Staff Picks: Rachel Wease’s Favorites

My YA pick is the one that my coworkers are probably bored of hearing about because I WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT IT. So now you get to hear my impassioned plea to read this book by an incredible debut author! The Passing Playbook is a delight. It follows Spencer, a biracial trans boy, as he starts at a new school, joins the soccer team, starts falling for a teammate, and has to decide whether he wants to out himself as trans in order to play the game he loves, or be benched and keep passing. This was the first book I was able to sit down and read cover to cover during the pandemic. The characters gripped me – they were so loveable and flawed. They were real and wonderful and so, so funny. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!

Now onto romance. The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon was one of my favorite books I read in 2020. Following Shay and Dominic, this book is enemies-to-lovers and fake-dating in a workplace setting at its best. Shay has been working at the Seattle public radio station since she was in college – she’s grown up there and now she’s ready for the next big step in her career. Dominic is the up and coming reporter who just started and seems to be the golden child. Of course they hate each other immediately. But when Shay proposes they start a segment on relationships, hosted by two exes, in order to bring in more listeners, she doesn’t expect her boss’s proposal: that she & Dominic should pose as exes and host the show themselves. This romance novel has all my favorite tropes, tons of witty banter, and the best line I’ve ever read: “Cool is like the Kevin Jonas of compliments.” Enjoy!

On to the thrillers! I’m specifically calling out In the Woods by Tana French because it’s the start to the Dublin Murder Squad series, but consider this a blurb for the series as a whole. The Dublin Murder Squad series is set in, you guessed it, Dublin, Ireland and each book follows a different detective from their homicide division as they undertake an investigation. The first two books in the series, In the Woods and The Likeness, were turned into a miniseries on STARZ, and my personal favorite of the series is Faithful Place. Tana French’s books are incredibly atmospheric and suspenseful. They are full of twists and turns and incredibly flawed characters who you’ll both hate and love in equal measures. If you like any sort of thriller, please pick this series up!

Okay, so this might not be the book you had in mind when I said I loved true crime. Sure, I love listening to podcasts about murder and reading books about infamous cases, but not all of it has to do with death! If you’re looking to dip your toe into the true crime space, The Feather Thief is the perfect book for you. In June 2009, a musician and fly-tying enthusiast broke into an outpost of the British Museum of Natural History and executed the largest heist of ornithological specimens in history. That’s right – he stole a ton of dead birds, many of which were over 100 years old. Why did he steal them? To sell them and use them in the art of salmon fly-tying. That’s also right – for fishing lures! This book throws you deep into the worlds of fly-fishing, fly-tying, the history of ornithology, and the seedy underbelly of the black market. It’s incredibly fascinating and every bit of it is true!