Lucky Me

The Thing about Luck is a new book from the amazing Cynthia Kadohata.  I loved this book for a lot of reasons.  I loved that it taught me a LOT.  I had no idea about the lives and jobs of those who follow the harvest through the midwest and harvest wheat.  That is just one company of many.  And also I thought the book was really subtle and gentle, yet things happened and it was interesting and just so well written and nuanced.  There was so much in here about intergenerational relationships and cultural differences and brothers and sisters and exceptional needs.  This was just really, really good, you know?  Highly recommended! 

A Secret Secret

Bob Shea has a series, Ballet Cat, and I LOVE these books.  And the first one is my favorite.  Which has NOTHING to do with It's Not Like It's a Secret, other than they both have "secret" in the title and they were both great book. This is a story of first love, of parents of self-discovery, of stereotypes and prejudice and Japanese culture and Asian culture and LBGTQ life and straight life and high school and communication and confusion and Latino culture and faithfulness and American culture.  This is just one, really great book.  I could see that there could be a danger in it being about TOO many things, now that I have listed them, but really, it isn't.  It is just really realistic, because real life is about a lot of things going on at once, too.  Great, great book.