MADreads

Charlotte Gorman and her twin Ginny could not be more different. Where Charlotte favors Harry Potter t-shirts and jeans, Ginny wouldn't be caught out in public (or on her Instagram feed) in anything less then full makeup and fashion-forward outfits. And where Charlotte is an elementary school librarian, Ginny is a beauty pageant professional. And it's at Ginny's latest pageant, Miss American Treasure, where their two disparate lives collide.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a collection of nine stories featuring black girls and women struggling with what it means to be good, bad, loved, feared, and everything in between. The stories span four generations of black women from the daughter of a woman having an affair with the married pastor of their church to a woman whose mother struggles with her daughter's sexual identity, and instructions for Christian husbands.

This is written for teen readers, but actually a good overview for anyone interested in the alternate world that is fandom. Included are brief interviews with fic writers, as well as short histories or back stories of how fandom evolved ranging from masquerades to Arthur Conan Doyle to Star Trek (which really increased both the number of people involved and the visibility of fandom in popular culture).

Latin Grammy award-winner, Lucky Diaz, has written a tribute to his childhood LA neighborhood. On a hot summer day in LA, a young boy grabs his money and heads off down the street to find the Paletero Man, with his cart full of frozen treats, colorful paletas in so many flavors. Following the cart’s “Ring Ring,” the boy runs along, passing his friends’ food carts, the bike shop, the park and more, and treating readers to a beautiful day in his neighborhood. Alas, he is unaware that he is dropping his money along the way.