Fallout

Chernobyl's Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone by Rebecca L. Johnson
Minneapolis : Twenty-First Century Books, [2015]
64 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 27 cm.

As most people know, there was a devastating nuclear plant disaster in April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what was then the Soviet Union (but is now in Ukraine).  There have been some stories over the years about the city Pripyat, which was rapidly evacuated a few days after the disaster and remains abandoned.  But this book looks at the South Carolina sized exclusion zone (which includes the former city of Pripyat), with a focus on the abundance of wildlife in this area where very few humans live.

Remarkably, in spite of some very high levels of radiation in the zone, wildlife is thriving, and what makes this book really engaging is that the author examines two contrary conclusions reached by scientists studying the zone.  One scientist and his colleagues study small mammals like mice and voles and have concluded that the long term exposure to low (but dangerous) levels of radiation have made these animals healthier and more resistant.  Another team of scientists who study barn swallows arrive at the opposite conclusion, noting very high levels of mutations and tumors in their avian subjects.

The book invites readers to consider both possibilities and provides lots of great information and illustrations about the initial disaster and its decades long after effects.  It gets one thinking about unexpected effects of humanity (and the absence of humanity) on the environment.  It had me thinking about the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge (where the US made nuclear weapons) and the Korean DMZ.  And this book does all this in just sixty-four short pages.  Not bad.

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.
    

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.

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.

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

Ahead of Her Time

Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies by Nell Beram and Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky
New York : Amulet Books, 2013.
177 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 27 cm.

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did - and additionally, I learned a lot from reading it.

This is the second biography of a woman artist I've read this year, having read - and quite enjoyed - the biography of Georgia O'Keefe back in October.  In Collector of Skies, I really enjoyed discovering what an avant garde artist Yoko Ono was.  She really was a pioneer in the areas of conceptual and performance art.  The book has really nice reproductions of several of her installations, along with great archival photos from her work in the 1960s and 1970s (along with more recent photos).

Beram and Boriss-Krimsky's biography does a great job of detailing the interesting love, artistic and antiwar collaboration between Yoko and the mega-famous John Lennon while keeping the focus squarely on Yoko Ono's life and accomplishments. 

To me, the great strength of this book, is that not only do the authors provide a great deal of information about the life of Ono - her artistic, political and intellectual growth, and her personal life - but they manage to make it a very moving story, too.  I found myself lost in the joy and liberation that Yoko felt on meeting Lennon and realizing that he was someone who truly understood her work.  I also found myself near to tears reading about the murder of John in December of 1980, outside their Central Park apartment.

This book is a great introduction to the life and times of an important artist and pop figure.  I will definitely recommend it to students who might be interested.

Geeky Greatness

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
New York : Broadway Books, c2011.
374 p. ; 21 cm.

This is a great book, one that should appeal to a wide variety of readers.  I'm not a videogamer, but I loved how Cline creates a thrilling, realistic sci-fi adventure story that seamlessly weaves videogaming and videogaming allusions into the text and texture of his novel. Ready Player One is a dystopian adventure, a love story, a paen to geekdom, an homage to 80s pop culture, and frankly a fun and smartly plotted novel.  Not bad!

I found the novel a pleasure to read. It wrestles with the evils of corporatism, the alienation of virtual reality, the pleasures of camaraderie and romance, and the basic human struggle between good and evil.  There is just enough real violence (not much) in the book to keep the reader on edge, and a plot that moves smartly along.  Even for non-geeks, the book has many moments of recognition where the reader thinks, "Ah ha, I know what ______________ he's talking about!" (Fill in the blank with book, movie, videogame, TV show or song depending on the situation.

Cline somehow manages to convey the reality on the online experience, while always the maintaining the more final reality of the actual world - while at times having them almost (almost, but not quite) dreamily/nightmarishly blur closely together.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for an unusual, creative, and thrilling read.  

Mourning for America

The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America
by William Kleinknecht
New York: Nation Books, 2009.
317 p. ; 22 cm.

This book is a great antidote to the hagiography surrounding our 40th President, Ronald Reagan. Kleinknecht doesn't pretend to be unbiased, but lambastes the policies and legacy of the Reagan administration. However, the book is not just polemics, but a well researched investigation into activities of the Reagan administration and especially its powerful legacy of deregulation and redistribution of wealth upward.

The book is a bit long for general high school readers, but is indispensable for research into the politics of the 80s. The book is not a biography, but an analysis of the successes of the Reagan revolution - successes that Kleinknecht argues have made our society less equal, less compassionate, more consumerist, and more vulnerable to the predations of unfettered capitalism.