Month: May 2025

Huda F Wants to Know? (Huda #3) / Huda Fahmy, Weinye Chen (Colorist)

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Huda F Wants to Know? (Huda #3)
By: Huda Fahmy, Weinye Chen (Colorist)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult
Number of Pages: 224
Published: April 1, 2025
Publisher: Dial Books
Dates Read: May 7, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

In this third installment of Huda, Huda Fahmy is prepared for junior year. She’s got her “How to Kick Junior Year’s Tush” plan that includes joining all the clubs, volunteering everywhere, acing her ACTs, and writing the most amazing essays for her scholarship applications. Easy!

But then Mama and Baba announce the unthinkable: they’re getting a divorce.

Huda is devastated. As she begins to worry what the divorce means to her family and how that will affect their place in the Muslim community, her grades start to tank, she has a big fight with her best friend, and Huda feels like she has control over nothing. Will anything in her life ever feel normal again? Huda F wants to know.

As per usual, as soon as I saw Huda had a new graphic novel out, I immediately asked for a copy to read, because every book she puts out I absolutely love.

This book, though humorous at times when Huda pokes fun at herself, does deal with heavier topics: divorce and mental health. I’ve got to give Huda praise on how well both of those were handled. She showed both what she sees within the community and how her family either deals with it themselves, or how they help her. The epilogue even has information about free mental health resources, including a special hotline for young Muslims.

I will be highly recommending this (and Huda’s whole series) to those who enjoy graphic novels that can sometimes deal with tough topics, but with a dash of humor mixed within the panels. Even though Huda is going through her parents’ divorce as a young Muslim woman, this novel would still resonate with all types of readers from all types of backgrounds.

*Thank you Dial Books and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Mornings Without Mii / Mayumi Inaba, Ginny Takemori (Translator)

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Mornings Without Mii
By: Mayumi Inaba, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator)
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Number of Pages: 192
Published: February 25, 2025 (1st Published January 1, 1999)
Publisher: FSG Originals
Dates Read: May 4, 2025 - May 7, 2025
Format: Library Book / Paperback

Trigger Warnings: cat in distress, missing cat, aging cat

In 1977, Mayumi Inaba heard tiny cries carried by the breeze of the river. When she follows the sound she finds a small newborn kitten dangling high in the fence – clearly placed there by someone. Overcome with affection, Inaba takes the kitten back to her apartment, names her Mii, and thus the inseparable bond begins.

Over the next twenty years Inaba talked about her life as she goes through changes and compromises, but the one thing that is always there is her cat, Mii.

So, I have mixed feelings about this book. Some parts of it I absolutely loved and related to; like Inaba straight up buying a condo because finding one to rent with Mii was too hard, cause that’s something I would absolutely do, and the midnight walks through the hallway with her cat – I absolutely did that with my cat, Mushi, in college when I needed a break from homework.

Then when Inaba talked about Mii getting stuck up in a tree and how she let her be stuck there so she could hear her little cries slightly broke me, because I hear one off pitched cry from either of my cats, I’m running to them to see what’s going on. My heart also ached for Mii at the end of her life – her quality of life was horrible and as much as I desperately want my cats to be with me for as long as time allows, they shouldn’t be suffering like Mii. Oh – and not getting Mii spayed!

Overall I both enjoyed and had my heart break while reading this. I do understand this was Inada’s first cat and it’s also set in 80’s/90’s Japan, but some things I think she could have handled so much better.

*Thank you FSG Originals and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

A Language of Dragons / S.F. Williamson

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A Language of Dragons
By: S. F. Williamson, Henrietta Meire (Narrator)
Genre: Fantasy
Number of Pages: 432
Published: January 5, 2025
Publisher: HarperCollins
Dates Read: April 28, 2025 - April 30, 2025
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

Trigger Warnings: death, war, physical assault, violence, classicism, sexism

In London 1923, dragons begin soaring through the skies and chaos has erupted. Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried though, she’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to worry about dropping down to Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.

With her parents arrested and her little sister missing, everything Viv has worked for is crumbling. So when a mysterious “job” is offered to her, Viv takes it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, she finds out her mysterious job is codebreaking to help in the war effort. If she succeeds, her family can be whole and safe again. If she doesn’t, they all die.

But, the more Viv learns while codebreaking, the more she realizes what she grew up believing isn’t as safe as it seems. Eventually she must decide if the side of the war she’s working for is the one she really wants to fight.

I really enjoyed the linguist aspect of this novel and the amount of world building Williamson did with it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Viv, but she is a morally gray character at times, so that makes sense. I did appreciate her growth throughout the series though. 

I originally wanted this because of the dragons, and that part definitely did not disappoint. I also enjoyed the fast pace of the plot and the high stakes of Viv’s (and everyone at Bletchley Park) situations. It kept me turning the pages to find out more.

*Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Stoked for This: May

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

May 6, 2025

All I really needed to know about this myself was the author: Fredrik Backman. No other author has been able to write the way he does about the human experience that has yet to hit as hard as his word do (at least to me). Even the most mundane things forms a connection and makes me feel seen. Anywho, this is his latest book.

My Friends

By: Fredrik Backman

A graphic novel filled with magic, hidden truths, and self-discovery.

Espada: The Will of the Blade

By: Anabel Colazo

I’m honestly not sure if I’m as excited for this one or more curious to see where it goes. The first book in the series was just “okay” for me, but other readers have given it high praise. I’m just wondering what in the world is going to happen.

Snowglobe 2

By: Soyoung Park

Translated By: Joungmin Lee Comfort

May 13. 2025

Yet another water world apocalyptic novel, this time in flooded San Francisco with a caregiver and her 130-year-old woman she cares for.

Awake in the Floating City

By: Susanna Kwan

Middle grade ghost story set in the 1960’s during summer camp with creepy woods and mysterious music.

The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall

By: Charis Cotter

A young readers adaptation of “An Immense World” that I read for a gust book group facilitator last year. That book took me some time to read, but I enjoyed all the connections I made with it. I mostly want to flip through this and see the photos 🙂

An Immense World (Young Readers Edition)

By: Ed Yong

After a super storm wipes out an important bridge from her remote town, Addy must ask for help from others (something she hasn’t done in a long time) in order to get to her summer camp she’s been waiting to go to.

Into the Rapids

By: Ann Braden

May 20, 2025

This one teased that it combines “Under the Whispering Door” (TJ Klune) with the high-stakes culinary world of “Sweetbitter” (Stephanie Danler). You all know I love me some TJ Klune, so of course I want to check this one out. This also has a premise of eating a meal one last time with someone you lost, and like, I may cry?!

After Taste

By: Daria Lavelle

Jonathan Van Ness and Julie Murphy team up in this New Adult novel about a gender-nonconforming eighteen-year-old testing their wings in the big city with a ghost of a drag performer from the fifties.

Let Them Stare

By: Jonathan Van Ness & Julie Murphy

May 27, 202

In this upper middle grade novel, Leta struggles with food insecurity. Her mom is already working two jobs and has a hard enough time keeping food on the table, so they end up with a lot of fast food. Leta works hard to keep her top spot on the track team, but when she gets sidelined with an injury, she refuses to admit just how much pain she is in as she fights to not be forgettable.

The Unforgettable Leta “Lightning” Laurel

By: R.L. Toalson

This one may be a little out there but stick with me here. Twenty years ago, the members of a reclusive commune outside Philly vanish without a trace, leaving behind a twelve-year-old girl wandering around alone. When a stranger shows up at Lee’s door all these years later with “answers”, she must decide if the truth is worth shattering her life.

The Ascent

By: Allison Buccola

This is just a fun historical novel about a young woman writer defying societal norms in 1880s with not only her fictional worlds but her journalism. When on a job covering a brewing civil war in Chile Emilia finds herself in danger and at a crossroads, questioning both her identity and her destiny.

My Name is Emilia del Valle

By: Isabel Allende

The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
The Hunger Games
By: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Number of Pages: 374
Published: September 14, 2008
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Dates Read: April 18, 2025 - April 28, 2025
Format: Hardcover

In the ruins of North America, lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capital in the mountains surrounded by twelve districts. After a failed rebellion, to keep the districts in line, the Capital forces them all to send one boy and one girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death that’s broadcasted on live TV.

After her twelve-year-old sister, Prim, gets her name called at her first reaping, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers as tribute and “signs her death sentence”. But Katniss has been surviving since her dad died when she was twelve and she’s been close to death before. If she’s going to win this, she must make choices that weigh against humanity, life, and love.

First off, listen – I don’t reread things. I have only ever reread The Book Thief and that was one reread, years after reading it the first time because I’ve always said that was my favorite book and I needed to make sure it still was…

Anyway, did I reread this because Sunrise on the Reaping destroyed me and I needed to go back to the “beginning”.

Yes.

Did I get more emotional about everything that happened because I know what would and has happened?

Yes.

Did I appreciate it even more than I did when I first read it?

I believe so – but then again, that was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO. I was sixteen-years-old myself when this book came out and was obsessed with being the same age as Katniss. Now, as a 33-year-old, I’ve seen this through a new lens and Suzanne Collins can emotionally wreck me at any age.