Crimes of the Old-Right

The Prisoners of Breendonk by James M. Deem
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2015]
xi, 340 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 24 cm.

Deem has done something that is difficult to do - written a fresh Holocaust book that brings something new to light (a nearly forgotten Nazi-run prison in occupied Belgium), reveals the mundane and depraved day to day sadism and savagery of the Nazis, and rescues from oblivion the humanity of the men who suffered and/or were murdered at this prison.

I couldn't read the book cover to cover. It was just too hard to revisit the beatings, starvation, humiliations, tortures, executions, and day-to-day cruelties committed against the prisoners in Breendonk. However, the book uses a great many photographs, and personal testimonies to bring to life the inmates of the prison - and to put faces and names on the perpetrators of this smaller, but still horrible Nazi concentration camp.

I would definitely recommend this book to students who know some of the basic facts about the Holocaust, but who want to really engage with the people who were involved.  With maps, diagrams, artistic sketches from an inmate, reproduced documents, and many stunning photographs, Prisoners of Breendonk is a powerful read.

Finally, the book is a stark reminder of the horrendous crimes of the original Nazis - and the dangers posed by the current neo-Nazis and so-called "alt-right" groups and leaders experiencing a resurgence of power and influence in the US and Europe.


   

Not a Good Spiral

Spiral: trapped in the forever war by Mark Danner
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2016.
267 p. ; 24 cm.

Spiral may make you angry.  Spiral may make you sad.  Whatever your reaction, Spiral is a timely and urgent book that you should read.  Danner, a veteran reporter makes a very damning case that in the reaction to the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US government has embarked on an unending security/military mission that has increased the spread of global terrorism, has fostered a dangerous and antidemocratic culture of fear, and has perhaps forever destroyed significant parts of the Constitutional framework of US law (and wrecked the already weak framework of international laws of war and human rights that emerged out of the ruins of WWII).

His book is not easy reading.  He presents the details of torture and lawlessness committed by US agents that were the hallmark of the Bush years - none of which were (as required by law) investigated, and some of which (e.g. mass surveillance and assassination) have been codified and expanded by the Obama administration.  He pointedly notes that Obama - by protecting the torturers of the Bush era from prosecution - has essentially made the strict US and international laws against torture all but meaningless, likely guaranteeing that torture will be committed by US operatives again in the future.  He also notes that the expansion of secretive war operations -whether by drones or special forces - has made US military actions free of any democratic oversight.

Danner also presents strong evidence to bear on the fact that not only has the mult-trillion dollar war on terror not ended global non-state terrorism, but has lead to a vast growth in the numbers and reach of global terrorism.

He ends his book with a few suggestions of how the "forever war" could be reigned in and perhaps ended.  They are steps that were unlikely when the book was published and that are clearly not going to happen for at least four more years based on the elections of November 2016.  It's  a heavy book, but well written and researched.  For anyone concerned about the future or interested in the recent past, it offers much to think about.

Creator and Destroyer

Influenza Virus - graphic from the CDC.

Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2015.
x, 122 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 22 cm.

This wonderful little book shows how science books for the lay reader should be written.  It's smart, intense, surprising, accessible, and interesting to a fault.   Not bad for 122 pages!

Of course, all of us know something about viruses - colds, flu, HIV, and rabies are well-known viral diseases - but ask someone what a virus is, how it works, and you are likely to get some significant head scratching.  With this book, Carl Zimmer helps you get a basic understanding of viruses: how prolific they are, how strangely they straddle the border between the what is alive and inanimate, and how much all life on earth is inextricably bound up with these extremely small (with a few exceptions) carries of genetic code.

Planet of Viruses does a wonderful job of revealing the workings of viruses in manageable chapters covering topics such as the common cold, influenza, HIV, HPV, and viruses in the oceans (yes it is teeming with them!).  The book may leave you with more questions than answers, but it will make you intensely aware that we really do live on a planet of viruses - and will hopefully stoke your curiosity to know more about these deadly, dangerous, and life preserving entities.

This is a science book I will highly recommend.

Taste of Ashes

Ashes by Ilsa Bick
New York : Egmont USA, 2012.
465 p. ; 21 cm.

This book continues my trend of generally not being a big fan of zombie or zombie-type books.  I found it interesting enough, and readable - but I never got lost in the book, neither in the plot or in the characters.

Ashes, in a nutshell, tells the story of Alex, the teen protagonist who is recently orphaned and suffering from a terminal brain tumor when the novel begins.  She is out hiking in a remote area of Michigan when massive electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) sweep the planet - killing billions and essentially destroying modern civilization as we know it.  Additionally, the EMPs turned nearly all teens into vicious zombie-like hunters who are fast and smart.  For a good plot refresher, take a look at Bick's website where she recaps Ashes for those about to start in on book 2, Shadows.  

To me, the novel is essentially a teen adventure / romance / melodrama melded onto a post-apocalypse nightmare world with lots of danger, gruesomeness, and skin of the teeth getaways.  If you like that sort of thing, then I think you'll love Ashes.  If not, you'll be like me and think, "Ok, that was entertaining, but I don't think I'll read books 2 and 3."

Storm of Horrors

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger
[translated with an introduction by Michael Hofmann]
New York : Penguin Books, 2016.
xxx, 288 p. ; 22 cm.

A couple of years ago I was reading several books on WWI, and I came across references praising this remarkable memoir of trench warfare by Ernst Jünger. I thought I would get to it sooner, but it's not always easy to find - even though recognized as a classic work of the "Great War." I finally added this new edition to our library and just finished reading it.

It is a stunning work.  As others have pointed out, Jünger makes almost no judgments about the war, but simply presents the events and his participation in them over the course of virtually the entire war.  He is able to offer us an unvarnished look at life in the German trenches on the Western Front.  His passages really convey the unimaginable intensity of massive bombardment and the ever present threat of death or horrific maiming.

And strangely, he doesn't really dwell on the deeper meanings of such violence and horror.  Instead he writes rather matter of factly about his and his comrades actions and situation before, during and after many battles - including the Somme and Passchendaele.

I wouldn't recommend this book to a reader as a first book about WWI, since it provides almost no explanations of the where's, how's and why's of the fighting.  But for a student who has read some about the war and wants something visceral and intense, then this is a book I can highly recommend.

Spirits Will Haunt You

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
New York : Atria Paperback, 2015.
481 p. ; 21 cm.     

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to read The House of the Spirits.  I've been aware of it for years and have seen Isabel Allende interviewed on TV, but it's just one of those books that it took me far too long to get around to, but I'm glad I finally read it.

It was odd to me that I found it took me a long time to lose myself in this book, but once I did it really was a rewarding experience.  In some ways for me the book really builds to a crescendo when the candidate becomes President of Chile.  The candidate is, of course, the fictional version of the real hero of Chile, Salvador Allende - who was brutally overthrown by the United States and Chilean military, ushering in a period of savage repression under the fascist dictatorship of General Pinochet.

But the novel is not so much about the coup, though that is the tragic climax of the novel.  Instead it is very much about the forces of love, greed, pride, ambition, politics, & art - all framed within a world of sensuous and magical forces.

Allende has a lot to say about the potential loveliness of the human spirit, but also its potential for smallness, sadness, and depravity.

When I finished the novel, I was surprised to see that it was first published back in 1982, just 9 years after the horrendous events of the coup of 1973 and while Chile was still in the grip of the dictatorship.  The novel holds up well and feels as timely as ever.

The Sculptor is Like The Sculptor

The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
New York : First Second, 2015.
487 p. : chiefly ill. ; 23 cm.

It's hard not to like this book.  McCloud has obviously poured his heart into the work - it is a passionate work about art, fame, despair, love, and death.  He says it "took five years to write and draw and I used every minute to make it the best reading experience I could."  

The book captures the desperate hopes, passions, and frustrations of a young artist, but I wish it were not so overwrought at times.  I felt like the strongest parts were the lovely portrayals of NYC as in this page from the novel:

The narrative is a bit choppy at times and a little confusing, but criticisms aside, there is a lot to think about, and a lot to like about this graphic novel by Scott McCloud. 

An Inside the Park Home Run

One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard
New York : Hyperion, [2012]
viii, 255 p. : ill., map ; 25 cm.

I added this book to our high school library last April after seeing that it was a 2016 Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee, and that it won a 2013 Alex Award (given to books for adults that have great young adult appeal).

After reading it, I wish it had won the Lincoln Award; it's that good!  It's a great book with so much to recommend it: a great baseball tale, an underdog story with heart, an homage to the counterculture of the 60s & 70s, a nostalgic coming-of-age saga, and a local setting!

I won't spoil the ending, but the book, with the subtitle A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season, recounts the unlikely successes of a very small town high school baseball team during the 1970 and 1971 seasons.  I was surprised to find out that in the 70s, Illinois high schools (at least in baseball) competed for state playoffs against schools large and small.  There were no classes and divisions, so a little school of 300 students might play a Chicago, powerhouse school of 5000 students.  This uneven competition is part of what makes the story so compelling.  Also, at the heart of the narrative is an iconoclast teacher/coach who - because of his big heart and unconventional notions - brings out the best in students and players.

I will highly recommend this book to students and teachers.  Some of the events of the story take place right here in Champaign-Urbana, and just 70 miles away in Macon, Illinois.  Also, the sports writing is crisp and interesting, but what really makes this book wonderful is the great passion and love that shines in the retelling of the Macon Ironmen "Mod Squad."  It is a lovely tale of some of the best aspects of teaching, coaching, and playing sports for the love of the game.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
New York : New Press, 2010.
xi, 290 p. ; 24 cm.

This is a book I've been wanting to read since it first came out in 2010.  It received a lot of praise, and time has proven that the praise was not misplaced.

In the last couple of years - especially following the killings of Treyvon Martin and Michael Brown and the subsequent emergence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement - the national debate on the injustices of law enforcement and the criminal justice system toward black people in the US has taken on a vibrant and expansive life.  Reading The New Jim Crow during the summer of 2016, I couldn't help but wonder how amazed Michelle Alexander must feel about events that have occurred in the ten years since she published the book.

Her book is a thorough, well researched, and toughly argued case against the US criminal justice system - especially the mass incarceration of African Americans since the ramping up of the War on Drugs.

What makes her book especially powerful - in addition to its research data and passion for justice - is that it shows how the new mass incarceration of black people is simply a continuation of the historic pattern of racism in the US adapting to new social changes and traditions in order to reestablish the oppression of African Americans: first slavery, then after the Civil War and reconstruction comes Jim Crow, and after the Civil Rights movement and legal gains, comes the War on Drugs and the lopsided application of it against people of color.

It's a powerful book and still very timely.  I'd recommend it to any student wanting to research or understand mass incarceration and institutional race

Are You a Citizen?

Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Minneapolis, Minn. : Graywolf Press, [2014]
169 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 21 cm.

I heard Claudia Rankine read some of her essay/poems on a Poetry Magazine podcast [and you can listen to these stunning works here ] , and knew I had to read her book.  Her book also made national and local (Central Illinois) headlines when a woman wisely chose to read the book instead continuing to listen to the offensive talk of Donald Trump at a rally in Springfield, IL. 

The book is a wonderful mix of poetic essays and meditations on the experience of being Black in the United States and being "other" in the world.  There are vignettes from her personal and professional life, explorations of the career of Serena Williams, and the experience of the French soccer star Zidane.  Some of the works in the book are described as scripts for "Situations" videos and can be viewed on her website.  

I love that the poems and essays are thoughtful, provocative and complex - but also very accessible.  They invite the reader in instead of pushing her away.

I'll keep this book in mind for any student curious about African American poetry or essays, particularly in this time of racial awareness and organizing as evidenced in the Black Lives Matter movement. And I'll definitely recommend it.

Exciting Colonial History, Really

Igniting the American Revolution: 1773 - 1775 by Derek W. Beck
Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks, [2015]
xi, 467 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

I ended up reading this book when I found it searching our UHS eBook account on my phone (and remembered that I had purchased the book for our library during the year.)  I am pretty ignorant on early US History and woefully uninformed about the US Revolution, and so I thought this would be a good place to start.  It was a good choice.  Beck clearly loves his material and brings the real grit and details of the years 1773-1775 to life.

I learned several things right off that I had not really gathered from the history I was taught in school.  The battles of Lexington and Concord were terrible and grueling affairs for both the British forces and the American rebel militias.  I just never realized how long the battle went on and how far the British had to march under withering and mobile gunfire as they tried to get from Concord back to Boston.  Also I had always learned that the British fought traditionally (in silly lines and formations) while the Americans used a more lethal guerrilla style of attack - well, sort of, but not really.  During the French Indian-War (or the Seven Years War) the British learned how to fight guerrilla war.  During the march to and from Concord the British deployed light infantry roving attack groups to flush out, counter and destroy American ambushes on their main column, BUT they ran out of ammunition and were simply outnumbered and exhausted.

The thing I most enjoyed is that you could really appreciate the appalling risks that the rebels were taking and knew they were taking in violently breaking British law.  I also like that though Beck acknowledges that he considers himself a patriot and partial to the American cause, he is able to be very even-handed and shows the rashness and brutality of the burgeoning US radical movement - in addition to the block-headed policies and decisions being made by Parliament and the the Crown back in England.

I'll recommend this to any student wanting to read a good book about the lead up to the American Revolution. 

Amazing Amazing

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
New York : Picador, c2000.
639 p. ; 21 cm.

Michael Chabon's novel won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize and I challenge a reader to not enjoy this  wonderful tale.  It's a gloriously written tale of the starting in the late 1930s and continuing into the 1950s and centers on the golden age of comic books in New York City, but also embraces the Holocaust, Harry Houdini, The Golem of Prague, Brooklyn, gay life, and of course love, friendship and family.

Though we have this book in the UHS library collection, I read it on my cell phone - accessing it through our library's eBook collection.  It's not the first book that I've read on my phone, but it was great to be able to carry it around in my pocket while traveling during the summer.

Fortunately, The Amazing Adventures seems to be doing quite well.  I looked for a copy at my local public libraries and all 6 copies were checked out.  It's a great book and I will definitely recommend it to any student looking for a rewarding literary fiction read from a contemporary author - especially a reader who has an interest in world of comic book writing and publishing back when vast majorities of young Americans regularly read comic books. 

Harsh Life - Lush Art

Black Boy by Richard Wright
New York : HarperPerennial ModernClassics, 2006.
xiv, 419, 14 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

One of the joys of being a librarian is walking the stacks and seeing a book that keeps calling out to you, "Read me." It must have been about 8 or 9 years ago that I finally read Wright's stunning 1940 novel, Native Son.  Since then his autobiography has been sitting on the shelf demanding to be read, and so I finally have done it.  It is amazing!

What I loved about Wright's book is the way it puts you completely in the mind and heart of a young African American male growing up in the Jim Crow south in the early twentieth century.  It's especially interesting in that Wright is never able to learn to hide his thoughts from white people - even when he tries, and he realizes that - in the racist South - could easily cost him his life.

It is also a wonderful book for anyone who is an artist or loves art, but really has no idea why.  There are times as a boy, where he writes just for the sheer delight of using language.  It is something that almost none of his peers understands or appreciates.  The book is also tribute to the stubborn grace of someone clinging to his integrity while being threatened by the larger society with its violent racism, and his more intimate social circle where his assertion of his right to think independently is ridiculed and punished by teachers, guardians, religious people, and family.

The book breaks down into two major sections - his life in the Jim Crow south (Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee) and his move to Chicago where he gets involved in the heavily Stalinist, intellectually repressive Communist Party.  Both sections are very interesting, but my guess is that many students would especially like the first half.

I would definitely recommend this book to students.  It is a fascinating, well written book.

Yum

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
New York : Scribner, 2010.
xvi, 240 p., [14] p. of plates : ill., ports., facsimiles ; 23 cm

I've wanted to read this book for a while, especially since I added this new "restored edition" to the collection about five years ago, to replace our very old edition that was first published posthumously in 1964.

It is not a single narrative (or meal) but more like a buffet of Hemingway's Paris between the wars with interesting sections touching on writers such as Fitzgerald, Joyce, and Stein; living conditions for expats, early marriage, fatherhood, and the work of a struggling writer moving from journalism to fiction.

Some might find the discontinuous nature of the sections off-putting, but I found it quite wonderful.  Each section is interesting in its own right, and the collection as a whole leaves you satisfied, but curious for more Hemingway.

I would definitely recommend this book for any student interested in Hemingway, or in literary Paris in the 1920s.

Less Loathing Please

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
New York : Modern Library, 1996, c1971.
vii, 283 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

I've seen Matt Taibbi referred to as an "heir" to Hunter Thompson's Gonzo journalism. I like Matt Taibbi and so I figured I'd take a stab at Thompson's Fear and Loathing. I also have had students interested in this book, and so I gave it a go. 

I probably read about 2/3 of the book and found it ok, but honestly a bit too hyper-masculine for my taste.  A lot of it reads like an extended brag about what an out-there, iconoclastic, mega-drug-abusing, cynical, passionate and alienated journalist Thompson is.  He loves both being immersed in US pop and consumer (and tourist) culture, all the while holding it in contempt and disdain.  It's good for a while, but maybe I just don't feel terribly moved by it.  I also think some of the power of Thompson was its shock value in the early 1970s and its rather gritty nastiness being a reflection of the even more obscene official business of the United States political system both in Vietnam and at home under the Nixon illegality.

Read it?  Sure, if you want a sampling of the 1970s tough guy anti-establishment journalism of the day.  Recommend it?  I probably won't, unless someone is looking for it.

Big Hopes for the Very Tiny

The Quantum Age by Brian Clegg
London : Icon, 2015.
vi, 282 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.

I'm not sure why Clegg's Quantum Age just didn't hit the sweet spot for me.  I like science and I like trying to wrap my mind around quantum concepts. I guess that there were several concepts that I never felt were covered well enough, and therefore when they'd get referred to later - I'd find myself still somewhat confused.  Some of these important concepts were tunneling, superposition, decoherence, entanglement, and Cooper's pairs (electrons).

I still muddled through the book and found parts of it interesting enough. The book does help the reader see not only how quantum physics underlies many day to day processes - for example anything involving light - but how modern science has applied it's knowledge of quantum physics to create computing as we know it, and such medical technologies as MRIs. He also points toward the many potential breakthroughs that seem to be on the horizon - practical superconductivity, quantum computing, and advanced encryption to name just some.

I'm glad I read the book, but I can't say it is one that I'll be highly recommending.  I wouldn't discourage a student from checking it out, but I'll definitely be on the lookout for something that I find even better.    

I Think I'll Skip the Movie

Yellowstone River

The Revenant by Michael Punke
New York : Picador, 2015.
262 p. : maps ; 21 cm.

Given that the movie version of this book was critically acclaimed, I decided to give it a read.  I'm glad I did.   It's not a great book, but it is a good one.  Punke has taken the mostly true story of Hugh Glass, an 1823 frontiersman, and fictionalized it into a solid revenge and survival tale.

I found The Revenant a compelling read, hard to put down, as Glass manages to survive harrowing experience after harrowing experience.  Beginning with his near fatal mauling by a grizzly to his almost being killed in an ambush toward the end of the novel, Glass is a fascinating figure - damned to experience shocking pains and injuries, and yet charmed in that he always walks away from them a survivor.  The revenge aspect was less interesting to me.  Part of what fuels Glass' survival is his determination to live and bring retribution to the men charged with watching over him, who instead robbed and abandoned him.  It's not a noble pursuit, but it feels realistic.

Along the way, there is some subtle and fascinating changes in Glass' attitudes about satisfying his desire for revenge.  But the power of the novel lies in Glass' remarkable skills, grit and ability to make quick and risky decisions that ultimately save his life.

The movie on the other hand, seems to have opted to bump the violence levels up several notches and to make revenge and gore the heart of the film - "pain porn" one reviewer calls it.  I think that's too bad, since in a more compassionate director's hands the film really could have wrestled with the troubled spirit of the frontiersmen and the ultimate emptiness of revenge attained.  That is at the heart of Punke's novel and is why I'll stick with the book and let others suffer through the film.    

Floats Like a Butterfly

Bed-stuy Setting of When I was the Greatest

When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2014]
231 p. ; 22 cm.  

This is one of those books that really exceeds expectations!  I read it because I saw that it had won the John Steptoe - New Talent / Coretta Scott King Award for 2015 and had received numerous positive reviews (e.g. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus), and I wanted to see for myself if it was a book I could recommend.  Also, I'm always on the lookout for diverse authors - our school is a very diverse school - and Jason Reynolds, a young African-American writer living in Brooklyn, interested me.

Would I recommend this book?  The answer is a definite Yes!  I loved this book.  One of the reviewers on Goodreads writes, "Jason Reynolds just slays the voice in this book.  Slays it," and I have to agree.  His voice reminded me a lot of Christopher Paul Curtis, the wonderful author of Bud not Buddy. But, where Bud not Buddy is aimed at middle school readers, Reynolds book hits right at the high school age reader.

What I loved about Reynolds book is that it deals with the rough life of the urban working poor and unemployed - and does so with humor, a light touch and a lot of heart.  There is action in this book, a bit of sex (or almost sex), physical violence, lawbreaking, and cussing, but the heart of the book is about loyalty, friendship, acceptance, and - dare one say it? - love.

It's funny to me that the cover, seen here,

was actually controversial!  I was disappointed with the cover, but not for it being too provocative.  On the contrary, I think it's a weak cover that doesn't grab the attention of a high school reader.  A stunning portrait of a kid in a fight, or shadows on a Brooklyn street, or hustlers on a street corner would have been far more compelling.  Honestly, when I first saw the book, I thought "Oh, cool it's a new LGBT book!" For the record, it's not.

Cover aside, I will definitely recommend this book to any student looking for an all-around good read or a fresh take on urban life, drama, and growing up.

A Terrible Time

All Involved by Ryan Gattis
New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
372 p. ; 21 cm.

Gattis' novel won an Alex Award this year, an award recognizing books published for adults which have a high appeal for young adult readers.

All Involved is a powerful read and the author's site for the book is a good place to go for links to some of the history behind the novel.  

I can see why Gattis' book won an Alex Award, but I would definitely note that the content is very mature.  Set in the lawless, violent days of the LA upheaval (riot? insurrection? uprising?) the novel is gritty, violent, vulgar and disturbing.  However, it is hard to imagine a book about the LA Riots of 1992 that would be able to avoid some very upsetting and graphic episodes.  What makes this novel exceptional its use of seventeen interconnected 1st person narratives that tell the story of six days of unrest that followed the acquittal of police officers unknowingly filmed as they savagely beat Rodney King nearly to death.  In this novel we see gangs settling old scores, sweeping in innocent and not-so-innocent people with savage violence and betrayal.  We also see the humanity of people working to save the injured, the dying and buildings that have been set ablaze.

I found this a compelling read, even if somewhat demoralizing.  It is a book that would appeal to students who are interested in urban violence, gang life and extreme situations - think Rodriguez's Always Running or Reymundo Sanchez' Once a King - and, like those books, it is one that is for mature readers.

In Greed We Trust

Griftopia by Matt Taibbi
New York : Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks, 2011.
299 p. ; 21 cm.

How can you not want to read a book by the author who described the sleazy investment bank, Goldman Sachs, as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money"? Taibbi writes with a lot of emotion (often peppering his prose with well-deserved name calling and occasional cuss words) but also with a quiver full of meticulously documented facts and knowledge.  He manages to make a raucous, fun read out of a subject that is both very complicated - can you say Collateralized Debt Options and Credit Default Swaps? - and very infuriating .  

After reading this book, you will never look at mortgages, investments, bailouts and Wall Street in the same light.  This is a book which will shake your faith in the fairness of the financial system in the US, but it will also make you smarter as you start to understand the outright fraud and criminality that lead to the great crash of 2008.  

And you might even find yourself laughing out loud as you read it.  So what are you waiting for?  Read it!

Honey and Dream

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015.
345 p. ; 22 cm.

What a fine and unusual novel this is.  In some ways I think I should end my review here and say, "Just read it for yourself, and see."

I read Bone Gap after seeing it come up several times - a finalist for the National Book Award and a Printz Prize winner this year.  As you can see on the author's website, the book has received a great deal of high praise - and I'd have to concur.  The author both employs - and cleverly does away with - realistic narrative.  Several reviews acknowledged "magical realism," but it is more than that - dreamy, psychological and mythical.

I love that the novel is set in a town that actually exists in my home state, and yet it really only exists between the covers of the book. I also appreciate that the novel could well be a lovely little adult novel and not just a young adult novel.  It tells the story (stories) of two brothers, the likeable and unlikable characters of the town, a Polish immigrant, a kidnapping, a romance (two romances?) and the magic of love and imagination.  What more could you want from a simple, and not so simple, coming of age story.

The novel made me think a bit of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, Master's Spoon River Anthology, and even works of Günter Grass.  If you like well written novels, with a touch of romance, mystery, magic and danger, then Bone Gap should definitely be on your to-read list.

Like _________ on Steroids

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
New York : Del Rey Trade Paperbacks, 2014.
400 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I don't know if I would have read Pierce Brown's Red Rising but for a student who recommended it to me.  This student is an exceptional reader who comes to the library, checks out a trilogy of novels (such as the Red Rising trilogy) and brings them back in three or four days - having read them all! Yes, as a middling-fast reader I am jealous.

So I had to jump into the Red Rising series when this student returned them saying, "These are the best."  Did I have a choice?

I'm glad I read Red Rising.  It is a satisfying read.  As Booklist and Library Journal note, it is in the tradition of The Hunger Games, and should appeal to fans of that series.  I especially liked the opening of the novel, where the underground mining world of the main character, Darrow, is developed.  It is a grueling and brutal world of miners on Mars, laboring to harvest an element necessary for the terraforming of the planet. The miners are the Reds, and as the novel develops we learn that world (solar system) they live in is a hierarchy of genetically modified colors dominated by the beautiful and ruthless Golds - with Reds occupying the lowest rung.

The novel quickly moves from the realm of the Reds to a story of rebellion as Darrow is secreted out of his miserable (but meaningful life) and quickly inserted into a shadowy rebellion that aims to overthrow the entire order of the Golds.  From the paced opening, the novel rushes pell-mell into high-tech, high-combat mode with genetically modified beings and a deadly competition among the young adult Golds which will allow Darrow to gain access to the highest realms of power.  And how did Darrow a Red gain access to this elite competition?  Sorry, you'll have to read the novel to find out.

There is a lot of battle violence, romance, intrigue and tight plotting that holds everything together.  But for me, I found it a bit over-the-top, reminding me of how I feel with many contemporary movies--yes, the special effects are awesome and compelling to watch, but I want more finesse and subtlety.  That criticism aside, I would definitely recommend this series to dystopian, survival, science fiction, and thriller novel fans.  It delivers.

Admit It, You Loved It

Confessions by Kanae Minato
New York : Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Co., 2014.
234 p. ; 21 cm.

Ok, maybe I didn't love it, but it is a good read.  It's funny to see a book praised as "a nasty little masterpiece" or "the most delightfully evil book you will read this year" - but that is the verdict on this well received first-book phenom of Japanese author, Kanae Minato.    

I found the opening of the book to be slightly disorienting - the avenging teacher at the heart of this novel is addressing her students in a way that no middle school teacher would in the US, but once you get past the slightly different mannerisms of the opening, the novel quickly pulls you in and doesn't let go. The novel opens with a punch, a teacher knows that two of her young students have killed her child, and she is leaving the school - but will get even.

The novel has been compared favorably to Gone Girl, and like that novel, it presents a really nasty view of human relationships - in this case between parents and children, children and children, and teachers and children.  There's really no redeeming characters in the book, but that doesn't stop it from being well plotted and compelling.  Part of Minato's success is the shifting narrative viewpoint.  We hear the story from about six different characters' perspectives - and from each come disturbing and/or shocking revelations.

I would definitely recommend this to a student who wants to read a good murder-thriller, revenge novel.  After all it's a vile little read that you just can't put down.

Rough Cotton

The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist
New York : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2014]
xxvii, 498 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Read this book!  If you love history, read this book. If you want to see US history in a very new way, read this book.  If you want to have many of your assumptions about slavery and the Civil War turned on their heads, read this book.  The Half Has Never Been Told is long, complicated, riveting, and incredibly well written - read it!  For me this book brought to mind the books - Slavery by Another Name and Guns Germs and Steel - for it's power to tilt one's understanding of history and how power works.

I can't say enough about what an important and interesting book this is.  I'll be recommending it to any students who love history, and to any teachers interested in history.

Lastly, I'd be remiss not to note that I first heard of this book on a list of recommended books from Ta-Nehisi Coates who's book Between the World and Me is another book to recommend again and again!  

No Solution for X

Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.
341 p. ; 19 cm.

This is a funny review to write.  I've written two reviews to cover book one and book two of the Southern Reach trilogy, and though I didn't love this final installment in the trilogy, there is a lot to admire and respect in the writing of the book.

In general, reviews of Acceptance have been very good, but I have to join the minority of readers who ultimately found it lacking.

As I wrote before, I really liked book one, and found book two not as compelling.  For me, book three just jumps around too much - each chapter shifts point of view to one of the characters.  I like the idea of the book ending without tying everything up, but I found myself thinking there were just too many unanswered mysteries.  Is Area X a creation of an extraterrestrial alien of some kind?  I think so... How does is transform humans into strange creatures, or clone them, or develop living words and sentences?

I think the strongest elements of Vandermeer's writing is his uncanny ability to convey the breakdown of rational thought and convey the feeling and texture of strange phenomena.  His writing about setting and emotional/psychic states can also be quite lovely.

The title of Vandermeer's last entry in the Southern Reach series seems very much aimed at his readers.  There is much about the mysterious Area X that defies reason, understanding, and answers - and we readers will just have to accept it.

Whether to recommend Acceptance to students or not, I think I will stick with my conclusion to book two.  I will let students know that I really loved book one, but that they will have to decide how far into the series to proceed.

    

Slow Creep

Authority by Jeff Vandermeer
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.
341 p. ; 19 cm.     

Last month I reviewed Annihilation, the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, and now I'm posting a short review of book two - Authority.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but I found that book two - though good - was not quite as enjoyable to me. In this novel, the pace is much slower, as we follow an investigator sent in to head up and straighten up Southern Reach, the thirty-year old research/military/intelligence installation that borders Area X - the bizarre and threatening bio-zone that featured in book one.

In spite of not finding it as compelling as the first book, it is still good and has managed to do something that few other trilogies have managed to do for me - I'm really curious to read the third and final book in the series.  If it is a great conclusion, then book two's slower pace will be well worth it, and I will recommend the whole series to students.  If book three is a disappointment, then I'll still recommend book one, but let students decide whether plowing on through to the end was worth it.

Making His World a Little Colder

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
New York : Signet Classic, [1999]
xv, 428 p. : map ; 18 cm.   

I have a soft spot in my heart for Hardy, and I've wanted to re-read Jude the Obscure for a long time - for over thirty years in fact! With some time off this winter break and a bit of travelling to do, I took Jude along with me and read it. It is a masterful novel, but incredibly bleak and depressing.  Did I mention that it is really depressing?

The plot revolves around the tragedies that strike two individuals who dare to break with the conventions of marriage and class in 19th century England. Jude of the title is a young man who is seduced by and marries a woman to whom he is physically attracted, but with whom he has nothing in common, and then falls desperately in love with a cousin who shares his passions for learning, thinking, and defying convention.  Jude is also in love with the intellectual life of the university, but finds it closed to him because of his rural, working-class status.  Throw in another marriage, an unwanted child, another lifeless marriage, and the censure of community and you have all the elements for a disastrous tragedy - and that is what Hardy gives us.

As bleak as the novel is, it really is stunningly modern, and is considered by many to be one of the great novels in the English canon.  Though Hardy is very circumspect about sexual matters - sometimes you have to re-read a section to realize that two people have been intimate with each other - he is ruthless in his dissection of the hypocrisies of religion and marriage.  They are both shown as institutions that offer little but constraint and unhappiness to individuals.

I enjoyed reading Jude again after all these years, but I'm not sure high school students would enjoy it so much, unless they are already fans of Hardy - like me!

A Clash of Expectations

The Crusades: a Beginner's Guide by Andrew Jotischky
London : Oneworld, 2015.
xi, 180 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm    

I guess it's just really, really hard to write a short and memorable introduction to a subject as sprawling and complex as the Crusades.  It might be like asking someone to write a short introduction to contact between Europeans and American Indians - the first 200 years.  There's just so much time and geography to cover, and so many important figures to include.  I liked reading The Crusades by Jotischky, but after finishing it, I retained the broadest outlines of the history.

Perhaps that is the best a lay reader can hope for.  Jotischky does a fine job of laying out the major events of the Crusades which spanned the period of 1095 to about 1291.  He also provides some of the major forces underlying the Crusades (the complex web of papal, nobility, state and royal power, the role of religious belief, the cultural differences of both allies and enemies, etc.).  It is an interesting period for certain, but I'm afraid it's just too much for one short book.

I would recommend this book to a student who is already interested in the Crusades, or one who is researching the Crusades, but I would hesitate giving it to a student who is just interested in a non-fiction work of history.