Review: "Finding Our Way" by Steven Gallon

Finding Our Way by Steven Gallon
Published September 2022 via Peace Corps Writers
★★★★

In the 60s, Gallon and his wife graduated from university, got married...and immediately set off for Peace Corps service in South Korea. At the time, Korea was not the highly developed country it is today: It had only relatively recently come out of war, connections with the rest of the world were of course not what they are today, and although major cities were of course more developed, that's relative.

After fifteen months in Korea, we were accustomed to a lack of development: dirt streets, open sewers, aging buildings, and an economy that primarily operated on the backs of manual laborers. Pockets of prosperity and economic signs of progress were emerging; new construction was on the rise and new businesses were popping up in the cities. Urban infrastructure, however, and life in rural villages contained few conveniences. Most people had little, and their lives were harsh. Per capita GDP in Korea at the time was less than $200 per year. (232)

(I assume that's 1960s dollars, so a quick inflation calculation: $200 in 1967 would be a bit less than $2,000 in 2025.)

It sounds like a wildly challenging experience and a wildly rewarding one. Gallon and his wife perhaps had an easier time of it because they had each other to lean on—most PCVs have their cohort, sure, but that's not the same as living with someone you know and love and who shares your cultural context—but I suppose it also takes a particular type of person to excel at being dropped in another country and another language and to make the best of it, and the Gallons were that type of person.

There's a richness of detail here that makes me think that the Gallons kept good notes and wrote long letters at the time; there's also a lot of affection for the people they met and, in some cases, lived with. Were I to join the Peace Corps I'd find public health work more interesting than teaching English (this assuming I qualified to do public health work!), but it sounds like they had, overall, an extremely rewarding time with their students and with their lives in Korea. An interesting story, well told.

Finally, one apropos-of-nothing quotation, because it made me laugh:

Our meals during training were never very popular. The cooks in our cafeteria were contractors, and to prepare us for what we would find in Korea, Peace Corps had requested they make something akin to a Korean diet. Everyday Korean cuisine traditionally consisted of homemade soup, moist and sticky rice, and spicy kimchi complemented with a variety of mostly vegetable side dishes. The basic menu was the same for each meal of the day. To introduce us to such a diet, the cooks served us Lipton chicken noodle soup and Uncle Ben’s instant rice, both out of a box. Side dishes didn’t make it to the menu, except maybe some toast at breakfast. (22)

Review: "Royal Summer" by Kass Morgan

Royal Summer by Kass Morgan
Published May 2026 via HarperCollins
★★★

Hannah's plan is simple: escape her dysfunctional parents for the summer by interning for one of her favorite authors in Edinburgh. From there she'll write a novel of her own, paving the way to an MFA and eventual success as a writer. There's just one problem: the author bails at the last minute, leaving Hannah without a plan...or an income...and no desire to return home. Lucky for her, the solution is also simple: A prince swoops in, sets her up with a job and new accommodation, and helps heal her heartbreak while he's at it.

Oh, YA. Now, it's an established fact that I am a sucker for royalty books. Royalty in real life: problematic! Royalty in fiction: escapism! I've tried (admittedly not very hard, but still) to develop more elevated reading tastes and all that, but, well, sometimes we just need our escapist fluff.

And escapist fluff this is. This was fun and fast, but there's not all that much that's new here—we have your classic "she's the only girl he's ever met who doesn't recognize him and thus the only girl he's ever met who doesn't immediately throw herself at him, so he is immediately smitten"; the also-classic "his ex is prettier, more polished, and possibly a bitch"; and of course "she's a commoner and an American at that, so his parents don't like her". Oh, and don't forget "he was a playboy troublemaker until she came along, but her sweet innocence is enough to reform him". There's also quite a bit that defies my limited ability to suspend disbelief (the whole thing where Hannah steals a horse comes to mind), but then I suppose that's also pretty par for the course. Summery fluff.

A quick note on genre: This is marketed as YA, and for the most part that feels accurate—it's simple enough and light enough that I'd put most of the book at the younger end of YA. However, there's some pretty explicit sex in here (way more than in the last adult romance I read), putting this closer to NA. On the whole I don't take issue with sex in YA books (real-life teenagers are going to boink whether or not book teenagers do; better to have open discussions about it than to pretend it's not happening), but I'm not a fan of the disconnect between young-YA voice and steamy strip-teases (to say nothing of what follows said steamy strip-teases). Do with that what you will.

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

Review: "The Summer Scrapbook" by Florence Migga

The Summer Scrapbook by Florence Migga
Published May 2026 via Carolrhoda Books
★★★

It's the last summer before high school, but it's not what the ABCs* had planned. Instead of spending the summer together, hanging out at the pool, they'll be doing parent-planned things: Ava is off to London with her family, Becca is going to sleepaway camp (no phones allowed), and only Cat will be home in Chattanooga. The solution to staying connected: snail mail letters and collection of material for a summer scrapbook.

I love me a friendship story, and once upon a time I read as many YA and MG summer travel stories as I could (who am I kidding? I still read them). This is basically three summer stories in one (camp, hometown, abroad), plus the friendship thread to tie them together. I'm also thrilled to see a book featuring three Black tweenagers; there's way too little diversity/representation in this sort of YA/MG summer-adventure book, and it's about time.

The downside of having three different summer stories is that it's harder to pack in as much characterization and so on as I'd have liked. Early on in the book I gave myself a little mnemonic to remember who was who—Ava was off on an Adventure, Cat was home in Chattanooga (I figured that was enough, so I didn't work Becca into it, but then when I got to the part about Becca feeling like the afterthought sometimes I felt bad. Becca was in Bunk beds at camp all summer). That helped, but I struggled to find serious differences between Cat and Becca in particular (both quiet, a bit shy; Becca's the reader; Cat's the writer; one of them develops an interest in fashion, but I didn't even realize that was an interest until she mentions it at the end of the book). Ava's easier, as she's more outgoing, but I would have liked a bit more space to get to know each girl, quirks and warts and all. Ditto the new friends they make; we get a bit of the personalities and interests of Cat's new crowd, but there's just not really the time to get to know three separate girls in different locations, and the shape and arc of their friendship, and their new friends, and in some cases their new romantic interests. (The romance is sweet and pretty mild, but in a MG book especially I'd always rather that the romance be chucked in favor of friendship content. But if it's going to be in there, at least it's done well.)

All that being said—I liked all three of these storylines (and all three of these main characters), and if I would have preferred them broken into three different books, then...oh well, that's probably a me problem. Yes to the summer vibes, yes to themes of friendship and navigating growing up, yes to tweenagers being forced off their phones for a summer, yes to supportive families and snail mail and tromping all over London.

*That they do not call themselves this is one of the book's few serious flaws.

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

Review: "Two Scoops" by Willa Codrington and Emma Codrington

Two Scoops by Willa Codrington and Emma Codrington
Published December 2025
★★★

A mother-daughter story. This one starts off a little slowly, with Emma Codrington (the mother of the duo) covering quite a lot of facts and background, but it picks up when it gets more into story. I appreciate that both authors are careful to avoid specifics of numbers and (for the most part) behaviours, but what I'm really curious about is the eventual decision to send Willa from the UK to South Africa for treatment. Both Codringtons talk negatively about their experience with treatment options in the UK, but I'm not sure if there was a specific reason to turn to South Africa—why specifically there and not somewhere else? Family ties, financial reasons, specific types of treatment, something else?

Later in the book the focus turns from anorexia to OCD (not directly one to the other, but one taking more of a forefront), with things still quite dicey towards the end. Like many books about illness and recovery, there's a fair amount of summing up at the end, which is too bad, though it's nice that most of the book is about at least trying to recover (vs. the initial descent).

Review: "The Lady Whose Mouth I Set on Fire" by Dr. McAnonymous

The Lady Whose Mouth I Set on Fire by Dr. McAnonymous
Published January 2021
★★★

Entertaining and brief stories from the emergency department. I like medical memoir (I always learn something), though I found the author's extended and repeated assurances that all of the stories were true to be tedious at best (could have been summed up in a single line—names and identifying details have been changed, but the stories in this book are all true, etc. etc.) and to leave me with a sense of the fourth wall being constantly knocked against. The chapters are largely thematic, with some longer stories but also quite a lot of very brief anecdotes. As ever, I'd have preferred more longer stories, but these were generally entertaining.

Review: "Archie, Vol. 5" by Mark Waid and Audrey Mok

Archie, Vol. 5 by Mark Waid and Audrey Mok
Published 2018 via Archie Comics
★★★

We pick up right where the series left off: Betty is facing the physical consequences of teenage idiocy (mostly not hers), Archie is facing a whole lot of guilt for those same events, Reggie is trying to get out of the legal consequences, and the whole town has opinions.

I wish this weren't quite so ableist—the initial reaction, across the characters, is that Betty's life will be ruined if she has a permanent physical disability. Betty herself is really determined not to be reliant on anyone else, so there's that, but...gosh. The whole town (including Veronica, who displays an appreciation for Betty that is something of a first for Veronica in this series) has this collective grief at the idea that although their golden girl is mentally fine (albeit with emotional things to work through) she might be visibly physically injured. (Obviously because this is what it is, Betty recovers much of her physical can-do throughout the book; whatever she hasn't regained, I expect she will do in the next volume. And...I have mixed feelings about that too, because while it's great for her and in line with the series, a more realistic outcome would be one that acknowledged that sometimes sheer doggedness isn't enough to overcome serious injury.)

Anyway. The series moves on, and so do I. I really can't fault it for what it is—if this series feel wildly realistic, it's still miles beyond the realism of the originals.

Review: "The Escape Game" by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss
Published April 2026 via G.P. Putnam's Books for Young Readers
★★★★

On the last season of The Escape Game, it was all going to plan...until a contestant was found murdered. Millions will be tuning in for the latest season, not least when it emerges that one of last season's contestants is back. She's ready to prove that despite popular opinion, she didn't murder her sister—and more to the point, to find out who did.

This is told from the perspectives of four of the contestants, all competing together as a team: Adi, forced to be there by his mother (who is gunning for a Hollywood comeback of her own); Beck, who has family financial reasons to want the prize; Carter, who has built a social media presence about The Escape Game and is ready to prove her own skills; and of course Sierra, who was last season's villain and still doesn't give a flying squirrel what other people think of her. And gosh it's satisfying. I've never done an escape room (just the idea stresses me out, to be honest), but the level of detail here is fantastic. The characters think so quickly, and while I can't say how realistic the escape rooms themselves are, they're wonderful fun to read about.

Now, the whodunnit: I highlighted something very early on in the book that made me suspicious—it could have been a red herring or it could have been foreshadowing. I can't say what it is, but I can say that it's chapter 51 before the characters catch on. (I can't blame them—it's the sort of thing you notice when you're reading a mystery that you know will be full of twists, not the sort of thing you notice when you're living it and have no reason to suspect a foul!) Because of this, I paid more attention when a particular character was on-page and was less surprised than I might have been by the eventual reveals...but there were still plenty of red herrings and so on to keep me guessing.

Looks like a second book is in the works, and I'll happily pick it up when the time comes.

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

Review: "My Last Summer with Cass" by Mark Crilley

My Last Summer with Cass by Mark Crilley
Published March 2021 via Little, Brown Ink
★★★

Megan and Cass are summer friends—they don't see each other for most of the year, but when they're together, they're inseparable. They push each other artistically and understand each other like nobody else...until Cass moves to New York and they drift apart. But one last summer together gives them a chance to connect again...until it all falls apart.

I like the art here a lot (except maybe the eyes, which are so cartoonishly large—all pupil and no iris—that they look like black holes). I was a little more meh on the story: Megan and Cass are given roles and not really allowed to deviate from them (one of them is the cool one and one of them is the small-town good girl), and the way things fall apart makes me want more time for independent character development before the story's resolution (rather than a sort of jump cut). Reminds me a little of Blue Is the Warmest Color in the angst level.

Love that this is a friendship story (no romance!), but probably not one that I'll return to.

Review: "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Published April 2026 via Knopf
★★★★★

Natalie has it figured out: a farm in rural Idaho, a passel of kids dressed in neutral tones, a conservative-friendly, back-to-the-land lifestyle, and a social media following that's enough to keep her in cashmere sweaters. If the farm isn't actually organic, and if there are actually farmhands and nannies and producers behind the scenes, and if she carries a deep-seated rage carefully covered up by her cashmere sweaters—well, nobody needs to know, do they?

Until Natalie wakes up in the 1800s version of her life. Same house...minus the nice clothing, the nannies, the running water. Minus everything that made back-to-the-land feel feasible. Children who aren't quite the ones she knows. A husband who isn't quite the one she knows. Is it a joke? A reality show? Has she been kidnapped? Influencer-Natalie wasn't happy...but 1800s Natalie is desperate to get back to that life.

How boring. How deeply and utterly unfair. I did everything I was supposed to. I had the children and married the man and created a universe for all of us to live in, and what was I going to get for it? (loc. 5258*)

There's a publisher's note at the beginning of this one that describes Yesteryear as "by far, the most buzzed about novel of 2026" (loc. 4). I'll take that with a grain of it's-the-publisher-saying-it, but it's backed up with mention of a fifteen-publisher bidding war, and frankly...having read it, I get the hype.

There are two things about the book that might be divisive: The first is the eventual reveal about what landed Natalie in an 1800s version of her life. No spoilers, but it takes a while, partly because Natalie isn't really in shape to figure it out...and it definitely kept me guessing. The second is Natalie herself: my gosh but she's a bit of a cow. She's not written to be likable, and, well, she isn't. She's calculating and judgemental and angry. She's done all the things her religion tells her that she should, and it hasn't been enough; she's turned herself into a conservative's version of a perfect woman, or perhaps a caricature of one, and it hasn't been enough. She still doesn't have what she wants, and she's still not happy. What fascinates me is the way Natalie digs in—she's willing to believe that she can try something more, but not willing to think that she could try something different.

The woman in the videos, with her flipbook of smiles? That was Online Natalie, and she was designed to be good at being alive. Nothing was hard for her: not motherhood, not marriage, not building a business, not serving Him. All of it appeared to her as a series of tasks to be accomplished each day, at the right time, in the correct chronological order. 

Online Natalie started each morning by giving thanks for all the Lord had given her. She greeted her children lovingly each morning. She had sex with her husband every night. She was tired all the time, but it never made her ugly or angry or bitter. It only ever made her more beautiful. 

And she was right there, wasn't she? Standing, smiling, beckoning. Any day now, I would wrap my fingers around her neck and pull her forward. Let her topple into me. (loc. 3872)

Natalie is fascinating. You don't want to be her; you don't want to know her. You might or might not think "this is what I would do differently in her shoes". But she is so on point in this age of Christian influencers and momfluencers. If she's not taken directly from real life, she's only a step or so removed.

I don't give five-star ratings lightly, but this is one that will stick with me.

*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 Faraway Inn" by Sarah Beth Durst

The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
Published April 2026 via First Ink
★★★★

Calisa's looking for an escape this summer—she's recovering from a broken heart, and her great-aunt's inn, deep in Vermont without even a whisper of mobile data, seems like the place to be. Only: Aunt Zee doesn't want her there. And the inn has fallen into disrepair. And the closer Calisa looks, the more she understands that the inn is a little more...complicated...than Calisa first thought.

I read this largely on the strength of The Lake House, which gripped me by the throat for much of the book. The Faraway Inn is something else entirely—still a delight to speed through, but much more on the "charming" end of the scale than the "throat-gripping" end. I'm reminded of the phone game Matchington Mansion (which I did not reinstall when I had to get a new phone, because it is too much of a time suck), in which rooms gradually open up to the player...new place after new place to discover and restore. The inn isn't quite like that (we don't get enough details of, e.g., the library), but...at the same time, it kind of is. Every time a door opens, Calisa discovers something entirely new to her.

I was prepared for, I don't know, dark forces trying to bring the inn down, but the reality of the book is a lot calmer. There are problems, and Calisa ends up having to do quite a lot of problem-solving (and quite a lot of work), but not so much a Big Bad. I could have used a little more by way of details about what went wrong and how they're sure there's a long-term fix, but the general vibe is just very cozy in a way that turned out to be just what I was looking for in a book at the time.

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

Review: "Heal Me" by Lujaine Saeb

Heal Me by Lujaine Saeb
Published January 2025
★★★

Back to Kindle Unlimited and a quick look at poetry. This feels inspired by Rupi Kaur and the like—all lowercase, not a lot of metaphor, a lot of first person, titles (of a sort?) at the end of the poems rather than the beginning. (More rhyming than I usually expect from this type of poetry, but rather simplistic rhyming.)

I don't think this one will stick with me, but it'll likely be a good fit for those who gravitate toward short, emotion-driven poetry.

Review: "What We Did to Survive" by Megan Lally

What We Did to Survive by Megan Lally
Published March 2026 via Sourcebooks Fire
★★★★

It's spring break, and Hannah is living it up with her friend Emmy at a beach resort in Mexico. And everything's great...right up until Emmy's latest crush invites them, and Emmy's brother, to go sailing. On a random boat whose owner he's paid off. With a storm on the horizon...

I'm not a fan of boats, but despite (because of?) this, I'm fond of locked-room murder mysteries taking place on boats. This isn't a mystery per se—when the first body falls, Hannah (and the reader) knows exactly what happened. We might not have the details of why, but we know what and who. The question becomes what the limits are...and of course what Hannah & co. will have to do to survive.

Lally's first book, That's Not My Name, won me over partly for the tight pacing and partly for the twists that kept things surprising, and What We Did to Survive manages something similar. I don't want to get into plot details, because they're more fun if you go in blind, but I love how much of this ends up being about Hannah and Emmy's friendship, and them figuring out to stay close, stay relevant to each other, when they're heading off in different directions.

Also, have to love this dedication: For all my fellow anxious travelers. This book probably won't help your anxiety much, but your next vacation can't possibly go as badly as this one... (loc. 29*)

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

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

Review: "Sea Legs" by Jules Bakes and Niki Smith

Sea Legs by Jules Bakes and Niki Smith
Published February 2025 via Graphix
★★★★

Like most kids, Janey goes to school and comes home—but unlike most kids, "home" for Janey is a boat. And it's time to set sail again, which means that Janey is back to homeschooling and hanging out with adults and adventures that sometimes aren't as stimulating for a kid as they are for an adult.

I love a good graphic memoir, and this is a really interesting one just for being about such a unique experience. For Janey's parents, boat life is a desirable shift from a more standard way of living, but for Janey, it's often just...lonely. Staying in touch with Janey's best friend on land is hard, there are rarely other boat kids, and even when there are, they aren't always people Janey would choose to be friends with normally. Her situation is unusual, but she's still just a normal kid with normal kid desires and emotions.

Janey's friendship with Astrid ends up being some of the most interesting material of the book. That plotline ends in a complicated way—one of those things where you wish this were fiction so that you could know more about what happened after the fact!

The art is a little cartoony for me, but it grew on me as the book went on, and it made sense for the target age range. I hope there's a follow-up eventually.

Review: "Coming of Age in the Cannibal Isles" by Fred Bell

Coming of Age in the Cannibal Isles by Fred Bell
Published December 2022 via Peace Corps Worldwide
★★★★

Today in Peace Corps memoirs! Bell was sent to Fiji in 1969 for a two-year forestry stint, and it was a good enough fit that he ended up extending another two years.

Two things that I really appreciate: First, Bell is not shy about acknowledging his own failures when he was in the Peace Corps—sometimes relatively small things, like committing cultural faux pas because he didn't know all the ins and outs of Fiji culture, and sometimes bigger things, like recognizing when he picked up local racism and had to work to recalibrate. (He also acknowledges the advantages he had in being male, and that there were things that were a lot harder for women than for men.) And second, even decades later he's still just really enthusiastic about his experience, and interested in describing things he learned about the culture and place.

The book is a little repetitious in places, and there isn't as much character development for other characters as I'd have liked—the latter I think is just the result of decades passing between events and writing. But it's generally good energy, and I love reading about experiences that I'm unlikely to have myself.

Review: "Notes from a Sickbed" by Tessa Brunton

Notes from a Sickbed by Tessa Brunton
Published November 2022 via Graphic Universe
★★★★

Well before long COVID hit the scene, Brunton got sick in a way that most people didn't understand—chronic fatigue and post-exertional malaise curtailed her plans and consigned her to, mostly, a couch and a bed. For years. Eventually she found ways to reduce some of her symptoms...but that is not this story. Rather, this is the story of those years on a couch and in a bed, working up the energy to do something only to crash the next day.

I suppose this is a story that is just better understood than it would have been just a few years ago (when, say, Brunton was still in chronic-illness limbo). I think it does an excellent job of balancing the boredom of that stuckness, of everything being curtailed just as you're getting going. I am curious about Brunton's choice not to write about those strategies she was eventually able to employ—not sure if that's a matter of "maybe for another book" or a matter of "better but not well and don't want to confuse the two" or something else. I'm also curious about what various medical professionals were saying at the time, and whether any of it was helpful; Brunton doesn't really get into that, except for mentions of things not covered by insurance and the frustrations of not getting better.

It's a timely read. The art style isn't my favourite, but it gets the job done, and it's a really admirable effort at turning an experience that must have been both exhausting and often terribly boring into something not boring.

Review: "Almost Life" by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Published March 2026 via S&S/Summit Books
★★★★

When Erica and Laure meet in a sweltering Paris summer, it's a blip in their lives—until it isn't. That blip becomes a hookup, becomes a romance, unspools into something all-consuming. But Erica is only in France for the summer, and it's 1978, and being together requires a series of choices that Erica knows will upset the direction of her life. So she goes back to England—but that's really only the beginning.

She knew she could not live how Laure and her friends lived, at the edge of things, even in Paris. [...] She didn't want to exist like that. She wanted to get married, to have children. She wanted to write novels [...]. She wanted simple joy, simple happiness, simple love. And loving Laure, even if she were a man, would not be simple. (loc. 1123*)

Erica and Laure make for such messy, complex characters—maybe at the beginning one seems more straightforward than the other, or more confident in herself, but as time goes on the lines blur. They drink too much; they make bad decisions; they make good decisions; they have friends and lovers and dramas; some of their sharp edges blur into something more palatable and some of their more endearing personality traits wither over time. For Laure in some ways the question of their relationship is simpler; she is already entrenched in queer (though they would not use the term then) life in Paris, and when Erica dreams of them being together, it is back in Paris. Laure has already set aside a need for convention. But for Erica, in the 70s and 80s and beyond...she can see multiple paths, and multiple paths that would bring her joy. Some of them are easier than others.

I'm good at forgetting the book description by the time I read a book I'm interested in, so I didn't realize right away just how much time this would cover. Theirs is not a quick story, over in a summer—theirs is one of those relationships that pulls you in and spits you back out and you wonder, time and time again, if that was the one who got away...or rather, you know that was the one who got away. And what's left is what to do with that knowledge. Very much recommended to anyone with a queer one who got away and to lovers of character-driven stories.

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

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

Review: "You & a Bike & a Road" by Eleanor Davis

You & a Bike & a Road by Eleanor Davis
Published May 2017 via Fantagraphics
★★★★

3.5 stars. You & a Bike & a Road charts Davis's solo bike trip across the American Southwest, eastwards to her home in Georgia. She was biking through negative thoughts, and also with the knowledge that if she had kids it would be years before she could do something similar again. Biking through hot weather and suffering knees and border patrol helicopters flying overhead and swooping down to—Davis guesses, and frankly so do I—check her skin color. Experiencing unexpected kindnesses and witnessing terrifying border patrol–related events and meeting other people on bicycle tours. Knee pain and comics and self-doubt.

Artistically, this reminds me a little of Liana Finck. Though there are some full-page drawings, mostly these are quick sketches done with the free time and energy and supplies that one has on the road. I'm guessing (actually...I can confirm from Davis's social media) that under other circumstances her style is different. I don't mind the simplicity of the style, as it works for the project, though I did wish that at least the cross-outs (there are two on the first page alone) had been edited out. It's almost certainly a stylistic choice, but it just...was not my favorite.

The story itself, though: It's relatively quiet, but Davis works in a lot of recurring themes and understated commentary, making broader points in just a few simple drawings. Would definitely recommend, both in the context of the current US...situation...and for those dreaming of a solo adventure of whatever kind.

Review: "Dear Dad" by Jay Jay Patton

Dear Dad by Jay Jay Patton
With Kiara Valdez and Markia Jenai
Published September 2024 via Graphix
★★★

A graphic memoir about growing up with a parent who is incarcerated—and finding ways to connect both before and after that parent's release.

I picked this up because...well, mostly because the US system of incarceration is so broken, and it seems important to read people's stories about it. Dear Dad is told from a perspective I haven't heard much from—a child growing up with a parent in prison—and touches on the importance of facilitating connection between people who are incarcerated and the loved ones out in the world.

My absolute favorite thing about this (aside from it being from a perspective that I haven't seen much of) is that Patton's father's prison sentence is not the point. Why he was in prison is not the point. What is the point is that prison took him away from his family, and staying in contact was a struggle.

What I did want more of, though...well, first of all, the description of the book is inaccurate. The description says ...the two have sent each other numerous letters. Jay Jay's letters can take weeks or months to reach her dad, and some never even get delivered. What's it going to be like having Dad home? But in the book itself, I don't think we ever see those long pauses, or the real struggle to stay in touch. In fact, their written communication is shown mostly in a brief flashback, and then it's on to Patton's father being home, the family moving to Florida, and Patton's father teaching her coding in part so that they can work together on an app that helps youth better connect with their incarcerated parents.

Patton was young when her father was in prison, so this makes some sense—the letters that I as an adult write are much more complex than the letters that I wrote as a child, and I'm guessing that there was limited material to mine in the letters that Patton wrote, or that her father wrote back. It might have been interesting to see some of what Patton's parents discussed in their own letters; I'm thinking of Mainline Mama here, and of the author working and working and working to maintain her relationship while her partner was in prison. Arguments strung out over weeks rather than minutes (or sometimes gotten over before it's time for the next retort), nobody there to share the physical burden of parenting, your partner having to learn the ins and outs of in-person parenting when your child is old enough to be resentful of a new person stepping in.

Dear Dad touches on this, a little—there's one scene in which Patton objects to her father laying down rules, but that's kind of it, because the focus of the book ends up being more on coding. And make no mistake, that's also great! Girls should have more opportunities to learn coding, and it's frankly pretty awesome to see someone getting out of prison and, it seems, thriving. It's just not really what I expected the book to be about.

Oh, the art—not a style that I'm particularly fond of (a little more comic-y than I like in a graphic novel/memoir, where I almost always want more visual detail), but it gets the job done, especially for a middle grade readership.

One quick note: There are some statistics at the end about how many kids in the US have a parent in prison (and how many adults in prison have kids on the outside), but the statistics don't talk about the disproportionate incarceration of Black men in the US, or the staggering difficulties that many newly released individuals face reintegrating, finding a job, getting used to being on the outside again. I'm guessing that was a deliberate choice, but just noting here that if you're reading this as a starting point it's worth diving deeper.

Review: "Time on a Tiny Island" by Amy Muscoplat

Time on a Tiny Island by Amy Muscoplat
Published March 2025 via Joyfestival Industries
★★★

In the mid-90s, stuck in an unsatisfying job, Muscoplat took a leap—she applied to serve in the Peace Corps. She was accepted and sent to Kiribati, where she spent two years working on health projects on Marakei Island.

The Peace Corps are one of those maybe-in-another-life things for me (or maybe-after-retirement, but that feels like another life too, so...), and I love reading about other people's experiences doing it. The best Peace Corps books, to me, have always been the ones where the writer focuses on the people around them and doesn't get hung up on trying to make a big difference. That is: If I've learned one thing about reading so much about the Peace Corps, it's that the projects for which people are officially hired are not necessarily things that will make a long-term impact—they might start conversations, or they might not; mostly the things that last are the cultural learnings.

I know precious little about Kiribati, and it was so interesting to read about so much of Muscoplat's work being about latrines—because although there were flush toilets on Tarawa (the country's capital), the infrastructure simply wasn't there on the less populated islands. In practice, this meant a lot of people simply used the beach, as had been done for centuries, and there was still resistance to using latrines (widespread belief that the ocean would take away waste, concerns about freshwater contamination, etc.). Muscoplat talks a little bit about her work to encourage people to use latrines, and to get more latrines put in, but she knew that she wasn't going to change centuries of culture all by herself, and much of the material is more about, simply, what it was to live in this culture so different from her own. (Like: traveling to New Zealand with a friend from Kiribati, and the friend having to buy flip-flops after being told that she probably wouldn't be let on the plane barefoot; barefoot was simply a norm on Marakei.)

Maybe my favorite throwaway moment: This was the 90s, so communication was mostly limited to letters, and Muscoplat mentions that a friend sent a care package containing...an audiotape of relaxing ocean sounds. A bit like sending coal to Newcastle, isn't it?

Anyway, a nice addition to the Peace Corps bookverse. More fuel for dreams of another life...

Review: "Right Where We Belong" by Farrah Penn

Right Where We Belong by Farrah Penn
Published October 2025 via Viking Books for Young Readers
★★★

A girl, a boy, and a...time-travelling other boy? Okay then.

I read this because it's set at a boarding school, and I am predictable; also, the cover is pretty, and I am shallow. As a rule, I have limited interest in romance in YA books (romance is all good and well, but I want more friendship books, not more "teenagers have fallen in love and their love is pure so it must be forever") and also in speculative fiction, but you know? Sometimes a time-travelling lord spices things up a bit. This ends up having some fairly heavy themes as well: Delaney, our heroine, is grieving the loss of her father earlier in the year, her uppity boarding school is on the verge of being closed down, and over the course of the book she goes through some friendship changes. (Yay friendship material!)

Things I loved: The friendship stuff. I'd wondered whether there'd be a mean-girl angle, but no—instead, Delaney spends some time finding her place among different people when her circumstances change, and she gradually realizes that two things (or two friendships) can be true at once. The grief material is also powerful; I wasn't expecting it and honestly wasn't ready for it, but I appreciate that the shape of Delaney's grief gradually changes over time.

What I loved less: The romance is really obvious. I mean...it's YA, which basically means that unless specified otherwise it's a romance novel for teenagers, so what did I expect. I also wanted more from the time travel—the logic was a little questionable, but more than that the idea that a bunch of teenagers can band together over a few weeks to solve a physics problem that would normally take the top minds in physics years...or decades...or centuries to figure out. Now, admittedly, I don't speak physics, so I don't know whether literally any of the science in this book makes sense, but I'd be curious to hear from those who do speak physics.

So—fun but improbable. But then I suppose that's what speculative fiction is all about...