The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading A Rip Through Time, the first in Kelley Armstrong's time-travel historical fiction mystery series; Young Mungo, Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart's most recent literary fiction about a working-class Glasgow family and young gay love; and Tokyo Dreaming, the second in Emiko Jean's young adult series about a young woman who realizes she's literally a Japanese princess--and all the challenges and wonders she experiences as a result.
What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms?
01 A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time #1) by Kelley Armstrong
In the first book of Kelley Armstrong's Rip Through Time series, we alternate between May 2019 Edinburgh, where homicide detective Mallory is attacked in an alley while in town caring for her dying grandmother, and May 1869 Edinburgh, when Mallory wakes up in the body of a housemaid, Catronia, who has been attacked in the same alleyway where Mallory found trouble. The women's lives occurred a century and a half apart, but somehow the two are intrinsically connected.
Mallory must overcome her shock at the situation, adjust to life in Victorian England, and fulfill her duties as housemaid to undertaker and medical examiner, Dr. Gray, while she tries to figure out how to get home.
When Mallory's employer investigates the alleyway attack and murder of a young man, Mallory hopes finding out the truth about what happened may also help lead her back to her real life.
I received a prepublication digital edition of this book (to be published tomorrow) courtesy of Minotaur Books and NetGalley.
02 Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
In the second novel from the author of Shuggie Bain, which won the 2020 Booker Prize, Douglas Stuart offers the story of a working-class Glasgow family and particularly of Mungo, who was named for a saint.
Raised by a codependent, emotionally stunted alcoholic mother who frequently abandons the kids for days or weeks while on benders or with a new boyfriend, Mungo also lives with a tough, loving older sister who's desperate to escape to university but doesn't dare leave Mungo. His local gang leader brother consistently makes trouble, forces violence, and threatens those Mungo cares about if Mungo avoids participating in brutality such as widespread beatings of Catholics in the area.
Young Mungo explores ideas of masculinity and loyalty, young love, a gay relationship forged in an unforgiving social climate. brutality, revenge, and offers surprises as well. This is beautiful and tragic, and I'm captivated so far.
03 Tokyo Dreaming (Tokyo Ever After #2) by Emiko Jean
In Emiko Jean's young adult story Tokyo Ever After, we met Izumi (Izzy) Tanaka, an everyday, average Japanese-American teen...who discovered that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan.
Izumi was gobsmacked to realize that she was literally a princess. She was thrilled to travel to Japan to meet her father and the rest of her royal family for the first time.
But she quickly realized that being a princess involved responsibility, political maneuvering, and mysterious family dynamics she knew nothing about. And getting to know her father was a bigger challenge than Izzy had bargained for.
In Tokyo Dreaming, we pick up the story with Izzy dating her gorgeous bodyguard boyfriend, living with her beloved dog, and having figured out the royal family dynamics of cousins, aunts, uncles, and more. The biggest news is that her parents--once young star-crossed lovers, now mature grown-ups ready to build a loving life together--are engaged.
But before their royal wedding can take place, long-held limitations about who her father may marry must be reconsidered--and in a system steeped in tradition, Izzy's beginning to think the union may never be approved.
Jean is also the author of Tokyo Ever After (Tokyo Ever After #1), Empress of All Seasons, and We'll Never Be Apart.
I received a prepublication digital edition of this book (to published tomorrow) courtesy of Flatiron Books and NetGalley.