Hi friends, happy Monday! This week was very sports-y for me. My beloved Mystics got eliminated from the WNBA playoffs, but so did the Fever, so I feel like that kind of cosmically balances out in the end. I think I'm rooting for Atlanta now, but I'm open to other arguments. There's more sportsball below in the One Good Thing section, so it's not all the agony of defeat here. Okay, I know most of you aren't here for the sports, so on to the books! Here's what I read last week. Books marked with a * were gifted to me and books marked with a ^ I was paid to read.

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw* - Philyaw cements herself as queen of writing about Black southern church ladies. This novel is a lot wilder and funnier than most of the stories in her debut collection, but the thoughtfulness and deep emotions are still there. I do think this could have been MUCH shorter. It started off strong and then the middle meandered around for way too long. Like, things were happening but nothing was moving forward. It took the main character much too long to realize things were not going to work out the way she wanted. It also felt to me like the love interest twist came out of nowhere and the story would have been fine (maybe even stronger) without it. All that said, very much enjoyed this look under the hood of an insular culture that we don't often see depicted in mainstream novels.

What You Learn Learning Music by Mike Shaw and Kevin Bales^ - This book is a conversation between two jazz musicians about their careers and jazz culture as a whole. I know nothing about jazz and found their stories pretty entertaining, though I would say this book is definitely aimed at people who want to break into becoming full time musicians. I appreciated that they were very aware that they were two white men discussing and working in a music style that comes from Black American culture.

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey - This is a queer kink retelling of Peter Pan, in which Pan leads a group of unhoused trans youth in a full time D/s relationship and brings in Wendi to be their Mommy. The story really barely needed any rejiggering to fit it into this context, though the bit kind of wore out after awhile. It's grim and at times uncomfortable, but I was always eager to pick it back up and see where things went.

City Of Others by Jared Poon* - I love a story that bends reality, and CITY OF OTHERS had that sort of gleeful "wrap your head around THIS" vibe that I find so fun. There was so much going on here that when I think back through the plot it's hard to believe it all happened in one book. Unfortunately, I didn't really buy the romantic relationship. How well they knew each other seemed to fluctuate, and there wasn't much tension between them except when someone would drop a random dick joke, which was also kind of out of step with the tone of the book overall.

One Good Thing - As an early birthday gift to myself, I bought us tickets to see University of Maryland v Nebraska volleyball. Now, UMD is...fine. Nebraska, on the other hand, is a dynasty when it comes to college volleyball, and this was my first time getting to see them play. What a treat! They announced at the game that it was UMD’s highest ever attendance for a volleyball game, with roughly 15,000 people there. Everyone watches women’s sports! (Also, sorry again for getting all my sports into your book content!)

That's all for now. Here's your weekly cat photo, Teddy does not understand personal space edition. Onward!

Teddy the black cat lays on my chest with his face smooshed against my face.