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!