Love Documented

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
New York : Delacorte Press, [2016]
348 p. ; 22 cm.

This book was a delight.  Two high school seniors - who couldn't be much more different - start the day total strangers, and end up by the evening deeply in love.  They have to overcome a world of differences to get there: Natasha is an undocumented Jamaican immigrant facing immediate deportation, and Daniel is as first generation Korean American who is up against his parents' plans for him to get into Yale, be a doctor, and partner up with a "good Korean girl." 

Daniel aspires to be a poet, and lives by the values of idealism, hopes, and dreams.  Natasha is a lover of science and rational decisions.  Their paths cross one morning in NYC as Daniel heads for a crucial Yale entrance interview and Natasha pursues legal aid to stave off her deportation.

It seems almost silly to describe the plot, but it really works.  In spite of a few improbable plot devices (reminded me a little of Thomas Hardy's narrative tricks!) the development of the relationship between the characters is believable and very sweet.  By the end of the book the reader can't help but be rooting for these two fine human beings.

As I read The Sun is Also a Star, I thought of a lovely, romantic movie that has a similar one day of falling in love and a similar feel - Before Sunrise., which is interesting in that The Sun is Also a Star was apparently made into a movie, but one which did not share the critical acclaim of Before Sunrise.   Don't let that keep you away from this lovely little jewel of a book.

Touching on Painful

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina
New York : Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc., [2017]
167 p. : chiefly ill. ; 23 cm.

I'm not sure what I expected when I picked this up to read it, but it really hit me emotionally.  It's the story of a promising young high school student who is murdered by a department store security guard.  The guard is a police officer, too, and the student is African American - and so the story jumps right into the sad, terrible and ongoing narrative of law enforcement killing unarmed Black people.

I think the emotional power comes from the way this powerful graphic novel introduces us to the victim, first as a lively, smart sensitive young man who is an engaged student, a working bike messenger and an amateur historian of Harlem.  After he is killed while shopping for a suit we travel along with his ghost that joins up with other victims of police violence. He travels a ghost train with these victims as they revisit the past and as he visits people he loves in the present.

It takes a little getting used to the ghostly shifts, but once you do the story really hits home.  One of the most powerful and unexpected aspects of this story is the sharp light it throws on government and complicit media as they work to smear the reputation of the victim and burnish the reputation of the perpetrator. 

This graphic novel succeeds as a tale of injustice and as a history lesson of previous police violence cases. The ending of the book features a helpful list of the names, ages and locations of previous victims and short biographies of the victims featured in the book.

X + U = SLAM

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.   
361 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm not even going to pretend to be objective about this book.  After seeing and hearing Acevedo read at our local library last week, while I was about half way through this book, all I can say is "Yes, read this book and recommend it to students you know." 

She is a great performer and a strong writer, too.  When I handed a copy of this book to a student recently, I said, "Be sure and look her up on YouTube."

The book is a fine telling of Xiomara, a girl coming of age in contemporary Harlem, NYC.  She is a sensitive, but bold, young woman who is being raised by a very strict and very religious mother, and a somewhat distant and checked-out father - both who are immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She is also a twin of a brother she loves, and they both are struggling to become the adults they want to be - while under the restraints of their loving, but oppressive family.

Fortunately for Xiomara, her salvation is in nurturing her gift for poetry and spoken word performance.  Will it be enough to overcome the binds of family and religion?  Will she be able to find romantic love when her mother doesn't even want her talking to boys?  Can she help her brother as he struggles to own his gay identity?

Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.  There are unexpected plot twists and scenes of great emotion - and you won't be disappointed. I swear!

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Hard Life, Good Read

Tyrell by Coe Booth
New York : PUSH, c2007.
310 p. ; 18 cm. 

I've been planning to read this book for years.  This year there was an uptick in demand for all of Coe Booth's books - Tyrell, Kendra, and Bronxwood - so it seemed like a good time to take this novel home and read it.  I was not disappointed.

Tyrell is a tough book - there is a lot of profanity, drug use, fights, sexual situations and overall gritty scenes throughout the novel, but it all feels very necessary to the power of this novel. The hero, fifteen year old Tyrell, has to figure out how to make his way in a world where his father is in prison, his mother is completely immature, selfish, and incompetent and many of his role models are sexist, aggressive, law-breaking young men.  He wants to do right by his family (especially his young brother), his friends, his girl friend, and his conscience.  Tyrell is smart, friendly, and great with DJing, something he learned from his father. But with his father in jail, his mother worthless as a parent, he has to figure out how to get himself and his family out of the filthy temporary hotel that they are stuck in after losing their apartment.

The thing I loved about Tyrell, is that all the characters are complex. Characters has their strengths and some serious weaknesses.  The main character, Tryell, can be heroic, but he can also be a liar, a macho hypocrite, and aggressive.  But he wants to make something of himself, and has a strong ethical code of honor that he reflects on even when he falls short.  Booth's skill is creating interesting, vivid characters who reflect the wide range of human strengths and weaknesses as they navigate the distressing and profoundly unfair world of inner city poverty.

It's too bad that a novel like this could not be taught in a classroom curriculum (there's just too much raw language and situations) because there are so many ethical and moral dilemmas that come up throughout the novel - and the novel is popular with young men and women.  It may not be suitable for the classroom, but it is a book that many young people, including reluctant readers are bound to embrace.

Solid Gone

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
New York : Broadway Books, [2014]
422 p. ; 21 cm.

Publisher's Weekly describes Flynn's Gone Girl as the "tale of a marriage gone toxically wrong" which "gradually emerge[s] through alternating accounts by Nick and Amy, both unreliable narrators in their own ways."  I couldn't have said it better myself - so I won't!  Booklist calls it a "compelling thriller and a searing portrait of marriage" which it is, though I'd say it's a pretty twisted and horrible portrait to be sure.  Booklist does note that Flynn "possesses a disturbing worldview, one considerably amped up by her twisted sense of humor." That is definitely true.

Almost all reviews note that it is compulsively readable and I have to agree.  But it does present a rather sordid and extreme view of human relationships and has some pretty crude generalizations about men, women and their interactions.

I think the strength of the book is the plotting (which is creative and unpredictable) and the use of the unreliable narrators - which keeps the reader guessing and on edge.  

Anyone working with young adults should be aware that though there is not a lot of graphic sex in the novel,  sexual situations are frequently referred to - and occasionally described in very explicit and crude terms.  It's definitely a novel for mature readers, but there will be a lot of requests for the book given its phenomenal success and the successful movie version of it which opened the day I finished the book, Oct. 3, 2014.

The title of this post is a nod to a Carter family song - and it's wonderful performance by the late Doc Watson. 

Entertaining, That's All

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff
New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2013
337 p. ; 24 cm.

It's already been said, but this book echoes The Bourne Identity and James Bond.  The promotional material from Zadoff's website highlights a lot of the positive buzz around the book (and its sequels).  I can't help feeling that it's a bit over-hyped. (Though a movie and sequels may create more success for the book and series).

Yes, the book was entertaining.  It moves along, is well-plotted, and there's suspense, action, and interesting developments.  I'd feel fine recommending it to a student wanting a spy/assassin/action/thriller novel; it delivers...

But I just couldn't care about the characters very much.  I really felt no emotional connection to any of them, and frankly found the female characters more fitting a male-fantasy ideal than any connection to reality.  That said, if you want a fast, action-based clandestine thriller, then Nobody might be just what you want.

Kurlansky's Tasty History

The Big Oyster: history on the half-shell by Mark Kurlansky
New York : Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007, c2006.
xx, 307 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm. 

What a fun way to learn about the history of New York City!  Kurlansky again finds a way to entertain and inform while presenting his discoveries about another item that humans put in their mouths.  He has tackled salt, and cod (which I reviewed here about a year ago).

Like his other books, this one is well-written, fascinating, and very informative.  In it you'll learn that for many years in the 1800s, New York City was the oyster capital of the world - but that in a short time ballooning population and industrialization led to the demise of the rich oyster beds of the New York harbor - due to pollution and and over-harvesting. Kurlansky does a great

There is a lot to The Big Oyster - it is a practical history of the early years of New York City, with a lot about the earliest European settlement of the area to the bustle of the 19th and 20th centuries.  But it is also a social history and a foodways history - including recipes from various eras.  Finally, it is both an environmental history and cautionary tale about the squandering of precious natural resources.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone curious about the history and culture of America's most dynamic city, New York.

Four Teens and a Funeral

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler
New York : HarperTeen, 2011, c2010.
308 p. ; 21 cm. 

Mackler is the author of the ever popular and frequently challenged book, The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things - and that is probably the book by her I would have read if a student had not recently turned in Tangled and said, "Mr. Murrey, this was great.  You have to read it!"

I read it and enjoyed it quite a lot.  It's the story of four teens and the unlikely ways in which their lives come together and in which each of them grows and matures. The springing off event of the novel is a short week trip to a Caribbean island resort where the four of them end up briefly interacting. The rest of the novel takes place in New York state and  New York City (and so the picture above of the Sheep Meadow in Central Park).

I'd say the thing that pleased me the most about the book was that I didn't really care for it at first, beginning as it does from the point of view of Jena.  She is one of those "teen" characters who is feels just a little too smart, cute (but doesn't think she's cute), and self-aware. But oddly she grows on you and the other characters round out the novel really well - defying the surface stereotypes they seem, and revealing full, evolving human characters in the process.  There are some nice plot turns throughout and lots of low key humor.  Finally, there is a really tender romance in the book, and who can turn that down?

I'd definitely recommend this book for any readers interested in relationship fiction. 

Finally Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
New York: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2005.
226 p. ; 21 cm.

As a former English major and a librarian for ten years, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I had not read any James Baldwin novels until now. I decided that as a newbie, I'd start with his first novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain. I was not disappointed.

Set in Harlem in the 1950s, this novel uses the setting of a small Harlem independent Christian Gospel church to unfold the layers of stories buried within one African American family of the time. The main character, teen John Grimes moves toward a spiritual rebirth as the novel tells the stories of several important characters who's lives are tied together by family and religion.

It is not a novel that stuns with amazing techniques or plot development, but as a first novel the writing is sure-footed and rich and the unfolding stories behind the characters is satisfying and very interesting.

The novel also richly conveys the atmosphere of a Bible-based, Holy Spirit centered small African American church in the thriving New York City area of Harlem in the 1950s.

A teacher recommended that my next Baldwin novel be Giovanni's Room, and I will definitely add it to my must-read list.