#5Books: Book recs and unintentionally outing myself as a Star Trek fan

I think i outed myself as having no fashion sense or being a Star Trek (Original, because honestly, Leonard Nimoy) fan — I’m not sure which yet.

So there, I am at work and a friend is telling me she got what looks to be an uber large t-shirt from her friends in the US, and I oh so casually told her something to the equivalent of: don’t worry, I have tons of oversized Star Trek shirts that are really quite comfortable and totally fine. 

(yes, I like graphic t-shirts, go figure)

Yeah, that got me a very deliberate pause and then the conversation carried on like I had never said anything.

Has that happened to you? Outing yourself as an unexpected fan of something that got you a side-eye? What was it?

Anyhoo, here are some recs:

Between Perfect and Real

A moving YA debut about a trans boy finding his voice—and himself.

Dean Foster knows he’s a trans guy. He’s watched enough YouTube videos and done enough questioning to be sure. But everyone at his high school thinks he’s a lesbian—including his girlfriend Zoe, and his theater director, who just cast him as a “nontraditional” Romeo. He wonders if maybe it would be easier to wait until college to come out. But as he plays Romeo every day in rehearsals, Dean realizes he wants everyone to see him as he really is now––not just on the stage, but everywhere in his life. Dean knows what he needs to do. Can playing a role help Dean be his true self?

Oh my, this sounds beautiful, amirite?

The Blade Between

From Nebula Award winner Sam J. Miller comes a frightening and uncanny ghost story about a rapidly changing city in upstate New York and the mysterious forces that threaten it.

Ronan Szepessy promised himself he’d never return to Hudson. The sleepy upstate town was no place for a restless gay photographer. But his father is ill and New York City’s distractions have become too much for him. He hopes that a quick visit will help him recharge.

Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, his first love, and Dom’s wife, Attalah. The three former misfits mourn what their town has become—overrun by gentrifiers and corporate interests. With friends and neighbors getting evicted en masse and a mayoral election coming up, Ronan and Attalah craft a plan to rattle the newcomers and expose their true motives. But in doing so, they unleash something far more mysterious and uncontainable.

Hudson has a rich, proud history and, it turns out, the real estate developers aren’t the only forces threatening its well-being: the spirits undergirding this once-thriving industrial town are enraged. Ronan’s hijinks have overlapped with a bubbling up of hate and violence among friends and neighbors, and everything is spiraling out of control. Ronan must summon the very best of himself to shed his own demons and save the city he once loathed.

This is such an unexpected blurb: a city undergoing gentrification and over-run by demons? Spirits? Like I said unexpected, and interesting — especially as something seems to be infecting friends and neighbours.

You Will Never Know

After a lifetime of hardship, Jessica Thornton finally has the life she’s dreamed of: a new marriage to a realtor with burgeoning success; a daughter whose athleticism has won her a scholarship to college; and a freshly-secured grant from her bank to finally complete her own higher education.

Her life today is a complete reversal from the not-too-distant past, when the death of her first husband left her penniless and desperate to provide for her then-newborn child. But after the murder of her children’s high school classmate, a series of disturbances brings Jessica to question whether her dreams ever actually came true, or whether they’ve just been delusions all along . . .

In the days after the murder, suspicion creeps in at every corner, beginning with Jessica’s daughter and stepson, who won’t tell her where they were on that fateful night. Then she discovers that her husband’s business is failing, not growing, and that the stories he’s told of meetings with high-powered investors were nothing more than lies. And when a private investigator comes to look into the death of her first husband, her last foundation of truth slips suddenly away.

Wait, what is Jessica hiding? Did she kill her first husband? At first I thought the husband had something to hide but by the end of it, I wasn’t entirely sure.

The Searcher 

Retired detective Cal Hooper moves to a remote village in rural Ireland. His plans are to fix up the dilapidated cottage he’s bought, to walk the mountains, to put his old police instincts to bed forever.

Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch.

Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.

The Searcher has been getting tons of good press recently so it got my attention. I think I tried to read the Dublin Murder series, but couldn’t quite get through it. However, I want to say at least I tried one of her other books.

Boop and Eve’s Road Trip

Eve Prince is done with college, with her mom, with guys, and with her dream of fashion design. But when her best friend goes MIA, Eve must gather the broken threads of her life to search for her.

Desperate to visit her sister, Boop, a retiree dripping with Southern charm, hijacks her granddaughter Eve’s road trip.

Along the way, Boop hopes to alleviate Eve’s growing depression—which, she knows from experience, will require more than flirting lessons and a Garlic Festival makeover. Nevertheless, she is frustrated when her feeble efforts yield the same failures that the sulfur-laced sip from the Fountain of Youth wrought on her age.

The one thing that might help is a secret that’s haunted Boop for sixty years. But in revealing it, Boop would risk losing her family and her own hard-won happiness.

Their journey through the heart of Dixie is an unforgettable love story between a grandmother and her granddaughter.

This blurb just melted my heart, and made me miss my grandmothers — and road trips! A completely underestimated plot device IMO. They are ridiculously fun!

That’s it for me! I’m off to watch Star Trek Discovery (again) because yes, I am that sort of fan.