Kent State

Kent State is the name of the book by Deborah Wiles and it is also the name of this university and when one hears it, it one's age or knowledge of history that impacts what it brings to mind.  I was born in 1971 so the Kent State killings had happened before I was born, and I first learned about it when I heard this song.  I remember asking my dad about it and he told me what happened. I can't remember how old I was at the time, probably 7 or 8.  My dad was NOT a fan of Nixon and so he definitely told me about the shootings from his own POV. 
As I grew older I learned more about it and began to have more sympathy for those National Guardsmen who were sent to Kent State and did the shooting.  I have not been able to find much about how they feel, fifty years later.  But I do believe what my parents told me years ago and what has been said many times over "rich men start the wars and poor men fight them."
This book is very well done and I think a very important book for all.
Living in the world is hard when we forget that the answer to everything is to respond with love.  And when we are finished responding with love, we should respond with love.  And when we are finished responding with love again, then we should respond with love...and so on and so on and so on...

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. 

How Appropriate

to be reading Give Me Some Truth on the Fourth of July.   As you know, I do spend most of my life under a rock and so Eric Gansworth is a new author for me.  After having read this, I immediately purchased If I Ever Get Out of Here and that will be my next book after the one I am listening to currently.  GMST was excellent.   Ganswoth is a man of many talents and he has written a must-read.  He is a citizen of the Onondaga Nation and grew up in the Turscarora Nation, as he is the descendant of two Onondaga woman who were there when the Onondaga Nation was founded. 
This book is an eye-opener for people who don't understand what the colonists did to the Native Peoples.  And what they continue to do.  For me, it wasn't as powerful as The Absolutely True Diary, because that was the first book to really open my eyes.  I suggest reading them both.  For sure.  Required reading for everyone. 

I Have No Idea

How I chose to read Setting Free the Kites, but wow, I am so glad that I did. 
Do I overuse the word "wow?"
Probably.
But wow.
What a really good book.  Alex George is a new-to-me author and I need to read more from him. 
I loved this quote, described as an "old Irish rhyme:"
"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal.  Love leaves a memory, no one can steal."
I don't want to say too much, don't want to spoil.  But man, read this.  Excellent. 

Swinging Seventies!

It was hard to believe that Sunny is actually a little older than I am!  What?!  Is anyone ask old as I?  Swing It, Sunny is the second in what I didn't even know was as series about Sunny Lewin by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm.  I read the first one, Sunny Side Up, during the year that I didn't write about my books, but I really enjoyed it.  My sweet friend, Rebecky loved the first one and recommended it to me but said she didn't like this one as much.  Personally I enjoyed this one, too! 

To Pass the Time

Everything I Never Told you seemed like a lot of books I have read before, some of them even this year.  I didn't have anything to listen to and this was available and I didn't hate it.  I didn't even dislike it.  It was just there.  A solid 3 stars if you haven't read anything like it before, but a 2.5 if you have.  It was just a little too laid out for the reader.  Kinda like Mr. Obvious as to why the husband and wife acted as they did.  I mean, if I could get it, I bet everyone else did, but the author spelled it all out too much, the connections.  I don't think I am saying this right! 
It was kind of like this:
Husband wants daughter to be popular.  Says or does something to her to convey that.
Next scene in book is a flashback to when he was her age and was not popular.
Wife wants daughter to be a doctor.  Says or does something to her to convey that.
Next scene in book is a flashback to when her dreams of being a doctor were alive and then crushed.
It was just a little too...yeah, I guess spelled out?

Shakey

I have no idea why but for a long time I have called Shakespeare "Shakey Shakespeare."  I can't say I am a huge Shakespeare fan.  Or even a tiny Shakespeare fan.  Or even much of a fan.  But I did enjoy Macbeth and Hamlet and Othello.  I blame others of course.  I blame the fact that we had to read The Merchant of Venice in seventh grade.  Are most seventh graders ready for The Merchant of Venice?  I was ready for Macbeth in tenth and Hamlet in eleventh or twelfth, I can't remember, but not TMOV in seventh.  But maybe that was just me.
In any case, this series, Hogarth Shakespeare seems fantastic!  I loved New Boy and I am listing to Vinegar Girl right now, which is based on The Taming of the Shrew, which I don't know at all and it is SO good!   These books are written by really established authors.  Tracy Chevalier wrote this one.  And VG is written by Anne Tyler.  Both of these authors have written for adult audiences.  But on her website, Chevalier says that she thinks young adults will find this appealing as well, maybe.  And I agree. 

A Disco Inferno

Once I saw the Burn Baby Burn was written by Meg Medina who wrote Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.  I bought it.  And I am so glad that I did.  I didn't know anything, really about 1977 in New York, and that is to my embarrassment.  There was the black out, and Son of Sam.
I knew about Son of Sam, but not that much.
Burn Baby Burn isn't about the Son of Sam or about the Black Out, per say, it is the story of a young girl, Nora, and her senior year in high school, her father who has a new family and seems to have forgotten is first family, except that he is sometimes on time with the rent check, even though he is very financially well off, her brother Hector who has serious anger issues and violent tendencies and now a drug dealing and drug using problem, and her first experience with love.
The ERA movement is also a back ground to Burn Baby Burn and while the 70s usually leave me a little cold, not sure why, this book was one I couldn't put down.  Medina is just such a great storyteller and Nora is so real.  Excellent.

Daughters of Eve and Sons of Adam

Daughters of Eve is a wonky little book.  It really is a slice of American life in the 70s.  When women were starting to more boldly demand their rights.  Well, I guess it started in the late 60s. 
The neatest thing I found after reading this book was this article, that Lois Duncan's granddaughter found, then forwarded to her grandma and her grandma wrote back!  I second all of the positive things about this book.  It also gives teens of today a look at what it was like "back in the day."  A very enjoyable read!

Under the Cover

Remember the horrible Gary Paulsen covers?  The Cat Ate My Gymsuit has had the same trouble. The cover was the total reason that I never read this book until now.  Here are the terrible ones:

But here are some good ones, that I didn't see until now.

This book is about a lot of things!  Self-esteems, equal rights, all kinds of stuff.  I never, ever knew what it was about because I just couldn't read it because of the cover...and maybe also because I was (and am) a fat person and man...it just was too painful then to get into it with a book.
This book is from a time and a place that I don't remember much about from experience, but it was back when women really didn't work outside of the home.  When it was weird for a woman to refer to herself as Ms.  instead of Miss, if she wasn't married.

Ms. Finney is Marcy's new teacher and she is really looked upon with suspicion by the school administration because of her "unusual" tactics and her "untraditional" dress, but what puts her job in jeopardy is her refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  I went back in my blog to see if I had written about this before and I had, back here, two years ago.  Now the gal I wrote about back then was different from Ms. Finney.  In the book, she stands and salutes, but won't pledge to the flag because she believes that our country doesn't offer "liberty and justice for all." and she will keep working to see that it does, with that hope that it will one day do just that.  She also says that she loves her country.  So it is a little bit different from the 13 year old that I railed against two years ago.
The thing is....at the time that I was listening to this, I was (and still am) listening to Hitler Youth:  Growing up in Hitler's Shadow.   Hitler made folks pledge the flag.  He made them pledge him.  And the truth that is even deeper, is that as a Christian, we really aren't supposed to pledge our allegiance to anyone but God.
Now I am a patriot.  My last night at karaoke, I sang, as I have many times before The Fighting Side of Me.  I won't buy anything but a Ford, GM or Chrysler.  Well, I have never bought a Chrysler and I probably will stick to Ford from now on, unless maybe someone wanted to give me a Caddy or a Corvette.
But I am a Christian first.  The man I used to pastor with back in the day, he never said the pledge.  I can see why now.  I pledge my allegiance only to my Lord.
Ah, I have gotten off track again!  Shocking!
But I did enjoy this book, though I don't know if kids would be in to it today.  But maybe to read it in addition to American Girl's Julie books.  Yeah!  Like Meet Rebecca and All-of-a-Kind Family!   Yeah!  Hooray!
Also, TCTAMG has a sequel, There's a Bat in Bunk Five.  I am going to read that, too!

Music is His Life!

For What It's Worth is a really good book.  I enjoyed it a ton and read it quickly, but I don't know a lot of teens I would recommend it too, because, well I don't know.  There are a ton of references to albums and bands in it, and they are actual albums and bands, not like in the bizarre Why We Broke Up, which references a million movies and movie stars that have never existed.  I knew most of the music that Tashjian mentions, but I don't know if teens do.  Maybe they do?  Maybe they don't, but just like I didn't know much about Rimbaud (okay ANYTHING) I was compelled to find out more after reading Radiant Days.  So yeah, I will recommend the book for sure to teens.  And I know I will recommend it to adults.  The book is set in 1971-1972, when Quinn heads back to school after the summer that Jim Morrison has died.
Judy, Jim and Tupac.  The three most important people in music, ever.
Anyway.
Quinn is fourteen and he is a music fanatic!  He has a sweet record collection, a mom and dad, a sister who is a freshman at Brandeis, and he lives is Laurel Canyon.  His mom is friends with Mama Cass, he actually would see people like Janis and Jim hanging out.   He gets a job helping Frank Zappa.  It's just his neighborhood, you know?  In the right place at the right time.  This year he gets his first girlfriend, so there is the young love part.  He also starts to realize more about the world around him.  Remember this is Vietnam time.  The protests, the draft, Watergate is in here.  This is would be a great book to recommend to a teen having to do historical fiction, actually.  I mean, they would enjoy it and it is also historical!
Anyway, great book!

Everyone's Pain

is unique.  And no one's pain is greater or less than another's pain.  I had to keep reminding myself of that when I read The Bathhouse, but man, I don't know...it is hard to feel for a lot of these protagonists in teen novels after you read The Bathhouse.  It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to think about my own little trials after reading The Bathhouse.   The Bathhouse is the story of an older teen girl who is taken to a prison camp, under suspicion of being a traitor during the Iranian Revolution.  I am embarrassed to say that prior to reading this book, I knew very little about the Revolution.  I knew about the Shah and Khomeini, but not about the religious aspects of the revolution and all of the different parties.  I remembered the hostages, of course, but not much else.  This is a story of torture and devotion and all kinds of things, wrapped up in one.  It is a tough book to listen to (I had the MP3) but it is well worth it and it lead me to learn more about that time period in history, which still impacts the world today.  Very well written and well done.  Recommended highly.

Mr. Block

So political mysteries really aren't my thing.  I like pure detective, police work.  But this was Lawrence Block.  And I love Lawrence Block!  And well, I LOVED The Triumph of Evil.  It is smart and funny and even though it is set in the 70s, amidst the  protests of the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights, it is still very enjoyable today and really holds up.  Miles is an assassin, but likable...like Keller.  I do love Keller.  Great book.

It's a Thin Line...

With Love and Haight I have read one more book this year (146) than I did in 2011 (145) though I have not yet reached my goodreads.com goal of 175.  Will I make it?  Who knows!  Good Reads is VERY encouraging!  It tells me that now I am 65 books, 37% ahead in my reading and it keeps telling me to increase my goal.  No way!  I want to complete one goal this year and so far that looks like it will be the only one that MIGHT happen!  So I will keep pushing along, trying to make 175.
In the meantime, I must say that Love and Haight was just what I needed.  I have read good books lately, but a few that were okay.  I needed one of those "suck you into the world of the book" books and this did it, even though it is historical fiction, set in 1971 in San Francisco.  1971 would have been the tail end of the hippie movement in Haight-Ashbury but the characters in Chloe's life are still living the hippie vibe.  Chloe has come from Arizona with her best friend, MJ, to have an abortion.  At the time, in California, abortions were legal with a doctor's permission.  LAH is the most thought-provoking and honest book I have read in a long time.  I admire Susan Carlton for her complex treatment of the subject.  I admire the way in which Chloe makes her decision, though it would not be my decision, and that part of that decision-making process is a return to her faith.  This is book real, honest and a great discussion-starter.