I got halfway through this book and noped out of it because I was just not interested in where it was going. A spacefaring teenager in a future where kids grow up fast is in search of her father who may have gone missing when the planet he was on just... vanished? She’s canny and lonely and interacts with, among other things, a planet all full of people who commune with the divine via an herb they smoke. A LOT of made-up slang made the reading a bit too slow going for me

This is a graphic memoir about a woman who deals with a new school and a family tragedy and where and how she finds support, including with her running team at school. She is Puerto Rican (but also white and does not speak Spanish) living in New York. The book’s timeframe is just post-9/11, so a while ago but also not so long ago. Like the cover, the book has a great graphic style. Unlike many other memoirs, the author works through some complex emotions in a constructive and supported way so it’s not one long trauma processing exercise.

Antrobus is a biracial poet who grew up working class in the UK with partial deafness. His memoir talks about his life before and after getting diagnosed, getting hearing aids, finding his voice, getting therapy, having a child, using BSE and BSL, and other milestones. The narrative jumps around a lot, ultimately more like a series of vignettes than one single narrative. The end part of his life has the least information of all. He moves to the US, has a kid, is maybe separated from his child’s parent. I particularly liked learning more about D/deaf poetry and would have happily read a lot more about that part of this book.

This is the final book in this series. No love to an author who writes two series and culminates each one with a book with “Last” in the title (i.e. I took the wrong one home from the library at first). This wraps up sort of like you think it will. A little pat and a little zipzip for a 15-series book, but overall for people who like murder mysteries and especially a female protagonist and complex humans, it was a great read. The mystery itself is almost secondary because you know how these things go and you’re just waiting to see what resolution Griffiths chooses for the arcs of her characters.

This was the Vermont Reads book for 2025. Many of the Vermont Reads books have been pretty heavy. Someone assured me this was not like that, even though it deals with catastrophic climate change (as in: there is no more Florida) topics. I thought this was a good book but it was also pretty grim. So many of the characters die or go missing. The main theme is that we need to start living in and preparing for the future world, not the past one we are already missing, but also managing the grief around that. Masterful but upsetting.

I have a big porch Someone gave this to me. I thought “Oh neat, like my porch” but this is very specifically a book about SOUTHERN porches which means it has a certain vibe to it that is at once familiar (Faulkner, Lee, Wolfe, Morrison) but not what I was looking for. It’s a nice commonplace book with lit excerpts about porches (Southern porches) alongside some nice photography of various kinds of porches. There’s also an intro by Reynolds Price who I had not heard of.

Ben Passmore is a Black anarchist and graphic novelist. This book uses the framing of his mostly-absent dad coming back around and trying to school the slightly-politically apathetic Passmore about the history of Black resistance in the US, and Black armed resistance in particular. No punches pulled. The cops are drawn as pigs, a lot of it takes place in and around the carceral state, all the protagonists are complicated. I knew some of this, not all of it.

From the new shelf at my library, written by the CEO of a non-profit company which supports moving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities into supported living situations outside of institutions. Obviously he’s got an angle. This book explains both what his company does (and how) but also why it’s the RIGHT thing to do. Fewer stories from actual clients than I’d like, but still good overall.

This is the penultimate book in this series and the plot points are coming in fast and furious. There’s not really even that much archaeology in this one. Covid is really center stage and just ramping up. Ruth gets a new neighbor and finds out some interesting facts about her. Then there’s a weird connection between a string of deaths that doesn’t even get explained that much. I liked it because I’m mostly here for the people but a bit thin on plot.

Illustrated by Rafael Rosado, this is a sweet YA graphic novel about Ignacio, a kid whose parents immigrated from Colombia, trying to navigate being in high school (and Spanish class) with young women who he suddenly has an interest in, and also his jerk older brother. He connects with the spirit of his Colombian grandfather, who mostly helps him with some of this. This book touches on so many useful concepts (various Latinx identities, DACA, a little bit of US politics) and has a good heart at its core.