Y'all, it's the final issue, so here are the books I read this semester, the books I recommend, and the hastily-written reviews of books I read during exams and didn't really have time to coherently think about. 

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

★★★★☆

I LOVED this book, especially as a fan of baseball. The dynamics between the characters were wonderful and engaging and overall, I was delighted. Unfortunately, the gay couple in the book perpetuates really harmful stereotypes. Owen was a true caricature of homosexuality (social justice warrior, overly fashionable, clean freak, etc), and the the (only) mlm relationship was potrayed as true love and not the creepy and predatory dynamic that it definitely was, considering the forty-year age gap between the characters as well as the power dynamic. As far as I can tell, the author is not gay, and the Affenlight/Owen subplot is not only boring, but harmful. BUT ASIDE FROM THAT! I LOVED IT! It characterizes healthy male friendships without sexualizing it or bro-ing it up too much. It was real, it was raw, and their personalities, conversations, motivations, and arcs are so painfully true to life. I recommend this book for sure, especially for baseball fans!

How Lucky by Will Leitch

★★★☆☆

I enjoyed this book! It was a fun, light read, with refreshingly hilarious narration and natural pop culture references that didn’t make me cringe (which is a rarity). Daniel is a well-rounded main character with completely random sidekicks that came together in such a funny way. I love love loved his relentless optimism; too many books about disabled people are depressing as heck, especially when written by abled people. While I don’t use a wheelchair nor do I have SMA, I noticed Leitch based Daniel’s SMA off of a real-life case, which I appreciated very much. I don’t like how the author assigned the novel a set year, because in my opinion that dates the book. Setting it in an approximate time period allows it a bit more longevity. I also could have done without long, rambling monologues at the end, and maybe a wee bit less action, but otherwise, it was a cute and lighthearted story.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

★★★★★

Honest to god, this may be one of the best books I’ve ever read. I liked Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Evelyn Hugo, but it was by no means my favorite, so I had similar expectations for this book. Nope. Knocked ‘em all out of the park. The dynamic between the characters. The development. The nuance. AHH. Reid has such a gift for creating realistic people that have terrible habits and characteristics, but still getting you to root for and relate to them. While Reid’s style is very formulaic, this novel stayed captivating and wonderfully true to life. There are far too many books that romanticize romance, if you can go as far as to say that, and I love that Reid keeps it real.

Under The Magnolias by T.I. Lowe

★★★★☆

Listen. I’m a picky 5-star reader. But this book was wonderful. Okay, some of the characters were two-dimensional, and sometimes the narrator went on rambly monologues at the end, but otherwise it was really good! There was nothing technically that stood out, but the story was memorable and packed with some of my all-time favorite tropes. EXCEPT: the epilogue. EPILOGUES ALWAYS RUIN GOOD BOOKS. The epilogue was completely unnecessary and ruined the integrity of the ending. I also don’t like how suddenly the ending was sprung upon, but at the same time I loved how it was chunks of time and not all seven years laid out. I genuinely enjoyed this book, but that might be because of how much I loved the characters.

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

★★★★☆

I can’t believe more people aren’t talking about this book!!! While a tad melodramatic at times, that was the only complaint I could find about it. The unlikely friendships were so *chef’s kiss*. A seventeen-year-old girl whose best friends are a nurse, an elderly priest, and an 83-year-old woman. It’s such a wonderful and heartwarming story about unexpected friendships and the bonds that we form with others. Although it’s sad, as one could expect from a story about terminally ill teenagers, it made me happy as well as devastated, but in the best way possible. I honest to god don’t understand how more people aren’t obsessed with this book. I just wish there were more scenes with Lenni and Margot in the present day!

Normal People by Sally Rooney

★★★★★

Holy crap, I’m obsessed with this book. I know a lot of people don’t like it, but it was so PAINFULLY realistic that I couldn’t not like it. Even without quotation marks, it flowed really naturally. The prose wasn’t anything spectacular, but it wasn’t about the prose. I really recommend this book; it was a quick read with so much depth.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

★★★★☆

I just. Wow. The ending REALLY caught me off guard. I liked it a lot—it flowed well, had nice prose, and had great characters and development. Very mysterious. I feel like I can't say a ton about this book because so much of my experience reading it was based solely in my indescribable reactions as I read.

Recommendations

Disclaimers: I haven't read all these books! These recs are based on vibes and what I've heard. Also I know I recommended a couple repeats but forgive me my brain is fried from the end of the semester. Also, romance books are labeled with either YA for young adult (14-18) or NA for new adult (16-30), which may contain graphic content. Please choose a book appropriate for you.

If you're looking for something light to read on the beach: Beach Read by Emily Henry (NA), People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry (NA), Book Lovers by Emily Henry (NA), Normal People by Sally Rooney, How Lucky by Will Leitch

If you're looking to flex on your English teacher next year: Time Is A Mother by Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (always impresses them!), The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri

If you're looking to be pretentious and claim you liked the book before the movie came out: Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (NA), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

If you want to get into reading classics but don't know where to start: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Pride and Prejudice (or any Jane Austen book), Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

If you want some non-fiction: Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

If you want something that requires a bit of emotional investment but not any beyond when the book is closed: The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach, The Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

If you want to keep up with my reads and reviews over the summer, you can follow me on Goodreads (@keiramicks) or on Avery’s and my joint bookstagram, @babygotbookss. Have a literary summer, folks!