Book Review: Code of Honor by Alan Gratz

Imagine being a senior in high school, a football player with a beautiful girlfriend - even the homecoming king and then...  And then a picture appears on TV of your brother  (An Army Ranger!) acting like a terrorist. Suddenly people are no longer friendly, your girlfriend turns her head, and you no longer know what to believe. Your world has shattered. AND THEN, the United States government abducts you.

Here is the story Code of Honor. For a fast paced, action packed story - that has honor at its core, read this story.

Look for this book on Hoopla through the Nashua Public Library!

The Red Lotus / Chris Bohjalian

The Nashua Public Librarians offered a Beyond the Book program with Chris Bohjalian (you can watch this through August 15 by going to their event calendar and clicking the link for it on June 23). They mentioned the book The Red Lotus and shared the timely connection to a pandemic. After a year of reading young adult fiction, I was ready for an adult book so I decided to indulge myself.

So what did I think? There is such a great connection here made between doctors and private investigators - the job really is very similar. In each position one must look at the clues and figure out what is going on. I loved this connection. The pandemic piece was just freaky. If you like a good mystery - visit the NPL to borrow this book - they have both print copies or you can borrow it through Libby.

Book Review: How it Went Down / Kekla Magoon

Imagine witnessing a murder. On a street, in your neighborhood, right in front of you. Imagine that it was a white man and that the person killed was a black teen. What did you see? What happens next? What are the ripples?

This book begins with such a murder then each subsequent chapter is from the perspective of someone touched by this experience. What do witnesses see? What is going on in their heads? How does this impact each character?

Why read this story? Stories are complicated, people see different things. Black boys are too often killed by white people. Black Lives Matter.

Book Review: Things that Make White People Uncomfortable / Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett has a lot to say about using the athlete's voice to make this world a better, fairer, place for black people, women, and other oppressed minorities. This book is a bit of a curvy path - talking a lot about football, being a man, being human, forgiveness, the N***** word, and taking a stand by raising one's voice and through activism.

"Just because people don't eat what you eat, just because they're not from where you're from, just because they don't pray to the same god you pray to, just because they don't love who you love doesn't mean they should be treated like they are less than human."

Book Review: Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

In this graphic memoir, Maggie Thrash tells about her year at summer camp when she discovers that she like likes a female counselor.

Why read this book? This is a story about coming out to one's self and then to others. It is a story of summer and summer camp. It is the story of learning and growing.  It is also about Thrash's love of shooting guns and learning to do so well. And this is a really quick read.

Book Review: Monster by Walter Dean Myers

So why am I on a Walter Dean Myers kick? Myers wrote over 100 books, many about living black in urban areas. He died in 2014 but many of his stories are still relevant today.

Monster is about a 16-year-old Steve Harmon who aspires to be film producer, but finds himself locked up, among many black and brown teens, at the Manhattan detention center. He is on trial for murder after a store owner was killed during the course of a robbery. Steve allegedly made sure that there was no one in the store before this robbery took place. But is he guilty? Steve narrates this story through a film script that he writes as the plot develops. The title? The prosecutor calls Steve a Monster, and begins to wonder if that is true.

Book Review: When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

My mom always told me to "walk a mile in their shoes". This books offers the perfect way to walk a mile while being black - something that I can't experience in my own life - this is the power of reading - it offers the impossible.

Patrisse Khan-Cullors founded Black Lives Matter. Here is her story.

Book Review: The Beast by Walter Dean Myers

"Spoon" grew up in Harlem, but due to his desire to attend an Ivy League college, he enrolled in a prep school. While there he works hard both in his academics and at his job. When he finally goes home for the first time, during Christmas vacation, he finds that the Harlem he knows is not the same. His friends have changed and not in the ways that he anticipated. Seeing these changes among his old friends, and the observing the lives of his predominately white prep school friends really highlights how the privilege that we have or do not have impacts each person's life.  This is a slow read, not a fast-paced plot driven book, but rather a quiet knitting together the beginning of a new kind of understanding.

Book Review: This Promise of Change by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy

Jo Ann Allen lived in a small community in Tennessee. There were both African American and caucasian people who lived there, but they followed very different rules. The library was for whites only as was the lunch counter. Many jobs were only available to white people. AND the schools were segregated. Jo Ann spent the first 9 years in schools for Negros (the word used at the time) before schools in Tennessee were ordered to integrate. Jo Ann and 11 other students were the first African American students to enroll in Clinton High School. Jo Ann tells her story in this memoir in verse. 

Book Review: Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum

McCreary, a Canadian comic shares his life story about growing up with Autism. He emphasizes that he is one person with Autism and that this is his own experience. McCreary not only shines some light on Autism but on the human condition.

Check out his video about Autism: https://vimeo.com/144769608

Book Review: Lowriders in Space by Cathy Camper and Illustrated by Raul the Third

Such a cute graphic novel about Lupe Impala (an amazing mechanic), El Chavo Flapjack (who can buff up anything) and Elirio Malario (the best detail man around) when they decide to build a car to enter into a contest. Their goal is to win the prize and build a garage. But they have no money so they need to start with a junk yard reject, a few rocket parts, some hard work, and a trip to space to build a car that is low and slow, bajito and suavecito. This is a fun book sprinkled with phrases and words in Spanish, and some historical connection to the low and slow cars built after WWII.
Want to know more: Check out this trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO15SU2XBmM
Find this book on Hoopla through the Nashua Public Library!

Book Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, this is the story of a young Coriolanus Snow - the future Panem President in the trilogy. From reading the first 3 books, we know President Snow is evil, but what made him that way? An excellent student at the prestigious Academy in the Capitol District, Snow has been trying to hide the fact that he and his family are really struggling for money and food. Snow is excited to learn that as one of the students chosen to mentor tributes in the upcoming 10th anniversary Hunger Games, he could win a university scholarship if his tribute wins the Games. Confident that his high marks, his family's history and sacrifices made to the District will earn him a tribute from a traditionally strong District, Snow is discouraged when he is assigned the female tribute from the notoriously weak District 12, Lucy Gray Baird. Snow’s motivation for Baird to win is complicated by his feelings for her. 

Overall this was an entertaining book but for me, but it fell a little flat as it didn't give me the insight into Snow that I was expecting. The story covers one year in his life so there remains a huge expanse of time - and life experience - between Snow being 18, his rise to power and his time as President of Panem. Maybe this was deliberate and leaves the author with the option to fill in the blanks with future stories? I did really enjoy the parts of the story about Snow recalling life as a young boy growing up during the rebel uprising, and how 10 years afterwards, the Capitol and the Hunger Games weren't nearly as glitzy and over the top as we see in the first novel (however, there were definitely signs in this story of heading in that direction). I think this is a good read for Hunger Games enthusiasts as they will likely recognize and appreciate the connections to the trilogy. This recently released novel is currently available as an audiobook for FREE on Hoopla with your public library card.