Hello and welcome to my August books wrap up. This will be short and sweet with five books, and I’m not scripting this. I’m just going to go through it, and ignore the light that keeps CHANGING! I decided to not script this because it’s only five books, and I just want to get through it quick. I’ll go ahead and start.
The first two books I read this month are related. First, Firefly: Big Damn Hero. It’s a novel based on the Firefly cinematic universe. I’m not sure exactly when this happens in the timeline, but I do know it happens between the TV show and the movie. I think. If you like Firefly, the TV show, yes. Read this. It’s a little bit different because it’s written instead of seeing the action, but… It still has that same feel of the Firefly universe. I don’t think I really should say what the storyline of that book is, because if you know Firefly, you kind of have an idea of what it will be. For those of you who know nothing about Firefly, the TV show or whatever. This is basically a crew of people who live in space–on a ship, and they are criminals. They will steal things, they will carry things, smuggle, and whatever. But they won’t cross that line of assassinating, killing someone on purpose, or… Kidnapping. That’s what they won’t do. And if they find out that whatever they stole will really benefit people who are desperate and poor, they’ll turn down the job or return those things. So they’re kind of “good” criminals. Kind of? This is basically space criminals, it’s a really fun, good time. If you haven’t seen the TV show, I would definitely recommend you watch that. It’s only 14 episodes long, cancelled too soon.
Those Left Behind – Serenity #1. This is also related to the Firefly universe. This is set between the TV show and the movie, I think. I’m not sure exactly when the timeline happens. Still, it’s Firefly. I got this for $2 at a used bookstore, so sure. It’s really thin, a short and fast read. I already explained about Firefly, so I’m just going to move onto the next book.
This Is How It Always Is. This was mentioned by Kathy Trithardt, and when I saw her describe what the book’s about, I was like, I need to read this. She said yeah, I think you will really like this book. Okay, so I got it, from the library. Yes. This is written from the perspective, kind of, of parents, two parents–a couple–that have five kids. All were born boys. They’ve always wanted a girl, the last one was born, another boy, alright. Raised them, moved to San Francisco. The last child is actually trans. They always preferred and wanted dresses, wanted long hair. This book is basically about the journey of that child, figuring out am I a boy or girl, which? Do I fit in this or am I both? And the parents trying to understand that, trying to support them as much as they can. It’s really interesting how this book switches between pronouns for the child. It’s really interesting. I really liked this. Yeah, there were some points where I felt uncomfortable about how the pronouns were used, but overall, this is really fantastic. It even has one part where the mother took that child on her trip for providing medical assistance in Thailand. And while there, they see Thailand’s kathoey, their third gender. That helps the child see that they’re not the only one, there are other people like them. So good. Read it if you can.
Doing It!: Let’s Talk About Sex. I did think about how to sign this title, and I immediately thought of two different ways (watch the video!). We have options. Point is, this book is what the title says. It talks about sex. However, this is focused towards teens, the YA age range. This was written by Hannah Witton, a YouTuber. I’ve followed her for a while. She talks about a lot of things, but most of her videos are sex education. So of course, she wrote a book about sex. Reading through, it’s really good. It’s more of a broad view, it didn’t… It tries to avoid too much of a focus on straight people. It tries to talk about sex as in general, regardless of gender of the people involved. It did have some parts that were more specific, saying yes, it’s different for same-sex couples, or… Trans people, or whatever. I thought this was a perfect intro book for YA, for teens. This book talks about sex, self pleasure, slut shaming, puberty, consent, sexting, social media and how that affects our relationships. Basically any topic that would be connected to sex in today’s times, and she makes it really accessible and relatable. I thought this was a really great read, and I would definitely recommend it to any teen who is curious, unsure, maybe doesn’t want to talk about it with parents, this is a good tool for that.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay. Darius is half Persian from his mother’s side, and his father’s side is white. He grew up in America and has that conflict of not feeling Persian Enough. Because he doesn’t speak Farsi, not really well, and his little sister speaks it better than him. He doesn’t have a good relationship with his family in Iran. His grandfather is ailing, so the family decides to go on a trip to Iran. So he can see his home country, meet his family, meet his grandfather before he dies. Darius is really conflicted about it because he, like I said earlier, he doesn’t feel Persian Enough. He’s also dealing with depression. While in Iran, Darius meets Sohrab, who changes his life. They become true friends, Darius has never had that before. He realizes with true friends, you don’t have to talk. You can just sit, do things together, and enjoy it. He learns what friends really mean. When it’s time for him to go back to the US, he has to learn how to take that new self from Iran and bring it home. I don’t really feel like I did justice to this book, but the point is, I really enjoyed this. I would recommend it, yes. It’s interesting because he’s Iranian, Persian, and he’s dealing with depression. He’s also confronted with family that says, “oh, just stop being sad, stop it.” They don’t really understand what depression means, and in Iran, it’s a different culture. So he’s figuring out how to deal with that. And the whole cultural difference. They have a whole…That friendship with Sohrab. The book ends, it’s possible for a sequel. It could be, maybe. And if there is– I would like to see it made clear if Darius and Sohrab are just friends, or are they together–it’s more of a romantic thing than friends. I don’t mind it either way, I think it would be good either way. It’s not clear. I’ve seen some people label this as LGBT. But is it? Because yes, there’s a lot of things that could be read as romantic (or just queer), I did read as romantic. But… It could be also read as just good friends, so… I would like that to be clear. But that part aside, this book is fantastic! Yes, if you can read this, get it and read it.
That’s all for my August books. I think this is a good time to finish anyway, because my light is fading. There’s clouds, looks like it will rain soon. Which I’m not complaining about, I’m fine with that. I’m.. Yes, please rain. But…light! Let me know if you’ve read, or want to read, any of these books down below. And if there’s any books that you think I really need to read soon, down below, [finger guns].
If you didn’t know, September is Deaf Awareness Month. I will try to get a couple videos out related to that, but we’ll see. Because the month is already half done, and I will be flying to Canada for a week at the end of this month. We’ll see what happens with that, maybe I’ll try to do something there with Canadian deaf people. We’ll see!
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