March Reading Favourites

I was travelling for most of the month, which means I was reading on every form of transportation, plus I went on a graphic novel reading binge, so I finished 36 books in March. 😶 Here are my 6 favourites!

This book follows four Filipino-American men in the same family, all at age 16, starting from Frederico, who moved to the US from the Philippines. We end with Enzo, who is 16 as the pandemic starts and whose grandfather comes to live with them. I really liked this structure, as we can see the men from their son's and grandson's eyes, but only hear from them at age 16. We can see how their decisions at that age formed who they would eventually become. It's a really lovely, quiet story of generational trauma and toxic masculinity and trying to be different from your father.

Has been compared to The Westing Game, so of course I had to check it out. And while not exactly the same, it was almost as good! Candice has to move with her mom to her grandma's old house and is not happy about it. But when she finds a letter with clues to a treasure, she and her neighbour start digging into the town's past to find out its secrets. I loved the mixture of mystery that has obvious connections with Westing Game, plus Black history and the way past events play a role in our present. It was charming and fun, and used the 2008 setting to great effect, forcing the kids to go to the library and talk to people instead of being able to use the internet for everything.

This is a cozy sci-fi novella, written by a fellow Ontarian, that is very reminiscent of the Monk and Robot books in its hopeful future setting and gentle plot about looking for meaning. August faces burnout from her highly emotional job, and decides to give gardening a try instead. She slowly opens herself up to other people and facing her inner struggles. I thought the first-person present worked really well here, with the slow, elegant writing reflecting August's inner development. There were a lot of lines that I couldn't help but underline because of how they resonated with me.

"Jobs aren't tied to who we are. They're the places we go to survive, yet they don't even brush the core of who we are."

A short story collection about people with disabilities or chronic illnesses in fantasy, each written by a disabled author. I'm generally not a huge fan of short stories, but I really loved this collection! Of course I liked some stories more than others, but thought each one was really solid. Each story is fairly short but satisfying, with a clear plotline, so I think a lot of people who also don't often read short stories would enjoy these. 

There's a lot of variety here, in terms of the type of disability, setting, and even how the disability was included. Some stories were about being accepted and loved as a disabled person, in some the disability played a key role in how the plot turned out, and in some the main character's disability was just part of who they were. In none of the stories was the disability fixed or cured through some sort of magic. There is also a lot of diversity in both the characters and authors in terms of sexuality and gender representation, which was great as well. I was really impressed and am glad it exists.

My favourite of all the graphic novels I read! Tara has skipped a grade directly into high school, and she is stressed. She has no idea how to be. But she makes a new friend in English class, and she fights with her sister, and she slowly finds her place. It was genuinely funny with realistic high school shenanigans and great banter with her friends and classmates

A really wonderful autobiography written by an Oji-Cree woman who identifies as a lesbian and two-spirit. She had a super hard life growing up, with a lot of abuse, becoming addicted to alcohol, and eventually getting clean. She devoted her life to helping others get and stay clean, took care of her kids and fostered a bunch of others, and after she realized she was a lesbian, had a couple loving relationships. She seemed super awesome, and I loved the afterword explaining how she and her co-writer went about writing this book, since Ma-Nee is not a native English speaker and is legally blind. I'm glad it won the Canada Reads award, because it deserved it!