Book Review: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

 

Frances (Frenchie) and his brother are hiding in a treehouse at the beginning of this story, but they soon find themselves in trouble as the recruiters have found them. Mitch distracts the recruiters to allow Frances to escape. 

Frances is Native American. The time is the future. People have stopped dreaming and their only hope is harvesting the marrow of Native Americans - the place where dreams still are generated. Frances finds himself on the run from the recruiters - this is not a safe time for Native Americans. Soon he is rescued by a group of strangers.

This book has a little of everything: A diverse cast of characters, survivalism, grobal warming, a dystopian world, friends and family, love and luv. And hope. And a happy ending.

Try this story, you won't be sorry.

"Cold is an effective alarm clock, and I was up before the sun. The fire had gone out, but not long ago, since there was still smoke. The cough I'd been cultivating over the past few days was more insistent now. I coughed, and each push of air brought a fresh ache out of my back and legs. The jump and run had really done a number. Still, I stood and started my jumping jacks following Mitch's morning warm-up routine even through he wasn't there to remind me. 

'C'mon French, I've seen higher from a boulder.'"

Do you think you could survive alone in the great north woods? alone? What would you draw upon to save your own skin?

Book Review: The DeVouring / Simon Holt

Happy December folks. Check out this totally different take on a holiday story - all centering around the Christmas Season.

You won't find visions sugar plums dancing in wee ones heads, but rather a nightmare dreamscape that features our most terrible imaginings.

If you like B- grade horror movies, this book will play that out in your head. This will keep your eyes moving across the page to see what unexpected horror comes next. 

 

Book Review: 10 Blind Dates / Ashley Elston

 Merry Christmas vacation. Oh it isn't that time of year? Well, let me tell you, there is not bad time to read this book - it is a bit of a romp.

Sophie is excited for a few hours all to herself - it is something that happens VERY infrequently. Between her senior year in high school, college selection, clubs, and a father who is chief of police and incredibly protective she gets little alone time or time alone with her boyfriend, Griffen. When she calls Griffin to share the good news - he suggests that Sophie joins him at a party. Unfortunately, when she gets there she overhears him talking about how he was looking forward to some time away from her - and the heartbreak begins.

Sophie makes her way to her Nona's and Papa's house - a place where her very large extended family gather and is quickly embraced by her Nona and surrounded with love. But Nona is always scheming and she finds a way to take Sophie's mind off her troubles: 10 blind dates during the Christmas break. AND the blind dates will be set up by members of Sophie's extended family. What could go wrong???

Reading this book is a great little brain vacation for anyone who likes crazy antics, a few laughs, and an escape from studying for exams. This is a story about love - the love of friends, the love of family, the heartbreak of lost love, and finally of just plain luv. 

You can find this book on the shelves of the South Library or check out NPL for audio and ebook options. There is also a companion book, 10 Truths and a Dare which I look forward to reading when I need something light.

Book Review: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

This book was a recommendation from my daughter. I finished this at the end of last week and I just want to turn to the first page and read it again. The end of this book offered me a perspective that I didn't start with and now I want/need to start over. 

This is about books, and love, and life, and death. It is messy and funny and heartbreaking. 

"We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.

I am thankful for this book. I borrowed it through my SORA account which is connected to my Nashua Public Library Libby account. You can connect your accounts too. 

 

Book Review: Clap When You Land / Elizabeth Acevedo

I was able to visit the Dominican Republic this summer - at least within the pages of this book. It was a nice trip and I enjoyed it very much.

Camino lives in the Dominican Republic, her father spends every summer with her. 
Yahaira lives in New York City. Her father spends her school years with her.
Their dad dies in a plane crash.
The thing is, neither girl know about the others' existence. 

This novel in verse is about loss. But it is also about family, and love, opening one's heart to new truths.

You can borrow this book from the stacks in the Nashua South library, or from Nashua Public library - they have it in print, but also through the Libby app (both audio and ebook.)

 

Book Review: Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

"This book is a fairy tale in which I am the prince and the princess. I am the king and the queen. I am my own wicked witch and fairy godmother... I am the fairy finding my own magic."

These are a few of the words from the prologue of Black Flamingo, a novel in which a mix-raced, gender-nonconforming teen works to define his place in the world and find his people.

Michael makes it to college before he is able to find a world big enough to find his place. He feels loved as a child and supported by his mom. But he just doesn't quite fit anywhere. In college he finds among the clubs the Drag Society and his heart finds a home. 

I love that this story describes drag so beautifully - as a performance art. A place to speak your story or spread your message.

This is a fun novel in verse that can be found in the stacks at Nashua South and via Hoopla (audio) and Libby (E and Audio.)

 

Book Review: Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

 

"Roses can bloom in the hardest conditions." This is a sentiment that Mr. Wyatt shares with Maverick in this novel. 

And yes, Maverick is both a rose and living in difficult conditions. His father is in jail, presumably for gang-related activity (he was the "crown".) His mom can barely pay the bills. He is in a gang and selling drugs. AND then one day he is asked to join a girl at the hospital where a DNA test is being run on her 3 month old son. That is the day he is thrown into the life of fatherhood when the girl leaves the hospital without the baby. Maverick is thrown into a life of sleepless nights, exploding diapers, and of forehead kisses. This new responsibility brings up all kinds of questions, such as how is a 17 year old boy supposed to support a son.

No, life for Maverick doesn't get easier from here. And this is not a novel that is tidy. Maverick struggles with decisions that will impact his family for years. Sometimes there are no easy answers. 

This is a story of fatherhood, of family, and of friendship. It is a story of responsibility, and consequences for actions, and struggling to figure out what the next steps in life. This is also the prequel to The Hate You Give.

As far as I am concerned, this is a five star novel.

Find it on the shelves at South or the Nashua Public Library. NPL also has both audio and ebook copies through Libby. 

Book Review: What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

What an amazingly beautiful cover and a great story. 

Muiriel was born into the foster system when she was abandoned at birth. The nurses in the John Muir named her after the John Muir Medical Center where she was taken as a foundling. And this was the beginning of her strength.

The story opens as she leaves another foster placement. Her social worker, Joellen, is taking her to an island outside of Seattle where she will live with a foster mom who decided to take one last foster placement - a teen (though prior to this she has only fostered little ones). Muir takes pride in "packing lightly" and depending on no one but herself. But this island and the community there challenges her beliefs about herself and about her world. 

Jennifer Longo wrote this book (as stated in the Author's Note at the end of the story) because her daughter, who was born into the foster system, noted that she often doesn't find herself represented in books. Longo listened to a number of kids who live or lived in the foster system and this story came out of those voices. 

Longo states: "Voices of adults, well intended or not, overwhelmingly drive the myopic, adult-centric false narrative of foster care and adoption in America, talking over those of the kids in foster care who are screaming and no one is listening."

At the end of this story there are several resources listed for more information. One of these resources is Aging Out Institute. There are others listed in the book.

You can find a copy of this book on the Nashua South shelves (as soon as I donate this copy!) 

Thanks for the recommendation from Valerie a guidance counselor from Londonderry.

 

Book Review: Brown Girl Dreaming / Jacqueline Woodson

This is a memoir -- in verse -- of the evolution of an author -- who happens to live in brown skin. How can a book get any better than that?

This book is so gently written. It will take you back to the 1960s and early 1970s when Woodson was just beginning her life. She was born in Columbus, Ohio - but spent most of her early life between places, the north and the south: Brooklyn, NY and South Carolina. And while the stark different between her grandparents red stone house with a porch for sitting and a yard big enough for gardening and playing AND living in Brooklyn where there is only one tree, people are crowded together and the air smells of city - the biggest difference was how a brown person had to walk so differently through each of these places. There was a freedom in NYC to walk through the neighborhood (though not past a certain street) that was different from the back-of-the-bus life in South Carolina. The vestiges of Jim Crow still colored the world in the mid sixties.

But this is more than living and growing as a person of color. Here Woodson shares her evolution as a writer. Her love of words and her different way of learning to read. She shares her love for her family. And finally, she draws a verbal picture of growing up in the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Here you will find a life filled with double dutch and fireflies, friends and bullies, family joys and sorrows, living between two worlds, Christianity and Islam, words, words, words. 

One of my favorite quotes: 

"If someone had taken
that [picture] book out of my hand 
said, You're too old for this 
maybe
I'd never have believed
that someone who looked like me
could be in the pages of the book
that someone who looked like me
had a story."

You can find a print copy of this book in the South library. Nashua Public Library also has print copies and you can borrow the audiobook from Overdrive.

Book Review: Internment by Samira Ahmed

This book starts with a book burning. 

Layla is living in a time when America is out of control: a new president, a Muslim ban, exclusion laws, rampant Islamophobia, and a curfew, and finally relocation camps. 

This story, set in a near future America, features a repeat of the injustices played out after Pearl Harbor was bombed and many Japanese Americans were placed in relocation camps, but this story revolves around Muslims. After Layla sneaks out to meet her boyfriend and is out past curfew - she races home only to hear loud knocks on her door in the middle of that night by the Exclusion Authority. Though not a consequence of her actions, her family is targeted for relocation and given 10 minutes to pack a single bag each to take into their new lives. Phones are confiscated - there is no way to tell her boyfriend what is happening, she has no pictures of them together, no way to hear his voice. And so it begins...

So if you found yourself in Layla's position - what would you do? Keep quiet and try to survive? Or rattle all the chains, put yourself and your family in danger, and try to change things EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THE DANGERS?

This book moves at a fast clip and will keep you thinking all the way through. It is available in print in our library or through SORA. 

"Unless we know our history, we're doomed to repeat it? Isn't that the lesson? But we always forget. Forgetting is the American grain."

 

Book Review: Early Departures / Justin A. Reynolds

First of all let me just state that my ancient ereader is the best. No back light, a tiny keyboard, and it is a beast. Yay for that.

Now for the book.

• This was a fast read - the book just grabs you and holds you
• It will make you think about honesty and death
• There is humor rolled into this book (though it didn't really make me LOL)
• The character development is good - all the way through

Early in this story you learn that there are moments that divide your life into before and after. Like March 13, 2020 - when this pandemic sent us home from school. None of us are the same as we were before that date. Some change is good, some bad - but we have all been impacted. Think of before. Think of after. For Jamal that moment was 11:43 - when Jamal's parents were killed in a car accident. After that moment - nothing is the same as before and now Jamal is just sliding through life without taking anything seriously - not his schooling, not his girlfriend, not his best friend. 

And then... there is a party, and a drowning, and again nothing is the same. 

 

Book Review: Words We Don't Say / K. J. Reilly

Joel just doesn't fit into school very well - he is more interested in cars than math (at least the way they teach it at school.) He goes to school, he does what he has to, he gets by. This is his story in his unfiltered internal dialog (along with his filtered external voice) and a bunch of unsent text messages. (Can you really save these to draft?)

Anyway, Joel must participate in community service as a graduation requirement and volunteers at the soup kitchen each Wednesday night. Luckily Eli also volunteers then and he has an incredible crush on her. At the soup kitchen he meets a bunch of characters, some who are willing to share their insights and others who remain silent. Many are veterans and many have mental illness.

Why would I recommend this book? The characters are flawed but  well formed and interesting. There is a very big difference between Joel's internal voice (lots of swearing) and his external voice (which is pretty polite.) There is some insight into mental illness and trauma. And a real value placed on intelligence that isn't of the Advanced Placement variety.  Finally, I found myself LOLing at multiple points in the story even though many of the topics in this book are heavy ones. 

If bad language bothers you - stop - don't read. If you don't enjoy visiting someone else's mind - stop. But if you like to jump into someone else's experience and see all of the richness that makes us human - jump right into this book with both your eyes and your mind wide open. 

 

Book Review: This is My America by Kim Johnson

Depending on your perspective a book can be either a window or a mirror.

We all walk through our world with different expectations and realities. My white skin makes my walk pretty easy - people generally expect the best from me. They see me as grandmotherly and not particularly threatening. I once had a police officer apologize for giving me a ticket because I was "such a nice lady."

Contrast that to the experience of an African American walking through the streets of our country. It just is not the same - and this novel illustrates that beautifully.

Tracy Beaumont has been writing to the Innocence X Headquarters regularly for years. You see, her father is sitting on death row, waiting for execution for a murder he did not commit. Tracy hopes that Innocence X will take his case an appeal his conviction. Soon enough, Tracy's brother Jamal also finds himself running from a crime that he did not commit. Tracy is concerned that her brother, just like her father, won't get a fair shake from the police or a fair trial. 

Read this book - if you are a white person - Tracy's "Know Your Rights Workshops" will give you a glimpse into a world that might astound you. You might find a window, you might even find a mirror.

Read this book - if you are black - you may see some of your own experiences between the covers of this book. You might find a mirror, you might also find a window.

Here you will find history, empathy, self reckoning, introspection, love, family, caring and a whole lot more. This is one big adventure that will have you walking in someone else's shoes - no matter who you are. 

 Make sure that you read the Author's notes at the end of the book. These notes will add additional perspective.

Book Review: Closer to Nowhere / Ellen Hopkins

 

Let me start by sharing that this story targets middle school students, the protagonists are twelve years old. Then let me say that this doesn't matter a bit, this is a story that needs to be told, a story written from Ellen Hopkins's family story - about addiction and violence - about children born into families which have a rough time supporting them both emotionally and physically. And about the healing that can take place afterwards given the right supports.

Cal's father is in prison, his mother died of leukemia. He lives with his aunt (an identical twin of his mother) and her family including Hannah, his cousin - also twelve. Cal's life until now has been about surviving hardship and he is learning how to adapt to living in a safe environment with food on the table and a bed. Hannah is learning how to live with Cal and his struggles with learning how to adapt to a life that is no longer chaotic. The truth is - this is hard for everyone.

This story speaks to the trauma that people go through when their lives are chaotic. It also speaks to the truths of incorporating a hurting child into one's family. And it speaks to love, addiction, hope, therapy, adapting, inner strengths, compassion, and learning more about what lies behind the faces that we put forth. This is a story about what is under the surface. 

If you are planning on becoming a teacher, a counselor, a nurse, a doctor, a social worker - just about anyone in a "helping profession" - read this book. It is a great opportunity to walk in the shoes of someone who is learning how to live a life which doesn't have chaos as a foundation. It is also a story that reminds us that what we see in people is only what lies on the surface. We are all more than what we appear at first glance.

Book Review: The Noel Diary by Richard Paul Evans

Every year I try to read a new-to-me Christmas story around the holidays. Richard Paul Evans often offers a good story and this one is not an exception. It is about love and it is totally a romance novel - but it encompasses more types of love than just the romantic kind.

In this story, Jacob has had a troubled beginning. As a matter of fact, he found himself kicked out of his home when he was sixteen. Luckily a neighbor took him in but regardless, this experience has left him feeling disconnected.

Now Jacob is a famous author who writes romance novels. The thing is that Jacob himself in unlucky in love. (No surprise with his past). This is a quick-read novel that touches on love, family, grace, and Christmas and learning how to love.

Book Review: Anxious People by Fredrik Bachman

 

Read this book. Seriously, read this book.

Backman will make you laugh and cry. This is a mystery and a love story. 

"Flesher, you found a romance novel that you like?", you ask. (Romance novels - ick!)

This is so much more than a romance novel. This is a LOVE STORY. The story of love in all of its colors. Love: between spouses, among friends, for children. This is so much bigger than a romance novel. 

OK - here is a quick plot summary: A bunch of people are looking at an apartment that is for sale. Simultaneously, the bank across the street is held up at gun point with the bank robber narrowly escaping. And the perpetrator ends up in the apartment and it all turns into a hostage situation. Throw in a couple of police officers who need to solve the crime and you have Anxious People. 

I borrowed this book through SORA which I connected to the NH State Library. I had to put it on hold and wait a while but the wait was totally worth it. I went and bought a copy because I want to read it again. 

Book Review: Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

 

This book tells the story of Amal, a young black teen who finds himself in the middle of a fight. The victim of the fight is seriously injured and Amal is arrested for the crime.

Things to know:

• Amal is black
• The other kid is white 

This is the story of inequality, the school to prison pipeline, about expectations and assumptions, about art and literature and poetry and family and friends... about life inside black male skin. 

This novel in verse not only punches the air, but is a punch in the gut. It is so good and will leave you thinking. 

You can find this book at the Nashua Public library or it is available through Libby or SORA (if you have attached your Nashua Public Library card.)

Before you start, watch this video about The Story Behind Punching the Air

Book Review: How to Stop Time / Matt Haig

 

Tom Hazard was born in  1581 with a weird disorder in which he only ages one year each 15 years. This creates a lot of havoc and some charges of witchcraft. When he loses his mother (she was placed on a ducking stool and drowned while the towns' people were determining if she was a witch. She died which "proved" that she wasn't, though the towns' people didn't believe that.)

Left on his own to figure out how to get by without aging, Tom does the best he can and finds himself falling in love with Rose - but despite moving around, people begin to talk when she ages and he doesn't. This story travels through time, mostly set in the 1500s, the second half of the 1800s, the 1920s and now. How would you live your life if you were Tom? How would aging so slowly change your perspective? And what can we learn from history? Are we destined to relive society's mistakes? 

I borrowed this book from the Nashua Public Library and enjoyed it so much that I have put on hold Matt Haig's next book - The Midnight Library.

Book Review: There There by Tommy Orange

Wow this book offers a lot to think about. There are many characters - with the commonality of Native American blood and the urban experience, specifically Oakland. Standing in each of these character's shoes allows for some empathy for even those characters who are intent on doing bad things. 

Orange wanted people to see a different story about Native people as many of the stories written are either set in the past, or on a Reservation. This is a big story comprised of personal stories that allows the reader to vicariously experience the motivations and inner thoughts of a variety of people and see how those smaller stories come together in a single moment and that leaves the reader wondering about what happens next.

 

Book Review: We Set the Dark on Fire / Tehlor Kay Mejia

Daniela's parents worked hard to give her all of the opportunities that they didn't have. They traversed the boarder between worlds, they bought papers, and they found a pathway to sneak Daniela into the premier school for women, a school that prepares women to be a wife in a country where the elite have two wives, the Primera (a partner in intellect) and a Segura (a lover and mother). Daniela is the first Primera in her class and is paired with Mateo, a husband planning to run for the presidency. Unfortunately, the Segura is a woman who has bullied her throughout school. 

And married life isn't what she had thought it would be. Mateo is a nasty man intent on keeping those who are privileged rich and those without privilege poor.  Children are starving, many people are without healthcare, and things are not all right in the world. Daniela's secret past results in bribery by a band of rebels who are threatening both herself and her family if she doesn't help them. The rebels want a better world - is it more important for Daniela to honor her family's sacrifices and stay safe, or push against the horrors perpetrated by this government?

This is a story that is set in an imaginary world with an imaginary mythology, but the issues are real and there are so many parallels with our lives in today's world.