What I've been reading: Books No. 35-36

Book No. 35 was "The Astrologer's Daughter" by Rebecca Lim. Anybody who knows me in real life and knows how put off I am by woo and New Agey stuff might be surprised that I read and thoroughly enjoyed a book where the title character uses astrology to help solve several mysteries, including an old cold case murder and the current disappearance of her mother. I cared about the main character, Avicenna Crowe, immediately, and felt Lim did a phenomenal job of ratcheting up the tension and making you want to find out what would happen next. It opens when Avi is just a few days past her 18th birthday. One day, she says a groggy goodbye from her bed as her mother leaves for the day, and by the end of the day, Avi has reported her mother as missing. Avi's mother, the astrologer, had been asked to do a reading about a murder, and it turns out that the mother's disappearance may be linked to that reading. The police are not asking the right question, so Avi does her own investigating, including using her own skills at reading astrological charts. Her classmate and rival for a scholarship, Simon Thorn, also becomes involved and helps Avi with her search while also trying to keep Avi in school for the literary project they've been paired on. At first, Avi dismisses Simon as a vapid rich boy, but she begins to see he has his own problems and hidden depths. After I finished this, I found a statement by the author saying she wrote the novel in response to an old, unsolved set of murders in Australia in the 1970s, and she wanted to make a point that the lives of women and girls matter. That is a strong theme throughout, but not really in your face. I don't think Lim has plans to turn this into a series (she is probably best known in the YA world for her "Mercy" series), but I would read it if she did, because I really like her writing style and grew fond of Avicenna over the course of the book.

Book No. 36 was "Trans/Portraits: Voices from Transgender Communities", by Jackson Wright Shultz. I try to read a few books by LGBTQ authors every year, but haven't had as much luck finding good books by transgender folks, so I snapped it up when I saw it on display at my library as part of a Pride Month display. The format was not what I expected. Instead of introducing a person and have each chapter be an essay by that person, the author interviewed 30+ transgender individuals and then grouped their comments by topic, from coming out, to challenges in the workplace, to activism, to intersectionality. I loved that the editor included a wide range of folks from MtF individuals who had full top and bottom surgery to FtM individuals who got top surgery but chose not to do bottom surgery, to nonbinary folks. One person with a particularly interesting story is a transwoman who transitioned while serving on a police force. She was nervous about coming out to her captain but was met with a warm welcome and asked to give sensitivity training to other local police forces. Others, obviously, didn't have stellar coming out experiences, and one transman had to have a personal protective order taken out against his father. There are African American, Latino, and Asian folks represented, as well as poly folks and several fat folks who talk about how those issues intersect with trans issues. I really am happy that the editor chose to include several comments about the intersectionality of fat activism and trans activism in particular. The only thing that didn't ring true for me was the use of "polys" as a term for the partners of poly folks. I don't know ANYBODY poly who uses that term, and I find it puzzling that the editor thinks that's the default. That she included comments about polyamory at all was great, though. The author is super careful to provide a glossary and footnotes for medical terms and LGBT slang, but it also makes the book feel very "Trans 101." I think it might be a great first book to give somebody who wants to be an ally but needs further education.

( The other books I've read so far this year: )