SHUT UP THIS IS SERIOUS by Carolina Ixta

 This is beautifully written and kind of gutting. Belen is clearly depressed and not doing anything to come out of it. Mostly because no one in her family talks about anything like mental health, although they are all reeling from the fallout of her father leaving them and not looking back - and taking all the money their mother saved to keep the family going. She is halfway through her senior year with no prospects for college or adulthood. 

Belen's best friend Leti is an academic high flyer who is pregnant and at odds with her parents because they don't approve of her boyfriend due to their racism and hyper-religious attitude. Belen is trying to be there for Leti, but keeps getting pulled into her own sadness. She hooks up with a much older college boy in a series of scenes which are so painful and real that they might be too much for some readers. As someone who dated college boys in high school I can assure you that Ixta NAILS the amount of forgiveness that high school girls give their college "boyfriends." This is Ixta's debut novel and she was robbed of the Morris award, in my opinion. I can't wait to see what else she writes. She makes her setting of Oakland come alive and I hate settings and usually just skim over every description of place in books. And she makes Belen's trajectory feel victorious without pandering. This may be my favorite read of the year so far.

WOODWORKING by Emily St. James

 This was recommended by a colleague who has impeccable taste. I was looking for books for the summer reading list that were written for adults but would have appeal to teenagers. This is the story of a teacher named Emily who is currently residing in the body of Mr. Skyberg. Even though she knows she is a woman, she was born into a body that leads people to believe otherwise. When she comes out to the new trans student in her school, she finds herself leaning on the kid way more than a teacher should depend on their student. Abigail, the student, is pretty miserable, having been kicked out of her parent's house and currently she lives with her sister and the sister's boyfriend. She is hooking up with the son of a prominant conservative family in the town of Marshall, South Dakota where the book is set.

The small town vibe is accurate and the characters, all of whom are deep in the chasm of change, feel distinct and realistic. For me, this book gave me a ringside seat to the many paths of transitioning. It answers a lot of questions for me about mindset and it is clear to the reader what is not okay to ask. From time to time I found myself irritated with Abigail and her view of herself as the center of the world. And then I remembered that she is supposed to be 17 and adjusted my expectations accordingly. This is a heartwarming story of people going though huge stakes transformations in what feels like a very small world. 

A FORTUNE OF SAND by Ruta Sepetys - expected publication May 26, 2026

 

I gave this book 5 stars in Goodreads and my spreadsheet, but really, for Ruta Sepetys it is a 4.5. It is as good as I have come to expect from her, but for some reason her adult debut didn't ring as true for me as her YA has. It's was still a perfectly researched, fascinating work of historical fiction, but it didn't hit as hard. 

The setting is the city of my birth - Detroit, Michigan - while it was in the process of becoming the Motor City. In 1927, the auto industry was nascent and new money shenanigans were all the rage. The Lennox family makes glass that provide those handy windshields, but they are tacky as hell. The oldest daughter is a social climber who is married to a glorified criminal. The next is the only son who has a facial injury, a chip on his shoulder and a fake job writing obituaries for the newspaper that is investigating his family. The third is a daughter who is actually writing the obituaries her brother is taking credit for because she is fascinated by death but is a girl so is supposed to be delicate. Marjorie is the youngest who says what she means and means what she says so is obviously considered insane by pretty much everyone.

Marjorie is the sibling we follow the most and when she runs away to join an art collective, things get really interesting really quickly. There is some romance, some mystery and a lot of family drama. Everything is resolved satisfactorily, and I enjoyed it. Even though it is not my favorite Sepetys, it's still a lot better than most. And look at that gorgeous cover!

GRIT, SPIT AND NEVER QUIT: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life by Rob Riggle

 

I am always looking for a good military book for summer reading but it is hard to find one that I even want to finish. I am also always looking for funny books for summer reading, but often they are a little too salty for me to recommend to all the children. Imagine if I found a book that combined a respect for and interest in the military along with some really funny stuff about improv comedy in the early 21st century. Well, behold! 

Rob Riggle's memoir is interesting and funny. He served in the US Marine Corps for years before and during his quest to become a comedian/actor. This book covers his childhood in the midwest, his early military career, his struggles in the New York improv scene, his 9/11 experience and subsequent redeployment and his eventual comedy success. 

There is nothing earth-shattering here, but it is a nice, engaging story about a man who served his country and also went for the easy laugh almost every time. And that is a compliment. 

THE UNCOOL, PENPAL by Cameron Crowe and JT Gessinger, respectively

 These two books were opposites in my humble estimation. 

I went into THE UNCOOL prepared to adore it and just giving it every chance to charm me. 

I went into PEN PAL with a sense of dread. I mean, look at the cover. This is going to be all humpin'and pumpin'.

I finished THE UNCOOL thinking, well I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to my initial hopes.

I finished THE PENPAL impressed. Don't get me wrong, there was a ton of h&p that I didn't love, but the story itself was really well done. 

Let's start with THE UNCOOL. It's lovely. Cameron Crowe writes like a dream and he gives the inside story of his work as a rock journalist. Everything he writes feels true, but it feels incomplete. Does it make me a bad person that I didn't like it that he didn't talk shit about anyone? I know that hindsight is 20/20, but I feel like he polished all the edges off. 

It starts really strong. In addition to being recollections of the cool and famous, Crowe also makes it a love letter to his family. The story of his older sister who wasn't portrayed in Almost Famous was absolutely heartbreaking. His father, also left out of the movie, seems like he was a stand up-guy. He doesn't say much about the sister who DID appear in the movie, but what was there was good. I can't believe that the running into her in the airport at his lowest point scene in the movie was true! And finally, I like it when a man loves his mother, I really do, but there was so much more of her in the book than I needed. Honestly, this could be because my own mother's health is failing and so maybe I bristled at that. 

I don't regret reading it and I am thinking about putting it on the summer reading list for the high school. It's beautifully written. It just wasn't hitting right for me by the end. 

I read PEN PAL as a requirement for a special issues in libraries course about romance and erotica. Now I love some romance, but I have said of erotica (well, I said it of porn, but it tracks for erotica too) Reading/watching erotica/porn and thinking it is a realistic depiction of sex is like watching a Marvel movie and thinking that it accurately represents law enforcement. I just can't suspend my disbelief when people are having orgasm after orgasm at just the right time and with SO MUCH TALKING!! I know, it's a book, we need dialogue, but good grief. 

And (mini-spoiler) the main character's husband has just died at the beginning of the book and she is hopping in the roofing guy's bed about 20 minutes after she leaves the funeral! And there is some master/slave stuff that I know people are into, but honestly straight-up irritates me. I am happy when people find something that makes them happy, no judgement, but I also don't want to read about veganism or crossfit. It's me, not them. 

So about halfway through, I went to Goodreads to see how others perceived it and it has over 200,000 ratings and the average is 4.11! Granted, people who like this kind of thing are probably reading it, which explains the score, but 200,000 people?? That's a lot of ratings! And so I started to read a review and immediately saw a spoiler shield and clicked on it because I couldn't stand the book and didn't care if I read a spoiler. It was a HUGE spoiler and completely changed my opinion of the book. Of course I would have loved to seen the reveal come out a little at a time, but knowing the twist made me really appreciate the story more. And I am notoriously bad at "seeing it coming" for someone who reads as much as I do, so I would have had to hate-read this thing for another 100 pages or so. So thank you, stranger on the internet, for the info. 

I can't really write much about the plot other than Kayla and her roofer get it on, she thinks her house is haunted and she likes getting spanked. And it has almost nothing to do with penpals. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but if someone told me they were reading it, I would definitely want to discuss it with them after. There is some excellent structure in the writing and some parallels to classic literature that were recognizable to me even though I try to avoid classic literature. I blew through it pretty quickly once I stopped judging Kayla for moving on so quickly, I was hooked. 

So I guess I can read erotica. I am just looking for more of a ramp up. And maybe a male character who realizes that there is no foreplay more effective than vacuuming without being asked. 

THE BUSINESS TRIP by Jessie Garcia

 

Finally! A book that I didn't love beyond all measure, but just enjoyed. I was beginning to think that I just loved everything because I enjoyed the dissociation from reality that books provide so much!

This is my book club books and I like the twistyness of it. I had a hard time with all the different voices and I have to say that there isn't too much of a delineation in tone between the voices, but I also gobbled it down pretty fast so maybe I was missing the nuance. But it has been awhile since I read a murder mystery and I enjoyed the carnage and the red herrings and stuff. 

The premise is that two women have gone missing and are likely being held captive by the worst deluded master-of-the-universe-hair-product-using character I've seen in awhile. The story is cobbled together by the friends and co-workers left behind to figure out what the heck is going on!  There were a lot of moving pieces and I am currently trying to remember what happened at the end and am having a hard time, so it didn't stick with me. But it was some fun escapism.

AMERICAN FANTASY by Emma Straub expected publication April 7, 2026

When my sister and I were in middle school, we used to go for walks and I would tell her dome stories. These were stories of a future when we were old, like in our 20s, and the earth had become basically uninhabitable so we lived in domed cities, but the upside was that we were in the dome with cute boys from school and our celebrity crushes. What can I say, I was deeply influenced by Logan's Run. 

American Fantasy has that kind of lure for me. It is part fan-fic about meeting your childhood crush and sparks flying and part moving nostalgia-fest about the power of fandoms to build connection even as your life is kind of going off the rails. And it's Emma Straub, so it is beautifully and seemingly effortlessly written. 

I loved mid-menopausal Annie - convinced by her Boy Talk super-fan sister to come on this cruise and then left alone when said sister gets an injury and can't attend, conflicted singer Keith who is rethinking his role in the group, Sarah - the event coordinator who is amazing at her job no matter what the men of Boy Talk throw at her, and even "crazy" Maira a notorious Talker who is assigned as Annie's roommate and takes Annie under her wing and feeds her Sexy Sunset drinks and show her the joy of revisiting childhood passions through music and moderate stalking. 

The cruise ship setting is a little overwhelming, as I assume a cruise like this would be, but it works. And the romance is so slow burn that it barely happens. But it is fueled by kindness and concern and that is lovely. 

The three perspectives - the half-hearted fan, the worker bee, and the third-tier celebrity - make for a nice, full view of all the events of the cruise. The fact that it just kind of goes along and naturally ends at the end of the cruise worked for me. I didn't fall in love - I don't think anyone really does in this book - but I had a great little vacation reading it. I would give it four and a half stars, if given the option but you know me - I round up!

DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL by Matt Dinniman

 I can't possibly overstate how much I hate the original cover of this book:

I mean it is horrifying. I can't create anything visual worth a damn, but even I feel superior to this. I would never have read this if that was the cover. 

Thankfully they changed it up (see below) and I dug in and just LOVED the story! I just bought the second volume for my kindle. I don't BUY books, but I needed it. I must know if Carl and Donut, and freaking Mongo, survive.

Okay, the aliens who seeded the earth with humans millennia ago have come back to strip the planet of resources. At the same time, they are airing the most popular reality show in the universe from the dungeons where they have corralled the survivors. 

Carl was trying to rescue his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's cat when all the structures on Earth disintegrated along with all their inhabitants. So as a survivor, clad only in his tighty-whiteys and the s-t-b-e-girlfriend's pink crocs, he and Donut headed for shelter. And the carnage began.

I really don't like violence in books or movies, but this is so cartoonish and weirdly detailed that it is not putting me off the book. But it is a lot. Nonetheless, I don't really mind if goblins heads get smashed or gerbil bosses get crushed beneath Carl's disturbingly bare feet. I don't like the evil Negan-ish crawlers who appear to be hunting Carl as they murder other crawlers, but I try to gloss over those parts. 

The killing is probably what many readers are here for, but I love the interpersonal stuff. (This is why I always leave Marvel movies 30 minutes before the end when the Grand Guignol begins.) The relationship between Carl and Donut is delightful - as if Charlie Brown and Lucy were a grown man and a cat, but also Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard without the bland sexual chemistry. My favorite human-centered storyline is the group of elderly people from the Meadow Lark Elder Care Facility and the staff that gently cares for them (unless they pee in the corridors) even to their own detriment. 

This book doesn't stop moving and I didn't stop laughing. 

THE MIDNIGHT SHOW by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Marie Thorne will come out April 7, 2026

 

I LOVE COMEDY!! I was so excited about this and, frankly, the format (interviews with people who knew the late great Lillian Martin) kept me from engaging right away. This seems crazy to me because I love that format - lots of narrators and points of view. But about a third of the way in, the story got me and I became obsessed. There is, at the top, a mystery - what happened to Lillian on the bridge and whose fault is it? But there is also stories of friendship, toxic relationships and bad decisions. In addition, there is some great commentary about women in comedy. They can be funny, y'all, and if you disagree with me, let's get drinks and I'll make you laugh so hard you'll wet your pants! But this look at, let's just admit it, SNL in the 80s is an excellent ride. Slow burn to start, for me, but I couldn't put it down in the second half. And for those who need a resolution, I will assure you, you won't be left hanging. Such a fun ride!

NOBODY IN PARTICULAR by Sophie Gonzales

 

This adorable love story follows Danni, changing schools after being horribly bullied and winning a music scholarship to a prestigious prep school in Henland, and Rose, who has just been through a horrible loss of a friend, but since she is first in line to Henland's throne, is being blamed for it. They fall in love, but there is friend drama and being outed and teenage drinking and drugging and some mostly offstage sex. 

This romance has, well, romance, but also some great commentary on fame and friendship and bad decisions. Gonzales even managed to get some good laughs in there too. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about it. 

ROSA BY ANY OTHER NAME by Hailey Alcaraz

 

I just can't stop falling in love with everything I read. This story is inspired by Romeo and Juliette if the nurse and Mercutio also fell in love and they were teenagers caught up in the Chicano civil rights movement in Arizona in the 50s. No need to recap the plot, it's a tale as old as time, but with a lovely historical fiction patina. Rosa, or Rosie as she is called at the fancy new school where she passes for white, wants to go to college and be a journalist, hence the passing. Her best friend Ramon, and her school friend Julianne meet and fall in love, which ends tragically. The real power of the book is how Rosa finds her own voice and path in the aftermath. 

The love stories are front and center, but it is the depiction of the fallout that sets this apart. It is a perfectly rendered setting and, while it is certainly heartbreaking, it ends on a note of hope - followed by some commentary by the author. Even though my students don't flock to historical fiction, but pushing the romance aspect (always a popular genre) I bet I could fool them into learning something about history too! God knows, the only history I ever learned in my life was delicately folded into some novel or another...

The only downside to this book was that I kept singing Doug Judy's Rosa song the whole time I was reading it -  small price to pay.

INTO THE SUNKEN CITY by Dinesh Thiru

 

This is not at all something I thought I would like. The cover is awesome. However,  it is an underwater adventure and a dystopian retelling of TREASURE ISLAND. I hate everything in that sentence. And yet, I couldn't put it down! 

The earth is under constant cloud cover and rain. Almost no one alive has ever seen the sun, unless they are filthy rich and can afford to climb Everest to get above the cloud cover. Arizona is barely above water and Jin and her little sister Thara, who run an inn, are on their own since their father's death in a diving accident. Both girls are excellent divers, but Thara is only 14 and Jin is very cagey about diving since she lost her dad. 

But then Bhili enters their lives with a sweet little pile of gold coins that they definitely need to keep the inn afloat and Thara in school and they get caught up in a caper to salvage LOTS of those gold coins from beneath the sea in the ruins of Las Vegas. There is also Taim, Jin's ex, who is now in the Coasties who might not be trustworthy and Joao Silva, a disreputable pirate with a killer backstory. 

The action is grippy, the stakes are high and despite the very satisfying ending, there is clearly a second volume in the making. Thiru makes a large cast of characters individually memorable and has a nice detail about salvage where works of art are mentioned in enough detail for the reader to investigate and find them online which adds a nice little enrichment activity. Some of the violence was a little too visceral for me, I'm a big baby about that sort of thing, but it mostly just reinforced my desire to never do a deep sea dive. If I'm being honest, there was never a chance anyway. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this book and I am eagerly looking forward to more.

(Read for MTCBA and it BETTER get nominated!) 

A WORLD WITHOUT SUMMER by Nicholas Day with art by Yas Imamura

 

Do you like scary geological events? Do you like starvation and death? Do you like unwed mothers writing monster novels? Then this is the book for you! This is the story of the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 and the devastating impact it had on the world. 

It also led directly to the writing of Frankenstein, so it's got that going for it. I read this book so fast, in spite of it being both nonfiction AND about the weather which are two of my least favorite things. But the interesting perspectives and the clever tone kept me hooked. It was completely surprising to me how much I liked it and I think I could get kids to read it too. The flyleaf straight-up says it is middle grade, but my students are not averse to reading middle grade if it is interesting. And this is quite interesting!