Discovering Poetry

When a character in a book discovers the beauty of poetry, it is a really, for lack of a better word, beautiful thing.  When a person in real life discovers the beauty of poetry, it is also a really beautiful thing.  I wonder if I am projecting, but I think that people who don't like poetry maybe are afraid of it?  Or had to read poetry at the wrong time in school?  I mean, I know this was my situation.  Or maybe they just have found the right poet for them.  Langston finds his poet, who happens to be the poet after whom he was named.  Langston Hughes.  Who was an amazing poet.  Loved this book.  Not just about poetry.  Finding Langston is not just about Langston finding Hughes by Langston finding himself, too. 

Really, Really Excellent

Alan Gratz was a speaker at PSLA a couple of years ago, and he was talking about his then new book, Prisoner B-3087.  I had not heard of the book or the author prior to that, for which I was embarrassed and so very thankful that I learned of him and read the book.  It was incredible.  After reading Refuge, I am even more glad because it was even more incredible, if that is possible. This is my pick for the Newbery so far, for sure.

Put Downs

Precious Sons is the first work I have read by George Furth and I have to say I wasn't crazy about it.  It just wasn't my proverbial cup of tea as they say.  I hated the name calling and the put-downs, maybe hit too close to home?  I think I overuse the phrase "cup of tea."  I don't even like tea!  But anyway, it was good in that it was very realistic.  I mean, families are like this.  They really are.  It was just a toughie.  

Man, man, man...

I LOVED Out of the Easy so much that when I saw Between Shades of Gray a an audio I had to have it!  I am super bummed that Ruta Sepetys doesn't have any other books out now so that I can devour them immediately.
This is an incredibly powerful story.  I really didn't know anything about the Sovietization of Lithuania and the deportation of "enemies of the Soviets."
Horrifying.
A tremendous book.

Shame

Rereading Chiefs was not what I expected.  I read it when I was thirteen, shortly after the mini-series came out because I loved the movie.  After our county got OneClick Audio, which I LOVE, Chiefs was the first book I downloaded.
It's been a long time since I read an amazing Stuart Woods book.  Even though I still love him and will read everything I can about Stone, as I've admitted in the past, Woods just doesn't write real books anymore.  Chiefs surprised me because it is truly a classic.  Wonderfully drawn characters, historical content that is truly interesting, suspense like you wouldn't believe and the dialogue is excellent.  This is a fantastic book.
But it was a painful book.
The book spans more than forty years and tells a series of murders that spans that long, as well.  It is told in three books:  Will Henry Lee, Sonny Butts and Tucker Watts, three chiefs of the Delano, Georgia police department.  During those forty years someone in Delano is kidnapping, molesting and murdering young boys.  When the first two chiefs get close to exposing the murderer, they are killed.  The Sonny Butts book and the Tucker Watts books are the hardest to read.  I had to skip around and go backward because of the horrors that Sonny Butts put African American through and the racism present in general.  Tucker Watts' story is the same.  This is a shameful part of American history when it comes to the treatment of African Americans.  Personally I think present day is also a shameful part of American history as well.  We are not much better off.
Fantastic but very disturbing book.