pickLocal author Kao Kalia Yang won the Minnesota Book Award in three categories this year! This one, her first middle grade novel, was my May #BookSpin pick. The story is inspired by her little brother‘s experiences, and it‘s dedicated to him. 💕 (Pictured with her three memoirs; I‘ve read the most recent, plan to read the other two in the coming year.)
#12Booksof2026
#day4 April : Memorial Days #memoir
#day5 May: The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt #graphicnovel #biography
pickAn exciting adventure story shot through with storylines on living with anxiety, living with a parent with depression & anxiety, and overcoming isolation in your community. I LOVED Addy's friendship with Caleb and how it grew over a short period of time. Addy's growing belief in herself to do things that frighten her was such a joy to see.
pickAn incredibly sweet and a little sad contemporary romance about grief and friendship and love. This is quite lovely, if occasionally twee. It definitely is a cosy read, but careful if you are dealing with the loss of a loved one. 4⭐️
pickA moving book about grief and love, perhaps my favorite of the year. I couldn‘t put this book down. Andie was infuriating at times, but her self doubt was real and easy to relate to. Book #98 in 2025 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickI just loved this.
I picked it up from Book Outlet a while ago on impulse, somehow it had passed my notice when it came out in 2022, and then pulled it off my shelf the other day on a whim. Very much the right book at the right time. McCracken's writing is beautiful, thoughtful, and full of love.
Cont'd in comments
“We are not idealized wild things.
We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all.”
“We imagined we knew everything the other thought, even when we did not necessarily want to know it, but in fact, I have come to see, we knew not the smallest fraction of what there was to know.”
#poetry #MaryOliver #joy #grief 💜💜💜
