Powerful

Black is the Body:  Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time and Mine was many things.  At times humorous, at times eye-opening, at times horrific.  At ALL times it was powerful and important and a must-read. 

Reading through the USA

I have been trying to find a book set in Delaware.  Harder than you think, if you aren't a big fan of Colonial and/or Revolutionary American history. When I found The Book of Unknown Americans, I got super lucky.  The book is about a group of immigrants in Delaware from various countries.  Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and I can't remember where else.  I guess I never thought of Delaware being a place with a lot of immigrants.  1 in 10 people in Delaware are Latino or Asian immigrants.  In PA this number is 1 in 11.  1 in 7 in Virginia.  There are more very interesting and easy to understand facts from the American Immigration Council here.
This seems to be one of those adult books that are good for teens as well. YALSA has this Alex Award for books that are made for adults, but would be good for teens.  It didn't make the list.  But it should have.  I can't begin to give a summary of this book.  So please, just read the goodreads description and then, please, please do read this book.  It is outstanding.

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.

I didn't know this was a trilogy! But I am glad it is!

A few years back I was blown away by Countdown.  And now I found Revolution. Revolution follows different characters and the main one in this story is Sunny.  She lives in Greenwood, Mississippi and this book was set during Freedom Summer.
There is so much to learn in this book.  Just like Countdown, it contains newspaper clippings and quotes and since I listened to the audio book I heard songs as well.  I hope that school is different now, but in my day we didn't learn anything about the SNCC or heroes like Ella Baker.  Heck, we didn't even learn much about Malcolm and Martin.  It was only when I got to seminary when I was 21 and read Malcolm and Martin and America:  an American Dream or a Nightmare? that I learned anything in depth about the men.  I am not blaming my schooling entirely.  Sure I could have and should have done some self-educating and my parents should have had a part in insisting that I learn about these important people and events from our history, so I am not blaming school alone, I am just saying that I hope that things have changed.
Excellent look into the past and while I didn't enjoy the characters as much as I did in Countdown, this still is a good book.

A Great Discovery!

I had to read the book My Friend the Monster by Clyde Robert Bulla for a book group.  The deal was, it never came through library delivery.  There is only one copy in our county and so I was very sad.  Then I did a little search and found it on openlibrary.org!  It was super-fast to sign up, totally free and easy to read on my phone!  And I loved this book!  The drawings were so good and scary!  The book was just a great little read.  The King and Queen are pretty shallow parents and don't think that their son is anything special.  They don't pay much attention to him at all.  The Prince ends up befriending a "common" girl who tells him about the monsters that live under the earth.  He is determined to see if this whole monster deal is real.  Great little story!

Short Story Goodness

I love short stories.  It's hard to find a book of short stories, though, in which every short story is a hit.  Open Mic:  riffs on life between cultures, is one of those rare gems in which EVERY story, all TEN are excellent.  Some are heart-breaking, some are hilarious, some are triumphant, every one is wonderful.  I want to look up each author and read more from them. 

I Know This is a Spoiler

but I feel like I have to write it, because it is just so horrible, I wouldn't want anyone to read this book and not be aware of the DEATH OF THE CAT before doing so. Yes, Roger, the beloved cat that we all come to know and love DIES. His death is DESCRIBED! Yes. So if you don't like cats, maybe you will want to read this book.
Although even before I got to the GRAPHIC description of a DEAD and BLOODY, BELOVED CAT, I was losing interest in My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. I was getting what Bud describes as "book dust" in my eyes every time I picked up the book. It was a short book, but I found it to drag. Up until the DEATH OF ROGER, I thought I would still give the book 4 stars because I was thinking, "well it's an important book and maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind and Sunya is a wonderful character and so is Jamie, really. And his sister is such a fine, fine person..." But then, ROGER WAS KILLED. And I know that the author used ROGER'S DEATH to bring Jamie and his father together, to get Jamie to understand the tremendous grief that his father has felt since the death of his daughter in a terrorist attack in London, to get his father to finally start the healing process...yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. But really?
Don't get me wrong, if over all the book had been amazing, I would have forgiven this. Let's not forget what happened in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.

It is Very Hard

to catch up on all of these books that I failed to write about while I was going through my surgery and all of that stuff with my dad.  It is even harder to think about different ways to praise Jacqueline Woodson.  I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This is the first book, which I read second, about Lena and Marie.  This one is told from Marie's POV and I have to say, even though I read them out of order, I loved them both and can't recommend them enough. 

Saying Good-bye

Yes another chance to use this fantastic Anne Murray song. There is a line in Lena that made me think of it right away.  "Seemed like someone was always leaving someone, like that's the way the world worked- people were born and people died, people left and people came."
Lena is a sequel to I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This.  I wish I would have read that first, but I didn't take away any of goodness of reading Lena.  It was pretty much just what you would expect from Jacqueline Woodson- beautiful.
This is the story of two young girls, Lena and her sister Dion, who have run away from home because of their abusive father.  A story of strength and heart-break and courage.  Highly recommended.

Wondering Where the Lions Are

Yeah this was a song.  Not even one I liked, but it is stuck in my head.  The Lions of Little Rock is an amazing book.  Man.  I wish I had read it closer to the time I read Wonder.  Now I don't know which one really deserves the Newbery.  I need to read Wonder again to give it a fair shot, because now, I am all about Lions.
This was a painful book to read because again, it is just so unreal- the evils of racism and hatred.  It is so painful and horrific.  The book is based on the true events that took place in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1958, the lost school year of 1958-59.  It's the story of Liz and Marlee, two really bright 12/13 year olds and their friendship in the face of evil.
It was easy to hate so many characters in the book.  Even Marlee, at times, but man, this is just such a great, great book and Marlee is a lovely character and so is Liz and wow.  Just read this.  For sure.

The Third Funniest Adult Book I've Ever Read!

Stuff White People Like is hilarious!  I found myself laughing at myself more than a few times.  Liberal Arts degree- check, blogging- check, mentioning what I heard on NPR- check.  Really aware and super-funny book.  Great to laugh at yourself! 

Hilarious and Eye-Opening

How to Be Black is the funniest adult book I can remember ever reading.  It is also a book that reminded me of how much African Americans have been through here in the US and so it was I don't know, heart-breaking and sickening and guilt-inducing, but encouraging to know that nothing dirtbags racists have done have been able to stop the amazingness of blackness.
Baratunde R. Thurston is an extremely brilliant man and comedian.  I bought this book on iTunes and need to figure out how to share it with people.  That's the only problem with the downloadable stuff, too hard for me to figure out how to lend!
This is a must-read, well, a must-listen, because the author reads it and the people who were on his Black Panel also recorded their parts of the book and it is great to hear the real people reading their real words.  I can't say enough about this book!  A great gift for anyone!

Dreams

 Man.  Walter Dean Myers he is something else. The Dream Bearer is a great book for dudes and for all.  Set in Harlem, as are many of Myers's books, this tells the story of Danny who is twelve years old and growing up with a father who has mental health issues (maybe) and a brother who is experimenting with selling drugs and a man he and his best friend meet in the park who claims to be over 300 years old and a "bearer of dreams."

There is so much going on in this book and so much to talk about:  gentrification, racism, becoming a US citizen, drugs, father-son stuff, becoming a man stuff.  It is all so well done and causes the reader to really think, see things in a different light and question the status quo.  Man I enjoyed this book.  It just made me FEEL smarter after having read it! 

So I always wanted to read this...

Perfect Chemistry, that is.  Because the covers for the whole series are wonderful.  Finally I did because I was hearing about the whole goodreads bullying thing.  There is this broad from Australia or maybe Austria who wrote what she thought was a funny review of Perfect Chemistry.  A bad review.  I read the review and it was a sarcastic, lame attempt to be funny and then I thought, I gotta get around to reading this.  And I loved it!  It is very fast read and it also brings to the forefront the inequities in our American culture.  Maybe that's why the Austrialian didn't get it.  I don't know.  She claims she is a "slightly less than young" fan of young adult books.  Honey.  Face the facts like the rest of us.  You is old.  It is okay!  A lot of people get old!  You can't stay young or "slightly less young" forever.  Ya either pass on or get old, right?  Anyway, the broad's review isn't bully-worthy, I don't think.  It is just lame and unfunny and racist, actually.  So it is offensive.  Maybe it is bully-worthy.  Although it is so pathetic, it just doesn't seem worthy of being a bully review because we know that real bullying is terribly painful and makes an impact.  Her little thing?  Just lame.  But racist...so I don't know...
Anyway, enough time wasted on some broad who doesn't want to get old.
Brit and Alex are from opposite sides of Chi-Town.  She's a princess pom-pom girl, he is a gang banger.  But can they make it work?  Read it and see!  And really, don't let some wanna-be-comic bully you into not liking it!

What I Read and How I Loved It

What I Saw and How I Lied is incredible.  What a wonderfully written story.  So different and so real.  No stereotypes, no easy answers, no people who are all good or all evil.  Just real and real and real.  And interesting.  WISAHIL takes place following WW2.  Evie is 15 and on the verge of womanhood and this is very much a coming-of-age story for her and also for our country.  The racism is painful, of course and I found myself sickened by it.
Evie's mom is beautiful and glamourous, her step-father Joe is a good guy, a WW2 vet who doesn't like to talk about the war and we do find out why.
Joe is a changed man when he come back from the war and soon after he is home he takes Evie and her mom to Palm Beach and they stay in a swanky hotel for many weeks.  The book ends with a tragedy and is quite the mystery.  This is a book of mystery and history and normal growing up drama and more than that.  What an incredible book, one that I got lost in and would highly recommend to everyone.

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.

Cricket Fans!

If you love the game of cricket, then you will love Jasper Jones.  I don't know many books that detail the game play as much as this book.  I have no clue how cricket is played but a lot of it is played in Australia, I guess, where Jasper lives and Charles, the main character, lives as well.
Jasper is the bad news dude in town.  He is always blamed for everything.  He is an outcast of mixed race and his dad is a drunk and well, EVERYONE knows that Jasper Jones is bad bad bad.
So when he knocks on Chuck's window in the middle of the night and begs him for help, Chuck is a little hesitant.  But Chuck's a good guy and Jasper seems nicer than all the rumors make him out to be and nothing has ever been PROVEN to make Jasper officially bad and Chuck doesn't believe all of the rumors and so he goes to help Jasper in the middle of the night.  Jasper leads him to his special hide out in the woods and there is the body of a classmate, the sister of Jasper's crush and the daughter of a prominent man.
Jasper swears he hasn't done it and begs Chuck to help him find out who did, because both he and Chuck know that EVERYONE will think that Jasper did it, without even asking questions.
And so begins a journey into small town evil secrets and rumors and young love and self-discovery.  And it is all really well done.  And it takes place during the Vietnam War.  And Chuck's best friend Jeffery is Vietnamese and he and his family face a great deal of prejudice from the jerk-offs in town.  Jeffery was my favorite character by the way and I love the dialog between him and Chuck.  Jeffery has a brave and bold wonderful spirit.
I liked JJ, and for it being NOTHING like books I enjoy and the first book I have read in ages, I have to say I enjoyed it.  Its a smart, smart book, very different and original.

Cruisin'

So I started Cruisers in Plano and finished it in Pittsburgh, six months later.  I had to go back and reread the first part because I couldn't remember too much.  That was a bad sign.  Usually I can remember EVERYTHING about a Walter Dean Myers book because they captivate me so much.  I still quote Dope Sick and probably always will.  The second book in the series I liked about as much as this one, but didn't love either one.  But like I said in my review of Checkmate, I think that is because I expect so much from Myers, because he is just an incredible writer.
We meet Zander and his fellow prep school classmates in this book and learn that they are smart and cool and now they are disliked by their Vice Principal for just "cruising" through school and not taking it serious.  Mr. Cullpepper gives them the  task of trying to prevent the Civil War during the school's study of the War Between the States.  The book does a wonderful job of talking about race relations and it made me think about the Confederate flag, Stone Mountain and other things still around today that really, probably shouldn't be lauded as they still are.  We've come a long way, but not far enough.  My problem with the series probably is just that I don't know the characters well enough yet.  I like the books well enough though to keep on reading.

Some Gotta Win, Some Gotta Lose

Good time Charlie's got the blues.  Great song.
Girl Meets Boy:  because there are two sides to every story is, like everyone says, a great concept.  Get together some really great YA authors.  Have the male authors write a short story from the guy's POV, have the female authors write their own version of the story, from the gal's POV.  A lot of heavy hitters here:  Terry Trueman,  Chris Crutcher, the AMAZING Rita Williams-Garcia.  I loved the idea and loved most of the stories, but the ones that I didn't love, I could barely get through and had to do the old read-from-the-end trick.  I don't know.  Not my thing.  Hard to rate a book of short stories though, because some of the stories I just wanted to go on and on, and others...ugh.

When I Was Down in Plano...

I visited the Harrington Branch of the City of Plano Library System.  I actually visited all of the branches and I have to say, Plano has great libraries.  At the Harrington Branch I happened upon the book The Cruisers and started to read it.  I like to sit in libraries for a bit and see how the service is.  I lead a VERY exciting life.  I got about fifty pages into it and I liked it but then I never remembered to get back to it when I got home.  On Monday I saw the audiobook for the second book, The Cruisers:  Checkmate and it was a good story.  Zander and his friends go to DiVinci Academy, a special school for very gifted students in NYC.  He and his friends have formed an alternative newspaper called The Cruiser and they live on the edge of the student body there, not trying too hard, not not-trying, just getting by, cruising, hence the name.  In this second book Zander and his friends try to help a fellow student who has been experimenting with drugs.  The dialog is witty, the characters are unique and likable.  The story was a little flat, but I do hold Mr. Myers to high standards, like I said, because his talent is out of this world.  In any case, I'll be reading the first one next and the ones to come.