September 2021 Wrap UP

September was better than August, even if it wasn't great. Let's review, shall we?

Juvenile in Justice by Richard Ross - This book is a pictography of minors in jail. Well, juvenile detention, which basically translates to jail. Some of the pictures were from the Tulsa Juvenile Detention Center. They were horrible to look at. The good news is is that detention center has since closed and moved elsewhere. Hopefully to a nicer building.

Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier - This graphic novel was cute and had a great message. One of the main characters is a trans girl. She receives a lot of transphobic hate, but her cheer squad has her back. I read it during my weekend retreat.

The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor by Shaenon K. Garrity - This should have been better than it was. A high school girl rescues a man she thinks is drowning in the river and is whisked away to a Gothic novel with a creepy castle and three gentlemen brothers one of whom is moody, one is a decent guy, and one is a fop. Just like in the Gothic novels she loves to read. It just wasn't all there for me. I also read this on my weekend retreat.

Billie Eilish by Billie Eilish - I think Billie Eilish is a musical genius. Well, her and her brother. This was a fun book with all her family photos of her growing up.

Act Cool by Tobly McSmith - This took me forever to read. Weeks and weeks. The main character was kind of a douche canoe. I mean, it made sense why he was the way he was, but like the girl he liked, I was way over the acting a part ALL. THE. TIME. August is a trans boy in NYC going to a flashy school for the arts. His secret is that his parents don't know where he is. He ran away from home. They don't support his identity and think he's "confused" or "being led by the devil." They're gross. I only really liked the aunt and the would-be love interest. Everyone else was fake or self-obsessed or just horrible.

I Hate Reading: How to Read When You'd Rather Not by Beth Bacon - This is a picture book. Well, it doesn't have any pictures, but it's put together like a picture book. It's about how to make your parents and teachers think you're reading when really you're not. It's cute. It might be a coincidence, but I managed to finish 2 books the week after I read this, so maybe it helped?

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller - It took me at least a month to read the first half of this book. But I don't think it was the book's fault because I read the second half in the matter of an afternoon. Levenseller never errs. This one is about a bladesmith who has major anxiety. She hates being around people. She will not look a male person in the eye. She just wants to be alone in her forge working with her metals. Her sister handles all the peopling. Until a major warlord comes to get a magic sword. When she makes it, she realizes the sword is too powerful to hand over to this woman who wants to wreak havoc on the world. So they run.

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas - I actually kind of flew through this one. It was ok. Maverick is a high school senior who is also a drug dealer on the side. He finds out he has a son when the baby is 3 months old. His girlfriend dumps him and the baby's mother leaves him with the baby and disappears. Then his older cousin is shot in his driveway and he holds him as he dies. Things get real messed up from there. Maverick is trying to handle school, real work (he quits selling drugs), and dealing with the grief of this death. It gets worse before it gets better.

And those are the 8 books I read in September. I'm pretty proud of myself. Three of them were real books with more than 300 pages.

What did you read in September?