June might be most random collection of books in awhile. I’m really challenging myself to read differently – not to lean on popcorn thrillers to add up numbers of books read, but instead to lean into “harder” readers, some more serious, but mixing in some fun audio as well. This month I read:

• You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan [audiobook] – I found this sweet YA book on my library’s app at the perfect time – the beginning of Pride month! We meet Mark and Kate near the end of their high school time, just as they are seeking confidence to speak up for themselves and to find love. As young queer teens, they face a lot of obstacles, but have beautiful friendships, family and found family surrounding them. This was a love story about love and queer joy.
• So Gay For You: Friendship, Found Family, & The Show That Started it All by Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig [audiobook] – In this PRIDE month, I am enjoying as much queer JOY as possible! I love the actresses Leisha and Kate, who starred in the original L-Word and the reboot, Generation Q. As two lesbians who also played lesbians on tv, where there continues to be little representation for lesbians, these two proudly share their journey to and from acting, into their friendship, and the successes and challenges of their careeers. I loved this in-depth look into the shows and their beautiful friendship that has spanned cities, relationships, and so much more. Hearing them narrate the memoir was so fun to listen to this month!
• The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith – Someone recommended this book to me, as the author is a grief counselor and a woman who lost both of her parents before she was 30. Claire tells her memoir in disjointed stories out of order, so we jump around from her childhood to her father’s death bed, then back to her early grieving after her mother died, and through the relationships she drowned her sorrows in throughout. While it was hard to read some of her bad choices during deep grieving, it was also so real to me, as a woman who has lost both of my parents. Luckily, I had mine a bit longer, but it’s still sad for me, as it was for Claire for so long. I loved the end of this, when she pushes herself through the pain to come out happier and grateful on the other side, and then to become a hospice grief counselors in the end. Her letter to her mother on the tenth anniversary of her death just about broke me open, in a way that I needed at this moment in time. Grieving feels so lonely, and yet we all go through it at some point if we are lucky to have loved ones in our lives. I’m grateful to have read this.
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson – I read and loved Black Cake by this author so I was excited to read her second book. I enjoyed the beautiful storytelling of this book as well. We meet Ebby on her wedding day, when everything falls apart. Through different timelines and different narrator boints of view, not only do we learn what happened to Ebby, but also to her family starting in the 1800’s with her enslaved ancestors. This is a beautiful story about ancestry, heritage, history, trust, and relationships.
• Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief: A Revolutionary Approach to Understanding and Healing the Impact of Loss by Claire Bidwell Smith – After reading Claire’s first book and seeing this title in her catalog, I knew I wanted to read it. This was profoundly helpful for me. The author defines what anxiety feels like, how it manifests in the body, how it can come on as a result of grief, and how to work through it, along with your grief. There are so many helpful tips, reminders, and advice throughout this book, from the benefits of meditation and therapy to how to ease your own anxiety about death by planning ahead. This was useful and practical and yet also emotionally supportive for me, at this point in my life.
• Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson [audiobook] – When I heard this book discussed on the Currently Reading podcast, the premise sounded so interesting. The story begins when a stranger, Rub, shows up on Mad’s farm and tells her that he is her half-brother. They both have the same father, who raised them for the first 10 years of their lives and then abandoned them and their moms and started a new life somewhere else. Mad and Rub drive off for a cross-country adventure that makes found family come to life in sad and funny and unique ways. This was a book full of quirky, sweet characters and it was fun to be on the road trip with them.
• Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen [audiobook] – I heard Kaytee mention this title on Currently Reading, and it sounded like a fun LGBTQ+ romcom that would be perfect for PRIDE month. However, it was really a “horror romance with queer leanings” and not what I was expecting. It was a quick, campy, ridiculous listen on audio. The story takes place near the end of a season of a reality dating show, when the constestants are taken to an isolated island in Washington state for the semi-final dates. Horror ensues and as the reader you are just about as clueless as the characters throughout the story. I read afterwards that this was written as satire and there were some elements of humor, snark, and more, but it was not my style.
• Twenty-Four Seconds from Now… A Love Story by Jason Reynolds – I love Jason Reynold’s YA novels and heard good things about this one. This is a Black love story, told in reverse, as Neon processes his two year romance with his high school girlfriend, Aria, moments before they “do it” for the first time, near the end of their senior year. This was a sweet story about family, love, trust, and truth, and Reynold’s afterword was beautiful – “even Black boys deserve love stories”.
• Conscious Grieving: A Transformative Approach to Healing from Loss by Claire Bidwell Smith – I’ve taken time this month, now that work has slowed down, to do some grief work, that I skipped over 14 years ago, and in the many losses I’ve had since then. Actually, when I made a list of close family, friends, and pets I’ve lost in the last 15 or so years, the list was longer than I realized (12!) and full of so many different emotions for me. Each loss was different, just as each relationship was different, but the cumulative years of anticipatory grief, health stress, and on-going stress has created a lot of internal “stuff” for me to work through. I appreciate Bidwell Smith’s work, as she shares her own grief experience and her work as a grief counselor. The biggest reminders are to feel and process your grief, create rituals to remember and honor your loved ones, and to take care of yourself, including meditation and mindfulness.

Favorite Books

• Best YA book about queer friendship and joy: You Know Me Well
• Best historical fiction that highlights Black talent and joy amidst sorrow and travesty: Good Dirt
• Best book to help me work through grief: Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief: A Revolutionary Approach to Understanding and Healing the Impact of Loss
• Best New Adult love story to hand to your late teens: Twenty-Four Seconds from Now… A Love Story