Book 1: The Hidden Life of Trees.

Book 12: If Wishes Were Retail. No idea where I found this one. It's a fun book about a disaffected young woman, Alex, stuck with her shitty family looking for a job, any job. And she finds one... working for a genie in a retail kiosk at the mall. He's selling wishes which, of course, gets complicated really fast. He doesn't know much about the human world, and she's got big dreams about going away to college and leaving this all behind. Better than it seemed like it would be, and much funnier.

Book 13: Call Me Iggy. 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.

Book 14: The Locked Room. 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.

Book 12: If Wishes Were Retail. No idea where I found this one. It's a fun book about a disaffected young woman, Alex, stuck with her shitty family looking for a job, any job. And she finds one... working for a genie in a retail kiosk at the mall. He's selling wishes which, of course, gets complicated really fast. He doesn't know much about the human world, and she's got big dreams about going away to college and leaving this all behind. Better than it seemed like it would be, and much funnier.

@jessamyn Ok, that was the first current book I've read in AGES. Good recommendation.

Book 15: Silent No Longer: Advancing the Fight for Disability Rights. 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.

Book 16: Black Arms to Hold You Up. 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.

Book 16: Black Arms to Hold You Up. 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.

@jessamyn This is on my bedside TBR right now, looking forward to jumping into it soon!

@glecharles It's SO good. It helps to have some background on some of the things he's talking about (Huey Newton, MOVE, that sort of thing) because the book is definitely not a history lesson, but it's really a great explanation of Black resistance and some of the conflicts within that struggle.