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!

THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN by Matt Haig comes out May 26, 2026

 

Wow, there is a lot of Matt Haig that I have not yet read - how exciting! Like every other library professional, I read THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, and then I listened to HOW TO STOP TIME on a long road trip and, ironically, it made the time pass quickly! I immediately grabbed this when it came up on NetGalley and was not disappointed. 

It is the story of Wilbur who dies and is ushered aboard the Midnight Train which lets him visit the most impactful moments of his life before he completely shuffles off to the great beyond. Except what he sees makes him realize that he has made some grievous errors in his life. So he completely breaks the rules of the Midnight Train to try to remedy them. And it is delightful.

The midnight books are my favorite kind of post-death story - the chance for, if not a do-over, at least another perspective. And I love trains. So I knew going in that I was going to love this. I read it quickly and happily. All the pieces work beautifully together and while Wilbur is the main focus, the secondary characters are the most fun. His wild brother, his future wife, his Bowie-obsessed best friend - they all come to life as Wilbur recounts his. 

This very nearly made me cry, which is my favorite, of course. I didn't quite get there, but I was crying on the inside. And what's more, I wanted to go further. What happens after the train? Does Wilbur make the best use of his new information? And will I get to review my life on the Midnight Train someday in the far, far future? I sure hope so!

JOINED AT THE JOINTS by Marissa Eller

 

Ivy has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and social anxiety and it is not easy being her. She spends most of her time baking and avoiding people until she starts attending a support group for young people with chronic diseases and meets Grant. She does not avoid him. But she has a lovely, slightly awkward romance with him. There's also some stuff about how her Grandma died on her 12th birthday and she hasn't gotten over that. Her mom has lupus, her sister has celiac disease, her dad works a lot, and her brother is annoying, so that keeps her busy too, one of my colleagues on the Mass. Teen Choice book award committee pointed out that the book is about Ivy and her life and interests and one of them is Grant. There is enough romance here that you could definitely sell it as a love story, but it isn't overpowering. The family relationships and friendships feel real and Ivy seems like a kid I could have sitting in my library right now. I just loved this!

KIN by Tayari Jones will be out Feb 24 2026

 Two motherless girls are connected by their love for one another and commitment to each other and it is so sadly beautiful. I love a coming of age story - bildungsroman, if you’re nasty - and this one is first rate. Vernice is the daughter of a murderer and the woman he killed, Annie is the daughter of a no account runaway and God-knows-who, but they shared a cradle as babies and are sisters of the heart growing up in a small town in the south.

Vernice graduates and goes to Spellman where she learns how the other half lives and Annie goes to Memphis to search for her mother to the point of obsession. 

Their two paths are different, but they stay connected. 

Each of the girls is distinct in the way they interact with the people around them. I glossed over in the beginning where one of them is supposed to be conventionally pretty and the other not, but for the first half of the book I thought it was the other way around because of the way they navigated the world. They both feel like real people trying to do the best that they can with what was given them. I just loved them.
The secondary characters are amazing as well. No person is just one thing. We don’t always get to know everyone’s motivations, but there is no wrong step. They walk off the page. 

The story is a nice juxtaposition of storylines that reminds me of the early 80s  books of my youth like LACE, except better written and steeped in accuracy. But I read it like one of those potboilers, I couldn’t put it down once it got going because I had to see how it turned out. Once again, some fancy literary fiction got my lazy ass reading it by giving me a super-compelling story. 

For the Purposes of Writing about EVERY FREAKING THING!!

I really want to get into the habit of writing a review of everything I read. Not to brag, but my NetGalley reviews have been pretty solid. I am still too chicken to not finish something because I want them to keep giving me free books so I am reading everything. The upside is - everything has been pretty amazing!

My MTCBA journey has taken a nice turn in that direction as well! I had a few books that didn't make the cut, didn't sit right for me or that I DNF-ed. But the ones I have read in this new year have been delightful! I will post my reviews here, and in Goodreads, AND in the MTCBA super-secret Google group! Honestly, this blog is for me to keep track of my shit, I am trying to use Goodreads more because when I love something, I want the world to know (and I want to be part of the math that makes the scores. Chew on all these 5 start reviews, fussy readers!!) and MTCBA is obviously for the good work we are doing. I love it so, even if my colleagues are SO FREAKING STINGY WITH THEIR SCORES!! But I digress. 

So let's begin with my first MTCBA read of the year, a sweet, swoony and somehow serious look at love, fucked up families and dragon dancing - 

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by LeUyen Pham - Maybe I just love everything. I certainly love love. This book charmed the everloving heart out of me. There was just enough suspense with the family stuff, just enough love, the old triangle bait and switch, her friend's theory of just having fun and SO MUCH DRAGON DANCE! Yes, it's long, but it's not bloated. I think kids are a lot more willing to read a longer graphic novel than a text one. Also, even though the characters are older, it is squeaky clean which means that the youngsters won't be scarred for life.

Okay, this one is too long. But I love Libba Bray SO MUCH! Under the Same Stars is beautifully constructed. There are three plots going on, which is the perfect number of pots to have going on at once. The first is Germany under the third reich, the second is West Berlin in 1980 and the third is Brooklyn during covid lockdown. So clearly, the feel-good book of the year. The characters are all distinct, the settings feel real (And I am not great at discerning settings, so well done, Libba!) and the parallels to our current state of affairs are concerning, but not overwhelming. I laughed, I cried, I stood staring into the abyss. It was just so good. I had the smart social commentary of Beauty Queens with the dreamy historical bent of the Great and Terrible Beauty books. I know that the youths of today aren't all about historical fiction, but some are and this is just perfect.  And not to brag, but I read this in three different formats because I was so addicted. I started with the old school hardback, switched to ebook to read late at night without keeping the old man awake and then mainlined the audiobook while doing brainless tasks of laminating. All three formats were terrific. 

And finally, a little something light and sweet. Although there are still messed up parent relationships and some hardships and there always seems to be a douche-bro who can not handle the amount of testosterone flowing through their body to the detriment of everyone in the story. I present to you, the wonder that is Lynn Painter's Fake Skating. 

You guys, this story is about two teenagers who used to be summer besties who have fallen out and then they end up at the same high school for senior year. And you're never going to believe what happens...[spoiler] THEY FALL IN LOVE!!! Do you see it coming? Of course you do. Babies do. But it is such a fun ride.  

Okay, our protagonists are little sweetie-pies. One of them is a girl who has moved from school to school because of her Air Force Colonial dad (who is not great) and now that her folks have split up she is finishing high school in her mom's hometown and dreaming of going to Harvard, a goal upon which she has focused her educational career. The other used to be a tiny nerd, but now he is a super-hot hockey god. This takes place in Minnesota where that is a real thing. 

There are misunderstandings, of course, and there are 2 things that irked me to no end. The first is that Dani can't get into any clubs at her new high school because they are closed to new members. This would NEVER happen in any school. Schools are desperate to get kids to join clubs. Seriously, Lynn, talk to a teacher, okay. I understand it needed to be this way to propel the plot, but it pulled me out of the story and I love to stay in the story. The other thing is the aforementioned douche-bro and the bargain he makes at the end (I am trying to be deliberately vague) - why does that need to be a secret?? Why isn't it given as a reason. I know, I know, it was needed to propel the plot. Ugh. I feel like there would have been a way to write around it, but how many books have I published? The answer is none so what do I know?

There is so much here to love. I'm not gonna lie - the grandpa was hot! And I want to be best friends with the moms. The friends tended to be an amorphous blob of nice midwestern kids, but they did the job of warming my heart. As someone who changed high schools three times, I love the commentary about how hard that can be and what you need to watch out for. And for the first time in my life, I actually cared a little bit about hockey. It's a miracle!

As far as scandalous content goes, there is a lot of swearing, but no specific body part action. The kissing scenes are really selling the positive aspects of kissing, but no other stuff (what my mom would have called "petting") is mentioned and it seems kind of weird, but honestly, at my age I mostly skim the smoochy parts. But Lynn makes making out seem really fun. I may try it again some day. 

This ticks a lot of MTCBA boxes - sports, romance, and the elusive cis-white-boy demographic. And I enjoyed it thoroughly!