No Ivy League

Written by: Hazel Newlevant

First line: Add more calendars!

Why you should read this book: Homeschool ("my parents are hippies" homeschool, not "my parents are religious nuts" homeschool) teen Hazel has a nice life, studying whatever she feels like, hanging out with other homeschool kids, and the only thing she's missing is the cash she needs to go to DC with her boyfriend and best friend to see a band she loves. Hazel takes a summer job with No Ivy League, a group dedicated to hiring at-risk youth to remove invasive English ivy from the park, and suddenly she's in another world, working with kids with whom she can't seem to find any commonality, kids who have less than she does and resent her privilege. In this honest memoir, Newlevant relates the lessons she learned about race, class, romance, and community at her summer job. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's some spicy language in there, probably not for younger teens or kids. 

Dysmorphic Kingdom

Written by: Colleen Chen

First line: She would never be able to look at Nim the same way again. 

Why you should read this book: Part fantasy, part fairy tale, part romance, part adventure, part genre-bending, part sex-farce, constantly surprising, this unusual but delightful story is all about parts: what holds them together, what tears them away from one another. In Vesper's world, women have no rights, and she's finding it progressively more and more difficult to escape an unwanted marriage when she stumbles upon a disembodied penis who can talk and fly as well as perform other tasks more suited to its form. Determined to reunite the member with its rightful owner, Vesper embarks upon a strange journey through a landscape increasingly littered with talking, flying body parts, and she must navigate the confusing obstacles of the royal court, the attentions of men, and her own heart to become the hero scientist she's dreamed of being. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's desperately in need of a couple more proofreading passes. 

All Systems Red (book 1 of the Muderbot Diaries)

Written by: Martha Wells

First line: I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.

Why you should read this book: "Murderbot," a security unit created from both robot and organic parts, does his job in the hopes that no one will notice he's been hacked, but his primary concern is watching TV: 35,000 hours of streaming video so far. Far more interested in the lives of the fictional characters in his favorite serials than the very real scientists he's supposed to be protecting, he still does his duty as it becomes increasingly apparent that the mission has been sabotaged and someone wants his entire crew dead. If he ever wants to watch TV in peace again, Murderbot must outwit the antagonists and save his small group of intellectual researchers from a much larger and better armed opponent. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: This is one of those stories where the plot is sort of irrelevant, but the voice and the character journey is so engaging you don't really care. (Apparently this series is being developed by Apple TV for a show starring Alexanders Skarsgard, so I guess you could wait a while and then enjoy the story the way Murderbot would want you to enjoy it, if Murderbot cared about you, which it probably doesn't.)

Turtles All the Way Down

Written by: John Green

First line: At the first time I realized I might be fictional, my weekdays were spent at a publicly funded institution on the north side of Indianapolis called White River High School, where I was required to eat lunch at a particular time--between 12:37 P.M. and 1:14 P.M.--by forces so much larger than myself that I couldn't even begin to identify them. 

Why you should read this book: Teenager Aza "Holmesy" Holmes has been living with anxiety and invasive thought for a while now, probably since her father died when she was a little kid, and although they control many aspects of her life, they don't control her best friend, Daisy. When Daisy learns that Aza used to be friends with the son of a missing billionaire (they met at "sad camp" for kids with dead parents), Daisy wants to exploit that connection in the hopes that she and Aza can collect the reward for finding the missing man. But Aza's reunion with her old friend only exacerbates her illness until her behavior threatens all her relationships and even her life. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: John Green is not exactly known for happy endings. 

The Last Unicorn: The Lost Journey

Written by: Peter S. Beagle

First line: The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.

Why you should read this book: You may have read a book that reminds you of this one, but you've never read anything quite like this, because this is a very early draft of a very popular book, which is not quite as good as the book it eventually became, but stands alone as a story about the confluence of modernity and classical thinking. Our unicorn leaves her forest to search for others of her kind, but she never meets Schmendrick or Haggard or the Red Bull, but instead travels with one or two banished demons, depending on how you count, further and further into the world of men who have no need for or understanding of a unicorn. Although the story sort of fizzles out at the end (Beagle points out, in the afterword, that he was probably trying to write satire despite being anything but a satirist) it takes us to surprising places as it moves with some reckless haste toward its conclusion.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you haven't read The Last Unicorn you'll likely have no idea what's special about this one. 

Two Different Worlds I've Lived in: The True Story of Being Intersex

Written by: Wilma Swartz

First line: What happened to me I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Why you should read this book: Born intersex and assigned male at birth, Wilma grew up in in a maelstrom of trauma from every direction: at home, at school, and at work, people sensed something off in her performance of masculinity and punished her relentlessly, in a time when gay people had little standing in society and trans people had no rights whatsoever. Despite doing her best to maintain a heteronormative facade, her marriage fails and subsequently she loses all rights to visitation with her son when she realizes that gender reassignment surgery is her only hope of ever living happily and authentically. Although she finds love and success as a woman, the heartbreak and scars of the past and her resonant anger still mar her memories, which she recalls in often excruciating detail, bringing her pain to light and providing a window to a little-known chapter of history.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's badly edited, often disjointed or vague, and includes some commentary that might be upsetting to secular and gender nonconforming readers, as well as graphic, sometimes violent depictions of homophobia and transphobia. 

Everything Is OK

Written by: Debbi Tung

First line: I feel so lost and overwhelmed.

Why you should read this book: In this candid and understated graphic memoir, the author describes a difficult period of her life, some relevant backstory, her journey through her mental health problems, and the world she encounters on the other side. The first half of the book is primarily a painfully accurate description of living with an undiagnosed anxiety disorder while also coping with known depression and also trying to balance a relationship and a career. The second half is more or less a catalog of the kinds of things you learn in therapy, presented in such a way that you actually might believe that everything is, in fact, OK, or that it might be, if you just keep pushing through. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I can see how the first half might be kind of upsetting to someone who was not handling their own anxiety and depression very well. 

The Way Home

Written by: Peter S. Beagle

First line: My brother, Wilfrid, keeps saying it's not fair that it should all have happened to me.

Why you should read this book: It comprises two novellas, set in the universe of Beagle's perennial classic, The Last Unicorn, the first of which features some characters from that book, but both of which center around the experiences of a young protagonist named Sooz. In the first story, "Two Hearts," nine-year-old Sooz runs away to the palace to implore King Lir to personally come to her village and slaughter a griffin that has been eating her friends. In the second, "Sooz," seventeen-year-old Sooz undertakes a much more difficult journey to a fairy realm to rescue the sister she never knew she had. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Once again, I have managed to read a series out of order, and must go back to read another book called The Lost Journey that takes place in between The Last Unicorn and The Way home, so if you haven't read those books, you should get on that before reading this one. 

The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle

Written by: Shawn K. Stout

First line: The birds were following me. 

Why you should read this book: Cutie Grackle is having a hard time of life, what with her parents gone physically and her uncle gone mentally and the one adult who cares for her going out of town for two weeks and the constant food insecurity, but she is well aware, having been told many times, that this is because her family is cursed. That's when the ravens start following her, even though everyone says that birds don't follow people, and these birds definitely have a message for her, possibly about why she's cursed and what she can do about it. With her uncle under the power of his absolutely terrible friend Charlie, Cutie joins forces with Galen, who's spending the summer camping with his archaeologist father as punishment for a school prank, and together they have just a very few hours to decode the raven's cryptic communications and end the curse. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have no clue how to break your curse. 

Sulwe

Written by: Lupita Nyong'o and Vashti Harrison

First line: Sulwe was born the color of midnight.

Why you should read this book: While I'm typically skeptical of children's literature written by famous actors, this gorgeous story about colorism and how it impacts self-image is beautifully written as well as illustrated. Sulwe is darker than the rest of her family and succumbs to internalized racism until one night a star takes her on a magical journey and tells her an allegorical myth about Night and Day, and how they are equally important. Sulwe learns that her color is beautiful and feels great about herself.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're ugly on the inside.