Complicated

Dignity:  Seeking Respect in Back Row America is a complicated book for me.  Some have criticized it because they consider it to be anti-Trump.  Well, I don't think that anything can be too anti-Trump.  So that wasn't my problem at all.  I found this article, written before the publication of the book, about Arnade's photography, some are included in the book, as the book is a compilation of the work he was doing and posting/publishing during the process.  
So I have some reservations...but I am more in line with this review from one the best journals out there.
And so I did give it five stars. 

A Must-Read

Maid:  Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive is a must-read for everyone.  Especially for those who don't really understand Luke 6:17-49.  This book has nothing to do with God, faith or religion on the surface.  I don't think it even mentions God's name even a curse word!  BUT if one has ever sneered at someone who has purchased "extra" things with an EBT card, or turned away when one saw someone asking for change on the street, it is a must-read and is trying to follow a life that follows Jesus, one should REALLY read this book.  I finished reading it just after I had finished writing my sermon and so I mention it a little in my sermon. 
When my father lost his job when my brother and I were little my mom put an ad in the paper to clean houses.  Even though he found a new job in a few weeks, my mom kept cleaning for twenty years.  And it is HARD HARD work.  I remember going with her on some jobs in the summer.  I remember my mom being able to beat my brother's athletic friends in arm-wrestling because she had built such strength during hours of house work.  I remember her knees and how she had to give up her favorite hobby of gardening because they wore out after years of scrubbing floors.  I remember some of her clients who would hide change to make sure she was honest.  She would always put the found money on the kitchen table, and add some her own when that happened.  And I remember, fortunately, more kind clients who treated her with the dignity that everyone deserves.
This woman's story is not unusual, as there are so many who are working hard for hardly any pay.  She tells an incredible story here and one that we all need to take to heart. 

India

I don't know much about India.  All I really know is from Mother Teresa and the Indians who live here in the US that I know.  Behind the Beautiful Forevers:  Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity was eye-opening and heart-breaking.  Katherine Boo came to Pittsburgh and I didn't see her but my friends did.  The title refers to a billboard that hides Annawadi and reminded me of the ways in which Chicago's housing projects were hidden from view from the parkway.  I had read that in There Are No Children Here:  the Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America and it has haunted me ever since.  Annawadi is referred to as a slum of Mumbai everywhere online but here in the book's title is it called an "undercity" and while I can figure out what that means, I can't seem to find a formal definition or history of the word.
I think this is a very good book and certainly, Boo is an esteemed writer.  For me I had a hard time paying attention at times and I am not sure why.  I do love this kind of nonfiction, not being an intellectual, I love the nonfiction that reads like fiction and this does, but I don't know.  I will certainly recommend this book, and I am glad I read it but it was not read that I read thinking, "I can't wait to get back to the book," but rather "I will be glad when I am done."

Narration

Dude, I am so so sorry that there wasn't a different narrator for the audio version of Everlasting Nora.  I REALLY didn't like listening to this book, but the book was SO good.  The book takes place in Manila and opened my eyes to the cemeteries that have so many people living in them.  I believe this is Marie Miranda Cruz's first published book and I will be eager to read another by her and I hope it will be soon!

My Only Regret

is that I wish I would have read If I Ever Get Out of Here BEFORE I read Give Me Some Truth.  I NEED to read everything by this man.  Shoe's poverty helped me to understand the way in which my mother grew up.  She was much luckier though, as there was no racial prejudice that she had to face.  But the description of the house and the lack of so much was right on target otherwise.  Again, so celebrating of Thanksgiving for me.  Incredible story.  Much to cry over and celebrate and inspire here. 

Katherine How Great Thou Art

I like the way that that Quakers talk in Lyddie.  I really liked Lyddie.  But that is not surprising, knowing the author is Katherine Paterson.  There are some very funny lines in Lyddie.  And the power of reading is subtly shown here.  This takes place in Lowell, MA and there still in an area in Lowell known as The Acre.  Bette Davis was born there, in Lowell. There is a lot to learn here.  And just an excellent story to enjoy. 

Full of Beans is a book that I have seen around a lot, but never looked at it and I wish I had because once I saw that it was related to Turtle in Paradise I knew it would be good.  And it was!  It was really, really good.  I probably just should have gone by the author, Jennifer L. Holm, because I loved TIP and also The Fourteenth Goldfish, so why wouldn't I love Full of Beans!
Set during the Great Depression in the Florida Keys, it really taught me a lot about the New Deal in general and its impact in Florida and the work to create a tourist destination in the Keys.  A realistic and funny and really good book!

I WILL recommend this

Mongrels didn't blow me away, but the reviews of it did, so I bought it right away.  And I liked it, I really, really did.  It just didn't WOW me, but it really could WOW a lot of people.  It is story of a young man growing up in a family of werewolves.  I have never read anything by Stephen Graham Jones, but I will read more!  It's also the story of being an outsider and family and loss of loved ones, so it is more than a horror story.  I thought it would be a horror story, so maybe I was just expecting that and it caught me off guard that I didn't find it to be scary.  But it was really, really good!

Ghosted

Does your neighborhood have that tradition of "ghosting" people?  Putting a ghost on someone's front door with treats?  I have a friend whose neighborhood did that.  I think it is cool!  Probably because I do love fall and Halloween!  We moved to an apartment and so I think I am going to do that this year!

That has nothing to do with Ghost.

Ghost was an incredible book!  If I didn't want Towers Falling to with the Newbery so badly, this would be my choice.  This most certainly has to be an Honor Book.  And if Towers Falling isn't going to win, which will go down as a 1954 moment if there ever was one, by the way...especially if one of those Fox Books wins, then I would hope that Ghost would take the big prize.

As You Know I Love Jerry....

and I have talked about my Incredible Once in a Life Time Spinelli Experience and I did love Maniac Magee.  Everyone has read this one, everyone except me, so I am glad I finally did. A beautiful kid.  Maybe all dudes should try harder to be like Jeffrey and maybe all chickies should try to be more like Susan. We should all try to be like both of them, right?  Again, you can learn a lot from fiction.  The thing is, the McNabbs were so foul and so awful.  I mean...the rotten part of me, I just wanted them punished.  Oh, but I loved Mars Bar and Amanda.  Very different.  Both very lovable.

A new state!

On my trip to Minneapolis went through a new state!  Iowa!  And so while I was there, I needed to listen to a book set in Iowa and I came across Grasshopper Jungle.  Wow!  What a find!
Somewhere I read this book as being described as one that takes on real-world problems in a Science Fiction setting.  No one could describe it any better.  This book is pretty darn wild.  Not for everyone, that is for sure.  But I did enjoy it a lot. I don't think I ever would have made it through, reading it, but listening to it was very enjoyable.
Yes, it is about the end of the world.  Yes, it is about giant, indestructible grasshoppers.  But it is so much more.  It's also about Polish immigrants.  It's also about discovering one's sexuality.  It's also about poverty.  Small towns.  Wow, it is just about a LOT of stuff!  Bizarre.  But pretty brilliant, I think.   This is my first Andrew Smith book, but I will try another one, for sure.