All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is by far one of the best books I have ever read. Set in WWII, this historical fiction novel is narrated from two different perspectives; one from Werner, a German boy, and Maurie Laure, a blind French girl who remarkably cross paths. There is so much anger and conflict created between the contradicting backgrounds of the two characters, but their personal interactions with each other tell a much different story.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover is an intense romance novel that narrates the new and exciting life of Lily who has moved to Boston to start her career. She meets a guy named Ryle, and truly her whole world turns upside down. She also has to face the reemergence of a childhood friend and lover, which makes the story a whole lot spicier. This book had me hooked by the very first page, and I couldn’t put it down.
The Magic Fish is a heartwarming graphic novel that showcases beautiful parallels between the fairytales Tien reads with his parents and Tien’s own story of trying to tell his family that he’s gay. There’s a lot of difficulties in communicating with parents that don’t speak English well, and wanting to them something so important as being gay. As this young boy navigates through his own struggling Vietnamese, this book shows us that happiness can be reached even through the language barrier.
Cemetery Boys is an amazing novel that follows the story of Yadriel, a Latinx, gay, and transgender teenager, as he becomes determined to prove himself as a real brujo to his traditional family. But doing so, he accidentally summons a spirit who just so happens to be the resident “bad boy” at his school and follows Yadriel around. By helping the ghost of his schoolmate, Julian, this would be the perfect opportunity for Yadriel to prove he deserves being a Brujo in his community.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a historical fiction novel set in San Francisco in the 1950’s, where high-schooler Lily Hu goes through her queer awakening. Lily Hu is the “model” Chinese-American daughter, who gradually comes to realize her sense of identity as she befriends her math classmate and heads off towards a lesbian bar. Caught in the overwhelming feelings of confusion and exhilaration, the threat of risking old friendships and even her father’s deportation looms over her.
Beatrice, Samantha, and Jefferson Washington are all the children of King George and their family is the current rulers of America. America was kept as a monarchy rather than turned into a democracy, and Beatrice is to be the new queen when she succeeds her father. Their stories become wrapped up when Samantha and Beatrice want the same man, Samantha’s best friend, Nina, falls in love with her twin Jefferson, and Jefferson’s ex-girlfriend, Daphne, is still obsessed with Jefferson.
In an alternate reality where the Axis powers won World War Two, current day United States has been taken over by Japanese forces and Europe by the Nazis. Ren Cabot is living in what would be California with only his father, bitter that the government killed his mother after she committed treason. The government is controlling of its people, and is only benefiting those in power, so there are many groups trying to undermine them. Mr.
Siddhartha is a philosophical book by Herman Hesse that is centered around the rise of Buddhism. It follows Siddhartha on his search for enlightenment and the benefits of teachers. I think that Hesse brings up important topics and there is a lot to discuss from this book. However I find Siddhartha as a character to be obnoxious, self-centered, and rude which makes it hard to enjoy a book with a main character that you don’t enjoy.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a story about Lily Hu in 1954 Chinatown. She’s stuck between complications with Red-Scare paranoia affecting her family, and her friend Shirley trying to set her up with Will, a boy from school that she has zero interest in. But everything gets turned upside down when Lily meets Kathleen Miller and realizes that there’s an obvious reason why she isn’t interested in Will.
