Morgan Rogers

audio fiction (10+ hours) - As a queer Black/mixed race astronomy PhD with an unexpected lack of job prospects, Grace Porter from Portland, Oregon (with a mother about to remarry in Florida) can't stop thinking about a Japanese-American woman Yuki from NYC she met/married one night in Las Vegas.

This is a refreshingly unconventional and also very sweet falling-in-love story (and also a getting-through-a-quarter-life-crisis-what-do-I-do-when-no-one-hires-me-after-I-finish-my-doctorate-degree story). Narration on the audio is excellent and I love Grace's romantic way of talking about the astronomy stuff, as well as Yuki's concern for all of the lonely people she shares her podcast with. The complex relationships Grace has with Yuki, family and chosen-family friends are also interesting and love-filled. The psych therapy drags a bit toward the end, but this makes the story more realistic (finding and working with a therapist is often a long process compounded by the shortage of therapists of color) and I think that's also important.

Feb 2024 bingo challenge: two word title, Black cover model, published in February, takes place in NYC (and Oregon and Florida), includes a birthday and a wedding.… (mais)

Wow I didn't like this. I want entertained in any way and just really didn't enjoy it. I'm bored by Yuki saying Deep Thoughts and calling herself a monster. I felt like she was trying to be the emo kid when I was thirteen. Boring and unfounded. Porter isn't better, with her Issues. The overall story is quite boring, and the latter half is actual pages of conversation with a therapist. It felt like a cheap way to let people get a therapy taster, but unless the author has a psych practice, I feel weird about writing actual therapist conversations out. Nothing was a surprise. I didn't really like any of the characters. It was less of a story and more like a diary.… (mais)

A little less than 4 stars. The beginning of the book was closer to a 3 star read for me - I wasn't really drawn in (and even forgot what I was reading a few times). I think it was the writing style maybe? I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately. But the end of the book was much better and very deep and resonated with me in some aspects (obviously not all of them). And perhaps that is why the start was a little slower, we had to build up and get to know these characters before we got to the deeper stuff so everything made sense.… (mais)