Another One!

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree was VERY 5 star and ahead of it's time, I think.  This made me feel the way that I did about Death Masks in that it gave me a renewed sense of enthusiasm about a series.   There is no corpse in the book, as the author says in his foreword, because the murder that takes place here is rape.  I thought that was a powerful statement about the crime of rape.  And keep in mind, this was published in 1993.  Very, very, very good. 

Why?

I know there is no point in asking why we do horrible things to one another.  Human nature is prone to such horrors.  Ones that sicken us.  Horrors done to groups of people, horrors done to individuals.  The essays in Not That Bad:  Dispatches from Rape Culture show this to be true with each account.  It is edited by the incomparable Roxane Gay. 

I don't know how to comment on these stories.  Some of the writers say that they don't want to be called "brave" or a "survivor" and some don't want to hear that people are "sorry for what happened" but some do.  I want to respect that.  I want to just give to them as much respect as I can.  So all I can say is that I am very thankful for their words and willingness to share.  I simply want to offer to them all that is within me and that my heart and soul can give, as respectfully as I can.  I absolutely recommend this book.  

The F Word

I really, really resonated with Bad Feminist in a lot of ways.   The book isn't just about feminism though.  It deals with a lot of issues.  One of the things that kept running through my mind was that this was written in the Pre-Trump days.  Things were bad then, but they are even worse now for women.  No, for humans!  Dr. Gay is brilliant.  Witty, too. 

Always

been a fan of Bill Pronzini's Nameless series, so it was a no brainer to download The Violated.  As much as I enjoy the Nameless books, I never expected to enjoy this stand-alone book SO much.  It was just an excellent, excellent mystery.  Great characters and a mystery that kept me guessing.  Dude I did NOT like the mayor!  But of course, we weren't supposed to like him!  What a weenie!  And what an apt title. 

Just WAY too Long

Full Dark, No Stars was okay.  It was not good enough to be good because it was so very, very long. If Stephen King were not such an accomplished and rich author, I would probably blame his editor, but I bet that King doesn't really have to listen to editors too much these days.  Which is unfortunate because I would think that even an experienced writer like King can fall in love with his own words so much that he would erroneously think that everyone needed to appear between the cover of his book.  It was a collection of four "short" stories, but there was nothing short about any of them.  Even the very best one, which I was going to say was the shortest, but maybe just seemed shorter because it was the best, was too long.

Watch Out for the Quiet Ones

Mindy McGinnis has written a tough book.  The Female of the Species starts tough and ends tough.  I loved, loved, loved the character of Peekay, the Preacher's Kid and her parents.  I feel like this was one of those books that really got church right.
The story is told from the POVs of Peekay, Jack and Alex.  Alex is the main character, he sister was raped and murdered by a local man who didn't go to prison due to lack of evidence.  Jack is the guy who falls in love with her, willing to forget his playboy self and just be faithful to Alex.
The book is raw and, I saw someone on goodreads call it brutal, and it is.  It is real life in its worst of times.  But very realistic.
There are stories about abuse to animals, because Alex and Peekay volunteer in an animal shelter, so some of that will be hard to take for some, but it no where compares to the abuse done to humans in the book.  This is getting Printz buzz and I can see why.

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.

The Ants Go Marching

At first I was put off by the language and masturbation jokes that fill the first few pages of We Are the Ants. Not because of the subject or the words but because I thought "this is approach has been done to death," thinking of Grasshopper Jungle and Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.
But I read some reviews and I kept on reading and I am so thankful that I did. The book ended up being so much more than that and as I wrote this, I can't tell you with any certainly if there was any more swearing and/or masturbation stories. I actually would wager that there wasn't, but I wouldn't bet my life on it, but yeah, I would ante up some cash.
Thing is, I got sucked right into the story because there is A LOT in this story.
Here is the question that faces our hero: if you could press a button and save the world from destruction, would you do it?
So many issues arise in this book and it is so real-life. I mean, I hope there aren't too many teens who are dealing with: a loved one's dementia and decisions surrounding her care, a long-absent father, a boyfriend who committed suicide, a still-born baby, bullying, rape, depression and alien abduction all at once.
There are adults who deal with all of that at once, yes, I know for sure, but a 16 year old? I hope not too many.
Still because I sadly do know people who have had these kinds of troubles and more heaped upon them at once (okay-not the alien one) the book is completely real-life believable.
Is this Printz-worthy? In my humble opinion, I definitely think so.

God is....

in everything, right?  I mean, in my opinion.  And God isn't in a lotta mainstream books and Exit, Pursued by a Bear doesn't have a preacher's message and wouldn't be written up as Christian YA Fiction, but man, it is real life, real faith in life.  With a pastor with a heart, who only appears for about one page's worth of material.  I would love to see what other Christians think of this book.  And also non-Christians, as to see if they felt it was real?  Or has the political right clouded non-Christians' view of the church?  I can't blame anyone for thinking that Christians are judging, merciless people who fail to know the message of Christ.  The right (I don't cap that because they are so Wrong) is loud and obnoxious and very often, not non-Christian, but anti-Christian as their opinions are in opposition to the actual life and words of Jesus.
This is a deep story and a real story and the characters are so real and it just, wow.  Yes, this one is incredible.