Favourite Books of March

    This is a very recent release that I was interested in primarily because of the great title and cover, and obviously I have a particular interest in China. The premise of a book that combines Chinese history and magical realism also intrigued me, and I thought this was a good book to challenge myself a bit with. 

    This book is made up primarily of 3 points of view in 3 different time periods. We start in 2017, when Qianze receives word that her father, who left the family when she was 14, is looking for her. He's confused and haunted, and she gives in and houses him. Every day he rambles about his past and a family curse, but can't quite remember what he needs to tell her. Then we get sections from her father Weihong's pov of growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, during which he discovers the violence he's capable of. Finally, we get the story of Weihong's mother Ming during the Japanese invasion, growing up as an unwanted daughter, then taken by the Japanese.

    In all three time periods we are just waiting for the terrible thing that happened to be revealed, since we know there is a family curse, but not where it comes from. Ming knows the Japanese are coming, Weihong knows the Cultural Revolution will bring destruction to his family, and Qianze just doesn't know what secrets her father is keeping or why she's having strange dreams. Lots of beasts, and lots of slinking. Through this book the author shares parts of China's history, and how it continues to impact the diaspora today. I was fairly familiar with both periods of Chinese history, but I did get a deeper understanding of it for sure, and just how the trauma they went through would impact future generations. The author also uses magical realism and stylistic choices that I found really effective.

  How to Read Now is a collection of essays about how to read - not only books, but also other types of art, and even other people and the world around us. This book contains 8 essays, and while I definitely got more out of some than others, all of them were valuable reads. The author's tone is forthright and can be caustic, but honestly I think we need to be called out for our bullshit directly and learn how to interpret the world in new ways. The way she talked about topics like white supremacy, the concept of the assumed reader, and writing "diverse" side characters made me feel a bit like my brain was exploding. This book took more brain power than the usual fiction I read and made me feel a little bit like I was back in school, but in a good way.

    Something about this Middle Grade book felt like I would love it despite not being the target audience, and I was super right. Nomi, Vi, and Arthur were best friends when they were younger, and they found a strange book with little sayings in it that seemed to be prophecies that were coming true. But a year ago Arthur suddenly dropped the two girls without a word. Nomi stews in anger until she realizes that a prophecy about the world ending seems to be coming true, and she enlists his help to find the sequel. All three kids have their own struggles as they face new challenges of growing up and realizing they have to decide who they want to be. At the same time, there's a forest burning miles away that leaves the air smoky for days.

    A central theme in this book is environmentalism and especially the fate of trees. Between the povs of the three kids, there are also short sections from the viewpoint of trees themselves, exploring how trees have always been here, and they make books, and maybe they're a little bit part of everything. The smoke from forest fires are ever-present in the story as the kids have to wear masks to go outside, and the smoke makes it hard to see outside clearly.

    And then in contrast with the eternal wisdom and strength of trees, we have three kids dealing with modern-day problems that feel huge but are really quite recent. Texting, cyber-bullying, the post-#metoo era, learning about climate change... It was really interesting to get a portrait of what growing up is like for kids today, being exposed to all of these ideas but not really being given the tools to understand them. The kids have different backgrounds and families and experiences, and that all seems a lot harder now that they're in middle school.

    I pretty much loved everything about this book. All three main characters were so rich and different and three-dimensional, and had interesting dynamics between them. All of their experiences and struggles felt so authentic and meaningful. Sometimes I can feel that Middle Grade books are just not written for me, which is totally fine, but this is one that I fully enjoyed at face value beyond seeing how it would be great for actual preteens.

    This book has one of the best premises I'd ever heard and immediately intrigued me. It's a crime/mystery story, but it's not about a murder. Oh no! This mystery revolves around the cutthroat world of egg-collecting.

    This is a dual timeline story, starting with a young, unloved girl in Yorkshire in the early 1900s who copies the climmers collecting eggs around her and ends up finding a rare red guillemot egg. Through selling the eggs she's able to make her life better for her family, but the eggs start to cause conflicts between egg collectors. In the present, Patrick's friend Weird Nick gets robbed after trying to sell a red egg he found in his attic on eBay. Patrick can't help but want to understand why anyone would do that, so they chase several leads to find out who stole Nick's egg and why they would want it.
    The world of egg collecting was a fascinating one to be introduced to, and I felt like this book had a lot to say about collecting in general. These men - and they all seemed to be men - were just obsessed with having the rarest eggs and how much they paid for them, and whether other people had better eggs. People just love to have things that other people don't have. 
    Patrick, who is autistic, was the star of this book. I feel like the portrayal of his autism was well done, but I'd be curious to hear from autistic people what they think. His autism doesn't make him a detective genius like Sherlock or anything; he just has a hard time letting go of a problem and gets obsessed with finding a solution. He knows he's not great at understanding other people and why they do and feel the way they do, and so when he's faced with strange behaviour, he keeps thinking about it until he figures something out. He's smart and logical, and often unintentionally funny, so he's a very lovable character, but still showing the realities of his experience.
    This book was primarily interested in being entertaining, and you can tell the author just heard about egg collecting and really wanted to write a mystery in that world, and then she wrote a really good one! But I felt for the characters and understood them, and really cared about the mystery too. The plot moves quickly and never got confusing despite the switching timelines, so it felt like I was just flying through it and loved every minute.