1, 39, 43, 133
1. a book that is close to your heart
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth, which I think I've blogged about before. It's about a young lesbian growing up in an extremely oppressive religious environment and struggling with guilt over her parents' deaths, and in the second half of the book her guardian sends her to conversion therapy. There is a movie, which I haven't seen and don't plan on watching, because by all accounts the movie mostly focuses on the conversion therapy half of the book and that's not why I connected so strongly with it. So much of the first half of Cameron's story reminds me of myself; I didn't start figuring out my sexuality until nearing the end of high school/beginning of college, but even as a kid I could tell something about me was different (besides being biracial Chinese in a largely white community and also being undiagnosed autistic, lmao). Cameron's experiences resonate more strongly with me than almost any other fictional character, even if I didn't literally have most of them. (I should caution, this book is quite old by queer YA standards and thus may not be as resonant to readers who are used to a different bookish climate: it contains the T-slur once and some questionable depiction of a two-spirit character, along with pervasive and at times violent homophobia and secondhand descriptions of self-harm. If someone would like more info I'd be happy to elaborate via private ask.)
39. a book featuring your favourite character
You know...I'm gong to have to go with Amelia "Mia" Migonette Thermopolis Grimaldi Renaldo from the Princess Diaries series on this! And I guess the one I would choose to highlight is Princess in Love, my favorite, because I think it's the one with some of the best plot shenanigans and also I'm a sucker for the incredibly cute ending. I started reading these books when I was 13, right after I saw the movie (I didn't see it until it had been out for several years), and I've read every single one at least three times and the older ones probably more like five or six times at this point. These characters genuinely feel like old friends to me. Mia is such a fun character and her growth is so great to watch as the series progresses. I like the movie version as well but she really doesn't hold a candle to book Mia.
43. a book that you have read more than three times
Actually both of the above books qualify, lmao. But in the interest of bringing it up again, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, which is my Cool Literary Answer to "what is your favorite book." I've read this four times now and every time is just as good if not better than the last. I notice something new every time I read it. (I also feel this way about her first book, Everything I Never Told You.)
133. a book that you came across randomly and fell in love with
I'm not........a huge fan.....of Maggie Stiefvat3r in general but when I was in high school I read The Scorpio Races, which is a horse girl book with graphic man-eating horse violence, and I've read it like five more times by now lol. I think the horse girl market is wildly untapped once you get out of like, middle grade, and this book has bonus fantasy horses that can EAT YOU and a dangerous horse race and a plucky heroine trying to save her family's farm and a boy who has a bond with a man-eating horse and they don't even kiss till like the last page so you can ignore that part if you want to and most of it is about how much they love their respective horses tbh and I just really love it a lot!
