Mild Cover for Real Terror

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Toronto, Ont. : Dancing Cat Books, an imprint of Cormorant Books Inc., [2017]
234 p. ; 21 cm.

The cover of this book doesn't prepare you for the horrors that await between the covers.  Dimaline's award winning dystopian thriller is a darn good read and I hope it will be reissued with a cover that better conveys the dangerous, terrifying world that confronts the heroes of this tale - a band of indigenous survivors and resisters who are on the move in the middle of this century when global warming has ruined the North American continent, and made Indians once again the hunted targets of white "recruiters."

The recruiters hunt Native Americans in order to bring them into the control of "schools" where they are subjected to cruel and murderous medical procedures aimed at removing their bone marrow.  The idea is that the marrow will somehow restore "dreaming" to the whites who have lost the capacity of dreaming due to the harrows of climate catastrophe.  I like the metaphoric value of the loss of dreaming, but thought it would have worked better if that loss were a symptom that led to death for the whites, since I honestly don't think a loss of dreaming would trouble people enough to hunt and kill others.  Regardless of the plot motives, the recruiters are determined, dangerous and sometimes assisted by Indigenous collaborators.  It's a horrible world. 

This book reminded me of two other disturbing, but excellent books I've read: the historically accurate City of Thieves by Benioff and the dystopian novel, The Road by McCarthy.

I really liked The Marrow Thieves and will recommend it.  It's an added plus that the author is a Metis, Canadian Indigenous author, adding to the diversity of YA collections.  As far as the cover, my main reason for wanting it different is that I'd like to see a cover that tempts more YA readers to pull this fine book off the shelf.

A Fun, but Tangled Web

Miles Morales, Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
Los Angeles : Marvel, 2017.
261 p. ; 22 cm.

Jason Reynolds is a talented writer (I really enjoyed the last book of his I read) and this story bears that out. It's a fun, clever and fleshed out novel that takes the Brian Michael Bendis' reboot of Spider-man as its jumping off point.     

The fun and attraction of Reynold's novel is the way it just treats as totally believable the idea of a late middle-schooler from Brooklyn having Spider-man-like super powers and runs with it.  Think of the problems and dilemmas having such powers would be while trying to navigate middle school and adolescence.  Add in the pressures of racism on our young African American superhero and you have a great recipe for storytelling. 

I was with Reynolds for all but the villainous (and somewhat mystical, magical mythical) role played by the Chamberlains of the novel.  This character(s) seems to represent the embodiment of White Supremacy and though interesting, I think it ultimately becomes too magical and unresolved.  Does this ruin the novel?  I don't think so.  I still enjoyed the read - great characters, great descriptions of the Brooklyn setting, and some action packed episodes of Spider-man adventures.  However, I would have liked it better if the racism and set-backs were just the usual racism and discrimination that Miles Morales would have experienced - instead of it being in the shapeshifting, creepy incarnation of Chamberlain.

Tyranny and Butterflies

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1994.
325 p. ; 23 cm.

I'm not sure why I decided to read this book now, but I'm glad I did.  I think I was feeling a little unenthusiastic about the lightness of some of the YA fantasy books and wanted something with more substance.  I also had not read Alvarez yet and wanted to, so it seemed like a good a time as any. 

In the Time of Butterflies is the fictionalized account of four Dominican sisters - three of whom (along with their driver) were murdered by Trujillo, the horrid dictator of the Dominican Republic.  The novel is a beautiful retelling of the lives of the sisters and their families and how they became involved in revolutionary politics. For a novel that involves imprisonment, beatings, and political assassinations - it is really a tender and beautiful book. Alvarez seems determined to demythologize the heroics of the characters and instead show how human, humane and complicated it is for people to get involved in clandestine, violent political work.  Of course one can't read Alvarez' book and not think of a later novel set in the Trujillo dictatorship, Junot Diaz' 2007 masterpiece - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Both are fantastic books, and offer unique angles on life under dictatorship ( and immigration in the case of Diaz).  I would recommend them both.

If read over a long period, the novel can get a little confusing (which sister is which and is married to who and what year is it?) but still manages to be engaging and moving.  I found reading the last chapter of the book to be a very emotional experience. Alvarez manages to not only tell the story of repression, revolution, and family, but she makes you, the reader, feel like it is your story, your family - and that the loss is your loss, too.

Crazy as a Video Game

Tetris by Box Brown
New York : First Second, 2016.
253 p. : chiefly ill. ; 22 cm.

Is there anyone who has never seen or played Tetris?  I'm sure there are, but for the rest of us this book is a fascinating retelling of the story of Tetris' creation and eventual conquest of the world of handheld game devices.

Things that surprised me were the fact that the game was developed in the Soviet Union by a programmer who was especially interested in human behavior around gaming, that the inventor of Tetris never realized the income he deserved, and how corrupt and complicated the development and acquisition of rights to the game were in the West (including Japan).

The convoluted and competing and high stakes plays and theft of the game by the big game companies of the time is interesting.  Involved were Sega, Nintendo and Atari.

It was a fun book to read since I so vividly remember the first time I played Tetris was in the late 1980s and it was on a Gameboy device that a coworker had.  I recall that because, as this graphic novel so truthfully conveys - the game was irresistible once you started playing it.

It's a fun, fast read that I would definitely recommend to students, especially those interested in computer gaming and in programming.
    

Forgotten No More

The Forgotten Fifth by Gary Nash
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2006.
ix, 235 p. : ill. ; 19 cm.

I almost forgot to put up a review of this book that I read toward the end of the summer vacation, but it is a wonderful history book.  The subtitle of the the book explains what this history is about: African Americans in the Age of Revolution.      

The book grew out of a distinguished series of lectures given by Nash at Harvard University and fills in a lot of the missing history of African Americans and their fortunes and activities during the American Revolution.

The book really conveys how unfortunate the Revolution and its outcome was for so many African American slaves, and how the rise of even more vicious White Supremacy and racist hatred affected African American patriots of the Revolution.

I especially wanted to post a review of the book because of the current rising power of White Supremacy in the US.  I also wanted to be sure and mention that this book makes a great companion to the book - In the Shadow of Liberty.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Love This Hate

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]
444 p. ; 22 cm.   

It is hard to imagine a better novel being written for young adults on the topic of police killings of unarmed black people.  Thomas has a remarkable gift for dialogue and characterization that pulls the reader into the world of her main character, Starr, a black high school student who is with her friend when he is pulled over and killed by a police officer.

Starr straddles many worlds - lives in a struggling, black section of town but goes to an exclusive mostly white school, has a dad who has done time in prison and a mom who is a successful professional, sees the harsh and lethal behavior of the police toward black people, but has a dear relative who is a cop.  With such a character, Thomas is able to create a work that has hooks for all kinds of readers, and allows conflicting viewpoints to get a hearing.  It's really quite an accomplishment.  Additionally, with a story that is really dramatic and interesting and characters who are fascinating, you can see why this is such a popular novel.

Since police killings of unarmed citizens and police brutality continue to make headlines, I imagine that The Hate U Give will be in demand for a long time.

The only critiques I have of the book are that it gets a bit complicated as far a characters go - there are a dizzying array of friends, relatives and acquaintances and secondary characters to keep up with.  Lastly there are a few scenes - especially with Starr's father - where his dialogue feels staged for the sole purpose of detailing the politics and ideals of the black power movement.  But those are minor criticisms.  Mainly I was really pleased with this book.

Recommended?  Definitely!

Shining a Light on the Shadows

In the Shadow of Liberty: the Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives by Kenneth C. Davis.
New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2016.
xvii, 286 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

I was interested in this book as soon as I saw a review of it.  The Shadow of Liberty seemed like a great addition to the limited resources that we have on the period of the American Revolution and early history of the republic - and one that students might actually pick up and read.  As the book's subtitle indicates, it also might have a nice resonance with the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. But what finally motivated me to read it this summer was seeing that one of our history teachers launched a Donors Choose page in order to get enough copies of the book for his class so he could use it as a central text.

This is a great young adult history book.  It's very interesting, has succinct chapters, and relates a history that is rarely told - the role of several of the first US presidents in keeping people enslaved.  It's also great in that it does not in anyway minimize the criminality and cruelty of enslaving people, but it also tries to wrestle with the complicated relationships that developed within that awful system.  Davis often just lets the actions of people speak for the conflicted loyalties, humanity and inhumanity that resulted from slavery.  He allows us to hear from former enslaved people when such texts exist, and lets us reach our own conclusions about why some enslaved people escaped when the opportunity arose and why some did not when the same circumstances existed.  He also tries hard to contextualize comments positive and negative that enslavers and the enslaved made.

I also really appreciate his introduction where he lays his own moral judgements on the table, and where he explains why he is so careful to use the word enslaved to describe those held in bondage instead of the word "slave." It is a powerful semantic tool, one which another writer on the history of slavery in the US also uses to great effect.

I'm glad that I read this book.  I'm pleased that it is going to be taught in our school.  I will definitely recommend it.

Talent and Ego

Drawing Blood by Molly Crabapple
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2015]
338 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 23 cm.

I added this book to our collection this year since it had received such glowing reviews.  Booklist in a starred review stated, "Jaw dropping, awe inspiring, and not afraid to shock....There's no one else like her; prepare to be blown away by both the words and pictures."

I was not so taken with this memoir.  Crabapple is a talented and hardworking artist, and she does have a lot of daring and moxie as she jumps into risky adventures of international travel and pushes and pushes to have her intense drawing-based artworks accepted in the competitive New York art world (and she works constantly at improving her drawing and painting skills). So far so good, but her tale is also one of a massive ego, and also one of ethical contradictions where she is both entranced with the debauched world of the super-rich, while at the same time disdainful of it.  It's interesting, but problematic.  

There is also her use of her conventional attractiveness to both support herself and gain access to the exclusive realms of the super rich.  She works as a nude model, works with strippers and burlesque performers - and writes about the interesting, hard, exploitative and dangerous work that entails, but also seems to accept and at times endorse the sexualization and commodification of women.  Again, it makes for interesting reading, but it is troubling in that it goes largely unchallenged.

So would I recommend this memoir?  Well, I'd definitely mention it to someone curious about contemporary bohemian life and about ways that people make it in the art world.  Did I find it inspiring or wonderful?  Not so much.

An Escape to Treasure

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
New York : Signet Classics, [2008]
xviii, 204 p. : map ; 18 cm.

I probably wouldn't have read Treasure Island if I hadn't heard it referred to in a New Yorker poetry podcast featuring the poetry editor, Paul Muldoon, and poet, Tom Sleigh, discussing a poem by Seamus Heaney that references Treasure Island.  How's that for a convoluted beginning?  It wasn't just the discussion, but it was Muldoon's mentioning that he absolutely loves Treasure Island, and reads it frequently.  That caught my attention, and so I brought it home with me to read over the summer.

So was it worth reading?  Definitely.  The novel moves along at a quick pace with skilled plotting and has wonderful characters, too.  The admirable young protagonist, Jim Hawkins, the devilish Israel Hands, and the wily and dangerous Long John Silver are unforgettable. 

The novel creates the template for pirate fiction, and does it with dash.  This is a fun novel that I would definitely recommend to students.

His Last Battle

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
New York : Barnes & Noble, 2003.
xxx, 820 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I've been wanting to read this memoir ever since I saw a quote of Mark Twain's praising it as one of the finest pieces of American writing.

The back story of this book (which is told in the introduction of this volume) is also pretty amazing.  Retired from the military and from being President, Grant had lost all his money and so set about writing the book to raise money for his family.  About the same time he began writing he was stricken with throat cancer and so began his race against death to finish his work.  Like his campaigns in the Civil War, he was successful - dying three days after finalizing his manuscript, and making his widow and survivors wealthy with the royalties from his book which ended up being a huge bestseller.

But how is the book? I would agree that it is very well written, and reveals Grant's subtle, but sharp intellect.  It is also very interesting to see Grant carefully praising and criticizing some of the generals of both sides.  He also has a well argued discussion of why the war was so difficult for the North to win.  The only downside for me was that much of the book is taken up with detail after detail of tactics and troop movements.  The maps are not very clear or helpful.  But aside from these issues, I'm glad I read it and it made me curious to learn more about Grant's presidency - which is not covered at all in the book (and is considered to be one the most corrupt in US history).

Probably one of the most compelling aspects of Grant's life, is that he really was a "nobody," from a modest background and with no early signs of being successful as a leader or tactician.  His memoir can serve as a testament to the potentials that are often hidden within individuals - especially those who have not had great successes in their past.  In this vein, Ta-Nehisi Coates gives a spirited endorsement of Grant's Memoirs - especially noting the unfounded suggestions that it was written by Mark Twain.

A great historical read, but probably best for students with a keen interest in the Civil War.

Battle Cry Is Great History

Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era by James M. McPherson
Oxford [U.K.] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003, c1988.
xix, 909 p. : ill., maps, music ; 24 cm.

If you are looking for a one volume history of the Civil War instead of reading five or six separate Civil War histories, then you can't go wrong with McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom.  It's a masterful handling of the war that ripped the US apart for four extremely bloody years.  Given the quality and clarity of the narrative, I'm not surprised that the book was a huge bestseller and won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for History.

McPherson begins his book with the US-Mexican War and builds a sound case for considering enslavement (and the unyielding defense of slavery's expansion and power) as the ultimate cause and fight of the war.  McPherson also gives great attention to the cultural and political movements involved before, during and immediately after the Civil War.

It's not a short book (about 900 pages), but it is well written and illustrated with interesting photos and a number of very clear maps.

I read this book this summer as a prelude to reading the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.  It was a really helpful preparation for Grant's long work.  I would highly recommend it.

Reasons to Read Not to Watch

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
New York : Razorbill, c2007.
288 p. ; 22 cm.   

As you can see, Thirteen Reasons Why was published back in 2007, so why am I getting around to reading it ten years later?  In one word: Netflix.  Back in March, Netflix launched a thirteen episode series based on the novel, and the series has proven hugely popular and controversial - more so than the book.

So I ended up both watching the series and reading the book.  I was an interesting experience.  It really makes you think about what works in reading - and conversely what doesn't work when filmed. The book is not perfect, but it is strong and it's brevity saves it from becoming voyeuristic, lurid and exploitative - which I believe the Netflix version unfortunately is (in addition to being irresponsible and just plain icky).

But what about the book?  I liked the book well enough.  The book is clearly a work of fiction - and as such functions more like a mystery, tragedy and psychological ordeal instead of a supposedly accurate depiction of bullying and suicide.  Also it's brevity allows it to move along and not drag out scenes for dramatic effect.

I'm guessing many, many more people are going to watch the series.  I just hope that especially young people will watch it with supportive friends and adults.  Despite its shortcomings, the series does invite discussion of extremely important topics such as bullying, date rate, sexism, and of course, suicide.  The popularity of the series has also led to an increased demand for the book, and so I'm glad I had a chance to read it.

Transformative

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
New York : Flatiron Books, 2016.
280 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm glad I read Russo's book about a transgender teen girl who has moved to live with her father and attend a new high school after bullying and brutal assault at her previous hometown and school.

I think what I loved most is that the book manages to be basically a sweet tale of friendship and romance - while threading that narrow ground of avoiding being either a tale of brutality and violence or a naive upbeat "everything will be okay" fable.  As the review from Kirkus notes, it is "a sweet, believable romance that stokes the fires of hope without devolving into saccharine perfection or horrific tragedy."

It's a great book for trans teens, adults and cisgender folks like me! 

I also really liked that the author, a trans woman, has an afterword, especially meant for cis readers, where she explains ways in which her story reflects only one version of reality (and a creatively fictionalize one at that), and should not be taken as plain truth guide to what life is like for trans teens.  She also includes several hotline resources for readers who may be contemplating suicide.

Gut Feeling

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
355 p. : col. ill. ; 24 cm.

I've been telling people about this book since I started reading it a couple weeks ago. It's a great read, introducing the lay reader (i.e me!) to a very broad, complex and contemporary field of scientific research - the microbiome.  As Yong neatly lays out, the study of microorganisms really begins with Leeuwenhoek in the 1660s.  Unfortunately, the study of microbes in the 19th and 20th century focused almost exclusively on the disease-causing pathogens - leading to the overuse of antibiotics and the obsession with trying to shield people from all microbes, instead of just bad effects of some.

What makes Yong's book so fascinating is how he gets the reader to rethink not only the us vs. them attitude toward microbes, but the entire notion that there is an us and a them when it comes to living in a world of microbes.  He convincingly shows that almost all living creatures are the sum of the complex and intricate relationships between ourselves and the trillions of microbes that live within and without us and affect us for good and ill.  Given that each of us contains trillions of microbes and could not function without them, it starts to dawn on the reader that not only does one contain multitudes, but perhaps one IS those multitudes.

The other achievement of Yong is to navigate both cover and convey the wide ranges of research and investigation into the microbiome - from the microbes that make deep sea life possible near hydrothermal vents, to attempts at reintroducing microbes into hospitals and public spaces with the goal of having healthy microbiomes instead of sterile environments.

Like Planet of Viruses, the book I read earlier this school year, this is a science book I'll be recommending.

Which Way?

Looking Backward, 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy
New York : Signet Classics, [2009]
xvii, 236 p. ; 18 cm.

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this 19th century Utopian novel. Looking Backward is really a wonderful artifact of 19th century Utopian hopes and philosophy.

I have to say that reading it now, was in some ways depressing - not because it naively overlooks the dangers of totalitarianism - as this old 1988 NYT review claims, but because of how little progress has been made toward eliminating the savage greed, violence, mercilessness and competition that undergird the market economy that Bellamy was critiquing and under which we still live in the 21st century.

The novel's weakest points are it's narrative dullness and drab characters.  In many ways the literary and narrative quality of the novel takes a back seat to the economic and humanistic philosophy of the novel. The plot is really a device to serve up Bellamy's Utopian thinking, but as Eliot Fintushel exclaims in the afterword, what a lovely Utopia it is that Bellamy has dreamed up.  It's hard not to enjoy shimmering dream that we get in Looking Backward.

Tortured to Life

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepard
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.
420 p. ; 21 cm.

On a positive note, I'd say that The Madman's Daughter is creative and kind of fun to read.  It also made me want to read H. G. Well's The Island of Dr. Moreau.  But beyond that the novel didn't really didn't hit the target for me.

Shepard reimagines the story of Dr. Moreau from the vantage point of a character she creates, Juliet, the 16-year-old daughter whom Moreau abandoned to the harsh fate of being an orphan in Victorian England.  Juliet finds her way to the island in the South Pacific where her father is carrying out his hideous operations aimed at creating humans from animals.  But, as the positive Booklist review notes, "this is a romantic-triangle book first and foremost, as Juliet trembles, blushes, and heaves her bosom at both Moreau's hunky assistant and a dashing castaway." I didn't mind the romance but it just was overwrought for my tastes.  Combined, with the rather ludicrous animal-human metamorphoses that occur at the end of the novel, I at times just felt like the novel was silly, rather than thrilling.  For me that is too bad, because I think if it had been toned down a bit, it would have been both exciting, romantic, and thought-provoking.

However, I still would mention it to a student looking for some kind of romantic, thrilling adventure with a bit of the grotesque and science fiction thrown into the mix.

Yeah, I'm Scowling

Scowler by Daniel Kraus
New York : Ember, 2014.
289 p. ; 22 cm.     

I wish I could say I liked this book - I really do.  It's supposed to be a devilishly good Midwestern Gothic tale. It is an intense, twisted, psychological horror story of human depravity and domestic violence - which just didn't move or captivate me.

It's an odd tale of a 19 year old young man who at age ten survived his father's attempts to kill him after beating and torturing his wife.  Unfortunately for us and for the young man, his psyche is a twisted bin of delusions, violence, sexual frustration and anger - embodied in his three vividly imagined "living" playthings - a bear, a little Jesus, and a toothy, vile looking toy with very sharp edges - yep, Scowler.  All of this comes exploding to the fore when there  are the surreal impacts of several small meteorites in rural Iowa where this tale takes place.  This cosmic event breaks open the prison where his father is being held - setting him free to come after the family again, and plants a weirdly magnetic and never cooling meteorite on the farm where the family lives.

There were times as I read it that it just felt sordid and creepy.  I'm okay with dark and violence, but for me it has to have more than the goal of just entertainment or creating the "ick" factor (which this book definitely does).  However, I think I'm in the minority in my lack of enthusiasm for Scowler.  The book has received many rave reviews (check out the book's official page), and is popular with those wanting mature and gruesome horror tales.

It's not a book I'll be pushing, but if someone finds it and likes it, that's okay with me.

A Graphic Novel Becomes a Graphic Novel

Octavia Butler's Kindred: a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings
New York : Abrams Comicarts, 2017.
vi, 240 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 25 cm.

Almost two years ago, I read Butler's novel Kindred for the first time, and as I noted then, I loved it.   Therefore, about a year ago, I was excited to learn that two comics artists [Damian Duffy who lives in Urbana and John Jennings who used to live here] were in the middle of creating a graphic novel version of Butler's classic.  

If you are unfamiliar with Butler's novel, its hero is a black woman in the 1970s who finds herself suddenly dragged back in time to the antebellum enslaved world of Maryland - where she becomes tangled up with slaves and enslavers that are family connections from the past.  It is a brutal and dangerous world which she quickly has to figure out as she bounces back and forth from present to past.

Duffy and Jennings faced great challenges converting the novel to a graphic novel format, but they really have outdone themselves - and the reception to their work has been extremely positive - landing them on the NYT bestseller list.  With shifting uses of color and skilled condensing of narrative, they have preserved the power of Butler's work, while opening it up to a new generation of readers and fans of graphic novels.

The publisher Abrams has a nice page web page for the novel - allowing you to see samples of the gorgeous artwork of Duffy and Jennings.

This is a work that I will definitely be recommending.

Violent, Unbelievable - That's History

Samurai Rising by Pamela Turner
Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, [2016]
xiii, 236 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm

This book had great reviews in VOYA (and other places, too - like the NYT and SLJ).  I had not yet read it, when student asked if I had anything in history to recommend.  Ah ha! I handed him Samurai Rising, and he brought it back several days later saying it was the best thing he'd read in a while.  There's nothing like a student's glowing review to bump a book up to the top of my "to-read" list.

Things I liked a lot about this book:  It's a history - 1160 to1190 in Japan - that I know almost nothing about.  It's well researched with copious notes.  Finally, it's written to be an adventurous, exciting read.

The book is pretty violent - as were most Samurai battles.  There are lots of scenes of hand-to-hand combat with swords, arrows, daggers and copious amounts of blood and corpses.  Strangely, though the violence does not seem gratuitous, as Sarah Miller notes in the NYT review, "Heads topple, limbs are severed, arrows pierce eyeballs, yet these facts are relayed cleanly and directly."

I also appreciated that the author provides an afterward explaining how she made decisions in recreating  the world of the main hero, Minamoto Yoshitsune, even though much of the historic record is sparse.  It's a great insight for students into thinking historically - and creatively.  Finally, I'd be remiss not to praise the illustrations of Gareth Hinds.  His drawings are bold, skillful, uncluttered and yet convey action, emotion and the stately nature of the story being told (the cover graphic at the top is an excellent example of his art).

I was a little stunned to see one review list this as for readers aged 10 - 14.  That would be a very precocious 10 year old! This book should satisfy any high school reader, and frankly I think a lot of adults (myself included) would enjoy this biography.
  

Too Sunny, but It is the Sun!

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
New York, N.Y. : Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group, 2014
371 p. ; 24 cm.

This is a book that won me over.  Thirty or forty pages in, I was thinking, "It's just too overwrought; the writing is trying too hard." However, by the time I finished it, I was lost in it, and - honestly - kind of sad to be done with it.  Nelson achieves something that is very hard to do: the writing style captures the inner and emotional life of the narrator's point of view - and does this with two alternating narrators. Additionally, her novel manages to be interesting, thoughtful, emotional, and at times, truly profound.

I told a friend that I had really enjoyed I'll Give You the Sun, and they said, "What's it about?" I ended up saying things like,  "It's about a family falling apart.  It's about the passion for art.  It's about the secrets people keep.  It's about making art.  It's about falling in love.  It's about coming of age.  It's about death." So you get the idea.  There's a lot to like about this book.

I recommend checking out Jandy Nelson's web page, where you can see all the crazy praise that her book has received, and - what I loved best - take a look at the "Gallery" to see some of the art and hard work that inspires this novel.

This is definitely a book I'll be pointing students to. And yes, that is a hanging preposition!

    

Swoosh!

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2014]
237 p. ; 22 cm.

One advantage of being home sick is getting around to reading books that were on my backlist.  The Crossover is one of those, and it helped that I mentioned it a few weeks ago to a student, who told me he liked it.    

The Crossover is a "novels in verse" which I'm not as taken with as some readers are, but Kwame Alexander's novel received such glowing praise and awards - including  the prestigious Newbery Award and honors from the Coretta Scott King Awards - that I felt I had to read it.

I have no complaints about the book.  Alexander dazzles with his lively poems and energetic vocabulary and style.  The narrative of the book - involving twin brothers who are very young basketball phenoms - is exciting, fascinating, filled with sports and family drama, and is unpredictable.  What more could you want?

Really my only gripe is that the book is pretty young for a high school audience.  It feels VERY middle school - including the one twin brother's utter incomprehension that his other brother is more interested in romantic love than in hanging out with him! I guess I'll still recommend the book, but just mention that the main characters are middle schoolers, not high schoolers.

The 911 That Never Should Have Been

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
New York : Vintage Books, 2007.
540 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I've read a lot about the Middle East, and about 9/11, but The Looming Tower is one of the best books to pull all the narrative threads together into an informative, compelling and stunning read.

There were several things I learned that surprised me.  I didn't realize how central the Egyptian fundamentalist-jihad movement was to al-Qaeda.  I had no idea that Bin Laden's time in Sudan was marked by his arriving a multimillionaire and leaving virtually broke.  I didn't know that when he left Sudan for Afghanistan, he had no idea who the Taliban were and they were cautious about him, too.  Probably the most painful revelations of the book are the several times that the CIA refused to share information with the FBI which almost surely would have lead to the uncovering and thwarting of the 9/11 plot.  There is more to discover in Wright's definitive history.

I would definitely recommend this book to a student with a keen interest in the background of 9/11 or to a student working on a research project about 9/11.  It is a fine book, one which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.      

Big Ideas, Little Book

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
New York, N.Y. : Riverhead Books, 2016.
86 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.

Seven Brief Lessons is one of those lovely little science books that is at once accessible to the lay reader, but also introduces concepts and ideas that leave you more curious (and perplexed even) than when you started.  How confused or satisfied you are after finishing the book will somewhat depend on your knowledge of, and familiarity with scientific concepts.  But even a science novice can come away with a lot to ponder after reading this book.

Rovelli wants to touch on some of the most astounding and important concepts in physics that have developed in the last 115 years.  He starts out with Einstein by mentioning his "Special Theory of Relativity" which dealt with the fluid nature of time, and then proceeds to expound on what he considers one of science's preeminent masterpieces, Einstein's "General Theory of Relativity."  It is this theory that establishes space as a field that is shaped by gravity.

Rovelli continues on in his lessons to discuss quanta, the nature of the cosmos, the search for a unifying theory that will connect the macro understanding of gravity and space to the nearly incomprehensible phenomena of quantum physics at the subatomic level.  His book spirals off into ruminations on heat, time, and the "granular" nature of space itself.

He brings his book to a close with a meditation on the human condition and its place fully within the matrix of nature.

Less a book of answers - or even a summary of where physics stands - this book is more of a jumping off point for pondering the wondrous and nearly unbelievable nature of what humans know and still don't know about the universe we find ourselves in.

Money and Revenge

The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston
Brooklyn : Melville House, [2016]
xvi, 263 p. ; 24 cm.

I'm a pretty cynical person by nature, but this book is a very depressing summary of the life of Donald Trump, who is now President Donald Trump.  David Cay Johnston is an investigative reporter who has been covering Trump since the late 1980s.

Probably what makes this book so stunning, is the unrelenting negatives that make up Trump's life.  A reader hoping to find something redeeming in the actions of Donald Trump will come away with nothing.  Instead what emerges is a person who is incredibly talented at skirting the edges of legality to make himself famous and - whether or not as wealthy as he claims - a conduit for the transactions of vast sums of loans, credits and money.

Sadly, what emerges is the portrait of a man who celebrates revenge and greed, and treats women as objects.

Johnston released his book in August of 2016, probably hoping that it would dissuade voters from supporting Trump.  That, obviously, was not the case.

If a student is interested in a well researched, well documented accounting of the life of Donald Trump, this is a book to recommend.  As for President Trump, we will have to wait several years at least, for a book that will provide an assessment of the life of President Trump and what the results of that will be.

March Hits a Wall

March: Book one by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and [illustrated by] Nate Powell
Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, [2013]
121 p. : chiefly ill. ; 24 cm.

I had not planned on reading March just yet, but then current events caught up with history in the strangest of ways, and I knew I had to read it.

March - a graphic novel - recounts the autobiography of the early years of civil rights icon and US Congressperson, John Lewis.  We see his boyhood years in Alabama in the 1950s and his growing awareness of the racist injustices that he wants to change.  By the end of this first book in the series (click links for more about book 2 and book 3), he is a key activist in the Civil Rights movement in Tennessee, has led lunch counter protests, desegregation marches, and met Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Turns out the Lewis' role in history is not over yet.  With the recent election of Donald Trump and his twitter attacks on John Lewis, the Lewis story and the struggle for racial justice are front and center once again.  The controversy has not hurt sales of the March.  Right after Trump's attacks on Lewis, sales of his book skyrocketed on Amazon.  Along with the many prizes that the books in the March series have won (including a National Book Award) the future of this book, at least, looks bright.      

Fists and Crosses

Saints by Gene Luen Yang
New York : First Second, 2013.
170 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm.  

After reading Boxers, I had to read this companion to it - which tells the same story, but from the point of view of a young Chinese, Christian convert who find herself on the opposite side of the violent Boxer Rebellion as the hero of Boxers.

All that I wrote in my review of Boxers below, applies to this book as well.  It's a great read and has the same captivating mix of history, supernatural, familial and social conflict, etc.

I'd definitely recommend reading Boxers first, it sets the stage well and makes it satisfying when the narrative exactly overlaps in several key scenes.

A Righteous and Harmonious Fist Bump

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
New York : First Second, 2013.  
328 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm.

Yang's American Born Chinese continues to circulate well with readers at our high school, and I hope that Boxers will do the same. With both fiction and graphic novels, the challenge of having historical events as the subject is finding the heart and power of that event and translating it to the genre being used.  I think it is a difficult challenge for any author, but especially for author's of young adult readers - where the desire to get lost in a book is a powerful appeal for readers already surrounded by informational text.  But it can be done, and I think Boxers proves it!

One never forgets that the power of Yang's book is the story and the characters involved in it. There is romance, danger, humor, wistfulness, longing, justice and magic propelling the story forward.  The comic artwork is clear, powerful, and interesting to look at.  Not convinced?  Take a look at some sample pages provide by Macmillian Publishers.

I was struck, after reading Boxers, at how cleverly the story made me want to know more about the actual history - and - at how pathetically little I know of Chinese history.  I had heard of the Boxer Rebellion, but knew little about it.  Furthermore, in reading some of the history that preceded it, I came across references to the Taiping Rebellion - a 14 year civil war that killed an estimate 20 million people!   And this is history that I knew nothing about.

So do I recommend this book? Absolutely.  It is a wonderful work of literary and visual art, and for teachers who might want to include it in a history class, there is even an extensive online teacher's guide to accompany the book.

The Hunger Tests

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, [2013]
344 p. ; 22 cm.

Ok, so my title for this post is a little cheeky, but it is hard to read The Testing and not hear many echoes of The Hunger Games.  However, Charbonneau still manages to write a pretty exciting, lethally adventurous dystopian survival tale.  In this series the young people are elites chosen for the "honor" of the annual testing that will decide who continues on to their society's only university where they will be groomed to be the future leaders of the United Commonwealth.  Unfortunately for them, they have no idea just how final some of the testing will be, culminating in a grueling survival trek across hundreds of miles of apocalyptic-war ravaged territory starting at what was - before the catastrophic wars that nearly destroyed humanity - the city Chicago (echoes of Divergent).

I think what makes this novel work is that it is well paced and plotted, and the main character is an interesting, resourceful figure (and female hero).  Like The Hunger Games, the element of trust vs. mistrust between characters keeps things exciting.

I don't think I'll read the next two installments in the series,  but I did enjoy reading The Testing and would definitely recommend it to readers wanting to continue reading exciting dystopian fiction - especially fans of The Hunger Games.

Pow! Graphic Girl Power

Fight Like a Girl by David Pinckney, illus. by Soo Lee
[U.S.] : Action Lab, [2015]
1 v. (unpaged) : chiefly col. ill. ; 26 cm.

This graphic novel [compilation of issues #1-4 of Fight Like a Girl] was recommended by Kat Kan in VOYA's October 2015 issue.  She commented on the positive diversity of the main character (and authors) and - validating her judgment - the first student to check it out, loved it and recommended I read it.

I liked it, but thought it could have been much better.  The art is pretty good, the story of a girl having to fight life or death challenges set by a panel of gods held promise, but the plotting just seemed jumpy and weak.

I especially found it distracting how the one weapon she takes in is just a baseball bat - but one that can miraculously turn into a vicious chainsaw and even a robot-killing, giant super-blaster. So what's the big danger of her challenges?

Oh well, I just like a little tighter logic within the sci-fi/fantasy genre.  I guess that's why I'm not a big fan of the Star Wars movies.  But other people love it, and the racial diversity, hipness, and strong female protagonist are factors that weigh in for recommending this comic book.

 

A Shot of History

The Duel by Judith St. George
New York, N.Y. : Speak, 2016.
99 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

This is a wonderful little book of history that should have wide appeal.  How can you not be interested in a fatal duel between a sitting US Vice President and history's most famous US Treasurer (who graces the $10 bill and was founder of the Bank of the United States)?  Not to mention that one of the men in this notorious duel is now at the center of one of the most popular and successful shows on Broadway - Hamilton!

In less than 100 pages, St. George is able to convey the amazing adventures that were the lives of these two US revolutionaries, one who began his life without the benefit of money or a legal father and who was orphaned at a young age.  The other was from a well-to-do family, but also was orphaned early in his life.  Both men, close in age and similarly intelligent, brave and ambitious - have lives that crossed each other during and after the American Revolution.  Their two stories came crashing together in a climatic duel in 1804 across the Hudson from New York City.  Only one of the walked away from the duel.  Who?  Well, you'll have to read the book to find out, and you won't be disappointed.

Definitely a US history book to recommend.

Metal, Wishes, Romance, and Lots of Blood

Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine
New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2015
321 p. ; 21 cm.

I'd give this book a solid B+.  I found it interesting and very readable but not quite as good as I had hoped.  There is a lot to like about Fine's book.  It's setting in a harsh factory-industrial compound rife with brutal working conditions and ethnic tensions are very relevant to current issues around worker exploitation and racial tensions.  The conservative and sexist mores of the world Sarah Fine creates in Metal and Wishes highlights the dangers that girls and women face in the world.

However, like the Kirkus Review writer, I found that the telling of the story was a bit uneven.  The romance between the protagonist Wen and the minority worker Melik is rooted mainly in physical attraction - both characters are clearly striking looking people.  Also the as one review pointed out, the world outside the factory setting is left mostly undeveloped.  Finally some of the gruesome action (people getting shredded by little mechanical security devices) seemed a bit gratuitous.

But given those shortcomings, Fine's dystopian novel is still a pretty engaging read and one that I think some students would enjoy.  With its romance and exoticism and its plot of rebellion and violence it is likely to appeal to both young women and men.

Just Kids in a Lost City

Just Kids by Patti Smith
New York : Ecco, c2010.
xii, 278 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Have you ever wished you could travel back in time to New York City in the late 60s or early 70s? Wouldn't it be something to hang out with struggling artists around the Chelsea Hotel, or to meet with some of the successful artists of the time, such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Allen Ginsburg or Andy Warhol?

You can take just such a magic trip with renowned punk/rock/poet Patti Smith.  In her National Book Award winning memoir, Just Kids, she takes you with her when she was an unknown hopeful writer moving to the city from New Jersey

Her memoir is as much about her growth as an artist as it is about her rich relationship - as lover, collaborator, friend and confidant - with the late and famous photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe.

I would definitely recommend this autobiography to any student interested in the artistic life, in Rock and Roll, in the 60s and 70s, in women's history, in LGBT history, or in NYC.  I'd also recommend this book to any reader who enjoys a well written memoir.