i bought too many books
I recently discovered that my favorite locally owned bookstore allows me to easily preorder things via their website, and they will contact me when my preorders are in. That is how I got into this situation.
I have bought a lot of books recently, to the point where this entire stack is currently unread. I'm going to go through these books and talk about what drew me to them, from the top of the stack to the bottom.
The first book is This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews. This is the start of a new series, and while this author (actually a husband and wife who write together under one pen name) has published a ton of urban fantasy and paranormal fiction in the past, this is the first book I am checking out by them! It's about a girl named Maggie who wakes up one day in the gritty, rough, magical world of her favorite book series. She has no clue why she's been pulled from the real world and into this book series, but what she does know is that she somehow is unable to die in this world... unfortunately, all of her favorite characters are able to die, so she's trying to keep everybody alive and help them have a happier ending than the original books. I'm currently a couple of chapters in and it's pretty dry and lore-heavy so far, but I'm interested enough in the concept to keep pushing through. Haven't we all thought about what it would be like if we were able to be in our favorite fictional universe? What adventures we would get into, what characters we'd want to befriend the most, what places we'd want to see for ourselves... As someone who is part of a few fandoms, I can relate to Maggie on that part, and that's what really made me want to pick this book up.
The second book in my TBR (to be read) stack is Slewfoot by Brom. A few months ago I read another book of his, The Child Thief. I really enjoy that the illustrations in his books are done by Brom himself, and I like that his writing is very dark. He isn't afraid of writing about anything too gritty or heavy. That does mean that I need to be a little careful with my headspace and follow it up with something brighter and less serious, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to Slewfoot!
Below Slewfoot is Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States by Miranda Yaver. I love nonfiction and this is the first nonfiction in my stack. There's a few reasons this was a preorder title for me: I work in pharmacy and I have for some time, and on a daily basis I see how insurance takes advantage of people; I have an interest in the various health insurance companies that have been found guilty and fined for refusing to cover medically necessary treatments and services; and I'm an American who feels anger at the health insurance system as a whole and wants to add some knowledge to my anger. I'm looking forward to reading this one.
Next is back to fiction: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. It's a novel about a modern-day Instagram tradwife influencer who wakes up one day to find herself transported back to 1800, living the exact type of life she pretended to have on social media. I think this will be really amusing. The whole tradwife/fundamental Christianity side of the internet fascinates (and disgusts) me, feeling like a twisted trainwreck I can't look away from. You mean I get to read an entire book about a rich, conventionally attractive, snobby tradwife mother who gets to live the life she tries to preach to others? Yes, please. Let's read about her realization that it actually sucks to have to sew all of your clothes, wake up early to milk cows, and not have any modern amenities like antibiotics or electricity.
Year of the Mer by L.D. Lewis is pitched as a "dark sapphic retelling of the Little Mermaid." Dark sapphic retelling of anything and I am here for it. That is really all it took for me to preorder this one. Still, this is not advertised as a romance necessarily - it's focused on the Little Mermaid's granddaughter and has a focus on generational trauma and revenge.
The next book, Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell, was chosen for the March book club read at my locally owned bookstore. The book club doesn't have a focus on one particular genre - it's just whatever interests the author/owner of the store. This is my first year doing the book club and the January and February reads were great, so even though I didn't choose this one independently based on anything interesting me, I have high hopes.
Second-to-last is nonfiction again: American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism by Scott Kurashige. I found this book because someone I follow on Bluesky shared a post of the author promoting the book. It's supposed to be a look at how the U.S. has normalized anti-Asian violence, as recent as the attacks on Asian Americans during COVID-19 but throughout American history. I've been trying to make more of an effort to learn about different minority groups and colonized people in American history/current day, and this book feels like it will fit that goal.
Lastly, a graphic memoir! I don't think I've ever read a graphic memoir, come to think of it. It Rhymes With Takei by George Takei follows George Takei through his acting career and political activism, focusing on his (for a long time, closeted) sexuality. There's a bit more of an explanation for why I was drawn to this book: My boyfriend has gotten me into Star Trek over the past year and a half, and we were recently watching the new Starfleet Academy series. There is a character who is openly gay, and I saw an article about how George Takei had been communicating with the actor of the gay character, talking about how meaningful it was and how far Star Trek had come since Takei starred as Hikaru Sulu. I am an LGBT person, and I always like to hear from elder members of the community about what the earlier parts of their lives were like. Even though those stories can be full of pain, I think those stories deserve to be heard.
This post ended up being a lot longer than I intended! I had just realized that it had been a bit since I wrote on my blog. When I wasn't sure what to write about, I looked around, saw my stack of unread books, and thought, I can talk about why I chose these books and what I'll be reading next. If you made it this far, thanks for coming along for this journey! Feel free to share what you're reading currently or what books you may check out next in my guestbook. I love getting to talk about books!