Some Books I Loved

 **A perfect, magical Coming of Age story.  One of the best I've ever read** There are some stories that tell you about a young person who believes in magic.  There are some stories that make you remember what it was like to be young and believe in magic.  And then there are some stories that make you believe in magic again, if only for the time you're reading them.  This is one of those “Those stories come from a time when the night is black. Only darkness. And in the darkness, a princess lives in a castle in the sky. The princess very lonely, so she whisper stories to the night. And those stories become stars.” "When You Trap a Tiger" is a truly wonderful book.  It's technically a kid's book, "middle grade" (intended for kids 8-12).  But it absolutely transcends its genre and is simply one of the most gorgeous books I've read I suppose that's not too uncommon.  To copy in what I've said before, The Newberry Medal is, in my experience, o...

 **A very well-done YA-ish space opera set in a fascist State.  Unfortunately, sadly, shamefully relevant these days** Honestly, I don't know why I have to write a review, when Shelly Parker-Chan (the author of "She Who Became the Sun", which will probably get a post on this blog at some point!) summed up the book already in a single sentence: "This book is for everyone who loved Ender’s Game, but Ender’s Game didn’t love them back." . . . I don't really know how to get much better than that.  But I can try to add on at least, here we go Let me back up a little bit and give the setup.  In the far far future (this is very much not "hard" scifi, Tesh didn't bother to work out the technology.  She admits in the Afterword that "the technology of shadowspace runs on purest narrativium."), humanity has lost a war to an interstellar empire.  However, hidden in the far reaches of space, the last survivors of humanity live on Gaea Station and ...

 **Young adult coming-of-age story!  Time loop! (I love me a good timeloop).  And contemporary black characters.  What's not to love?** So. You know that saying “Time is undefeated”? This is a story about the time that Time lost. I don't read a lot of Young Adult, which is why there aren't very many posts in that genre.  This book is very  young adult, without a doubt, although certainly well-written.  It's about first love, about balancing your friendships against your first real relationship (i.e. something everyone  does poorly), it's about the changing relationship with your parents as you approach college, it's about how to understand yourself and your place in the world.  It's full of teenage angst, although usually in a pretty fun way ("Whoever said silence is deafening must’ve been waiting for Kate to contact him, too.") But you know, it's also a timeloop novel, and man am I just a sucker for a good timeloop novel.  After meeting...

 **Not just one of the most heart-rendingly good queer coming-of-age books I've ever read, but one of the best coming-of-age books I've ever read, period** This post will be short, because I don't want to spoil anything.  Let me just say that this book has my very highest of recommendations This book is fascinating, because it's firmly in the Young Adult category.  It's a story about a 16-year-old, growing up and grappling with the pressures of school and family and just trying to grow up.  Solidly Young Adult It's also one of the most soul-crushing, depressing, dark novels I've read recently.  I would absolutely recommend this book to a 13-year-old . . . but I'd also make sure to add, "and hey, I'll be around if there's anything you want to talk about".  And while I don't, for this blog, give specific content warnings, just rest assured that it has just about everything that can possibly be included while still being rated "Gr...

 **Simply put, some of the best children's fantasy out there.  And with an all-time great main character** Long before "Shrek" came along, Patricia C. Wrede's fantastic (and funny) Enchanted Forest chronicles was playfully mocking the tropes of Western fairytales--while simultaneously being a fantastic story of magic and adventure Amusingly, even fans that grew up with the series might not realize that Book 4 "Talking to Dragons" was actually the first  book written, published a solid 5 years before "Dealing with Dragons", the first book in chronology and now considered the first book of the series Apparently, Jane Yolen (I don't know if you all know her name, but in addition to being a very well-respected editor, to me she'll always be the author of the truly fantastic "Commander Toad" series of children's books) wanted a short fantasy story.  She told Wrede, "well, what about the mother character in 'Talking to Drag...