Our Work Is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance by Syan Rose

Summary from Goodreads: Over the past ten years, we have witnessed the rise of queer and trans communities that have defied and challenged those who have historically opposed them. Through bold, symbolic imagery and surrealist, overlapping landscapes, queer illustrator and curator Syan Rose shines a light on the faces and voices of these diverse, amorphous, messy, real and imagined queer and trans communities.

In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and healthcare practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose’s startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders’ words to visual life.

Our Work Is Everywhere is a graphic nonfiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance. Includes a foreword by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. 

I came across this book just browsing some small press catalogs. It’s a beautifully illustrated collection of interviews with queer and trans activists. The art style is very unique – I did have some trouble navigating the text layout on occasion, not quite sure why (could have been the digital galley), so I did have to back up and re-read some pages to get the flow right. Rose includes many intersectional voices from across the spectra of gender identity and sexuality, race, disability, and tries to capture each person’s unique voice in the illustration.

I’m having trouble getting Our Work is Everywhere in at the store (the warehouse is out), so you may need to order it directly from the publisher.

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren, narrated by Todd Haberkorn and Jayme Mattler

Summary from Goodreads: Hazel Camille Bradford knows she’s a lot to take—and frankly, most men aren’t up to the challenge. If her army of pets and thrill for the absurd don’t send them running, her lack of filter means she’ll say exactly the wrong thing in a delicate moment. Their loss. She’s a good soul in search of honest fun.

Josh Im has known Hazel since college, where her zany playfulness proved completely incompatible with his mellow restraint. From the first night they met—when she gracelessly threw up on his shoes—to when she sent him an unintelligible email while in a post-surgical haze, Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later, after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air.

Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates means there’s nothing between them…right?

I’ve never read Christina Lauren before, so after getting some recs from Twitter I decided to start with Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating (plus, it was available right away on Libby audio).

I really liked this story of two sort-of opposites – delightful chaos Muppet vs calm order Muppet – who reconnect years after college. They become best friends and wing-people on the dating scene. And then “best friends” to something more. I really felt Hazel’s hesitancy about long-term relationships because she does have history where women who aren’t “quiet” are punished by a guy who wants them to be “less.” And when Josh realizes his long-distance girlfriend has been cheating on him…oof. I wasn’t super down with the ending (spoiler: you bozos, condoms are a real thing) – I feel like that curtailed most of the discussion of why they were each resisting actually dating each other when CLEARLY they were each other’s person. (Aside: Hazel’s pets are delightful.)

Specific to the audiobook: there are two narrators. The narrator for Hazel’s chapters is great but the narrator for Josh’s chapters makes Hazel sound like a Ren and Stimpy character. Do not recommend.

(A slight trigger warning: the first time Josh and Hazel have sex, at least one or both of them is drunk (it’s a little up-in-the air whether Hazel is still buzzed at this point). There is consent – Josh is definitely into it – but it could be a squicky for some readers since enthusiastic drunk consent isn’t 100% sober enthusiastic consent.)

Dear FTC: I borrowed this book through the library’s Overdrive/Libby app.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Summary from Goodreads: From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band–and meeting the man who would become her husband–her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.

You might know Michelle Zauner as the singer/songwriter and creator of the group Japanese Breakfast. She started writing essays and other pieces several years ago – it all led to her new memoir Crying in H Mart.

Now, I’m not going to be able to write much of anything coherent or more profound than any number of incredible reviews about this book. Because: all the trigger warnings about death of a parent from cancer in this book. There are chapters where I read with tears streaming down my face. Zauner writes with such beauty and grace about finding connection to a parent you had a rocky relationship with but are now rapidly running out of time. She uses what is her neutral ground with her mom – their mutual love of Korean food – to find an opening into Korean culture and to who her mom is and was over time.

Crying in H Mart published on Tuesday – go buy and read it.

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Gray Hair Don’t Care by Karen Booth (Never Too Late #1)

Summary from Goodreads: Everything went wrong. And then she went gray.

At 47, newly divorced makeup artist Lela Bennett is dreading her next steps. Dating. Meeting people. Not letting herself go. But then she runs into Donovan James and tries something different—sleeping with her sexy crush from college. Unfortunately, in a post-orgasm stupor, Lela confesses she was in love with Donovan all those years ago. He responds by leaving while she sleeps. The next morning, her gray hairs are practically taunting her. She knows she has to get it together. Forget men. Embrace her age. Own her gray.

Donovan James is a marketing genius, but his ex-wives will tell you—nothing freaks him out like feelings. Three years after his one-night stand with Lela, he’s focused on his daughter’s lifestyle company, but unprepared to meet the face of the beauty division. It’s Lela. With stunning silver locks and new confidence, she’s no longer swayed by his charms. When business starts booming, the universe seems intent on throwing them together time and again. And suddenly, two people convinced that romance was behind them are wondering if love could be what’s next.

Gray Hair Don’t Care is a really nice third-chance romance between a makeup artist launching her eponymous makeup line and a marketing whiz (college besties to one-night-stand as adults to coworkers to HEA). Lela and Donovan are both in their early 50s during most of the book and it’s such a fun change. I love how the book addresses how we all deserve to be happy, that feeling sexy and having a loving relationship is not the sole preserve of the young, hip, and pre-menopausal.

This isn’t a very long book but Booth really does a great job characterizing not just her main characters but also some of the friends and family who are important – Donovan’s daughter who is hired as the lead publicist (? job title?) for Lela’s makeup line, her finacee, Donovan’s mom and his brother, Lela’s best friend and her fiancee. It’s such a lovely, fun read with some stakes but low-angst. Great for summer, if you have plans for some lazy, “lay around and read” days.

Shout-out to letting your hair go gray – my silver hairs have been proliferating this year and since I cannot ever manage to remember to get a hair cut more than once a year I will definitely be going gray naturally (and it might even be white/silver at the end, based on the individual strands now).

Dear FTC: I read a copy of this book purchased on my Nook.

The Way You Love Me by Elle Wright (Pure Talent #3)

Summary from Goodreads: Stunning social media meltdowns. Glamorous dueling power couples. Mega-viral scandals and dizzying Internet super-spin. No one is better than the Pure Talent Agency at handling it all–or facing down up-close-and-personal bad news…

Superstar actress Paige Mills is America’s Sweetheart. But with a shocking divorce, she’s burning her powerful husband’s house of lies right down to the ground. Reeling from ugly revelations and unable to trust anyone, she takes refuge way off the celebrity grid in her family’s remote Michigan lake house. But the brilliant agent who helped shape her success won’t give up his client–or his long-simmering passion for her–without a fight…

Andrew Weathers can’t let the gifted, caring woman he’s always loved wreck her career. And at first, he just wants to help her hope again. But soon their professional chemistry turns into days and nights of no-holds-barred desire–and a resulting publicity firestorm. Now, between hard choices and potentially career-ending consequences, can Paige and Drew risk a seemingly impossible happy ending? 

I had to read Andrew and Paige’s story because “I’ve loved you so long but you were unavailable” is a trope I’m super-trash for. And this is such a sweet story about trust and friendship as a basis for a romantic relationship (and sexy as all hell). Netflix, I’ve got your next three-season series right here!

Paige and Andrew were introduced in the previous book as Skye’s client, an actress on the press circuit for her new movie directed by her husband while her marriage disintegrates due to said dog of a husband, and the actress’s agent. You know in reading the few scenes they’re in that Wright definitely intended for them to be the central couple in the next book. And she pulls no punches at the beginning of The Way You Love Me: Paige’s AWFUL husband is suing her for her home, Andrew is unreachable, and Paige is at the end of her patience. Paige manages to get through the legal stuff with her lawyer but then retreats to a lakefront house in Michigan, putting Andrew in cold storage. Andrew – who has had feelings for Paige for a very long time – has tried to keep his distance to avoid creating more publicity and instead drove a wedge between the two of them. When he finally manages to track Paige down, Andrew really only intends to try and get her to at least keep working and look forward but instead the chemistry between Andrew and Paige pulls them together (there’s a scene with a thunderstorm, whew *fans self*).

So much of this book is about learning to put yourself back together and put yourself out there again after someone you trusted burns you (two people, actually, since Paige essentially feels abandoned by Andrew at the start of the book even though he thinks he’s doing it to help her). Trust is something Andrew has to earn back, and he does. Even though Paige comes out the other side stronger, it is really hard to read the shit her ex-husband puts her through – the tabloid “leaks”, the cheating, the insinuation that she’s actually the guilty party, etc. – that I would put a content warning on that so if this is something hard for you, you’re prepared.

I loved it.

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book from my store.

Much Ado About You by Samantha Young

Summary from Goodreads: At thirty-three-years old Evangeline Starling’s life in Chicago is missing that special something. And when she’s passed over for promotion at work, Evie realizes she needs to make a change. Some time away to regain perspective might be just the thing. In a burst of impulsivity, she plans a holiday in a quaint English village. The holiday package comes with a temporary position at Much Ado About Books, the bookstore located beneath her rental apartment. There’s no better dream vacation for the bookish Evie, a life-long Shakespeare lover.

Not only is Evie swept up in running the delightful store as soon as she arrives, she’s drawn into the lives, loves and drama of the friendly villagers. Including Roane Robson, the charismatic and sexy farmer who tempts Evie every day with his friendly flirtations. Evie is determined to keep him at bay because a holiday romance can only end in heartbreak, right? But Evie can’t deny their connection and longs to trust in her handsome farmer that their whirlwind romance could turn in to the forever kind of love.

The cozy comforts of an English village bookstore open up a world of new possibilities for Evie Starling in this charming new romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young.

There are a couple of lady-blows-up-her-life-and-owns-a-bookshop romances coming this year and this is the first one (I oopsed and didn’t get a galley so I picked this up on paperback).

Much Ado About You opens as Evie get ghosted by the guy she’s been chatting with on a dating app and then finds out that the dude with far less editorial experience is getting promoted over her at the music magazine she works for. So Evie quits her job, swears off dudes, and impulsively books a vacation to Northumberland where she’ll work at a small bookstore for a month. (As a bookseller, I was like maaayyybe this appeals to people who do not have service jobs??? But also this is a thing, I remember a news item several years ago about a similar type vacation-rental set-up.) Once Evie arrives, she gets oriented to the charming bookshop and charming town and manages to save a Great Dane from being hit by a car…and he has an owner who is a real hot and charming guy named Roane. Even though Evie has sworn off men (and tells everyone in the pub this her first night because she underestimates the power of the local brew) she is continually drawn to Roane. And well, she is on vacation….

I really liked this cute, very sweet (but real sexy when it finally gets going) contemporary romance. It was a wonderful book to savor slowly over several evenings. And so many Shakespeare Easter eggs to find. ❤ Now, a couple of things kind of got under my skin:

1) Evie is ENTIRELY too much in everyone’s business – there’s a Romeo and Juliet situation, there’s a Roane’s cousin situation, there’s an estranged parent-child due to homophobia situation – and she manages to kind of fix everyone’s problems? Even though she gets called on it by the locals at one point, it’s a little too perfect that the Nosy American just shows up and fixes all the problems like a Mary Poppins.

2) I don’t think this novel earns it’s “black moment.” [minor spoilers here] Evie’s reaction to Roane’s revelation seems really over the top, even with her own issues with broken promises and broken trust (Evie notes multiple times that she doesn’t like liars). It’s not like Roane is an ax murderer or defrauds children’s charities or anything, he just isn’t a simple sheep farmer, he’s…more….and Evie FLIPS OUT. So YMMV here. It didn’t turn me off the novel, it just felt unbalanced.

Much Ado About You came out in February, so go pick it up in time for Spring Break (maybe?) or prep for summer beach reading.

Dear FTC: I purchased a paperback of this book from my bookstore.

A Lady’s Formula for Love by Elizabeth Everett (The Secret Scientists of London #1)

Summary from Goodreads: What is a Victorian lady’s formula for love? Mix one brilliant noblewoman and her enigmatic protection officer. Add in a measure of danger and attraction. Heat over the warmth of humor and friendship, and the result is more than simple chemistry—it’s elemental.

Lady Violet Hughes is keeping secrets. First, she founded a clandestine sanctuary for England’s most brilliant female scientists. Second, she is using her genius on a confidential mission for the Crown. But the biggest secret of all? Her feelings for protection officer Arthur Kneland.

Solitary and reserved, Arthur learned the hard way to put duty first. But the more time he spends in the company of Violet and the eccentric club members, the more his best intentions go up in flames. Literally.

When a shadowy threat infiltrates Violet’s laboratories, endangering her life and her work, scientist and bodyguard will find all their theories put to the test—and learn that the most important discoveries are those of the heart.

I read A Lady’s Formula for Love in one sitting between 1am and 4am when I was having some insomnia (we had a complicated grant application going in so thanks for the anxiety work-brain).

The book opens as a series of explosions endangers Athena’s Retreat, a social club for ladies founded by Violet, Lady Greycliff. On the surface, the club is just a meeting place for the odder ladies of society to hear lectures, but that is merely a front for a network of laboratories housing the work of a number of innovative scientists, all women. The largest explosion happens just as Violet is seeing off the scientists to their homes but she’s whisked out of danger by Arthur Kneland. Arthur is a former Crown protection officer recently returned to England from decades abroad and hired by Violet’s stepson Grey to look after her (because Violet is secretly working out a chemical solution for the Crown, Grey is concerned that someone might harm Violet while he’s gone). Arthur is rather bewildered by the inner workings of the Club – which Violet gives up reluctantly and slowly – but he smoothly fits into the household. Although the first evenings explosions have an innocent origin, it soon becomes apparent that someone is out to either steal Violet’s work or prevent her from finishing period. Arthur just needs to get through this job until Grey returns and then he can return to his Scottish homeland and retire. Meanwhile, a Chartist movement has begun agitating in London and their leader may be the cause of the threat to Violet.

I liked the absentminded-scientist/bodyguard trope, particularly in an early Victorian setting. Arthur and Violet each have some very interesting personal history which played into how they viewed Society and class and informed the progression of their relationship. Violet in particular fascinated me, as a chemist in the early Victorian era who had previously failed as a Society matron and knows how close she comes to being considered an outcast. I did think the plot was unnecessarily messy, like if you put this down you might have trouble getting back into the plot. There are multiple McGuffins which complicates the reader’s understanding what was the real driver of the villain plot (I read the ending twice, and I’m a scientist, so I think some streamlining was needed).

I’m definitely interested in seeing what else is coming in this series. The scientists angle is fascinating and I think we’ve already been introduced to the next couple. Everett made the surrounding secondary characters very diverse – characters who have origins in many places in the British Empire at the time and some who are also LGBTQ+ in various ways. There is a character who is a transman and receives poor treatment from a member of his family, so a trigger warning for transphobia on the page.

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson

Summary from Goodreads: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson comes her most personal book yet.

As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, she explores her experimental treatment of transcranial magnetic stimulation with brutal honesty. But also with brutal humor. Jenny discusses the frustration of dealing with her insurance company in “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company,” which should be an anthem for anyone who has ever had to call their insurance company to try and get a claim covered. She tackles such timelessly debated questions as “How do dogs know they have penises?” We see how her vacuum cleaner almost set her house on fire, how she was attacked by three bears, business ideas she wants to pitch to Shark Tank, and why she can never go back to the post office. Of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor―the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball―is present throughout.

A treat for Jenny Lawson’s already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter.

A new book by Jenny Lawson is such a treat.

Broken is made up of Classic Funny Jenny chapters (like buying her dog condoms or how she almost went blind during an eclipse because of the rats in her yard or how penises got all over the inside of her car (we are all Victor in that one)) interspersed with beautiful and enraging chapters about her struggle with depression and anxiety (she includes both her open letter to her health insurance and her diary from TMS treatment – which I remember from her social media – and there are few people who can mix both eloquence and deadpan humor so well).

I would have perhaps cut down the Failed Shark Tank Pitches chapter, which loses steam after about the 10th idea, but that’s an extremely minor thing.

I love it so much. Broken is out today!

Dear FTC: I read the shit out of a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss.