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The Hate U Give is a really great book. Angie Thomas did a really good job writing a fictive setting on current events. I think everyone should at least try to read this book.

Frankly in Love was definitely one of the books of 2021 that I enjoyed the most. At first glance, the book seemed like it is nothing more than a fake-dating romance, but soon unraveled to be more of an exploration of conflicting cultural identities. Romance definitely takes a back seat to the drama being Korean American brings for Frank Li, who feels enormous pressure to be one or the other because of rising expectations.

I'll Be The One by Lyla Lee

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Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.

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Mara Deebly, in need of a team sport to prove she can be a team player, joins the football team and unintentionally starts a feminist movement in her highschool. Much to her and the boys' disgust, several other girls feel inspired by her decision and follow her onto the football team, where Mara get's lumped in with girls she feels are frilly, weak, and won't take the game seriously. As she tries to set herself apart from her new teammates, she and the other girls experience bullying and unfairness by even people on the team she had thought were her friends.

Pumpkin' by Julie Murphy
Book three in 'Dumplin'' series

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Creating a drag-show audition tape that culminates in an unkind nomination for prom queen, an overweight and openly gay teen partners with a girl who has been nominated for prom king to embrace their true selves.

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I recently asked Laurel, a member of our circulation team, for a recommendation. Laurel was deep into We Begin at the End (2021) by British author Chris Whitaker.

Fun fact: a section of The Dearly Beloved, Cara Wall’s debut novel, is set in Wheaton, Illinois!

Set in a Nigerian town, this book opens with a mother finding her son’s body on her front porch. This was no natural death and who took the time to wrap him in a cloth and place him in front of her house? Through flashbacks of Vivek’s life, we learn more about this intriguing, lovable boy and his friends, who seem to know more than they admit about his demise.

8 out of 10 stars

Recently I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. In this book the main character, Hazel, is suffering from a type of lung cancer. In the beginning of the book she is depressed from living a life with a terminal illness. But throughout this book she progresses and grows in who she is and forms strong relationships. While this book is a romance, it is very beautifully written.

At the onset of this story, Roy and Celestial have been married for a little over a year, and are just getting to the point where they understand each other. Tragically, their marriage is derailed by a miscarriage of justice that lands Roy with a 12-year prison sentence. The remainder of the book explores the very complicated dynamics of a forced long-distance marriage. Told from multiple perspectives and spanning several decades, the story dives deep into the family members and circumstances that make us who we are.

Have you read the modernized Cinderella adaptation yet? If not, the sequel ‘The Princess and the Fangirl’ recently came out, so you may want to pick it up.