#Michael Barakiva

[bookaddict24-7]

NEW YOUNG ADULT RELEASES! (MAY 21ST, 2024)

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HAVE I MISSED ANY NEW YOUNG ADULT RELEASES? HAVE YOU ADDED ANY OF THESE BOOKS TO YOUR TBR? LET ME KNOW!

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NEW STANDALONES/FIRST IN A SERIES:

Attached at the Hip by Christine Riccio

Wild About You by Kaitlyn Hill

Keepers of the Stones & Stars by Michael Barakiva

Have You Seen this Girl by Nita Tyndall

The Worst Ronin by Maggie Tokuda-Hall & Faith Schaffer (Illustrator)

The Lamplighter by Crystal J. Bell

The Word by Mary G. Thompson

I Wish You Would by Eva Des Lauriers

Liar's Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina

In the Shallows by Tanya Byrne

Shooting for Stars by Christine Webb

Before & After You & Me by Dallas Woodburn

NEW SEQUELS:

Summer Nights & Meteorites (Golden Doors #3) by Hannah Reynolds

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Happy reading!

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: May 21, 2024

Picture Books The Rainbow Parade by Shane Jordan & Rick Hendrix (text) and Jieting Chen (illustration) Join the celebration at the Rainbow Parade and witness a heartwarming story of acceptance and friendship. In this joyful picture book, LGBTQ+ advocates Shane Jordan and Rick Hendrix take young readers on a colorful journey of self-expression and acceptance. Set at a stormy pride parade, the…

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Young Adult Book Releases: May 2024

🦇 Good morning, my bookish bats. I hope you have a good book, hit cuppa, and sweet snack within reach! No TBR is complete without a few young adult novels, and plenty were released in May! Here are a few YA releases to consider adding to your shelves.

🩷 May 7 🩷 ✨ The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve ✨ Hot Boy Summer by Joe Jiménez ✨ The Ballad of Darcy & Russell - Morgan Matson ✨ Pulled Under - Michelle Dalton ✨ Bite Me, Royce Taslim - Lauren Ho ✨ The Unboxing of a Black Girl - Angela Shanté ✨ Dispatches from Parts Unknown - Bryan Bliss ✨ Beastly Beauty - Jennifer Donnelly ✨ This Book Won't Burn - Samira Ahmed ✨ Perfect Little Monsters - Cindy R.X. He ✨ Sunhead - Alex Assan ✨ Lie Until It's True - Jessie Weaver ✨ Malicia by Steven dos Santos ✨ Blood at the Root - LaDarrion Williams ✨ Spin of Fate - A.A. Vora ✨ Death's Country - R. M. Romero ✨ Queerceañera by Alex Crespo ✨ Eyes Open - Lyn Miller-Lachmann ✨ Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding - Maia Kobabe, Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier

🩷 May 14 🩷 ✨ The Girl in Question by Tess Sharpe ✨ A Crane Among Wolves - June Hur ✨ 10 Things I Hate About Prom - Elle Gonzalez Rose ✨ Blood & Fury - Tessa Gratton & Justina Ireland ✨ The Dangerous Ones - Lauren Blackwood ✨ Beach Cute - Beth Reekles ✨ The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozza ✨ True Love and Other Impossible Odds by Christina Li ✨ Flyboy by Kasey Leblanc ✨ Thirsty by Jas Hammonds ✨ It Waits in the Forest - Sarah Dass

🩷 May 21 🩷 ✨ Keeper of the Stones and Stars by Michael Barakiva ✨ We Mostly Come Out at Night ed. by Rob Costello ✨ Attached at the Hip - Christine Riccio ✨ The Quince Project - Jessica Parra ✨ I Wish You Would - Eva Des Lauriers ✨ Have You Seen This Girl by Nita Tyndall ✨ In the Shallows by Tanya Byrne ✨ Liar's Test - Ambelin Kwaymullina ✨ The Worst Ronin - Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Faith Schaffer ✨ Wild About You - Kaitlyn Hill ✨ Summer Nights and Meteorites - Hannah Reynolds ✨ The Word - Mary G. Thompson

🩷 May 28 🩷 ✨ Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore ✨ Another First Chance by Robbie Couch ✨ Don’t Be a Drag by Skye Quinlan ✨ Stay Dead - April Henry ✨ The Redemption of Daya Keane by Gia Gordon ✨ The Only Light Left Burning by Erik J. Brown

[ya-world-challenge]

YA Books About Armenia 🇦🇲

Master Book List for the YA World Challenge for 🇦🇲 Armenia

YA Like Water on Stone, Dana Walrath ⌛ Forgotten Fire, Adam Bagdasarian 💚🛩️⌛ Daughter of War, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch 🛩️⌛ Lake of Sighs, Meli Sarkissian 💚🦋 One Man Guy, Michael Barakiva 💚🛩️🌈 As the Poppies Bloomed, Maral Boyadjian 💚⌛

NA/Coming-of-age All the Light There Was, Nancy Kricorian 💚⌛🛩️ The Gray House, Mariam Petrosyan 💚🦋 The Gimmicks, Chris McCormick The Spice Box Letters, Eve Makis ⌛🛩️ A Place Far Away, Vahan Zanoyan 💚 My Name is Aram, William Saroyan 💚🛩️

Memoir Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan, Aram Haigaz 💚 Vergeen: A Survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Mae Derdarian

Childrens A Weave of Words: An Armenian Tale, Robert D. San Souci

Adult books to consider Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan 💚⌛ The Sandcastle Girls, Chris Bohjalian 💚⌛ Rise of the Phoenix, T. Isajanyan 💚🦋 Mayda, Srpuhi Dussap 💚⌛

💚 Native Author 🛩️ Immigrant or diaspora 🏖️ non-native characters in or about the country (ex. vacation/adventure) ⌛ Historical 🦋 Fantasy 🌈 LGBT

[detdeldragons]

My ten favorite fiction books that I read in 2023.

Just some rambling about ten of my favorite fiction books I read this year. I did my best not to make the entire list Star Wars.

Unfortunately, Twilight did not make the list.

(in no particular order)

1) Star Wars: Cataclysm, by Lydia Kang

2) One Man Guy, by Michael Barakiva

3) Revelle, by Lyssa Mia Smith

4) Entheophage, by Drema Deoraich

5) Catch and Cradle, by Katia Rose

6) Star Wars: Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, by Delilah Dawson

7) Threads that Bind, by Kika Hatzopoulou

8) The Amber Spyglass, by Phillip Pullman

9) Star Wars: Path of Vengeance, by Cavan Scott

10) Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas

[everythingyaattlls]

Read the Rainbow

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak

Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

[madlovenovelist]

I love it when I discover there are sequels to books I enjoyed that I thought were a standalone. Haven't seen any hype for Michael Barakiva so I thought I'd give him a spruik here!

[fiercereadsya]

YOU NEED THEM!!!

[canonlgbtqcharacters]

Alek Khederian from One Man Guy is gay

[tcplnyteens]

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

Alek Khederian’s traditional Armenian family is sending him to summer school to get back on an honors track so he can be more like his brother Nik and make them proud. Who else attends summer school, you might ask? The Dropouts, a group of rough-looking teenagers (all with skateboards) who walk around intimidating other people. But one day Ethan, the group’s leader, defends Alek from a bully and befriends him. He persuades Alek to take a risk and take the subway to New York City instead of going to class. Between realizing Ethan is gay, getting in trouble with his parents, and spending more time with an unlikely group, Alek must confront some unexpected truths. Note: Hold My Hand, the sequel to One Man Guy, came out in May and follows Alek and Ethan’s relationship when Ethan’s ex-boyfriend visits from Australia.

Spoilers ahead ~

This book is lovely! I really enjoyed Barakiva’s writing style - it was easy to follow the scenes and get sucked into the story. The characters are all very likable, too. The main character, Alek, is the kind of person that strives to do the right thing no matter what, and even so he makes mistakes and gets in trouble with his parents, all of which I’m sure many readers can relate to. Books that focus on or feature a culture that many American readers are unfamiliar with are always very important! I had limited knowledge about Armenian culture before reading the book, and now I am grateful to have my eyes opened to a different way of life. While I appreciate dramatic love stories fast-paced conflicts, Alek and Ethan’s romance was sweet, pure, and one that I could wholeheartedly support. Throughout the book, Alek is worried his parents won’t support him if he comes out, which is a common and legitimate fear that LGBTQ teens have. Coming out is one of the most vulnerable things you can do. Revealing yourself to friends, parents, co-workers, etc. takes strength and courage as it basically subjects you to their judgement, whether they choose to support you or not. I appreciated that Barakiva addressed this in the story but didn’t blow it up to make it another gay tragedy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but LGBTQ teens need to know that they can fall in love and lead normal lives without the looming prospect of being judged or shamed. Anyway, I thought the Khederian’s family dynamics were realistic. Sibling relationships are subject to change just as friendships are, which this story showed between Alek and Nik. Barakiva portrayed also Alek’s parents as humans rather than oppressive antagonists, a flaw I’ve encountered in many young adult novels. One Man Guy is Barakiva’s first novel, which is pretty clear, but has not limited its success or inhibited the story. If I had to choose one flaw to point out in the story, the dialogue in the novel sometimes misses the mark in terms of how real people talk and can drag on longer than I’d like. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to write realistic dialogue that’s actually fun to read, and many authors end up on one side of the spectrum or another. Some young adult books teem with modern language that’s almost exhausting to read and becomes dated and cringeworthy as the book ages. On the other hand, it would do some authors a lot of good to take note of how teens talk instead of trusting their instincts. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book for its heartwarming love story and representation of Armenian-American culture. I would certainly recommend reading One Man Guy and its sequel, Hold My Hand, to any person who is interested in learning about Armenian culture and/or loves reading about falling in love.

Additionally, the novel is titled after Rufus Wainwright’s song, “One Man Guy,” which comes up in the story when Ethan shows Alek his commitment to their relationship. If you’re able, I’d recommend listening to Wainwright’s albums or a playlist of his music, perhaps as a soundtrack while reading One Man Guy. 

Happy reading! ~Raia 

[thepaige-turner]

ig: thepaige_turner

[thekarleffect]

Ethan and Alek are so cute

[mobilepubliclibraryteens]

Alek Khederian thinks about his life B.E. and A.E.: Before Ethan and After Ethan. Before Ethan, Alek was just an average Armenian-American kid with a mess of curly dark hair, grades not nearly good enough for his parents, and no idea of who he was or what he wanted. After he got together with Ethan, Alek was a new man. Stylish. Confident. (And even if he wasn’t quite marching in LGBTQ parades), Gay and Out and Proud. With their six-month anniversary coming up, Alek and Ethan want to do something special to celebrate. Like, really special. Like, the most special thing two people in love can do with one another. But Alek’s not sure he’s ready for that. And then he learns something about Ethan that may not just change their relationship, but end it. Alek can't bear the thought of finding out who he'd be P.E.: Post-Ethan. But he also can't forgive or forget what Ethan did. Luckily, his best friend Becky and madcap Armenian family are there to help him figure out whether it’s time to just let Ethan go, or reach out and hold his hand.

[desdasiwrites]

– Michael Barakiva, One Man Guy

[iboughtaplant]

Currently reading One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva! I have wanted to read this book for a while now! I remember seeing it in a book store a couple years ago and being like “hey that’s also a name of a Rufus Wainwright song” and what do you know it’s actually named after that!

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Check out this free virtual program with Michael Barakiva, author of One Man Guy! This talk will take place on Friday April 29th at 3:30pm.

Learn more and register HERE!