The Best Book I Read This Month: The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan

I struggled with my choice for best book this month. I read a fantastic dark fairy tale by Eowyn Ivey (Black Woods, Blue Sky) that fit the bill. But I also read a compelling work of nonfiction, and ultimately that is the one I have chosen. Laura Kaplan’s The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service does exactly what its title suggests: it tells the story of Chicago’s Jane Collective from its founding in 1969 to its closure in 1973 in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Because what Jane did was illegal, its organizers made a point of not creating or leaving written records. So Kaplan’s book is based on oral history (interviews) and her own experiences. (Kaplan volunteered with Jane.)

It was a timely read, with reproductive rights being rolled back and the growth of pro-democracy grassroots organizing in the United States. In addition to telling a compelling story about people who were both sympathetic and frustrating, The Story of Jane provides examples and lessons that serve both causes—lessons about leadership, recruitment, and organization, but also about intention, community, and allyship across socioeconomic and racial lines and, most of all, about what success might look like in an underground resistance movement.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Lost Boy by Christina Henry

Christina Henry has become one of my favorite authors. I love her retellings of Alice in Wonderland and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So it’s no surprise that the best book I read this month was her take on Peter Pan.

Lost Boy is a prequel to the Peter Pan story we know. It’s an account of how Captain Hook, Pan’s mortal enemy, became Captain Hook.

Jamie, the boy who would become Hook, is the narrator and main character. The story grows darker as Jamie awakens to the true nature of Peter Pan, the island, and what it means to be a Lost Boy. Along the way he forms a surrogate family, one that he defends and protects as a parent would.

The story has all the magic one would expect from a Peter Pan story, as well as many of the familiar elements of Neverland. Henry adds a few inventions of her own, as well, that add to growing darkness of the story.

It all works to tell an engaging, compelling tale—and posits the idea that maybe Captain Hook really wasn’t a villain after all.

The Best Book I Read This Month: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

The best book I read this month was a haunting story by Katherine Arden called The Warm Hands of Ghosts. I picked up the book for two reasons: I loved Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale and this book was set during World War I, one of my favorite settings for historical fiction. I was not disappointed. In fact, The Warm Hands of Ghosts rocketed past The Bear and the Nightingale to become my favorite of Arden’s books.

The story deals with loss, both at the war’s western front and in Halifax in the aftermath of the 1917 explosion. Some of the characters have turned to spiritualism to cope with their losses. The main character, Laura, turns to work. She is combat nurse who was sent home after being injured in a bombardment. When her brother goes missing at the front, she returns to duty to search for him.

On their journeys, both Laura and her brother cross paths with a mysterious violin-playing hotelier who offers escape from the horrors of their lives. That escape, of course, comes at a price.

But there is more than just loss and horrors in the story. There is also love: familial love, romantic love, and platonic love. It’s a rich tapestry in a dark story that ends on a note of hope.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

The best book I read this month was a pop culture delight. If you’re at all familiar with Scooby Doo cartoons, the title of Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids gives away the premise: a group of kids and their dog solve mysteries.

In Cantero’s version, the kids really were kids—tweens—when they solved their mysteries (as opposed to the older Scooby Doo gang) and their last case comes back to haunt them many years later.

Cantero’s detectives are not a 1:1 match to the Scooby Doo gang—the dog, for example, is a Weimaraner, not a Great Dane—but they were known for unmasking a monster to reveal it was an angry older man who did, indeed, call them “meddling kids.” And it all took place in a town near the Zoinx River. It’s a fun homage to Scooby and the gang. There are shout-outs to other pop culture properties, too, but I don’t want to give them away.

The story centers around the gang’s realization that their last mystery sent an innocent man to prison and their efforts to right that wrong by finding the real perpetrator. Along the way, they encounter old friends, old enemies, and dangers both real and supernatural. The story is fun and suspenseful, one that appeals not only to fans of Scooby Doo but also to those who love Stranger Things.

The Best Book I Read This Month: The Day Leap Soared by Blair Braverman

I have been in a reading slump the last few months. I started three books and did not finish them—not because of the books but because my brain could not focus. But last week, I read a book that brightened my day and my mood. It’s a picture book by Blair Braverman called The Day Leap Soared.

I’ve been a fan of Braverman’s for a while. I’ve read her memoir, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, about her time a Norwegian folk school, and her book Dogs on the Trail, about life with her sled dogs in northern Wisconsin. This is her first picture book, and it is delightful.

The story focuses on one of Braverman’s sled dog puppies, Leap, and features other members of her team. Puppy Leap looks at the grown-up dogs around her and notices their special talents and wonders what her special talent will be. It’s an adorable story about finding yourself.

Olivia When’s illustrations are cute as heck and whimsical and capture each dog’s unique personality. (I loved When’s art so much that I bought some postcards from her shop.)

On the whole, Braverman’s book looks beautiful and shares a beautiful message about being true to yourself. It’s worth checking out.