Patricia Elzie-Tuttle is a writer, podcaster, librarian, and information fanatic who appreciates potatoes in every single one of their beautiful iterations. Patricia earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Musical Theatre from the University of Southern California and an MLIS from San Jose State University. Her weekly newsletter, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice offers self-improvement and mental health advice, essays, and resources that pull from her experience as a queer, Black, & Filipina person existing in the world. She is also doing the same on the Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast. More of her written work can also be found in Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy edited by Kelly Jensen, and, if you’re feeling spicy, in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Patricia has been a Book Riot contributor since 2016 and is currently co-host of the All the Books! podcast and one of the weekly writers of the Read This Book newsletter. She lives in Oakland, CA on unceded Ohlone land with her wife and a positively alarming amount of books. Find her on her Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkTree.
Y'all, active, informed consent is where it's at. Just saying
If you love grammar and words, this book is super illuminating. Turns out, a lot of grammar rules are because “One guy liked it this particular way and wrote it in a grammar book.”
What comics, graphic novels, and manga have you loved this year?
This is "an absolutely lovely comic that doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff while also highlighting the good stuff."
The satisfaction from reading about freed Black women undermining the Confederacy is *chefs kiss*
**Dark fantasy/horror novella alert**
"This book...is still deeply relevant to understanding the inherent racism in Western standards of beauty, especially around body size and shape."
"It’s not only standing up to shout that 'we’re here' but also 'we have been here' and more than that, 'we are here today because our ancestors survived being brought here.'"
Dr. Nagoski's advice on sex is "rooted in research and conversations with real people. It makes it more accessible and realistic and relatable."
What are your favorite, heavy-hitting YA books?