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All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Ascender, Volume 1: The Haunted Galaxy by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen
Dear Martin by Nic Stone Death by Tea by Alex Erickson
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
The Electric Heir by Victoria Lee
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur by Amy Newbold
Go to Sleep (I Miss You) by Lucy Knisley
Gone with the Whisker by Laurie Cass
The Haunting of Vancouver Island by Shanon Sinn
The Haunting on Heliotrope Lane by Carolyn Keene
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Robin Mayhall
Heartwood Hotel: Home Again by Kallie George
The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire Part Three by Michael Dante DiMartino
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan
Lyle and the Birthday Party by Bernard Waber
Mimi Lee Gets a Clue by Jennifer J. Chow
Nate Expectations by Tim Federle
No Mallets Intended by Victoria Hamilton
Shadow of the Batgirl by Sarah Kuhn and Nicole Goux
Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim
This is Rome by Miroslav Sasek
The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Verse and Vengeance by Amanda Flower
We Are the Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian
When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri

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The Unbinding of Mary Reade: 04/13/20

The Unbinding of Mary Reade

The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara is historical fiction inspired by a woman who disguised herself as a man to be a pirate and sailed with Anne Bonny and Calico Jack — and then fell in love with Anne.

Mary, going by the name Mark, is working on a merchant ship in the Caribbean. They have fled an abusive mother, a wealthy but horrible grandmother, and a playboy boyfriend. All of this is provided as backstory flashbacks for anyone interested. I frankly found that these scenes interrupted the more interesting and fast paced present day story.

The one disappointment with Mark is that I just wanted him to be Mark, rather than so quickly going back to using Mary as a name whenever the masculine clothing was off. If Mark had always though of themself as Mary even when living and working as a man it would be a very different thing. But there are long passages throughout the book where Mark thinks long and hard about how they don't feel like a woman even when dressed and named as one. And yet, put on a dress or take off clothes all together, and suddenly the dead name is back as if nothing had happened.

Four stars

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