Rarely

do I take a star away from a book, rather than add one.  But the thing about Shutter is, I had completely forgotten about it.  That's not to say it is a bad book.  It's not.  It was just okay for me. 

Such a great book

The 57 Bus:  A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives is SO well done.  Wow.  Just such a fantastic book about this case.  It is a real-life example of living in the grey.  I can't recommend this book enough. 
It is VERY hard for me to believe that this book was the winner of the YALSA Non-fiction Award and The 57 Bus was a finalist.  1954 all over again.  For sure. 

Sadly, This is America

An American Marriage is one of the best books I have ever read.  It is sad that we who work in libraries don't let people know about the databases we have.  In our county we have two eAudio sites, Hoopla Digital and Overdrive.  We have another one, but it is terrible.  Anyway...with Overdrive, there are a set number of copies and only one patron can listen or read a book at one time.  So there are waiting lists.  Right now on Overdrive there are about 100 holds for An American Marriage on audio download.  But with Hoopla, I can listen, you can listen, we all can listen at the same time.  No waiting.  So I was SO fortunate to check both resources and listen to this incredible book.  And then I got to hear Tayari Jones on this podcast and this one!  Simply excellent.  Must-read.  And it is Oprah's Book Club pick, currently! 

A great find

Dan Gemeinhart was an author I found in 2016, with Some Kind of Courage.  I loved that book!  At the time I thought he was a new author, but no, I had just foolishly missed him!  Like my other amazing find of 2016, Jewel Parker Rhodes!  Scar Island was really, really fantastic!  The only sad thing about it, is that I think this might be his book for 2017 and I already read it!  I need to go back and read The Honest Truth!

Guard Each One's Dignity and Save Each One's Pride

They'll Know We are Christians By Our Love is one of my most favorite songs.  If I had to pick a song that I try to live by and that I think would be a good one to describe the Christian life, it would be this one.  That is because of the lines, "and we'll guard each one's dignity and save each one's pride."  I just think that is what we need to focus on, in all times.  Missoula:  Rape and the Justice System in a College Town might not be the book that one thinks of when one is reminded of this song, but it should be.  Now Missoula isn't a church, it isn't "Christian" in name or in claim.  And I don't even know if any of the people who are written about in this book are Christians, but they are all God's children.  And we all have a responsibility to guard each one's dignity and save each one's pride.  And we all have a right to be treated with dignity and respect.  That didn't seem to happen in Missoula in these cases.  A very eye-opening book.  It didn't give me an iffy/icky feeling like Three Cups of Deceit.  It just made me very sad/mad/shocked to hear how often sexual assault and rape occur and how cases were handled in Missoula and that this wasn't really all that rare.  The other thing is, how the Missoula situation was tied into sports.  I am just not a sports person, so this was very hard to understand and reminded me of the Penn State horror, in which sports came first.  Sickening.