White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

I miss my friend Ashlee Norwood who moved away this past year. I feel lucky that we "see" each other on Facebook. But just as nice, I follow her on Good Reads - so I get to see what she is reading and what books she really loves. 

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson is a book that she recently recommended. I could access this book through SORA along with my Nashua Public Library connection. So off I went on this reading adventure.

It is about a girl, Marigold, who was in a bad place in her life (not spelled out at the beginning of the story) who moves with her family to a new house in a new town. It is a new start for the whole family. But when they arrive at their Victorian home they discover that it has been abandoned for the last 30 years, and that it is on a street in which all the homes are abandoned. Soon after they move in, things begin to go bump in the night...

To be honest, I didn't love it as much as Ashlee did, BUT I did enjoy the book quite a bit. Why?

• It kept my interest - this book is fast-paced all the way through
• It was a creepy horror book in the middle of a pandemic. Sometimes I need a little of relatively unrealistic horror to combat that thrumb of anxiety that COVID leaves in the pit of my stomach
• I liked that it touched on marijuana use - not in a way that it either condemns or favors its use

What didn't I like?

• Parents don't tend to by so clueless - how could you live in a house with slamming doors, horrid smells, and missing items and be totally oblivious
• Some of the characters weren't very well drawn
• Those bed bug references made me itchy the whole way through!

So if you need a break from the pandemic and enjoy a really creepy tale - jump right into White Smoke!

 

Book Review: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

 

    Don't you just love this cover? Art plays a big role in this book and the cover completely fits with the story. 

    Felix Love is a transgender teen who wants to know what it is like to be in love. At the same time, he is struggling with identifying himself and questioning the "labels" that define him. He also wonders if he is worthy of love. When an anonymous person exposes his past and sends him trans-phobic messages, Felix sets up a plan to "catfish" the suspected culprit. But the results to the catfishing plan are not what he expects. Throw in anxiety about what the future holds and this story hits lots of things that many teenagers experience.

The heart of this story is about identity and self-discovery but it also includes the themes of relationships and privilege. Through a diverse cast of supporting characters, Felix's relationship with his friends and family also play a big role in how he evolves throughout the story. The author did a fantastic job of capturing the yearning for acceptance and the longing for love. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a glimpse into what it is like to be a trans-gender teen. Beyond that, I think anyone who enjoys stories about teen relationships - love, family and friends - would also enjoy this story.

Felix Ever After is available in the South library and with your Nashua Public Library card in audiobook and ebook format. It is also currently on the long list for the Flume Award - the NH teen reader's choice award.

Activity: The Mayor's Reading Challege

 Have you heard that the mayor has challenged the citizens of Nashua to a reading challenge? 

Learn more about it at the Nashua Public Library!

What are you reading?

Review: The Outcasts of Time / Ian Mortimer

Throughout this weekend, I have been skipping through time while reading Mortimer's Outcasts of Time.

Can you imagine living in the midst of a pandemic? Oh, you can? Well, what if it was the black plague? What if there wasn't modern medicine to care for those in need? What if people were dying in the streets and in the fields or in their homes? That is what is happening at the beginning of this story as John and his brother stride through the streets of their community.  John wants to do good deeds and when he finds a baby under the body of a dead woman he picks it up, but life turns to horror when he discovers the baby is infected with the plague. 

As John fears his immenent death he hears a voice, a voice of second chance. He learns that he will live for six more day. However he will skip through the centuries and each of these days will take place 99 years after the last. 

What stays the same? What is different? Is there salvation in good deeds, in a life well lived? Can man make a difference?

Take a break from our own pandemic and trapse through time with John and decide if you agree with John's sentiment:

"The man who has no knowledge of the past has no wisdom."

 Find this book on the shelves at South or through Hoopla at the Nashua Public Library.

Book and Movie Review: Hidden Figures, book by Margot Lee Shetterly

Hidden Figures tells the story of how a group of black women broke both the race and sex barrier when they acquired jobs at NACA/NASA as mathematicians. It is an important story to be told. There is also a lot here about how it felt to live in the USA as a black person during the mid twentieth century. 

However, this book was a bit hard to get through. There is a lot of information here and important information, but it was hard to get through. The telling wasn't linear and skipped from one character to another. I had the book in front of me in print, and also was listening to the audio book. (which I borrowed through SORA - I have the Nashua Public library connected to my SORA account.) I ended up speeding up the recording to 175 percent so that I could get through it. There is a pretty good index so I think it could be helpful for reports on the Space Race, Feminisim, Civil Rights, American History.

AND THEN I watched the movie. I am not sure how accurate the movie was, and it certainly didn't cover all of the information in the book, but it was enjoyable. It centered on three of the women and told their stories in a manner that could be digested. 

So lessons learned -

• Sometimes the move IS better
• Some books are better for research than for reading cover to cover
• This is not the book for me

 

Book Review: When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II / Molly Guptill Manning

A new year ... a new book challenge... a new goal. Welcome 2022 - let's become friends. 

First off, I hope and pray that 2022 is filled with great blessings, great health, and plenty of learning. 

And let's start that learning with my new book challenge which looks a little different from the reading challenges that I have created in the past. Originally I would just challenge myself with random parameters: a red book, a fancy cover, a science fiction book... Then I decided to record only books that were recommended. In my 2022 READING GOAL I am combining my desire to read recommended titles with a push to read different genres and about different topics. The elementary schools have started the Nashua Nine Challenge which encourages students to read across genres - to try new things and I am doing the same. Why do this challege? It expands the boundaries of my reading world to places I wouldn't go left to my own devices. You can see my new challenge and what I read last year on our website. 

My new life goal? I NEED TO MAKE things. I have worked so hard these past few years that I have lost the maker part of myself. I plan on centering my making around things that you do with needles - mostly knitting and crocheting but maybe some sewing thrown in (not masks - I have made too many of those.) I want to improve my skills and try new things. 

And then onto When Books Went to War. I have discovered that knitting and listening to audio books work together beautifully. I just listened to this book (I also have a copy in hand so I have read some too) while I have made a loom hat and one fingerless mitten (using double pointed needles!) for my wife. (I need to find another audio for the other mitten.) 

When Books Went to War is about how books, information, and stories impacted World War 2. Germany was attacking libraries and free thought. Books were being burned that didn't agree with their Nazi sentiments. Books authored by Jews, those that championed socialism, pacifism, reform or sexual freedom were tossed into the flames. Helen Keller stated that, "History has taught you nothing, if you think you can kill ideas... Tyrants have tried to do that often before, and the ideas have risen up in their might and destroyed them." 

As the United States entered this war they determined that their foes must be fought on two fronts - both in battle and in the mind. The USA's reaction to Germany's censorship was to place information at the tips of soldiers and sailors fingers in the form of books and magazines. This is that story.

As the World War 2 poster said,  "Books are Weapons in the War of Ideas"