Tough and Tender

The Closest I've Come by Fred Aceves

New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

310 p. ; 22 cm. 

I'm a sucker for a book with heart, and this novel had me pretty early on.  It's about a Latinx young man growing up poor in Tampa, Florida and struggling to find love, a way out of his impoverished neighborhood, and a way out of the restrictions of having to keep up a tough macho front.  He also is trying to survive a negligent alcoholic mother and her racist and abusive boyfriend who lives with and sponges off of them.

What are the things I especially liked about this book? I love that though Marcos, the main character, is smart and at times humorous, he is not constantly throwing out witty, hip comments and comebacks. In some YA books the protagonist feels like an attempt by the author to come up with a contemporary Holden Caulfield that doesn't ring true. In this novel, Marcos is so believable. He is also believable in his struggle to become a more authentic human being - we get glimpses of his true feelings through his inner thoughts and those feelings get expressed imperfectly (as they do with most people growing up).  I also love the romance (or desired romance) that forms a core of the novel.  It doesn't follow the conventional route in resolving itself and that is refreshing. I appreciated the portrayal of teachers in the book; they are not stereotyped as saviors or villains, but as people who have a tough job and can be really kind. The book also deals with race and cliques in ways that don't feel incredibly heavy handed or unrealistic.

I also love a book that bluntly reveals the struggles of being poor as just the matter of fact situation someone finds themselves in. Marcos just gets by with having to wear crummy shoes and just enough clean t-shirts to look good at school. One of his buddies - the academically most successful of the bunch - starts dealing drugs for an aunt in order to make more money - a decision that is treated realistically. Finally, I should mention that the book helpfully portrays the complicated situation a young person can find themselves  in when an adult in their household is physically and emotionally abusive.

Would I recommend The Closest I've Come? I definitely would. I think it would satisfy a lot of different kinds of readers.

Shadow and Bone Shines

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

New York : Square Fish, 2013.

358 p. : map ; 22 cm. 

If you've seen any of my other posts, you'll know I'm not a huge fan of fantasy/high fantasy novels.  It's not that I dislike them; it's just that they don't completely thrill me.  That being said, I really did enjoy reading this first novel of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the opening book of the larger Grishaverse series of books by Leigh Bardugo. 

The writing is strong in Shadow and Bone; Bardugo is really good at creating atmospheric settings and has a good ear for dialog. She's able to create her imagined world with subtlety and suggestion.  Also the plotting and action builds and accelerates as the novel goes on, so that by the end I found myself racing along to see what would happen and did not want to put the book down.

The novel has been extremely popular (becoming a Netflix series in March of 2021) - receiving favorable reviews, and becoming a NYT's bestseller.

This is a fantasy novel I'd be glad to recommend and we have many more of her novels in the collection so that a fan of Bardugo would have a lot more to read.

Really Big, Really Small - and Just Right

The Cosmic Mystery Tour: a High Speed Journey Through Time and Space by Nicholas Mee

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.     

207 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 21 cm.

This was an ambitious little book.  I say "little" in that 207 p. is fairly brief for an attempt to introduce the wonderous scope of current science about forces, particles, fields, gravity, time, the elements, supernovae, galaxies and - well - the whole universe! The book looks at the very small and the very large - from fermions and bosons to a supermassive black hole with an estimated  mass of 8 trillion suns (yes, that's 8 TRILLION!) 

What I liked about The Cosmic Mystery Tour is that it succeeds in being readable, interesting and keeping up a brisk pace.  After reading it, I found myself ruminating on the vast expanses of the cosmos, along with the strange and remarkable subatomic world that is so hard to fathom.

In spite of a few parts that are just hard to follow (the explanation of the fundamental particles being one of these) most of the book does a great job of being very accessible to the lay reader.

If I had a student ask about a good overview of modern science regarding the universe/cosmos, I'd definitely recommend this little gem.

Long Book Sad War

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

New York : Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995, c1940.

 471 p. ; 21 cm.     

I have to be honest, I didn't really plan to read this book, but after watching the PBS series on Hemingway, and then reading a book from our library about the Spanish Civil War, I was curious to read this novel of his. 

I found the PBS series problematic in many ways. It overly lionized Hemingway, and tended to minimize what an awful and incredibly sexist person he was.  But there was great footage and lots of other information worth taking in about this really important literary figure.  

I initially sat down to read just excerpts of the novel, but the writing is compelling and I ended up enjoying reading it, even when I felt like the movement of narrative was overly ponderous.  Like Mario Vargas Llosa in the documentary, I too felt that the love affair in the novel was overwrought, immature and something of a distraction.  However, the portrayal of characters in the guerrilla band that the main character works with and the ludicrous characters running the war for the Republic are really strong points of the novel.  Hemingway's ability to convey the moral degradations and salvations of people at war are also striking. And knowing as we do that the fascists triumph in Spain, it is sometimes exquisitely painful to read this novel that was written before the outcome was determined. 

I can't say I would recommend this book to a student, but occasionally students pick Hemingway for their senior literary research paper and I'm glad I'll have read this as a point of reference going forward.  

A Terrible Beauty

Vincent and Theo: the Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

New York : Goldwin Books, Henry Holt and Co., 2017.

454 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. 

This book brings up some of the problems I find with the whole YA book marketing enterprise.  This is a superb book - one that anyone with the slightest interest in the visual art of painting should read, and by anyone I mean young person, young adult, middle-aged adult, or senior citizen.  It is a wonderful book that lovingly tells the story of artist Vincent Van Gogh and his slightly younger brother Theo, who devoted himself to supporting and championing the work of Vincent. But it is packaged as a YA nonfiction selection - and has deservedly won awards in that category. It may seem I'm nitpicking, but it really seems wrong to me that this book didn't get equal promotion as an adult nonfiction book - it's that good! Also, as much as I hate to say it, it's length (454 pages) is just going to turn off a lot of younger readers - even those with an interest in art.

With all that said, I can say that I loved this book.  I learned a lot from it (e.g. how Theo correctly pushed Vincent to add more color to his palette which was originally muted and grounded in earth tones). The book really opens up the terrible mental anguish and affliction that Vincent suffered and also does justice to the truly inspiring (and sometimes difficult and contentious) love between these two brothers.  Both Vincent and Theo emerge from this telling as very, very human and also very heroic figures.  One finishes the book with a great appreciation for how doggedly Vincent worked at teaching himself and practicing his art and how unstinting Theo was in supporting him.  Importantly, Heiligman gives credit to Theo's wife Jo, who also (in spite of being married to Theo for only the last year and a half of his short life) ensured that Vincent's work and legacy was championed and preserved.

Another positive feature of this book is that it includes excellent end material: a descriptive list of prominent characters, a timeline, copious notes, and a thorough index.

I'll add in closing that I was surprised at the emotional impact of the book. Heiligman's retelling of Vincent and Theo's deaths (just six months apart) left me teary eyed. This is a wonderful book and it is one that I'll be recommending to young and older readers alike.

Define Short

A Short History of the Mongols by George Lane

London : I.B. Tauris, 2018.

xvi, 236 p. : ill., maps ; 22 cm. 

This is the second "Short History of" book I've reviewed, the previous one being on the Weimar Republic.  I liked that one, but found this history of the Mongols to be too much information for me to take in.  I can't fault the author too much for that, since I think my own ignorance of the period (ca 1206 - 1300) covered in the book made its broad scope overwhelming for me.

Additionally, the events of this period are very convoluted and complex. I think most readers like me will be able to follow along with the rise of Temujin to become the great Genghis Khan, but will be a bit overwhelmed trying to keep track of the rise and fall of his descendants and their khanates - ending with the famous Kublai Khan.   

I think this short history would be a great resource for a student with some prior knowledge of the Mongol Empire, or doing research on that empire.  I think it's a useful resource to have in the library, but will be of limited interest to the general young adult reader.

Boldly Going

This is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew

New York : Penguin Workshop, [2020]

63 p. ; 16 cm. 

This short, little book packs a punch!  I'm always on the lookout for small books that I can drop for a student, hoping that the size and design will not scare them off.  This is one of those.

I had no idea what to expect from this book, but it was a pleasure and an education.  The book is essentially the art-map story of Kimberly Drew's journey from from being a financially pinched and very smart (but unknown) Black college student who feels the pressure to pursue a "realistic" major (e.g. architecture, engineering, medicine) even though what she loves is art.  On the recommendation of a professor, she applies for and lands an internship at the Harlem Studio Museum that changes her life and launches her on the way to become a force in the art world.  

The only drawback of this book is that it lacks an index and has no photographs/illustrations to accompany all the amazing artwork Drew introduces to the reader. And there is A LOT of art she discusses and most of it is stunning, and not widely known.  If she ever puts together a YA book of these artists and their works, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.  

To help me (and you if you're reading this) find/remember the artists she touches on I'm diverging from my usual review and posting the following list of art/artists/collectives in the order that they come up in the book.  Where possible, the first reference is to Drew's Tumblr - Black Contemporary Art.  Just a glance there will show you how superb many of the artists she highlights are!

Any omissions or link/spelling mistakes are mine. I hope you'll read her little book and visit her big world of activism and art.  You won't be sorry.
___________________________________________________________

Glenn Ligon - https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Glenn+Ligon
http://www.glennligonstudio.com/
 
Jean-Michael Basquiat - https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Jean-Michael+Basquiat
https://www.thebroad.org/art/jean-michel-basquiat (Los Angeles)
 
Trenton Doyle Hancock – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/trenton+doyle+hancock
https://www.jamescohan.com/artists/trenton-doyle-hancock
 
Lorna Simpson – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/lorna+simpson
https://lsimpsonstudio.com/
 
Jamel Shabazz – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/jamel+shabazz
https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/person/jamel-shabazz/
 
Samuel Fosso – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/samuel+fosso
https://www.walthercollection.com/en/collection/artists/samuel-fosso
 
Nick Cave – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/nick+cave
https://jackshainman.com/artists/nick_cave
 
Mickalene Thomas – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/mickalene+thomas
https://nmwa.org/art/artists/mickalene-thomas/
 
Stephen Wiltshire – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Stephen+Wiltshire
https://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/
 
Coco Fusco – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/coco+fusco
https://www.cocofusco.com/
 
Guillermo Gómez-Peña – https://www.guillermogomezpena.com/
 
Creative Time - https://creativetime.org/

“Tribute in Light” – https://creativetime.org/projects/tribute-in-light/

Gran Fury’s “Kissing Doesn’t Kill” – https://creativetime.org/projects/kissing-doesnt-kill-greed-and-indifference-do/

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” – https://creativetime.org/projects/untitled-1995/

 
Felix Gonzalez-Torrres (Foundation) - https://www.felixgonzalez-torresfoundation.org/about/foundation-statement
 
Blues for Smoke exhibition - https://whitney.org/exhibitions/blues-for-smoke
 
Rodney McMillian - https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/rodney+mcmillian
https://vielmetter.com/artists/rodney-mcmillian
 
Alma Thomas – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Alma+Thomas
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/alma-thomas-4778

Kerry James Marshall – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Kerry+James+Marshall
https://jackshainman.com/artists/kerry_james_marshall
 
Zoe Leonard’s “1961” – https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/33792
 
Guerilla Girls - https://nmwa.org/art/artists/guerrilla-girls/
 
Dread Scott – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/dread+scott
https://www.dreadscott.net/

Black Lives Matter at Black Contemporary Art – https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/search/Black+Lives+Matter