figuring out his own sexuality to realizing who his true friends are to seeing the world a bit more clearly. And, of course, to getting better at baseball.

The art feels a little simple to me (more "comic" than "graphic novel", if that makes sense), though it's consistent and, you know, miles better than anything I could draw myself. I do wish the plotline with Jonah's lone female baseball teammate had gone into a bit more depth; she pops on page every once in a while to be (rightfully) annoyed that the coach has given her approximately zero playing time while dedicating a tremendous amount of time and effort to moving Jonah from "bad at baseball" to "decent at baseball". It's clear that the author can see the discrepancy, but even at the end of the book I'm not sure book-Jonah ever really gets that even if he's not actively impeding her himself, he's doing nothing to help. It does feel realistic (teenagers are going to teenager!), and I'm not sure quite what I might have hoped for, but I did want a little something else there.

A quick read, in any case, and I think one where a lot of readers will find something to relate to.

Review (Deutsch): "Cats Tagesbuch: Lass die Ratte aus dem Sack!" von Franziska Hollbacher

Cats Tagesbuch: Lass die Ratte aus dem Sack! von Franziska Hollbacher
Herausgegeben 2026 von Magellan
★★★★

Wunderst du dich, was eine Katze denkt...? Wundere dich nicht mehr. Jetzt wissen wir: Der Kater von Cats Tagebuch ist klug, hat viel Selbstvertrauen... und will nur, dass alle Leute und andere Haustiere wissen, dass er der "Top Dog" ist. Ähm, "Top Cat."

Hier gibt es ein kleines Geheimnis und viel, viel Sarkasmus—der Humor ist sehr trocken—aber meistens ist die Geschichte ein hemmungsloser Ritt durch ein paar Tage im Leben eines Katers. (Es gibt natürlich eine Katerstrophe oder zwei...)

Ich fand die Geschichte echt lustig, mit einfachen Zeichnungen und nur ein bisschen Chaos. Perfekt für ein Kind, das eine Katze hat...oder eine Katze wollte...oder eine Katze sein wollte.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, und alle Fehler sind meine eigenen.