It Can't Last

Hindsight is 20-20, so we know that while Lucía's family has hope (at least in the beginning) that "their" Cuba will be "their" Cuba again  very soon, we know that is not in the cards.  Even with Castro's death, Communist Cuba will probably be Communist Cuba for a long time to come.  Those were some of the saddest parts for me.  It reminded me of the mom in A Night Divided, who believed that East Germany would be united with West Germany in a short time, too.
It might seem like I had a theme going on here, with AND in my recent reading past, but I had no idea what to expect with The Red Umbrella.  It was another of the wonderful free audio downloads from Overdrive this summer. When I saw it this week I had it confused with some other book about a bicycle that won a YA award once, but I couldn't get into it and it wasn't on audio.  And now I can't find any trace of it at all!
But that is neither here nor there, except to say that I am glad I had it confused and so glad I downloaded it and really enjoyed this book.  I mean, it was sad and hard and also really hopeful and beautiful.

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I have probably mentioned here before that while my politics lean to the left, I am an admirer of President Reagan.  Maybe it is just because he was president when I was a kid and I didn't know about all of the negative.  I just saw the good-looking, Hollywood man who was proud to be an American and his pretty, classy wife.  One of his most famous speeches contained the phrase I put in the post title.  Of course, he was referring to the Berlin Wall.  Today we have a president who claims to admire Reagan but our president is no Ronald Reagan.  Indeed, our current president is no James Buchanan even and will probably dethrone poor Buchanan as the worst president ever.  Our best president ever was President Obama and as I have admitted, I was a late-comer to the party, really pulling for and supporting Secretary Clinton when she was Senator Clinton and wanted to be the second President Clinton.  I am also a big LBJ fan and of course, a Kennedy Girl, so you can see that my politics are left-leaning.  A Night Divided is historical fiction, about a family physically split by the construction of the Berlin Wall.  Not knowing much of this part of history, I found this book to be excellent in all ways.  Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Better Dead than Red

Remember that phrase?  It was popular during the McCarthy Era, during which The Paper Cowboy takes place.  I didn't know what TPC was about when I bought the audiobook, I only knew that Kristin Levine who wrote the incredible and the 1954'd Lions of Little Rock had written it and so I was anxious to read it.  I was not disappointed.
There is a lot going on here.  This is an incredible piece of period fiction.  Or was McCarthyism an event, making it historical fiction?  I don't know!  But it was an incredible piece of fiction!  Levine writes that
TPC made Anderson's Mock 2015 Newbery List and it sure is worthy.  It just seems that there are so many fantastic books out this year!  I loved this 5-stars worth, for sure.  But I did love LOLR a wee bit more just because Tommy is so unlikable. But that was Levine's intent, so I really can't fault the book for that!   I really did like that the book is from the POV of a kid who bullies though, because as Levine said in her interview at the end of the audio, so much of the focus on bullying is on the victim, as it should be, but we need to pay attention to the kids who are doing the bullying, too.
My buddy Karen and I do this anti-bullying puppet show.  We focus on the characters who are engaging in bully behavior and we talk to the kids about that saying, "This is why you need to tell someone when there is bullying going on, because when you ask for help you are helping not only the person being picked on, but yourself and your whole community and you are also helping the one who is doing the bullying because often times they have a hurt in their heart that is so big, they don't know how to feel better and that is why they are being mean to others, just like Simone and Dwayne."
There are also some very beautiful words and scenes about sibling relationships in here.  I loved, loved the relationship between Mary Lou and Tommy and then the kind of brother that Tommy became to his younger sister.
Tommy has a lot of hurts in his heart, his mom is having some major mental health problems and his home life is a wreck because of it.
This book is just exceptional, truly.

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.

Tsar or Czar

It is spelled either way.  I prefer to spell it tsar, probably just because that was the way it was spelled in Nicholas and Alexandra, which I had to read in tenth grade and loved.  I was sad to see that N and A is not available on audio, but then I found The Family Romanov:  murder, mayhem and fall of Imperial Russia, a recommended audio, downloaded it and loved it.
One of the most intriguing characters in this whole story is Rasputin, but he wasn't mentioned as much as I had hoped in this book.  One of the main reasons why I loved Norbit is that his girl friend was named Rasputia!
This was a very interesting and well done non-fiction book for tweens and teen.