Cardiophile

I might as well just have a separate category for "books I needed as a child but they came 30ish years too late"; Ciera Burch's Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away would make the top 10 list. Also pictured is my Eko Core 500, whose app asked to run software updates when I paired it with the instrument this afternoon, so it turns out that's a thing. (And not something any of my other stethoscopes ask of me, lol). So, Olivia has just started the seventh grade, and much of the time, she feels herself disappearing, both literally and figuratively, in this middle-grade speculative novel. Her brother has all but abandoned her to hang out with his first boyfriend, and her friends are all carrying on about their crushes--something that makes no sense at all to Olivia. She feels alienated from her friend group, and struggles to relate to what they want to talk about. Thankfully, the new school librarian, Amelia, sees Olivia. She gives her a book about asexuality and aromanticism to read, but reading it only leads to frustration for Olivia, who would rather just fit in with her friends than embrace an aberrant identity. Burch writes with tenderness and authenticity that brought me right back to middle school after all these years, because she really understands how fragile friendships are during that time. The novel has fantastical elements, but it's definitely grounded enough that it won't lose a reader who prefers realistic fiction.

I also promise to be still for you 😈

Young female fast heart beating with breath play

Covid lockdown is over, it's time for fourteen-year-old A to go back to school, and he's eager to explain to his parents and everyone he knows that he's always been a boy in Kyle Lukoff's inspirational fantasy, A World Worth Saving (shown here with MDF's starry night capridium titanium scope). Despite the fact that his parents are self-professed progressive liberals, they don't take it so well when he comes out to them. When the rabbi at their synagogue is accepting and wants to celebrate A's identity, his parents decide it's time to stop attending services, and they find a different sort of religious congregation in a group called SOSAD (Save our Sons and Daughters). What they don't realize is that this support group intent on "curing" trans children is actually run by a demon who feeds off the angst, sorrow, and anguish of the families attending the meetings. A, along with other kids he meets at SOSAD meetings, wind up on an unlikely adventure that is both fantastical and unfortunately realistic in our current climate, but it's hopeful. In my view, it's dark for a middle-grade novel, but this is very much the world adults have created for trans youth, so they're living it already.

Sorry for watermarking everything I post; unfortunately, it's necessary

- Not going to communicate with blogs with no age shown!

If you'd be interested in seeing me come back and start posting videos regularly again, let me know in the comments. Thank you all ❤️

No heart sounds but some stething and visible pulsing. It's been awhile! Enjoy.

​Stay cool, peeps! 🎧🫀🌿