May was my least productive reading month so far this year, when I only finished two books, but I loved both of them, so I think I must have been savoring them.

(I’m skipping April’s reviews for the moment because it’s late and there are a bajillion books to cover that month…)

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

This fantastic YA novel from debut author Angie Thomas follows 16-year-old Starr in the aftermath of a police shooting. She’d been at a party and caught a ride home with an old friend from the neighborhood, Khalid, when they’re pulled over by a cop. In details that will surprise no one who’s followed the news over the past few years, the officer overreacts and shoots, and suddenly Khalid is dead and Starr is the only witness. In the weeks that follow, she has to deal with questions from everyone: Had he had a gun in the car, as the officer claimed? (He hadn’t; it had been a hairbrush.) Was Khalid in the local gang? Was he running drugs? Did Starr really even know Khalid anymore, after all, since her parents have her and her brothers in a fancy private school across town now? Did any of that matter, when he hadn’t, in fact, been doing anything wrong when he was shoots? Starr (who saw her other childhood best friend die in front of her in a drive-by shooting as a kid) is under tremendous pressure from the gang members, from the police, from the neighborhood, from her friends to do one thing or another. And in the end, she and her family — and everyone she comes into contact with — will have to live with her actions.

(A note on that “U” in the title for others, like me, who wondered: The title is a direct reference to a Tupac quote in which he explains that “Thug Life” is an acronym for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fuck Everyone,” talking about how racism is a self-fulfilling story of hatred.)

This is a remarkably strong novel, with well-rounded characters, both White and Black, both police and civilian. The action is well-paced, and it will surprise no one who’s read the book that it’s in the process of being turned into a movie. I highly, highly recommend this for all of us well-intentioned White people.

Pages: 450

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, by Kory Stamper

Word by Word comes from a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster who tells you everything you ever wanted to know and a lot of things you didn’t even know you wanted to know about dictionaries, how they get made, their role in society, and their history. You’ll learn about who makes a good dictionary employee (if you like chatting with your coworkers, don’t answer that help wanted ad), all the interesting stuff at the front of the dictionary that no one ever reads (the punctuation in an entry actually means highly specific things), how dictionaries walk that line between being prescriptive and denotive (they’re aiming for the latter, but we keep trying to make them the former), and how new entries make it into the dictionary, among a massive variety of other fascinating things relating to language.

If you have a word lover in your life, this would make an excellent gift. I rarely say this about non-fiction, but I would even re-read this one. (Oh, and if you’re on Twitter, may I recommend that you follow @merriamwebster? They do a great job of trolling the president (who clearly does not love words) and will keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in the news with their trending look-ups.)

Pages: 301

Book stats:
2 books
751 pages
2 print
2 library copies
1 fiction, 1 non-fiction
Diverse main character(s): 1
Audience: 1 adult, 1 YA

Author stats:
2 women
Own voices: 1
Country of residence: American

Having done book, yarn, and knitting swaps before, the Ninja Book Swap is one of my favorites. Last Friday, I came home to a box from my partner:

Olive sent me presents, each with notations about why she made the selection.

I am now the proud owner of Frederik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, which was on my swap wish list, and Ashley Weaver’s Murder at the Brightwell, the first in what Olive says is her favorite cozy mystery series. I’m so excited to start reading them both!

Olive also sent me chocolates from Sarris Candies, a Pennsylvania chocolatier. (I love presents from near where my swapper is, and chocolate presents are always awesome!) She also included Manipulator, a hair gel from Bed Head by TIGI, since I was saying here that I’d recently cut my hair and was looking for some new products to try with my short ‘do. Since I discovered that The Body Shop had gotten rid of the hair stuff I’d relied on the last time my hair was short, it’s been wonderful to get to try something new!

Thank you, Olive, for such a wonderful parcel of fun! And thank you to the Ninja Book Swap organizers for all the behind-the-scenes work!

As you can see, Little Pumpkins did not get finished in time for Halloween. Luckily, winter squash are pretty hardy and pumpkin pie is a staple of Thanksgiving, as well, so I feel like it’s acceptable to still be working on them. Particularly since fall has really only recently arrived in the mid-Atlantic.

My reading is a little bit here, a little bit there. Here we have a sample of historical fiction mysteries (The Secret History of the Pink Carnation mostly takes place just after the French Revolution and A Most Extraordinary Pursuit is set in 1906) and YA/middle-grade contemporaries set in New York City (Clayton Byrd Goes Underground is on the shortlist for the kids’ prize of the National Book Award and Miles Morales is the Spiderman adaptation I’ve been looking forward to reading for ages) that I’m working on. I’ve also just downloaded The Secret History of Wonder Woman, which seemed like a good fit for #NonfictionNovember and to knit while reading (and doing dishes) since Leverage just left Netflix. I’ve got nearly 20 books out from the library right now, which is starting to feel a little overwhelming, so hopefully I can push through some of the shorter ones and get them back this weekend.

This post is part of Kat’s Unraveled Wednesdays and the first post of NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, for which a link-up party is being hosted by Blissful Lemon. (This means I’ll be posting daily for November, so feel free to check in more often.)

One of the overarching themes of this year’s readathon is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding. As such, the organizers have issued this challenge:

Submit one book recommendation published in each year of the Readathon (2007-2017).

All were five-star reads, unless otherwise noted:

2007: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

2008: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2009: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (4 stars, although I think I should bump it up to 5 in retrospect)

2010: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (4 stars)

2011: The Night Circus by Emily Morganstern

2012: Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

2013: Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

2014: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

2015: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

2016: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

2017: Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper

Do you have any favorite books from that time period?

Today I’m taking part in the 10th anniversary of Dewey’s Readathon. I’ll be spending a nice portion of my day reading, but it’s not going to be all 24 hours. For instance, I neglected to set my pre-8 a.m. alarm, so am only just getting started now.

First, though a few housekeeping items:

Opening meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Washington, D.C.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Probably Jason Reynold’s Miles Morales. But I’ve also begun You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins, which I’m enjoying. And I’m at an exciting spot in The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willis. Oh, and there’s Leah Bardugo’s Wonder Woman novel, Warbringer, yet to start…

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

At some point early this afternoon, my partner Rudi will come home from work and I’ll break with reading to bike up to one of our local libraries, check out their book sale and new Michelle Obama photo exhibit, and then investigate a new cafe in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I like to read (obviously), knit, listen to music, and play with my two cats, Jeremiah and Corey, both of whom are hanging around waiting for me to give them breakfast. I like YA and middle-grade novels, less depressing literature, cozy mysteries, memoirs, and some fantasy.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I think this is my fourth readathon, and mostly I’m not going to stress about it, because it’s supposed to be fun. If at any point it stops being fun, I’ll dial it back.

Off to start reading…

Our WiFi is down so this will be a quick post.

As you can see, I’m on the cuff of Little Pumpkin sock #2. Rudi will be working a bunch the next few days, so I expect to get another good chunk done by the weekend. I finished the audiobook of Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper tonight & highly recommend it if you’re looking for an urban contemporary ghost story for this season.

Up next is another book set in the immigrant communities of NYC: You Bring the Distant Near, which I started last weekend. So far, so good.

Check in on other Unravelings at Kat’s blog.