Candy Bunny Reader

Summer is almost ending and school might have started, but you are never to late to read a cute summer romance with Deaf representation! Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino is about 17 year old Lilah, who has hearing loss (or as she will call it towards the end of the novel, "Deaf gain") and knows some sign language. She struggles a lot with lack of accommodations from her peers in the hearing world. The only place she's really felt like herself (although still feeling out of place sometimes) was at Camp Gray Wolf. It's a summer camp for kids and counselors with all sorts of disabilities.  Coincidentally, Lilah is trying to find a summer job, and she gets to be a junior camp counselor for Camp Gray Wolf. Being a camp counselor isn't easy, especially with the looming threat that their camp might get shut down due to lack of funding (they do start a fundraiser for it halfway through the book). But the highlight of her summer is Isaac--another counselor. As he tries to h...

Another manga that I just picked up on a whim! Eden of Witches Volume 1 by Yumeji is set in a world where witches live separately from humans (since humans fear them) and have a deep connection with nature. The main character, Pili, is an apprentice of an elderly witch name Toura. One day Toura gets sick and Pili tries to go to the nearby village for help. But she catches the attention of Zakum, a guy who wants to capture her and study her. Pili manages to fight off Zakum and his henchmen with the help of Oak--who was previously Toura's familiar. Pili and Oak set off to find Eden--which was Toura's dream.  So far their journey has been off to a rough start. Pili gets injured and gets help from a boy from another village named Bo. Bo and his uncle take care of Pili until she gets better (and she even helps them plant some seeds!), but the rest of the people in their village suspect she is a witch. They want to hand her over to the government so they can get a large reward to sa...

  The second literary fiction book I've read that was originally published in Japanese! The first one I read was Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa back in 2023. You can read that review here . We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida is one of those books where each chapter is its own story. They all follow the same formula: a person has a problem. They find themselves going to this mysterious psychiatric clinic where they get to keep a cat for about a week to help them with their problem. The problem is resolved, in an unusual way. The person found themselves very attached to their cat and end up keeping the cat.  It's a very heartwarming book, and it has great conversations about mental health! The book also has an overarching mystery with the clinic itself because it's so unusual. The last two chapters do answer some questions about the mysterious cat clinic, but a lot of it is still pretty open-ended and up for your interpretation. I won't get into it here b...

    This book is the third in the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers . The first two were A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit . Click on the titles to read my reviews! Record of a Spaceborn Few  follows five different Exodans (humans who have left Earth and are now living by wandering around space in big spaceships) aboard the ship Asteria . They are: Tessa, a working mom and sister of Ashby from the first book in this series Isabel, an elderly Archivist Kip, a teenager with growing pains Eyas, a caretaker who usually leads funerals Sawyer, originally from the planet Mushtello, looking for a job  While each of their stories seem separate at first, they eventually all come together towards the end. Like all of Becky Chambers's books, this story offers a lot of cool sci-fi worldbuilding and a lot of philosophy.  This book was so great! I just love cozy sci-fi. There's also good queer and disability representation as well. I gave thi...

  With an updated avatar since I got a haircut!  The very first post I posted was the Book Blog Newbie Tag, which you can view here . What has changed in the last year or so? I am close to graduating from my master's program! I hope I can find a job in a library soon. Thank you for sticking with me these past three years! 💜

  I didn't forget that it's Disability Pride Month! Here is my pick (although really, you should read about disabled characters all year long).  Lavender Clouds by Bex Ollerton is a collection of comic strips about the author and their experience being neurodivergent (being autistic and having ADHD) and having mental health issues. The comic strips range from funny and relatable to more emotional and heartfelt. Either way, Bex's message for you as the reader is: the sky doesn't need to be clear in order to be beautiful. You can interpret what that means.  I loved this book so much! This is the book I wish I always had growing up, as an autistic person who also has anxiety. The illustrations are really pretty, too! I gave this book 5 stars .  

 TW: Mentioning of predatory relationships I think I expected too much from this one... Mall Goth by Kate Leth is set in the 2000s and follows a bisexual teenage goth girl named Liv. She has just moved with her mother to a new town with a giant mall. Liv starts spending most of her free time at the mall, and ends up getting a job at Create-a-Critter (like Build a Bear Workshop) through the mall's security guard, Alice. Alice is also one of her mom's friends.  At Liv's new school, she becomes acquainted with two other goths named Jake and Aaron. They really like gaming, and invite Liv to join their server to play a popular MMORPG. The guy named Jake also has an on-again off-again relationship with another girl in their English class named Layla. Liv also becomes friends with Layla, but their friendship is put to the test when it comes to Jake's behavior.  Unfortunately, as all of this is happening, Liv's English teacher Mr. Trent seems to have a thing for her, and w...