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.