The Unbeaten

Source of graphic: Robbie Veldwijk

Sucker Punch by David Hernandez

New York: Harper Teen, c2008.
217 p. ; 19 cm.

I first knew of David Hernandez as a poet (check out this poem of his or his web page), so I was intrigued when he came out with Sucker Punch, a work of fiction for young adults.

I enjoyed this book about two brothers who bear the scars of an abusive father who has recently abandoned his family when the novel opens. The older brother, Marcus was not beaten by the father, but Enrique, the younger - more attractive, more physical - brother was often attacked by the father. These dynamics play out in the action of the novel, which revolves around the complicated emotional ties and tension between the two young men as they pursue revenge plot on their father who is planning on returning home after a year away.

Though the writing is gritty, mature and harsh at times, there is a lot of subtlety to Hernandez' style - and his characters are fleshed out in full. Thankfully, the novel ends without being tied up neat and tidy - instead the reader is left to wonder how the plot will continue and if the characters will be able to overcome the weight of their past and the demons that haunt them.

Science Times Ten

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by George Johnson
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
xiv, 192 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.

I enjoy books of science and this one was pretty good. The author has chosen what he considers to be ten experiments that capture the power and aesthetic of the scientific method because of the creative, straightforward and elegant means used to arrive at various scientific conclusions. Experiments range from Galileo's experiments with the constant acceleration of falling objects to Lavoisier's conclusions about oxygen to Galvani's experiments (see the graphic above) with bioelectrical impulses.

My only complaint of the book is that the brevity given to each episode can make them either a bit difficult to appreciate or forgettable. However, the shortness makes the book excellent for on the spot reading and does not require the reader to read the book beginning to end - on the contrary it is an excellent book for sampling a chapter here or there.

Bygone Prairie

My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c1988.
238 p. ; 21 cm.

I've been meaning to read Willa Cather for a long time and this summer I chose her first novel My Ántonia. It's really a beautiful novel, capturing a lost period of US/European settlement of the prairie frontier in Nebraska. The novel is told from the perspective of a young man, who is sent to Nebraska from West Virginia at the end of the 19th century when his parents die. He lives with his well established and kindly grandparents and becomes friends with a girl his age, Antonia - newly arrived with her family from Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic).

The novel is an unabashed fond look back at childhood on the plains of Nebraska. The novel doesn't shy away from the hard life of early settlers and farmers, but brings out the magic of the geography as seen through the eyes of a child and growing young man.

The writing is vivid and Cather's gifts for setting and characterization are in full force in this novel. She is able to convey the stark and sometimes harsh beauty of the Nebraska frontier and conveys the various interesting characters of the prairie farms and towns.