One thing I give thanks for every year is good books. And in the last few years, I’ve been feeling particularly blessed on that count. Part of this is due to my own increased awareness: I read more book blogs, pay attention to award lists and my friends’ recommendations, and add books willy-nilly to my goodreads to-read queue so I don’t forget them. And part of this is due to the fact that there are a lot of really excellent books out there right now.

So, here are some of my recent favorite reads:

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
This one is non-fiction, something I don’t read enough of. I had been curious initially because I am a fan of space exploration (and I just wrote a book about an earth-girl who runs away to join an intergalactic circus). And indeed one of the very interesting things about this book is the window it provides into the sort of intense screening and training astronauts have to go through. But more than that, this book really opened my eyes and made me think about privilege and prejudice.

It was fascinating, inspiring, and infuriating. I am so glad I read it, because never before have I truly internalized the fact that the freedoms and opportunities I have as a woman are founded on the efforts of the women (and men!) who came before me. Whether by luck, or because things really have changed, I myself have never once encountered a coworker or a teacher who has made me feel that “girls can’t do science”: not in my high-school advanced math classes, not college as a math major or grad school while getting my MA in math, or at any of the companies where I have worked as a software designer. I recognize that this is something to be grateful for, but it has always been a sort of distant intellectual feeling.

Reading this book made it all much more real to me: that less than 50 years ago women who proved themselves space-worthy were denied their dreams simply because they were female (and apparently because the powers that be were also afraid that if they let qualified women into space they would also have to let non-white men have the opportunity). I am so thankful that those women did not give up, and that there were open-minded men who encouraged change from within the system.

Give up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
I will start this off by admitting that I have known Megan online for many years — we’ve exchanged critiques, commiserated over rejections, and cheered each other onward to publication. I am always a little nervous about writing something about a book by a friend — my policy is to be honest, but I also tend toward the “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” camp.

But with this book, I feel free to gush, because I really, truly loved it! I actually had critiqued a much earlier version of the same story several years ago, and thought it was good. But Megan has taken that good story and made it great. The lovely prose and sharp characterization is still there, but this time around I found what I value most in fiction: strong emotional connections to the characters. These characters worked their way into my heart and stuck there.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
I really enjoyed this as it was kind of like a book special-ordered for me: A girl with straight brown hair that goes mushroomy with a bad cut (like me) who loves math (like me) and values good grades (like I did) who falls in with a crowd of gamers (like I did) including a cute boy she falls for (I married mine!) and ends up proud to be a nerd (like me).

There’s a bit of language and “content” (and in some cases, maybe a little TMI for my tastes– I will never look at a glazed donut the same way again) but nothing that made me want to stop reading, and mostly necessary for the story.

Though as a LARPer I must object to the classification of LARPing as being nerdier than table top gaming!