Featuring 288 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children's and YA books
KIRKUS VOL. LXXXVII, NO.
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REVIEWS
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Read about all 18 Finalists for the
2019 Kirkus Prizes Also in this issue:
Interviews with Jami Attenberg, Ashley Bryan, Kekla Magoon, and more
from the editor’s desk:
The 2019 Kirkus Prize Finalists B Y T O M
Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N
B EER
# Chief Executive Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com John Paraskevas
It’s that time of year again, when we at Kirkus honor the best books that we’ve reviewed in the previous year. Over the course of several months, three panels of dedicated judges have considered a host of books to come up with a list of 18 finalists in three categories. Any book that received a Kirkus Star since Nov. 1, 2018, was eligible—356 fiction titles, 306 nonfiction titles, and a whopping 602 young readers’ literature titles in total. My colleagues and I are people who get excited about great Tom Beer books—it’s our job, after all—but there’s a special electricity in the office the day we make the finalists public; we’re proud of the list and of the work that our judges have done. The winners will be announced in a special ceremony at the Austin Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 24, and the winner in each category will receive a $50,000 prize. Please visit KirkusReviews.com and follow us on social media to learn more about these titles and to find out the winners once they are announced. For this issue, our editors have also written about the finalists in their respective sections. Here’s to another year of great books and a bumper crop of outstanding finalists—we hope you’ll add them to your own reading list.
Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Fiction Editor L AU R I E M U C H N I C K lmuchnick@kirkus.com Children’s Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Young Adult Editor L AU R A S I M E O N lsimeon@kirkus.com Editor at Large MEGAN LABRISE mlabrise@kirkus.com Vice President of Kirkus Indie KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com Senior Indie Editor D AV I D R A P P drapp@kirkus.com Indie Editor M Y R A F O R S B E RG mforsberg@kirkus.com Associate Manager of Indie K AT E R I N A P A P P A S kpappas@kirkus.com Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER jzwirner@kirkus.com
Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E
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Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis (Knopf)
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The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (Pantheon)
Designer ALEX HEAD
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Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf)
Director of Kirkus Editorial L AU R E N B A I L E Y lbailey@kirkus.com
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Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, translated by Geraldine Harcourt (FSG)
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On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)
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The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS
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from the editor’s desk
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The judges for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Fiction are: bestselling author Min Jin Lee; editor, writer, and critic David L. Ulin; and Michelle Malonzo, buyer and bookseller at Changing Hands Bookstore in Arizona.
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FICTION:
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Editor -in- Chief TOM BEER tbeer@kirkus.com
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contents fiction
The Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.
INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS............................................................ 5 REVIEWS................................................................................................ 5 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................... 6 INTERVIEW: JAMI ATTENBERG........................................................ 14 INTERVIEW: STEPH CHA................................................................... 24 MYSTERY...............................................................................................30 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY...........................................................33 ROMANCE............................................................................................ 34
nonfiction
INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS...........................................................37 REVIEWS...............................................................................................37 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 38 INTERVIEW: TOM MUELLER..............................................................52 INTERVIEW: ADRIENNE BRODEUR................................................. 58
children’s
INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS...........................................................75 REVIEWS...............................................................................................75 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 76 INTERVIEW: ASHLEY BRYAN............................................................82 INTERVIEW: KEVIN NOBLE MAILLARD.......................................... 92 BOARD & NOVELTY BOOKS.............................................................. 99 CONTINUING SERIES.......................................................................109
young adult
INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS.........................................................112 REVIEWS.............................................................................................112 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................114 INTERVIEW: KEKLA MAGOON........................................................118 INTERVIEW: LONDON SHAH..........................................................122 CONTINUING SERIES.......................................................................124
Strawberry-blonde Circassian American Allie flies under the radar of Islamophobes but can’t escape her own inner turmoil in Nadine Jolie Courtney’s insightful #ownvoices novel. Read the review on p. 112.
indie
INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS.........................................................125 REVIEWS.............................................................................................125 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 126 INTERVIEW: AMY GULICK................................................................132 QUEERIES: SHELLY ORIA................................................................. 140 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH........................................................ 149
Don’t wait on the mail for reviews! You can read pre-publication reviews as they are released on kirkus.com—even before they are published in the magazine. You can also access the current issue and back issues of Kirkus Reviews on our website by logging in as a subscriber. If you do not have a username or password, please contact customer care to set up your account by calling 1.800.316.9361 or emailing customers@kirkusreviews.com.
FIELD NOTES......................................................................................150 APPRECIATIONS: JACK KEROUAC, 50 YEARS AFTER HIS PASSING.......................................................................................151 |
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from the editor’s desk:
The 2019 Kirkus Prize Finalists NONFICTION: • Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib (Univ. of Texas) • When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back: Carl’s Book by Naja Marie Aidt, translated by Denise Newman (Coffee House) •
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (Simon & Schuster)
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ay Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe S (Doubleday)
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The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You by Dina Nayeri (Catapult)
• No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder (Bloomsbury) The judges for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction are: Kirkus Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner Jack E. Davis; critic Richard Z. Santos; and bookseller at Miami’s Books & Books Aaron John Curtis. YOUNG READERS’ LITERATURE: Picture Books: •
The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Versify/HMH)
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Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera, illustrated by Lauren Castillo (Candlewick)
Middle Grade: •
New Kid by Jerry Craft, color by Jim Callahan (HarperCollins)
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Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams (Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum)
Young Adult: •
On The Come Up by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)
• The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated by Rosalind Harvey (FSG) The judges for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature are: award-winning author Mitali Perkins; Kirkus critic Hanna Lee; and Professor of Library Science at North Carolina Central University Pauletta Brown Bracy.
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These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Andrews, Jessica Farrar, Straus and Giroux (304 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-374-25380-6
FOLLOWERS by Megan Angelo.............................................................7 TO THE EDGE OF SORROW by Aharon Appelfeld; trans. by Stuart Schoffman.....................................................................8 THE BLAZE by Chad Dundas...............................................................12 A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler........................ 13 CLEANNESS by Garth Greenwell....................................................... 15 THE BEAR by Andrew Krivak............................................................18 NIGHT THEATER by Vikram Paralkar................................................22 CREATURES by Crissy Van Meter...................................................... 28 PROCESSED CHEESE by Stephen Wright......................................... 29 THINGS IN JARS by Jess Kidd............................................................30 STEEL CROW SAGA by Paul Krueger................................................. 33 PROCESSED CHEESE
Wright, Stephen Little, Brown (400 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-316-04337-3
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A young woman lays bare her memories in a fragmented debut. “It begins with our bodies. Skin on Skin. My body burst from yours. Safe together in the violent dark and yet already there are spaces beginning to open between us,” begins Andrews’ debut novel: a meditation on mother-daughter relationships and finding a place to call home. The coming-of-age story is told from the perspective of Lucy, a millennial trying to navigate her present while examining her past. Present-day Lucy lives in her late grandfather’s cottage in Ireland, where she recounts her memories of childhood in northern England. In short vignettes, she remembers the absence of her alcoholic father, the experience of learning to communicate with her deaf brother, and the way her beautiful mother struggled to keep everyone (including herself) together. She also recounts her wild youth, her university experience in London, and the litany of unnamed men who circle her. Lucy’s thoughts constantly return to her mother—the first and great love of her life—and their relationship, which has become strained over the years. As a child, she thought: “I would forever be in her orbit, moving towards her and pulling away while she quietly controlled the tides, anchoring me to something.” The natural untethering that happens between mothers and daughters is remarkably rendered—the heartsickness given gravitas equal to romantic relationships. Andrews is undoubtedly a talented writer, but this book seems more concerned with sentence-level beauty than narrative. The lovely minutiae of the vignettes sometimes overshadow or crowd out the book’s larger themes. Despite this, Andrews’ writing explores themes like memory, home, womanhood, and mother-daughter relationships with shattering clarity: “Girls with orange cheeks in push-up bras brushed past us, smelling of the future” and “that safe, yellow space of bedtimes and steamy kitchens.” A beautifully written experimental novel that lacks narrative momentum.
CESARE by Jerome Charyn.................................................................. 11
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the kirkus prize for fiction: the finalists I’m thrilled to introduce the six finalists for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Fiction. Our dedicated judges—Michelle Malzono, a buyer at Changing Hands Bookstore in Arizona, and Kirkus reviewer and author David L. Ulin—have chosen an exciting and diverse group of finalists. Author Min Jin Lee (Pachinko) will be joining them to determine the winner on Oct. 24. Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis (Alfred A. Knopf) tells the story of five queer women in Uruguay beginning in 1977, when they create a world for themselves in the face of a violent military dictatorship that’s raping, jailing, and disappearing gay people. “Calling themselves cantoras, or women who sing, [the friends] take a weeklong trip to Cabo Polonio, a sleepy, secluded coastal village, where they find a haven among horrors. On the beach, the women laugh late into the night, make love unabashedly, and share secrets over whiskey and yerba maté.” The novel, which follows the women for more than 30 years, is an immersive reading experience; as our review says: “Rich and luscious, De Robertis’ writing feels like a living thing.” The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (Pantheon) is a murder mystery and a family story told in a “structurally elegant” way, according to our review. The dead man is Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant and restaurant owner, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver after closing up one night. The chapters circle among the perspectives of Driss’ daughter, a jazz composer; the local police detective; the man who owned the bowling alley next door; an undocumented laborer who witnessed the accident; and several others. Our review says that “Lalami is in thrilling command of her narrative gifts….Nuanced characters drive this novel, and each voice gets its variation.” Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (Alfred A. Knopf) is “a powerful border story, at once intellectual and heartfelt,” according to our review. “An unnamed New York couple, both audio documentarians, [are driving with] their children, ages 10 and 5, to the ArizonaMexico border. The father wants to explore the remnants of Apache culture there; the mother, who narrates much of the book, is recording an audio essay on the border crisis….Luiselli thun6
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derously, persuasively insists that reckoning with the border will make deep demands of both our intellectual and emotional reserves.” Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, translated by Geraldine Harcourt (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), recounts a year in one young woman’s life after she splits up with her husband. “Tsushima’s prose is achingly elegant, well worth lingering over,” according to our review. “But there’s also a quiet simplicity, even banality, to her style and what she allows us to see of her narrator’s life: domestic rituals like waking up, washing, shopping for groceries, cooking, and all the rest. Grace hovers above the banal and the transcendent alike.” On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press) is “a raw and incandescently written foray into fiction by one of our most gifted poets,” according to our review. A young Vietnamese immigrant “writes a letter to his illiterate mother in an attempt to make sense of his traumatic beginnings….The result is an uncategorizable hybrid of what reads like memoir, bildungsroman, and book-length poem. More important than labels, though, is the novel’s earnest and open-hearted belief in the necessity of stories and language for our survival.” The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) tells the story of Elwood Curtis, “a law-abiding, teenage paragon of rectitude, an avid reader of encyclopedias and after-school worker diligently overcoming hardships that come from being abandoned by his parents and growing up black and poor in segregated Tallahassee, Florida.” None of that saves him from being unjustly arrested and sent to the infamous Nickel Academy, “a monstrously racist institution whose students, white and black alike, are brutally beaten [and] sexually abused.” Inspired by a real-life Florida reform school, Whitehead’s latest “displays its author’s facility with violent imagery and his skill at weaving narrative strands into an ingenious if disquieting whole,” according to our review.—L.M. Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.
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quality runs over everything in sight for the course of the novel. In the 2051 plot, we meet Marlow, a young wife in Constellation, California, a closed town populated with government-selected celebrities devoted entirely to the production of a reality show watched by everyone who does not live there. “Is it me or does Mar have kinda chubby armpits,” asks one of Marlow’s more than 12 million followers, watching her stretch before getting out of bed in the morning. “NOOOOOOO NO ONE WANTS TO WATCH ANOTHER PILL AD—PUT THE MARLOW FLAMINGO SMACKDOWN BACK ON!!!!!” screams another when Marlow gets upset with her network-issued storyline and throws a fit. Both the 2015 and 2051 plots revolve around a mysterious event called the Spill, which feels somewhat less original and interesting than the buildup to its reveal. However, the joy of the details continues all the way to a denouement in Atlantis (formerly Atlantic City), where the relationships we have begun to suspect between the characters of the two plotlines are untangled and confirmed. Endless clever details and suspenseful plotting make this speculative-fiction debut an addictive treat.
Angelo, Megan Graydon House (432 pp.) $26.99 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-525-83626-8 How far will our addiction to screens and our obsession with social media go? And how much will we pay for it? The bill is large indeed in Angelo’s first novel. In alternating narratives beginning in 2015 and 2051, she creates two chilling versions of celebrity culture in techno-hell. It all starts with a post on a website called Lady-ish written by staff blogger Orla Cadden. “Sooo What Does The World’s Most Expensive Brow Gel Actually Do? One Instagram It Girl Finds Out” is the first of a series of pieces Orla concocts (down to scrubbing the writing off a tube of Maybelline for the photo shoot) to boost the profile of a wannabe Kardashian type—actually her roommate, Floss, whose drive to be famous in the absence of any talent or notable
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TO THE EDGE OF SORROW
been exchanging insults with a feckless and hotheaded American president named Ronald Rump, and the two countries find themselves in a tense nuclear confrontation. Some of Rump’s hawkish aides urge him toward a preemptive strike, but more apocalypse-shy advisers persuade Rump that he can achieve hero status and win the Nobel Peace Prize if he undertakes a last stab at diplomacy, a one-on-one meeting in the Bangistani capital, Petrobangorski. America’s European allies are terrified by the prospect of what these two touchy tin-pot tyrants might do when they face off, but what can they do but stand aside and hope? Meanwhile, a British minister vacationing in a tiny village in the south of France happens upon a Gascon woman selling courgettes at a farmers market who is a perfect doppelgänger for Rump. An idea dawns, and with the help of several allies and their spy agencies, plus a shiny new tractor, the Zucchini Conspiracy is set into motion. The book is politically pointed, yes, but one never imagines that the flashing blades are anything but prop swords; this is more burlesque than satire. It’s supremely silly and cheerful—think Kingsley Amis with all the black bile drained out. Not all the jokes land, but Balding keeps things moving quickly, amiably, wittily. Not the place to go for subtlety but a fizzy romp with an inspired bit of slapstick near the end.
Appelfeld, Aharon Trans. by Schoffman, Stuart Schocken (304 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-8052-4342-0 Edmund, a 17-year-old who has lost his parents to the German genocide, narrates this tale of Jewish partisans in Ukraine on a mission to save Jews who are being sent by train to death camps. Holed up in the forest, the fighters conduct raids on farmhouses and peasants’ homes for food and supplies, doing their best to limit themselves to “considerate looting.” That need increases as their ranks swell from the mid-40s to nearly 200 with the addition of freed prisoners who need to be nursed back to health. The only doctor in the group, an anti-Semite they abducted from his home, tends to the ill and the wounded against his will. The fighters’ spiritual priestess of sorts is the frail Grandma Tsirl, who comes to believe that the physical and spiritual worlds are one—that “death is an illusion.” Edmund, who suffers intense guilt over abandoning his parents (at their insistence, to escape the Nazis), reconnects with them through dreams. One of the book’s key themes is the need to reconnect with one’s heritage even when faced with evil incarnate. Music and literature play a large role in sustaining the Jewish fighters’ ties to humanity. First published in Israel in 2012, the book is immediately recognizable as Appelfeld’s through its spare, eerily understated approach, which records atrocities from a grim remove. Unlike many of the brilliantly allusive author’s novels, this one makes explicit reference to the Holocaust, but there’s still a dreamlike quality at work. The naturalness of the setting is in contrast to the artfully detached feel of the dialogue. In Schoffman’s translation (his first of an Appelfeld novel), the language lacks the seductive pull of other works by Appelfeld, but the story moves toward its climax with the usual disquieting force. Another haunting and heartbreaking tale of the Holocaust from one who survived it.
WELCOME TO THE PINE AWAY MOTEL AND CABINS
Bivald, Katarina Sourcebooks (448 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-4926-8101-4
After her death, a friendly ghost watches over best friends at the no-frills Oregon motel where she used to work. Henny Broek has just reunited with Michael, her high school sweetheart, when a truck driver accidentally runs her over. She leaves behind her co-worker, MacKenzie; her stoic father; and the patrons of the Pine Creek Motel. Soon news of her death summons the motel’s absentee owner, Camila, a trans woman who left town before her transition. With her soul in limbo, Henny waits silently for her friends to enjoy their reunion and be happy. But first, they’ll have to address the small-town politics that drove their group apart. In high school, when MacKenzie came out as gay, her friends rallied to stop an antigay ballot measure from passing. From there, the group split in two. MacKenzie stayed at the motel, encouraged by the community support. But Camila left to reinvent herself in LA, and Michael moved away to pursue a career as a geologist in rockier locations, breaking Henny’s heart. Just when they’ve all begun to heal from their grief over Henny’s death, a Christian organization stages a protest to shut down the motel over morality concerns. As the motel fills with misplaced townspeople divided by the controversy, it becomes a sanctuary for some and a scapegoat for others. The protest looks bigger online than it does in person, adding a touch of realism. As
THE ZUCCHINI CONSPIRACY
Balding, Timothy Upper West Side Philosophers (204 pp.) $22.00 paper | Dec. 15, 2019 978-1-935830-67-2 Balding’s third work of fiction, billed as “the first-ever Donald Trump novel,” is a free-wheeling farce, a three-ring circus—or maybe a three-wheeling farce circus. Bangistan, a former Soviet republic now ruled by a kleptocratic dictator and his brother, has inaugurated a Twitter account (@bestdespot) that has for months 8
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As ever, Black’s gifts of rich description and deft characterization are on display. the secret guests
UNMAKING GRACE
hatred threatens her otherwise idyllic town, Henny watches from beyond, hoping to see evidence of love after life. A celebration of life in which friendship, community, and a room for the night are gentle antidotes to prejudice.
Boswell, Barbara Catalyst Press (240 pp.) $16.00 paper | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-946395-23-8
THE SECRET GUESTS
A girl comes of age as South Africa transitions from apartheid to democracy and the violence of her home life parallels the terror of the outside world. Fourteen-year-old Grace falls for her neighbor Johnny, but their youthful romance is short-lived. Authorities of the apartheid regime detain Johnny during a raid of student protesters. Meanwhile, Grace’s family life descends into chaos as her father’s physical and emotional abuse escalates. By the time Nelson Mandela becomes president of a new South Africa and Johnny resurfaces more than a decade later, Grace has married her college sweetheart and become a mother. She has created the picture-perfect life, but her past proves too powerful to suppress. The first part
Black, Benjamin Henry Holt (304 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-250-13301-4
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During German bombing raids on London during World War II, the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are secreted away to Ireland for protection. Clonmillis Hall has seen better days. A large estate in rural Ireland belonging to the Duke of Edenmore, Clonmillis, by virtue of Ireland’s neutrality in the war, feels a world away from the bombs raining down on England. But during a secret meeting in Dublin, arrangements are made: King George’s two young daughters need to be kept safe during the Blitz, and remote Ireland seems the perfect place. The result is a series of domestic and professional frictions of nationality, class, religion, and gender. There is Dick Lascelles, the louche, charismatic diplomat in charge of the arrangements. Detective Garda Strafford, whose AngloIrish background sets him somewhat apart from his countrymen, oversees the estate’s security. Special Agent Celia Nashe, posing as a governess, is caught between her professional duties and being a surrogate caretaker to the serious elder princess, code-named “Ellen,” and the fiery younger girl, “Mary.” There is the irascible Duke and his household staff, who have varying levels of knowledge of the plot, and then there are those outside the estate who would seek to undermine the safety of everyone on it. Black (the pen name of Booker Prize–winning novelist John Banville) continues his storied career in the same vein as his most recent novel, Wolf on a String (2017), a historical mystery set in Prague, though his return here to his native Ireland is a welcome one. As ever, Black’s gifts of rich description and deft characterization are on display, and if the first half of the novel is more leisurely than a typical political thriller, its second half positively gallops. When you’re done binge-watching The Crown, pick up this multifaceted wartime thriller.
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of the novel takes place in 1985, unfolding from Grace’s and her father’s alternating points of view. Mary, Grace’s mother, must figure out how to protect herself and Grace with few resources beyond her wits; Patrick, Grace’s father, is full of a rage that consumes his hopes of ever being a decent family man. Grace, their only child, must make sense of how the people responsible for her well-being cause such harm. Part 2 is all about a grown-up Grace in 1997, and Boswell renders her conflicting emotions and actions with vivid language as Grace risks the new, safe life she has built to be with her first love. “Somewhere in her body, that body made up not of platelets and cells but of memory and forgetting, of love and the places that shape, a nerve jangled,” Boswell writes as Grace and Johnny are reunited. The author does not hold back on how domestic violence operates, on how survivors of abuse, like Grace’s father and Johnny, so often become perpetrators of abuse themselves. While the novel is not gratuitous, it is graphic; there are some harrowing scenes, but this book is not medicine that needs be swallowed because of the importance of the issues at hand. The novel creates drama while confronting intersecting systemic oppressions and intergenerational trauma by foregrounding its characters’ needs, wants, wounds, and aspirations. The prose is taut with both clarity and complexity. A smart, compassionate portrayal of one woman’s quest to end the cycle of violence.
study of postmodern fiction (Disquiet on the Western Front, 2016), has hit upon an immensely interesting concept for her debut novel, one that allows her to dig deep into psychology, philosophy, physics, and, most importantly, politics as Daphne shakes Garrett out of his indifference toward the cultural turmoil of the late ’60s. But the book wears its historical details stiffly, and the book’s idea-heavy passages work against the plot’s natural momentum. A promising premise that is sometimes too clever for its own good.
A DOG’S PROMISE
Cameron, W. Bruce Forge (384 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 15, 2019 978-1-250-16351-6
Bailey, an adorable malamute–Great Dane mix, finds his purpose in helping a young boy and his family navigate life’s tribulations. Cameron (A Dog’s Way Home, 2017, etc.) offers the next in his series of books tracing the reincarnated souls of good dogs who go to heaven but are recalled to Earth as guardian angels of a sort for troubled children. Happily ensconced in dog paradise, filled with toys, sticks, and miles of shoreline to run, Bailey promises his previous owners to be a good dog again for another child. Of course, returning to the mortal realm as a puppy means that Bailey’s memories of his previous lifetimes will be erased—at least until he reunites with his beloved Ethan, his owner from the first book in Cameron’s series. Bailey (renamed Cooper) is given to a paraplegic boy named Burke, who trains him as a service dog. The work pays off when Burke can finally go to a real school, but soon enough, Burke’s family must take on the school district, which opposes having a dog in the classroom. Worse, the Trident Mechanical Harvesting Corporation’s drones have trespassed on the family’s land, prompting Burke’s father to shoot one with his rifle, thus risking a second lawsuit. On the homefront, Burke’s older brother, Grant, is having trouble accepting Burke’s disability. And on the romantic front, Bailey’s love for his soul mate, a boxer named Lacey, inspires both Burke and Grant to find true love, too. Told from Bailey’s perspective, Cameron’s tale reflects on human behaviors that confuse dogs, from the sad capture of Bailey, his mother, and siblings to his adoption by a loving family beset by companies threatening their land and eco-friendly farming practices. The effect is, unfortunately, more juvenile than deeply philosophical. Fans of Cameron’s series will delight in this latest syrupy installment.
THE SCHRÖDINGER GIRL
Brett, Laurel Kaylie Jones/Akashic (336 pp.) $16.95 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-61775-729-7
A psychology professor encounters a teenage girl who exists as multiple incarnations, each living in a separate reality. During a sudden downpour in 1967, Garrett Adams is browsing in a crowded bookshop on Columbus Circle when a crowd of people push in to escape the rain. As he starts reading a book about Schrödinger—he of the famous cat-in-a-box thought experiment—Garrett impulsively decides to ask any customer to lunch who also comes and picks up the book, hoping for an impromptu discussion about philosophy. When the next taker turns out to be a teenage girl named Daphne, Garrett strikes up an unlikely friendship with the precocious young woman. Soon after meeting, the two visit an art gallery and encounter a painting that is, without question, of Daphne. The only trouble is, she insists she never sat for it. When Garrett makes a visit to the artist, he learns Daphne was in Boston with the painter at the exact same time that Garrett visited the New York gallery—with Daphne. Thus begins Garrett’s wild journey to put together the pieces of how Daphne can seem to be two (and later more) people at the same time. With the help of the gallery owner and an old college friend who now practices psychotherapy, Garrett follows his Alice, or Alices, down the rabbit hole of late 1960s youth culture. Brett, who has written a critical 10
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In Nazi Germany, an orphan boy of lowly origins grows up to become an enforcer for German military intelligence. cesare
CESARE A Novel of War-Torn Berlin
has 19 “wives,” even more guns, and a friendly relationship with several right-wing militias. However, although the novel takes place from 1990 to 2000, the election of Donald Trump has clearly prompted its author to do some thinking about her previous willingness to declare her characters “no-wing.” Chute is at pains to have Gordon denounce “Republican bullshit” and “so-called Christians” to his militia buddies, and she’s backed off her previous contempt for middle-class progressives; Settlement residents form a relationship of wary mutual respect with a group of left-wing grassroots organizers. Nonetheless, Gordon’s and his author’s hearts are always with “the poor, meek, dishonored, deformed, disheartened, and displaced,” and Chute makes it brutally clear that until the left gets over its distaste for “redneck[s]” and poor whites who refuse to be manipulated by racists, the same people will keep running the world. (The sexual power of teenage girls is another third-rail topic she fearlessly tackles.) The action here runs parallel to events in The School on Heart’s Content Road (2008) and Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves (2014) but spotlights different people from her vast cast of characters. Fifteen-year-old Brianna
Charyn, Jerome Bellevue Literary Press (368 pp.) $26.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-942658-50-4 In Nazi Germany, an orphan boy of lowly origins grows up to become an enforcer for German military intelligence and the helpless pawn of a vixen-
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ish mystery woman. Half-Jewish orphan Erik Holdermann was raised by prostitutes from the age of 9 before being sent to an orphanage. When it is discovered there that he has a living uncle—albeit a cruel and distant one who disowned Erik’s late mother for marrying a postman—he is sent to the uncle’s farm, where he is regularly beaten up by boys wearing Nazi pins and nearly dies after becoming trapped in a barn during a frigid winter storm. Erik’s life takes a momentous turn during cadet school when, with a show of brute force, he saves a man being beaten by a gang of street toughs; that man turns out to be Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, head of the military intelligence service. Canaris takes Erik under his wing, dubs him Cesare (a reference to the “magician” in the silent film classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and counts on him to threaten or disappear anyone who gets in his way. That can mean someone from the Gestapo or SS—even as he serves the Nazi regime, Canaris is dedicated to saving or safely exporting Jews. Erik’s half-Jewish mystery woman, Lisa Valentiner, with whom he has been obsessed since he was a boy, is both a member of the Jewish underground and the wife of a Nazi officer. It’s a nebulous world in which the Gestapo, which recognizes the need for Jews in any spy network, employs half-Jews to lure other half-Jews out of hiding. The 82-year-old Charyn’s latest work in a distinguished career is subtitled “a novel of war-torn Berlin,” but that doesn’t begin to prepare readers for this edgy, hallucinatory, full-throttle fable. Cabaret, Moby-Dick, Shakespeare, Rosa Luxembourg, “Jewish jazz,” traveling executioners dubbed Hansel and Gretel, a hump-backed baron—they’re all in the mix. A darkly entertaining, eye-opening novel.
THE RECIPE FOR REVOLUTION
Chute, Carolyn Grove (768 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-0-8021-2951-2
Third volume in Chute’s blistering series about the Settlement, a radical, politically incorrect collective of the disorderly and disaffected in rural Maine. The Settlement revolves around “Prophet” Gordon St. Onge, who rails against corporations, the media, and the war machine; he also |
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THE BLAZE
Vandermast, newest of the wives, emerges as the leader of the Settlement’s younger generation; their end run around Gordon toward even more radical dissent drives what there is of a plot. A manifesto and a mass rally prompt increasingly menacing government harassment and a warning of more nefarious deeds to come from corporate CEO Bruce Hummer, his conscience apparently pricked by his rapidly growing cancers. A few juicy personal conflicts keep the novel from devolving entirely into a political tract—but then again, Chute’s fierce political vision has always been the most interesting thing about her work. Messy, confrontational, way too long—and essential reading.
Dundas, Chad Putnam (384 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-399-17609-8 A combat veteran returns from Iraq with a traumatic brain injury and must confront a forgotten past in this literary thriller by the author of Champion of the World (2016). Matthew Rose only returns home to Montana to take care of affairs after his father’s suicide. He meets up with Georgie Porter, his ex–best friend and a reporter for the local newspaper. Thanks to an IED in Baghdad, “his memory had been scrubbed clean,” so he doesn’t remember her or anyone else he used to know in Montana. But people know him. Walking late at night, he witnesses a house fire and sees an apparently homeless man leaving the scene. Abigail Green has been housesitting for the lesbian couple who owns the house, and her death in the fire leads the police to suspect a hate crime against the owners. But a cop tells Georgie, “There’s a lot more going on here than you know....She’s not who you think she is.” Bits of memory slowly return to Matthew while Georgie digs deeply into the tragedy for the newspaper. A candy store had burned years before, and Matthew is troubled at the thought he might have been involved somehow. Now a police officer is murdered, another house is set ablaze, and Matthew nearly drowns in a frozen river. Matthew and Georgie both sense that connections exist between past and present tragedies, but what could they possibly be? The renewed friendship is tentative and platonic for the two main characters, who both care deeply about the truth. In time they make a terrible discovery that leaves their own fates uncertain. A wounded veteran and a strong newspaperwoman combine with a well-constructed plot to spin a plausible and engaging tale. It brings to mind Owen Laukkanen’s Deception Cove with its pairing of solid male and female protagonists. This one wins far more on characters and danger than on bloodshed. Keep books like this coming, Chad Dundas.
KINGDOMTIDE
Curtis, Rye Little, Brown (304 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-316-42010-5 A bitterly unhappy forest ranger finds a purpose in her search for an old woman who might have survived disaster in this darkly humorous debut novel. In 1986, a small plane crashes on a blue-sky day into a peak in the Bitterroot National Forest, a 1.6-million-acre wilderness straddling Montana and Idaho. The only survivor is 72-year-old Cloris Waldrip, who’s on vacation with her husband of 54 years. Alone and traumatized, she’s determined to make her way home to Texas. At the start she’s a nice Methodist lady who pulls up her stockings and retrieves her handbag from the wreckage before setting off down the mountain, but her civilized layers will be peeled away by weeks, then months of harsh conditions and loneliness. Bitterroot forest ranger Debra Lewis is recently divorced (after finding out her husband had two other wives—“He’s in prison for trigamy”) and hell-bent on drinking herself to death. But finding Cloris, who she believes survived the crash, becomes her mission. Through it she meets a widowed search-and-rescue specialist named Steven Bloor and his sullen teenage daughter, Jill. Chapters recounting Cloris’ struggle to survive alternate with those describing Lewis’ search and her entanglement with the Bloors. Cloris’ chapters are by turns thrilling, poignant, and hilarious, carried along by her irresistible first-person narration. She is so matter-of-fact, wry, and indomitable it’s not hard to imagine she’s a granddaughter of True Grit’s Mattie Ross. Lewis’ part of the story is less engaging, in part because its third-person narration lacks Cloris’ winning voice. Lewis’ work life is oddly more outlandish than Cloris’ wilderness journey; so many wacky colleagues and eccentric locals jostle for space with the weird Bloor family that the Fargo-esque humor can seem strained. And Lewis’ alcoholism is so prodigious that, after she’s guzzled six or seven bottles of wine in one day, it’s hard to credit her staying conscious, much less driving mountain roads. But both she and Cloris find paths to self-discovery, and eventually some will be saved. A captivating survival story alternates with a less satisfying look at a midlife crisis in this promising first novel. 12
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GOOD GIRLS LIE
Ellison, J.T. Harlequin MIRA (464 pp.) $16.99 paper | Dec. 30, 2019 978-0-7783-3077-6 After the gruesome deaths of her parents, a 16-year-old English girl sets a terrifying string of events in motion when she moves to Virginia to attend an elite all-girl prep school. When coding whiz Ash Carlisle gets a scholarship to The Goode School in Marchburg, Virginia, she’s anxious to leave England, and a trove of bad memories, behind. After all, her abusive father’s death by overdose and |
A riveting, potentially redemptive story of modern American suburbia that reads almost like an ancient Greek tragedy. a good neighborhood
her mother’s subsequent suicide would traumatize any child. Ash is determined to keep her head down and her grades up, with an eye toward college. However, her accent and outsider status paint a target on her back, and she soon catches the eye of haughty and beautiful Becca Curtis, a senior who rules the school with near impunity. But Ash intrigues Becca, and it’s not long before Ash’s social standing takes a turn, and she’s inducted into Ivy Bound, Becca’s secret society. Unfortunately, Ash’s hope for a new beginning starts to unravel when her roomie, Camille, takes a fatal header off the bell tower and dark secrets from Ash’s fraught past, including the circumstances surrounding the deaths of her parents, start clawing their way to the surface. Ellison throws in all the elements of a good gothic: a school history chock full of murder and mayhem; secret societies; and halls rumored to be haunted, but Ash swings wildly from sympathetic to insufferable. Readers cheering her devilmay-care attitude and initial resistance to mean-girl shenanigans will be frustrated to see her eventually groveling at the feet of Becca and her cronies, especially after the cruel hazing they put her through. Ellison juggles multiple narratives that weave past and present with ease, but with the book approaching 500 pages, readers may be exhausted from all the melodrama once they finally reach the messy, over-the-top denouement. Overwrought and underwhelming.
legal battle over a dying tree. As the novel builds toward its devastating climax, it nimbly negotiates issues of race and racism, class and gentrification, sex and sexual violence, environmental destruction and other highly charged topics. Fowler (A Well– Behaved Woman, 2018, etc.) empathetically conjures nuanced characters we won’t soon forget, expertly weaves together their stories, and imbues the plot with a sense of inevitability and urgency. In the end, she offers an opportunity for catharsis as well as a heartfelt, hopeful call to action. Traversing topics of love, race, and class, this emotionally complex novel speaks to—and may reverberate beyond—our troubled times.
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A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD
Fowler, Therese Anne St. Martin’s Press (288 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-250-23727-9 A riveting, potentially redemptive story of modern American suburbia that reads almost like an ancient Greek tragedy. When the Whitmans, a nouveau riche white family, move into a sprawling, newly built house next door to Valerie Alston-Holt, a black professor of forestry and ecology, and her musically gifted, biracial 18-year-old son, Xavier, in a modest, diverse North Carolina neighborhood of cozy ranch houses on wooded lots, it is clear from the outset things will not end well. The neighborhood itself, which serves as the novel’s narrator and chorus, tells us so. The story begins on “a Sunday afternoon in May when our neighborhood is still maintaining its tenuous peace, a loose balance between old and new, us and them,” we are informed in the book’s opening paragraph. “Later this summer when the funeral takes place, the media will speculate boldly on who’s to blame.” The exact nature of the tragedy that has been foretold and questions of blame come into focus gradually as a series of events is set inexorably in motion when the Whitmans’ cloistered 17-year-old daughter, Juniper, encounters Xavier. The two teenagers tumble into a furtive, pure-hearted romance even as Xavier’s mom and Juniper’s stepfather, Brad, a slick operator who runs a successful HVAC business and has secrets of his own, lock horns in a |
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Jami Attenberg
IN ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS, THE NOVELIST WRITES ABOUT A MONSTROUS NEW ORLEANS PATRIARCH AND HIS SYMPATHETIC, DAMAGED FAMILY By Cherise Wolas Zack Smith
granddaughters. Indeed, Alex was the first character to come to Attenberg. “I had this idea of a person visiting the city as a tourist, sitting at a hotel rooftop bar, talking about the impending death of a family member. I heard her voice while I was driving, and I started the first chapter that day.” When Victor has a heart attack, each Tuchman experiences a moment of clarity, and as the family members arrive, or don’t, at Victor’s bedside, Attenberg offers up their lifetimes, leaving room for interpretation, which occasionally foreshadows the unexpected. “I have an idea about what a character means when they say something, but I don’t like to overstate things. I structure my books so there’s just enough flexibility that the reader can access it in a personal way.” About the Tuchmans being Jewish, Attenberg says, “Whenever you write a book about a Jewish family, and you’re Jewish, you have an access point...and the dysfunction of families is universal if done right.” About the Tuchman name? She laughs. “Tuch reminded me of tuchus [Yiddish for ass], and I kind of think of them as assholes.” The Tuchmans are thorny, especially cold, aloof Barbra, who hadn’t wanted children. “There was never a moment when I didn’t know her,” Attenberg says. “She’s a specific type of mother, but I tried to write her with compassion. I gave her certain gifts along the way so she wouldn’t feel so alone and so her life wouldn’t be so dreary. I wrote my way into feeling more sympathetic to her.” About all her characters, she says, “I either start out not liking them and must write my way into liking them, or I start out liking them and write my way into not liking them as much. But I always must go through this process no matter what!” New Orleans features vividly in the novel. Attenberg wrote her bestselling novels The Middlesteins and All Grown Up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she
Jami Attenberg’s sharply compelling seventh novel, All This Could Be Yours (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct. 22), is a New Orleans–set family drama that unfolds over the “day of mortality” for patriarch Victor Tuchman. He’s monstrous—a cruel husband and father, but he’s not Attenberg’s focus. “I had an idea of a bad guy who could justify anything he does,” she says. “But I put him in a coma in the first three pages…because I didn’t want him to be an antihero. I’m exploring a specific family that has been entrenched in the patriarchy and examining the damage he caused.” That damage has been profound for wife Barbra—keeper of Victor’s secrets who, as Attenberg writes, “asked for nothing but the objects she loved”—and for daughter Alex, son Gary, daughter-in-law Twyla, and, later, the 14
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lived for many years, but New Orleans is where she bought a house, and it’s the city she now considers home. Victor and Barbra’s relocation to New Orleans is precipitous—Victor’s reason for choosing the city will shock—and they are still newcomers, “people who take pleasure in the city but don’t know who’s making the city run and work,” as Attenberg describes the Tuchmans and the tourists who make it a prime destination. When Attenberg began All This Could Be Yours, she knew she was also “going to write about characters who had lived there all their lives.” Leaning into “the kaleidoscopic nature of the book” was suggested by her editor and novelist Laura van den Berg, one of her readers, and as these true New Orleanians bump up against the Tuchmans in unpredictable ways, their well-imagined, entwined stories provide texture and insight into the city’s history. Attenberg says that writing about New Orleans was, for her, the riskiest thing about All This Could Be Yours: “The people who live here have such a sense of ownership of the city,” she says. “I will always think of this book as my first New Orleans book. I hope the people of New Orleans like it. I do think it’s the best thing I’ve written.”
GUILTY NOT GUILTY
Francis, Felix Putnam (384 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 19, 2019 978-0-525-53679-6
Cherise Wolas is the author of The Resurrection of Joan Ashby and The Family Tabor. All This Could Be Yours received a starred review in the Aug. 15, 2019, issue.
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The husband and brother of an unstable woman who’s been strangled get into a battle royal over which of them will get the other convicted of her murder. Fragile, childless art historian/curator Amelia Gordon-Russell always enjoyed cordial relations with her brother, High Court enforcement officer Joseph Bradbury, until three years ago, when their widowed mother, Mary Bradbury, provoked Joe by selling the family home and moving to smaller digs close to Amelia and her husband, freelance business consultant William Gordon-Russell, who doubles as an honorary steward at the Warwick racetrack. Even since that perceived slight, Joe’s been increasingly hostile to Bill and increasingly intent on turning Amelia against him. When Amelia is found strangled by a dog’s leash, Joe, who did the finding, is quick to accuse Bill—who’d unwisely acquired a police record for sex with a minor many years ago—of her murder and provide DS Dowdeswell of the Thames Valley Police with evidence against him. Dowdeswell and his cohort question Bill, question him again, hold him, release him, and give him many anxious hours before he produces an alibi that makes them give up on him. Now Bill, who’s been struggling mightily to interest Dowdeswell in Joe as a possible suspect, finds himself taken more seriously. Joe, spluttering his innocence as loudly as he’d ever trumpeted Bill’s guilt, finds himself first in a prison cell and then in the dock. The trial is suitably turbulent no matter who’s on the stand, and at times it seems there’ll never be a way to choose between the two men’s stories. But Francis (Crisis, 2018, etc.), pulling out one of the hoariest clichés in the genre, provides a final twist that combines ambiguity and decisiveness. Virtually nothing about horses, despite the Francis byline, but a banquet of juicy he said, he said moments.
CLEANNESS
Greenwell, Garth Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-374-12458-8 Greenwell depicts the emotionally haunted life of an expatriate American teacher in Sofia, Bulgaria—who seems to be the same unnamed character who narrated his highly praised debut novel, What Belongs to You (2016). At the heart of that last novel was Mitko, a gay hustler who fueled the narrator’s pained desire, then disgust, and ultimately empathy, but he doesn’t appear here. The narrator pushes more sexual boundaries this time, and Greenwell admirably pushes |
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them too by depicting those desires with an unflinching frankness. Sadomasochism, unprotected sex, the narrator’s voyeuristic attraction to one of his students: They are all elements of the story, portrayed in Greenwell’s precise, elegant style. The narrator’s experience seems to align with Greenwell’s; the writer has acknowledged the autofictional nature of his writing. Depictions of rough sex bookend the novel, but it’s the narrator’s relationship with Portuguese student R., who appeared briefly in What Belongs to You, that occupies most of Greenwell’s attention. Both marooned in Sofia, the men are happy together until they acknowledge the futilities both of staying in Bulgaria and in a long-distance relationship. One of Greenwell’s talents is making everyday occurrences feel dramatic and full of ambivalence and nuance, but the scenes featuring the relationship at the heart of the novel suffer a bit in comparison to the dramatic sex depicted in other sections. Still, the simple beauty of the writing is something to behold. Here he is evoking a wind from Africa that assaults Sofia: “There was something almost malevolent about it, as if it were an intelligence, or at least an intention, carrying off whatever wasn’t secure, worrying every loose edge.” Brave and beautiful.
and ears everywhere, and to complicate things, Jazz is falling for Sofia Russo, the sultry assistant principal of Joaquin’s school, who’s dealing with her own problems. Heard expertly blends nearly nonstop thrills and some genuinely surprising twists with spot-on social commentary that makes an impact without getting preachy. Just try to put this one down.
HERE I AM!
Holdstock, Pauline Biblioasis (256 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jan. 21, 2020 978-1-77196-309-1 After his mother dies, a 6-year-old English boy stows away on an ocean liner and embarks on a poignant voyage of discovery. “When I got up the sea was pink,” says Frankie Walters, describing his first day aboard the Gloriana. Having found his mother, Patti, dead in their Southampton, England, home and unable to get his unsympathetic teacher, Miss Kenney, to believe him so that she could call the authorities, Frankie has run away from his school and snuck onto the ship. His plan is to go to France, find a police station, and ring his traveling salesman father, Len, but he soon discovers that the vessel is sailing to America. Readjusting his agenda, Frankie adapts to life at sea as a secret passenger, scrounging a piece of cheese from the pool deck and sleeping behind a pile of deck-chair mattresses. He staves off loneliness and panic attacks by counting—the ship’s 12 decks, sea gulls spotted (0)—and gradually making the acquaintance of a blind man named Gordon Knight and his guide dog, Alec. Narrated in turn by Frankie and the adults in his life, this eighth novel by British-born Canadian author Holdstock (The Hunter and the Wild Girl, 2018, etc.) is a moving tale about the invisibility children suffer when they are not heard and seen as their unique selves. Like Roddy Doyle in Paddy Clarke Ha Ha, Holdstock inhabits the mind of a bright, funny, and sensitive child through exuberant, playful language that doesn’t mask the darkness of his life. Frankie’s description of curling up on his dead mother’s lap is heart-rending. However, the final chapter with the adult Frankie, now Frank, as narrator feels a bit tacked on. The sudden shift in tone from little boy to middle-aged man is jarring. An unforgettable story about one very special child.
THE KILL CLUB
Heard, Wendy Harlequin MIRA (368 pp.) $15.99 paper | Dec. 17, 2019 978-0-7783-0903-1 In Heard’s sophomore thriller (Hunt ing Annabelle, 2018), a desperate woman at the end of her rope is drawn into an intriguing, but deadly, scheme. Twenty-eight-year-old Jasmine “Jazz” Benavides has had enough of her ex– foster mother, Carol. Jazz moved out a while back and barely makes ends meet stocking supermarket shelves in between gigs with her band. Her 13-year-old brother, Joaquin Coleman, still lives with the uber-religious and physically abusive Carol, who is actually his adoptive mother. That and Jazz’s criminal record are the reasons that Jazz has been unsuccessful in getting the diabetic Joaquin away from a woman who speaks in tongues and denies him his insulin because she believes God will heal him. When Jazz must literally break into Carol’s house to deliver his medicine, things come to a head, and Carol beats Jazz with a baseball bat. A solution to the Carol problem comes in the form of a phone call from a blocked number. The mysterious caller will make Carol go away for good, but Jazz will have to kill someone else in return. Like pay it forward but with a syringe loaded with deadly poison. The caller explains that the overarching mission is to bring justice to those who were robbed of it by a broken system. With Joaquin’s life on the line, Jazz doesn’t hesitate for long, but when she fails to take down her target, all hell breaks loose. The LAPD is frantically investigating the deaths they’ve dubbed the Blackbird killings, and Jazz is running out of time. The scrappy Jazz can kick ass with the best of them, but the Blackbird killer, who pulls all the strings, seems to have eyes 16
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A 20-something Florida house-flipper navigates the land mines of young adulthood. bright lights, medium-sized city
BRIGHT LIGHTS, MEDIUMSIZED CITY
WHY I WRITE?
Hrabal, Bohumil Trans. by Short, David Karolinum Press (300 pp.) $20.00 | Dec. 15, 2019 978-80-246-4268-0
Holic, Nathan Illus. by the author Burrow Press (620 pp.) $25.00 | Dec. 10, 2019 978-1-941681-61-9
A collection of formative fiction from a writer whose work has earned comparison with Joyce and Beckett. Beyond Central Europe, Hrabal might best be known for Closely Watched Trains (1965), his novel adapted into a movie which won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1968. This collection’s “Cain,” subtitled “An Existentialist Short Story,” offers an earlier version of that tale in the first-person account of a man who says he’s “leaving on a quest for simple human happiness, to harmonise [his] life to [his] thoughts”; he finds his life and identity jumbled by a train trip that presents complications he had never anticipated, with hospitalization and pregnancy among the consequences. The cornerstone of the book might
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A 20-something Florida house-flipper navigates the land mines of young adulthood. Holic (American Fraternity Man, 2013, etc.) captures the essence of the novel he’s sending up here, Jay McInerny’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984), while transposing it to a more boring place—Orlando, Florida, circa 2009—offering way less cocaine and replacing the Brat Pack vibe with a True West–ish rivalry between brothers who are not nearly as interesting as Sam Shepard’s angry siblings or McInerny’s 1980sera stereotypical coke addicts. Constructed as five “books,” which are entangled but not orderly, the novel tracks the arc of 20-something loser Marc. He’s been abandoned by his fiancee, Shelley, as well as his business partner, Edwin, who left him with 10 lousy properties right on the eve of the real estate bubble’s bursting. He’s also estranged from his well-meaning but ruthless father. One of the troubling qualities of this novel about a privileged dude is that it’s often, well, whiny; Marc is a sad sack whose narrative drama only changes when he’s forced to take in his freeloader bro, Kyle. The first book is constructed as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel, which might or might not resonate with readers but definitely reflects Marc’s gloomy existential crisis in which any decision seems like torment. Through all the books, there are endless sequences of Marc, Kyle, and their various friends watching the end of the Orlando Magic’s 2009 NBA season, broken up by odd jolts in style. The third book dives deep into Marc’s childhood, ending with him being assaulted after another drunk, angry night out. The next volume gets even stranger, abandoning Marc’s first-person narration for a series of vignettes from the points of view of Marc’s brother, his friends, the mayor of Orlando, and a long-dead, legendary man named Orlando Reeves, a soldier killed during the Seminole war. It all comes to a head during a friend’s wedding, constructed by the narrative as a “Final Exam” for Marc, forcing him to take stock of the decisions he’s made and just what it means to be a “grown-ass man.” Though punctuated by clever cartoons, it’s still too long and not very funny.
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A moving post-apocalyptic fable for grown-ups. the bear
A GOOD MAN
well be “The Sufferings of Old Werther,” which at 84 pages is easily the longest piece, written in a first-person stream of consciousness that combines various narrative strands, jumping from one to another and then back again, in a manner reminiscent of Finnegans Wake. The translator’s notes say that this is the first of Hrabal’s pieces to draw inspiration from his uncle, who is credited as collaborator on the subsequent “Protocol” and to whom “A Schizophrenic Gospel” is dedicated. Many of the stories employ second-person narration, addressing the reader as “you,” instead of the more common first- or third-person perspectives, and most often the prose is dense, without conventional paragraphing or punctuation, with sentences flowing over pages. The tone throughout is dark comedy, exploring human absurdity and carnality amid a universe that is at best senseless, if not malevolent. “You insist the world can be perfect only in its totality,” says one character, “meaning that good and evil are both necessary, otherwise it would come crashing down.” Early work from a writer who merits a larger readership.
Katz, Ani Penguin (224 pp.) $17.00 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-14-313498-5 A successful Manhattan adman believes his family comes first—but commits an unthinkable act against them. The world in which the events of Katz’s disturbing debut novel unfold is a dangerous place. Mass graves are discovered in Damascus. College students set themselves on fire to protest against their deportations. There are school massacres, hunger strikes, police shootings, a paramilitary presence on the streets. Against this unsettling backdrop of violence and disaster—which doesn’t feel that far removed from American life in 2019—Thomas Martin unspools his dark confession. Thomas is an adman in Manhattan. He spins stories for a living, making “things like death seem clean and manageable—attractive, even.” Thomas’ troubled childhood has provided him with a unique view of emotional disaster and prepared him well for his career. His abusive father was a drunk, his mother a cowering, terrified wreck. His older sister committed suicide, and his younger sisters exist in an extended adolescence, wandering aimlessly through the wreck of the family house on Long Island. But Thomas has built a better life for himself. He fell in love, got married, had a daughter. He’s working on an important account. He’s transformed. He is, he tells us, a good man, one who takes care of his family. But Thomas is not a reliable narrator, and his account slowly unravels as Katz reveals his inner turmoil. And if he’s such a good man, why did he buy that threatening billy club online for “psychological protection”? As she expertly builds a growing sense of dread, Katz creates an unsettling atmosphere of paranoia, fear, and rage, hinting at the catastrophe to come through ominous comparisons to the tragic operas Thomas loves. This is the sort of relentless novel you can’t put down even when you’re afraid to read what happens next. An unnerving and absorbing exploration of modern masculinity and how the seeds of violence are sown.
TRACK CHANGES
Kashua, Sayed Trans. by Ginsburg, Mitch Grove (242 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-8021-4789-9 An Arab Israeli man reckons with the mistake that determined the course of his life. The narrator of Kashua’s (Native, 2017, etc.) latest novel is a writer, of sorts. He ghostwrites memoirs for the clients who seek him out—most of them elderly, most of them Jewish. Occasionally he inserts his own memories among their narratives. He himself is Arab and for most of the novel goes unnamed; eventually, though, a minor character asks, “Are you Saeed?” and he answers, “Yes.” Saeed grew up in Tira, a Palestinian village in Israel. At some point, something went wrong, and Saeed left for Jerusalem. Now, he and his wife and children live in Illinois, and it’s been almost 20 years since he’s seen the rest of his family. It’s Saeed’s mistake, whatever it was, that Kashua is primarily concerned with. He circles around it, revealing details only gradually. If he meant for this strategy to hold the reader in suspense, he isn’t entirely successful: The result feels too drawn out, as if we’ve been strung along for too long, with too little to show for it. Saeed’s mistake has to do with a short story he wrote years ago, and his wife, it turns out, was the primary victim. So it’s unfortunate that his wife, whose name is Palestine, never emerges as a fully-fledged character. Saeed has nothing more insightful to say about her than that “she’s beautiful, so beautiful,” and she never gets to speak for herself. The most moving parts of the book, in fact, don’t have to do with Saeed’s mistake at all. These are the descriptions of the prejudice and discrimination Saeed faces at the hands of his Jewish colleagues, a topic that Kashua has already written about, more effectively, elsewhere. A rambling novel about regret strays too close, too often, to self-pity. 18
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Krivak, Andrew Bellevue Literary Press (224 pp.) $16.99 paper | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-942658-70-2 A moving post-apocalyptic fable for grown-ups. We’re not entirely sure why it is that an unnamed man and his unnamed daughter are an endangered species, but we do know, after the man dies, that the animals call her “the last one.” Before his demise, the man teaches his daughter how to hunt, make snowshoes and arrows, comprehend the ways of the trees and the seasons in |
their mountain stronghold; they read “poetry from poets with strange names like Homer and Virgil, Hilda Doolittle and Wendell Berry, poems about gods and men and the wars between them, the beauty of small things, and peace,” and they talk night and day about the things that matter. Krivak (The Signal Flame, 2017, etc.) delivers no small amount of poetry himself in what might have been a cloying exercise in anthropomorphism, for once the preteen daughter is alone, a noble-minded bear takes care of her, avoiding “the place of the walls” where humans once dwelled in favor of alpine lakes and, in winter, a remote cave. A puma joins in the adventure to provide food while the bear sleeps, assuring her that she will become part of a story “for the forest to remember for as long as there is forest beneath the sun.” Part of the girl’s task is to bury her father on the distant mountaintop next to her mother’s grave, then, as the years pass, to honor them, “a girl no longer, though forever their child.” A literary rejoinder of sorts to Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us (2007), Krivak’s slender story assures us that even without humans, the world will endure: The bears and mountain lions will come into their own in a world of buckled roofs and “ruined books,” and they themselves will tell stories under the light of the Great Bear. That’s small comfort to some humans, no doubt, but it makes for a splendid thought exercise and a lovely fable-cum-novel. Ursula K. Le Guin would approve. An effective, memorable tale.
really in love with but then we couldn’t get Guillermo to direct and then I kind of fell out of love and I fired everybody?” The narrator digs in her heels—after all, she needs a place to raise her daughter, Pep, hide her ex-con sister, Fin, and entertain her book club, currently reading “a multigenerational family saga set in the Burmese mountains in the winter of 1806, written by a queer-leaning Bangladeshi paraplegic.” This means war. A high-thread-count sheet of jokes swathing a plot as slender as its eating-challenged narrator.
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BEEN THERE, MARRIED THAT
Levangie, Gigi St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-250-16681-4
A Hollywood divorce with all the trimmings: luxury real estate, lawyers, TMZ, plastic surgery, an Oscar, and a night in jail. It begins at the narrator’s 48th birthday party, where her A-list movie star husband, Trevor, toasts her…work ethic. “My fertility is on its last heaving throes, my eggs scrambled and crapping out, waving the white maxi pad. All that’s left for me is flushing and sweat. Soon, I will be all dried out, a human tumbleweed, rolling along Sunset Boulevard to guzzle martinis at the Polo Lounge,” she says. Rushing along in a torrent of inner monologue, snappy dialogue, puns, memes, and wisecracks, the narrator of Levangie’s (Seven Deadlies, 2013, etc.) latest goes from the birthday celebration to a book party with signature cocktails called “Tres Deadlies” and “Deadlies on Arrival”—suggesting that the author, a former Hollywood wife herself, knows whereof she speaks. When the narrator gets home, she finds the code to the gate of her “mid-century California ranch-style estate in the famed Palisades Riviera” has been changed. After she climbs over, the guard, ordered to keep her out, tasers her. “I’m putting this marriage in turnaround,” announces the extremely self-absorbed Trevor. “You know, like when I had that cartel project I was |
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BORN SLIPPY
survivor, Romy’s progression from suspect to the freedom of her own small apartment takes months. But despite her willingness to pretend otherwise for the authorities, her true goal is not to assimilate into a world she has been catechized her entire life to believe will soon end. She must find her siblings, who have been placed with her mother’s sister, Sarah, and return to the safety of the cult in its second location, in Scotland, one that the authorities know nothing about. There are some gruesome tasks she must undertake first, however, and she performs these with alacrity. The reader discovers what led to the cult members’ demise as the dark and twisting story jumps back and forth among times, places, and people, covering the 20 years that Romy grew up within the Ark, training for survival and preparing for the end of the world. A confusing mass of detail at the beginning of the book settles into a disturbing exploration of religious fervor and how belief can be used to justify the worst impulses of humankind. Author Marwood (The Darkest Secret, 2016, etc.) has a deft touch in this pre-apocalyptic tale. A gripping, unexpected novel with graphic elements that are not for the faint of heart.
Lutz, Tom Repeater (296 pp.) $16.95 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-912248-64-3 A man of modest ambitions falls under the spell of a shallow and rapacious billionaire. Frank, when we meet him in 2000, just wants to build a high-quality house in Connecticut and start a new life after a failed relationship. Dmitry, the teenage son of distant acquaintances in England, happens to be around to help, though he’s an incompetent tradesman and his main talent is roping Frank (or “Franky,” as he calls him, much to Frank’s annoyance) into schemes redolent of prostitution and insurance fraud. Cutting the cord isn’t so simple for Frank, though: Over the dozen or so years after they meet, Dmitry pulls Frank into his orbit, be it for sleazy low-grade dalliances with women and drugs or sleazy highstakes money laundering. “What sick shit within you responds to him?” a girlfriend asks Frank, and that’s the core question of the first novel by Lutz (And the Monkey Learned Nothing, 2016, etc.), editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. Tonally, the novel aspires to be an intellectual thriller, heavy on the intellectual part; though the plot pivots on an explosion in 2013 that seems to have Dmitry’s hands on it, the story mainly follows Frank’s ongoing moral hand-wringing over multiple aspects of Dmitry’s life. Lutz carefully chronicles Frank’s inner storms (references to The Third Man are just one echo of Graham Greene here), though Dmitry is less resolved. Lutz alternates between making him a mere allegory of capitalist greed or an outright cartoon of it (right down to the oversized penis). “It would be a gigantic error to settle for being a capitalist pig when I can, with not an iota’s more effort, be an imperialist pig,” Dmitry declaims. The clash of sensibilities between Frank and Dmitry gives the novel a queasy frisson, though one wishes it had more to say about the mind of the pig. An entertaining neonoir about the wages of greed.
THE BODY OUTSIDE THE KREMLIN
May, James L. Delphinium (416 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-883285-84-5
Serving time in the mid-1920s in the notorious Solovetsky prison labor camp, located on an island that used to be a monastery, a 20-year-old student is pressed to help investigate the murder of a fellow prisoner with whom he was acquainted. The student, Anatoly “Tolya” Bogomolov, was convicted of possessing forbidden books. The dead man, Gennady Antonov, found floating in the bay, had been in charge of restoring prized icons in the former monastery building. Tolya is drawn to the investigation, which requires him to deal with fussy, aging detective Petrovich, for two reasons: The job will lighten his labor in the camp and improve his “accommodations,” and he is a fan of forensic crime novels featuring such sleuths as Sherlock Holmes, Nick Carter, and Nat Pinkerton. But with a real killer on the loose, Tolya discovers the folly of “modeling [himself] on literary detectives.” At the risk of becoming the next victim, and upsetting the authorities, he must get close to a female prisoner with whom Antonov had an affair; uncover the significance of the icons, which were in the possession of monks when the monastery occupied the space; and uncover a secret conspiracy involving White Army officers. Tolya’s account, which stretches into the 1930s and ’40s, is written in the form of a detective novel. By turns clever and revealing, May’s novel keeps the brutality largely in the background while following Tolya’s more intellectual interests. The narrative can get dry, but this is a fine debut. A brainy if sometimes saggy novel that presents a different spin on the prison-camp novel.
THE POISON GARDEN
Marwood, Alex Penguin (400 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-14-311052-1
After what looks like a mass suicide on the grounds of a cult’s commune in Wales, the three known survivors are forced into modern British life in this psychological thriller. Romy, pregnant and almost 21, and her two half siblings, Eden, 15, and Ilo, 13, are the only survivors found alive in Plas Golau—home of the Ark commune—when an ungodly stench leads the authorities to the grounds. More than a hundred people have died from poisoning, their bodies rotting in the sun where they fell as they sought help. As the only adult 20
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A genre-busting tale rife with ghosts, history, and music, at once lyrical and street-wise. the book of lost saints
THE PURSUIT OF WILLIAM ABBEY
doesn’t want to try again for a baby. As Mia reels from Harrison’s decision, she and Oliver begin to research their unlikely dream connection. They have so much in common, and being with him is easier than being around her withdrawn husband. It’s clear that the two of them are connected in some way—but what does that mean? Should Mia be with Oliver or Harrison? Oakley (Close Enough To Touch, 2017, etc.) skillfully navigates several twists and turns, never settling for a predictable plot. The tension ratchets up quickly in the last third of the book as the characters hurtle toward the somewhat shocking event that finally reveals why Mia and Oliver are meant to be in each other’s lives. Readers expecting a simple happily-ever-after should look elsewhere, but those looking for a Me Before You–style sobfest are in the right place. A heartbreaking and thought-provoking exploration of fate, love, and choice sure to bring on a few tears.
North, Claire Orbit (464 pp.) $16.99 paper | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-316-31684-2 A suspenseful tale of the truths that lie hidden in the human heart. English doctor William Abbey stood by and said nothing while a white mob set a Zulu boy on fire in Natal in 1884. The boy’s mother cursed him, and now the shadow of the boy who died follows him implacably wherever he goes. As the shadow draws near, Abbey sees the truth in people’s hearts; if it reaches him, someone he loves dies. Where he sees a curse, others see a tool, and before long, he’s drawn into service as a spy. Abbey says he wants a cure for his condition, but it’s when he meets a woman like him that what he truly wants, and what he’ll do to get it, starts to become clear. North (The Gameshouse, 2019, etc.) has reached back into her seemingly bottomless bag of tricks and pulled out another striking and unusual story—and this one marries an original concept with a straightforwardly suspenseful plot, making it more accessible than some of her other recent work. “Truth,” says one of the truth-speakers, “is imperceptible to human eyes, because we are so caught up in being ourselves that we are never simply here, seeing, here, being, here.” This is a world-spanning cat-and-mouse chase that tackles big questions about the nature of truth and whether we can ever really know one another or ourselves. True love, life and death, what’s worth dying—or killing—for: It’s all here in this gripping, bloody, and haunting novel.
THE BOOK OF LOST SAINTS y o u n g a d u lt
Older, Daniel José Imprint (336 pp.) $26.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-250-18581-5
A New Jersey man reckons with his family’s history during the Cuban revolution with the help of a needy and persistent ghost. Ramón’s day-to-day life is pretty simple: work (he’s a security guard at a hospital), play (he’s a popular party DJ), and romance (he’s in a relationship, if a shaky one, with a co-worker). His Cuban heritage is of only passing interest to him, in part because the family lore is so obscure. Did one aunt really kill herself when Castro took power? Did another really escape? Marisol, one of those aunts, isn’t clear on the details herself; and, being dead, her sole investigative option is to haunt Ramón’s dreams and prompt him to do the legwork. This ingenious setup by fantasy and YA pro Older (Freedom Fire, 2019, etc.) gives the narrative an eerie vibe while still taking its history seriously and wraps a tangible story around the notion that history haunts us. A subplot that puts Ramón under threat from an expat Cuban underworld chief further stresses the point and makes the story more than a genealogy exercise. Ramón’s travels reconnect him with family and ultimately deliver him to Cuba in a fine sequence that clears up some of his and Marisol’s inquiries while introducing him to a country that’s actively oppressive when not merely bureaucratic. (The trip also introduces him to Havana’s furtive but defiant gay subculture.) Older trusts the reader won’t closely scrutinize what Marisol can and can’t do as a ghost, and the plotting is rough-hewn. But its voice is solid: Older’s narrative smoothly alternates between Ramon’s macho demeanor and Marisol’s more gentle and pleading voice; from America’s hard-nosed culture to Cuba’s more worn-down one; and from ghost story to literary family saga. A genre-busting tale rife with ghosts, history, and music, at once lyrical and street-wise.
YOU WERE THERE TOO Oakley, Colleen Berkley (352 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-9848-0646-8
A woman finally meets the man of her dreams, literally, then must decide what to do about it. Mia and her doctor husband, Harrison, have recently moved from Philadelphia to a small Pennsylvania town. Mia spends most of her time trying to convince local art galleries to show her work and grieving the loss of three very wanted pregnancies. Although their marriage is largely happy, Mia is keeping a secret from her husband and everyone else—for years, she’s been having dreams about a man she’s never met. She assumes he’s just a figment of her imagination, but then she sees him at the grocery store—and runs into him again when Harrison treats his sister for appendicitis. His name is Oliver, and he’s been dreaming of her, too. Meanwhile, Mia and Harrison’s relationship hits a significant roadblock—he decides he |
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NIGHT THEATER
an American writer who’s decamped to London struggles to attain intimacy when all he seems to attract are men who don’t want to be in relationships with him. “I was one of those things that can be used only once,” he worries. “People like Derek, I thought...they were able to have boyfriends and still find the time for trysts...whereas it was all I could manage to be someone’s someone else.” In the hilarious “Sky Writing,” a man boards a flight and tells a college student sitting next to him the story of his doomed relationship with a wealthy capitalist, whose love requires him to travel around the world interminably; meanwhile, he pursues potential romance with a flight attendant. “Bliss” finds a young man sheltering the thug who murdered his mother, for reasons that no one—not even the man himself—can make sense of. Stories like these find Peck in fine, counterintuitive form, spinning fiction from the most unlikely and captivating premises, writing in a mode that rides the line between horror and erotica. When he allows himself to step out of his self-fashioned quirkiness the stories attain a level of emotional honesty that stuns. However, Peck too often falls prey to his own impulses toward provocation, resulting in stories that nauseate without much intellectual payoff. In “Not Even Camping Is Like Camping Anymore,” a 5-year-old fixates on a teen boy in terms that are explicitly sexualized. Peck handles the subject more for laughs than thought, and the result is a story that plays into dangerous stereotypes about gay men. The collection’s final two stories, “Summer Beam” parts one and two, end in a disgusting incident of misogynist violence that haunts, but only because it feels willfully mean-spirited and poorly plotted. A fresh collection marred by its author’s insistence on provocation.
Paralkar, Vikram Catapult (224 pp.) $16.95 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-948226-54-7 In this otherworldly novel, a cantankerous surgeon in a remote village in India attempts to revive a dead family. A surgeon is about to leave his clinic for the night when a teacher, his pregnant wife, and their boy make a special request. They are undead, recently murdered by attackers, but an angel has promised them that if the surgeon repairs their injuries by dawn, they’ll be returned to the land of the living. The surgeon; his only assistant, a pharmacist; and her husband are confronted with an impossible task—to heal these ghostbeings in an antiquated operating room ill-equipped to mend even earthly bodies in a single night. “Whatever he was feeling now—the fear and fatigue—the night would only magnify it.” Physician-scientist Paralkar (The Afflictions, 2014) does not name his misfit cast of characters. Their anonymity alludes to their perilous circumstances and distressing exile. His prose is sharp and melodious, and within these enchanting passages is a haunting contemplation of life, death, the liminal space in between, and the dogged search for resurrection. Resurrection isn’t reserved only for the dead, however. The surgeon, though he possesses a heartbeat and other signs of life, is trapped in a kind of purgatory himself. Three years earlier, in an act of revenge against him, a former colleague sullied the surgeon’s reputation, forcing him to leave his large private hospital in the city to practice medicine in the middle of nowhere. His bitterness is palpable and tinges every aspect of his days. And yet, underneath it all, he manages to scrape together some semblance of humanity. “We hope that before we die we’ll find some final truth, a magic bulb to switch on and make all the wrong paths disappear. Until then, all we can do is walk through thorns and try not to trip.” A beguiling and unforgettable fable.
IMAGINARY MUSEUMS
Polek, Nicolette Soft Skull Press (128 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-59376-586-6
In her debut, Polek delivers a wideranging batch of 26 very short stories. Rather than settling for one or two guiding themes, Polek offers an enjoyable balance of light and dark subject matter, sweet and bitter characters, cuddly and cruel moments. A handful of the stories veer into fantasy and fable. She has immense talent for sudden, quietly affecting turns of phrase, luminous details, and word choices that firmly pin images down. A mathematician awakes one morning with a headache and finds “a gray lump, translucent like a cube of gelatin” on her pillow. At an office building, a dropped ball “dwomps down the staircase, blinking around corners.” In “Pets I No Longer Have,” there’s “a turtle from Florida, forgotten on the rooftop of my parents’ car.” Other memorable animals include a 90-pound rabbit, an albino wolfhound named Mercy, and a pet owl named Squash. “The Dance,” one standout, is a love story haunted by a couple’s laziness: “It is as though the lexis
WHAT BURNS
Peck, Dale Soho (216 pp.) $16.00 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-64129-082-1 A collection of inventive stories about queer life that is often too edgy for its own good. Peck (Night Soil, 2018, etc.) returns with his first story collection, with tales that circle around questions of belonging, entrapment, violence, and the frustrated desire for intimacy. Most often Peck trains his attention on relationships between queer men, most of which are laced with melancholy if not outright misanthropy. In “The Law of Diminishing Returns,” 22
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Steph Cha
THE AUTHOR’S NEW THRILLER, YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY, DRAWS ON A REAL-LIFE LOS ANGELES KILLING IN THE RUN-UP TO THE CITY’S 1992 RIOTS By Gene Seymour Maria Kanevskaya
Cha, a 33-year-old Korean American born and raised in Southern California, was too young to remember those events with any clarity. “I actually didn’t hear about it until I heard a radio interview in 2013. I think I knew at some point I was going to write about it because those early ’90s seemed to make up an important part of our history, as people in the Los Angeles community and as Korean Americans.” By the time the idea for Your House Will Pay first took hold, Cha had been in the middle of her trilogy of mysteries (Dead Soon Enough, 2015, etc.) featuring a feisty 20-something Korean American, Raymond Chandler–besotted PI named Juniper Song. While those thrillers were as absorbed as Chandler’s with the social and cultural milieu of Los Angeles, Cha knew she needed to raise her game in telling the story of two Angeleno families, one Korean named Park, the other African American named Matthews, dealing with the decades-old-but-still-incendiary fallout of an incident similar to the Harlins case. “To be honest,” Cha concedes, “writing the Korean family was 10 times easier even though they’re not at all like my family.” Grace and Miriam Park are two very different sisters, with Grace, good-natured and naïve, closer to their mother than Miriam, who is more sophisticated—and relatively jaded. When their mother is wounded in a drive-by shooting, Grace is shocked to learn from Miriam that the attack could be retribution for shooting a black teenage girl almost 30 years before. “I knew a lot of families like the Parks who weren’t in this country as long as mine were and where the language and political differences between generations are more pronounced. Those parts were very natural to me. It took more work for me to write about Shawn and his family.” “Shawn” is Shawn Matthews, an African American exconvict and furniture mover whose sister Ava was the victim of that aforementioned shooting. Shawn, in desperate search for a life as quiet and placid as Grace’s, is interrogat-
At some point, Steph Cha says, research for a novelist can only do so much. The imagination has to step in and say, in essence, facts are facts, but a story needs people, and you’ve got to let them come onto the page and help you tell the truth. Such stakes are higher with the explosive material making up Your House Will Pay (Ecco, Oct. 15), Cha’s gripping, haunting thriller inspired by the real-life case of Latasha Harlins, who was shot to death in 1991 by a Korean woman who mistakenly believed the African American teenager was trying to rob her Los Angeles convenience store. The incident, coming 13 days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King by LA police officers, helped fan the flames of racial unrest leading to the city’s 1992 riots. 24
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ed by an LAPD detective for the Parks’ mother’s shooting, and while he has an alibi that can be verified, the same can’t be said for the rest of his family. To better render the Matthews, Cha says, “I had to read histories of black migration to Los Angeles, which is complicated because there were patterns to that migration before the 1990s and different patterns that came afterward.” These, along with interviews and conversations with black LA residents, helped, but Cha says the first third of the book dealing with Shawn and his family went through several drafts. “My husband and my agent were my first readers, and they could tell how different the nuances and details were between the Parks and the Matthews, and I knew I needed to work harder, do more research, talk to more friends, and keep sounding people out. In the end, she says, “I really painted it stroke by stroke, and at some point, though I couldn’t tell you exactly when or how, it felt as though I’d achieved a level of depth with the African American family that matched the Korean family. Once I felt that both sides had a similar richness and texture, then I trusted myself to go forward with the story, though my research never stopped.” Cha’s commitment to such “texture” seems to have paid off. The starred Kirkus review of Your House Will Pay singles out the book’s “warm, astute sensitivity toward characters of diverse cultures.” “I have no hard figures to prove this,” she says, “but I think that the best way to sharpen people’s empathic powers is through fiction. It’s how you find out and better appreciate people who live, speak, and behave differently from whatever you’re used to. It’s as true for writers as it is for readers.”
of their feelings is a separate creature within the house. Like a fat cat that holds all their secrets and stolen glances.” In the title story we meet Annie, who “had large pores and spent a lot of money covering them up. Annie also had unspeakable grief and a master’s in history.” Several of the longer stories do less with more. Some offer sharp social commentary, a bit like Diane Williams but with more warmth and vulnerability. Even the more academic or abstract pieces have a core of compassion, as in the half-page list story “Girls I No Longer Know,” in which the entrancing catalog includes, “The girl who emptied flower food packets into her lotion” and “The girl in my mother who disappeared over time, and the girl who tried to find her.” A moving, impressively varied first collection.
TOPICS OF CONVERSATION
Popkey, Miranda Knopf (224 pp.) $23.95 | Jan. 9, 2020 978-0-525-65628-9
Gene Seymour is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn and has written for the Nation, the Washington Post, and CNN.com. Your House Will Pay received a starred review in the Aug. 15, 2019, issue.
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An unnamed narrator navigates female identity—her own and in general—through a series of conversations that span the course of 20 years in Popkey’s painfully sharp debut. Popkey begins in Italy. Our narrator, a grad student in English, is spending August on vacation with a more glamorous friend’s family, earning her keep minding their 7-year-old twins. One night, the mother, an Argentinian psychoanalyst, recounts her own romantic history, a lesson in the gendered dynamics of power. But what captivates our narrator is the woman’s certainty, her belief in her own story. “I, at twenty-one, did not, had not yet settled on the governing narrative of my life. Had not yet realized the folly of governing narratives,” she recalls. This is the question that propels the novel; it is a book of ideas—about power and gender, about desire, about loneliness and rage— but it is also, at its core, a novel about storytelling, about the quest for a stable narrative that can explain us to others and to ourselves. Ten years later, at an art exhibit in San Francisco— the work is by a Swedish video artist whose subject is “female pain”—our narrator and a friend discuss heartbreak with detached cruelty. This is the underlying premise of their relationship, that they are both bad people; or at least, that is the story they tell themselves and so the story that unites them. Two years after that, in Los Angeles, divorced, the narrator is armed with another story to explain her behavior to herself: “that I have been, that I continue to be, best at being a vessel for the desire of others.” The first sections of the novel are incisive, often biting, but mannered, as though the narrator’s own oppressive self-consciousness has rubbed off on the prose. But halfway through, at a mommy group in Fresno, the novel takes a turn, going from cool to coolly wrenching, as Popkey layers something like tenderness. A rich and rigorous dissection of how we construct who we are. 25
THE EMPTY BED
as workers still leaves them ostracized from mainstream British society. His apartment is shabby and overpriced, but bigoted authorities won’t hear one man’s complaints about living conditions. So with a few fellow West Indian immigrants, he proposes strength in numbers: The group will collectively buy a piece of property. For Selvon’s purposes, the scheme is largely an opportunity to explore the diversity of the Caribbean immigrant community. (“To Englishers...if a man say he come from Tobago or St. Lucia or Grenada, you none the wiser.”) To that end, the novel is constructed around seriocomic “ballads” about each of the individual participants. One man pretended to arrive from India to score better housing; one man was a hardcore carouser only to fall for the woman who chastised him the most about it; one man’s musical ambitions are waylaid by a drug bust. Serving as a counterpoint to the men’s nonserious approach to getting ahead is a group of women who try to keep them on task, though they’re disregarded out of sheer misogyny. Plotwise the novel is a bit shabby, its resolution pat (Selvon’s 1956 novel, The Lonely Londoners, covers similar turf and received more acclaim), but the lyricism of Selvon’s narration, evoking Bat’s voice, and his keen eye for the ironies that infuse the immigrant experience and the racism it contends with make it a sharp and surprisingly funny short novel. A modest but valuable addition to the canon of migrant fiction.
Sadowsky, Nina Ballantine (320 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-525-61987-1 When a young woman goes missing in Hong Kong, a “fixer” named Catherine agrees to help find her. Eva Lombard is miserable in London; she moved there with her husband and intended to focus on getting pregnant, but Peter works all the time at his investment firm, and she feels completely isolated. So when she notices someone following her, her anxiety leads her to pick a fight with Peter on their anniversary trip to Hong Kong. Angry, they go to bed separately, and when Peter wakes, Eva is gone. He contacts his affluent and connected employer, Forrest Holcomb, who in turn asks for help from his former lover Catherine, a shadowy figure who runs a witness relocation/rescue business on the darknet, helping move and protect victims of abuse as well as high-profile whistleblowers and their families. Catherine’s operatives head to Hong Kong to locate Eva, who is on the run with help from her own shadowy figures—an ex-boyfriend and a friend-turned–restaurant owner with ties to the triads, the network of gangsters who run Hong Kong. With the help of Catherine’s operatives, Peter and Eva are reunited, but they remain a target for the unknown assailants. As Eva and Peter fight for their lives, Catherine investigates the man who was following them, because he looks awfully familiar….There’s a definite cinematic vibe to Sadowsky’s (The Burial Society, 2018, etc.) novel, especially as the characters rush around Hong Kong in Jason Bourne–type chase scenes. Catherine and her mysterious network are impressively connected and intriguingly motivated, and the woman herself is a fascinating study of power, empathy, and efficiency. The short chapters push the action to breathless heights. Surrender to the action and intrigue, leave logic by the wayside, and enjoy this whirlwind adventure in Hong Kong.
THE NETWORK
Shaw, L.C. Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $16.99 paper | Dec. 17, 2019 978-0-06-295090-1 The search for the 30 magical silver coins Judas received for betraying Jesus drives a thriller with Dan Brown aspirations. Teens die imitating a perverted reality show. A U.S. senator expires on a diving trip after a fishy anti-vaccine vote in Congress, and bad guys move in to kidnap his pretty young wife. A pregnant woman is imprisoned and abused by a sadistic doctor at an evil institute. Who you gonna call? Jack Logan (not Jack Ryan, but close), investigative journalist–turned–action hero, who fortunately has taken an evasive driving class and done a stint undercover as a bodyguard in Colombia. Logan is the creation of Shaw, a pseudonym of Lynne Constantine, who, together with her sister, writes under the name Liv Constantine (The Last Time I Saw You, 2019, etc.); since the cover proclaims this “A Jack Logan Thriller,” it’s apparently the first of a series. If Tom Clancy inspired the character’s moniker, Dan Brown is the model for many other elements, down to the wooden writing and laughable, expository dialogue. “I mean, exploiting vulnerable teenagers for ratings with no regard to the consequences. It’s unconscionable.” “The same Saint John who wrote the Gospel?” Maybe you have to read it in context to get the joke; do so at your own risk. While Brown often uses Christian mysticism
THE HOUSING LARK
Selvon, Sam Penguin (160 pp.) $13.00 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-14-313396-4 A reissue of Selvon’s 1965 novel about a group of Caribbean immigrants pooling their resources to buy a home in England. Novels like Zadie Smith’s NW and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane are descendants of the work of Selvon (1923-1994), a Trinidadian novelist who moved to London in 1950 and soon began chronicling the lives of Caribbean immigrants there. Those immigrants arrived to address England’s labor shortage, but as Battersby, the lead character here, soon learns, being welcomed 26
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This is vintage Martin Cruz Smith. Fans of Arkady Renko will be pleased. the siberian dilemma
MR. NOBODY
and iconography as plot elements, Shaw’s story makes faith itself central. The good guys are saved, and the bad guys represent Satan; they need those silver coins back to support their various evil plans. “What does increasing the abortion rate do for your cause?” one character asks another. “There’s nothing more precious in the eyes of God than new life. Anything I can do to destroy those lives, I’ll do. If I can prevent the birth of just one true believer who might shape the world in a better direction, I’ll have done well.” A Christian fable with a right-wing agenda lurks beneath the surface of this action/adventure debut.
Steadman, Catherine Ballantine (368 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-5247-9768-3
THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA
Smith, Martin Cruz Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-4391-4025-3
The latest in the Russian crime series featuring detective Arkady Renko (Tatiana, 2013, etc.) takes the reader to forlorn Siberia and frozen Lake Baikal. Renko is Investigator of Special Cases in Moscow. When his girlfriend, Tatiana—an investigative journalist who receives plenty of hate mail and death threats—doesn’t arrive home as expected on the Trans-Siberian Express, he’s worried about her. She had gone to Irkutsk, deep inside Siberia, to research a story about oligarch Mikhail Kuznetsov, “who is not only running for president…he’s running for his life.” It’s a story that could make her famous but could also get her killed, so Renko wants to know she is safe. Totally wrapped up in her project, she neglects to let him know she plans to stay there a while longer. So when Renko’s superior sends him to Siberia to report back about Kuznetsov, “a known enemy of the people,” and to interrogate a Chechen prisoner accused of attempted murder, the trip fits in well with his need to find Tatiana and reassure himself that she’s OK. She doesn’t communicate much, though, making her “a very difficult person to be in love with.” On the flight to Irkutsk he meets Rinchin Bolot, who quickly becomes his factotum, or jack-ofall-trades. “What’s a factotum?” Renko is asked. “I’m not sure, but I seem to have one.” Bolot is a great character with a wry sense of humor. More importantly, he is a many-faceted asset to Renko: “Bolot was an iceberg, all bright surfaces and hidden depths.” For his part, Renko is decent, smart, and appealing, hardly a stereotypical tough guy. And when he’s confronted by an enormous bear, his shooting skills could use sharpening. The story appropriately ends with the Siberian dilemma, where one person faces a terrible choice. Everything just feels Russian, as though the author hikes to his hut from the taiga, warms his frozen fingers at the wood stove, pours himself a vodka, and sits down to type. This is vintage Martin Cruz Smith. Fans of Arkady Renko will be pleased.
y o u n g a d u lt
Drenched with seawater, bleeding from a head wound, and missing his memory, a man awakens on Holkham Beach in Norfolk, England. Written on his hand is a clue, but a clue to what? His identity? Or something more sinister? Once taken to the hospital, the man initially called Mr. Nobody is dubbed Matthew, and although he cannot speak, brain scans reveal no physical trauma. When the leading neuropsychiatrist is unable to take on the case, he recommends Emma Lewis, who is eager to seize the chance to prove her new theories about fugue states. True fugue states are rare, but Matthew’s case seems authentic, and his brain scans share an odd anomaly with a previous case from years ago. Yet taking on Matthew’s care requires signing nondisclosure forms, leaving Emma wondering who is protecting this man. Worse, for the first time in 14 years, Emma will have to travel back to Norfolk, where something happened that left her so traumatized that she and her family needed new names. Once there, Emma reunites with Chris Poole, an old friend from school who’s now working for the police department. Romance sparkles, but Chris’ journalist wife, Zara, may hold cards spelling trouble not only for Emma, but also Matthew. Steadman (Something in the Water, 2018) once again brilliantly paces the action from the very first scene: a car wreck about to happen at whiplash-inducing speed. With each step, confusion descends, blurring the path forward with deliciously gothic twists. As in all good thrillers, lights unexpectedly snap out, a creepy house is hidden down a tree-woven lane, and long-buried secrets emerge. As Emma takes charge of her patient, his memories slowly entangle their pasts together, and exposing those secrets may imperil Emma’s very life. A spellbinding thriller perfect for those dark and stormy nights.
ABIGAIL
Szabó, Magda Trans. by Rix, Len New York Review Books (360 pp.) $16.95 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-68137-403-1 Sequestered at a boarding school during World War II, a rebellious teenager confronts secrets, lies, and danger. Published in Hungary in 1970, and translated into English for the first time by Rix, this intricately plotted novel by Prix Femina Étranger winner Szabó (1917-2007) (Katalin Street, 2017, etc.) complicates a predictable coming-of-age tale by setting it in perilous times: War rages, patriotism incites bitterness |
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and bigotry, and a clandestine resistance movement stealthily arises. When 14-year-old Gina is sent suddenly from her home in Budapest to an elite religious school in the provinces, she feels deeply bereft: of her beloved governess, who was forced to return to her native France; of her aunt’s delightful tea dances; of encounters with a handsome lieutenant with whom she is infatuated; and, most of all, of her father, whom she loves so deeply that she “felt the world complete only when they were together.” Protected, indulged, and self-absorbed, Gina suffers protracted (and somewhat irritating) adolescent angst. She hates the academy: Once a medieval monastery, it looms like a fortress; girls, dressed in black uniforms, their hair braided unfashionably, are forbidden to bring jewelry, scented soaps, or even toothbrushes from home. Obedience to Christian precepts and school authority is strictly enforced—and, by Gina, repeatedly flouted. She breaks rules, antagonizes her teachers and classmates, and mocks rituals and traditions, including the girls’ veneration of a statue they call Abigail, which has the uncanny power to know everything that happens at the school and offer warnings and sage advice. “All my life I have been a wild thing,” Gina reflects. “I am impatient and impulsive, and I have never learned to love people who annoy me or try to hurt me.” But when her father, visiting unexpectedly, reveals the reason he had to send her away, she vows to behave and realizes that Abigail is watching over her. Far from a supernatural being, Abigail’s real identity, Gina believes, is “someone inside these fortress walls who lives a secret life.” Urgent moral questions underlie a captivating mystery.
floated away.” Then Christina receives a letter from Andy’s father stating that he’s purchased the buildings on the wharf and will be raising the rent. Christina and the other shopkeepers decide to band together to change Oscar’s mind. Only if she successfully challenges Oscar will Christina ever feel secure in a relationship with his son. As usual, Thayer’s novel is so full of details about life on Nantucket that the island becomes its own character. Several moments are so sweet they’ll make your teeth hurt, but the holiday feasts, caroling, and general Christmas spirit help the novel fall squarely within its genre of satisfying Christmas romances. Told in a plot-focused, accessible prose, the book maintains its lighthearted tone throughout, never delving too deeply into Christina’s feelings toward her own family, her friendships with the other shopkeepers, or the classist attitudes of her friends. A wholesome Christmas tale full of adorable characters and unexpected kindnesses.
CREATURES
Van Meter, Crissy Algonquin (256 pp.) $25.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-61620-859-2 A first-time novelist explores the curses and blessings of a childhood shaped by unreliable parents and an unforgiving sea. This spiky, elliptical novel, which takes place on a fictional island off the coast of Southern California, begins with a beached whale. The inescapable odor and massive, macabre presence of the corpse are just two of the challenges Evangeline faces as she prepares for her wedding. Her long-absent mother has arrived uninvited. And it’s possible that the groom, a fisherman, has died at sea. While the whale is, in any practical sense, the least of Evie’s worries, it feels horribly emblematic of her circumstances—maybe even of her whole existence. As she tells her story, moving back and forth in time, it becomes clear that Evie has a history of finding fixations to distract her from the most difficult aspects of her life. Ultimately, though, the subject she would like most to escape is the one she studies the most closely: her father. Evie’s dad is a beguiling figure, someone who provides for himself and his daughter as a raconteur and a drug dealer. When Evie’s a kid, his exceptional charm is just as crucial to their survival as his ability to score cocaine or produce epic weed. Sometimes they are the guests of wealthy friends who like to party. Sometimes they live in cheap apartments. Sometimes they are homeless. This instability makes Evie somewhat immune to her father’s charisma. As she grows up, we see how this colorful but volatile upbringing leaves her with real emotional deficits. Van Meter does not allow her narrator to luxuriate in self-pity, though. Some of the most heartbreaking moments in this novel are the most simply told, and there are scenes of beauty and magic and dry humor amid the chaos. And Evie is self-aware enough to acknowledge her own complexities and shortcomings. A quietly captivating debut.
LET IT SNOW
Thayer, Nancy Ballantine (272 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 15, 2019 978-1-5247-9868-0 A Nantucket shopkeeper falls for one of the island’s wealthiest bachelors in this Christmas season feel-good tale. The novel begins as Christina Antonioni prevents a 9-year-old girl from shoplifting stickers from her Nantucket toy shop. Christina strikes a bargain with the sullen girl, who introduces herself as Wink, convincing the child to come back and work in the store for a short period. If Wink returns, Christina will pay her the meager sum required to purchase the stickers. Wink not only returns, but is so disarming that Christina offers her a regular job. It turns out Wink is the granddaughter of Oscar Bittlesman, one of the richest men on Nantucket. When Wink’s mother visits the store with her brother, Andy, Christina feels an instant attraction to him. She attempts to talk herself out of the crush, relying on internal dialogue that she refers to throughout the story, somewhat artlessly, as her “Inner Christina.” However, Andy takes an interest in her and wears down her defenses. “Her Inner Christina told her she absolutely could not count on this evening amounting to anything at all, but here with him now, so close that they could reach out and touch, all common sense 28
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Dark, harrowing, and wildly funny. processed cheese
PROCESSED CHEESE
WE WISH YOU LUCK
Wright, Stephen Little, Brown (400 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-316-04337-3
Zancan, Caroline Riverhead (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-525-53493-8
Two crafty graduate students plot their revenge when a famous novelist abuses her power. The collective voice that powers this novel belongs to the classmates of Hannah, a quiet but well-traveled writer with a keen editorial eye; Leslie, an outspoken erotica writer who keeps sex off the page in all her workshop submissions; and Jimmy, a brilliant but reserved poet suffering from depression. When Simone, Jimmy’s workshop leader at the prestigious Fielding low-residency MFA program, tears Jimmy’s submission apart in front of the entire class, the small community is shaken by her viciousness. Simone’s criticism pushes an already fragile Jimmy over the edge, and Leslie and Hannah leap into action to prove Simone’s not just a bad teacher, but an egomaniacal plagiarist. Zancan (Local Girls, 2015) writes in the third person plural as the Fielding graduates attempt to re-create what happened the year before they parted ways. “Maybe it was because Hannah, Leslie, and Jimmy’s story was more interesting, always and finally, than the unfinished novels we kept in drawers after we graduated and the chap books we self-published, that it always drew us back in,” the narrators write, considering their continued fascination with graduate school drama. In its best moments, the novel captures the quirky habits and strange personalities of those who are forced to love and practice their art in stolen moments, in two week intervals, during a lowresidency MFA. But it also, at times, belabors what could be a powerful story about institutional power and the collective responsibility of storytelling in order to build suspense. “We wouldn’t think anything of it until later, though,” the narrators insist as they recount Hannah and Leslie’s maneuverings. “At the time it was only happiness we felt.” When Zancan at last gets down to the business of telling the story, she captures the fraught environment of almost-grown-ups on campus in sharp, unsparing detail and with lyrical momentum. While the clamorous chorus of her collective narrator occasionally elbows the thread of the plot out of the way, Zancan nevertheless asks intriguing questions about power, complicity, and the urge to tell someone else’s story. A sinuous, shape-shifting campus novel that promises more heft than it delivers.
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Wright (The Amalgamation Polka, 2006, etc.) holds up a fun-house mirror to our money-obsessed society—and, after a while, the distorted reflection grows uncomfortably close to real life. It’s one of the oldest and most persistent hypotheticals haunting our collective dream life: Suppose a big bag of money drops from the sky right in front of you and there’s nobody around to claim it. Such is the astonishing, intoxicating situation facing Graveyard, an economically challenged resident of Mammoth City, the grandest metropolis in an alternate-universe America. He and his wife, Ambience, are literally rolling in their fat new pile of fresh dough, unaware that the bag belongs to MisterMenu, a master of the universe inhabiting a luxury penthouse in the 52-story Eyedropper Building with his jaded, aggrieved ex-supermodel wife, MissusMenu, who, in a fit of pique, threw the bag at him and watched it sail “over the parapet” and “into the anonymous city.” As MisterMenu contrives with dark forces to retrieve his lost sack, its seemingly inexhaustible contents are being heedlessly, giddily flung all over town by Graveyard and Ambience. The happy couple begins their spending spree by “refurbish[ing] their dilapidated lives with product purchased almost exclusively in the TooGoodForYou District.” That clause alone exemplifies some of the dry wit served by Wright, whose deconstruction of American myths using page-turning narrative and unsettling imagery was previously displayed in such novels as Going Native (1994). Even as his characters’ indulgence in empty pleasures becomes ickier, riskier, and more life threatening, Wright sustains a vision that comes across like an updated “Thimble Theater” comic strip from the 1930s juiced with the free-wheeling, whacked-out comedy of a vintage 1970s Firesign Theater LP. The book’s unending stream of uproarious faux brand names— such as StandUpAndCheer, DominationDonuts, the Gibe & Cloister 418 firearm, and WalleyedMonks Champagne—doesn’t distract from the ferocious and mostly effective assault on our own world’s obsession with getting, spending, and having, whether it’s sex, drugs, guns, cars, clothes, appliances, or shelter. This dark, harrowing, and wildly funny novel somehow both challenges and affirms that tried-and-true adage: Money isn’t everything.
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really LEAR; its status as a quantum machine, America’s opening bid to establish a world-dominating quantum internet, is top secret. One of those people is federal special agent Capt. Calli Chase, “a nerdy scientist whose hobby is to moonlight as a security guard” for NASA Protective Services. That’s a great skill set for her to have, for hours before the installation is set to begin, and shortly after electrical engineer Vera Young, an outside contractor, reports her ID badge stolen, someone or something trips an alarm in the deep-sunk “Yellow Submarine” tunnel linking NASA buildings 1110 and 1111. As a winter storm and a partial government shutdown inch toward the site, Calli and Maj. Fran Lacey, a multiphobic officer of the NASA police, investigate the suspicious site and find no reason the alarm should have gone off. In the meantime, though, there’s potentially more disturbing news: Vera Young seems to have hanged herself after dousing her body in bleach—a possible-crime scene that gives Cornwell a chance to show off her trademark forensics. If Vera didn’t kill herself, who did? Could it have been her sister, Neva Rong, the CEO of Pandora Space Systems? Or Calli’s own twin sister, Carme, a wraithlike, teasingly equivocal figure whose presence Calli keeps sensing even when she’s nowhere to be found? Fans mourning Scarpetta’s absence will console themselves with a death grip on the myriad technical details, an equally strong, even more tormented heroine, and the determined neglect of the remaining characters. In place of human interest, savor all those acronyms: HIRF, FOD-1, EVA, OEM, TLC, PSS, DARPA, PONGS, PRCH, STM, SPIRNet.
DEATH BEE COMES HER
Coco, Nancy Kensington (352 pp.) $7.99 paper | Dec. 31, 2019 978-1-4967-1976-8
The Oregon coast replaces Mackinac Island and honey stands in for fudge in Coco’s new cozy series, which sticks to a familiar pattern (Fudge Bites, 2019,etc.). Together with her Havana brown cat, Everett, Wren Johnson, who’s settled in Oregon to be near her Aunt Eloise, lives above the shop she owns, Let It Bee, which specializes in all things honeybee. During one of the beach walks Everett enjoys on his leash, he alerts Wren to a dead body. Handsome beat cop Jim Hampton arrives on the scene to find her clutching a paper that was in the dead woman’s hand, a label from one of Wren’s lip balms. The woman is Agnes Snow, the wife of ex-mayor Bernie Snow and a fierce crafting rival of Aunt Eloise. Wren becomes a person of interest when the police discover poison in the lip balm. Lawyer Matt Hanson, taking her case pro bono, warns her not to talk to the police in his absence. So instead she talks to everyone else. Although she must watch as her reputation in town is torn to shreds, she still has friends who believe in her, from her sales manager, Porsche, to 911 operator Josie, and of course Aunt Eloise. Despite repeated warnings from Hampton, the three of them chat up the locals, hoping to provoke gossip and elicit possible motives for killing Agnes and framing Wren. They wonder if the cash deposits Agnes was making into her bank account could be blackmail payments that would provide a good motive for murder. When Everett is apparently catnapped, Wren, desperate to find him, ignores warnings that would keep her out of trouble. Personable characters and lots of honey lore make for an informative but mundane read.
THINGS IN JARS
Kidd, Jess Atria (384 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-9821-2128-0
Lady detective Bridie Devine searches for a missing child and finds much more than she bargained for. Bridie Devine is no stranger to the seedy underworld of Victorian London. An accomplished detective with medical training, she sometimes helps the police by examining bodies to determine the cause of death. Bridie recently failed to find a lost child, and when she’s approached about another missing child, the daughter of Sir Edmund Berwick, she isn’t enthusiastic about taking on the case. But Christabel Berwick is no ordinary child. Sir Edmund has hidden Christabel away her whole life and wants Bridie to believe this is an ordinary kidnapping. Bridie does a little digging and learns that Christabel isn’t his daughter so much as his prized specimen. Sir Edmund believes Christabel is a “merrow,” a darker and less romanticized version of a mermaid. Bridie is skeptical, but there are reports of Christabel’s sharp teeth, color-changing eyes, and ability to drown people on dry land. Given that Bridie’s new companion is a ghost who refuses to tell her why he’s haunting her, Bridie might want to open her mind a bit. There’s a lot going on in this
QUANTUM
Cornwell, Patricia Thomas & Mercer (352 pp.) $28.99 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-1-5420-9406-1 The creator of Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta (Chaos, 2016, etc.) peers into space and finds just as much skulduggery there. Less than nine hours from now, a pair of astronauts, Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer, are scheduled to install a Low Earth Atmospheric Reader in the International Space Station. Only a handful of people with NASA know that LEAR isn’t 30
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A limo driver snoops her way through Dublin’s fair city for answers to her friend’s death. dead in dublin
THE MISSING AMERICAN
singular novel, and none of it pretty. Bridie’s London is soaked with mud and blood, and her past is nightmarish at best. Kidd (Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, 2018, etc.) is an expert at setting a supernatural mood perfect for ghosts and merrows, but her human villains make them seem mundane by comparison. With so much detail and so many clever, Dickensian characters, readers might petition Kidd to give Bridie her own series. Creepy, violent, and propulsive; a standout gothic mystery.
Quartey, Kwei Soho Crime (432 pp.) $25.95 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-64129-070-8
DEAD IN DUBLIN
Murphy, Catie Kensington (352 pp.) $7.99 paper | Dec. 31, 2019 978-1-4967-2418-2 A limo driver snoops her way through Dublin’s fair city for answers to her friend’s death. Megan Malone, a driver for Leprechaun Limos, is horrified when food critic Elizabeth Darr falls dead at the feet of the bronze statue of Molly Malone, famous fishmonger and tragic heroine of a beloved Irish song. Liz and her husband, Simon, had just come from the restaurant where Megan had delivered them. But as a former combat medic, an expatriate from Austin, Texas, and a friend of the Darrs, she’s not one to stand helplessly by and wring her hands. At least she can help Fionnuala Canan, the restaurant owner, who’s devastated not only that a patron died after eating there, but also that the place will have to be closed during the investigation and, incidentally, that Liz might have been a victim of food poisoning from her meal. If the restaurant closes, it could also take down Fionnuala’s business partner, Martin Rafferty, and his associated nightclub, which is also off limits during the investigation. What with propping up Fionnuala, trying to comfort Simon (and Liz’s parents too), and looking after a homeless dog and her newborn puppies, Megan has her hands full, especially as the mysteries start piling up. Was Liz having an affair with a younger woman? Who’s sending out video blogs of Liz after her death? Is Simon quite the devoted husband he seems? What was his connection to Martin Rafferty? And who—wait a minute—has killed Martin? Although Megan tries to cooperate with Detective Paul Bourke, she has the amateur sleuth’s tendency to work independently and a little outside of the law, like someone who’d look through the files of a USB drive found in Megan’s limo before turning them over to Bourke and maybe perform a little breaking and entering. Although neither Megan nor the reader finds quite all the answers, her irrepressible debut provides a lively entry in the Dublin Driver Mysteries. A bad review can kill a restaurant—but what if a restaurant kills a reviewer?
y o u n g a d u lt
The author who followed Accra’s Chief Inspector Darko Dawson through five cases (Death by His Grace, 2017, etc.) debuts a new series heroine, a female investigator too principled for the Ghana Police Service. It takes a long time for Gordon Tilson to disappear. First the D.C. widower forms a romantic attachment to his Facebook friend Helena Barfour; then he sends her gifts totaling $4,000 after her sister is injured in a traumatic accident; then he impulsively flies to Accra to see how he can help her in person; then he realizes she doesn’t exist and he’s been scammed; then, egged on by his journalist friend Casper Guttenberg, he overrules his original impulse to slink back home and decides instead to stay and investigate; and finally, six weeks after his arrival, he vanishes. His son, Derek, who disapproved of everything from Helena to the trip, follows him to Accra, where he hires private detective Yemo Sowah to find out what’s become of his father. Sowah has recently taken on a new operative, Emma Djan, who was bounced from the police force after she refused the aggressive advances of Commissioner Alex Andoh, the directorgeneral of the CID. But Andoh is only the tip of an iceberg of corruption that would cover all of Ghana if it weren’t for the tropical weather. The web of deception also includes Nii Kwei, who’s tossed aside his degree in political science to become a sakawa boy, making his living through online scams; DI Doris Damptey, the eminently bribable officer who arrests Nii and turns him loose moments later; Godfather, the shadowy head of the sakawa empire; whoever ordered the assassination of presidential candidate Bernard Evans-Aidoo; and several other high-placed citizens whose identities will surprise only Emma. Notable for its Ghanaian atmosphere and its densely imagined criminal web in which every point is connected to every other.
WINTER GRAVE
Tursten, Helene Trans. by Delargy, Marlaine Soho Crime (336 pp.) $26.95 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-64129-076-0 Detective Embla Nyström (Hunting Game, 2019) returns to the Gothenburg region’s Violent Crimes Unit just in time to head the search for two missing children. After missing the school bus home, 9-year-old Amelie Holm hitches a ride with Kristoffer Sjöberg, the cousin of her friend Tuva. That’s the last that anyone sees of her—unless you |
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count the fact that 17-year-old Kristoffer, who’s on the autism spectrum and doesn’t talk much under ideal circumstances, eventually says that he dropped her off at her house. In the meantime, his father, wealthy intermittent alcoholic Olof Sjöberg, has lawyered up and warned the police to stay away from his son. And so they do, distracted at first by the fatal stabbing of Norwegian gangster Robert Halvorsen. When a second child, 6-year-old Viggo Andersson, disappears, Embla and her VCU teammates get more interested in the case, especially because the fathers of the two vanished children have been close friends since they were children themselves. A body turns up in a remote ditch, but it’s that of Strömstad police officer Viktor Jansson, not one of the missing children. Ugly online rumors outpace the investigation, and while the police are still trying to put the pieces together, someone, evidently convinced that Kristoffer is behind both disappearances, sets fire to Sjöberg’s home, killing him and sending Kristoffer to the hospital, where he’s attacked yet again by an assailant wielding a knife just like the one that stabbed Robert Halvorsen. “What the hell is going on in Strömstad?” wonder the members of the Regional Crime Center, doubtless echoing the sentiments, and maybe even the tone, of many readers. But don’t tell that to Embla, a former boxing champ who may never fight again but has at least made a highly satisfactory sexual connection. Tursten eventually ties all the strands together, but the effect is more sad than logically or dramatically memorable.
whereabouts. Listening to Jaki’s concerns and recalling her own success with investigations in the past (Feral Attraction, 2018, etc.), Cassie’s certain that she’s the one who can find the missing feline, even if it puts her in danger. Feline-focused, perhaps to the detriment of human characters—and what’s more cat than that?
AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW
Wilde, Darcie Kensington (304 pp.) $26.00 | Dec. 31, 2019 978-1-4967-2086-3
Rosalind Thorne (A Purely Private Matter, 2017, etc.) proves her acuity, her resourcefulness, and her general usefulness for a third time when she helps shield a member of the aristocracy from embarrassment. Ever since her debt-ridden father abandoned his family when she was a teenager, Rosalind has made her own way in the world. Temporarily rejecting Devon Winterbourne’s proposal on the grounds that a woman in her reduced circumstances is no proper match for the future Duke of Casselmaine, she depends instead on the generosity of friends to sustain herself and her redoubtable housekeeper, Mrs. Kendricks, in their tiny but ferociously respectable household in Little Russell Street. In return for their largesse, Rosalind is willing to help even the most compromised of the haut ton avoid the scandals that would otherwise cost them their places in society. And few are more compromised than Lady Melbourne, who clings to her place atop Britain’s social ladder in spite of the rumor that her youngest son is actually the child of the Prince of Wales. But an affair between her daughter-in-law, Lady Caroline Lamb, and George Gordon, Lord Byron, threatens to dislodge her from her perch unless Rosalind can manage to retrieve a packet of letters from the tempestuous poet that has disappeared from Lady Melbourne’s study. She and Mrs. Kendricks repair to Melbourne House, and while they try to make sense of the dysfunction that surrounds them, Rosalind receives word from her good friend Adam Harkness of the Bow Street police that a woman whose body was delivered to him several days ago actually met her fate in the courtyard of that stately mansion. Solving both the theft and the murder puts Rosalind’s considerable intellect to the test, but she handles the double challenge with typical Regency aplomb. Wilde’s heroine is not only a useful woman but a highly entertaining one.
GONE, KITTY, GONE
Watkins, Eileen Kensington (304 pp.) $15.95 paper | Dec. 31, 2019 978-1-4967-2297-3 When a young singer’s famous pet gets catnapped, she relies on a cat fancier to solve the case. Now that she’s got wheels, Cassie McGlone is ready to take Cassie’s Comfy Cats, her boarding and grooming business, on the road. What better way for her to advertise her expanded business than by setting up a grooming demo at the North Jersey Cat Expo, whose inaugural meeting is in her hometown of Chadwick? At least that’s the suggestion of hype man Perry, who’s trying to promote the event. Even the famed young singer and actress Jaki Natal is scheduled to make an appearance along with her Instagram-famous Scottish fold, Gordie. The attendee who most intrigues Cassie, however, is her own mother, a lifetime ailurophobe who just may be changing her tune now that she’s dating a cat fan. After her grooming demonstration, Cassie meets up with her boyfriend, local vet Dr. Mark Coccia, to go see Jaki and meet Gordie. A freak power outage interrupts the presentation, and in the ensuing mayhem, Gordie disappears. And in case you care, some security guard dies, perhaps murdered, though Watkins doesn’t give him the dignity of a name. When Detective Angela Bonelli shows up to investigate, it’s almost as if her primary focus isn’t Gordie’s 32
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RELENTLESS
Wilson, Shawn Oceanview (288 pp.) $26.95 | Dec. 19, 2019 978-1-60809-370-0
science fiction and fantasy A QUEEN IN HIDING
Kozloff, Sarah Tor (496 pp.) $12.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2020 978-1-250-16854-2 A queen and her young daughter are forced to separate and go into hiding when a corrupt politician tries to take over the kingdom. Queen Cressa of Weirandale is worried about her 8-year-old daughter, the |
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A veteran Washington cop catches an unsavory and complex case that cuts too close to home. Detective Brian Kavanagh, known as “Brick” because of his red hair, is called to the Tidal Basin with partner Ron Hayes to snag a floating corpse. Rather than wait for the police dive team, they hop a locked fence to retrieve the body. Later, at Boland’s Mill, Brick’s watering hole of choice, he confronts another problem. Crusty proprietor Eamonn Boland’s not at his usual post, regaling patrons; when he finally arrives, the elderly Eamonn looks decidedly unhealthy. He’s beside himself about the absence of Jose, a normally reliable busboy. Brick and Rory, Eamonn’s nephew, go to Jose’s apartment, where they discover his corpse, clearly a victim of murder. Brick manages to coax Jose’s ginger cat, Elvis, out from under the sink, but there’s no sign of the sister Jose lives with. Saddest news of all: She’s the girl in the Tidal Basin. Her name is Maria Delgado, and she’s from Guatemala. Brick and Ron’s investigation begins with interviews of Jose and Maria’s neighbors, a stereotypical array of Hispanic sex offenders, wife beaters, and gang members. The brokenhearted Eamonn, meanwhile, decides to accompany the two young victims back to Guatemala. When Brick finds evidence that Maria may be the victim of a serial killer, he gets little support at his precinct. Must he strike out on his own to find the perp? Like her D.C. Dirty Harry, Wilson’s debut novel is bluntly effective. It lacks finesse but offers pace and timeliness.
“princella” Cerúlia. The people of Weirandale worship a water spirit, Nargis, who grants each queen a special gift called a Talent. Cressa herself is able to meddle with memories, for example, and her mother possessed supernatural strategic abilities that served her well in battle. Cerúlia, however, appears to have none, because surely her insistence that she can talk to animals is only her young imagination running wild. When Cerúlia’s many pets warn her about assassins creeping into the royal chambers, the girl is able to save herself and her mother. Cressa uses her Talent, which actually extends to forcing anyone to tell her the truth, to root out traitors among the aristocracy, led by the power-hungry Lord Matwyck. Fearing for her daughter’s life and her own, Cressa takes Cerúlia and flees. Thinking Cerúlia will be safer away from her mother, Cressa takes the girl to a kind peasant family and adjusts their memories so they believe Cerúlia is their adopted daughter. Kozloff ’s debut is the first of four Nine Realms books, and Tor plans to publish them over just four months. Luckily, the series opener is a strong start, so readers will be grateful for the short wait before Book 2. Kozloff sets a solid stage with glimpses into other characters and nations while keeping the book together with a clear, propulsive plot. A new series starts off with a bang.
STEEL CROW SAGA
Krueger, Paul Del Rey/Ballantine (528 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-0-593-12822-0 A post-colonial fantasy draws on Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino cultures for a multinational tale of political intrigue. The nations of Sanbu, Shang, and Dahal have thrown off the colonial rule of the Tomodanese Empire. A Sanbuna troop is delegated to escort the captured Iron Prince Jimuro to the vacant throne of Tomoda so he can establish a new, peaceful, and presumably conciliatory relationship with the other nations. The plan falls apart when a splintersoul, a Sanbuna man with the frightening (and believed impossible) power to shadepact (i.e., bond) with multiple animal spirits and to steal others’ pacts from them, attacks the ship carrying the prince. Only the prince and one of his escort survives: Sgt. Tala, who has hidden her own ability to forge shadepacts both to a crow and to her brother Dimangan—a bond considered taboo. Jimuro and Tala struggle toward the Tomodanese capital of Hagane, trailed by a group of Tomodanese noble rebels; the eccentric Shang princess and law enforcement officer Xiulan, who models herself after a fictional Holmes-ian detective and hopes that capturing the prince will lead to her own throne; Xiulan’s new partner and potential crush, the clever but emotionally bruised Jeongsonese thief Lee YeonJi; and the splintersoul Mayon, who has some strange and deadly motives of his own. Like some other contemporary authors, Krueger (Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, 2016), who’s Filipino science fiction & fantasy
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Wistful yet hopeful, the story is a needed addition to a genre that usually celebrates the romances of younger protagonists.
American, eschews the tropes of high fantasy established in late-20th-century novels inspired by European cultures, set during conflict, and expressing a fairly dichotomous morality. In contrast, this Asian-influenced sociopolitical drama explores the complications that ensue after the war, when no one’s hands are clean. Characters face the consequences of the choices they made during the conflict and consider whether it’s possible to rise above deeply ingrained prejudices and forge alliances with former enemies. Such grave matters are leavened by amusing banter, solid action, and two charming nascent romances of opposites. As tasty as the mushroom adobo that appears in the book both as food and metaphor.
LETHAL REDEMPTION
Hunt, April Forever Press (416 pp.) $8.99 paper | Nov. 26, 2019 978-1-5387-6338-4
An FBI profiler gets sucked into extracting the vice president’s daughter from the frightening cult she herself defected from as a teen—which means going undercover with the man who broke her heart and facing her mother, who’s now the right hand to the cult leader. At 13, Grace Steele escaped The Order of the New Dawn, the cult her mother had dragged her to when she was 5. Enfolded into her Aunt Cindy’s family, she immediately gained four male cousins and fell in love with their best friend and neighbor, Cade Wright. The two were inseparable until Grace graduated from college, when Cade reenlisted for another tour as an Army Ranger instead of beginning their well-planned life together. Hurt and furious, Grace joined the FBI as a profiler and kept Cade at arm’s length. However, when the vice president’s daughter joins the cult, Grace is brought in to help and must work with Steele Ops, the security company Cade runs with her cousins. It’s clear the cult’s recruiters aren’t taking the provided bait, though they’d bite immediately if it were Grace on the hook. Cade and Grace go undercover as a couple and allow themselves to be reeled in. Soon they find themselves on the compound in the middle of nowhere and have to play the part of acolytes even as Grace’s mother, now partner to the cult leader, is suspicious and hostile. Yet as she’s thrown back into the nightmare of her childhood, Grace remembers what’s truly important: Cade and the family of her heart. The mission may be the catalyst for her true happiness…if she and Cade can survive. Hunt’s pace and tension are spot-on, though a complicated backstory and some details that demand a bit too much suspension of disbelief occasionally weigh the book down. High-stakes, sizzling romantic suspense.
r om a n c e SOMEONE TO REMEMBER
Balogh, Mary Berkley (272 pp.) $23.00 | $5.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-0-593-09972-8 978-0-593-09973-5 paper A Westcott novella that celebrates the second-chance love of a couple in their 50s. Nondescript spinster Matilda Westcott temporarily abandoned her typical role as the backdrop for her aristocratic Regency family to bring about the happy ending of Someone To Honor (2019). Here, Balogh gives her a romance of her own with a former suitor 36 years after she turned him down (like Anne Elliott in Jane Austen’s Persuasion). Charles Sawyer, Viscount Dirkson, is surprised to learn that he still has feelings for his first love, whom he thought he had forgotten soon after she rejected his marriage proposal. Now a grandfather with a newly forged connection to the Westcotts, he finds himself reestablishing their connection in the hope of a new outcome. Matilda, who had convinced herself that she made the right decision as a young woman, finally faces her own cowardice—a realization aided by her mother’s apology for having advised her wrongly. Surrounded by a supportive extended family, she must decide if her youthful love has truly withered or she is willing to let it flower in her middle age in defiance of public mockery. The on-the-shelf heroine’s growth into a full-fledged person will not surprise anyone who knows the author’s ability to reframe women characters. This novella is introduced by a letter from Balogh explaining the development of the Westcott family series and summarizing each of the earlier novels, and the book ends with excerpts from each of them. While these may help new readers or refresh the memories of those who have forgotten the details, others may be put off by what could be perceived as padding. 34
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ANYONE BUT A DUKE
An American “dollar princess” seeks refuge on a long-lost duke’s country estate after having been rejected on the marriage mart only to find him alive and well. Sarah Bumgarten, the youngest daughter of a prominent Nevada mining family, is expected to follow in her sisters’ footsteps and find a husband among England’s aristocracy. After enduring an earl’s very public rejection, Sarah retreats to the vacant, neglected country estate of Arthur Graham, the Duke of Meridian, her sister’s brother-in-law. Finding Betancourt in disrepair, spunky Sarah, surrounded by a bevy of beloved animals, puts her formidable skills to work refurbishing it. Her temporary refuge eventually becomes the home she has always dreamed of, until the duke’s shocking return. Six years prior, Arthur, was a shy naturalist who allowed his greedy uncle to run Betancourt. He had been awakened to both the possibility of love and to his ducal responsibilities by Sarah’s older sister, Daisy, only to find his hopes dashed when his younger brother stole her away. He had fled England for far-off lands, enduring a series of misadventures, which changed him completely. Now “he had come home to find [Daisy’s] younger sister—the very image of Bumgarten energy and vitality—had taken up residence in the heart of his lost inheritance.” Sarah and Arthur work together to shield Betancourt from his greedy relatives and other enemies, getting to know and admire one another in the process. Arthur’s elaborate adventures off the page strain credulity, and too many subplots and too little character development hamper the effectiveness of the romance, but Krahn’s prodigious talent still draws the reader in. A busy historical with lots of action to sustain an otherwise tame romance.
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Mason Fredericks, a naturalist whose viscount father generously bankrolls his research. Alas, Grace’s womanly virtues are lost on Mason, so she enlists the help of anthropologist Sebastian Holloway to generate some attention-getting buzz. Seb finds it all too easy to “pretend” to be infatuated with the confident, intelligent, and lovely Grace, but, in a gender-swapped Pygma lion, he needs lessons in etiquette before anyone will believe he is a serious rival. As he puts it, “I’m just a tongue-tied scholar in scuffed boots. The idea that anyone could mistake me for a suave man about town is ludicrous.” Grace and Seb show off their fauxmance at the usual Regency romance haunts, growing closer every day. The friends-to-lovers plot always requires a certain obliviousness, but both protagonists are ignorant to a credibility-stretching degree. Otherwise, Grace and Seb are delightful together, and Seb is a breath of non-alpha-hero fresh air. When the dashing Duke of Rotherby, Seb’s boarding school chum, arrives to impart some roguish lessons, he almost ends up outshining his pupil. Luckily, his book is next in The Union of the Rakes. Should be satisfying for readers of Courtney Milan and Tessa Dare. A sweet faux suitor romance between two scientist friends who find a new passion in one another.
Krahn, Betina Zebra/Kensington (320 pp.) $7.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2019 978-1-4201-4351-5
ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU
Liasson, Miranda Forever Press (672 pp.) $8.99 paper | Oct. 29, 2019 978-1-4555-4185-0
A longtime crush is complicated by a surprise pregnancy in Liasson’s (The Way You Love Me, 2019, etc.) small-town holiday romance. Kaitlyn Barnes has a lot going on with running her coffee shop, looking after her teenage niece, and now dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. After a one-night affair with Rafe Langdon, the man she’s loved for years, Kaitlyn is surprised to learn she’s pregnant, though she’s on two forms of birth control and never thought she’d have a baby at her age: 31. Kaitlyn vacillates between shock over the pregnancy and thinking about just how attractive Rafe is; both points are hammered home to an annoying degree. Rafe is painted as the town charmer, but his flirtatious mask hides a painful history: He still carries a significant amount of grief over the loss of his fiancee and their unborn child after a fatal car accident. Though he’s known Kaitlyn all his life, Rafe is wary of love, marriage, and fatherhood; he isn’t sure he can take another loss. Readers who enjoy small-town romances will find all the usual suspects: quaint shops, meddling yet good-natured townspeople, and twee holiday cheer. However, the way womanhood is intrinsically linked to motherhood here gives the book a sour taste. It’s an antiquated message set in a town that feels untouched by diversity or the modern world, given that women are getting pregnant well past age 31 these days. The friends-to-lovers
MY FAKE RAKE
Leigh, Eva Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Nov. 26, 2019 978-0-06-293240-2 Frothy first in a series of historical romances inspired by classic 1980s teen movies. In this Regency romance with a decidedly modern feel, Leigh (Dare To Love a Duke, 2018, etc.) pairs the bluestocking daughter of an earl with a bookish commoner. Lady Grace Wyatt is a scientist, content studying reptiles and amphibians until her ailing father begs her to find a husband. She has a man in mind: handsome, charming |
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RESTLESS RANCHER
romance is serviceable. Kaitlyn and Rafe are likable main characters, though reading about the minutiae of their dayto-day responsibilities grows tiresome. As a contemporary holiday romance, this is fine, but the book’s deeper message is rather hurtful. A cookie-cutter contemporary that’s oddly obsessed with motherhood.
Ryan, Jennifer Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-06-285190-1 A destitute rancher betrayed by the people he trusted is brought back to life by a no-nonsense accountant with a troubled past. Family betrayals drive the plot of the second book in Ryan’s (The Me I Used To Be, 2019, etc.) contemporary Western series about women who were raised together as virtual sisters while their mothers worked at the Wild Rose Ranch, a Nevada brothel. Sonya Turner, one of them, is a forensic accountant looking for a radical change of pace after being passed over for a promotion at her firm. When her sister Roxy invites Sonya to join her in Montana to restore a dilapidated home and neglected ranch, she jumps at the chance. Sonya loves “the wide open spaces, hills that rose to mountains in places, and the crisp clean air,” but she soon realizes that the owner, Austin Hubbard, is in need of renewal himself. Disowned by his father, dumped by his girlfriend, and drinking way too much, he has just about given up. Sonya helps lift Austin out of helplessness, showing him how to stand up for himself against his ruthless and greedy father while he helps Sonya support her abused mother. Austin’s and Sonya’s enemies generate hair-raising, violent plot turns, but Austin’s father is such a cliché readers will expect him to mutter something like, “I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids” when he finally gets his comeuppance. A sweet romance wrapped around an inheritance mystery and surrounded by family trauma.
WISH UPON A COWBOY
Marts, Jennie Sourcebooks Casablanca (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Nov. 26, 2019 978-1-4926-8908-9 A young widow fights to regain custody of her son while working as a housekeeper to the town heartthrob in this contemporary holiday romance. Fresh out of jail for embezzlement, Harper Evans has taken a bus to Creedence, Colorado, to reclaim custody of her son, Floyd, from her mother-in-law. After the death of her husband and grandmother, Harper’s life began to collapse until her flighty mother offered her a bookkeeping job. The job was a cover for her mother’s embezzlement schemes, something Harper only realized when it was too late. When she’s sent to jail for two months, she entrusts 8-year-old Floyd to Judith, her late husband’s mother. Though Judith readily accepts custody of Floyd, there is no love lost between the two women, and Judith isn’t sure Harper is stable enough to care for the boy. Though Judith is painted as a villain, readers may feel inclined to side with her given that Harper doesn’t have the emotional or financial security to take care of a child. Logan Rivers is running his family’s ranch while his father handles business elsewhere, but the responsibility is larger than he can manage. He’s already run through a slew of housekeepers who misinterpret the job as a way of auditioning to become his wife. When he meets Harper after he had to fire another woman for making a pass at him, she strikes him as the perfect person to fill in over the holidays, given that her stay in Rivers Gulch is only temporary. Harper’s baggage eclipses everything else in the book, and though it’s obvious she wants to be a good mother, no family court would ever agree to put Floyd in her care until she can demonstrate she’s built a healthy environment for him. Logan is a sweet romantic hero but nothing spectacular. Think of him as the equivalent to plain white bread: bland but serviceable in a pinch. Emotionally exhausting.
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nonfiction ANGER IS MY MIDDLE NAME A Memoir
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Andersen, Lisbeth Zornig Trans. by Mussari, Mark AmazonCrossing (230 pp.) $24.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-5420-1590-5
THE STARS IN OUR POCKETS by Howard Axelrod.........................39 THINK OUTSIDE THE BUILDING by Rosabeth Moss Kanter............ 57 COUNTERPOINT by Philip Kennicott.................................................59 THE HOUSE OF YAN by Lan Yan; trans. by Sam Taylor................... 60 A HOUSE IN THE MOUNTAINS by Caroline Moorehead..................63
MY WAR CRIMINAL by Jessica Stern................................................. 68 TRANSCENDENCE by Gaia Vince...................................................... 71 SPRING RAIN by Andy Warner; illus. by the author..........................72 WILMINGTON’S LIE by David Zucchino........................................... 73 THE STARS IN OUR POCKETS Getting Lost and Sometimes Found in the Digital Age
Axelrod, Howard Beacon (200 pp.) $23.95 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-8070-3675-4
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THE ART OF RESISTANCE by Justus Rosenberg............................... 66
A courageous chronicle of abuse and redemption. Danish activist, economist, and writer Andersen writes with striking clarity about the first two decades of her life. The book is not only a personal story of success in the face of ongoing trauma, but also an exploration of interventions that fell short. Following a chronological format, the author catalogs the unimaginable cruelties she endured during her formative years within family encounters, foster care, group homes, and orphanages. Each account includes missed opportunities for intercession on the part of someone with the capacity and opportunity to help her emerge from “a childhood characterized by betrayal, violence, and sexual assault.” Andersen’s candor about the trusted adults who repeatedly violated her illuminates painful yet vital insights about how to recognize and address the sometimescontradictory and often undermining effects of childhood trauma. As she chronicles how she overcame years of extreme abuse to eventually thrive, Andersen’s revelations of intimate betrayals are often chilling, and many readers may be shocked or outraged. They should continue to read, however, because the book advances an important broader purpose: undergirding the value of survivors’ voices as instrumental to guiding future policies, advocacy, and change. Closing with descriptions of visits with her incarcerated brother and estranged mother, the author shows the difference that successful interventions can make. Her history of trauma shaped her lifelong passion for protecting vulnerable populations, and this tightly distilled collection of memories serves as an urgent call to public action and reform with regard to children’s rights. This is a triumphant, empowering book that calls into question current patterns of intervention and challenges popular conceptions about what it means to believe young girls. “Whether you’re a neighbor, a social worker, a schoolteacher, or a grandparent, you must and should act,” writes Andersen. “In this book, you’ll meet many people who acted on my behalf. I hope they will inspire you to reach out as well.” A potent memoir of fragility and transcendence.
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the kirkus prize for nonfiction: the finalists Leah Overstreet
On Thursday, Oct. 24, we will announce the 2019 winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction. As the editor of the nonfiction section, I have the pleasure of facilitating the process with the judges—Kirkus reviewer Richard Santos and Books & Books bookseller Aaron Curtis, who chose the finalists, and Pulitzer and Kirkus Prize–winning author Jack E. Davis, who now joins them to select a winner. It’s a truly Herculean task, not just because of the massive amount of reading involved, but also because there are so many worthy books among the 300-odd starred titles eligible for the prize. I’m excited to spread the word about these six outstanding titles, all of which are deserving of the prize. Moving alphabetically, first up is my favorite music book of the year, Hanif Abdurraqib’s Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (Univ. of Texas Press). A brilliant follow-up to his previous collection, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, this book is a master class in artist appreciation and cultural criticism, all woven together with elements of memoir and consistently astute observations about what makes Tribe such an iconic collective. Our reviewer sums it up well: “Even those who know little about the music will learn much of significance here, perhaps learning how to love it in the process.” In what we call “a stirring, inventive masterpiece of heartbreak,” Danish poet Naja Marie Aidt requires just 150 pages to completely devastate readers with her heartbreaking and moving account of coping with the death of her son. When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back (Coffee House) is stylistically inventive and poignant on every page (the English translation is by Denise Newman). “The difficulty of articulating grief,” notes our reviewer, “is itself a cliché of the grief memoir, but Aidt’s shattering of genre forms both underscores the feeling of speechlessness and gives it a palpable shape.” Saeed Jones, another gifted poet, turns to memoir, as well, in How We Fight for Our Lives (Simon & Schuster), a sleek, powerful coming-of-age story focused on Jones’ struggle with his sexuality and sense of self and his complicated relationship with his mother. The prose is understated, never unnecessarily poetic, which allows the subject matter to come fully 38
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alive, creating an unforgettable book that is “written with masterful control of both style and material.” New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, acclaimed author of The Snake head, turns to Irish history in Say Nothing: The True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Doubleday), the riveting story of “a cold case in Northern Ireland [that] provides a frame for a deeply observed history of the Troubles.” The author follows the facts of a 1970s kidnapping and killing in Belfast, delivering a “reconstruction of events and the players involved [that] is careful and assured.” A consistently engaging stylist, Keefe offers “a harrowing story of politically motivated crime that could not have been better told.” Tackling one of the most contentious issues of our day, Dina Nayeri’s The Ungrateful Refugee (Catapult) may be the best book I have ever read about refugees, immigration, and the many fraught elements of identity, cultural preservation, and assimilation involved. Nayeri expertly weaves together her personal story—she was born during the Iranian Revolution and came to America when she was 10—with unparalleled insight about the refugee experience. “With inventive, powerful prose,” writes our reviewer, “Nayeri demonstrates what should be obvious: that refugees give up everything in their native lands only when absolutely necessary—if they remain, they may face poverty, physical torture, or even death.” Not just “a unique, deeply thought-out refugee saga perfect for our moment,” this book packs multiple revelations on every page. Another of this year’s timeliest and most relevant books is No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us (Bloomsbury), by reporter Rachel Louise Snyder. Few books have addressed domestic violence with such a remarkable combination of insight and empathy. It’s not an easy read but a necessary one, and our reviewer nails it in the final line: “Bracing and gut-wrenching, with slivers of hope throughout, this is exemplary, moving reportage on an important subject that often remains in the dark due to shame and/or fear.” —E.L. Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.
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The wide focus of a generalist makes readers reflect profoundly on what we lose as the cyberworld tightens its leash. the stars in our pockets
KILLER HIGH A History of War in Six Drugs
THE STARS IN OUR POCKETS Getting Lost and Sometimes Found in the Digital Age
Andreas, Peter Oxford Univ. (344 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 2, 2020 978-0-19-046301-4
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A provocative inquiry into the necessity of “a new map with the digital world and the traits it calls for, and with the old physical world and the traits it calls for, and with the borders clearly marked where the two realms conflict.” Refreshingly, Axelrod (Director, Creative Writing/Loyola Univ. Chicago; A Point of Vanishing: A Memoir of Two Years in Soli tude, 2015, etc.) doesn’t deliver a screed against cybertechnology but rather a series of philosophical meditations on the consequences of connecting ourselves digitally to the point where
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Since time immemorial, soldiers have consumed mind-altering substances; Andreas (International Studies/Brown Univ.; Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America, 2013, etc.) delivers an impressive, often unsettling history of six. Alcohol has inspired soldiers since ancient times. Now frowned upon because it muddles their skills, it still remains popular. Opium has an equally long history and only fell from grace when, highly refined in the 19th century, its addictive properties excited moral condemnation. Nicotine has “lightened the inevitable hardships of war” so well that there were serious campaigns during both world wars to collect cigarettes to send overseas. Only after 1975 were they not included with soldiers’ food rations. The only psychoactive that has never been condemned is caffeine, which has become a 21st-century essential for fighting troops and is not just administered through coffee or soda anymore, but also Red Bull and other energy drinks. Cocaine is not necessarily a soldier’s drug, but its prominence as a target in the war on drugs makes it relevant to Andreas’ study. Fighting illegal drugs is a police matter, but treating it as a war is politically popular and allows vast amounts of money to be spent. The author delivers a painful account of the failed five-decade war on drugs, now mostly directed against cocaine, which has destabilized many Latin American nations, especially Mexico. Cocaine now costs much less than it did decades ago. A product of modern chemistry, the first amphetamines appeared in the 1930s, and their fiercely energizing effect, similar to cocaine but much longer acting, made them the ideal battlefield drug. During World War II, military leaders loved their performanceenhancing qualities, and doctors prescribed enormous quantities, especially during the early years. Although now officially condemned, soldiers value them for duties requiring long periods of alertness. Fear, boredom, and fatigue are a soldier’s lot, and this is a skillful account of how they have long dealt with it.
Axelrod, Howard Beacon (200 pp.) $23.95 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-8070-3675-4
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the realm of the screen is a world unto itself. In the woods of Vermont, where he had found sanctuary from media stimuli, he reflected on how “everything I encountered—or didn’t encounter—was quietly altering my sense of time, my sense of place, and the quality of my attention and memory. What I was experiencing was changing how I was experiencing.” His return to civilization resulted in sensory overload, as long walks in the woods gave way to crowded sidewalks of pedestrians focused on the experience provided by their earbuds and omnipresent smartphones, both connecting and isolating each one of them. Throughout this illuminating journey, Axelrod explores how conversational inquiry has reduced itself to texts and tweets, how a Google search has convinced a civilization that everything it needs to know can be known instantly, and how GPS gives us directions that undermine the serendipity of finding one’s own way. He discusses the concept of “neural Darwinism,” how “natural selection happens on both sides of your eyes” and “certain populations of neurons get selected and their connections grow stronger, while others go the way of the dodo bird.” The author also ponders identity, interaction, mystery, and the strange sense of returning to one place, physically and geographically, while adapting to the cyber realm, where “we’re effectively living in two places at once.” The wide focus of a generalist makes readers reflect profoundly on what we lose as the cyberworld tightens its leash.
THE AGE OF ILLUSIONS How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory
Bacevich, Andrew J. Metropolitan/Henry Holt (256 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-250-17508-3
A brief, painful, and thoughtful analysis of how “the passing of the Cold War could not have been more disorienting.” More than three decades ago, the United States took credit for defeating communism, and pundits predicted wonderful things. Readers wondering why they never happened should turn to the latest from Bacevich (Emeritus, History/Boston Univ.; (Twilight of the American Cen tury, 2018, etc.). He notes how pundits proclaimed that, as the sole superpower, we would lead the world to a better future with global corporate capitalism enriching everyone. Freedom, in this new era, required a new conception that emphasized individual autonomy. The author laments the decline of traditional morality, and he argues that completing the new order is the concept of presidential supremacy, including a freedom to make war, which presidents employ enthusiastically. Although still considered sacred, Bacevich writes, our Constitution no longer describes a government of three equal branches. The results? Military operations regularly fail at great expense. Unfettered free enterprise has enriched the middle class but excluded many. The most secure career for a high school graduate is the 40
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military. The author condemns Donald Trump’s three predecessors, who embraced the new order despite admitting that there were problems that they declined to fix. “Himself a mountebank of the very first order, Trump exposed as fraudulent the triumphalism that served as a signature of the post–Cold War decades,” writes the author. “On this score, Trump mattered and bigly.” Few readers would argue with Bacevich’s conclusion that today’s critical issues are fettering free enterprise in favor of those it excludes, confronting China’s new superpower status, and dealing with climate change, but they’re not catching on. Many Republicans grouse about Trump, but no groundswell opposes him. Democrats promote programs to fight poverty and promote social justice, thrilling their faithful but not former Democrats, some of whom still appreciate Trump’s flamboyant rhetoric. A brilliant but ultimately discouraging analysis of how America messed up its big chance.
WHAT’S YOUR PRONOUN? Beyond He and She
Baron, Dennis Liveright/Norton (272 pp.) $25.95 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-1-63149-604-2
A thorough history of pronoun debates. Guggenheim fellow Baron (Emeritus, English and Linguistics/Univ. of Illinois; A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution, 2009, etc.) examines what seems like a contemporary question with a historical lens. In this primer, he reveals a centurieslong search for a singular gender-neutral pronoun in English, dispelling persistent myths that such a quest is a recent effort or the product of politically correct motivations. The author traces the discussion of the search further than skeptics may expect, adding a full chronology, dating back to the 1790s, that tracks invented alternates. In addition to extensive notes on the editors, educators, writers, and others who have added their opinions and alternatives to the effort, Baron also archives insights on the popular and common uses of a singular “they.” Like the plural and singular form of “you,” “they” is a word people have used consistently for centuries, even by those who dispute the choice for grammatical imprecision. In chronicling this ongoing argument over accuracy, intent, and meaning, Baron demonstrates the long-standing efforts to seek, identify, and create alternates for the oft-maligned phrase “he or she.” Arranged thematically, some chapters overlap in content, but overall, they offer helpful, nuanced considerations about the power and politics of attempts to control how language evolves. Whether based on authorial intent or individual identity, Baron’s catalog of the missing singular form also offers detailed proof that inventing, discovering, or seeking genderneutral pronouns is not a new endeavor. The author’s playful tone imbues the text with friendly sensitivity, and readers will appreciate his decades of research and meticulous attention to |
documents and sources. The result is a book that reflects the transformational capacity of language. A lively book for language lovers, those confused about uses of they/them, and anyone curious about writing while gendered. (20 b/w illustrations)
ROCKET MAN The Life of Elton John Bego, Mark Pegasus (384 pp.) $28.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-64-313313-3
Straightforward biography of Sir Elton John, master of rock piano and camp performance. Part Mona Lisa and part Mad Hatter, John astounded his parents with his child-prodigy skills at the piano at the age of 3 and, early on,
took his talents and ran with them. Whether that adds up to his being “the most remarkably beloved rock and pop artist of rock history,” as Bego (Eat Like a Rock Star: More Than 100 Recipes From Rock ’n’ Roll’s Greatest, 2017, etc.) writes, is surely debatable. The remark is suggestive of the tossed-off way in which the author treats a subject who deserves deeper consideration. It’s inarguable that John turned his skills as a pianist and crowd-pleasing showman to materially impressive ends, earning and spending millions of dollars while working his way through trauma and “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Bego, who has authored biographies of Tina Turner, Cher, Billy Joel, and others, covers all the familiar ground: John’s lifelong musical partnership with Bernie Taupin; the dazzling costumes and improbable acrobatics onstage; the friendships with Lady Diana and, for that matter, Ru Paul; the decades of decadence; the generosity to charity; the dawning realization that his habits, as John put it, had made him “a piano-playing Elvis Presley”; and the willful recovery. An effort to tie the book to the unrelated movie Rocketman yields only the observation that Elton John can now add “cinematic hero” to his resume. Philip
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A penetrating portrait of a complex political thinker. machiavelli
Norman’s Elton John (1992), albeit slightly updated in reissue, cuts off three decades ago; even so, it is by far the better book, digging deeper into John’s life and work. Bego’s book is filled with glancing chapter titles (“Glitter and Be Gay”) and painful turns of phrase (“Whatever he does, he does it one hundred and fifty percent, whether it is doing drugs, having wild parties, or alphabetizing his CD collection”). In the end, this biography is an exercise in superficiality, about as muscular as a handshake from Andy Warhol, who “would present his hand like he had just handed you a dead chicken.” For ardent collectors of Eltoniana only. (16 pages of color and b/w photos)
MACHIAVELLI The Art of Teaching People What To Fear Boucheron, Patrick Trans. by Wood, Willard Other Press (160 pp.) $22.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-59051-952-3
How Machiavelli’s writings can guide political action in times of stress. In a slim, beautifully illustrated volume, French historian Boucheron (History/Collège de France; France in the World: A New Global History, 2019, etc.) distills the life and works of Renaissance writer Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), with the goal of restoring “the face of Machiavelli that lies hidden behind the mask of Machiavellianism.” The author of The Prince, Boucheron believes, was more than a “wily and unscrupulous strategist” who crafted a cynical guide for tyrants and “put violence at the heart of political decisions.” Serving for 15 years as secretary of the chancery in Florence, he witnessed political intrigues at home and abroad and, in 1512, became implicated in a coup that resulted in his imprisonment, torture, and exile. Within a year, deeply disillusioned with statesmen who failed to act with speed and decisiveness, he wrote The Prince, which, surprisingly, he dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, a member of the family that had destroyed Florence’s republican government—and Machiavelli’s career. Both the context and content make The Prince an enigmatic, controversial text: Did Machiavelli write for princes “or for those wanting to resist them?” Was he offering “instruction to the powerful” in the art of tyranny or “instructing the people on what they have to fear”? Boucheron believes that he addressed his book to princes who have attained power through conquest, force, guile, or luck and therefore must find the means “both to preserve the state” and their own position. Characterizing most humans as “ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers,” Machiavelli advised a prince to always expect “the worst from those he governs.” Boucheron concurs with that assessment: “You make laws, or avoid making them, anticipating their most nefarious use,” he asserts. Because Machiavelli is a “thinker of alternatives who dissects every situation into an ‘either or else’ ” and is acutely sensitive to the mutability of political situations, Boucheron argues 42
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provocatively for his relevance to our own times. “He heralds tempests,” writes the author, “not to avert them, but to teach us to think in heavy weather.” A penetrating portrait of a complex political thinker. (illustrations throughout)
GIVE ME LIBERTY A History of America’s Exceptional Idea Brookhiser, Richard Basic (304 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-54-169913-7
Historian and biographer Brookhiser (John Marshall: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court, 2018, etc.), senior editor of National Review, grounds his spirited argument for American exceptionalism in the idea of liberty. “We have been securing it, defining it, recovering it, and fighting for it for four hundred years,” writes the author. He chooses 13 public statements, written or orated from 1619 to 1987, which he believes “define America as the country that it is, different from all others.” Although acknowledging the nation’s “dark chapters” of oppression, brutality, and injustice, Brookhiser focuses on men and women who defiantly fought for liberty, offering lively biographical and historical vignettes that set the stage for each of the documents he examines. These include the minutes of the Jamestown General Assembly, which provided that decision-making in the colony would be by vote; the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, a statement of grievance sent to Peter Stuyvesant—“a martinet and a bigot”—to insist on religious freedom; the narrative of the trial of John Peter Zenger, which allowed the press in Colonial America to flourish; the Declaration of Independence and, later, the Constitution; the Gettysburg Address; the Monroe Doctrine, which warned “corrupt, oppressive systems” to stay away from America; and the Declaration of Sentiments formulated by suffragists at Seneca Falls. The author also looks at some lesser known protestations for liberty: the constitution devised by the New-York Manumission Society, a group of “oddball Quakers and Manhattan elitists,” to confront “the injustice done to those among us who are held as slaves” and help them to share in “civil and religious liberty”; Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus”; William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech; Franklin Roosevelt’s 16th fireside chat, of 1940, which underscored America as “the arsenal of democracy”; and Ronald Reagan’s exhortation to tear down the Berlin Wall. Without liberty, Brookhiser concludes, we can be nothing but “a bigger Canada or an efficient Mexico.” An engaging history of admirable episodes from America’s past.
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RACE OF ACES WWII’s Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle To Become the Masters of the Sky
Bruning, John R. Hachette (320 pp.) $29.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-316-50862-9
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The air war in the Pacific takes a competitive turn in this overstuffed tale. It was a stroke of genius on the part of George Kenney, a general in the U.S. Army Air Forces, when, in the early days of World War II, he orchestrated a visit from Eddie Rickenbacker, the great ace from the previous global conflict, and set up a contest that would award the first pilot to match Rickenbacker’s kill count of 26 enemy planes with a bottle of bourbon. The pilots under Kenney’s command, as Bruning (Indestructible: One Man’s Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII, 2016) writes in an overlong but generally satisfying account, immediately got to work, hopping from island to island under intense
enemy fire for the next three years, taking tremendous losses. At the same time, Kenney saw put into service the faster, more maneuverable Lockheed P-38 Lightning combat plane. A raid on a Japanese airfield in the Aleutians proved the worth of the P-38 combined with the earlier P-39 Airacobra fighter and B-24 bomber. In time, several pilots, including Richard Bong and Gerald Johnson, had kill counts in the two dozen range, and the race was really on. This led some to take major risks, as when a pilot named Tom Lynch violated the rule “never to make a second strafing run over the same target” and was blown out of the sky over New Guinea. A surprising moment comes near the end of the war, and the narrative, when Charles Lindbergh travels to the theater and flies with the aces even though, as a civilian, he risks being summarily executed if captured. The war had become so savage that neither side was offering any quarter, but Lindbergh “had little interest in Japanese atrocities” but instead “heaped scorn and moral outrage on his fellow Americans.” A sad coda comes when two aces who survived the war died soon after in aviation accidents. Combat aviation buffs will enjoy Bruning’s explorations of a little-known history.
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CONFLAGRATION How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice
Buehrens, John A. Beacon (324 pp.) $32.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-8070-2404-1
A detailed account of how the New England transcendentalists and their church allies promoted and supported the battles of abolitionism and women’s rights. Buehrens (Universalists and Unitarians in America: A People’s History, 2011, etc.), the former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and author, returns with an inspiring history of men and women devoted to various forms of liberation. Some of the author’s principals are well known— Emerson, Thoreau, Julia Ward Howe, and other notables of the era and movement—but numerous others step out from history’s shadows and reveal themselves to be quite deserving of the attention Buehrens awards them. Charles Follen, Frederic Henry Hedge, James Freeman Clarke, Caroline Wells Healy Dall, Lydia Maria Francis Child—these and numerous others played key roles in abolitionism and/or women’s rights, and the author gives them their due. Some other celebrated names appear, as well: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Darwin (many transcendentalists embraced On the Origin of Species), Frederick Douglass, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Emily Dickinson, and, especially, John Brown. Buehrens follows him from Ohio to Kansas to Boston (two visits there, including one to the bedside of Charles Sumner, who was recovering from his assault in the Senate by Preston Brooks) to Harpers Ferry and to his death. The transcendentalists, though troubled by Brown’s violence, supported his goals, and both Emerson and Thoreau paid tribute to him after his death. “Brown was no religious liberal,” writes the author, “but rather a staunch Calvinist, with the feel of an Old Testament patriarch and the fervor of a prophet.” The tone of the text is somewhat academic, occasionally dry, but the stories themselves, as Buehrens points out, tell us as much about ourselves as about those long gone. These people remain, he writes, “quite near,” and we can take inspiration from “their prophetic insight, courage, and example.” A clear, sometimes-vibrant picture of the varieties of heroism that appear in battles for human rights.
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WHY WE CAN’T SLEEP Women’s New Midlife Crisis
Calhoun, Ada Grove (288 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-8021-4785-1
Calhoun (Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, 2017, etc.) argues that Generation X women find middle age harder than those older or younger. The author is in her 40s and not enjoying this stage of life. In her latest, she offers a combination of her memories, recycled research, and interviews with “women who, by virtue of being middle class, grew up with reasonable expectations of opportunity and success.” Calhoun is far more successful when she focuses on the problems of being a middle-aged American woman than when she attempts to define the nebulous differences between baby boomers, Gen Xers, and millennials and to convince readers that Gen Xers are suffering in ways that those older and younger aren’t and won’t. She defines Gen Xers as those born between 1965 and 1980 (data supplied by the Pew Research Center). On the basis of scanty evidence, Calhoun identifies them as being latchkey kids and children of divorce and hampered by receiving “two primary messages” from their childhoods as the offspring of overly optimistic feminist mothers: “One: Reach for the stars. Two: You’re on your own.” The author argues, for example, that Gen X kids were uniquely scarred by being witnesses to the Challenger spaceship disaster, neglecting to acknowledge that other generations—if generations can even be separated so neatly—had their own public traumas. Much of the book is devoted to demonstrating the suffering of “her” generation: “Gen X women undergo a bone-deep, almost hallucinatory panic about money,” she writes, blaming this alleged state of mind on the fact that “much of Gen X graduated into a weak job market.” Calhoun is on firmer ground when she discusses the stressors that affect middle-aged women in general: menopause and the physical changes that precede it, the challenges of dealing with older (and less appreciative) children and aging parents, and the fact that aging inevitably means that some life choices are no longer viable. An occasionally amusing and insightful but scattershot exploration of midlife woes.
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A broad-ranging, provocative examination of a problem that is likely only to grow. hunger
HUNGER The Oldest Problem
BECOMING A MAN The Story of a Transition
Caparrós, Martín Trans. by Silver, Katherine Melville House (544 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-61219-804-0
Carl, P. Simon & Schuster (240 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-982105-09-9
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A transgender man chronicles his physical and psychological transition. In 2017, author and social justice activist Carl (Artist-in-Residence/Emerson Coll.) was just seven months into testosterone hormone therapy when he began to be addressed as “sir” by service staff at a Manhattan hotel. It was a celebratory moment for the author, who was then just shy of his 51st birthday. Born Polly in Elkhart, Indiana, Carl spent “decades trying to know her, shape her into something that I can bear to live with,” but his life as a female was a futile battle with a persistent biological need to be male, which led to depression, rage, and multiple suicide attempts. Carl’s family life was equally complex
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An award-winning Spanish novelist and journalist chronicles his travels around the world revealing our collective inability to “provide millions of people with enough food to…live healthfully.” “There is no plague as lethal, and at the same time, as avoidable, as hunger.” So writes Caparrós (Professor-at-Large/Cornell Univ.; Valfierno: The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa, 2008, etc.), asserting that as many as 800 million people experience lifethreatening hunger every day. Sometimes this hunger is due to famine, which, he writes, can be justified, so to speak, by the fact that its cause is often war or an accident of weather; more often it can be traced to the whims of bureaucracy and “the banality of evil.” Whatever the cause, by his estimate, five children die every minute around the world from hunger. Caparrós describes his travels to Argentina, Niger, India, and the U.S. to examine food insecurity, famine, agricultural inefficiencies, climate change, and the like. The author concludes that hunger is a product not of biology but of economics. In a time of great inequality, the haves owe their fortunes to the fact that there are so many have-nots, and “the capitalist machine doesn’t know what to do with hundreds of millions of people” it considers to be “surplus.” The capitalist critique is well considered if sometimes diffuse. The author’s argument takes on greater force when he works with the data to make significant points, such as the fact that Argentina, which produces enough export crops such as soybeans and maize to feed 300 million people, still cannot manage to take care of its own precisely because its resources are flowing outward. “How is there not enough?” he asks, answering his own question by placing the Argentine example in the context of the globalized commodity system. In that context, even as Argentina has managed to replace its rural laborers with machines, “it hasn’t figured out what to do with those people.” Thus, they starve. A broad-ranging, provocative examination of a problem that is likely only to grow.
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and traumatic. He writes lucidly of early abusive behavior by his parents and, later in life, how their confusion and transphobia made becoming their son an uphill battle. His transition also began eroding his marriage when he completed an elective double mastectomy in 2013, yet his desperate need to finally “see more dimension to the world” and connect to his true gender persisted despite despair and misinterpretation. Throughout the memoir, Carl examines the nature of toxic and fragile masculinity and acknowledges lifelong issues with the problematic male gender. “I want to punch men long before I become a man,” he admits. Combining political debate and discourse on gender equality, the author’s elegant yet powerful prose will hopefully promote action from readers. His reflective memories often read like poetry, as when describing his own private process as an “evolving bodily transubstantiation where in one moment I am material subject matter to be consumed and in another I feel like a holy essence, my body and blood both sacrificed and blessed into being.” This moving narrative illuminates the joy, courage, necessity, and risk-taking of his gender transition and the ways his loved ones became affected and eventually enriched by it. A passionate, eloquent memoir about how “complex stories of humanity [and] our capacity for imagination are what give us hope.”
FIGHT OF THE CENTURY Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
Ed. by Chabon, Michael & Waldman, Ayelet Avid Reader Press (320 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-1-5011-9040-7 A well-curated collection of the most influential cases of the American Civil Liberties Union, published to mark the organization’s 100th anniversary. Husband-and-wife team Chabon and Waldman (co-editors: Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, 2017) present a finely edited almanac of lively, contextually grounded stories that read like the greatest hits of freedom. Written by some of today’s most popular and celebrated authors, these essays serve as history lessons, cautionary tales, and calls to arms. Considered in terms of contemporary cultural values and changes, the contributors explore a variety of issues with an eye on broad efforts of the ACLU to protect the rights of vulnerable populations. For people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQ community members, and others whose rights have been threatened or undermined by patterns of discrimination, the collection informs ongoing movements for justice. However, it’s not all praise, as some contributors offer well-reasoned criticisms of ACLU actions. Throughout, the contributors deftly handle the promises and challenges of the courts and their decisions, covering such issues as privacy rights, intellectual freedom, and women’s rights. As each legal case—including Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon 46
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v. Wainwright, among many others—is spun through the writers’ perspectives and distinct approaches, the resulting distillation provides insights that are both riveting and refreshingly diverse. This is not solely a book about controversial decisions so much as one that traces the ACLU’s efforts at attending to the importance of the rule of law, the role of the courts, and the significance of legal reform. It’s a timely and cohesive love song for freedom, sung by an impressive roster of contributors, including Neil Gaiman, Jesmyn Ward, George Saunders, Marlon James, Salman Rushdie, Meg Wolitzer, Liyun Li, Elizabeth Strout, Jacqueline Woodson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Aleksandar Hemon, and Lauren Groff. Fiery, focused, bold voices address groundbreaking decisions.
HILL WOMEN Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains
Chambers, Cassie Ballantine (304 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-984818-91-1
A family memoir that celebrates the inspiration of strong women within a rural culture most often characterized as
patriarchal. Chambers, a member of the Democratic National Committee, knows how fortunate she was to experience the world beyond her Appalachian home in Kentucky and, especially, to graduate from Yale and Harvard Law. Yet she could not have done so without the examples of her mother, the first in her family to graduate from high school as well as college, and her grandmother. “I don’t have enough ways to honor them, these women of the Appalachian hills,” she writes. “Women who built a support system for me and the others. The best way I know is to tell their stories.” Chambers provides information about Appalachia in general, including the poverty and lack of resources, the collapse of the coal and tobacco industries, and the drug epidemics that have decimated the region. There are also stories that illuminate the hardworking spirit and flashes of hope among the populace, the women in particular. People in these communities supported each other because they knew that no one else would; “generosity was both an insurance policy and a deeply held value.” But the primary story is personal, as the author chronicles how she left home to discover a world of privilege amid the privileged. After graduating from Yale, she had “figured out the system, the code, the secret password into this world that had seemed so mysterious for so long….But…as I fit in more at Yale, I fit in less in the mountains. I didn’t know how to be both of these people at the same time.” The various narrative strands come together as Chambers returns home to provide legal aid to those who can’t afford it. She relates the stories of women battling poverty, domestic violence, drug habits, and other ills that run rampant throughout the region. |
MURDER YOUR DARLINGS And Other Gentle Writing Advice From Aristotle to Zinsser
Ultimately, it was home in Kentucky that she found her purpose, identity, and voice. A welcome addition to the expanding literature about coming-of-age in Appalachia.
FRANCHISE The Golden Arches in Black America Chatelain, Marcia Liveright/Norton (336 pp.) $28.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-63149-394-2
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A jam-packed book of advice for would-be writers. Poynter Institute senior scholar Clark (The Art of X-Ray Reading: How the Secrets of 25 Great Works of Literature Will Improve Your Writing, 2017, etc.) has become something of a guru when it comes to how-to writing books. Written in his usual easygoing, conversational, and encouraging style, his latest is a compilation of writing advice from more than 50 of his favorite books about writing. Covering a wide range of topics, including language and craft, voice and style, storytelling and character, and rhetoric and audience, the author
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An exploration of the complicated role of fast-food restaurants in lowincome black urban neighborhoods, with an emphasis on McDonald’s. Though most of the book covers the 20th century, Chatelain (History and African American Studies/Georgetown Univ.; South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration, 2015) begins in August 2014, when a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, killed Michael Brown. The resulting unrest—some of it violent, some peaceful, all of it racially charged—took place in and around a McDonald’s location owned by a black businessman. “The Florissant Avenue McDonald’s,” writes the author, “was both an escape from the uprising and one of its targets.” Chatelain characterizes her book, in part, as “the story of how McDonald’s became black.” She makes a convincing case that racial tension, the civil rights movement, and fast food all combined to change the dynamic of mostly black communities ignored by white power structures. Fast food is generally unhealthy and can certainly lead to obesity. Chatelain realizes that lowincome blacks are regularly demonized by whites for making poor nutritional choices. However, as she clearly explains, those apparent “choices” are not often real choices because residents lack access to supermarkets stocking healthy food offerings or eateries offering healthy, affordable menu items. “Today, fast-food restaurants are hyperconcentrated in the places that are the poorest and most racially segregated.” As McDonald’s became the dominant fast-food chain across the country, the white management began awarding franchises to black businesspeople. Almost never, however, did blacks receive locations in economically viable neighborhoods. Through case studies, with Cleveland as one extended example, Chatelain explores the relationships between black franchisees and black residents. In addition to nutritional value and the prices of menu items, the author also cogently examines franchisee support for neighborhood initiatives, such as breakfast feeding programs aimed at low-income children, financing of community centers, and the number of jobs, minimum wage or otherwise, for black residents. Chatelain’s impressive research and her insertion of editorial commentary will prove educational and enlightening for readers of all backgrounds. An eye-opening and unique history lesson.
Clark, Roy Peter Little, Brown Spark (352 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-316-48188-5
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Convincing evidence that evolution endowed us with a need for friends, support, comfort, stimulation, and, ultimately, happiness. friendship
focuses on one or two writing lessons from each book. In each chapter, Clark also provides a pedagogical “Tool Box” of ideas and suggestions and “Lessons” for students to try out: “Read a lot and write a lot”; “Write Up to your readers, not Down.” The book’s title comes from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s On the Art of Writing (1916), in which the author suggested, “Draft, purge, murder. Before you murder that darling, you must create it.” Clark argues that William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style is the “great-granddaddy” of all books on writing. For “millions of reluctant writers,” it told them that the “writing craft is not an act of magic, but the applied use of both rules and tools.” Besides the old standards, there are some nice surprises—e.g., George Campbell’s The Philosophy of Rhetoric, a “must read” that “was published in a significant year: 1776.” Stephen King’s “odd bit of advice” in On Writing—to read “bad writing so you can learn what not to write”—is practical and wise. Clark deftly mixes writing advice with personal memoir and toots his own horn in an appendix that includes summaries of his own books, including Writing Tools—“more than 200,000 copies have been sold in several formats.” A generous, witty, and exuberant teacher inspires writers to “know more and feel more.”
PARENTS UNDER THE INFLUENCE Words of Wisdom From a Former Bad Mother
David-Weill, Cécile Other Press (240 pp.) $15.99 paper | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-59051-056-8
How to avoid making the same mistakes as your parents. When many of us become parents, we vow to raise our children differently than we were raised. Far too often, however, we fall back on automatic responses to our children that actually correlate to how we were raised, whether it’s a positive or negative response. David-Weill (The Suitors, 2013, etc.) takes a close look at how our unconscious actions, what we might call parental instincts, are actually reproductions of our own parents’ behavior and how we must consciously regulate and evaluate our reactions if we truly seek to take a different approach to parenting. Throughout the text, the author includes numerous examples to illustrate the wide range of ways we follow what we learned as children, whether it’s choosing a bedtime, deciding what foods to serve, or disciplining rambunctious children in the back seat of a car. She also addresses more intriguing topics, such as why we can resent having to raise our children, the amount of time we should devote to our children so they ultimately gain independence, and how squabbling over minor issues can be a way to hide from larger, more urgent issues—depression, drug use, etc. At the end of the book, a comprehensive “Practical Guide” provides parents with advice on the do’s and don’ts they can follow so they don’t become their parents as well as a series of questions that 48
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evaluate the type of parent they really are. Much of what DavidWeill discusses is straightforward and common sense, but having it compiled into a logically progressive text that identifies the key ways we mimic our parents and then provides helpful ways to work around these issues makes this book a worthy read for parents of children of all ages. Easy-to-assimilate lessons on creating a healthy and respectful relationship with your child.
FRIENDSHIP The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond Denworth, Lydia Norton (320 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-393-65154-6
Exploring the science of friendship. In the past few decades, friendship has become the target of studies by neuro- and social scientists who have established that seeking and building connections to others is essential for human survival. As Scientific American contributing writer Denworth (I Can Hear You Whisper: An Intimate Journey Through the Science of Sound and Language, 2014, etc.) notes, the science has its roots in the studies of the mother-infant bond as well as the animal behavior work of Konrad Lorenz and others, later field studies of chimpanzees, macaques, and other primates, and, more recently, the work of primatologist Frans de Waal. Their observations can now be complemented by advances in technology. For example, near-infrared spectroscopy has been used to show that a section of the brain of a 5-month-old infant lights up when the baby sees a video of a mother playing peekaboo but not when viewing, say, an animated toy. The evidence from brain scans, genetic studies, and other physiological data underscores how social connectivity has been built into our systems; we demonstrate a “need to belong.” Denworth traces this need over the lifetime, discussing the behavior of toddlers, preteens, adolescents, and adults. Of special interest is a second major growth spurt in the brain that occurs during puberty and features rapid growth in the emotional sections of the brain. At this time, scans show that the mere presence of peers lights up reward areas of the brain— a possible spur to impulsivity and risk-taking. (Most teenage driving accidents happen when friends are in the car and not when the driver is alone.) The author also discusses social networks and social media (not likely to replace face-to-face friendships). In addition to examining the scientific underpinnings of friendship, Denworth capably demonstrates how loneliness, an increasing hazard as Americans age and lose friends and family, is truly a health- and life-threatening condition, and there are things to be done to avoid it. Convincing evidence that evolution endowed us with a need for friends, support, comfort, stimulation, and, ultimately, happiness.
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EDUCATED FOR FREEDOM The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up To Change a Nation Duane, Anna Mae New York Univ. (240 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-4798-4747-1
An overlooked story of two important African Americans who impacted the slavery debate at a critical moment
in American history. Many historians focus on Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Mary Church Terrell as the leading African American civil rights advocates of the 19th century. Yet Duane (English/Univ. of Connecticut; Suffer ing Childhood in Early America: Violence, Race, and the Making of the Child Victim, 2017, etc.) reminds us of two critical black leaders who influenced the national civil rights debate and symbolized
the era’s frustrating potential: James McCune Smith (1813-1865) and Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882). Smith and Garnet met as boys at a New York school and grew to be both friends and rivals, achieving unprecedented honors in a society that viewed black Americans as inherently inferior. Smith graduated first in his class at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and he was the first African American to hold a medical degree and the first to run a pharmacy. His approach to the abolitionist movement was to collaboratively support and work within institutions expanding freedom, often relying on his medical expertise to refute assertions of black inferiority. By contrast, the fiery Garnet used a combative approach as a minister to advocate a kind of black nationalism that, at times, embraced separating black and white Americans as the only way to achieve true freedom. Garnet acquired a reputation as perhaps the most eloquent black orator of the time, outpacing even Douglass in the eyes of many. Duane departs from the traditional biographical format— surveying from childhood to adulthood—and instead weaves biographical events together through a focus on documents at the school Garnet and Smith attended as children. The result
y o u n g a d u lt
DON’T PAY FOR YOUR HOME. HACK IT AND LIVE FOR FREE! Discover why so many successful investors choose house hacking—and learn from a frugality expert who "hacked" his way to financial freedom. This real estate strategy can save thousands in monthly expenses and build tens of thousands in equity each year!
"This book is your roadmap to change your financial position in life." Brandon Turner, Bestselling author of The Book on Rental Property Investing
"If I had known about house hacking when I was getting started, I could have jump started my financial trajectory faster."
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-947200-15-9 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-947200-30-2
Joe Fairless, Author, investor, and co-founder of Ashcroft Capital
BiggerPockets.com/househacking
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A readable, enjoyable contribution to the history of science. heaven on earth
HEAVEN ON EARTH How Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo Discovered the Modern World
creates a provocative tie between their childhood challenges and the work they pursued as adults. A compelling tale of two boys and their struggle to forge a path for freedom out of a slave nation.
Fauber, J.S. Pegasus (336 pp.) $29.95 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-64-313204-4
THE NEW WORLD ECONOMY A Beginner’s Guide
Epping, Randy Charles Vintage (352 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-525-56320-4
Thoroughgoing survey of the globalized, interleaved economy and its discontents. If there is a single takeaway from management consultant Epping’s (A Beginner’s Guide to the World Economy, 2001, etc.) book, it’s that chaos is king and control nearly impossible, whether of a command economy or of world trade. “Success in the new fusion economy,” he writes, “may depend in large measure on learning that we can’t control everything.” Just so, there are many variables in determining whether an economy is performing well or poorly and no single gauge of success or failure; trying to impose that control on it may produce inflation on the one hand or recession on the other—or, for that matter, the mix of both known as stagflation, “a worst-case scenario.” The author takes a somewhat contrarian view on certain matters: While he notes the shortcomings and costs of cryptocurrency, among them the fact that “bitcoin mining” annually uses as much energy as the entire nation of Ireland, he also opines that “the current system isn’t necessarily better than an alternative system using cryptocurrencies.” Epping looks at the facts of global trade and, without naming names too pointedly, exposes the folly of trade wars, tariffs, and other hallmarks of economic nationalism: “Politicians who speak of ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ in trade don’t understand that all trade in goods and services is balanced by monetary transfers moving in the opposite direction.” In the global sphere, it’s more sensible to blame governments that “allow most of the new wealth to flow into the coffers of the rich” than to blame globalized trade for our woes. Among the other topics that Epping discusses are the externality of pollution, hitherto seldom factored into the cost of doing business but now increasingly important to reckon with, and the economic behavior of different generations, from the acquisitive and consumptive baby boomers to the comparatively frugal (necessarily, as it happens) millennials. A welcome user’s manual for anyone invested in the market or otherwise engaged in the financial sphere.
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Four scientists collaborate in the quest to understand the heavens. In the 1500s, there was scant cooperation among scholars of different countries: Books and papers were slow to travel, and great discoveries sometimes remained unrecognized for decades. Computer scientist Fauber focuses on four founding fathers of modern astronomy who sought each other out and advanced some central ideas in what was then an act of heresy. Copernicus was the forerunner in a time when “there was no place named ‘America,’ no light bulbs, no vaccines, no nationalism, no cheap steel, no secular state, no accurate clocks…and almost no books.” Working with such tools as he had, he advanced a thesis that boldly stated that Earth is not the center of the universe and that “all the spheres revolve around the Sun,” a heliocentric notion that put him at odds with the Catholic Church in a time of schism. Figuring in the story in roughly equal measure are three other scientists who pushed the “Copernican heresy” further: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo Galilei. The story of their discoveries, aided by primitive telescopes, mathematical intuitions, and long letters back and forth, is well known; what Fauber does well is humanize these four residents of the pantheon of science. An overweening letter from Brahe to Kepler, for instance, opened the door to a personal visit, although Kepler scrawled in the margin, “Everyone loves themself!” Brahe was a strange man, though, as Fauber shows, not without reason: He had been kidnapped as a baby and raised “in splendid isolation by a boorish uncle and his coy wife”; Galileo’s mother “stole from him, spied on him, and fought with Marina, mother of his children.” The writing is sometimes a touch too casual—Galileo, writes the author, was born “too early to see the lax republican model of Venetian government spread over Europe like jam on toast”— but the story is seldom less than fascinating. A readable, enjoyable contribution to the history of science. (b/w illustrations throughout)
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CHEATERS ALWAYS WIN The Story of America
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND MAJORITY RULE The Rise, Demise, and Potential Restoration of the Jeffersonian Electoral College
Fenster, J.M. Twelve (272 pp.) $28.00 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-5387-2870-3
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Foley, Edward B. Oxford Univ. (256 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 2, 2020 978-0-19-006015-2
The Electoral College works, most of the time—but that’s not good enough. Foley (Chair, Constitutional Law/Ohio State Univ.; Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, 2016) offers a brief history of the Electoral College, a description of how it’s supposed to work, an analysis of its occasional failures to select the majority candidate, and suggestions about how to prevent breakdowns. In a text sometimes dense with detail, featuring numerous tables and charts, the author reminds us of several important points about the Electoral College: It was designed for a two-party system; the Founders wanted majority rule; the original (and somewhat hasty) 1787 conception was replaced with the 12th Amendment in 1803, an amendment that we still employ. Along the way, Foley provides information that will probably surprise some readers. For example, it was during the time of Andrew Jackson that we began moving toward a winner-take-all approach, even for candidates who received only a plurality, not a majority, of votes. In 1860, Lincoln received only about 40% of the popular vote—and “zero popular votes” in nine states in the South. Nonetheless, the process worked fairly well in the 20th century, with a couple of notable exceptions: the elections of 1992 (Clinton v. Bush) and 2000 (Bush v. Gore). In the latter case, writes the author, the system totally failed. In 2016, the result probably did not reflect the majority. Foley notes that most Americans want the majority candidate to win; to make that more certain, he suggests that states institute methods to ensure it. Among his ideas is what he calls “the majority-rule requirement”—voters, for example, could rank-order their choices (in a multicandidate race), thus ensuring an eventual majority winner. Learned and tightly focused—but also a demanding text requiring keen attention and an open mind.
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A lighthearted romp through several centuries of cheating at popular American pursuits. Cheating isn’t what it used to be, argues historian Fenster (Jefferson’s Amer ica: The President, the Purchase, and the Explorers Who Transformed a Nation, 2016 etc.) in this quirky dishonor roll of cheaters from the Colonial era to the present. Americans blithely tolerate lapses their forebears might have condemned. “The abandonment of the stigma against cheaters is a trend in our times across every pursuit,” writes the author. With a wit that ranges from deadpan to sardonic, Fenster shows how “cheating has found a comfortable place” in fields that include politics, business, higher education, bridge tournaments, and NASCAR races. Consider the Kansas biology teacher who, after discovering in 2001 that 28 of her students had plagiarized work for a project, gave them all zeroes, which effectively left them failing the course; the principal supported her, but parents protested, and the school board ordered her to pass all but one of the cheaters. Compare the young plagiarists’ get-out-of-jail-free card with punishments faced by cheaters of yesteryear: the producers of the rigged 1950s game show The $64,000 Question, investigated by the government, or runner Rosie Ruiz, stripped of her title after faking a victory in the women’s division 1980 Boston Marathon. Fenster ascribes the destigmatizing of cheating in part to the waning moral influence of elders like grandparents—“America should have thought of that when it traded in ancestor worship for descendant worship”—and tarts up the history with devices like a twee self-interview and a California marriage counselor’s “Test to Identify Chronic Cheaters and Whether a Spouse Who Has Strayed Will Do So Again.” There are also digressions into topics such as the author’s golf game (at times “I shoot a neat 67—per hole”). The flippant tone of much of this book—entertaining as it can be—is often at odds with its serious and welltaken points about the normalization of cheating in America. A timely subject gets a treatment at times too clever for its own good.
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Tom Mueller
THE AUTHOR OF CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE DISCUSSES WHY WHISTLEBLOWERS DO WHAT THEY DO—AND HOW THEY PAY THE PRICE By Mary Ann Gwinn Dave Yoder
With a prominent whistleblower again in the news— filing a complaint about President Trump’s call to the president of Ukraine—Crisis of Conscience couldn’t be more timely. Mueller, a Harvard graduate who divides his time between Italy and Spokane, Washington, answered questions about the book. Here’s an edited version of the conversation: You write that whistleblowers “are not like most of us.” What does it take to become a whistleblower? There’s a definite conviction in whistleblowers about what’s right and what’s wrong. They’ll say something like, “I’m a rules kind of girl.” They’re not willing to bend their conscience to suit their organization’s demands. One value they hold quite often is a strong sense of, Who’s the victim in what I’m doing? Would I do this if it were my mother or brother? It’s the golden rule, one of the most ancient and ethical of principles.
In our skeptical age, whistleblowers are both loved and loathed. American whistleblowers are celebrated in movies and popular culture, portrayed by stars such as Meryl Streep (Silkwood), Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) and Russell Crowe (The Insider). But in real life, they’re condemned as disloyal, self-serving, and even traitorous if they reveal the deepest secrets of the U.S. government. Author and journalist Tom Mueller turned his curiosity about whistleblowers into a mammoth project. He worked for seven years on Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud (Riverhead, Oct. 1). His 596-page book is a history of whistleblowing, a psychological profile of the whistleblower, and an examination of what whistleblowers endure once they reveal waste, fraud, and malfeasance. He profiles whistleblowers in health care, high finance, the federal departments of energy and defense, and the National Security Agency, one of the nation’s most secretive intelligence organizations. The whistleblower’s odyssey “takes years and years, and it never ends,” says Mueller. “Even when they’ve “won,” they still have this sinking feeling that the wrongdoing has not been stopped.” 52
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How have financial rewards written into some whistleblower protection laws affected whistleblowing? Financial awards make it possible to attract a very skilled legal defense team. That’s good if you are a whistleblower. You’re going up against a phalanx of white-collar lawyers who will eat you for lunch if you don’t watch out. It’s not payment for services rendered. It’s a payoff for lifetime loss of income. So often, whistleblowers are blackballed in their industries for doing things that may have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Often whistleblowers are shunned by their former coworkers, though they were admired before they spoke out. What’s the psychology of that compulsion? It’s basic human evolution. We’re wired by hundreds of thousands of years of drifting across an ancestral savanna with our band of relatives. Ninety-nine percent of our evolutionary history was an extended camp with kin. We treat our own people kindly and with value-sharing and egalitarianism. But that other group drifting across the savanna may take our prey animals and even kill us. The reason whistleblowers typically give is a higher loy|
alty—to make sure the company keeps its good name or that arsenic didn’t poison the water, an obedience to God and society. But within the group there’s a stronger sense that we’re the chosen ones. The violence of the retaliation is caused by the fact that these drives have deep evolutionary roots. The national security whistleblowers seem to have the toughest time. What recourse do they have to the kind of retribution you describe in this book? I wish it was different, but they really have no recourse. The government is able to spin their reports of fraud, waste, abuse, and misconduct into treason. It’s been that way through several presidents, including Obama. It’s extraordinarily difficult for a national security whistleblower to speak out without going to jail. Anyone who raises their voice against the national security establishment is going to be crushed.
Mary Ann Gwinn is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist in Seattle who writes about books and authors for several publi cations. Crisis of Conscience received a starred review in the Aug. 1, 2019, issue.
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Frances-White, Deborah Seal Press (320 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-58005-954-1
From the London-based Australian co-creator and host of The Guilty Femi nist podcast comes a book-length version of that program. A stand-up comedian who also hosts the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice, the author opens her chapters with the phrase “I’m a feminist but” and proceeds with an example of a cause of remorse, such as lying about one’s weight by 20 pounds or mistaking Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique for the name of a classic perfume. Throughout the narrative, there are abundant examples of Frances-White’s weaknesses and the rifts between good intentions and human behavior, and she encourages feminists to shed their guilt and take up their “most unapologetic and persuasive voice.” In Part 1, the author provides a capsule history of the feminist movements and her opinions on their significance. In parts 2 and 3, Frances-White broadens her reach, taking on the air of the podcast, which she describes as a microclimate where women are given power, space, and the assumption of brilliance. The text features a mix of various pieces from the podcast. She includes her own angry speech about Brexit, her stand-up comedy bit satirizing how women undermine themselves, an irony-filled piece on Harvey Weinstein, and her feminist rewrite of the famous speech in Henry V, which ends with the rousing cry, “God for Women, Feminism, and Saint Angelou!” Frances-White also muses on the diet industry, the fun of makeup, being open to other people’s struggles, toxic masculinity, Donald Trump, female fertility, sexism in religion (now an atheist, she was raised as a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses), and women’s own sexual submission fantasies. Confidently opinionated, the author gives other feminist writers a voice, introducing them proudly and interviewing them intelligently. Fans of the TV series Fleabag will relish her lengthy interview with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, its creator and star. A bit of a potpourri but a witty book full of insights, opinions, and good advice.
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You write that “the rise of whistleblowing is an index of a society in distress.” Explain. Many whistleblowers tell me that “I hate the word whistleblower; I was just doing my job.” Nuclear safety engineers, compliance officers in hospitals—these are arenas that if things go wrong, people will get hurt. We shouldn’t have a special category of humans called truthtellers. We should just tell the truth more. We are drifting toward the money; we are hard-wiring that into our laws and regulations. Whistleblowers may not be much fun at cocktail parties, but boy are they important for society.
THE GUILTY FEMINIST You Don’t Have To Be Perfect To Overthrow the Patriarchy
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A well-written exploration of the mind-body connection. physical intelligence
WITCHES The Transformative Power of Women Working Together
PHYSICAL INTELLIGENCE The Science of How the Body and the Mind Guide Each Other Through Life
George-Allen, Sam Melville House (288 pp.) $17.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-61219-834-7
A quirky, wide-ranging look at women’s lives. Tasmania-based writer and musician George-Allen makes an engaging book debut with “a memoir of learning, and unlearning,” motivated by her realization that despite being a feminist, she had “internalized misogyny.” In a patriarchal society, writes the author, women are discouraged from banding together because “isolated women are easier to sell things to, easier to control, more easily compressed into the very few ways to acceptably be a woman.” Hoping to counter the assumption that all women are “catty, backstabbing, untrustworthy bitches,” she set out to investigate women whose identities are connected to their senses of community: teenagers banding together to follow fashion trends or protest gun violence; girl bands; beauty vloggers and bloggers who “construct a narrative completely devoid of the male gaze”; sportswomen who find emotional power in training their bodies; dancers; midwives, who provide “the purest expression of care for women, by women, with women”; sex workers; farmers; nuns (“a whole bunch of women hanging out together, doing secret spiritual things”); and witches. “If a witch is a woman on the margins,” writes the author, “then we’re all witches.” Dance, she discovers, serves as more than artistic expression. “The women I spoke to,” she writes, “use dance to preserve culture, tackle body dysmorphia in refugee girls and facilitate discussions about race and intersectionality.” Although ballet has been criticized for insisting that dancers “spend a lifetime whittling their bodies into ethereal objects,” George-Allen finds, instead, that it gives women a chance “to be unapologetically physical, to strive for athletic excellence, and to be rewarded with unadulterated praise.” One of the most interesting chapters focuses on transgender women. As a straight, white, cis woman, the author grappled with the question of what makes a woman, finally concluding that gender is complex and socially constructed, “like money, or manners: imagined, held together by shared belief.” As she talked with a friend who transitioned, the author admits, she felt her own identity transform from “a whole, dull thing” into “a million brilliant bits.” An uplifting celebration of women’s power through communion.
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Grafton, Scott Pantheon (288 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-5247-4732-9
A state-of-the-science survey of how our brains enable our bodies to do their work. When we walk toward a wall, why don’t we smack into it? Because the body has an “intelligence” that enables us to do things like translate signals about distance, materiality, proprioception, and related matters that, writes Grafton (Chair, Neuroscience/Univ. of California, Santa Barbara), “are almost primordial in their simplicity” but that encompass the whole history of evolution, “stretching all the way back to the appearance of the most basic forms of locomotion in vertebrates.” The concept of “physical intelligence” is something that has tended to be studied only in its superlative sense, in the performance of top athletes or persons placed under the most extreme of environmental conditions. In everyday cases, the mental processes used for our actions “are, more than anything, different kinds of learning machines that the brain has available for acquiring and maintaining physically derived knowledge.” A climber and distance hiker, Grafton takes many of his examples from his own experiences outdoors under conditions that sometimes invite taking things for granted but that instead require constant vigilance, the mind connecting sensory information to appropriate responses—appropriate because, so often, doing the wrong thing can lead to disaster. All of this requires sophisticated neural circuitry that in turn yields a kind of “sixth sense” whose discovery has fueled debate among philosophers and brain scientists for decades: “How could a person consciously and willfully move while being utterly unaware of her own body’s movements?” Arriving at an answer deepens our understanding of this sixth sense of movement, which turns out to be more important than the other senses in getting us around in the world. It involves such complex mental processes as being able to “conceptualize dynamic force” and areas of the brain that range from the higher-reasoning cortex to the elemental cerebellum, which “keeps track of a massive list of comparatively minor adjustments or tweaks to each movement to make them work well under a variety of conditions.” A well-written exploration of the mind-body connection.
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THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
WE ARE INDIVISIBLE A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump
Grayling, A.C. Penguin Press (640 pp.) $35.00 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-9848-7874-8
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A manual for saving democracy from its current “existential threat.” After the 2016 presidential election, wife-and-husband team Greenberg and Levin used the insights they learned while working as congressional staffers who “could demystify Congress and show people how scaring the crap out of their own representatives was their most effective tool for resisting Trump” and his many enablers within Congress. The online guide they created went viral and became the blueprint for this book. Importantly, the authors understand, at a deep psychological level, elected officials’ obsession with attaining reelection. Encouraging constituents in each congressional district to band together in real life—not only online—served as the foundation for Greenberg and Levin’s 19-point guide. “Individuals have opinions; groups have power,” they write. As digital viewers of the guide began banding together to form groups dubbed “Indivisible chapters” (there are now more than 5,000), the authors realized they needed to quit their jobs in order to manage the groundswell of resistance. Soon, Greenberg and Levin had received enough donations to hire a central staff dedicated to advising the locally based Indivisible chapters. From bitter experience, the authors knew that tactics developed previously by tea party advocates and other far-right constituents demonstrated effectiveness in shaking up elected politicians of all ideologies. Near the opening of this book, readers will find all 19 points set out on two consecutive pages, and they include “Don’t Be Boring,” “Pictures, or It Didn’t Happen,” “Don’t Get Defensive About Your Privilege,” and “Primaries Are Good If We Make Them Good.” The remainder of the book takes each lesson in turn. Some of the tactics are meant to help attain short-term policy initiatives. Ultimately, however, the tactics, used wisely, are meant to defeat Trumpism by replacing his supporters on Election Day. The authors clearly explain how a long history of civic engagement in the U.S. can be reignited leading up to the 2020 election. The subtitle says it all: a useful guide to moving forward after Trumpism.
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A magnificent recapping of the history of philosophy, as it stands apart from theology, in the classic model of Bertrand Russell, as “an invitation and an entrance.” In the hands of British scholar and journalist Grayling (Master/New Coll. of the Humanities; Democracy and Its Crisis, 2018, etc.), it is a delight to engage in this sweeping history of the great thinkers throughout the ages, from pre-Socratics to the present. Moreover, in the last section of the book, the author offers a considerably shorter yet fair introduction to Indian, Chinese, Arabic-Persian, and African philosophy (hindered only by the “veil” of language, yet he ends with a challenge to readers to address this surmountable difficulty). The attempt to “make sense of things” has plagued humanity for centuries and has also led to its great advances, especially the “rise of modern thought” in terms of empiricism and rationalism as they gained momentum from the 17th century. These great forces unharnessed philosophy from the strictures of religion, culminating in the essential concept, particularly by Immanuel Kant and his fellow Enlightenment thinkers, that the “autonomy” of man meant “self-government, independence of thought, and possession of the right and the responsibility to make choices about one’s own life.” As Grayling notes, this is “essential to the life worth living,” a matter dear to the very “first” philosophers: Thales, who relied on observation and reason to “know thyself,” and Socrates, for whom the first great question was how to live. As he moves into the more recondite reaches of “analytic” and language philosophy of the 20th century, the author mostly keeps the narrative from becoming overly academic. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing lack of women philosophers across Grayling’s 2,500-year survey, even under the cursory rubric of “feminist philosophy.” The author’s approach is especially refreshing due to his acknowledgement that few philosophers were truly unique (even Buddha or Confucius); often what was required for lasting significance was a kind of luck and a stable of devoted followers. Despite its glaring absence of women philosophers, Grayling’s accessible omnibus will provide a steppingstone for the student or novice.
Greenberg, Leah & Levin, Ezra One Signal/Atria (368 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-98-212997-2
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A heartfelt and haunting memoir just right for the current political and social climate. children of the land
CHILDREN OF THE LAND
WOUNDED SHEPHERD Pope Francis and His Struggle To Convert the Catholic Church
Hernandez Castillo, Marcelo Harper/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $26.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-06-282559-9
An acclaimed Mexican-born poet’s account of the sometimes-overwhelming struggles he and his parents faced in their quest to become American citizens. Hernandez Castillo (Cenzontle, 2018, etc.) first came to the United States with his undocumented Mexican parents in 1993. But life in the shadows came at a high price. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided their home on multiple occasions and eventually deported the author’s father back to Mexico. In this emotionally raw memoir, Hernandez Castillo explores his family’s traumas through a fractured narrative that mirrors their own fragmentation. Of his own personal experiences, he writes, “when I came undocumented to the U.S., I crossed into a threshold of invisibility.” To protect himself against possible identification as an undocumented person, he excelled in school and learned English “better than any white person, any citizen.” When he was old enough to work, he created a fake social security card to apply for the jobs that helped him support his fatherless family. After high school, he attended college and married a Mexican American woman. He became an MFA student at the University of Michigan and qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed him to visit his father in Mexico, where he discovered the depth of his cultural disorientation. Battling through ever present anxiety, the author revisited his and his parents’ origins and then returned to take on the difficult interview that qualified him for a green card. His footing in the U.S. finally solidified, Hernandez Castillo unsuccessfully attempted to help his father and mother qualify for residency in the U.S. Only after his father was kidnapped by members of a drug cartel was the author able to help his mother, whose life was now in danger, seek asylum in the U.S. Honest and unsparing, this book offers a detailed look at the dehumanizing immigration system that shattered the author’s family while offering a glimpse into his own deeply conflicted sense of what it means to live the socalled American dream. A heartfelt and haunting memoir just right for the current political and social climate.
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Ivereigh, Austen Henry Holt (416 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-250-11938-4
A praiseful portrait of Pope Francis. British journalist Ivereigh (Fellow, Contemporary Church History/Campion Hall, Univ. of Oxford; The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, 2014) presents a hagiographic biography of the Francis papacy to date. In a detailed study packed with insider tidbits, the author examines various overarching issues that have affected and defined the Francis era. In addition to the inescapable issue of priestly abuse, Ivereigh also discusses such topics as Vatican finances, rehabilitation of divorced Catholics, human rights crises, and gender and sexuality controversies. An overarching theme is the problem of clericalism, which the author defines as “the perverse idea that clerics of any sort—bishops, priests, consecrated persons—are superior to non-clerics, who are treated as inferiors.” Clericalism, writes Ivereigh, has pervaded Catholicism for years and tainted it in countless ways, leading to many of the problems the church faces today. Whereas clericalism leads to a distance from those the church is meant to love, Francis is consistent in promoting “closeness” in every possible way. Ivereigh presents Francis as a nearly flawless figure, “an old Jesuit spiritual master” with “native cunning” who “truly imitates Christ.” The closest the author comes to criticizing Francis is in the chapter on the abuse crisis, in which he admits that Francis made certain missteps in his handling of specific cases. Francis’ critics, on the other hand, are “Pharisaical” examples of “naked legalism.” He even goes so far as to call them “neo-Donatists,” referring to an ancient heresy marked by a lack of mercy. Francis, “the master bridgemaker in an era of angry wall builders,” is presented as standing nearly alone against a moribund church and a misguided world. Ivereigh’s connections with church insiders—connections he does not hesitate to highlight—make for an interesting read. His lack of objectivity, however, detracts from an otherwise intriguing study. A good read for Francis devotees but far from unbiased journalism. (8-page b/w insert)
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THINK OUTSIDE THE BUILDING How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Small Innovation at a Time
MEMORY CRAFT Improve Your Memory With the Most Powerful Methods in History—From Medieval Bestiaries to Tibetan Mandalas
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss PublicAffairs (352 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-5417-4271-0
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An Australian “memory champion” offers some tricks of the trade. The human brain processes huge amounts of sensory data every day, only some of which gets lodged in it for future access. This can be a problem when trying to remember, say, the name of a person—for which reason cultures from around the world have developed memory-training regimens. “A highly trained memory was greatly admired in the classical Greco-Roman era,” writes Kelly (The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Other Ancient Monuments, 2017). “Not only was it useful in politics and speech making, it was also a terrific way to show off.” So it was that the Roman philosopher Seneca lined up 100 students, had each recite a line of poetry, and then repeated the lines in order—and then backward. Kelly examines the techniques employed to perform such prodigious feats, among them the “memory palace,” a mental construct made up of rooms, pieces of furniture, and such that are then populated with facts and figures. The author writes that she has more than 1,000 such locations—and other memory experts have many more. Among the other techniques that she discusses are “visual alphabets in the shapes of animals and humans,” narrative scrolls that develop character-rich stories to aid memory, ingenious mnemonic devices, memorizing long sequences of numbers by means of attaching sounds to them, and perhaps the most useful brain-as-muscle exercise by which one should review a piece of information five times over three months in order to move it into long-term memory. Kelly’s book takes a gee-whiz approach to a scholarly body of literature that includes Frances Yates’ classic books on Renaissance memory studies and recent works of neuroscience such as Daniel Levitin’s The Organized Mind, but the narrative covers the ground well and entertains as it travels. Of benefit to anyone seeking to remember a scrap of information for more than a couple of minutes.
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How experienced leaders in business and other professions can act on their “youthful idealism” and make a difference in addressing complex societal problems. Harvard Business School professor Kanter (Move: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back in the Lead, 2015, etc.) directs Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Institute, which, since 2008, has helped some 500 retired CEOs and others gain the “outside-thebuilding, silo-busting” skills needed to take on “messy, complex systems problems” ranging from income inequality to human trafficking. In this striking book, the author distills the lessons learned in the program, in which successful men and women, eager to do good measured in lives improved rather than income earned, explore societal issues of interest, take classes on relevant topics outside their own area of expertise, and use their “capabilities, connections, and cash” (the latter not necessarily their own) to create cross-sector coalitions in pursuit of social change. Drawing on 50 case studies and hundreds of interviews, Kanter tells riveting stories of “bold, imaginative” leadership: A Trader Joe’s CEO fights hunger, an Anheuser-Busch CEO confronts educational disparities in St. Louis, a European banker creates partnerships to finance improved ocean health, and a Hong Kong investment banker helps women work in Southeast Asia. In each case, the societal issue is rife with ambiguity and conflict, with no single organization in charge, and the challenge is to find fresh, convention-defying approaches engaging many stakeholders. The author stresses the care with which participants must approach an issue, how they develop the ability to conduct “multiple efforts on multiple fronts,” and the challenges of working “across disciplines and institutional silos.” She is sometimes repetitious, but mainly to emphasize the powerful potential of her approach. Time alone will reveal the outcomes of these projects, she writes, but they hold much promise and could well serve as models for others. This realistic and hopeful manual shows how accomplished individuals can tackle problems whose victims often lack resources to take action.
Kelly, Lynne Pegasus (320 pp.) $27.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-64-313324-9
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Adrienne Brodeur
A MOTHER, A DAUGHTER, AND A SHARED SECRET MAKE FOR COMPULSIVE READING IN THE AUTHOR’S CLEAREYED MEMOIR, WILD GAME By Megan Labrise Julia Cumes
It was a meeting with potential editors (many of whom had mother stories to share) that drove home the universality of what she’d written. “We all have mothers, and they’re incredibly powerful people in our lives,” Brodeur says. “It can be a very complicated relationship; that was what was relatable. So while I heard stories that were very different from mine, they all were similar in wanting love and wanting to please.” “I knew only what pleased my mother; I didn’t have a moral compass,” Brodeur writes in Wild Game, remembering the sultry summer night in 1980 when her mother, Malabar, woke her up to confess she’d shared a kiss with her second husband’s married best friend. Brodeur’s adolescent complicity in the resultant affair complicated her relationship to truth and desire for many years to come. “I love my mother, and I hope that comes across in this book,” she says. “I really do. But do I feel like I got a lot of life’s important lessons from her? I do not. I feel like most of it was what I learned in response or in contrast.”
At age 14, Adrienne Brodeur began abetting her glamorous mother’s extramarital affair. Forty years—and many, many twists—later, Brodeur’s cleareyed memoir of its toll set off a 14-bidder U.S. auction. “Very unexpectedly to me, believe me,” says Brodeur, who runs Aspen Words and cofounded Zoetrope Magazine with Francis Ford Coppola. “Don’t get me wrong, I felt like I was writing a strong book,” she says of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct. 15), which ultimately sold for an unnamed seven-figure advance, “but also a singular and specific book. I did not see this as all the women in the world who abetted their mother in their extramarital love affairs were going to come climbing out of the woodwork.” 58
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Megan Labrise is the editor at large and hosts the Fully Booked podcast. Wild Game was reviewed in the Aug. 15, 2019, issue.
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Elegant prose graces a deeply thoughtful memoir. counterpoint
COUNTERPOINT A Memoir of Bach and Mourning
THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR ON PALESTINE A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017
Kennicott, Philip Norton (224 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 18, 2020 978-0-393-63536-2
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A systematic history of Palestinian persecution and a fair-minded agenda for mutual dialogue and recognition with the Israelis going forward. Khalidi (Modern Arab Studies/Columbia Univ.; Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, 2013, etc.), the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, is the descendant of several illustrious early scholars and statesmen who attempted to navigate the first peace between the two peoples claiming ancient ties to the same land. The author begins this dogged chronicle of Palestinian injustices with a poignant letter he unearthed in a Jerusalem library, written in 1899 by his great-great-great uncle, the mayor of Jerusalem, to the “father of Zionism,” Theodor Herzl, reminding him respectfully of the folly of embarking on a Jewish nation within an already inhabited land and urging him “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Of course, that did not happen, and the Zionist vision gained momentum thanks to “international and imperial forces” such as the Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917, which, Khalidi notes, was “a declaration of war by the British Empire on the indigenous population.” The author also examines the declaration of the state of Israel in 1947; the Six-Day War of 1967; the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, directed at neutralizing the Palestinian Liberation Organization; the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which began in 1987 and shifted the locus of disaffection from outside to inside the country; and the massive Palestinian demonstrations that have taken place in Israel as Hamas and the PLO played out their power struggle. Khalidi is clear about the “ideologically bankrupt political movements” that have made up Palestinian leadership, and he recognizes the need for a better understanding of how to positively affect public opinion in the U.S. Yet he also presses for significant work inside Israel, namely “convincing Israelis that there is an alternative to the ongoing oppression of the Palestinians.” A timely, cogent, patient history of a seemingly intractable conflict told from a learned Palestinian perspective.
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Pulitzer Prize winner Kennicott, senior art and architecture critic of the Washington Post, makes his book debut with an absorbing meditation on grief. Unsettled by the death of his mother, the author was drawn to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, especially Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording, an emotional, aggressive interpretation, “clarifying as with colored light the intertwining lines of Bach’s thirty variations.” As a piano student years before, he had not mastered anything by Bach, preferring instead dazzling pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms: “fast and with lots of drama.” Now, he decided to confront the challenges of the Variations. “I had no illusions that I would ever master them well enough to be satisfied by my performance,” Kennicott writes. “Rather, it seemed a way to test life again, to press upon it and see what was still vital,” to attain “clarity, accuracy,” and, not least, a sense of order and control. This desire for control in the face of sorrow, mortality, and loss recurs as a contrapuntal theme as the author chronicles his obsession with the Variations—their place in Bach’s oeuvre, reception, and demanding technique—along with a memoir of growing up in a tense household dominated by his moody, brittle, often vindictive mother, whom he wishes he could better understand. As he questions what it means to truly know a piece of music, he asks, as well, what it means to know any person. During adolescence, he found in music “a refuge” from chaotic family life, “an adult space where I was fully responsible for my actions.” At home, practicing piano functioned as a kind of “wordless communication”; “I would make music for an ideal mother who didn’t exist, and she listened to a son who, through music, spoke without irony, or condescension.” Now, as an adult, he seeks in music not solace, nor epiphany, nor a “miraculous entrée to higher consciousness,” but instead a “raw moment of openness” to “an emotional resignation that is beyond pleasure, or healing, or anything that can be captured in words.” Elegant prose graces a deeply thoughtful memoir.
Khalidi, Rashid Metropolitan/Henry Holt (352 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 19, 2019 978-1-62779-855-6
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THE MAGICAL LANGUAGE OF OTHERS A Memoir Koh, E.J. Tin House (216 pp.) $22.95 | Jan. 6, 2020 978-1-947793-38-5
How a series of letters helped the author understand why her parents left when she was a teenager. When Koh (A Lesser Love: Poems, 2017) was 15, her mother and father left her and her older brother in California to move back to Korea, where Koh’s father had been offered a lucrative job. “It was the kind of opportunity,” she writes, “others might envy or criticize….Both position and pay left a knot of amazement on my parents’ faces.” The position was supposed to last three years, after which they would return to their children. But then the contract kept getting extended, leaving the author feeling abandoned. Her mother wrote letters and called home on a regular basis, but Koh struggled with her absence. Years later, she rediscovered the box of tear-stained letters written primarily in Korean and set about translating them. In the process, she began to see her mother in a more rounded, fleshed-out form and to fully comprehend the love transmitted through her mother’s words and her ongoing pleas for forgiveness for leaving her daughter at such a pivotal age. Koh was also able to understand more about her grandmother, who witnessed the terrible 1948 massacre on Jeju Island, and what it means to be a mixture of Korean, Japanese, and American. The author includes her translations of some of her mother’s letters as well as the originals. Her bewilderment regarding her mother’s decision is deeply evident, as are her gradual perceptions about how the move affected her mother. Koh also provides information on her travels to Japan, where she studied, and her brief stint as a dancer in Korea, and she explains how she eventually found her way into a poetry writing program in college and how that further helped her grasp the feelings embedded in her mother’s letters. Intimate, subtle insights about a unique motherdaughter relationship.
ARGUING WITH ZOMBIES Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future
Krugman, Paul Norton (416 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-324-00501-8
Penetrating analyses of urgent, controversial problems. Krugman (Economics/City Univ. of New York; End This Depression Now!, 2012, etc.), winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, gathers more than 90 articles, most from his New York 60
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Times columns, lucidly explaining often confounding economic issues. Prefacing each of 18 sections with a cogent overview, the author takes on topics that include social security, health care, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath (essays that comprise more than a third of the book), the myths of austerity, Europe’s economic problems, tax cuts, trade wars, inequality, climate change, and, not least, the damage being inflicted by Donald Trump and his enablers. Many of the pieces are hard-hitting arguments against zombie ideas, “an idea that should have been killed by evidence, but refuses to die.” Zombie ideas, Krugman asserts, are put forth by “influential people” who “move in circles in which repeating” such ideas “is a badge of seriousness, an assertion of tribal identity.” Alternatively, ideas such as climate change denial, which persist despite prolific evidence, are “better described as cockroach ideas—false claims you may think you’ve gotten rid of, but keep coming back.” There are plenty of villains in Krugman’s crosshairs: the “anti-labor” extremist Brett Kavanaugh, “flimflam man” Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Bernie Madoff, George W. Bush and his “fraudulent march to war,” and Ronald Reagan, to name a few. Many essays focus on the current president. “It’s not just that Trump has assembled an administration of the worst and dimmest,” writes the author. “The truth is that the modern GOP doesn’t want to hear from serious economists, whatever their politics. It prefers charlatans and cranks, who are its kind of people.” Krugman is a serious economist who detailed his intellectual focus and style in a 1993 essay, “How I Work.” He cites four rules that guide his research: listen to intelligent views; question the question; “dare to be silly”; and “simplify, simplify.” All serve him—and his readers—admirably. Shrewd, witty, informed essays that are much needed in our anti-intellectual age.
THE HOUSE OF YAN A Family at the Heart of a Century in Chinese History Lan Yan Trans. by Taylor, Sam Harper/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $17.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-06-289981-1
A powerful memoir of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath by pioneering investment banker Lan Yan. The author opens with a scene in which eight security officers surround her grandfather. “I am crying,” she recounts, “because I am not used to all this yelling, all these staircase stampedes, all this banging on doors.” With this dramatic opening, the author describes the arrest of her grandfather in the early years of the Cultural Revolution. It did him no good to insist on seeing an arrest warrant, because there was none: Under the revolution’s explosion of seething populism, the country was no longer a state ruled by law. Soon Lan Yan and her family were also suspect, tarred by association with a supposed |
PILLS, POWDER, AND SMOKE Inside the Bloody War on Drugs
Loewenstein, Antony Scribe (352 pp.) $19.00 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-947534-94-0
A critique of the war on drugs, which, by the author’s account, is mostly a war on the poor and dispossessed. Build a wall on the border with Mexico, says Donald Trump, and voilà: no more drugs. As Jerusalembased Australian journalist Loewenstein (Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe, 2015, etc.) observes, that assertion flies in the face of reports from the government’s own Drug Enforcement Agency that drugs predominantly enter the United States via airports and seaports, not via land. All the same, the Trump administration “has brought the drug war back with a vengeance, though it’s arguably far less effective in convincing people than in the past.” Indeed, Americans have embraced a hitherto unthinkable laissez-faire attitude in terms of cannabis, if not other drugs. The author examines several fronts in a war fought by Western governments, especially the U.S., on harder drugs that “are consumed nightly in such major cities as London, Sydney, New York, and Paris.” A U.S.–sponsored coup in Honduras, argues Loewenstein, made the country more vulnerable to exploitation by the cartels while interdiction campaigns elsewhere have amounted to “a convenient justification to ostracize, demonize, imprison, ignore, or kill the most marginalized,” for whom the drug trade is a means of simple |
subsistence. Loewenstein lays out a case that is provocative but broad: It is inarguable that Richard Nixon used the drug war as a proxy for suppressing protest on the part of youth and ethnic minorities, but it takes more evidence than the author provides to land the argument that the drug war is a front for “the US goal of finding reliable, if autocratic, partners to secure regions rich with valuable resources, including oil and gold.” A sometimes overwrought but pressing survey calling into question a war that would seem to benefit only its combatants.
INDESTRUCTIBLE The Unforgettable Story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima Lucas, Jack H. with Drum, D.K. Morrow/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-06-279562-5
A World War II Marine chronicles his time in the service, culminating in the act that won him the Medal of Honor—and how that event changed his life. Lucas, the youngest Marine to be awarded the medal, grew up in North Carolina; an unruly farm boy, he was sent to a military school when his mother remarried. The school brought out the best in him, believing as he did in honor and duty. When news of Pearl Harbor arrived, he wanted to enlist and fight the Japanese immediately. But at 14 years old, he was too young. In what became a pattern for his Marine career, he persuaded his stepfather to lie about his age and was soon in basic camp. Sent to a stateside assignment, he went AWOL to get to Hawaii, then stowed away on a troopship bound for Iwo Jima, where, on his second day of combat, he threw himself on two grenades to save the other members of his squad—and lived. His post-service career was in general considerably less exciting, other than a murder plot against him. Lucas comes across as a highly patriotic man who was a serious hell-raiser, especially in his youth. It is the story that carries readers through rather than the quality of the writing. Considering that he spent only two days in combat, the author’s escapades before he ever got to Iwo Jima, as well as his various stratagems to get himself into the combat zone, carry the bulk of the interest. There is very little on the battle that readers casually familiar with the war in the Pacific don’t already know, and one suspects that Drum had a good deal to do with getting the memoir into publishable shape. Still, if you were sitting in a bar with a veteran recounting these stories, you would almost certainly stay to hear them—and buy the teller a drink or two to keep them coming. Colorful war stories told by a man whose patriotism and heroism are sufficient to command our respectful attention. (16-page b/w photo insert)
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counterrevolutionary who had long been a devoted associate of Mao Zedong. Mao had had disagreements with the Soviet Union a decade earlier over his Hundred Flowers liberalization campaign, which the Soviets feared would open the government to ideological questioning; said one Soviet official, “This is exactly the kind of incitement to bourgeois thinking that we have seen in Hungary!” It didn’t help the author’s case that it was her father who translated the Soviet official’s words into Chinese. After her grandfather was taken away, her father was accused of being a Russian spy. The author, herself interned, graduated from high school but was denied permission to teach, as she had wanted to do: “Their argument was that, since I came from a ‘problematic’ (i.e., counterrevolutionary) family, they believed that I would have to be reeducated, and that in any case I was not fit to educate others.” Allied with Deng Xiaoping, Lan Yan instead emerged as a rising figure in the new era of state capitalism, becoming a partner in a French international law firm that helped open the Chinese market and then heading a bank with a predominantly female leadership, defying the fact that “the world of banking is, just like the legal world, still very misogynistic.” A thoughtful, astute narrative that helps Western readers understand the rise of the new China from the ashes of terror. (first printing of 20,000)
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PRAVDA HA HA True Travels to the End of Europe
AN IMPECCABLE SPY Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent
MacLean, Rory Bloomsbury (368 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-4088-9652-5
The acclaimed British travel writer and historian retraces his trip after the fall of the Berlin Wall to explore what happened to the hopes and promises of 1989. This time, MacLean (In North Korea: Lives and Lies in the State of Truth, 2017, etc.) traveled in the reverse direction, from Moscow to Berlin. His six-month journey included Estonia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and little-known Transnistria. As the author relates, the promise of democracy lasted only so long. Drawn by the newly dynamic economies, the money- and power-hungry moved in. The rise of nationalism—which built on Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt’s teachings that Germans’ utopia was stolen by existentially different and alien opponents—has created enmity and violence toward migrants, the poor, and other marginalized groups. Having used his characteristic talent of drawing insight from those he meets, the author offers fascinating profiles throughout: the Russian chicken czar who shared his rare hallucinogenic truffle, one of the many oligarchs enjoying the new wealth, at least for the moment; and a Nigerian refugee who told the harrowing story of his unflinching determination to get to London. One of MacLean’s contacts described how Russian tacticians were able, by 2007, to shut down Estonian cyberspace and then take over Georgian government websites and interfere in Crimea, Ukraine, France, and the U.S. Not just a travelogue, this is a consistently engaging yet fearsome book that effectively traces the rise of national identity as a myth that paves the way for racism, xenophobia, and even genocide. “Thirty years ago,” writes MacLean, “Europe became whole again….In Berlin, Prague and Moscow I’d danced with so many others on the grave of dictatorships….I convinced myself that our generation was an exception in history, that we’d learned to live by different rules, that we were bound together by freedom….I’ve remade this journey—backwards—to try to understand how it went wrong.” Another engrossing book from an author who is much more than just a travel writer.
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Matthews, Owen Bloomsbury (448 pp.) $30.00 | Dec. 17, 2019 978-1-4088-5778-6
The life of a master secret agent who, unique among modern spies, infiltrated the highest echelons of both the German and Japanese governments during
World War II. Journalist and historian Matthews (Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival, 2008) might be suspected of irony with his title, taken from an observation by the traitor Kim Philby, for though John le Carré considered Richard Sorge (1895-1944) “the spy to end spies,” he was sometimes dangerously undisciplined. He praised Stalin in a room full of Nazis, got drunk in a Tokyo bar and called Hitler “a fucking criminal,” and, while working in the German Embassy in Japan, loudly predicted that Germany would lose World War II. Born in the frontier town of Baku but raised in Germany, he served in the trenches on the Eastern Front, where he was converted to communism. Good with languages and charismatic, he became a spy for the Soviet Union, working in China and then Japan. His reports to his Soviet spymasters were not always believed, though they were accurate and full of dire warning. The spy ring that he put together in Tokyo had access to the highest levels of both Japanese and German intelligence. One key question centered on whether Japan would join with Germany to attack the Soviet Union; Japan concentrated its efforts on controlling Southeast Asia instead, as Sorge predicted, which allowed Stalin to free up thousands of tanks and planes and many divisions of troops to fight against the Germans. Eventually, Sorge slipped up and was imprisoned and executed. Matthews dismisses the long-held conspiracy theory that Sorge and the Soviets knew of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor before it happened. As he writes, although the Soviets benefited greatly from the work of Sorge, whom he calls “brave, brilliant, and relentless,” Sorge was in danger of being forgotten in the post-Stalin era until he was “rehabilitated” under Khrushchev and elevated to the “official pantheon of Soviet saints.” Fans of Alan Furst and similar authors will find this true-espionage story fascinating.
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A bold case for seeing God in a whole new way. saving god from religion
SAVING GOD FROM RELIGION A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age Meyers, Robin R. Convergent/Crown (240 pp.) $25.00 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-984822-51-2
A HOUSE IN THE MOUNTAINS The Women Who Liberated Italy From Fascism Moorehead, Caroline Harper/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-06-268635-0
In the final volume of the Resistance Quartet, Moorehead (A Bold and Dan gerous Family, 2017) continues her work exalting the women of World War II who saved their countries from fascism. |
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A radically new way for churches to see God: Look around, not up. If the church is to survive, writes pastor and author Meyers (Spiritual Defiance: Building a Beloved Community of Resistance, 2015, etc.), it must start relating to God in a different way. Believers must focus less on what they believe and more on what they should do. As a map for what the path that he believes the church should follow, the author points to the Sermon on the Mount, which contains every detail Jesus ever taught but says nothing about what one must believe. The sermon focuses entirely on action and the importance of working for justice, which, Meyers points out, is the same gospel that the Hebrew Bible’s major prophets preached many years earlier. The author argues that in order to manifest this new approach to religion, we must stop looking for God “up there” and start seeing God as existing on our level, literally in our relationships with others: “Instead of concluding that we are ‘a little lower than God,’ we might consider something that is both more frightening and more empowering: that we are the very image of God, and that our treatment of one another is our treatment of God.” Meyers is blunt here: If the church doesn’t make working for justice its reason for being, it will continue hemorrhaging members until it dies. However, the author is not all doom and gloom. He firmly believes that if churches make justice their primary concern, they will become relevant again and continue to be a source of wisdom and transformation. This may not be a book for all believers, but Meyers believes a significant audience is waiting, which he characterizes as “everyone who is struggling with the old and narrow definitions of God but has yet to see any coherent and comprehensive way to reimagine the Ultimate Mystery.” A bold case for seeing God in a whole new way.
The author now turns to the Piedmont region of Northern Italy and the city of Turin, which was a hotbed of fascism but also the epicenter of the resistance. Moorehead relies heavily on the diaries of participant Ada Gobetti, who, along with Bianca Serra, Frida Malan, and Silvia Pons, formed a core group within the thousands of women who drove the resistance from 1943 to 1945. Under 20 years of Mussolini’s rule, women were expected to be submissive and produce children. “One of the key beliefs in Fascist ideology,” writes the author, “was that men and women were inherently different.” But being ignored as insignificant made them perfect couriers and concealers of messages, escapees, and arms. These women, who produced underground newspapers, led strikes, and transported escapees, were crucial to the resistance, and Moorehead clearly delineates their determination and heroism throughout the exciting narrative. After Mussolini’s fall, Italy secured an armistice with the Allies, but the Germans moved in to take over the country. Thus, a multifaceted war began, but was it civil war, a war of liberation, or a class war? With multiple governments and armies, it was chaotic. The Italian army had little leadership, and most of the soldiers abandoned their posts. With more than 100,000 disbanded soldiers, it fell to the women to help. In the Piedmont hills, a dozen separate groups eventually winnowed down to a six-party coalition while help from the Allies was difficult to find. Turin’s Liberation Day, April 26, 1945, was organized by the women of the resistance and featured a complete stoppage of factories, trams, courts, and shops. The partisan groups, men and women, quickly established government offices and handled expected reprisals. This is a highly satisfying conclusion to the author’s series. Excellent, well-presented evidence of the incalculable strengths and abilities of women to create and run a country. (b/w photos; maps; chronology)
ANIMALKIND Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and the Remarkable Ways We Can Be Kind to Them Newkirk, Ingrid & Stone, Gene Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-5011-9854-0
The founder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals emphasizes the importance of having “love, understanding, and respect for all animals.” Newkirk (One Can Make a Difference, 2008, etc.) and Stone (The Trump Survival Guide, 2017, etc.) aim to celebrate nonhuman species and to argue against using them for scientific and medical research, clothing, entertainment, and food. Among animals’ “many talents, languages, and complex cultures,” the authors reveal astonishing facts about sea and air migration; communication among frogs, primates, and birds; cognitive abilities; courtship and fidelity; grief and mourning; animal kirkus.com
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empathy; and various forms of play. They highlight the variety and sophistication of animal intelligence, such as the Brazilian torrent frog’s intricate forms of tactile, vocal, and visual communications. The authors underscore animals’ capacity for emotion: Prairie vole parents, for example, stay together for life; animals who live in closely knit groups—such as gorillas and elephants—exhibit ritualistic behavior when a family member dies. “Animals love,” write the authors. “They grieve. They feel emotional pain. They worry. And they can anticipate pain.” After a wide-ranging and enlightening overview of animal wonders, the authors devote several chapters to campaigning against cruelty and exploitation. They point out that animal testing is an “extremely wasteful” method of finding treatments for human diseases, and they cite several noninvasive methods—e.g., experiments on stem cells, 3D–printed organoids, computer simulations, and bioinformatics—that are effective research methods. Not surprisingly, the authors argue against wearing clothing with fur or leather, claiming that much leather imported from China comes from “the hides of domestic dogs.” They also describe in horrifying detail the injuries to sheep in the shearing process, advocating for a number of plant-based and synthetic alternatives to wool. Similarly, they advocate “a whole-food, low-oil vegan diet” of plant-based substitutes for meat, eggs, butter, and cheese. As for entertainment, the authors suggest, not convincingly, that virtual reality and “lifelike animatronics” can substitute for seeing a real animal. An impassioned plea for preserving animals’ lives.
IF YOU TELL A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood Olsen, Gregg Thomas & Mercer (428 pp.) $24.95 | Dec. 1, 2019 978-1-5420-0522-7
A true story of three abused sisters who helped put their mother behind bars. Nobody seemed to notice when a live-in babysitter vanished from the home of Dave and Shelly Knotek in tiny Raymond, Washington, in 1994. Then two more of the family’s boarders disappeared, and Shelly’s three daughters suspected the frightening truth: The couple had murdered the missing people. In his latest true-crime book, Olsen (Lying Next to Me, 2019, etc.) follows the half sisters, whose fears proved justified when—after the older two went to the police with the approval of the third—Shelly and Dave were arrested in 2003 and sent to prison for their roles in the deaths of babysitter Kathy Loreno and two others. It’s a grim tale, told in 85 short, James Patterson– esque chapters, leavened only by the sisters’ courage, strength, and love for one another. For years, Shelly inflicted sadistic abuses on her boarders and her daughters as Dave helped or stood by passively. Loreno was drugged, beaten, starved, and subjected to a crude form of waterboarding using a bucket and 64
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modified seesaw, and the Knoteks’ other victims endured similar cruelties. Olsen had access to the sisters, Dave Knotek, and a grandmother. Yet his overheated and repetitive prose robs the victims’ heart-rending stories of the high emotional impact they deserve. The three sisters are TV movie–ready tropes: Nikki, the strong-willed oldest; Sami, the accommodating middle child; and Tori, the baby who understood nothing until she understood everything. As for their mother, “Shelly was Cujo. Freddy Krueger. The freaky clown, Pennywise, from It.” For all its sordid details, the book never satisfactorily answers a question at its heart: In the sort of small town in which everyone tends to know everyone else’s business, how did the Knoteks’ horrific crimes go undetected for so long? Murder, torture, and sisterly love milked for all their potential melodrama.
HUMBLE PI When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
Parker, Matt Riverhead (336 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-593-08468-7
A pleasant exploration of our deeply held incompetence at mathematics. Comedian and YouTube performer Parker (Things To Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician’s Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More, 2014), who hosts a show on the Science Channel called Outrageous Acts of Science, claims bluntly that humans are stupid at dealing with numbers. “We were not born with any kind of ability to understand fractions, negative numbers, or the many other strange concepts developed by mathematics,” he writes, “but, over time, your brain can slowly learn how to deal with them.” Ironically, it is engineering and computer glitches, not pure math, that make up much of the book. Buildings and bridges collapse because someone gets the numbers wrong. A squadron of advanced jets crossing the Pacific suddenly lost their electronics because their navigation computer program, which must keep track of time, couldn’t deal with crossing the International Date Line. They followed an older plane nearby to a safe landing. A corporation, searching for an employee named Jack Null, could never find him because “null” to a computer means “no data.” People named Blank, Sample, and Test also cause trouble. A number divided by a really tiny number becomes very large. The result of dividing by zero is meaningless; no proper computer will deal with it. Humans yearn to predict the unpredictable; the author shows how a truly random event (a lottery draw, a coin flip) has no influence on the following event. No matter how many times heads appears, the chance of tails remains 50-50. The only way to increase your chance of winning the lottery is to buy more tickets. If black comes up four, five, or 10 times in a row on the roulette wheel, gamblers rush to bet on red because it is “due”—but it isn’t. |
A NEW WORLD BEGINS The History of the French Revolution
Nonsense, blunders, and delusions make for good reading, so Parker’s relentless litany will have a wide appeal. Fun reading for nonmathematicians.
Popkin, Jeremy D. Basic (640 pp.) $35.00 | Dec. 10, 2019 978-0-465-09666-4
FIGHTING CHURCHILL, APPEASING HITLER Neville Chamberlain, Sir Horace Wilson, & Britain’s Plight of Appeasement: 1937-1939
A veteran chronicler of tory follows the wild-eyed impelled the Revolution as troubling aspects that kept
Phillips, Adrian Pegasus (368 pp.) $29.95 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-64313-221-1
meeting their goals. Wisely, in order to help readers grasp the enormity of historical currents converging at this moment in the late 18th century, Popkin (Chair, History/Univ. of Kentucky; From Herodotus to H-Net: The Story of Historiography, 2015, etc.) uses two real characters to help illustrate his points. On one hand, Louis XVI was the “living symbol of the hereditary privileges and social inequalities the revolutionaries were determined to overturn.” He grew up to believe he was the country’s patriarch and that, as he said, “every profession contribute[ed], in its own way, to the support of the monarchy.” On the other hand, a young glazier named Jacques-Louis Ménétra would have been lumped into what became the powerful force of the “Third Estate”—i.e., everyone who was not royal or clergy. In contrast to the upper classes, who focused intently on maintaining the rigid status quo, commoners such as Ménétra seemed at the mercy of erratic fluctuations in received ideas from the press as well as yearly harvests, the whims of landlords, prices of food, and collective violence. Yet, as Popkin astutely points out, “even if few of them could read and write, peasants had a strong sense of their rights.” The growing crisis of the country’s bankruptcy, thanks in large part to Louis’ insistence on financing the American Revolution to spite rival England, meant forcing the king into reluctant, seesawing measures. The fomenting ideas of the Enlightenment, as epitomized in Diderot’s Encyclopédie (which Louis owned), were the same as those that spurred the Americans, but the outcome was violently different. The author underscores how the French example might have “foreshadowed totalitarian excesses more than social progress” and how liberty for some did not spell liberty for all, especially slaves and women. A fresh, welcome new interpretation of the French Revolution. (15 b/w illustrations)
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A complex tale of the political rivalry that underlay a key episode in 20th-century world events. Although the efforts of Neville Chamberlain to preserve the peace in Europe by accommodating Hitler’s demands for territory have long been viewed as an act of moral cowardice, British historian Phillips (The King Who Had To Go: Edward VIII, Mrs. Simpson and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis, 2017, etc.) notes that it had a certain logic, since going to war with Germany might put the entire British Empire at risk. That empire, he writes, “had been built in the days when France was its only challenger, but now Germany, Japan, and the United States had the resources to put its standing to the severest of tests.” The behind-the-scenes architect of appeasement was Chamberlain’s adviser Horace Wilson; arrayed against them was Winston Churchill, who insisted on a vigorous policy of containment. Chamberlain was willing to go to unusual measures to placate Hitler, including giving in to his demands that African colonies seized by Britain after World War I be returned to Germany—at the risk, the British understood, that the colonized peoples might become ardent Nazis and new enemies. (In any event, notes the author, those peoples were never consulted about whether they wanted to be ruled by a foreign power in the first place.) Chamberlain and Wilson calculated wrongly that the economic costs of rearmament would help keep Hitler in check, and they also took the curious position that Churchill and his allies in government proved a greater danger to the peace than the fascist dictators then in power. In the end, it became clear that Britain would not be able to avoid war, and Churchill accordingly rose to serve as prime minister in Chamberlain’s stead. Churchill, though vain and capable of exercising questionable judgment, was ordinarily a hard fighter who bore no grudges, but Phillips writes that he seems to have taken pleasure in stripping Wilson of his positions and making his life otherwise difficult after Chamberlain’s fall. A fresh interpretation of the question of appeasement that will interest students of 20th-century history.
French hisforces that well as the them from
CANYON DREAMS A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation Powell, Michael Blue Rider Press (272 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 19, 2019 978-0-525-53466-2
A New York Times sportswriter follows a Navajo basketball squad through a championship-seeking season. |
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The author’s writing style is crystal-clear and understated, as he wisely allows the drama to unfold from the events themselves. the art of resistance
The Navajo reservation is, as sports reporter and one-time “rez” resident Powell writes, as big as Britain and as remote as the moon. Chinle, Arizona, one of its most populous towns, hosts a high school that draws students from a huge area. Into it, a few years ago, came a coach, “respected although perhaps not beloved,” who imposed discipline on a team used to playing “rez ball”—fast, explosive—and took them to the semifinals in a state where they were always the underdogs who had to travel for hours to get to their nearest opponents. The point guard was a foot shorter than the “strapping white boys” they went up against. Another player dreamed of going to college and studied advanced calculus, a course taught at Chinle High by a Pakistani immigrant. Coach Mendoza is tough and demanding, the students sometimes resentful; yet they pull together, scrappily taking down their opponents game by game, “a coiled snake… vibrating and ready to strike.” For all the exotic locale, Powell could have easily fallen into sporty clichés. He doesn’t, instead delivering a deeply felt portrait of life in a place where alcohol is a constant killer and the outside world ever encroaching but that, despite poverty, is so beautiful that Navajos mourn being outside it. The author writes with elegance about the Diné Bikéyah, or Navajo world (“night’s cold had acquired a knifesharp edge and Spider Woman had knit a million stars into a milky glow”), and his on-the-boards scenes are full of action, if sometimes too closely focused on the repeated motif of the mean coach who “often…lashed at the Wildcats for their mistakes and uneven effort even in victory” while leading them to unprecedented achievement. As exciting as a full-court press and a thoughtful study of young athletes in a world little known to outsiders.
MOBITUARIES Great Lives Worth Reliving
Rocca, Mo & Greenberg, Jonathan Illus. by Butler, Mitch Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $29.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-50-119762-8
The creator of the Mobituaries podcast fleshes out that material and also includes a wealth of supplementary essays and other new information. Writing with Greenberg (English/Montclair State Univ.; The Cambridge Introduction to Satire, 2019, etc.), CBS Sunday Morn ing correspondent Rocca (All the Presidents’ Pets, 2004) displays his eclectic interests, ranging from Lord Byron, who makes two separate appearances, to the New Jersey Turnpike service areas. Most major sections feature a “mobituary,” which is a lament, sometimes serious, sometimes ironic, sometimes amusing, for someone or something no longer with us. Among these are Thomas Paine, the original Siamese twins, medieval medical practices, Prussia (“always coming up in the context of wanton militarism, which made me think…I’m pretty sure it must be German”), the idea of homosexuality as a mental illness, Billy Carter, Farrah Fawcett, and myriads more. Following most of 66
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the mobituaries is a section dealing with cases similar to the one(s) he has just discussed. His section on people confused for each other shows his playful sense of humor—e.g., he includes Joan of Arc and actress Joan Van Ark. As his lengthy Works Consulted testifies, Rocca has done his homework: His sources include not only biographies and histories, but also interviews (where possible) with the people involved. Occasionally, a small error intrudes—Mary Godwin was not yet Mary Shelley when she began work on Frankenstein—but the research is generally sound throughout. Though much of the tributes are funny and wry, others are quite moving (Sammy Davis Jr., a “supernova talent”). Rocca also reminds us of some long-forgotten figures— comedian Vaughn Meader, for example, who rocketed to fame with his John F. Kennedy impersonations and then plummeted after JFK’s death. Political attitudes are sometimes patent, sometimes not. A spicy blend of humor, irony, wit, facts, fable, and heart. (two-color illustrations throughout)
THE ART OF RESISTANCE My Four Years in the French Underground: A Memoir
Rosenberg, Justus Morrow/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-06-274219-3 A gripping memoir from an Eastern European Jew who fought in the French
Resistance. Born in 1921, Rosenberg, who has received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star from the U.S. Army for his service in World War II, thrived within a loving Polish family into his teenage years. His residence in Danzig meant immersion in both Polish and German culture, and his parents believed that Danzig’s well-integrated Jewish population would escape the rise of Hitler and his Nazi supporters. When that optimism began to crumble, the 16-year-old Rosenberg departed Danzig to study in Paris. (Nobody knew then that most of his relatives would be slaughtered in the Holocaust. Rosenberg’s parents and sister survived, but the author would be separated from them until 1952.) The German invasion of France interrupted Rosenberg’s studies. On his own, with dwindling cash, he decided against trying to flee the Nazi juggernaut. Instead, he found a path to joining the underground resistance against the Nazis, centered in occupied France and comprised of fighters from a variety of backgrounds, including expatriate Americans. Rosenberg offered special value as a Resistance guerrilla for multiple reasons: Given his blond hair and other physical features, he did not “look Jewish.” His baby face meant that he could easily pass as a schoolboy. He spoke Polish, German, Yiddish, and English. He could subsist on meager resources during wartime hardships. He welcomed all assignments offered by Resistance commanders, and he was fearless. The narrative unfolds chronologically, |
in semi-diary format, and while readers will know, of course, that Rosenberg avoided death, the narrative tension is continuous, as the author recalls imprisonments, escapes from confinement, and successful missions against the Nazis. The author’s writing style is crystal-clear and understated, as he wisely allows the drama to unfold from the events themselves. As the war wound down, Rosenberg was unsure about his future. Eventually, he settled in the U.S. and has taught language and literature for 70 years. A welcome addition to the World War II memoir shelf.
THE FOUNDING FORTUNES How the Wealthy Paid for and Profited From America’s Revolution Shachtman, Tom St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-1-250-16476-6
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MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARSON MCCULLERS A Memoir Shapland, Jenn Tin House (288 pp.) $22.95 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-947793-28-6
An intimate look at the life and loves of Carson McCullers (1917-1967). “To tell another person’s story,” Shapland observes in her deft, graceful literary debut, “a writer must make that person some version of herself, must find a way to inhabit her.” The author knew little about McCullers before she became an intern at the Harry Ransom Center, a repository for writers’ and artists’ archives at the University of Texas. Responding to a scholar’s request, she discovered eight letters from Swiss writer and photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach to McCullers that struck Shapland immediately as “intimate, suggestive” love letters. For Shapland, at the time suffering the end of a “major, slow-burning catastrophe,” the letters marked a “turning point.” Within a week, she cut her hair short. “Within a year,” she writes, “I would be more or less comfortably calling myself a lesbian for the first time.” The letters inspired further research, focused especially on McCullers’ sexuality, about which Shapland found intriguing evidence in transcripts of her taped therapy sessions with Dr. Mary Mercer, begun when McCullers was 41 and which McCullers described “as an attempt of writing her autobiography.” In addition, following the sessions, McCullers wrote letters to Mercer “awash in the joy of self-revelation” and her “love for Dr. Mary.” The more Shapland discovered about McCullers, the more convinced she became that McCullers was a lesbian who had been intensely in love with several women. Identifying with McCullers “as a writer, as a queer person, as a chronically ill person,” Shapland felt she had special insight into her subject’s life. At the same time, looking to McCullers “as a role model,” she wondered if she was “reading into her queerness”: imposing her own life story, and her own needs, on McCullers, in part to rescue her from “retroactive closeting by peers and biographers.” Shapland interweaves candid self-questioning and revealing personal stories with a nuanced portrait of a writer who confessed her loves were “untouchable” and her feelings “inarticulable.” A sensitive chronicle of a biographer’s search for truth.
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An ingenious examination of how money played the central role in the founding of the United States. As prolific historian Shachtman (How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI, and the Success of a Revolution, 2017, etc.) points out, fighting Britain was extremely expensive. Lacking the power to tax, the Continental Congress performed terribly in their efforts to supply the army, but this obscures the fact that it spent a great deal of money and many men got rich. Partly, this was inherent in the primitive administration of 18th-century governments. Paid no salary, officials took a commission from money that passed through their hands, a practice that encouraged corruption. It was also not illegal to mix public and private business, so officials purchased from themselves or their friends. Due to slow communication and scanty legal protection, merchants and buyers relied on promises, personal guarantees, risky loans, and favors. Genuinely patriotic merchants like Robert Morris, as well as less admirable figures, took terrible risks and often suffered for it. Morris died poor. The feeble confederation that followed independence exasperated those concerned with foreign affairs, trade, raising capital, and collecting debts but not the average American. Shachtman emphasizes that no mass movement demanded change. The Constitution was championed “by a very small subset of the country’s wealthy. If we add to the fiftyfive men who attended the Constitutional Convention, twice or three times that number of nondelegates who later took the lead in urging ratification…the total is at best a few hundred men.” They looked after their own interests, and their priorities were social order, contracts, collecting debts, and a strong currency. However, as the author shows, unlike the ultrawealthy today, most embraced equality of opportunity. Shachtman carries his account past the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, who opposed powerful governments, banks, and (in theory) great wealth. Despite this, the author maintains that his elimination of taxes and regulations increased equality of opportunity
without inconveniencing the rich, and America prospered. A provocative argument that wealthy men built America and did a good job. (8-page b/w photo insert)
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An utterly compelling chronicle from a master scholar and clear writer. my war criminal
DON’T BELIEVE A WORD The Surprising Truth About Language Shariatmadari, David Norton (336 pp.) $27.95 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-324-00425-7
The beauty and intrigue of language. Shariatmadari, a linguist and Guard ian editor, is anxious to remove linguistics from its ivory-tower encampment and make it understandable for general readers. He cuts “through the fallacies and folklore that cloud our understanding” of this social science and provides some entertainment along the way. The author begins with the age-old myth that “language is going to the dogs.” On the contrary, language is “constantly evolving….It’s the speed of change, within our own short lives, that creates the illusion of decline.” A history of the word “toilet” helps Shariatmadari shatter the myth that the origin of a word, its etymology, is a guide to its true meaning. How a word sounds when spoken, the “very fount of our self-expression,” is largely unconscious. The shapes of our vowels and consonants, as well as accents, can change “whether you know it or not.” Can animals speak? Meet Alex, an African grey parrot that could respond to complicated questions and even create a metaphorical compound. He said “rock corn” to describe dried corn. Using a specially designed board of symbols, Kanzi, a bonobo, can respond to around 3,000 words. The author also delves into where dialects come from, how to decide where a language begins and ends, and African American Vernacular English. AAVE has been branded slang or ghetto language, but using it “to help students acquire standard English actually speeds up that process.” Are some languages better than others? Korean is held up by some as a “superior” language while German is a “time-honoured whipping boy.” Mandarin is “slow but dense, Spanish quick but light.” Shariatmadari enters into the fray over the noted linguist Noam Chomsky’s controversial belief that language is instinctual. He votes no. Inquiring minds curious about epenthesis backronyms and heteronymy will find answers here. An at-times quite challenging but agile and lively introduction to language. (5 illustrations)
NO WAY BUT TO FIGHT George Foreman and the Business of Boxing
Smith, Andrew R.M. Univ. of Texas (408 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 10, 2020 978-1-4773-1976-5
An account of a punch man–turnedpitchman and the business in which he made his name. A two-time heavyweight champion of the world and Olympic gold medalist, George Foreman 68
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(b. 1949) has led a fascinating life in and outside of the ring: a poor child who became a rich man; an overweight man and a world-class athlete; a devoted man who has been married five times; a sports commentator; a reality show subject and sitcom actor; and, of course, a home-shopping network star who sold a staggering number of meat cookers. Most pertinently, he went toe-to-toe with some of the best pugilists in the history of a quintessential American sport. In his first book, Smith (Sport Management and History/Nichols Coll.) approaches his subject in a scholarly manner, and readers receive such conclusions as, “He had not yet achieved the ‘emotional invulnerability’ of a soul aesthetic even if he looked the part,” and are regularly referred to more than 50 pages of footnotes. Unquestionably, the author did his homework, including research into declassified government documents, and he takes readers to far-flung locales, including Zaire in 1974 for the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” with Muhammad Ali. “Like a matador,” writes Smith of the fight, “he circled the ring, using his fists and his words to manipulate Foreman into a position for the estocada. Foreman looked to gore him, but he had been weakened by seven rounds of Ali’s physical and verbal banderillas.” In addition to Foreman’s bouts, the author also offers detailed (sometimes overly so) examinations of how those fights came to be, illustrating the nature of the sport—what Foreman says is “truly a gangster’s game”—more than providing a nuanced picture of the man. Although not for the casual fan—if those exist in boxing anymore—students of the sport will find plenty to chew on. (photo insert)
MY WAR CRIMINAL Personal Encounters With an Architect of Genocide
Stern, Jessica Ecco/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-06-088955-5 This scrupulously researched work by a skilled interviewer of “imprisoned perpetrators” focuses on the making of the genocidal Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić. Between 2014 and 2016, Stern (Global Studies/Boston Univ.; Denial: A Memoir of Terror, 2010, etc.) held a dozen conversations with the war criminal, now imprisoned for life in the Scheveningen Prison in The Hague. Though interviews with such high-profile war criminals had not been sanctioned by the International Criminal Tribunal—the first international war crimes court established since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials at the end of World War II—the ICT ultimately agreed, acknowledging Stern’s meticulous methods and hoping her research might yield valuable information about Karadžić’s motives. Karadžić came to power as the former Yugoslavia’s ethnically divided federations began to declare their independence in the early 1990s, and the once-dominant Serbs of Bosnia, in the minority to the majority Bosnian Muslims, feared (or were incited to fear) that |
BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL The Story of My Stroke Talbot, David Chronicle Prism (176 pp.) $22.95 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-4521-8333-6
A near-death, new-life memoir by the San Francisco author and founder of Salon. In short chapters that had their genesis on Facebook, Talbot (The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, 2015, etc.) recounts a year of recovery, upheaval, and transformation following the stroke that almost killed him. He also reflects on the pace of the stress-filled career that brought him to this precipice, in his mid-60s, while he was still trying to navigate his way through considerable Hollywood challenges in attempting to bring his books to the screen. As the hard-charging CEO and editor-in-chief of Salon, he championed progressive investigative journalism at a time when the industry was heading toward a financial abyss. “I believed then that Salon was worth dying for. We were caught up in history’s hurricane,” he writes, with the somewhat messianic self-importance that occasionally typifies his tone. (Talbot also compares himself to the revered mystic monk Thomas Merton, though “not religious.”) Though the author is a Type A personality in overdrive, his lessons should strike a responsive chord in many readers. “My stroke did not just change my life,” he writes. “It saved my life.” By necessity, he slowed down, he lost a lot of weight, and he pared his existence down to the essentials and became focused on what really matters. He made his peace with death. He learned to “live each moment like it’s your last, because it just might be. Embrace your mortality. Even celebrate it. And |
let the shadow of death make the light in your life only seem brighter.” These are the sort of sentiments upon which countless self-help books are constructed, but Talbot demonstrates the conviction of someone who has been there and back and now knows what is really at stake. A book Talbot likely wrote mainly for himself, but it should provide inspiration for others facing similar challenges.
WHY WOMEN READ FICTION The Stories of Our Lives Taylor, Helen $18.95 | Oxford Univ. (288 pp.) Jan. 2, 2020 978-0-19-882768-9
More than 500 women share their connection to stories. Intrigued by women’s enduring love of fiction, Taylor (Emerita, English/ University of Exeter; BFI Film Classic on Gone With the Wind, 2015, etc.), who twice directed the Liverpool Literary Festival, sent a detailed questionnaire to women she knew, worked with, or met at literary or bookshop festivals and events and conducted lengthy interviews with women writers and publishing professionals, all to answer her overarching question: “What does fiction reading mean to women?” Drawing on their responses, the author offers intimate revelations of how, where, and why women read fiction; what they read; and how women writers see themselves as “gendered (or not).” Although some findings are predictable—e.g., women read “not just for entertainment and escape, but to help us get through life’s daily trials and major challenges”—many readers convey, with clarity and sincerity, their deep emotional response to novels, characters, and authors. Reading, one woman said, “has taken me to places I longed to go and some I did not want to go.” Women’s most loved books also were unsurprising, with Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre high on the list and Jane Austen as most women’s favorite writer. Some readers from diverse ethnic, class, and racial backgrounds, a minority of Taylor’s respondents, sought out books they believed could improve “their life chances and social mobility.” Noting the popularity of romance novels, erotica, and mysteries, Taylor has found that evolving attitudes about sexual relations have made romance fiction “a dynamic form” that questions archetypes such as the young naïve heroine seduced by an experienced older man, and publishers of romance increasingly realize the commercial potential of attracting LGBTQ writers and readers. Women writers offer candid insights about the particular challenges they face. Some, for example, have been frustrated by publishers’ and critics’ assumptions. “There is still a disposition,” Hilary Mantel complained, “to think that when a woman writes books, she must be commenting on The Woman Question, or on ‘What do women want?’, as if she cannot pull away from personal preoccupations.” A warm celebration of the power of fiction. kirkus.com
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they were losing their status and privileges. The culmination of fear and hate erupted in the genocide at Srebrenica in July 1995, when the Bosnian Serb army captured the town and executed thousands of surrendered men and boys. Appearing as a cultured, intelligent “gentleman,” Karadžić created a whole other entity as an “energy healer” and poet while on the lam for 12 years, and he believed that he was a hero for his beleaguered people. Stern’s account of their interviews is a riveting battle of the wills, as the author chronicles her battle against Karadžić’s manipulation and attempts to see some remorse. Yet he was unrepentant in protecting “his” people from exaggerated threats and demographic changes, and he used fearmongering tactics that Stern recognizes as being currently practiced by the U.S. government. Ultimately, the author provides a subtle, powerful illustration of terror that resonates today, especially regarding the resurgent white supremacist movement. The deep, extensive footnotes and detailed timeline attest to Stern’s meticulous research. An utterly compelling chronicle from a master scholar and clear writer. (abbreviations guide; dramatis personae; timeline; maps)
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A solid primer on how to put the power of bad to good use. the power of bad
WHY I AM NOT A BUDDHIST
Thompson, Evan Yale Univ. (240 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-0-300-22655-3
A scholarly response to mainstream Western Buddhism. Following in the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian, Thompson (Waking, Dreaming, Being, 2014, etc.) delivers a timely rebuttal to what he calls Buddhist modernism, the idea, loosely, that Buddhism is not a religion but a science of the mind. Thompson confronts Buddhist modernism as it has been popularized by writers such as Robert Wright, Sam Harris, Stephen Batchelor, and Joseph Goldstein by returning Buddhist teachings and practices to their cultural contexts. Mindfulness meditation, for example, is commonly understood today to reveal the nature of the mind, but as Thompson points out, it “is a practice that shapes the mind according to certain goals and norms, such as making the mind calmer and less impulsive.” He makes similar arguments about other central positions of Buddhist modernism, such as the illusory nature of the self, the meaning of enlightenment, and the scientific evidence for the truth of Buddhism. Thompson shows all of these to be far more complex and contested within Buddhism than is widely claimed by modernists. Alongside his criticisms, Thompson offers a positive vision of Buddhism’s place in a larger cosmopolitanism. He wishes, finally, “to be a good friend to Buddhism.” If he is a friend, though, he is an awfully stern one. As vigorous and informed as Thompson’s approach is, it is ultimately more impressive than engaging. One advantage Wright, Harris, and Batchelor have over Thompson is that each is a more elegant stylist. But the precision and technicality of the book are central to Thompson’s project. He can’t very well get into the weeds as he needs to without getting muddy. While this reality may preclude him from the wide readership his antagonists know, it is a price he pays voluntarily in an effort to keep his readers honest. The forceful, if labored, argument Western Buddhists need to hear.
THE POWER OF BAD How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It
Tierney, John & Baumeister, Roy F. Penguin Press (336 pp.) $28.00 | Dec. 31, 2019 978-1-59420-552-1
Coping strategies for the negativity bias that pervades our daily lives. For City Journal contributing editor Tierney and social scientist Baumeister (Psychology/Univ. of 70
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Queensland), co-authors of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (2011), the power of bad can be filed under the negativity effect, the “universal tendency for negative events and emotions to affect us more strongly than positive ones.” We revel in praise for a much shorter time than we wallow in criticism. We are fed a constant diet of negative imagery because bad sells (if it bleeds, it leads). Regardless, write the authors, “bad can make us stronger in the end.” Though it may be difficult to negate the negativity, the authors show how not to be ruled by it. Their prescriptions have mostly to do with reframing the context of the negative, isolating the rotten apple so it doesn’t contaminate the remainder of the barrel. These specific strategies have a common-sensical tone: Learn to be as creative with your praise as you are with your criticism. Protect yourself, and don’t expect bad apples to change on their own. Focus on making a good first impression. Regarding retail, they write, “no matter how crazy or obnoxious the customer, end on a good note.” (True to the negativity effect, a single one-star review on Yelp will yield more hits than numerous five-star reviews.) Occasionally, the authors venture into less obviously popular areas—e.g., when we advocate penalties over prizes. A case in point is their call for “less carrot and more stick” when it comes to grading students, especially in college. So is their suggestion for doomsayers to “put your money where you doom is.” As they write, “if doomsayers want society to spend large sums dealing with a threat, they should be willing to put their own cash—and reputations—on the line.” That pronouncement may not seem reasonable in the face of something like climate change, but otherwise, the authors’ advice rings true. A solid primer on how to put the power of bad to good use.
I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE A Memoir
Tjipombo, Tupa with Lockhart, Chris Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review (256 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-64160-237-2
A Namibian woman’s account of how she survived being kidnapped and forced into a global human trafficking network. When one of Tjipombo’s father’s wives accused Tjipombo’s mother of witchcraft, both were exiled to another village for one year to allow family “tensions to ease.” They stayed with her uncle, Gerson, whose lively household the author came to love. Then a business deal involving Tjipombo’s father and an associate of one of Gerson’s business contacts went sour, and Tjipombo (a pseudonym) was unexpectedly called upon to serve as the contact’s house girl for one year. The author soon discovered that the man actually wanted her for a prostitution ring that extended across southern Africa. A witch doctor subjected her to a bloody ceremony to mark her as his “daughter.” If she tried to escape, she or members of her family would die. Herded with other captive women into trucks, |
Tjipombo was sent to a camp where middlemen from China abused and raped her. From there, she was put on another truck that stopped in the Sudan. There, she became a servant and sexual slave for members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and visiting Sudanese government officials. An escape attempt landed her back in the hands of the traffickers who had originally captured her. The men put her on a ship bound for Dubai, where she became the live-in servant for a rich, powerful family. Her life “consisted of little beyond sleep and work,” until one family member called the Jackal forced her into an international sex slave “harem” the family used to entertain visiting officials. Tjipombo finally escaped after she stole the cellphone of a high-ranking American official who had made cellphone videos of their sexual encounter and threatened to blackmail him. In this harrowing, unsparing memoir, the author documents unimaginable brutality against women with dignity and grace and provides readers with an urgent education about the devastating scope of human trafficking in the modern world. Difficult but necessary reading.
Vince, Gaia Basic (352 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-465-09490-5
Award-winning British science writer Vince (Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made, 2014) describes how the interplay of our genes, environment, and culture made us “the only species to determine its own destiny.” In this captivating story of evolution from the Big Bang to the present Anthropocene, the former Nature and New Scien tist editor traces four key elements—fire, language, beauty, and time—that have allowed humans to grow from “an endangered puny primate on the savannahs of Africa to become the most numerous big animal on Earth.” In thoughtful explorations, the author shows how each of these forces contributed, in powerful, often surprising ways, to humankind’s dominance. Fire made possible resources beyond our own muscle power, changed the food density of the landscape, and cooked meats, making them easier to digest. Fire also offered protection for childbirth, enabling us to grow bigger brains, become sociable, and acquire cultural know-how. “Making and controlling fire gave humans an amazing ability to transform the stuff of our planet into the materials of our manmade world,” writes Vince. Language gave us oral stories—“collective memory banks”—to guide and bind us, took the form of writing 5,000 years ago, and now makes “cumulative cultural evolution visible” through Wikipedia, where vast amounts of cultural information are conveyed with fidelity to many people at once. Beauty, much valued, spurred trade in trinkets and helped give rise to permanent settlements, |
PITY THE READER On Writing With Style
Vonnegut, Kurt & McConnell, Suzanne Seven Stories (432 pp.) $32.95 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-60980-962-1 Seminal views and guidance on writing from Kurt Vonnegut Jr., freely annotated by a former workshop student. Vonnegut is best remembered for his novels such as Cat’s Cradle and Slaughter house-Five. However, during a career that spanned more than five decades, he also published several autobiographical essay collections, and much of this writing referenced the writing craft. In this latest posthumous work, a project that was commissioned by the Vonnegut Trust, McConnell—a former Vonnegut student at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and currently a writing instructor and author—has drawn from a hefty assortment of Vonnegut’s writing, including letters, essays, speeches, and lectures, to structure her thematic chapters around Vonnegut’s views on the inspiration, mechanics, and profession of writing. Taken together, the chapters paint an expansive portrait of Vonnegut’s life and career, with examples of how personal experiences often directly contributed to his work. A profound example was his experience as a prisoner of war during the World War II firebombing of Dresden, which he brilliantly recounted in Slaughterhouse-Five. “That event, and others, fueled his writing and shaped his views,” writes McConnell. “(It did not, however, as is often assumed, initiate it. He was already headed in the direction of being a writer when he enlisted.)” Though much of his writing is served up as fragmented bits to support the choppy narrative, for the most part Vonnegut’s practical advice and acerbic humor remain richly articulated. He stresses the need to be entirely passionate about whatever the subject matter is and to bring as much clarity to the writing as possible, which is accomplished mainly through extensive revisions. The downside of McConnell’s approach is that too often her own voice intrudes on Vonnegut’s lessons. In fact, her writing comprises nearly half of the book, and with frequent references to her own opinions on writing and teaching, she stretches her role beyond what would seem appropriate for such an annotated collection. An uneven assemblage of memoir and writing advice that will interest devoted readers of Vonnegut’s work. kirkus.com
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TRANSCENDENCE How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
ordering the world and expressing our values, whether in the monoliths of Easter Island or in cities conquering the natural environment. Lastly, the concept of time helped organize life, eased trade, removed uncertainty in interactions, and allowed us to predict events in an unknown future. The author draws on extensive travels and many interviews with scientists to offer vivid accounts of these forces at work in the lives of our “cultural forebears.” A provocative, highly readable take on our astonishing emergence from the primordial soup.
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The political and psychological potently intertwine within this highly charged memoir. spring rain
SAM One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race To Revolutionize the Way We Build
SPRING RAIN A Graphic Memoir of Love, Madness, and Revolution
Warner, Andy Illus. by the author St. Martin’s Griffin (208 pp.) $19.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-250-16597-8
Waldman, Jonathan Avid Reader Press (288 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-5011-4059-4
Gripping tale of a robot arm and an unexpected application to which it was
put to work. Laying down courses of bricks is difficult work, requiring masons to lift tons of materials daily. From this observation came a light-bulb moment: A New York architect named Nate Podkaminer pondered whether it would be possible to automate the process by using a robot. Employing members of his family, he set out on the quest to construct what, in one iteration, was “an oversize contraption—capable of laying forty-pound cinder blocks as well as four-pound bricks—powered by an undersize motor, resting on undersize rails.” With tinkering, writes Waldman (Rust: The Longest War, 2015), Podkaminer and company were able to cook up SAM, for “semi-automated mason,” semibecause while the machine, built up from a Swiss-made robotic arm, was able to lift and set down bricks, it required human masons to point and clean up the mortar bonding them. (The Swiss firm “thought a bricklaying robot was crazy.”) No one involved was a bricklayer as such but instead process engineers and the like. The real bricklayers, as one might expect, were suspicious and a little hostile at first; one said, “if a robot told me where to lay bricks, I think I’d shove it off the scaffold!” Though assured that humans were in charge and that jobs for masons would grow, since lowering the cost of laying bricks would mean more brick buildings would go up in the place of steel and glass, the firm continued to meet resistance—but kept on plugging all the same, to quietly triumphant ends. As one learns a great deal about geology from John McPhee and computers from Tracy Kidder, Waldman offers a lively, accessible overview of the bricklayer’s art, which is much more complex than one might think. Apart from engendering an appreciation for the uses of technology, the author also adds to the literature surrounding the dignity of artful labor. Human meets machine, and both prevail in an engaging story of technology and discovery.
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A cartoonist uses his art to connect the world he sees collapsing outside with the psychological state crumbling within. In 2005, Warner (Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, 2016, etc.) broke up with his girlfriend and moved to Beirut, where he felt rootless, stateless, unsure of his bearings, and unstable in ways that reminded him of his past. There was a history of mental illness in his family, and he questioned his sanity, identity, and grip on present, past, and future. “In my diary,” he writes, “I felt like a character in a story that I was writing years later.” Identity remains a tricky concept for him, and besides, “memory is a tricky business.” The author experienced his inner turmoil amid a particularly explosive period in Lebanon, a time of assassination and strife with Syria and fear from bombings by unknown perpetrators (an attack from within or by outside forces?), as well as U.S. aggression toward the Middle East under the George W. Bush administration, inflamed anti-American sentiment. Warner found kindred spirits and a community of sorts among Beirut’s gay and lesbian subculture, in whose company he began questioning his sexual identity or at least opening himself to possibility in the absence of his girlfriend. The tone throughout is matter-of-fact and dispassionate, which juxtaposes against the crazed desperation of his powerful artistic expression. “I was drawing my comic. I was drawing on my walls. I was drawing on myself,” he writes. He wasn’t alone in his feelings about how the world was driving him mad or reflecting the madness within. “A bomb going off every three days is enough to make anybody crazy,” noted a woman with whom Warner became casually involved. “But anyway, it’s not just Lebanon! Look at America. Bush just won reelection. That dumbass… invaded Iraq only two years ago!” Ultimately, the author left Lebanon with some of his sanity and identity intact, and when he returned years later, he did so with fresh eyes and haunted memories. The political and psychological potently intertwine within this highly charged memoir. (b/w illustrations throughout)
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A CENTURY OF VOTES FOR WOMEN American Elections Since Suffrage
THE MATH OF LIFE AND DEATH 7 Mathematical Principles That Shape Our Lives
Wolbrecht, Christina & Corder, J. Kevin Cambridge Univ. (330 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 1, 2020 978-1-31-663807-1
Yates, Kit Scribner (288 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-982111-87-8
A welcome addition to the math-forpeople-who-hate-math genre. In his first book, Yates, the co-director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath, cheerfully promises to arm readers “with simple mathematical rules and tools that can help you in your everyday life: from getting the best seat on the train, to keeping your head when you get an unexpected test result from the doctor….We will also…observe math in action as we highlight the steps we can take to help halt the spread of a deadly disease.” Evolution primed organisms to avoid danger; calculating has no survival advantage, so humans lack a talent for it, a deficit the author finds irresistible. Yates also looks at the mammogram anecdote, which serves as proof that even smart people mess up: A woman has a positive mammogram. If mammograms are 90% accurate and 1% of women have undetected breast cancer, what are the odds that this is bad news? Given a choice, many doctors will say 80% when the answer is about 9. They forget that 10% of the 99 healthy women will also test positive. Yates also points out the common mathematical errors that occur in the court system, where many fall for the “prosecutor’s fallacy.” For example, an accused person wears the identical shoe size as the criminal. Since only 4% of the population wears that size, the prosecutor claims that there is a 96% chance that he is guilty. Along with useful tips and intriguing examinations of a wide variety of algorithms (useful and useless), Yates loves delivering curious facts, in the vein of Freakonomics, and readers will be thankful. For example, almost every human possesses more than the average number of legs. Amputees lower the average, and no one has three. All but the stubbornly innumerate will enjoy this amusing mathematical miscellany.
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What influences women’s votes? Following their well-researched study of women voters immediately after the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1919 (Counting Women’s Ballots: Female Voters From Suffrage Through the New Deal, 2016), Wolbrecht (Political Science/Univ. of Notre Dame) and Corder (Political Science/Western Michigan Univ.) extend their inquiry to the present, offering an authoritative academic analysis of how women voted in presidential elections over the last 100 years. After an overview chronicling the fight for suffrage, the authors organize their investigation by historical period: the 1920s and ’30s, marked by a world war and Great Depression; the 1940s and ’50s, when traditional gender roles seemed entrenched; the late 1960s and ’70s, when second wave feminism “challenged and transformed” assumptions about women’s interests and the Voting Rights Act brought African American women to the voting booth; the 1980s, when pollsters discovered the gender gap; and 21st-century elections, ending with the defeat of the first woman presidential candidate. The authors assert that two factors traditionally have been thought to shape women’s voting behavior: distinctive gender (women have “distinctive traits, values, and capacities”) and resource inequality (women have less access to political information than men). Although until the 1960s, women were less inclined than men to vote, in the ’60s and ’70s, the turnout gap “narrowed to nothing,” and women became “more supportive than men of social welfare programs.” In the ’80s and ’90s, women were more likely to vote than men and also more likely than men to support Democratic presidential candidates, whom they deemed more progressive than Republicans. Drawing on abundant research data, the authors reveal that a consistent theme among candidates is that “women’s interests are fundamentally tied to motherhood and the home,” but they argue convincingly—and often densely— that “women are not just one kind of voter and are not mobilized only by their gender per se.” Rather, distinctive gender traits and access to resources intersect with race, employment, education, social class, and religion. “Gender matters,” they write. “It is just not the only thing that matters.” A sturdy scholarly contribution to women’s studies and political analysis. (figures throughout)
WILMINGTON’S LIE The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Zucchino, David Atlantic Monthly (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-8021-2838-6
A searing and still-relevant tale of racial injustice at the turn of the 20th century. In 1898, the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, was unusual in the South for having a government that included |
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African Americans. Many moving parts went into that development, including the short-term disenfranchisement of Confederates during Reconstruction, the ratification of the 15th Amendment, and the rise of a prosperous black middle class in the port city. As Pulitzer Prize winner Zucchino (Thunder Run: The Armored Strike To Capture Baghdad, 2004, etc.) shows, it was met by an organization that “acquired a formal name proudly embraced by Democrats: the White Supremacy Campaign,” the goal of which “was to evict blacks from office and intimidate black voters from going to the polls.” The product of a politician and a newspaper editor, the movement took a paramilitary turn when thousands of “Red Shirts” turned up to besiege Wilmington in what amounted to a coup d’état, the only violent change of government in the history of the nation, though certainly not the only instance of racial violence. The author writes, meaningfully, “for whites in Wilmington, blacks had ceased to be slaves, but they had not ceased to be black.” The coup, in which at least 60 blacks died, was successful. It replaced the city’s government with an all-white one, and it led to widespread disenfranchisement throughout the South. The newspaper editor, Josephus Daniels, moved on to Louisiana and campaigned for white supremacy there, promulgating a votersuppression law that, in New Orleans, “helped reduce the number of black voters from 14,117 to 1,493.” Efforts by the biracial Republican Party in North Carolina to undo the wrong were met with indifference even by Republican President William McKinley. The complexities of racial division and party politics in a time before the Republicans and Democrats effectively switched sides are sometimes challenging to follow, but Zucchino’s narrative is clear and appropriately outraged without being strident. A book that does history a service by uncovering a shameful episode, one that resonates strongly today.
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children’s BIRD HUGS
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Adamson, Ged Illus. by the author Two Lions (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 1, 2020 978-1-5420-9271-5
STRONG VOICES by Tonya Bolden; illus. by Eric Velasquez..............78 ITCH by Polly Farquhar....................................................................... 80 WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER by Tae Keller..........................................85 ARIBA by Masha Manapov................................................................ 88 IN A JAR by Deborah Marcero........................................................... 88
THE HEART OF A WHALE by Anna Pignataro................................. 90 BEING FROG by April Pulley Sayre....................................................91 I LOVE ME by Sally Morgan & Ambelin Kwaymullina....................106 GOODNIGHT, RAINBOW CATS by Bàrbara Castro Urío............... 107 WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER
Keller, Tae Random House (304 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-5247-1570-0 978-1-5247-1571-7 PLB
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CHIRP by Kate Messner....................................................................... 88
Watch out, Hug Machine (Scott Campbell, 2014), there’s another long-limbed lover of squeezes in the mix. Bernard, a tiny, lavender bird, dejectedly sits atop a high branch. His wings droop all the way to the ground. Heaving a sigh, his disappointment is palpable. With insufferably long wings, he has never been able to fly. All of his friends easily took to the skies, leaving him behind. There is nothing left to do but sit in his tree and feel sorry for himself. Adamson amusingly shows readers the passage of time with a sequence of vignettes of Bernard sitting in the rain, the dark, and amid a cloud of paper wasps—never moving from his branch. Then one day he hears a sob and finds a tearful orangutan. Without even thinking, Bernard wraps his long wings around the great ape. The orangutan is comforted! Bernard has finally found the best use of his wings. In gentle watercolor and pencil sketches, Adamson slips in many moments of humor. Animals come from all over to tell Bernard their troubles (a lion muses that it is “lonely at the top of the food chain” while a bat worries about missing out on fun during the day). Three vertical spreads that necessitate a 90-degree rotation add to the fun. Readers will agree: All differences should be hugged, er, embraced. (Picture book. 4- 7)
A PICTURE BOOK OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON
Adler, David A. Illus. by Collins, Matt Holiday House (32 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 10, 2019 978-0-8234-3961-4 Series: Picture Book Biographies A short, occasionally revealing profile of an immigrant who got the job done. Joining other children’s-book creators attempting to ride the Broadway phenomenon’s coattails, Adler creates a distant, even staid, portrait of Hamilton’s character. Opening and closing with accounts of the Burr duel, he also drops in a few too many names without sufficient context. Still, along with noting his subject’s major public achievements in war and peace |
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the kirkus prize for young readers’ literature: the children’s finalists Leah Overstreet
With fall comes book awards season, and here at Kirkus we are on the edges of our seats as we wait to learn which books will be awarded the Kirkus Prize. Six finalists have been named in the Young Readers’ Literature category, determined by two stalwart judges: distinguished educator Pauletta Brown Bracy, professor of library science at North Carolina Central University and recipient of the 2019 Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Kirkus reviewer Hanna Lee, youth services coordinator at First Regional Library in Mississippi. Four of these finalists are children’s books—two picture books and two middle-grade books—while two are YA; my colleague Laura Simeon covers those two in her column. As I watched the judges winnow and discuss, winnow and discuss, I couldn’t help thinking how hard their job was, as this year produced some truly fantastic books. It would have been impossible for them to go wrong, and I am thrilled with their children’s choices. Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson’s The Undefeat ed (Versify/HMH Books), one of the picture-book finalists, gives me chills every time I open it. Nelson’s magisterial oil portraits of African Americans throughout history leap off the page—literally, in the case of Jesse Owens, who hurdles forward, his right fist and left foot uncontained by the page margin. They pair perfectly with Alexander’s measured, impassioned poem, which celebrates the indomitability of the African American spirit. “This is for the unforgettable. / The swift and sweet ones / who hurdled history / and opened a world / of possible.” The pages’ stark white throws both words and images into relief, and one breathtaking image-free page, dedicated to “the ones who didn’t” survive America’s cruelty, delivers a gut punch. If The Undefeated gives me chills, Juan Felipe Herrera and Lauren Castillo’s Imagine (Candlewick) warms me to the core. It’s another picture-book poem of possibility that shows how this Mexican American migrant farmworkers’ son became U.S. poet laureate. It’s a syntactically complicated syllogism that nevertheless rolls beautifully as a read-aloud, each “if ” statement punctuated by an “imagine”: 76
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“If I opened / my classroom’s wooden door / not knowing how to read / or / speak in English, / imagine,” leading to the final exhortation: “imagine what you could do.” Castillo uses ink and printmaking to depict the scenes Herrera evinces, her Southwestern palette of ochre, teal, and brown giving them a coziness that reinforces the intimacy of Herrera’s direct address. Jerry Craft’s New Kid (Harper/HarperCollins) invites readers to come along on scholarship kid Jordan Banks’ seventh grade year at a snooty New York City prep school. Equal parts painful and hilarious, the graphic novel nails Jordan’s acute discomfort as one of the few African American students among both peers and teachers who see him primarily through the lens of stereotype. Craft’s illustrations, ably abetted by Jim Callahan’s colors, take full advantage of the form, interleaving Jordan’s story with his own cartoons—he’s an aspiring artist—and artfully flirting with the surreal to communicate Jordan’s feelings. One running joke in which Jordan and fellow African American classmate Drew playfully cope with white teachers’ inability to see black students as individuals is sheer brilliance. Genesis Begins Again (Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum) by Alicia D. Williams also finds its protagonist the new kid in school. Genesis and her mother are astonished when, after their most recent eviction, Dad moves them from Detroit into a single-family home in suburban Farmington Hills, where she is one of just a few black students. Williams tenderly sketches a dysfunctional family headed by a primary-breadwinner mom and a dad whose alcoholism is a constant source of trauma. That readers see Genesis’ love for her father as well as her fear speaks to debut author Williams’ sensitivity and skill. But Genesis’ most constant concern is her dark skin, which has made her a target of derision both among her peers and within her own family. Watching Genesis find a way to love herself and to live up to her name will open up readers’ hearts to her, and they’ll be rooting for her all the way. Award-winning author Mitali Perkins will be joining Pauletta and Hanna in Austin on Oct. 24 to determine the winner. I can’t wait—and I’m so glad I don’t have to choose. —V.S. Vicky Smith is the children’s editor. |
Adler brings the language and examples to kids’ level—eating a cookie takes a few seconds. telling time
and making some references to his private life, he does frankly note in the main narrative that Alexander was born to unmarried parents and in the afterword that he was taken in for a time by a family that may have included a half brother. (The author also makes a revealing if carelessly phrased observation that he helped to run a business in his youth that dealt in “many things,” including “enslaved people.”) Collins’ neatly limned painted scenes lack much sense of movement, but he’s careful with details of historical dress and setting. Most of his figures are light skinned, but there are people of color in early dockside views, in a rank of charging American soldiers, and also (possibly) in a closing parade of mourners. Multichapter biographies abound, but as a first introduction, this entry in Adler’s longrunning series won’t bring younger readers to their feet but does fill in around the edges of Don Brown’s Aaron and Alexander: The Most Famous Duel in American History (2015). Serviceable as assignment fodder or as a gateway to more searching studies. (timeline, bibliography, notes) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)
Adler, David A. Illus. by Raff, Anna Holiday House (32 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-8234-3962-1
Simple experiments and kid-friendly language teach concepts about matter to
young audiences. The creators of Light Waves (2018) have teamed up again to create another engaging science book for kids. This time, the four states of matter are the topic at hand. The duo delivers scientific information alongside eye-catching illustrations with details that will delight. The book opens with the clear explanation that “Matter is anything that takes up space, even the smallest space, and has some weight, even the smallest weight,” and it builds from there. As a family prepares a birthday party for Grandma, readers learn more details about matter and its different forms: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. A dog wearing safety glasses and two children with dark brown hair and peach skin tones (and no safety specs) conduct simple experiments that correspond with each form that matter takes. The complex scientific information covered in the book is made accessible and age-appropriate using typical party items such as a chocolate bar, ice cubes, and balloons. The text includes plenty of details for budding young scientists without becoming too dense. Explanations rooted in easy-to-replicate experiments drive concepts home and make for an educational and interesting read. Adler and Raff bring a hands-on quality to scientific explorations of matter. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 4-8)
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Frequent collaborators Adler and Miller launch another one into outer space—literally. His exploration accompanied by space-themed illustrations and beginning with how the day is broken into smaller units— hours, minutes, and seconds—and the difference between a.m. and p.m., Adler launches into how to read the two types of clocks: analog and digital (instead of using the word “colon,” the text reads that the “numbers [are] separated by two dots, one dot on top of the other”). He concentrates on explaining how to read analog, breaking the book into spreads that define “clockwise,” the three hands and how long they take to travel once around the clock, telling the hour, telling the minutes, and many examples, which also add in useful vocabulary like “half past,” “quarter past,” and “quarter to.” Backmatter includes a glossary of terms boldfaced in the main narrative and an author’s note about sundials, daylight savings time, military time, and time zones (the duo tackled this topic in depth in Time Zones, 2010). Miller’s crisp, colorful art features five astronauts (two present white, two have brown skin, one has green skin; two sport pigtails). Throughout, Adler brings the language and examples to kids’ level—eating a cookie takes a few seconds; passing a tray of them around may take a few minutes; and baking them could take an hour or more—though the concept of a “number-stop” as the distance/time between numbers on the clock face is a bit awkward. Time to add this to collections. (Informational picture book. 6-10)
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SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, GASES, AND PLASMA
TELLING TIME
Adler, David A. Illus. by Miller, Edward Holiday House (32 pp.) $18.99 | Dec. 10, 2019 978-0-8234-4092-4
JONI The Lyrical Life of Joni Mitchell
Alko, Selina Illus. by the author Harper/HarperCollins (48 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-0-06-267129-5
This biographical introduction to iconic songwriter Joni Mitchell traces the creative influences in her life. Growing up on the Canadian prairie, Mitchell was a “restless girl” who “danced in wide-open spaces,” learned bird calls from her mother, painted on her bedroom wall, composed melodies on the piano, and often felt “like an upside-down bird on a wire.” Encouraged by a teacher in junior high school to write poetry, Mitchell bought a guitar, briefly attended art school in Calgary, started composing music and singing in Toronto, suffered an unhappy marriage, performed in Greenwich Village kirkus.com
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What separates this collection from others is the way Bolden gives readers a critical historical context. strong voices
with contemporary folk singers, and eventually became a “very famous singer.” Influenced by the world around and within her, Mitchell “painted with words,” turning her words and feelings into songs that poignantly captured her time’s sadness, beauty, love, hope, and yearning for freedom, and Alko’s poetic text and vibrant illustrations effectively convey this. Mixing media that include acrylic paint, found objects, and wildflowers, the double-page spreads (reminiscent of Chagall’s dreamlike paintings) reveal an intense, impassioned Mitchell in various venues as she moves through the stages of her life, singing her sorrow and painting her joy, appropriately surrounded by a kaleidoscope of exuberant swirling colors, images, and lyrics from her best-known songs. An inspired and creative ode to the inimitable Joni Mitchell. (author’s note, discography, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)
MIDDLE SCHOOL BITES
Banks, Steven Illus. by Fearing, Mark Holiday House (304 pp.) $13.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-0-8234-4543-1 Series: Middle School Bites, 1
All Tom Marks wants is to be an ordinary kid—invisible, in fact. But it’s hard to be invisible when you’re a Vam-Wolf-Zom. Tom’s many plans for middle school include the “Girlfriend Plan,” the “Easy Grade in Art Class Plan,” and, most importantly, the “Invisible Tom Plan.” He does not, naturally, have a “What If I Turn into a Vampire-Werewolf-Zombie Plan.” The day before school starts, however, what should be a perfectly routine visit to his grandmother’s cabin in the woods goes horribly awry, as he is bitten by a bat, a mangy dog, and what seems to be an eerily lifelike zombie prop within the span of several hours. Now Tom must juggle disturbing physical changes alongside tough classes, locker sharing, friendships old and new, a persistent bully with an unfortunate home life, and the ubiquitous desire for acceptance. Tom’s first-person narration is frank and engaging; much of the novel’s humor arises from his wry, self-aware commentary. A good portion of the remaining humor is drawn from Fearing’s grayscale spot cartoons, with their exaggerated facial expressions and exquisitely scratchy details. The monstrous premise, though admittedly far-fetched (so much so that its being farfetched is directly addressed in a prologue), adds a delightful twist to the classic navigating-middle-school plot. The colorful personalities of Tom’s family, classmates, and teachers further enrich this not-so-spooky saga. The cast defaults white. This series opener is a howling good time. (Fantasy. 8-12)
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SUMMER NORTH COMING
Bentley, Dorothy Illus. by Bartram, Jessica Bromley Fitzhenry & Whiteside (32 pp.) $19.95 | Nov. 20, 2019 978-1-55455-465-2
A full-color experience of the seasons in Canada’s north. In Bentley’s poetic text, the smell of “fragrant muskeg rose” and the climbing sun welcome readers to the north’s summer. In the accompanying illustration, readers notice two brownskinned children paddling a rowboat in a pond. As the story continues, these same children take part in other activities as well: berry picking, swimming, playing in the rain, and staying up late. Soon summer fades, and outdoor labors shift to fish drying and food storing. With “summer north waving” goodbye, the children spend the longer evenings indoors with three characters assumed to be family: darker-skinned mother and grandmother and their lighter-skinned father. When winter finally arrives, the piles of snow offer their own unique moments of fun—outside and indoors—with a multicultural cast of friends and their families. Although strongly visual phrases, such as “stained hands” (from “summer pick berries”) and “trees flaming yellow,” combine with equally bold phrases that appeal to the other senses to create a lyrical celebration of life in all its cycles, readers desiring a plot-driven tale or one rich in character development will notice their absences. Additionally, while Bartram’s texture-creating techniques enhance muted, earthy-toned illustrations, providing the depth and nuance found in nature, an overall lack of cultural specifics (beaded leather footwear is a notable exception) gives the double-page spreads an emotional flatness. For nature lovers or those seeking season-relevant meditations for classroom reflection and discussion. (Picture book. 5-8)
STRONG VOICES Fifteen American Speeches Worth Knowing
Bolden, Tonya Illus. by Velasquez, Eric Harper/HarperCollins (128 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-06-257204-2 As the subtitle indicates, 15 landmark American speeches, each preceded by an introduction from Bolden that directly conveys needed history to the under-12 set. This collection treats readers not only to well-known oratory, such as Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream,” Frederick Douglass’ “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July,” and Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” (rendered here in standard English as “I Am a Woman’s Rights”), but also to some that are not as famous but still a necessary part of the discourse about |
what the American experiment meant and still means to different people affected by it. Seneca chief Red Jacket’s explanation to white American missionary Jacob Cram that “we do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from you; we only wish to enjoy our own” is powerfully resonant today, for instance. What separates this collection from other anthologies that celebrate spoken patriotism is the way Bolden gives readers a critical historical context—explaining, for example, that Patrick Henry was enslaving black people even as he fiercely opposed Britain’s enslaving the white colonists with unreasonable taxes. Velasquez contributes luminous oil portraits, rather disappointingly portraying Truth as an angry black woman but otherwise ably giving strong faces to these strong voices. A golden celebration of the multicultural voices who demand that the U.S.—and the world—do better. (author’s note, illustrator’s note, timeline, sources, permissions) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
FEED YOUR MIND A Story of August Wilson
SKY’S SURPRISE
Coe, Catherine Illus. by Boyd, Chie Scholastic (128 pp.) $5.99 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-338-58911-5 Series: Lucky Bunnies, 1 Sky’s friends try to cheer her up when she isn’t chosen for a bounce festival in this rabbit fantasy. For weeks, joke-cracking Sky (a real punny bunny) has been practicing for Bright Burrow’s big Bounce-a-Lot festival. She practices hard in order to be selected as a Bouncer so she can participate instead of just watching. When she doesn’t make her class’s team, she’s beyond disappointed, disengaging from her jokes, friends, and activities she once enjoyed. The other bunnies try to cheer her up with various foods and attempt to persuade their teacher to let her on the team. What finally does the trick is surprising Sky with the role
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Bryant, Jen Illus. by Chapman, Cannaday Abrams (48 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-1-4197-3653-7
One of America’s greatest modern playwrights is introduced to generations of younger readers in this lyrical picture book. August Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning African American dramatist, is best known for his 10-play Century Cycle, which chronicles the African American experience through different decades in the 20th century. Because his work is targeted toward adults, many young readers might be unfamiliar with Wilson’s life or achievements. Thanks to this timely and elegant picture book, that oversight is now corrected. Conceptually separated into two acts, the book frames Wilson’s life as a play in free-verse form, immersing readers in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, a multiracial enclave where Frederick August Kittel Jr. is raised by his hardworking single mother. Act 1 chronicles Wilson’s search for his name and voice, and Act 2 showcases his extraordinary life’s work of using them to bring the African American experience to the stage. The book’s primary goal may be to present Wilson’s life, but it is also an eloquent love letter to literature and a celebration of its power to inspire, to instruct, and to provide hope, guidance, and direction. Bryant’s accomplished free verse and newcomer Chapman’s evocative, realistic illustrations operate in perfect synergy, celebrating the genius of Wilson the playwright while never losing sight of the complications, hardships, and imperfections of Wilson the man. A must-have for those who want children to learn about one of the stage’s greatest bards. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
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of commentator for the Bounce-a-Lot’s final event, allowing her verbal talents to lend her a measure of participation. The positive messages of the book, such as supportive friendships, are disturbingly undercut by the bunnies’ habit of complimenting one another through putting themselves down. The storyline is cluttered by numerous elements that are introduced but seem to have no payoff (or any real bearing on anything). The climax of the story, in which Sky decides to skip the festival, imperiling her yet-unknown commentator opportunity, introduces tension but is quickly resolved when she decides to attend after all, making it a moot moment. Boyd contributes grayscale cartoons (final art not seen). The series’ second outing, Petal’s Party, publishes simultaneously. Readers should hop on past this series opener. (Fantasy. 7-10) (Petal’s Party: 978-1-338-58913-9)
WHERE IS MOMMY?
Cummings, Pat Illus. by the author Holiday House (32 pp.) $15.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-8234-3935-5 Series: I Like to Read
Waking from a nap, a child is shocked to find that Mommy, who had been cuddled with the child on the couch, is missing and sets off with orange tabby Max to try and find her. The child picks up clues such as Mommy’s slippers, reading glasses, and scarf during the search. While Max finds Mommy right away, it takes the puzzled child a little longer. Readers will likely find Mommy as quickly as Max does, making them feel like they are in on a secret. A part of the appeal of this early reader geared toward rising first graders is that children are likely to relate to that sense of panic and concern the child experiences upon noticing that Mommy is gone—and the sense of relief when Mommy is finally found. The illustrations are crisp, page-filling, and colorful, and both the protagonist and Max have expressive faces. The use of white space makes the large, sans-serif type easy to follow and read. The text is patterned, aiding decoding: “Here are her slippers. / Here are her glasses.” Additionally, there are many different visual patterns incorporated into the illustrations, like stripes, polka dots, and checks, which readers can identify after the story to help reinforce early math skills. The same can be said for the many animals, colors, and shapes throughout the book as well. Mommy and child both present black. This hardworking early reader is definitely worth checking out. (Early reader. 5- 7)
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BO’S MAGICAL NEW FRIEND
Elliott, Rebecca Illus. by the author Scholastic (80 pp.) $4.99 paper | Dec. 26, 2019 978-1-338-32332-0 Series: Unicorn Diaries, 1
A unicorn learns a friendship lesson in this chapter-book series opener. Unicorn Bo has friends but longs for a “bestie.” Luckily, a new unicorn pops into existence (literally: Unicorns appear on especially starry nights) and joins Bo at the Sparklegrove School for Unicorns, where they study things like unicorn magic. Each unicorn has a special power; Bo’s is granting wishes. Not knowing what his own might be distresses new unicorn Sunny. When the week’s assignment is to earn a patch by using their unicorn powers to help someone, Bo hopes Sunny will wish to know Bo’s power (enabling both unicorns to complete the task, and besides, Bo enjoys Sunny’s company and wants to help him). But when the words come out wrong, Sunny thinks Bo was feigning friendship to get to grant a wish and earn a patch, setting up a fairly sophisticated conflict. Bo makes things up to Sunny, and then— with the unicorns friends again and no longer trying to force their powers—arising circumstances enable them to earn their patches. The cheerful illustrations feature a sherbet palette, using patterns for texture; on busy pages with background colors similar to the characters’ color schemes, this combines with the absence of outlines to make discerning some individual characters a challenge. The format, familiar to readers of Elliott’s Owl Diaries series, uses large print and speech bubbles to keep pages to a manageable amount of text. A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text. (Fantasy. 5-8)
ITCH
Farquhar, Polly Holiday House (240 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-0-8234-4552-3 Isaac faces so many complications in sixth grade: bullying, loneliness, guilt, his mother’s two-month business trip, tornadoes—and the itch. Isaac’s been trying to fit in since moving from New York State to rural Ohio. He’s learned about football, for, despite his engineer parents’ sports apathy, the Ohio State Buckeyes are a religion around this (seemingly predominantly white) town. Isaac even lets his classmates call him Itch, the nickname he earned because of his chronic condition. Isaac has what he calls “the itch” and what the doctors call “idiopathic angioedema.” Sometimes, for no apparent reason, Isaac gets an uncontrollable itch and swells up with massive hives, making his hands “look like raw hamburger |
Garza shows a new mastery of his characters and fictional world in this latest installment. maximilian and the curse of the fallen angel
meat.” Of course, Isaac’s not the only kid in sixth grade with health troubles. His best friend has life-threatening food allergies, and so does the weird new kid; both need EpiPens. A deft touch with unusual details keeps the narrative from getting bogged down in medical drama: Isaac has an after-school job at a pheasant farm, a preoccupation with the texture of sandwiches, and a lucky peanut shell. Lyrical, pensive prose unexpectedly isn’t a harbinger of tragedy; these kids have regular lives, shaped by their grave health concerns but not overwhelmed by them. This meditative #ownvoices read refreshingly treats chronic illness as just one of life’s myriad complexities. (Fiction. 10-13)
BONNIE & BEN RHYME AGAIN
Fox, Mem Illus. by Horacek, Judy Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-5344-5352-4
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Garza, Xavier Illus. by the author Trans. by Crosthwaite, Luis Humberto Cinco Puntos (224 pp.) $12.95 paper | Jan. 17, 2020 978-1-947627-31-4 Series: Max’s Lucha Libre Adventures, 4 The legendary Guardian Angel battles a nefarious new foe in Garza’s solid fourth entry in the Max’s Lucha Libre Adventures saga. Wedding bells loom when Tio Rodolfo declares that he’s marrying a former flame and fellow luchadora named Maya, aka the Silver Star. His tio’s announcement worries Max. Will the Guardian Angel continue to wrestle? When Max’s fears prove true and Tio Rodolfo reveals that he’s ready to abandon the luchador lifestyle, a new problem arises. Who will be the new Guardian Angel? Barely about to enter high school and still in training, Max knows he’s not quite there yet, but an unexpected challenger to the throne—his little brother, Robertito— startles the budding luchador. As the Guardian Angel prepares for his final match against the Fallen Angel of Catemaco, an up-and-coming lucha libre fiend, Max wrestles with his hero’s legacy as well as his own destiny. Though the format for this tale remains the same as in earlier series outings (English text on the left page, Crosthwaite’s Spanish translation on the right page, with illustrations sprinkled in), Garza shows a new mastery of his characters—all Mexican—and fictional world in this latest installment. Apart from Max’s continued growth, each character shines, no matter how small an appearance they may make. In the end, what readers get is an assured, joyous story full of lucha libre antics and poignant familial bonding. Max’s finest adventure thus far. (Fiction. 8-12)
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Siblings Bonnie and Ben show off the numerous nursery rhymes they know while they walk with friend and mentor Skinny Doug. When they reach a familiar hill, they launch into “Jack and Jill.” The sight of a couple of sheep ahead prompts a recital of “Little Bo Peep.” A plum tree they happen upon brings on “Little Jack Horner.” And a hairy black spider hanging from a lamppost elicits “Little Miss Muffet.” After the stars come out on their return home, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” precedes their going to bed, all rhymed out. Fox and Horacek previously teamed up for the effervescent Where is the Green Sheep (2004) and do so again to create a delightful narrative anchored by a repeated rhymed refrain. Between each traditional verse Skinny Doug exclaims: “I love it, I love it! / Well done, and hurrah! / Can you tell me another? / How clever you are!” (This will read as assonance in most parts of the U.S. but is likely a perfect rhyme in Fox’s native Australia.) The colorfully stylized cartoon artwork, familiar from the duo’s previous work, gives this jaunty, rambunctious outing extra flair as the nursery characters, painted in an array of skin hues, join in to trail Bonnie, Ben, and Skinny Doug (all white-presenting). Fox’s inimitable rhyming text and Horacek’s buoyant illustrations offer youngsters another winning choice. (Picture book. 3-5)
MAXIMILIAN AND THE CURSE OF THE FALLEN ANGEL
SISTERS FIRST
Hager, Jenna Bush & Bush, Barbara Pierce Illus. by Kaulitzki, Ramona Little, Brown (40 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-316-53478-9 A paean to sisterhood by the former first daughters. Although the co-authors are twins, their rhyming, first-person text is in the voice of a girl praying for a baby sister: “Please make her kind, with an enormous heart, / clever too, and very smart.” Her wishes are prompted by her observations of other sisters, whom the accompanying cartoon art depicts as diverse pairs of girls, including two brown-skinned children with wavy brown hair and a white-appearing girl holding the hand of a small child who appears black, with dark skin and afro-puffs. The narrator is blonde with light skin, and her sister is born with a similar complexion but reddish-brown hair. The big sister is chagrined kirkus.com
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Ashley Bryan
THE 96-YEAR-OLD ARTIST REVISITS HIS WORLD WAR II LETTERS AND SKETCHES TO CREATE A RICH WARTIME AUTOBIOGRAPHY, INFINITE HOPE By Mark Athitakis Gabe Souza-Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
At 96, Ashley Bryan has had one of the most accomplished careers in contemporary children’s literature. He’s written and illustrated dozens of works about the African American diaspora, addressing slavery (Freedom Over Me), folktales (Beautiful Blackbird), and music (I’m Going to Sing), earning multiple awards along the way. But it took a long time for him to contemplate one of his most formative experiences as an artist: his Army stint during World War II. “Drawing was a way of surviving because war was so dreadful,” he says. “The anguish and suffering was so horrible, all around me. Drawing was a kind of escape, a way of making sense of myself.” As Bryan explains in his illustrated autobiography, Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey From World War II to Peace (Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum, Oct. 15), in 1943 he was an art student at New York’s Cooper Union—the only black student there at the time—
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when he received his draft notice. He was eventually sent to the European theater, where he worked as a stevedore and was part of a company of black soldiers who delivered supplies, dug foxholes, and searched for land mines in advance of D-Day. The experience introduced Bryan not just to the horrors of war, but discrimination within the armed forces. The military was segregated, and, as he explains in the book, black soldiers were often assigned the most onerous and dangerous tasks. To convey his experience, Infinite Hope is a rich work of collage, integrating Bryan’s narration with letters he sent back home to New York, paintings of people he met during his travels through France, and sketches of his fellow soldiers. The drawings gave him a connection to his Army buddies—and, he concedes, occasionally got him out of work. “Sometimes in a company, if there’s someone who they called different, you’d have a hard time, but they never looked on me as different,” he says. “They loved my drawing, and often in the midst of work would say, ‘Oh, you go ahead and draw.’ ” “Why does man choose war?” Bryan wrote in one of his notebooks at the time. After V-E Day, Bryan remained stationed in Europe, where he chronicled the devastation left after the fighting stopped: Infinite Hope includes his drawings of the ruins of the Rouen cathedral as well as displaced adults and children. And though Infinite Hope is written for children, he felt no compulsion to soften its message. “I always think of children as sitting on the lap of an adult explaining the difficult things of history,” he says. “I don’t go by the age thing. To me, the most wonderful photographs are those of a little child sitting on the lap of an adult with an open book and the
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Mark Athitakis is a frequent contributor to Kirkus and author of The New Midwest. Infinite Hope received a starred review in the Sept. 15, 2019, issue.
to realize that having a baby sister isn’t all she’d expected, but frustration abates when she reflects on her earlier prayer and thinks, “If kindness was what I was asking of you, / I needed to be kind and patient, too.” As the baby grows, the sisters achieve the loving, close bond the narrator prayed for. While the core sentiment might well move readers, the bland art stops short of expanding or enriching the text, and the writing both falters in cadence and descends into cliché, as in lines reading “And with time…we found a rhythm, your hand locked in mine. / We sang duets and danced in rain and sunshine.” Not a first pick. (Picture book. 3-6)
PENGUIN & MOOSE
Hall, Hannah C. Illus. by Chernyshova, Anna WorthyKids/Ideals (32 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-5460-1433-1 Penguin wants to fly. Can best friend Moose help? Penguin has the “perfect plan” to achieve the goal of flight, and Moose has his antlers, which are perfect for carrying things. Unfortunately, Penguin’s strategy, involving balloons for liftoff followed by flailing his flippers, fails. Moose offers a ride home. Penguin then thinks to use a tall tree as a jumping-off point, but it proves to be a little too far off the ground for a height-challenged bird. Moose offers a ride on a swing, instead. Moose then suggests wrapping Penguin up in a cocoon, because caterpillars fly away when they emerge from one. Penguin gets overheated, sleepy, and hungry, and he decides to head for home, where Dad is in the kitchen baking cookies and dishing out a lesson. Penguin may not have succeeded in flying but he certainly has a “good friend” in so many ways. That lesson is reinforced by something that Mama has written on their kitchen chalkboard from Proverbs 17:17, namely: “A friend LOVES at all times.” Cookies and kite-flying for the friendly duo follow. The illustrations for this pleasant message are loosely outlined in black with splashes of blues and oranges against a white background. The biblically inspired message is clear: Friendship is a good thing. (Picture book. 3-6)
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adult reading and talking and explaining things of life to the child that come up in the book.” The message of Infinite Hope emphasizes tenacity in the face of adversity, a point reflected in its title, taken from a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.: “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” A hint of that optimism is conveyed in the colorful paintings that bookend the book, which Bryan produced using his sketchbooks as inspiration. “Fifty years ago, those paintings would have been dark—grays and blacks,” he writes. “But in really looking at those sketches now, I saw a beauty there—the beauty of the shared experience.” These days, Bryan is engaged in his foundation, the Ashley Bryan Center in his hometown in Maine, which maintains his archives and promotes his interest in storytelling. But Bryan is also still writing and illustrating books, continuing his series of titles featuring works by black poets. “I’m working on illustrating Langston Hughes’ poem ‘My People,’ which I chant all the time,” he says. “I’m sort of known by that. ‘The night is beautiful, / So the faces of my people.’ ”
STOOP SALE TREASURE
Haydu, Corey Ann Illus. by Uribe, Luisa Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (128 pp.) $12.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-06-287825-0 Series: Hand-me-Down Magic, 1 Haydu introduces two young cousins in a new chapter-book series for young readers. Del (short for Delfina) and Alma are cousins, best friends, and, as of moments ago, neighbors on 23rd |
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Avenue. Alma and her family have moved away from their old lakeside home to the brick walk-up apartment building where Alma’s father’s side of the family lives in the city. On the ground level is the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe, and on the second, third, and fourth floors are Abuelita, Titi, cousins, and more of their Puerto Rican family. When Abuelita takes the girls to a stoop sale, Del finds dangling clip-on earrings and is promptly convinced that they are magical. After a couple flawless, magical days (readers might call them just lucky), Alma is fed up with Del’s earrings and crushingly denies their magic. Convinced the earrings are causing them to fight, Alma decides to steal them and puts them out on the stoop for a passerby to take. Readers learn along the way that Alma feels “left out of ” her own family, having lived apart from the rest of them for most of her life. They may well wonder why Alma’s family has moved, but the story focuses on the conflict between the cousins. Told in alternating third-person with minimal Spanish interspersed, the actual plot lacks luster, and the focus on mundane details slows the book’s pacing. Perhaps, with the scene now set, the series’ next volume will pick up. Uribe’s grayscale depictions are essential companions, depicting Del with dark skin and Alma as pale. Everyday magic fails to create a spark in this book. (Fiction. 6-9)
A SONGBIRD DREAMS OF SINGING Poems About Sleeping Animals Hosford, Kate Illus. by Potter, Jennifer M. Running Press Kids (40 pp.) $19.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-0-7624-6714-3
Somniferous verses, paired with scientific observations, survey styles of sleep in the animal world. Firmly in control of language and rhyme schemes but varying tone and tempo as she goes, Hosford marvels at the sleep habits of 18 creatures. These range from sperm whales (“Oh mighty mothers of the sea / Why do you slumber vertically?”) to fire ants (“You didn’t know, perhaps / That this ant takes power naps. / It’s quite a short collapse. / (Sixty seconds will elapse.) / How many naps will there be? / About two hundred and fiftythree.” In the substantial prose glosses that accompany each short poem, she offers further downtime marvels, such as how some whales sleep head up or head down, or even drift between the two positions, and a tale of a desert snail that was exhibited at the British Museum as an empty shell for four years, then successfully revived. Nor does she leave readers in the dark about how some animals rest parts of their brains in succession or the differences among nocturnal, diurnal, crepuscular, and cathemeral creatures, covering these facts in an opening author’s note. In Potter’s suitably dreamy, subdued illustrations, floating sea otters hold paws, ocelot cubs nestle in a cozy hollow, a “flamboyance” of flamingos stand one-legged in shallow water, and 84
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even an upside-down jellyfish (“It isn’t easy to explain / How she’s so smart / without a brain”) looks drowsy. At once eye-closing and eye-opening. (glossary) (Infor mational picture book/poetry. 6-9)
DOT. UNPLUGGED
The Jim Henson Company Candlewick Entertainment (32 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-5362-0983-9 Deny devices, turn off, tune out. That’s the unsubtle message in this picture book. It’s raining. Indoors, Dot and her bestie, Hal, are playing a video game. Dad’s at his computer; Mom’s at her circuit board. Suddenly, the power goes out. Mom remembers it’s the National Day of Unplugging, announcing this means using “Nothing that runs on anything but our good old imaginations.” When the family descends to the basement searching for something to do, Scratch the dog finds a spinner game. Each of its five segments bears a simple image representing a task a player must perform when the arrow they spin lands on it. Creative play ensues, and Dot concludes that “Unplugging is fun!” The story will work equally well as a lapsit or a read-aloud to a group. It’s OK the exhortation’s obvious; kids will get that there’s life beyond the plugged-in kind. The colorful, cartoon illustrations are flat, but faces are expressive (even the dog’s). Dot, with strangely slate-gray hair, is garbed in yellow boots and a pink, polka-dot dress. She and her mom have pale pink skin; Dad’s skin is light tan; Hal is brown-skinned. The final page informs readers that the National Day of Unplugging is the second Friday in March and lists 50 “unplugged” activities. Readers/listeners should be encouraged to suggest and engage in other device-free pursuits. Yank those plugs, everyone. Connect with family and friends instead. (Picture book. 4-6)
NIKKI TESLA AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE BLING
Keating, Jess Illus. by Marlin, Lissy Scholastic (288 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-338-29525-2 Series: Elements of Genius, 2
Nikki works through abandonment issues while joining the rest of her Genius Academy class in taking on a mad, bad
scientist. In a storyline high on angst and action but airily free of internal logic, the Genius Academy squad is abruptly dispatched to the Galápagos Islands to find a hidden ring with unknown but dangerous “technologies.” Could the mission have anything to |
Keller infuses this tale with a sensitive examination of immigration issues and the complexity of home. when you trap a tiger
do with Nikki’s long-thought-dead criminal father or a similar ring made by his rival? Keating continues to name and model her cast after actual historical figures; it’s a cute tweak, but she squanders any scientific could-be–ism as, in a cloud of vague references to “cellular realignment” and “nanomachines,” she has the rings magically transform wearers into another person, animal, or monster (clothes included) with a wish backed by any strong emotion. Being so obsessed and enraged by her dad’s long absence, for example, that she has trouble thinking of anything else, Nikki turns out to be a dab hand at changing herself and others into ferrets…a skill that plays a crucial role in the climax as the “crazed” but clever baddie, despite violent mood swings oddly reminiscent of Nikki’s own, nearly pulls off a slick escape. In all, it’s a sad follow-up to a promising first outing. Nikki presents white; her fellow geniuses are diverse. A slapdash contraption made up of contrivances and losing STEAM at every joint. (Science fantasy. 10-13)
Keller, Tae Random House (304 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-5247-1570-0 978-1-5247-1571-7 PLB A young girl bargaining for the health of her grandmother discovers both her family’s past and the strength of her own voice. For many years, Lily’s Korean grandmother, Halmoni, has shared her Asian wisdom and healing powers with her predominantly white community. When Lily, her sister, Sam—both biracial, Korean and white—and their widowed mom move in with Halmoni to be close with her as she ages, Lily begins to see a magical tiger. What were previously bedtime stories become dangerously prophetic, as Lily begins to piece together fact from fiction. There is no need for prior knowledge of Korean folktales, although a traditional Korean myth propels the story forward. From the tiger, Lily learns that Halmoni has bottled up the hard stories of her past to keep sadness at bay. Lily makes a deal with the tiger to heal her grandmother by releasing those stories. What she comes to realize is that healing doesn’t mean health and that Halmoni is not the only one in need of the power of storytelling. Interesting supporting characters are fully developed but used sparingly to keep the focus on the simple yet suspenseful plot. Keller infuses this tale, which explores both the end of life and coming-of-age, with a sensitive examination of immigration issues and the complexity of home. It is at one and the same time completely American and thoroughly informed by Korean culture. Longing—for connection, for family, for a voice—roars to life with just a touch of magic. (Fiction. 10-14)
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Like the other children in classroom 4B, Jordan Stein is constantly in trouble, yet no one truly understands how family life may affect his behavior. Four months ago, Jordan’s father was taken to jail, and Jordan still doesn’t know why. His tearfully struggling mother wants to protect Jordan and refuses to give him the full story. The accessible, slim chapter book never says that his mom is battling depression, but all the signs are there. Meanwhile, Jordan hates school and never wants to go, believing he will be able to drop out and make his way as a welder like his father. This antipathy to school could be due to his teacher, who is constantly sending him to the detention-happy principal. “Detention is a lot like jail,” Jordan realizes as he serves his time. The author hints at but never fully develops this exploration of how the school-prison nexus operates in U.S. society, where unmet human needs are masked as individual delinquency instead of deeper institutional failures. Jordan, with newfound illicit creative success with a stolen spray paint can, finds himself at a crossroads: He can continue to associate with his up-to-nogood friends—or make the better choice, an undermining message. The book studiously avoids racial descriptions. Refusing demeaning single stories about “troublemaking” children, Kelly could make something truly transformative but opts for a convenient landing. (Fiction. 10-14)
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WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER
DETENTION IS A LOT LIKE JAIL
Kelly, Brynn Illus. by Borngraber, Elizabeth West 44 Books (88 pp.) $18.95 | Dec. 1, 2019 978-1-5383-8226-4 Series: The Bad Kids in 4B, 1
THE SERIOUS GOOSE
Kimmel, Jimmy Illus. by the author Random House (40 pp.) $18.99 | $21.99 PLB | Dec. 3, 2019 978-0-525-70775-2 978-0-525-70777-6 PLB Bet you can’t make this goose smile, no matter how hard you try. TV personality Kimmel’s first foray into picture books presents a feathered grump with a scowl that is proof against any kind of foolery: Try putting a chicken on her head, dressing her as a moose, or even trucking in a snail pizza—this goose won’t crack. Breaking now and again into verse, he challenges readers to give it a try in a foil mirror: “Cluck like a chicken / moo like a cow / be doofy, be goofy / any way you know how”—and sure enough, eventually a grin bursts out to replace the grimace despite a multipage struggle to hold it in, and off prances the goose in a pair of (gender-bending) tighty whities. Yes, she’s become “a SILLY goose (thanks to you),” the narrator proclaims, and what’s more, “YOU are a silly kid.” A hand-lettered kirkus.com
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Tai’s hero’s journey is intertwined with his experience as a first-generation Vietnamese American. green lantern: legacy
narrative in block printing big enough to take up most of the space accompanies thick-lined cartoon views of a goosey glare that dares readers to crank up the volume, and the last page turn reveals a final tweak that may add a few grown-up voices to the younger chorus of giggles. The goose is all that’s serious here…and that not for long. (Picture book. 5- 7)
WORLD’S WORST PARROT
Kuipers, Alice Orca (128 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-4598-2375-4
After Ava inherits a parrot from a barely remembered great-uncle, her efforts to maintain an idealized image seem to crumble. Ava has successfully used social media to depict herself as leading a perfect life, hiding that her father has recently abandoned their family, that her older brother, Gregg, is an aggravating tease, and that her mother is both depressed and angry. Still, by posting attractive selfies and a running monologue of her supposed beautiful life, Ava has managed to acquire several hundred followers. The parrot, Mervin, is a challenge—noisy, destructive, and demanding lots of attention. As soon as Gregg posts a photo of the parrot at his worst, Ava’s two BFFs, Kim and Kim, promptly (and seemingly inexplicably) dump her, apparently put off by Mervin’s messiness. Only later, as Ava begins to bond with another classmate, does it become clear that the Kims have become more interested in hunky Gregg than in Ava (making their rejection of her even less understandable). Characters (default white) are predictable and only superficially depicted, and the ups and downs of Ava’s social media and school images are equally lacking in nuance. Only the lively parrot and Ava’s growing understanding of and affection for him rise above average. Best for those interested in pet birds. (Fiction. 9-12)
GREEN LANTERN Legacy
Lê, Minh Illus. by Tong, Andie DC Zoom (144 pp.) $9.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2020 978-1-4012-8355-1 A young Green Lantern discovers how to envision the future. Thirteen-year-old Tai Pham wakes from a dream to see his grandmother’s jade ring by his side. Confused, Tai learns from Bà Noi that the ring has chosen him—and then the next day she’s passed. Suddenly, the Coast City junior high schooler is introduced to the existence of the 86
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Green Lantern Corps, an “intergalactic peacekeeping force.” Not only was his bà secretly a “space cop,” but she was “probably the best among [them].” Under the tutelage of fellow Green Lantern Iolande and his new Corps mentor, John Stewart, Tai learns how to wield the green ring as the planet’s next guardian. In this Green Lantern installment, Lê blends traditions old and new alike. Familiar faces and references that will please established Green Lantern and DC Universe fans abound. Like Tai’s interpretation of the Green Lantern uniform, his hero’s journey both hits all the comic-book beats and is intertwined with his experience as a first-generation Vietnamese American. Tong’s energetic panels, dominated by greens, oranges, steel blues, and purples, keep the visuals dynamic, and cultural details are a delight. In this diverse Coast City neighborhood battling impending corporate redevelopment, Tai entrusts his secret identity to his two best friends, Tommy, who presents white, and Serena, a brown-skinned Latina. Community and compassion combine in this fresh take on comic-book tradition. (Graphic adventure. 8-12)
TURN IT UP! A Pitch-Perfect History of Music That Rocked the World Levy, Joel National Geographic Kids (192 pp.) $19.99 | Dec. 17, 2019 978-1-4263-3541-9
A 40,000-year-long jam with an international cast of players and cultures. The spirit of scat is definitely alive in the presentation, as each single-topic spread tosses together a busy collage of period images or photos with colored boxes filled with quick takes on a style or genre, significant instruments and technical innovations, and, for (relatively) more recent eras, select composers and performers from troubadour Castelloza to Rihanna. Moving quickly on from prehistoric bone flutes, the more-or-less chronological history focuses on the European and, later, North American scenes but does spare occasional nods for Indigenous and non-Western music. More often it lets distinctive styles from other continents take the stage—following introductions to Wagner and Puccini with a look at Asian opera, for instance, and giving Indipop, Afropop, J-pop, and K-pop quick solos of their own. Hip-hop and house music are invited to the party, but gangsta rap is not, nor is Tupac (or, for that matter, any reference to profanity, violence, or even drug or alcohol abuse). Still, themes of racial prejudice and identity do play through pages devoted to the blues, big bands, R&B, and rock-’n’-roll, and the balance of men and women artists is carefully measured from the outset. Frequent leads to relevant musical selections on the web furnish a soundtrack. Quick, bright, danceable, and splashy, if only ankle deep. (Nonfiction. 11-13)
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CHINESE NEW YEAR COLORS
Lo, Richard Illus. by the author Holiday House (40 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-8234-4371-0
JOSIE BLOOM AND THE EMERGENCY OF LIFE
Long, Susan Hill Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-5344-4427-0
Orphan Josie Bloom’s grandfather is acting very peculiar, leaving her to take up the slack. Signs of Grandpa’s problem are everywhere. Wads of money appear in unexpected places, like inside a bologna package. Grandpa not only won’t explain where the money’s coming from, but now he’s started blurting out random words and phrases: “Lima beans!” Worst of all, he seems to have lost track of the need to pay bills. An intrepid person, Josie figures out how to use the checkbook and the rudiments of banking. It’s the mortgage that seems like the final straw. What will happen if she can’t find the money to make the monthly payments? Throughout all her trials, she’s supported by Winky, her steadfast classmate, a talented baseball player who’s gradually going blind. Her teacher is also helpful, but Josie’s afraid to |
STAMP SAFARI
Macintosh, Cameron Illus. by Atze, Dave West 44 Books (144 pp.) $12.90 paper | Dec. 15, 2019 978-1-5383-8468-8 Series: Max Booth Future Sleuth His third outing sends 25th-century ragamuffin Max on a dramatic rescue mission. Investigating the nature of a small, sticky square that bears the likeness of ancient tennis superstar Neptune Williams forces Max to descend from Skyburb 6 to smoggy but prosperous Bluggsville. There, not only are he and his airborne kind reviled as “shadies,” but his beloved beagle-bot falls into the clutches of archnemesis Capt. Selby and is shipped off to be reprogrammed. There’s nothing for it but to sneak back into the drab vocational institution from which he had escaped two years before and save his prized robo-pooch. With help from friends and a bit of techno-wizardry, he carries the caper off with aplomb. But the mysterious artifact fizzles, as no one really wants it except Max’s ex-roomie Brandon, who just happens to be a Neptune Williams fan and in an anticlimactic exchange casually identifies it as a postage stamp. Neither the narrative nor Atze’s cartoon drawings (in which all the human figures except Brandon, a few background faces, and the long-dead Williams are white) add enough detail to make the setting more than vaguely futuristic, and the prejudice against class rather than race may ring oddly in American ears (the series is an Australian import). Still, independent readers might find the rescue’s chases, escapes, and mild suspense absorbing. Macintosh tacks a disquisition on postage stamps to the end. A mild futuristic caper. (Science fiction/mystery. 7-9)
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A color-concept book with a bilingual, cultural twist. Chinese New Year gets a daring new look. A single color dominates a complete page spread. On recto, the name of the featured color in English is displayed on a white background while both the traditional Chinese characters and a romanized rendition, complete with accent marks, appear below in an inverse color scheme. A single cultural object related to Chinese New Year fully occupies the right. Here Lo’s talents shine with his renderings. The composition is simple, with the object sitting solo, centered within the line of sight. Artistic liberties are tastefully taken, with the object portrayed in a singular color that is occasionally contrary to tradition. Yet no embellishments are lost in the deceptively spare composition. This is best observed on the portrait of the teapot. Lo makes sure that no flower, leaf, or curly twirl of its details is omitted. The objects seem to pop due to the skilled shading and tricks of perspective. The background itself teems with textures, with occasional splatters of paint, bleeding edges, and blooms of watercolor that unevenly occupy the space. Vocabulary-wise, the only outlier is the use of the word “Cerulean” instead of “light blue,” which may require an explanation. A guide describing each object follows. Bright and bold, this will certainly catch the eye of every reader. (Picture book 2-5)
confide her extreme difficulties, fearing the outcome. Perhaps a washed-up major league player who might just be her long-lost father could be the solution. Setting her story in 1977 in a small Maine town, Long does little to create a strong sense of time or place, and even though baseball is a major theme, it, too, takes the bench to the strong, attractive personalities that flavor this character-driven coming-of-age tale. It’s those lovingly crafted people, seemingly all white, who elevate the story above the rest. Entertaining and emotionally resonant. (Historical fiction. 9-12)
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ARIBA An Old Tale About New Shoes
Manapov, Masha Illus. by the author Enchanted Lion Books (40 pp.) $17.95 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-59270-300-5
Marcus hears a funny tale about a pair of new shoes from his grandfather. Marcus is thrilled about his new shoes. He can’t stop moving. He shows them off to everyone. When he tells his grandfather about them, Grandpa has a story to share. A boy named Ariba who lives in a small mountain village gets a pair of brand new shoes, sturdy and big, with room for his feet to grow. Those wonderful shoes take Ariba on special adventures. But when Ariba’s friends start moving to the city, Ariba wonders “what the sky was like over there, beyond the high mountains.” His shoes get him to the city, where “the sky had become very small,” and soon “he forgot to ever look up.” When he buys a new pair of shoes that “fit his new life,” he tries repeatedly to discard the now-used shoes, but each time, someone recognizes them as his and returns them to him. He gives up trying to rid himself of them and lets them carry him back to see the sky again. This story is great fun to share with young listeners, who will giggle each time the shoes make their way back to Ariba and will be delighted to recognize Ariba’s shoes at the end. Older readers will appreciate the gentle thread about staying connected to one’s roots. The vibrant, printlike illustrations—in bold colors, emphasizing red, yellow, and green, on thick, soft paper—perfect the silly yet meaningful story. Marcus and Ariba have brown skin; other characters are fantastical shades of mustard yellow, paper white, rusty red, and charcoal black. Read it, share it, laugh out loud. (Picture book. 3-10)
IN A JAR
Marcero, Deborah Illus. by the author Putnam (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 21, 2020 978-0-525-51459-6 Two rabbits collect shared memories in jars—visualizations of intangible moments that build their friendship and help sustain it when one moves away. Llewellyn is a collector of rocks and feathers and other mundane items until he meets Evelyn. Together they experience a sensational sunset, which he scoops into a jar for her. The memory of that event softly glows like a night light in its jar, bringing warmth and comfort to her as she sleeps. The bunnies’ jars soon become filled with experiential wonders: snowball fights and hot cocoa, exploring tulip-filled fields and playing until their shadows grow long at dusk. After Evelyn moves, it takes a glittering meteor shower for Llewelyn to realize the jars might 88
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allow them to continue to share their lives with each other. The illustrations feature simple, cartoonlike characters. But while the drawing style may be simplified, sophisticated patterning and color design, as well as intricate pen work, create a lush and detailed world. The artist moves between small inserted panels and large spreads to great effect, creating whimsical and uplifting art that perfectly matches the text. In the art, Marcero builds a visual vocabulary for the meaning and importance of memories. As Evelyn opens a jar and stars from Llewelyn’s night sky swirl and fall around her, readers will feel the warmth of friendship and the wonder of the world as well. Stunning. (Picture book. 4-8)
CHIRP
Messner, Kate Bloomsbury (240 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-5476-0281-0 “Sometimes courage is quiet.” Mia’s life turned upside down a year ago when she broke her arm during a gymnastics routine, so a family move back to Vermont, where Mia’s paternal grandmother lives, seems like the perfect fresh start. Gram farms crickets as an alternative food source, and Mia is eager to help out during the summer. Things start going wrong at the farm, however, and Gram is certain that sabotage is the cause. With the help of new friends made and new skills acquired at the day camps her parents force her to attend, Mia is determined to keep Gram’s beloved business from failing. But to grow past obstacles internal and external, she must first find the courage to speak out. This story defies categorization: It’s at once a friendship yarn, a summer idyll, a mystery, and a push for female empowerment. Messner deftly weaves together myriad complex plot threads to form a captivating whole. Characters are well drawn and multifaceted; all are imbued with a rich individuality, from earnest, increasingly confident Mia to the never seen farmhand James who attends all his husband’s baseball games. The women, tellingly, remain at the helm throughout. They are entrepreneurs, activists, engineers, mayors; they are mothers, daughters, friends, lovers. Each woman’s rise is its own story, giving Mia a supportive space in which she can come to terms with her own conflicts. Mia and her family are white; the supporting cast is vigorously diverse. Rich, timely, and beautifully written. (Fiction. 10-14)
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Minnema (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) maintains a deft balance of perspective between generations in this quietly funny tale. johnny ’s pheasant
INSECT SUPERPOWERS 18 Real Bugs That Smash, Zap, Hypnotize, Sting, and Devour!
Messner, Kate Illus. by Nickell, Jillian Chronicle (80 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-4521-3910-4
THE NEWEST PRINCESS
Mews, Melody Illus. by Stubbings, Ellen Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (128 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-5344-5494-1 978-1-5344-5493-4 paper Series: Itty Bitty Princess Kitty, 1 Change can be very scary even for a princess kitty. The setup reads like a sendup. Cotton-candy–colored kitten Itty Bitty lives in a castle in Lollyland with her parents, King and Queen Kitty. She loves going to school and playing in Goodie Grove with her friends Luna Unicorn, Esme Butterfly, and Chipper Bunny. When an announcement fairy surprises Itty and Luna with the news that Itty’s eighth shooting star is on its way, they know this means that Itty will be an official princess in just a few days. She soon learns this means she’ll have |
JOHNNY’S PHEASANT Minnema, Cheryl Illus. by Flett, Julie Univ. of Minnesota (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 1, 2019 978-1-5179-0501-9
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The insect world is buzzing with superpowers! Jumping on the superhero bandwagon, Messner and Nickell bring readers a fascinating and fun read that is heavy on action but light on the details. Designed like a graphic novel, the book introduces 18 insects that have extraordinary abilities. Along the way, readers learn about the biological classification system and a sampling of insect orders. Nickell’s illustrations keep the pages turning, as insects are presented as the superheroes (or supervillains) of the book: “The Decapitator” (also known as the Asian giant hornet) is surrounded by action lines and has thunderbolts of power emanating from its viselike mandibles. Other details, such as the benday dots backgrounding the yellow information boxes, create a subtle nod to comic books of old. Messner’s text flows smoothly in this action-packed format but suffers from its lack of space, and this compression may cause confusion, as when the text on the yam hawk moth vacillates between the generic and the specific. Other editorial choices are less than pleasing. The first scientific name mentioned includes a phonetic pronunciation guide, but none of the others do. The backmatter is anemic, consisting of a sevenbook, two-website bibliography. Based on the format, the book will be popular, but be ready to recommend supplemental titles to readers who expect more than cursory information. As flashy as a butterfly but needs a swarm of support. (Graphic nonfiction. 8-12)
a new tutor, new hairstyle, and new bedroom…that’s a lot of changes for someone so itty bitty. She likes the tiara, but the rest upset her tummy. Will understanding parents and friends be enough to help her through? This series starter features large, inviting type, short chapters, and black-and-white cartoon illustrations of large-headed, supercute creatures on nearly every page. Young readers facing changes will identify with Itty’s emotions, though most won’t be given the option to refuse it, as she is. For those new to chapter books who are obsessed with kitties, princesses, and fairies, this earns a glitter-spewing shooting star…all others should have the insulin handy at first exposure. Empty calories surround some emotional truth. (Fan tasy. 4-8)
When Johnny and Grandma come home one day from shopping, Johnny spies something near the roadside ditch. They pull over and discover it is a pheasant with beautiful feathers. Johnny says it’s sleeping; Grandma notes that it’s “still soft.” Johnny says he’ll make a nest and care for it. Grandma suspects that it has been run over by a car and says she could use its feathers in her crafting, but Johnny rejoins, “Silly Grandma, he’s not ready for craftwork, he’s sleeping.” As they are putting the pheasant in the trunk of the car, Johnny mimics its cry, saying, “Hoot! Hoot!” After settling the pheasant at home in the box, the pheasant awakens. Confused, it flies and lands on top of Grandma’s head—much to her surprise—and then escapes out of a window. Before it returns to the wild (Johnny accuses Grandma of scaring it away with talk of crafting), the pheasant leaves behind a surprise for Johnny. Minnema (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) maintains a deft balance of perspective between generations in this quietly funny tale. Both Johnny’s enthusiasm and optimism and Grandma’s pragmatism are fully believable—any child who has found a dead or injured animal will relate. Flett’s (Cree-Métis) characteristically spare illustrations depict this tender relationship, careful details such as Grandma’s game of solitaire further developing these loving Indigenous characters. This dead-bird story with a happy ending rewards children’s optimism. (Picture book. 3- 7)
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Even the youngest of readers will sense that this is a whale of a romance. the heart of a whale
SLAMDOWN TOWN
Nicoll, Maxwell Illus. by Smith, Matthew Amulet/Abrams (224 pp.) $14.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-4197-3885-2
An 11-year-old wrestling fanatic transforms from scrawny to brawny in this series-launching debut. Despite his small frame, Ollie has wrestling in his blood. Though she now works as a referee, his mother reigned as the local scene’s undisputed champion until the dastardly Werewrestler stole an underhanded victory. Ever since, Slamdown Town Arena has struggled to stay afloat—and Ollie can relate. When he isn’t daydreaming the sixth grade away, he’s either grappling with big brother Hollis or struggling to keep pace with Tamiko, his brainiac best friend (Japanese American, she’s the book’s only significant person of color). Everything changes when Ollie discovers a piece of magic gum that turns him into a towering, muscle-bound contender. Eager to vanquish the Werewrestler, Ollie enters the ring as “Big Chew.” His episodic matches pair with studying online instructional videos that explain the importance of captivating costumes, titillating trash talk, and sensational signature moves. Despite its larger-than-life personalities, this third-person narrative lacks compelling character: Attempts to lay the verbal smackdown fall flat (“moody music”?), and action sequences seem somewhat illogical (a leg drop into a bear hug?). Ollie earns a title shot, but along the way, his career takes its toll: His grades slip, he loses his dog-walking job, his friendship with Tamiko collapses, and Slamdown Town faces financial ruin. Can Ollie save the squared circle and repair his personal life without breaking kayfabe? Not a curtain-jerker—but more a formulaic midcard than a marquee match. (Fiction. 8-12)
NOT A BUTTERFLY Alphabet Book
Pallotta, Jerry Illus. by Bersani, Shennen Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.99 | $7.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-58089-689-4 978-1-58089-690-0 paper
“It’s about time moths had their own book!” Pallotta extends his many topical alphabet books (most recently The Crab Alphabet Book, illustrated by Tom Leonard, 2019) with this seeming rebuttal to the glut of butterfly books. Collaborator Bersani’s Prismacolor pencil and Photoshop illustrations are hands-down the stars here. Up-close pictures in brilliant, naturalistic colors and patterns dazzle the eye and will surely send readers out the door to hunt for some moth species. (The absence of a map and info about individual species’ ranges may hamper them, though.) Pallotta rounds out the 90
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single large-font sentence identifying the letter of the alphabet and the species (“G is for Green Lips Moth”) with a paragraph of information. These vary widely in both amount of information and relevance, many of them addressing moths in general rather than a specific moth. C (cow moth), for instance, talks about how most moths land (wings spread, as opposed to butterflies, which usually land with their wings folded), and D (diamond moth) makes a snarky comparison to a Delta Dart fighter jet. Though several pages talk about ways moths camouflage themselves, it’s not until the letter I that the term is used: “This yellow moth is camouflaged when sitting on a yellow flower.” Other entries teach readers about wing scales, anatomy, moths’ attraction to light, their life cycle, a bit about what they eat and what eats them, and a few other differences between moths and butterflies. Indeed, moths do deserve to be recognized, and this a good springboard. (Informational picture book. 4-9)
THE HEART OF A WHALE
Pignataro, Anna Illus. by the author Philomel (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-984-83627-4 The flora and fauna of the ocean respond to a lonely whale’s beautiful music by helping him find another whale. “Whale’s song was so beautiful it could reach the farthest of faraways.” Over a double-page spread, a simply drawn white whale—detailed with a large eye, a small mouth and fins, and a small lavender heart—swims past a variety of pastel-hued sea denizens. The lyrical text is set in type that emulates handlettering. Watercolors are the appropriate choice for a tale that occurs in a sea full of creatures—with an occasional glimpse of land and sky as well as a cheerfully colored sailboat and lighthouse. Collage, pencil sketching, and washes produce a dreamlike effect that also feels sweetly humorous. A double-page spread of sea horses lounging atop spirited jellyfish is especially whimsical. Musical terms are cleverly used to describe the singing whale’s positive effects on others (“a cheerful symphony for a sad urchin”). After several pages of poetic lines about the talented singer, readers learn that his heart feels “empty.” The ocean carries his sighing wish across miles of lovingly rendered sea habitats until the solo becomes a duet. Although the flap copy speaks of friendship, even the youngest of readers will sense that this is a whale of a romance. Beneath its warmth is a poignant reminder of the loss to all if whale songs become history. A sweet cetacean story. (Picture book. 3-5)
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MADAM C.J. WALKER BUILDS A BUSINESS
Rebel Girls Timbuktu (128 pp.) $12.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-1-7331761-9-4 Series: Rebel Girls Chapter Books
I AM GOOSE!
Rohner, Dorothia Illus. by Nastanlieva, Vanya Clarion (32 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 18, 2020 978-1-328-84159-9 Duck, duck…who? That’s what literal-minded Goose wants to know when, seated among various animal pals playing the familiar circle game, callers keep tagging the “goose”—but the other animals, not the actual goose in their midst. Continually bypassed, Goose becomes incensed and increasingly disruptive. Rabbit, irate after repeated attempts to calm Goose down with assurances that eventually everyone will have a turn, demands order. Goose presents a chart that lists physical characteristics of geese and nongeese! By now civility is in shambles, and furious Rabbit threatens to end the game. Chastened, players reconvene, the game resumes, and lo, Goose is finally tagged! But then…a new group of (hint) waddling players comes |
STRAW
Rosenthal, Amy Krouse Illus. by Magoon, Scott Disney-Hyperion (48 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-148474955-5 Series: Spoon
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A novel for young readers that celebrates the life of bold, black self-made millionaire Madam C.J. Walker. Sarah Breedlove is the first child born in her family after slavery, but she is orphaned at 8. After living with her older sister and unkind brother-in-law, Sarah decides to take her future into her own hands. At 14, she marries Moses, a man she meets at church, and together they have a little girl, Lelia. Moses is lynched when Sarah is 20, and she decides to leave the Deep South, settling in St. Louis and then Denver. Although mentions of hair are threaded throughout the quick-moving tale, Sarah does not begin working with hair-care products until years later, when she enters the upper echelon of black society. Readers will learn about the sensitive topic of black women’s hair, the lesser-known Annie Turnbo’s important role in encouraging natural hair, and Sarah’s brilliant business savvy and determination. No one can deny that when barriers stood strong for both women and blacks, Sarah stood firm in rising to meet those challenges and providing opportunities to blacks. Bright matte illustrations, dominated by deep greens, brick reds, and rich browns, appear every few pages and extend the book’s message. Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code publishes simultaneously, and both books have several pages of activities in the backmatter. An inspiring story for any young girl waiting to make her mark on society. (Historical fiction. 8-12) (Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code 978-1-733-1761-8-7)
along—just when it’s Goose’s turn to be the caller—throwing an unexpected, hilarious wrench into the proceedings and bringing the story to a riotous conclusion. This honking good tale is told entirely through speech balloons, with dialogue that reveals much about characters’ distinctive personalities; additional comic relief is supplied by a trio of red squirrels, wryly commenting on the goings-on from their tree perch. Delicate cartoon illustrations add wit and humorous energy to the frenetic events, including expressive faces and the dapper attire in which the players are dressed: Goose sports a backward blue baseball cap, for instance. Giggling readers won’t duck out from playing the game once they’ve savored this funny tale. (Picture book. 4- 7)
A cautionary tale about making experiences last. The riotous utensil community Rosenthal and Magoon introduced in Spoon (2009) and continued in Chopsticks (2012) returns for a series conclusion starring a blue-and-white–striped bendable straw who “has a great thirst for being first.” Straw slurps up everything in sight, from the water in a flower bowl to a cup of tea, while friends look on in dismay. Since nobody else seems to be competing with Straw, both his fervor and their unhappiness feel ungrounded. But when Straw tries to speed through an icy drink, he’s laid low by brain freeze and “his heart sank,” an awfully dramatic response. Straw’s friend, a novelty straw with loop-de-loop eyes, helps him appreciate the pleasures of taking in life slowly, and Straw is forever changed, suddenly appreciating the colors, textures, and experiences in the world. At bedtime, a parent kisses him and explains that “what you’re feeling is called awe, Straw.” By the end, “sometimes he still wants to be first. But most of the time, Straw wants to make the good things last.” Magoon’s energetic cartoon illustrations are fun to look at, but the lengthy story drives its point into the ground, and neither the problem nor the resolution is interesting enough to convince hasty children to slow down their central nervous systems. Doesn’t quite hit the spot. (Picture book. 3-6)
BEING FROG
Sayre, April Pulley Photos by the author Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-5344-2881-2 This photo essay about the eponymous amphibian includes simple rhyming sentences both informative and appreciative. kirkus.com
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Kevin Noble Maillard FOR HIS FIRST CHILDREN’S BOOK, A LAW PROFESSOR AND FATHER FOUND A SUBJECT IN HIS NATIVE FAMILY’S FOOD TRADITIONS: FRY BREAD By Kathie Meizner Chris Owyoung
old, and I was having a hard time finding contemporary books about Native kids that weren’t about Thanksgiving or Pocahontas. Most were written by non-Natives, and all were about people that lived long ago, like some mythical vanished community. Where were the lullaby books, the I-love-my-dog tales, the golden rule books about Native people? I found a few books for young children by Julie Flett and Cynthia Leitich Smith, but I knew there could be more. So I naïvely thought, “I’ll just write my own.” As if it is as simple as that! Connie very politely declined my first draft of Fry Bread, which I can only describe as “bouncy.” She told me to circle back with something “deeper, more poetic, and a touch more abstract.” And that’s what I did. Are there picture books you especially love for yourself as an adult? As a parent? I fall apart every time I read City Dog, Country Frog. There is so much emotion conveyed in as few words as possible. The People Could Fly is a classic, and I was so happy to have my children ask for it independently. I like reading Epossomundas with my children because my old Southern lady accent is impeccable. (I channel my mother, whose voice sounds like a topographic map). And I have a newfound appreciation for anything by Virginia Lee Burton, who is the champion of all good things verging on obsolescence.
Kevin Noble Maillard is a professor of law at Syracuse and writes for the New York Times and the Atlantic. He is originally from Oklahoma and is a member of the Seminole Nation, Mekusukey Band. Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story (Roaring Brook, Oct. 22) is his first book for children; he recently discussed the book, which has illustrations by Juana Martinez-Neal, with Kirkus Reviews. How did Fry Bread come about? Did you begin with this expansive, universal idea for the book? I first approached [editor] Connie Hsu [at Roaring Brook Press] with an idea for a board book. My oldest son was 2 years
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There are a lot of variations in recipes for fry bread. For instance, you use yeast instead of baking powder. I also use corn meal, which may be sacrilege to some people. My recipe, one that I perfected over many failures, was given to me by old ladies in my family. This is the beauty of this very simple food that originated from Indian removal. What does it mean to be real? Authentic? Legitimate? This is my bread and butter of research. Who gets to decide, especially when you believe in your own identity? Can someone else tell you that you’re “wrong?” That’s how I’ve always felt about the way that I make fry bread, because it has slightly different ingredients, a
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different shape, and a different color. But it’s still fry bread. So, I’m writing about a familiar subject—except this time the audience is just shorter. How is fry bread a tradition in your family now? I have two young children, and I taught them to make it. I have this great video of them with flour all over their faces while mixing the dough. (I don’t let them around me when the oil is hot, though). We always make it on holidays, and I’ll fry up a batch for their parties at school. Health-conscious Manhattan parents of their friends will ask, “what is this delicious fried bread?” And this bread takes hours to make! You have to clear out an entire morning and afternoon to make the dough, mix it, let it rise, prepare the oil, fry it, and then get it to wherever you’re going while it’s still hot. I love to walk in a room with the big steel bowl covered with a cloth and see everyone’s faces light up.
Kathie Meizner manages a public library in Maryland and reviews children’s books for Kirkus Reviews and the Washington Post. Fry Bread received a starred review in the July 15, 2019, issue.
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Your Author’s Note hints that you were able to make suggestions for the art in progress. Juana and I talked a few times in secret, because we weren’t sure how the editors would like it. (They loved it.) There was an unbelievable amount of back and forth over the visual politics of drawing Native people: No red cheeks. No bare feet. Discussions about skin tones. Discussions about hair. We had numerous readers, including Elise McMullen-Ciotti [Cherokee Nation] and Traci Sorrell [Cherokee Nation], who were amazing. I was completely surprised that Juana put my entire family in the book! She asked me to send her pictures, but I had no clue that she was going to include the children, who now believe they are famous. I saw the first illustrations on my iPhone on the 2 train in New York, tears streaming down my face. Seeing these familiar faces really pulled it all together for me.
The first verso states boldly: “A frog / is a being. / It is watching. / It is seeing.” The photograph across the gutter presents a close-up view of a green frog’s face against a blurry, muted, outdoor background. The simple verses scan well throughout. Many of the sentences use “It” to refer to the frog whose life is being studied; just one “It” has a different antecedent, which throws a slight curve during initial reading. However, this small book of relatively few words manages to say a lot. Some pages give readers a rudimentary understanding of a frog’s daily life and the life cycle of a frog. Others provide gentle reminders that these are sentient creatures whose lives are only partly understood by human beings. (“Does it ponder? / We don’t yet know.”) The excellent photography—with sharp images that join the text in provoking humor, interest, and reverence—attests to the author’s note about spending a good deal of time observing frogs at a nearby pond. The author’s note itself is lovely: While offering fascinating details about her own encounters with specific frogs, it also clarifies for young readers the difference between scientific and anecdotal research—and the value in both. The youngest readers will love the photographs and rhymes; slightly older children will also appreciate the author’s note. Sound tadpole philosophy. (resources) (Informational pic ture book. 3-6)
HUNDRED FEET TALL
Scheuer, Benjamin Illus. by Williams, Jemima Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-5344-3219-2
To reach full potential, living things as diverse as seeds and children need to be nurtured. When an anthropomorphic two-parent rabbit family with a bespectacled child finds a little brown seed under a tree, they bring it home with the “promise that [they will] help it to grow.” With some good earth, water, light, and lots of love, the planted seed first grows invisibly, then a green stalk, leaves, and roots appear, and finally the tree is large enough to plant outside and grow to the titular height of 100 feet. As the seed develops, clear, full-color, cartoon illustrations show the rabbit family also nurturing the bespectacled child into a budding scientist, artist, and avid reader. Sharp-eyed young listeners will note that one parent’s belly expands with the passage of time as well, and they’ll be ready for a touching scene when the new baby arrives home to greet the newly minted older sibling. Once planted outside, the grateful tree, which addresses the young bunny directly throughout, thanks the child “for the love you’ve shown / to a little brown seed that you found in the fall. / I hope that you visit and climb in my boughs, / and together we’ll stand at a hundred feet tall.” Easy, well-metered rhyme, a repeating and expanding refrain, and words and musical notation on the rear endpapers combine to create a new storytime and musiccircle favorite. A sweet paean to the nurturing power of love. (Picture book. 3-6) kirkus.com
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Joins the growing and necessary category of picture books that feature modern diverse characters doing everyday things. boxitects
BOXITECTS
Smith, Kim Illus. by the author Clarion (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-328-47720-0 Meg stands out as a brilliant boxitect—until Simone comes along. Meg makes all sorts of things out of boxes: “tiny houses, tall towers, twisty tunnels,” and inventions no one else had seen before. When Meg goes to Maker School, she finds “blanketeers, spaghetti-tects, tin-foilers, and egg-cartoners,” but as the first boxitect in class, she feels special. But then Simone comes along. She’s brilliant and creative like Meg—and a boxitect, just like Meg. Instead of hitting it off, the two are immediate rivals, trading snide remarks and criticizing each other’s work. When the school competition rolls around and students have to work in teams, the boxitect team is the one that is not going smoothly. Meg and Simone split up the materials and compete with each other to make the better half. But when their infighting proves disastrous, the pair quickly learns to work together, gaining skills and friendship. The story arc contains just enough suspense to keep readers interested, and the humorous text is engaging. Smith’s cartoon illustrations are a combination of double-page spreads, full-page scenes, and smaller vignettes that use a variety of shapes, patterns, and contrasting colors for a lively and creative maker’s world. Meg’s brown skin and puffy hair and Simone’s Asian presentation put this in the growing and necessary category of picture books that feature modern diverse characters doing everyday things. Personality and a developmental message successfully combine for STEAM fun. (Picture book. 3-8)
WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?
Snider, Grant Illus. by the author Chronicle (44 pp.) $15.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-4521-7992-6
If you think the night is black, think again. Snider’s elegant nocturnal idyll explores the many colors visible to those who “look closer.” The dark blue sky, “a big yellow moon beginning to rise,” the glow of red neon in the city and of faraway yellow headlights in the country, the glowing green eyes of raccoons on the prowl—it turns out the night is fairly pulsing with colors. Thick ink outlines rooftops, sinuous tree branches, skyscrapers, moths, and more; the appropriately nighttime palette will have eyes straining a bit to see dark-gray outlines against dark-blue sky and black foreground shapes. For all that his shapes are simplified, at times even childlike in their line, the effect is startlingly realistic. The sky above the neon-lit city glows murky orange from the light below; in contrast, “a thousand silver stars spilled across the sky” are crystalline white 94
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against the navy-blue vastness above a quiet farm. Text is set primarily in gray and white against dark backgrounds, a large-font serif type ensuring legibility. The stately text and stillness of the images give the book a solemn air that is leavened with, first, “a midnight snack” of Lucky Charms and then a dream balloon flight that takes a brown-skinned child with long puffy hair over a sea of “pink and purple clouds.” This will have young readers hoping to stay up for a glimpse of “colors unseen.” (Picture book. 3-6)
THE STOLEN SLIPPER
Staniszewski, Anna Illus. by Pamintuan, Macky Scholastic (96 pp.) $4.99 paper | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-338-34975-7 Series: Once Upon a Fairy Tale, 2 Mystery solvers Kara and Zed help crack the Cinderella case in the second Once Upon a Fairy Tale chapter book. Handsome, dashing Prince Patrick and his cute puppy, Duncan, stop in at Kara’s family shoe shop because the glass slipper left behind by the mysterious woman who captured his heart at a ball—his only clue to finding her— has been stolen from his library, and he’s looking for leads on who made it. As it was fairy godmother–made, Kara’s parents can’t help, but Kara offers her sleuthing services, together with her best friend, Zed. When the offer is quickly rejected (after Patrick consults his adviser), Kara decides they’ll solve the mystery anyway. While the villain (and motive) behind the crime is revealed early, setting a trap for and catching said villain is only half of the puzzle. The other half is finding the shoe so that Cinderella’s story can proceed on schedule. The mystery is well-structured for its age group, with all of the pieces (including red herrings) laid out early and then spotlighted at crucial moments, enabling readers to solve right alongside the racially diverse heroes—in the black-and-white illustrations, Kara and Cinderella are pale while Patrick and Zed have dark skin. The art’s expressiveness buttresses the characterization and highlights key amusing animal moments (a welcome carryover from series opener The Magic Mirror, 2019). Young readers will be enchanted. (Fantasy/mystery. 5-8)
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EVEREST The Remarkable Story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Stewart, Alexandra Illus. by Todd-Stanton, Joe Bloomsbury (64 pp.) $21.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-1-5476-0159-2
HONEY, THE DOG WHO SAVED ABE LINCOLN
Swanson, Shari Illus. by Groenink, Chuck Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-06-269900-8
A slice of Abraham Lincoln’s childhood life is explored through a fictionalized anecdote about his dog Honey. When 7-year-old Abe rescues a golden-brown dog with a broken leg, he takes the pup home to the Lincolns’ cabin in Knob Creek, Kentucky. Honey follows Abe everywhere, including trailing after his owner into a deep cave. When Abe gets stuck between rocks, Honey goes for help and leads a search |
PIECE BY PIECE
Tan, Susan Illus. by Wong, Justine Peabody Essex Museum (40 pp.) $19.95 | Nov. 19, 2019 978-0-8757-7239-4
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This is the story of how Edmund Hillary, a white New Zealand beekeeper, and Tenzing Norgay, a Tibetan yak herder, became the first two men in recorded history to reach the top of Mount Everest. In addition to presenting the childhoods of these two men and their mutual obsession with summiting the highest mountain in the world, the book traces the history of European expeditions to Everest, the triumphant climb itself, and the effects the victory had on Hillary’s and Norgay’s adult lives. Throughout, Stewart emphasizes that reaching the top was a group effort involving many more men than are usually credited. The text is accompanied by Todd-Stanton’s dazzling illustrations that subtly and effectively incorporate relevant facts. Unfortunately, despite its engaging tone and Norgay’s prominent billing, the book’s historical perspective is distinctly colonial. The narrative spends considerably more time on Hillary’s history than on Norgay’s, and it skims over major world events that would have affected the geopolitics of the climb. It makes only passing mention of South Asian independence struggles and provides no analysis as to why, after the expedition, Hillary was knighted and Norgay was not. Furthermore, the text does not acknowledge the fact that the expedition was limited entirely to men even though women may have had the skills to accompany the party: Indeed, readers learn that Norgay married a Sherpa woman, whose absence from expeditions to Everest before her untimely death goes unexplained. This well-illustrated text is undermined by its unwillingness to engage with colonial history or systemic sexism. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
party back to the trapped boy for a dramatic rescue. The source for this story was a book incorporating the memories of Abe’s boyhood friend, explained in an author’s note. The well-paced text includes invented dialogue attributed to Abe and his parents. Abe’s older sister, Sarah, is not mentioned in the text and is shown in the illustrations as a little girl younger than Abe. All the characters present white save for one black man in the rescue crew. An oversized format and multiple double-page spreads provide plenty of space for cartoon-style illustrations of the Lincoln cabin, the surrounding countryside, and the spooky cave where Abe was trapped. This story focuses on the incident in the cave and Abe’s rescue; a more complete look at Lincoln’s life is included in an appended timeline and the author’s note, both of which include references to Lincoln’s kindness to animals and to other pets he owned. This heartwarming story of a boy and his beloved dog opens the door for further study of our 16th president. (Picture book. 4-8)
Missing her grandmother, a young Chinese American girl finds comfort in a museum. For Emmy, “museums have always been a special place for Nainai and me,” and all summer they explored them together during Nainai’s visit. Already missing their trips and meals of dumplings, Nainai gives Emmy a blue blanket made up of mementos before returning to China. The differing textiles and patterns are beautifully rendered in layered, uneven strokes of color. In an attempt to cheer Emmy up, her dad takes her to a museum with a special exhibit: a traditional house brought over from China. The plan seems doomed from the start when Emmy loses her beloved blanket. Yet elongated descriptions narrate how Emmy finds bits of blue and comfort in each room. Bit by bit, Emmy comes to terms with her longing for Nainai and realizes commonalities with her dad, himself an immigrant. A happy reunion with the blanket marks the end of her emotional journey. Wong provides a warm, textured palette with thick black lines to describe both simply drawn figures and elaborate ornamentation. At times the expression of the illustrations seems inhibited by the elaborate details that can dominate the pages. This tale is based on the Yin Yu Tang house, which traveled from China’s Huizhou region to the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts; further information about it is found in a concluding note. A multilayered, emotional tale that is occasionally overtaken by its rich visual detail. (Picture book. 6-9)
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I CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING
Taylor, Stephanie Illus. by Brenlla, Laura Strong Arm Press (34 pp.) $11.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-947492-32-5
A determined tot is ready for change. This youngster, with a shock of brown hair, pink skin, and big, bold eyes, can change (almost) anything. Strong first-person narration radiates purposeful strength. Basic, everyday tasks such as getting dressed (“I can change the clothes I wear. / I can change my socks and shoes”) lead to small victories: “I can change a seed into a tree” (with the help of a watering can). Larger circumstances beyond a small child’s control require a bit more imagination: “I can change a rainy day into a day at sea.” (A cardboard boat sails through a puddle.) Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, knows about big ideas. Alas, too many ideas are strung together in this package, which muddles the intended empowerment message. The narration attempts to flow from concrete changes to more abstract ones: “I can change my feelings into words. / I can change ideas into things.” However, the platitudinous ending —“But I can change the world!”—falls flat. Occasional rhyme (“I can change myself from being shy. / I can make myself say hi”) results in choppy scansion. Brenlla’s retro art helps to enliven this list of buoyant encouragements. Positive—but not quite powerful. (Picture book. 3-6)
FUTUREFACE A Family Mystery, a Search for Identity, and the Truth About Belonging (Adapted for Young Readers)
Wagner, Alex Delacorte (320 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-9848-9662-9 978-1-9848-9663-6 PLB
Television journalist Wagner steps into the world of nonfiction for young readers with this adaptation of her 2018 adult memoir of the same title. Growing up as a half-Burmese and half-white mixed-race child, Wagner rarely felt strong ties to any particular identity or heritage. When extended family lets slip their suspicions that her father’s side of the family may have Jewish roots, Wagner latches onto the possibility, which sends her on a deep dive into her roots on both sides of her family. In the vein of the now-ubiquitous celebrity genealogy shows, Wagner first traces her mother’s roots in Burma, a country her family fled during political upheaval in the mid-20th century. Later she turns to her father’s purported roots in Luxembourg before finally testing the waters of commercial DNA testing. Along the way she discovers that family stories of heroes and villains are rarely so clearly defined; rather, nuance is the order of the day regardless 96
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of one’s roots. Families and cultures are composed of generations of fallible human beings who make both brave and opportunistic decisions with wonderful and terrible results. Whether this young readers’ adaptation will have broad appeal among its intended middle-grade and YA audience is debatable. Nevertheless, it is well written and personable. To those intrepid young readers with a genuine interest in genealogy, family history, and the interplay of the two with larger cultural and historical events, this will be a welcome addition. A truly human story for those with a keen interest. (Memoir. 10-16)
LITTLE CLOUD The Science of a Hurricane
Wagstaffe, Johanna Illus. by McLaughlin, Julie Orca (32 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 18, 2020 978-1-4598-2184-2
An on-air meteorologist chronicles the development of a hurricane for very young readers and listeners. In her simple primary narrative, Wagstaffe tells the story of the development of a small, anthropomorphic cloud. Formed from evaporation and condensation off the west coast of Africa, it grows into a tropical disturbance, then a depression, and finally a hurricane with a proper name, Nate. A second, smaller block of text labeled “Weather Fact” on each page or spread provides further facts about hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones. The cheery, digitally collaged illustrations add even more information, including names of cloud formations; parts of the water cycle; and both the stages and the anatomy of hurricanes. As Nate’s journey continues, he (having gained a gender with the name) travels across the ocean and nears land, where people make preparations. Luckily, he’s slowed before making landfall, and his winds have weakened. He shrinks to a serious rainstorm and finally a small cloud again. Illogically, and contrary to geographical facts, “he realized he would roll over the tall mountains along the coast before he made landfall.” A final spread includes more hurricane facts, including the potential effects of global climate change. Canadian scientist Wagstaffe is accurately shown as a blonde white woman reporting the storm on TV; other humans in the illustrations are racially diverse. Probably clear enough for early weather watchers. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)
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Dylan’s rural setting shows how isolation can come in many forms, a feeling many readers will understand. high and dry
HIGH AND DRY
Walters, Eric Illus. by Gendron, Sabrina Orca (88 pp.) $12.99 paper | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-4598-2310-5
YOUNG EXPLORER’S ADVENTURE GUIDE Volume 6
Ed. by Weaver, Sean & Weaver, Corie Dreaming Robot (418 pp.) $17.95 paper | Dec. 1, 2019 978-1-940924-44-1
The Weavers bring readers their sixth volume of galactic tales starring kids confronted with a variety of futuristic challenges, some not so far-fetched. The editors have made a conscious attempt at expanding authorial diversity. In “Oduduwa: The Return,” Nigerian Afrofuturist Imade Iyamu has created a world where humans have been colonized and are raised for food by a species capable of “znog,” or mind-communication. Asian American author Andrew K. Hoe reminisces about fried sea cucumbers in “In the Night City,” in which siblings Kiam-Lin and Dylan awaken from their stasis-pods to neutralize a mysterious serpent that threatens thousands of sleeping Chinese settlers in the underwater city of Sui-Fa. In “Cloudcatcher,” written by returning Filipinx American author Marilag Angway, bored 11-year-old Jaz |
GRIFFITH’S GUIDE FOR DRAGON MASTERS A Dragon Masters Special Edition
West, Tracey Illus. by Loveridge, Matt Scholastic (144 pp.) $6.99 paper | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-338-54034-5 Series: Dragon Masters
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A sensitive young boy’s act of bravery saves the life of a beached orca. Lonely now that the summer’s over and the vacationers have left the isolated island his family has recently moved to, Dylan will spend the winter being home-schooled by his artist parents. He misses friends, recess, and gym, but he enjoys walking the island’s shoreline, kayaking, and watching the pod of orcas that lives nearby. While exploring the beach with his grandfather, he notices that the orca pod is distressed, and they find a young pod member stranded on some rocks in an inlet with the tide going out. Thanks to resourceful thinking and bravery on Dylan’s part, they keep the young orca from drying out and being harmed until it is high tide again and he can be floated back to sea and his pod. The natural world predominates the narrative, and scientific information is seamlessly woven in. Accessible for transitioning readers and graced with the occasional grayscale illustration, the book offers fast-paced action and tension surrounding the whale’s fate—both will keep readers invested. Dylan and his mom appear to have darker skin than his dad, but race is indeterminable. Dylan’s rural setting shows how isolation can come in many forms, a feeling many readers will understand. A page-turning transitional chapter book with a satisfying ending. (Fiction. 6-9)
partners with Lolo, her grandfather, to build a rain tank that will save their village in the Old World from a threatening monsoon. Also returning is Dawn Vogel, who, in “Fixer Upper,” tells the story of a young Indian girl who dreams of joining a Mars mission to escape the ruins and devastation of Earth. These are standouts; other stories, many from authors included in previous anthologies, have a sense of tameness that’s at odds with the genre. An uncharacteristically uneven collection of speculative storytelling. (Science fiction. 10-14)
An informational guidebook to the characters and worldbuilding of the Dragon Masters series. It seems that Griffith of the Green Fields, the royal wizard of the kingdom of Bracken, wants to compile his wizardly research and wisdom into a book, so he has enlisted his friend “Tracey of the West” to pull together a Dragon Masters guidebook from his notes and the contributions of his other friends. The book is primarily organized into illustration-heavy two-page spreads consisting of maps, character profiles (with plenty of information on each Dragon Master’s type of dragon, of course), important objects, and snippets of the world’s history. The diversity among Dragon Masters is foregrounded. The book explicitly states that the Dragon Masters come from all over the world (which is reflected in their racial presentations in the full-color illustrations as well as the cultural notes and illustrations of the regions they come from). Furthermore, some have disabilities, as they are no barrier to a person’s becoming a Dragon Master; all candidates need is to “have good hearts.” Though most profiles provide plenty of context clues as to any given character’s ethnicity and their kingdom’s real-world analog, a map placing characters on continents shaped like Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania erases ambiguity. There is an inescapably “It’s a Small World”–esque feel to it all, but it certainly means well. The informational format works well for reluctant and below-gradelevel readers, and it will help maintain interest in the series for maturing readers more inclined to game guides than fiction. A good resource for established fans. (Fantasy. 6-10)
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Readers will delight in the silly antics and wacky wordplay. one mean ant
A NUMBER OF NUMBERS
Wood, Amanda & Jolley, Mike Illus. by Sanders, Allan Wide Eyed Editions (48 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-78603-537-0
A fresh set of broad, busy visual scrambles from the creators of An Alpha bet of Alphabets (2018). In cartoon scenes rendered with a retro look, illustrator Sanders goes from one unicyclist up to a teeming orchestra with 20 choristers and 188 instruments to spot, followed by a U.S. map with the states identified just by initials and a building site with 100 hard hats to count. Along the way, he strews triads of folktale characters (bears, goats, mice, etc.) on one spread, arranges sextets of knights and cannonballs throughout a cutaway castle on another, and invites viewers to identify the occupations of 11 train passengers, trace a maze to match 17 items with their owners, and like challenges. Efforts throughout to reflect at least a modicum of racial diversity in depictions of human figures may run aground on an Ark full of pairs including a white Noah and his equally pale wife—not to mention the stereotypical feather-headdressed Native American with teepee and totem pole in North Dakota—but do put this one up on some of Waldo’s more parochial excursions. Also, younger or less visually acute viewers may find the art’s clean lines and harmonious color schemes easier on the eye than more-challenging albums like Manuela Ancutici’s I Spy 123, with photographs by Ruth Prenting (2017), or even Walter Wick’s classics. Some miscues but overall an engaging entry in the seekand-find genre. (Picture book. 5- 7)
I’M GONNA PUSH THROUGH!
Wright, Jasmyn Illus. by Wright, Shannon Atheneum (40 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 18, 2020 978-1-5344-3965-8
A picture-book encapsulation of the author’s Push Through education movement. An extensive author’s note explains that Wright came up with the “words and hand movements of the original Push Through mantra” as a teacher endeavoring to explain what “resilient” means. She says she “wanted [her students] to know that their past doesn’t define them, their present doesn’t have to hinder them, and their future is waiting on them.” While readers may find strength in this affirmation, they may also note it seems wholly reliant on individual perseverance rather than systemic change to dismantle oppression. The primary narrative opens with the statement “YOU can push through anything!” while illustrator Wright depicts a young brown-skinned child in profile, hair in beaded braids, and looking determined. The next spread shows the same child with hands over ears 98
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against discouraging comments and then smiling and looking out at readers, hands extended to say, “I’m gonna push through!” Ensuing pages show children of different races, genders, and abilities all repeating the “push through” mantra in the face of adversity. Also depicted are diverse famous people (bios in the backmatter) who’ve “pushed through” to meet success, including President Barack Obama, activist LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, and physicist Stephen Hawking. It’s encouraging—but not revolutionary in its call for individual grit rather than collective change. (Picture book. 5-9)
ONE MEAN ANT
Yorinks, Arthur Illus. by Ruzzier, Sergio Candlewick (48 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 11, 2020 978-0-7636-8394-8 An irascible ant becomes lost in the desert until an upbeat fly arrives. This ant is mean: “so mean, grapes would shrivel and turn into raisins when he looked at them.” He bosses everybody around, too. So preoccupied with this activity is he, the ant finds himself completely lost in the desert. Ranting and raving, he complains that there’s “no water in this stinkpot place.” A fly lands, and the ant stresses their dire situation, but the cheerful fly’s inexplicably immune to the ant’s histrionics. When the fly removes a pine needle from the ant’s side (not previously visible in the illustrations), the ant suddenly feels different (“good” and “thankful” don’t come naturally). The insects exit the desert in tandem, with the fly forging optimistically ahead and the ant yelling warnings. Ruzzier’s distinctive cartoon illustrations utilize fine black outlines and pastel-hued washes to render the ant and fly with exaggerated facial expressions and body language. With his beady eyes, twisted antennae, snarling mouth, flailing legs, and diminutive red body, the ant certainly looks mean while the larger, blue-green fly with his gossamer wings and goofy, gaptoothed grin appears an affable, unflappable foil against a background of empty desert and open sky. Readers will delight in the silly antics and wacky wordplay of these unlikely companions just as much as they’ll enjoy the conversational, tall-tale voice adopted by the narrator. A zany, hilarious first in a planned trilogy. (Picture book. 3- 7)
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ALL THE COLORS OF MAGIC
fuss with. The colors are all bold, each page with eye-catching and clear images. It’s lacking in tiny details but includes enough features such as belt and zipper to be defined and identifiable. The descriptive words, though often presented without context, include rich vocabulary such as “shivering,” “slogging,” and “fastening.” There are some inconsistencies, as with the “rain” page, which is the only featured word that isn’t an article of clothing—surprising, given the title and content. The similarly styled My Day includes the same touchable elements with broader categories like “make” and “draw” that allow for more fuel for the imagination. This one is mostly about the look and feel, but little readers will enjoy touching. (Board book. 0- 2) (My Day: 978-1-4521-7562-1)
Zinck, Valija Chicken House/Scholastic (288 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-338-54061-1
A 10-year-old girl with “hearingbefore-hearing” discovers the truth about her powers and her absentee dad. Penelope loves living with her mother and Granny Elizabeth in their little house on the outskirts of the swamp forest. In their seemingly all-white village, Penelope stands out: She has gray hair, she smells like fire, and she sometimes answers questions she hasn’t yet been asked. But one evening, after Penelope’s mother has spent several weeks in the hospital following a bad traffic accident, just before falling asleep, Penelope notices she doesn’t smell fire—and when she wakes up, her hair is bright red. Penelope learns her mother has been painting her hair gray with some kind of paste to protect her, and it has something to do with her long-vanished father. He also had red hair, and he could do a little magic. But he walked out on them when she was a baby, and now he’s stopped sending money. Slightly surreal touches that include a talking road keep the action light. Penelope’s concern with color extends not just to the magic of hair color or morose gray envelopes, but to the everyday: her house, speckled red and green like a dragon; a blue shoelace; a bottle-green dress. It’s a cheerfully childlike perspective, adding warmth even when Penelope is angry or frightened. The charming, comforting, and enjoyable tale of a magical girl discovering her (family and hair) roots. (Fantasy. 8-11)
I LOVE MOZART My First Sound Book
Listen to a few bars of famous Mozart compositions, as interpreted by animated cartoon animals. Showcasing—or at least playing—six different Mozart pieces, the book’s pages include clear, inset plastic buttons with embedded chips; each triggers a short, approximately 20-second snippet of music. Some will be familiar, such as a variation on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and some less so—but little ones will likely enjoy pushing the buttons repeatedly whether they recognize the music or not. Predictably, the sound quality produced by a tiny speaker compressed within a board book is not especially clear or crisp. In fact, unless the book is partially opened to the final page, the sounds are somewhat muffled, a distinct problem for a book dedicated to an orchestral composer. Flat, digitally rendered illustrations are heavy on primary colors and low on nuance, but they are charming enough as they valiantly attempt to interpret the music, with bears in classical garb dancing to “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.” It’s confusing that “Sonata Facile,” a piano piece that “moves swiftly along,” is played by a young tortoise; somewhat more successful is the dramatization of the short text’s (somewhat forced) musical metaphors, such as the “merry and bright” tropical birds that enjoy the “Clarinet Concerto.” Despite an educational veneer, this is mostly a noisy toy book. (Board book. 1-3)
b o a r d & n o v e lt y b o o k s CLOTHES
Illus. by. Alexander, Rilla Chronicle (16 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 8, 2019 978-1-4521-7561-4 Series: TouchWords Clothing items a child may wear throughout the year presented in a distinctive touch-and-feel board book. All of the usual suspects appear in this one, from hats to boots and everything in between. Each double-page spread identifies a category of clothing and presents a list of simple, descriptive words. More picture dictionary than story, the book places its focus on the illustrations and tactile elements. The “shirt” page, for example, includes a striped tee with a raised pocket. This design makes the book particularly friendly for the smallest of hands; it’s easy to get a sense of line and shape from running an open palm across it, no little parts or flaps to |
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Billet, Marion Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $9.99 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-1-338-54710-8
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POTTY ALL-STAR
gameness of the furry firefighters, the proceedings should excite and delight most tots. Short, sweet, and engaging; a sing-along introduction to furry first responders. (Board book. 1-3)
Burach, Ross Illus. by the author Scholastic (22 pp.) $7.99 | Sep. 3, 2019 978-1-338-28933-6
A young, diaper-wearing basketball player makes a play to use the potty. The tyke, with amber skin, brown eyes, and neck-length brown hair held in place with a sports headband, takes a couple of “shots” at using the toilet and is unsuccessful. The sports language continues as the youngster is coached by a grown-up, continues to train, heads for the “hoop” (aka the toilet seat), and successfully makes it to the potty before the buzzer sounds. Three grown-ups, likely immediate and extended family members, all with medium brown skin tones, act as the cheering crowd. All the stages of using the toilet are modeled, including flushing (which is the “swish” of the basketball net) and handwashing. The toddler receives a new uniform—a pair of underpants—and closes by encouraging readers to keep on practicing. While the sports metaphors may go over lots of little heads, this gender-neutral title breaks down the steps for using the potty clearly and concisely in the punchy and positive text. Burach’s illustrations are lively and animated and employ warm, bright colors. Appropriately enough, the characters resemble bobblehead dolls with their large eyes and oversized heads. Tots in training will find this a helpful and entertaining playbook. (Board book. 1-4)
THE WHEELS ON THE FIRE TRUCK
Burton, Jeffrey Illus. by Brown, Alison Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (16 pp.) $5.99 | May 21, 2019 978-1-5344-4244-3 “The Wheels on the Bus” gets an extra syllable, a siren, a hose, and a snazzy new ladder. This variation on the popular children’s song should hit the spot with budding truck aficionados among the diapered set. The text is a straight adaptation of “The Wheels on the Bus,” with firetruck and firefighting themes replacing the sights and sounds of a bus rider’s commute. The siren goes “Woowoo-woo,” the lights go “Flash, flash, flash,” the riders “hold on tight,” the ladder goes “up, up, up,” and the hose, of course, goes “swish-swish-swish—now, the fire’s out.” The book won’t win awards for originality, but it should be a toddler pleaser. The colors on the cover are an explosion of reflective red foil against a bright yellow background; the interior colors are more muted but still bright and cheery. The firefighters and onlookers are anthropomorphic animals in firefighter costume or civvies, as the case may be. Characters include a racoon, some bunnies, a fox, and a woodchuck, among others, all rendered in an accessible, cartoony style. Between the bright colors and the smiling 100
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WHO AM I? A Peek-Through-Pages Book of Endangered Animals
Clare, Rachel Illus. by Flach, Tim Abrams (48 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-1-4197-3646-9
A selection of endangered or threatened creatures play peekaboo with viewers in this vivid gallery of close-up portraits. Extracted from Endangered, his much larger 2017 coffeetable book for adults, Flach’s photographed figures are all riveting—mostly extreme close-ups, all reproduced with knife-edge clarity, and generally posed against flat black backgrounds that make the colors and patterns of feathers, fur, and scales pop. The design is finicky. Portraits, printed hints (“I am a gentle giant with a heart-shaped nose”; “I may be a very big cat, but you won’t hear me meow”), the titular refrain, and occasional filler scenes of concealing foliage or further details are all arranged to incorporate either die-cut holes through which the full pictures can be glimpsed or small uncut circles that seem to wish they were die cuts. Still, viewers will likely barely notice the inconsistency, having been brought eye to eye with animals including a panda, a polar bear, an axolotl, a rolled-up white-bellied pangolin, a magisterial Philippine eagle, and other rarities large and small, each of which positively radiates a fierce, expressive presence. Preceding a final page of general advice for planetary caretakers, the animals regather to explain how deforestation, pollution, and other negative human behavior have threatened their continued existence. Light on specific information but big on visual impact. (Informational novelty. 6-8)
GOD MADE THE OCEAN
Collins, Sarah Jean Illus. by the author Tyndale Kids (22 pp.) $7.99 | Jun. 4, 2019 978-1-4964-3633-7 Series: God Made
A theological exploration of the ocean-dwelling creatures and how God made them. With two sentences per double-page spread, Collins introduces young readers to sea horses, octopuses, manatees, spotted leopard rays, and more. Some of the couplets rhyme and some just almost rhyme, but all share a factual tidbit about the featured sea critter and how they were created by God’s design. |
Sweet and playful, with clear examples of how to share love with friends and family. little eva loves
LITTLE EVA LOVES
The animal facts are a mélange of the intriguing (sardines swim in schools, “mov[ing] like a shimmering ball”) and the vague (beluga whales have a “special sound”). While God is referred to with the masculine pronoun, the imagery is based in the natural world and the doctrine is broad, allowing this title to appeal to many faiths. Collins’ flat, geometric images, featuring heavily patterned backgrounds, soothing colors, and depictions of sea creatures stripped down to their basic shapes, are a mixed bag. Some are harmoniously soothing, like the jellyfish swimming through a chain of bubbles, while others are cluttered and confusing, such as the rectangular blocks of blue that background the oysters. The project ends with a heavily patterned sun rising (or setting) over an equally busy ocean with the declaration that God cares for the creatures of the ocean, but “he cares for you even more!” A mostly pleasant excursion for families seeking a Godcentered introduction to aquatic life. (Board book. 2-4)
Elliott, Rebecca Illus. by the author Cartwheel/Scholastic (16 pp.) $6.99 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-338-54910-2
MAIL MOVERS
Coyle, Finn Illus. by Bassani, Srimalie Flowerpot Press (14 pp.) $8.99 | Sep. 10, 2019 978-1-4867-1648-7 Series: Finn’s Fun Trucks Young vehicle maven Coyle goes postal in the latest installment of Finn’s Fun Trucks. While previous books in this series introduced a variety of specialized and potentially unfamiliar vehicles to young readers, this book features five familiar but dissimilar conveyances that do the same job in different locales. An ethnically diverse group of mail carriers deliver the mail by means of truck, snowmobile, bicycle, boat, and motorcycle, depending on the country and landscape where they live. As in previous books in the series, each vehicle is named by its driver on verso and illustrated on the facing page, with three key features labelled. In past books, the drivers would ask readers to guess what each vehicle does; readers would then open the flap with the vehicle’s picture on it to see it in action. In this book, the question is slightly different; for example, “I drive a snowmobile. Can you guess where I deliver the mail?” When the flap is opened, readers see a mail carrier on a snowmobile racing through deep drifts in northern Canada. The truck is used in the U.S., the bicycle in the Netherlands, the boat in Venice, Italy, and the motorcycle in Tokyo. Young readers learn that different settings require different solutions and get an introduction to world geography at the same time. Heavy Haulers publishes simultaneously, hewing to the series’ familiar format. Once again, the Finn’s Fun Trucks series delivers. (Board book. 2-6) (Heavy Haulers: 978-1-4867-1647-0)
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Elliott capitalizes on the success of her beginning-reader series Owl Diaries with a new Eva Wingdale story for the board-book audience. Describing an abstract concept like love for young toddlers is difficult. Too often the concept is reduced to sugary platitudes. In contrast, Eva Wingdale’s straightforward explanation is sweet but far from saccharine. Brief rhyming text on the left paired with pictures of young owl Eva and her friends on the right make the abstract concrete. “I love lending a helping hand” is illustrated by a picture of Eva holding an umbrella for an owl friend. Sharing treats and “big laughs that reach my toes” are fairly easy to illustrate. “Dressing up in silly clothes” doesn’t seem to have much to do with love but is a convenient rhyme while conveying playful camaraderie. Eva is just as colorful and expressive here as in the beginning readers. Her friends and family are as diverse as one might expect from a collection of cartoon owls with bulging owl eyes, spindly owl legs, and bright, almost garish costumes. It takes some searching to identify Eva on each page. Her pink face, her only consistent characteristic, is sometimes obscured by the costume changes on each page. Still, it’s a positive and affirming message about love. Sweet and playful, with clear examples of how to share love with friends and family. (Board book. 1-4)
AN ABC OF EQUALITY
Ewing, Chana Ginelle Illus. by Morgan, Paulina Frances Lincoln (52 pp.) $14.99 | Sep. 3, 2019 978-1-78603-742-8
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format. Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably |
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Illustrations are colorful, uncluttered, and humorously engaging. baby botanist
be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.” Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)
SWAN LAKE
Flint, Katy Illus. by Courtney-Tickle, Jessica Frances Lincoln (24 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-0-7112-4150-3 Series: The Story Orchestra A look-and-listen (albeit briefly) adaptation of a favorite ballet story. A diverse cast of dancers fills the pages of this very basic retelling of a Russian classic of the ballet repertoire. The spreadspanning illustrations are busily filled with lakeside swans sporting fancy, feathery costumes along with many trees, deer, foxes, and rabbits. The palace is pink and glittery and replete with chandeliers, curtains, and fancily costumed guests. There, Odile, malevolent-looking daughter of the evil sorcerer Rothbart, dances with Prince Siegfried and tricks him into believing that she is the lovely Odette, the enchanted swan, who looks bereft. The audience-pleasing national dances of Act 3 are not mentioned in the text nor depicted in the illustrations. Stagings of Swan Lake have always had various endings, some happy and some not so, as Prince Siegfried and his beloved Odette are united only in the afterlife. This version has them living happily ever after on Earth. The gimmick of this title is the 10 brief (10 seconds or so) sound clips that barely hint at the very beautiful score. Adults taking children to a performance may find this useful as an introduction, but listening to a suite of the music would be a better idea. The refreshingly inclusive casting—Siegfried, Odette, and Odile have brown skin, and there are many courtiers of color—does not mitigate the book’s flaws. Swans abound and good defeats evil in a simplified retelling. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book/novelty. 4- 7)
BABY BOTANIST
Gehl, Laura Illus. by Wiseman, Daniel HarperFestival (22 pp.) $8.99 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-0-06-284132-2 Series: Baby Scientist
curl proceeds to present a number of simply stated and easily understood plant facts. As with the previous books, the illustrations are colorful, uncluttered, and humorously engaging, and baby has a sidekick; this time it is a blue-and-yellow snail. After planting a seed, Baby wonders what plant will grow. The text explains that some plants have roots and some do not, and they might grow on water or underground. In a simple acknowledgment of a healthy diet, the book states “Baby’s favorite foods all come from plants.” Children are also presented with food they may not recognize as coming from plants, such as noodles and chocolate. In the end, the seed that Baby has planted, watered, and kept in the sunlight “grows into a flower for Mama!” and with that comes a big thank-you hug from Mama. A nice addition to this baby-attuned series. (Board book. 2-4)
UNICORN
Hegarty, Patricia Illus. by Galloway, Fhiona Tiger Tales (16 pp.) $8.99 | Sep. 1, 2019 978-1-68010-597-1 Series: My Little World A vibrant, tactile guide to colors. Each page features happy unicorns prancing through various landscapes introducing the different colors of the rainbow. A die-cut arch appears in the middle of each page, giving tiny fingers a chance to flip pages. Descending in size with each page turn, it is a modified rainbow that corresponds with the pastel hue introduced on each page. The surrounding images are detailed, placing the unicorns in lush settings where children can identify multiple creatures and plants in the various hues. The rhyming text is bouncy and fun to read aloud, and the letters float whimsically on the page, making it easy for emerging readers to follow along. Relatively advanced vocabulary such as “galloping” and “swish” will keep older readers engaged. The co-published Flamingo focuses on counting, each page featuring bright pink birds and chicks playing on sandy beaches throughout the course of a beautiful, sunny day; its die-cut gimmick is simply the shape of a flamingo’s body, and both its text and illustrations are more pedestrian than Unicorn’s. Overall, the books are enjoyable enough but do not stand out, making them a solid choice but not necessarily an exciting one. Introduces colors in a pleasing but not outstanding way. (Board book. 1-3) (Flamingo: 978-1-68010-598-8)
In this newest addition to the Baby Scientist series toddlers are introduced to the basics of what a botanist does. The book starts with a simple and straightforward explanation of its subject matter: “Who studies plants? / Baby Botanist does!” Wearing a white lab coat with yellow polka dots, a brownskinned child with a purple hair bow holding up its one little 102
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CHRISTMAS IS COMING!
it’s not completely overwhelming. Aside from the adorable Asian baby on the cover, the very last spread is the only one with photographs of people, and it includes both a white baby with Down syndrome and a couple babies of color. Overall, no gimmicks, nothing overdone—it succeeds in its purpose. Grab this one instead of a multitude of narrowly focused, lesser-quality picture dictionaries for babies. (Board book. 1-3)
Illus. by Hickey, Katie Chronicle (72 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 15, 2019 978-1-4521-7407-5
A front-cover advent calendar with die-cut flaps cues 24 seasonal activities for the run-up to Christmas. Between guidelines for a letter to Santa on Dec. 1 and the full text of “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas” on Dec. 24, Hickey assembles a mix of amusements. These include games, recipes, luminarias and other crafts, jokes (“How does a sheep say ‘Merry Christmas’?” “Fleece Navidad!”), and songs—plus retold versions of “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and The Nutcracker. The illustrations, as cozy as the contents, offer festoons of evergreens and ornaments and depictions of tidy homes and small businesses nestled closely together in snowy landscapes; yummy treats; and wrapped gifts. Sweater-clad figures (both white and people of color) celebrate in various combinations before all coming together in a crowded living room to open presents on Christmas morning. Except for the occasional carol and hanging star, it’s a secularized and nonsectarian view of the holiday season, but the values of sharing, giving, eating together, and otherwise valuing family and community all receive proper notice. With the exception of the luminarias, traditions depicted skew toward generic Western European/ North American observances. Safe—if unexceptional of content (and physically problematic in library settings). (Novelty anthology. 6-9)
YUM YUMMY YUCK Jones, Amanda Jane Illus. by Jones, Cree Lane Prestel (30 pp.) $9.95 | Sep. 17, 2019 978-3-7913-7405-5
FIRST 101 WORDS A Highlights Hide-and-Seek Book With Flaps Highlights for Children Highlights Learning (14 pp.) $9.99 | Sep. 24, 2019 978-1-68437-660-5
A large-format board book with 101 photographs of items including animals, vehicles, and body parts. The book’s approach is straightforward: It contains pages of labeled photographs arranged by category. Some of the images are printed on flaps that encourage readers to identify colors, numbers, shapes, and sounds. For those looking to save shelf space, it condenses what could have been eight books into one. The items themselves are largely familiar to young readers— things found at home, during mealtimes, and outdoors—in addition to the usual suspects such as trucks and animals. A cartoon bird, introduced as the guide on the front cover, poses questions to readers on each page: “Which picture shows four?” It’s a nice touch and helps boost interaction. The photographs themselves are clear and brightly colored against solid backgrounds in neatly aligned blocks. While the design makes the pages appear busy, |
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Not everything that looks yummy belongs in our tummies! There are so many genuinely yummy foods in the world, like ice cream, milk, doughnuts, and watermelon. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of things that may look yummy—such as crayons, coins, sand, and Band-Aids—but that just don’t taste very good. In this book, the loosely patterned text classifies images as “yum,” “yummy,” or “yuck,” elucidating for children the difference between what looks good and what actually tastes good. Overall, “yummy” foods tend to have a higher sugar content than those labeled “yum.” The simple, clean illustrations feature a cool palette of colors and whimsical designs that are perfect for very young readers. Unfortunately, the text lacks the same age appropriateness. The language is often too sophisticated for small children, using phrases like “you’ll immediately regret it” and “looks can be deceiving” that seem meant for the adults reading the book aloud rather than the children listening to it. Even more problematically, the book’s attempts at tonguein-cheek humor often end up sounding preachy, as the narrator admonishes young children for the developmentally appropriate—albeit gross and often terrifying—pattern of exploring the world with their mouths. In particular, a page that suddenly features instructions on how to properly wash hands is a non sequitur that feels more like a lecture than an organic place for the story to go. Snazzy illustrations in the service of preachy, disappointing text. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
MY BIG BOOK OF SOUNDS
Kiko Illus. by the author Trans. by Hardenberg, Wendeline A. Twirl/Chronicle (24 pp.) $19.99 | Aug. 26, 2019 978-2-40801-285-4
A vocabulary-building book with a twist. Alternating between two- and one-page spreads, this board book features bustling, detailed pictures accompanied by |
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simple, one-word labels in clean black text. Words are grouped according to themes such as “In the house,” which features keys, a vacuum cleaner, and a computer arranged in a neat grid, and “In the Bedroom,” which features a charming scene of a mother putting a baby to bed in a crib. As the book progresses, the words move farther away from the familiar, touching on tools, transportation, musical instruments, and a wide variety of wild and domestic birds and animals. The battery-operated bar to the right of the pages allows children to press a button coded with an icon specific to each respective page. When pressed, a female voice reads the words on the appropriate page aloud, along with accompanying sounds, such as the shake of a rattle, the ring of an alarm clock, and the soft notes of a musical mobile. One press results in a full reading of every word on the page, something that may not be intuitive to very young children used to buttons being coded to one, and only one, sound. The bold, solid blocks of color keep the illustrations interesting without cluttering them, and the human characters are varied in skin tone, hair texture, and gender presentation. Overall, a solid choice for both very young children and children who are just beginning to read. (Board book. 6 mos.-4)
PEPPA’S GIANT PUMPKIN
Lizzio, Samantha Illus. by eOne Scholastic (10 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jul. 30, 2019 978-1-338-33922-2 Series: Peppa Pig
Peppa hopes to join her classmates in a Halloween pumpkin competition in this adaptation of a story from the popular British television program Peppa Pig. With the help of Granny and Grandpa Pig, Peppa turns her giant pumpkin, which is the size of a compact car, into a jack-o’-lantern. The trio is flummoxed when it comes time to transport the pumpkin to the competition, so they call on Miss Rabbit and her helicopter to airlift the pumpkin to the festivities as Peppa and her grandparents ride inside. Peppa arrives just in time for the contest and wins the prize for best flying pumpkin. The scenes look as if they are pulled directly from the television show, right down to the rectangular framing of some of the scenes. While the story is literally nothing new, the text is serviceable, describing the action in two to three sentences per page. The pumpkin-shaped book and orange foil cover will likely attract youngsters, whether they are Peppa fans or not. This TV rerun in board-book form has nothing new to offer. (Board book. 2-4)
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ROAR! ROAR! I’M A DINOSAUR!
Lodge, Jo Illus. by the author Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $8.99 | Sep. 3, 2019 978-1-338-54781-8 Little ones can move the wings, feet, tail, or mouth of three different dinosaurs and one pterosaur via sliding panels. On one double-page spread, young readers meet a friendly stegosaurus as the text reads “Stegosaurus / Stomp! Clomp! / Go its great big feet.” A one-sentence fact on the species (“Stegosaurus was as long as a bus!”) floats in a smaller font on the page, and a pronunciation guide in parentheses sits in the bottom-left corner. The sounds “Stomp! Clomp!” are printed again near the arrow directing little digits to an embedded panel to push up or pull down, making the creature stomp and clomp its feet. This pattern is repeated three more times on other spreads featuring a pterodactyl with wings to flap, a diplodocus with a tail to swish, and a tyrannosaurus rex with jaws to snap. Lodge’s art is pleasingly flat and cartoony, employing simple shapes and patterns, googly eyes, bold colors, and playful smiles. While the book is slight on page count, the thick pages, sturdy panels, and easy-to-manipulate sliding mechanisms mean the interactive features are likely to survive several hours of robust play. Even though the image is later repeated on the inner pages, the T. rex on the cover steals the show with eyelids and mouth that shift in a playfully menacing manner with each slide of the panel. This should be a hit. (Board book. 1-3)
THE AMICUS BOOK OF ABC
Lundie, Isobel Illus. by the author Amicus Ink (26 pp.) $8.99 | Aug. 6, 2019 978-1-68152-568-6
A collage-based approach to the ABC’s. In both this book and the co-published The Amicus Book of 123, Lundie couples expertly rendered graphic collage with onomatopoeia-packed text to introduce children to the alphabet and counting, respectively. The illustrations in these books are particularly impressive, featuring layers and textures that make the images bounce off the pages: The jar of “jelly” has satisfying globs of strawberry goo surrounding an octagonal jar. While the pictures in ABC are child friendly—including a friendly dinosaur, a goofy-looking goat, and a kite that swishes across the page—the images in 123, which include a fried egg and house plants, feel more adult. In both books, small missteps, such as choosing “ship” for S in ABC, thereby using a blend instead of the phonetic sound, and placing six collaged bees atop a lowcontrast waxy yellow background in 123, indicate a lack of familiarity with best practices for introducing children to letters and counting. Generally, though, the detailed pictures coupled with |
Visually, it’s holly-jolly. teeny tiny santa
the verb-packed text in both books give readers a delightful feeling of motion, and the vocabulary and text are well suited to beginning readers who are just starting to recognize words and letters. With its companion, colorful, beautifully illustrated additions to the ABC and 123 shelves. (Board book. 2-4) (The Amicus Book of 123: 978-1-68152-569-3)
with an appropriately tiny trim, a diminutive fox worries that Santa will overlook him because he is “too little / And Santa’s sled too high.” But the “teeny tiny fox”—and toddler listeners—is reassured that he won’t be forgotten when the titular “teeny tiny Santa” not only notices the fox, but brings him a fun-sized “teeny tiny treat,” finishing up the visit with a “teeny tiny pat”—all images that are sure to delight youngsters. Santa leaves as the fox curls up in a den carpeted with a cozy blanket and bedecked with lights; it’s a gratifying ending. The text is related in a staccato rhythm, and it takes a verse or two to become accustomed to the book’s clipped tone, but the repetitive “teeny tiny” refrain is catchy. Visually, it’s holly-jolly, with clean-looking digital art using simple geometric shapes to form triangular trees and circular, grinning snowman while icy blue-green backgrounds allow the flashy copper fox and paleskinned Santa, with his “ruby-colored” cheeks, to look vibrant. The rotund Santa, the angular and sleek fox, and a team of wee reindeer all have a vintage, 1950s look that well complements the straightforward story. Festive fun. (Board book. 1-4)
PRAYERS FOR LITTLE HEARTS
Magsamen, Sandra Illus. by the author Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $6.99 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-338-35981-7
GOODNIGHT, CONSTELLATIONS
Illus. by McAlister, Rachel Running Press Kids (20 pp.) $9.99 | Sep. 24, 2019 978-0-7624-9460-6 A toddler’s first guide to the Western constellations. The book begins with Orion, which is arguably the most familiar and easiest constellation to find, and follows with Canis Major, a collection of stars that looks remarkably like the dog it is supposed to represent. As the book continues, the constellations grow more and more abstract, like Cassiopeia, in which four stars supposedly represent the body of a reclining maiden. No matter how complex the image may be, the whimsical, cartoon drawings help children imagine the pictures that the ancients found between the stars. The soft, gently drawn stars and clouds in the black night sky make a wonderful contrast to the brightly rendered depictions of the constellations. The text is simple and straightforward, describing each constellation in a few sentences. The whole concept of constellations is fairly advanced for a young audience, and there is no introduction or endnote, so caregivers and educators will need to look elsewhere for further context or extension activities. Additionally, embossed text on the back cover and the raised feel of the image on the cover add a tactile element that will delight young readers, who will wish it carried throughout the book. This carefully illustrated, simple introduction will work best when paired with other resources. (Board book. 2-4)
TEENY TINY SANTA
Matson, Rachel Illus. by Chou, Joey Cartwheel/Scholastic (16 pp.) $5.99 | Sep. 17, 2019 978-1-338-31849-4 A small fox receives a special holiday visitor: a Santa who is just his size. How often do young children fear the world is too big and overwhelming to notice them? In this adorable board book |
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Precious, nursery-style animals and plants decorate the pages of five classic religious adages. In this hodgepodge collection, Magsamen illustrates childhood prayers with her traditional faux quilting style, featuring candy-colored pastel tones, too-sentimental cartoon animals, and grinning suns, moons, and flowers. There’s a strong heart theme throughout, with a heart-shaped nose on a lamb and similarly shaped birds’ wings. It’s cute but almost entirely generic. Some of the traditional sayings, such as “God made the sun,” are re-created verbatim; others are expanded or altered, as when “I see the moon and the moon sees me” receives additional lines about kissing “nighty-night.” None of these additions adds much to the original, and most have a meter that sounds just a little off. The poems are written in thin, handwritten white letters that don’t always have enough contrast to be seen easily against the background, and the occasional colorfully highlighted and patterned words cramp the page. The simultaneously publishing ’Twas the Night Before Christmas! is purely derivative, with alterations that drastically truncate and remove all the character of the original poem. It reads aloud poorly, particularly to ears accustomed to the original. Both share a tall, narrow trim size that is somewhat unwieldy to hold with a child in the lap. Blandly pleasant; entirely skippable. (Board book. 1-3) (’Twas the Night Before Christmas!: 978-1-338-35980-0)
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Onomatopoeic words repeated three times add energy and rhythm. i love me
LITTLE FINGERS BALLET
Mireles, Ashley Marie Illus. by Skomorokhova, Olga Familius (10 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 16, 2019 978-1-64170-155-6
Children are invited to play by slipping pink or blue-andwhite tights on their fingers, putting them through die-cut holes in either or both of the female and male leads, and dancing to scenes from six ballet classics. Each ballet is represented by one double-page spread. Coppélia (incorrectly spelled “Coppèlia”), the titular doll, dances for Dr. Coppelius. Cinderella and her prince perform steps at a ball. Solor flies high in La Bayadère. The Snow Queen pirouettes for the King. Romeo and Juliette turn and step, and, finally, a swan dances for a prince. The ballets are not named, and while Cinderella and an enchanted swan may be familiar to very young readers, La Bayadère, a Russian ballet set in India, Romeo and Juliette, based on the Shakespeare play about doomed lovers, and The Snow Queen, based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, most likely are not. All the dancers—some white and some brown-skinned—are round-faced with big eyes and blushing cheeks. It is not clear what the suggested activity can actually accomplish without any accompanying music or background information on the ballets. The steps that appear in the text in boldface (“relevés,” “battements,” “attitude turn,” etc.) are not explained and are difficult if not impossible to mimic using fingers. Furthermore, in addition to the occasional typo, there is a maddening plot mistake in the brief text: It is not the “lead swan,” Odette, who performs the 32 “fouettés” in Swan Lake; it is the Black Swan. A flop. (Novelty board book. 3-5)
PROUD TO BE LATINO Food / Comida
Mireles, Ashley Marie Illus. by Valle, Edith Familius (18 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 1, 2019 978-1-64170-154-9
A board-book introduction to the different foods of Latin America. Attractive and colorful illustrations present foods from different Latin American countries alongside text that mentions differences and commonalities. Double-page spreads present the information in English on the left-hand side and Spanish on the right. Unfortunately, there is a mistake in the Spanish on almost every page. An article that does not match its noun: “un gran comida.” Nouns that do not match their adjectives: “papas fritos,” “algunas salsa.” Plain old proofreading mistakes: “hoja de lurel” (for “hoja de laurel”), “pasterlería” (for “pastelería”), “coco caliente” (presumably for “cocoa caliente,” which is more commonly known as “chocolate caliente” but in any event has nothing to do with coconuts). (The power of proofreading 106
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should never be underestimated.) Some might make readers laugh if they weren’t so awful: “la región de Andrés” for “la región andina.” And the final blow comes with the use of the word “Latino.” This term is a uniquely United States construct to refer to people from Latin America living in the United States. Cacao may have been used as currency on Latin American trade routes, but it was not used on “Latino trade routes.” Moreover, people are described by their demonyms, so Pablo Neruda is not a “Latino poet,” he is a Chilean poet. It is hard to be “Proud to be Latino” when so many mistakes abound. (Board book. 4-6)
’TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS Moore, Clement C. Illus. by Cutting, David A. Flowerpot Press (20 pp.) $7.99 | Sep. 3, 2019 978-1-4867-1774-3 Series: Flowerpot Holiday
The complete text of “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” delivered on board pages. The poem is as jaunty as ever, but it’s not natural fare for board-book readers due to its length. On average, three stanzas appear per double-page spread; they are set mostly in white type that floats over the dark, nighttime scenes. Cutting’s modeled, cartoony art is an uneven mix. Some images, such as St. Nick’s face and beard, are quite detailed—indeed, his wrinkles and smile are often eerily unchanging from page to page, suggesting a cut-and-paste job—but both the first-person narrator of the poem and the reindeer appear blurry. Many of the scenes feel too crowded for the format, especially the doublepage spread showing and naming the eight reindeer, who are sandwiched together in a foreshortened string, making them difficult to identify and count. At times the art defies logic— readers will wonder why this family would leave candles burning on their Christmas tree after they had gone to bed. At other times, it does not completely reflect the text; Santa looks a little too clean after he comes down the chimney despite the text’s explicit “ashes and soot.” Human characters all present white. An overcrowded, uneven package. (Board book. 3-5)
I LOVE ME
Morgan, Sally & Kwaymullina, Ambelin Illus. by the authors Andrews McMeel (24 pp.) $8.99 | Sep. 3, 2019 978-1-5248-5116-3 This Australian import is a 24-page affirmation of selfworth for children everywhere. Morgan and Kwaymullina, both from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, use traditional |
101 TRUCKS And Other Mighty Things That Go
Aboriginal-style art to illustrate the unique attributes that make a child loved and lovable. Vibrant, patterned colors in deep, rich hues frame each page while dots, stripes, stars, and swirling bands of color emphasize the joyous message. Two smiling brown-skinned children, sometimes joined by a blackand-white spotted dog, are haloed in variously colored auras that emphasize their singularity and seem to radiate self-love. The occasional rhymes in the text are unobtrusive but not forced. “Thin” is rhymed with “green,” and “loud” with “proud.” But when a rhyme is not readily available, the rhyme scheme is sensibly abandoned in favor of clarity; there is no attempt to rhyme “I love me! I love my ears. I love my laugh. / I love the way my toes make art.” Onomatopoeic words repeated three times (“tap,” “thump,” etc.) add energy and rhythm. On the next-to-last page, one child with crossed arms looks directly at readers to ask, “Who else would I be?” before returning to the refrain, “And I love, love, love me!” You just gotta “love, love, love” this joy-filled book. (Board book. 1-3)
Prince, April Jones Illus. by Kolar, Bob Cartwheel/Scholastic (14 pp.) $8.99 | May 28, 2019 978-1-338-25938-4
LITTLE BIG NATE DRAWS A BLANK
Peirce, Lincoln Illus. by the author Andrews McMeel (12 pp.) $7.99 | Sep. 3, 2019 978-1-5248-5178-1
Young Nate brainstorms different animals he might draw before falling asleep. In this junior version of Peirce’s popular Big Nate series, a gap-toothed, preschool-age Nate sees possibilities in his “brandnew box of crayons.” In silly rhyming couplets with a pleasant cadence, Nate lists and imagines animals he might draw but quickly rejects his ideas: a toad as “too bumpy!” or a cricket as “too jumpy!” On the final page, Nate fulfills the title’s wordplay and drifts off having “draw[n] a blank,” never committing to any drawing at all. Since it features a well-known character, drawn in Peirce’s familiar cartoon style, this board book will have a builtin fan base waiting to fall in love with little Big Nate. Unfortunately, the ending falls flat, making the book come across more as a series of illustrations designed around a forced joke than a worthy story of its own. Still, it’s a visual treat: Nate’s face is wonderfully expressive, and there’s a sweetly unpolished feeling about the drawings Nate imagines, which mimic a child’s spontaneity. Young readers will be drawn to the comical touches, like a “too chilly” penguin wearing a knitted wool cap or a “too inky” octopus, all in bold saturated colors. Alas, the “too silly” monkey with bananas in its ears will alienate readers familiar with the degrading, historical association of monkeys with people of African descent. It’s slight, but it’ll be enjoyed by little siblings who have been looking for their own personal intros to Big Nate. (Board book. 2-4)
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This oversized board book covers trucks of all types, from construction vehicles to farming equipment. There really are 101 different trucks, and readers can even see (and count!) them all together on the final spread. Each double-page spread features a different truck type, with a short description. The accompanying illustrations show one in action on the verso while the recto presents stand-alone, labeled pictures of an additional 15 or more. The text itself is simple and straightforward. The general, brief descriptions of each type are helpful, but none of the individual trucks have explanations. Because the illustrations largely appear with no context, this can make understanding the work of the less-common vehicles—the “cold planer,” for example—a challenge. Additionally, some trucks are listed under confusing headings. The bookmobile is listed as a “helper” truck even though the “carriers” are defined on the previous spread as “bring[ing] books or baggage.” The illustrations are cute, all rendered so that the front headlights and grille become facial features. Even with this anthropomorphization, each still has an impressive amount of detail. Enthusiasts will love the inclusion of lesser-known trucks such as the “trencher” and “storm chaser” and will also delight in seeing familiar favorites. It doesn’t dig deep for truck information, but it hauls high-interest illustrations for young fanatics. (Board book. 1-3)
GOODNIGHT, RAINBOW CATS
Urío, Bàrbara Castro Illus. by the author Chronicle (26 pp.) $10.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-4521-8213-1
As a bevy of colored cats arrive one by one, small die-cut windows burst into color. In this Catalonian import, a simply outlined white house waits for a prismatic collection of feline friends to return home. On the verso, readers meet and glimpse the cat that’s heading indoors; with a page turn, that cat disappears and another brightly colored die-cut window illuminates, letting readers know that kitty has made it safely inside. Using a soothing conversational tone that’s ideal for bedtime reading, the omniscient narrator cozily describes the domestic scene that awaits each cat—Little Brown Cat, for instance, returns “to a big warm bed in the big white house!”—before bidding each goodnight. It all culminates in a snuggly final page showing the kitties all bedded |
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down. Each cat is introduced with a colored typeset, helping children predict what color window will appear next, and the cat’s names vary, with both basic monikers like Little Pink Cat and those with pizzazz, like Little Lime-Green Cat, allowing the text to be predictable without feeling formulaic. Ironically, the roughly silhouetted cats are the weakest part of the book, and the rainbow colors are somewhat muddied, though they’re still striking in the windows. Made of durable cardboard, the die-cut pages are sturdy and will hold up to enthusiastic fingers. Eclectic and effective—this board book is the cat’s meow. (Board book. 1-3)
ONE MORE WHEEL! A Things-That-Go Counting Book
Venable, Colleen AF Illus. by Russo, Blythe Odd Dot (22 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 20, 2019 978-1-250-30759-0
A large, green reptile and a beaver roll out vehicles with an ever increasing number of wheels in this counting book. The crocodilian creature begins the counting exercise by happily riding on a unicycle and stating “One wheel!” via speech bubble. The beaver storms off in a huff—a scribbly black cloud over its head—and comes back on a bicycle declaring, “One MORE wheel!” Each page turn brings with it another vehicle with “one more wheel” than the conveyance prior as the critters try to out-do each other, shouting the titular repeated phrase. There’s a monster truck with four wheels, a five-wheeled desk chair, and a race car with six wheels. A white numeral printed in a large, colorful quarter-circle in the upper-left-hand corner indicates the number of wheels. This is useful, as several of the contraptions have wheels that are difficult to count. The roller skates’ eight wheels are too small, for instance, and many of the wheels are hard to discern as they are on the far side of the vehicles, as in the case of the nine wheels on the boat trailer/ pickup truck combo. On the final double-page spread the beaver and reptile have finally joined forces to drive a 10-wheeled locomotive that pulls “ALL THE WHEELS!” Readers can then review all the contraptions that have come before with two telescoping panels that slide out in graduating sizes from the final page. Russo’s droll cartoons on white backgrounds enliven the project, as do three spinnable wheels on the cover. Toddlers will likely enjoy the vehicles, but, as a counting book, this one doesn’t add up. (Board book. 2-4)
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LET’S FIND THE TIGER
Illus. by Willmore, Alex Tiger Tales (12 pp.) $9.99 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-1-68010-583-4
Search the jungle for the missing tiger. Tiger is missing! Where can he be? Addressing readers directly, this book takes them through a series of false leads throughout a vibrant jungle filled with life. A striped tail, for example, turns out to be a snake, tiger-sharp teeth are revealed to belong to a crocodile, and it seems the curly whiskers are actually the feathers of a tropical parrot. Finally, readers find the tiger asleep in his cave—and when he wakes up, he’s ready to play! Each page of this lift-the-flap board book features clever comparisons between tigers and other animals in the jungle. Companion title Let’s Find the Penguin is a similarly entertaining if not so coherent tour of polar regions, introducing young readers to animals and terrain typical of a frozen ecosystem. It, however, commits the too-common sin of conflating Antarctica with the Arctic, placing a mélange of elements in the same implied environment: penguins, puffins, and polar bears; trees, icebergs, and, cringe-inducingly, igloos. In both, interactions are well designed, ranging from soft felt flaps sure to delight little fingers to precisely cut peepholes on the intricately illustrated pages. Likewise, the pictures, rendered in cool, soothing colors, are beautifully thought out, including just the right amount of detail to allow readers to discover something new with each return visit. Charmingly fun. (Board book. 1-4) (Let’s Find the Penguin: 978-1-68010-582-7)
UP DOWN INSIDE OUT
Yoon, JooHee Illus. by the author Enchanted Lion Books (64 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 10, 2019 978-1-59270-280-0 A cast of eccentric humans and animals enacts 18 aphorisms in this interac-
tive title. Employing red and blue—and the range of tones that layering yields—Yoon has created a series of prints that will both amuse and give pause. On verso, a red-hot wall foregrounds “A watched pot [that] never boils” while four chefs on the recto, surrounding an enormous box of realistic-looking pasta, stare impatiently. (Skin color varies from literal white or black to speckled blue or crimson.) Flaps, die cuts, and a gatefold create anticipation and delight as surprises are unveiled in the ever shifting, surreal world. “You are what you eat” reveals a child’s head transformed into a gigantic broccoli floret. The heat of the reds and the busyness of abundant textures and patterns are mitigated by creamy white backgrounds or deep, moody blues, as when a man in the night opens his black trench coat to reveal |
his store of stolen watches, illustrating “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” Yoon dishes up absurdity in the form of an elegantly dressed pig, a sense of danger with a rabbit-hunting wolf, and opportunities for comparison and reflection, as, for example, when the same conjoined figures are paired with the (unfortunate) choice “Liars and gossips are siamese [sic] twins,” and, later, “Two heads are better than one.” This tour de force of concept and design will engage the minds and hands of a wide swath of ages. (Novelty. 5-12)
CHRISTMAS PUPPY A Wag My Tail Book
Yoon, Salina Illus. by the author Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (12 pp.) $7.99 | Sep. 17, 2019 978-1-5344-4343-3
THE DISCOVERY OF ANIME & MANGA
Amara, Phil & Chin, Oliver Illus. by Calle, Juan Immedium (40 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 15, 2019 978-1-59702-146-3 Series: The Asian Hall of Fame (Informational picture book. 5-9)
I WISH I WAS A BISON
Bové, Jennifer Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | $4.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-0-06-243226-1 978-0-06-243225-4 paper Series: Ranger Rick (Early reader. 4-8)
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Puppy finds Christmas presents under the tree for all of his friends as he searches to uncover his own. Yoon gives life to Puppy, complete with a movable, wagging tail. Knowing that he has a gift under the Christmas tree, Puppy searches for his but finds only those for his animal friends. Onomatopoeic text on the bottom right corner of each page (“Squeak! Squeak!”; “Meow! Meow!”) foreshadow which animal’s gift Puppy finds on the next page. He persists with no luck until he hears the classic “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and discovers his gift— a bone. Puppy’s felt-covered tail protrudes over the pages at the top of the book (he hunches down under the tree throughout). It wags with the smooth left-to-right pull of a sturdy tab that is accessible from every page. Because of this, Puppy remains in the same position throughout the book, with his expressions changing to show his growing disappointment. The illustrations are in Yoon’s signature simple style of bold colors with a thick black outline, offering just the right amount of detail. There are labeled gift tags, tiny candy canes on wrapping paper, and spokes on the wheels of the train. While the story itself uses a familiar trope, it will certainly appeal to toddlers with its brisk pace and predictable pattern. The joy of making Puppy’s tail wag excitedly or slowly back and forth is sure to delight any young reader. Puppy’s enthusiasm and waggable tail hold high appeal for little readers. (Board book. 1-2)
continuing series
WORLD WAR II
Charman, Katrina Little, Brown (224 pp.) $7.99 paper | Oct. 15, 2019 978-0-316-47793-2 Series: Survival Tails (Historical fantasy. 8-12)
KNOCK THREE TIMES
Cowell, Cressida Little, Brown (400 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 15, 2019 978-0-316-50842-1 Series: The Wizards of Once, 3 (Fantasy. 8-12)
I WANT TO BE A PILOT
Driscoll, Laura Illus. by Echeverri, Catalina Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | $4.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-0-06-243250-6 978-0-06-243249-0 paper Series: My Community (Informational early reader. 4-8)
JOE’S NEW WORLD
Farrer, Maria Illus. by Rieley, Daniel Sky Pony (288 pp.) $8.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2018 978-1-5107-3911-6 paper Series: Me and Mister P., 2 (Fantasy. 8-12)
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WAKE UP, CRABBY!
THE INVASION OF THE SCUTTLEBOTS
Fenske, Jonathan Illus. by the author Branches/Scholastic (48 pp.) $4.99 paper | $23.99 PLB | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-338-28161-3 paper 978-1-338-28163-7 PLB Series: Crabby (Fantasy. 5-9)
Lawrence, Mike Illus. by the author First Second (192 pp.) $14.99 paper | Nov. 12, 2019 978-1-250-19109-0 Series: Star Scouts, 3 (Graphic science fiction. 8-12)
CHRISTMAS CAROL & THE SHIMMERING ELF
Miles, Ellen Scholastic Paperbacks (96 pp.) $5.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-338-30306-3 Series: The Puppy Place, 55 (Fiction. 7-10)
TINY TOUGH
Pantermüller, Alice Illus. by Kohl, Daniela Sterling (160 pp.) $12.95 | Oct. 8, 2019 978-1-4549-3625-1 Series: My Life as Lotta, 2 (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
Fouch, Robert L. Sky Pony (254 pp.) $15.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-1-5107-5099-9 Series: Christmas Carol, 2 (Fantasy. 8-12)
HOW LAMB IS THAT
Hanlon, Abby Illus. by the author Dial (160 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 8, 2019 978-0-525-55397-7 Series: Dory Fantasmagory, 5 (Fiction. 6-8)
THE TYRANT’S TOMB
THOMAS EDISON Lighting the Way
Riordan, Rick Disney-Hyperion (448 pp.) $19.99 | Sep. 24, 2019 978-1-4847-4644-8 Series: The Trials of Apollo, 4 (Fantasy. 10-14)
Houran, Lori Haskins Illus. by Mazali, Gustavo Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | $4.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2019 978-0-06-243288-9 978-0-06-243287-2 paper Series: I Can Read! History (Informational early reader. 4-8)
SLAP SHOT
Sabino, David Illus. by Fiadzigbey, Setor Simon Spotlight (40 pp.) $17.99 | $4.99 paper | Oct. 15, 2019 978-1-5344-4442-3 978-1-5344-4441-6 paper Series: Game Day (Informational early reader. 5-7)
SKYSCRAPERS The Heights of Engineering
Kerschbaum, John Illus. by the author First Second (128 pp.) $19.99 | $12.99 paper | Nov. 19, 2019 978-1-62672-795-3 978-1-62672-794-6 paper Series: Science Comics (Graphic nonfiction. 9-13)
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SLUMBER PARTY SPARKLES
Siwa, JoJo Amulet/Abrams (128 pp.) $6.99 paper | Oct. 15, 2019 978-1-4197-4328-3 Series: JoJo & BowBow, 4 (Fiction. 6-9)
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HOW DID YOU MISS THAT? A Story for Teaching Self-Monitoring Smith, Bryan Illus. by Griffin, Lisa M. Boys Town Press (32 pp.) $10.95 paper | Oct. 8, 2019 978-1-944882-45-7 Series: Executive FUNction (Fiction. 5-11)
ON THIN ICE
Soontornvat, Christina Illus. by Szucs, Barbara Szepesi Scholastic (128 pp.) $5.99 paper | Oct. 1, 2019 978-1-338-35399-0 Series: Diary of an Ice Princess, 3 (Fantasy. 6-9)
KAI AND THE MONKEY KING
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Todd-Stanton, Joe Illus. by the author Flying Eye (56 pp.) $18.95 | Oct. 22, 2019 978-1-912497-11-9 Series: Brownstone’s Mythical Collection, 3 (Graphic fantasy. 5-9)
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young adult ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM GIRL
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Courtney, Nadine Jolie Farrar, Straus and Giroux (432 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 12, 2019 978-0-374-30952-7
ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM GIRL by Nadine Jolie Courtney............. 112 FLOWERS IN THE GUTTER by K.R. Gaddy.................................... 113 A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN by Brigid Kemmerer............ 115 JANE ANONYMOUS by Laurie Faria Stolarz..................................120
Allie Abraham is tired of being a “receptacle for unguarded Just Between Us White People ignorance” and discomfort. Moving from place to place with her Circassian Jordanian professor father and white American psychologist mother, Allie has been a chameleon, blending in as the perfect all-American girl. Very few people know that Allie is actually Alia and that both her parents are Muslim. Her mother converted upon marrying her no-longer-practicing father, who encourages his daughter to take advantage of the pale skin and reddish-blonde hair that help her avoid being profiled. Allie yearns to connect to her religion and heritage—and to her Teta, the grandmother with whom she is only able to communicate in broken Arabic. Her new boyfriend, Wells Henderson, seems so genuine and likable, unlike his father, a conservative, xenophobic cable newscaster. As Allie embraces all the parts of who she is and confronts Islamophobia, she wonders if others can fully accept her growth. The book handles the complexity and intersectionality of being a Muslim American woman with finesse, addressing many aspects of identity and Islamic opinions. Allie, who has a highly diverse friend group, examines her white-passing privilege and race as well as multiple levels of discrimination, perceptions of conversion, feminism, sexual identity, and sexuality. While grounded in the American Muslim experience, the book has universal appeal thanks to its nuanced, well-developed teen characters whose struggles offer direct parallels to many other communities. Phenomenal. (Fiction. 13-18)
FLOWERS IN THE GUTTER
Gaddy, K.R. Dutton (320 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-5255-5541-4
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FLOWERS IN THE GUTTER
Gaddy, K.R. Dutton (320 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-5255-5541-4
THE PRETENDERS
Hanover, Rebecca Sourcebooks Fire (416 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 10, 2019 978-1-4926-6513-7 Series: The Similars In this sequel to The Similars (2018), tensions rise as the villains reveal a ploy to exact revenge on the Ten and their families and ultimately take over the world. When Emma Chance returns to her elite boarding school, Darkwood Academy, for her senior year, things are different: Her best friend, Ollie Ward, is back while Levi Gravelle, Ollie’s clone and Emma’s love interest, has been imprisoned on Castor Island. More importantly, Emma is coming to terms with the contents of a letter from Gravelle which states that she is Eden, a Similar created to replace the original Emma, who died as a |
THROW LIKE A GIRL
Henning, Sarah Poppy/Little, Brown (368 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-316-52950-1
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Gertrud, Fritz, and Jean were among many young people who confronted fascism in this little-known true story of teenage resistance in Nazi Germany. Based on firsthand accounts and historical documents, Gaddy’s debut tells the story of the loosely affiliated nonconformist youth groups known as the Edelweiss Pirates. Meeting in secret, camping in the woods, and attempting to avoid mandatory recruitment into Hitler youth organizations, their resistance activities ranged from scatological pranks and vandalism to flyering and sabotage to simply playing guitar and wearing their hair long. Though largely composed of straight Christians, many from socialist and communist families, the groups welcomed gay and Jewish youth. This matter-of-fact narrative shows how youth can stand against an overwhelming tide of fascism. It implicatively asks readers, “what would you do?” while highlighting the actions of young people who refused to be complacent—and the consequences they suffered for it. It challenges common narratives that reserve praise for resistance for the politically centrist middle and upper classes. The author weaves a lesson in historiography into an already fascinating story, effectively utilizing black-and-white photographs, excerpts from primary sources, and images of historical documents in chapters that are divided into short, dynamic segments that will sustain readers’ interest. An eye-opening account of tenacity that brings the efforts of young anti-Nazi activists vividly to life. (historical note, source notes, bibliography, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
child. To complicate matters further, other clones—who are not Similars—infiltrate Darkwood, and Emma and her friends uncover a plot that threatens not only the lives of everyone they care about, but also the world as they know it. Hanover wastes no time delving right into the action; readers unfamiliar with the first book may get lost. This duology closer is largely predictable and often filled with loopholes, but the fast-paced narrative and one unexpected plot twist make for an engaging ride. As before, most of the primary characters read as white, and supporting characters remain underdeveloped. Despite its flaws and often implausible turns of events, the novel calls attention to larger questions of identity, selfhood, and what it means to be human. An overall entertaining read. (Dystopia. 13-16)
An impulsive punch in a high-profile game ends up costing softball star Olive Rodinsky almost everything she values. High school junior Liv—or “O-Rod”— is willing to try just about anything to play again…even supercute Grey Worthington’s crazy plan that she could be his backup quarterback. Liv’s toughness and talent shine through in the detailed portrayals of football training, practices, and games; while the thrills of the sport aren’t downplayed, the hard work and injuries (the risks of concussion are a running subplot) are ever present. And if her sweet romance with Grey feels a bit rushed, the strength Liv draws from coaches, teammates, and friends comes through as rock solid. It’s an unexpected delight to read a “girl on the football team” plot that does not revolve around sexist objections (not that Liv doesn’t encounter a few); nor are homophobic attacks on her sister, her mother’s cancer, her family’s precarious financial situation or race (Liv and Grey are white; supporting characters are realistically ethnically diverse) made the focus. Instead, Liv’s major obstacle is learning to forgive and trust again: the family who doesn’t respect her decisions; the teammates who keep secrets; the boyfriend with an agenda; and, above all, her own flawed, complicated, driven, triumphant self. This charming sports story reflects classic tropes of the genre while still feeling fresh and relevant. A winner. (Fiction. 12-18)
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the kirkus prize for young readers’ literature: the ya finalists Our 2019 Kirkus Prize judges considered more than 600 starred titles when selecting the six Young Readers’ Literature finalists, which include a graphic novel as well as prose, nonfiction as well as fiction. What they have in common is trust in the ability of young readers to engage with painful, uncomfortable subjects. Adults can be anxious about emotionally weighty books for youth, but children and teens already live with harsh realities. What is more critical than the content alone is how it is presented—the adult author’s awareness and ability to communicate age appropriately and without condescension. Developmental appropriateness does not equate to sugarcoating life, doing a disservice to young people who are trying to make sense of the difficult things they experience and observe. Even those who may seem not to be touched by issues addressed in our finalists are affected by them; they live in a society where dominant value systems shape whose voices are heard, whose images are erased, whose history is taught. While some teens are all too aware of this, others can learn a great deal from books. By contrast, a sheltered, unaware adult author compounds the authority of age with the power differential of their mainstream-culture voice, reinforcing unconscious biases in some while further marginalizing others. Our two YA finalists, On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins) and The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated by Rosalind Harvey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), present insider voices: the former written from personal experience, the latter giving teens a platform to share 114
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their lived stories. They are exemplary works that honor teens’ need to engage with the world. In On the Come Up, Brianna is an aspiring rapper attending an arts magnet school. A young black woman who has undeniable musical talent, drive, and a loving circle of family and friends, she also faces bias from teachers whose preconceptions lead them to see her as “aggressive.” The novel addresses the commercialization of rap—repackaged for the consumption of white suburban youth—while showcasing it as a powerful art form that gives voice to many. It confronts socio-economic disparities, the struggles of the working poor, and the lack of support for recovering addicts. Above all, it is a celebration of courage and hope. The Other Side presents the harrowing true stories of 11 young people who escaped violence and persecution in Central America, seeking safety in the United States. The courage it took for already traumatized teens unaccompanied by adult relatives to attempt this hazardous journey comes through vividly. Mexican novelist and journalist Villalobos changed some details to protect the young people’s identities but allows the raw honesty of their words to shine through. Whether teen readers are themselves refugees, friends and classmates of refugees, or only know of these topics through news reports and adults’ conversations, the power of these narratives will resonate, leaving an indelible impact. —L.S. Laura Simeon is the young adult editor.
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This sweeping, romantic epic repeatedly turns the tables on fantasy tropes. a heart so fierce and broken
EVERY OTHER WEEKEND
Johnson, Abigail Inkyard Press (432 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-335-92909-9
A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN
Kemmerer, Brigid Bloomsbury (496 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-68119-511-7 Series: The Cursebreaker, 2 A group of young people forge unexpected bonds that are tested when they must choose between love and duty. The enchantress’s curse has been broken, but no happily-ever-after awaits Princess Harper and Prince Rhen; Rhen struggles with severe PTSD while rumors spread of an heir with magical abilities, weakening his claim to the throne. While the queen of Syhl Shallow regroups after a failed invasion, her elder daughter, 18-year-old Lia Mara, makes a doomed attempt to negotiate peace with Rhen. Meanwhile, Rhen’s former guard commander, Grey, has been captured and questioned about his knowledge of the mysterious heir. When Rhen’s conditioned fear of magic leads him to do the unthinkable, Lia Mara helps Grey escape. Their journey, told through alternating first-person perspectives, provides a Cook’s tour of |
REVERIE
La Sala, Ryan Sourcebooks Fire (416 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-4926-8266-0 A teenager fights to keep a series of baroque fantasy worlds from tearing his reality apart. Something terrible happened to Kane Montgomery at the old mill in his Connecticut hometown—or he did something terrible there; but with his memory of the night gone, even he couldn’t tell you what. Now Kane has to prove that he’s stable enough to go back to school, a task made infinitely more difficult by visions of spiderlike monsters and mysterious encounters with a glamorous, overtly queer person named Dr. Poesy. When Kane and his friends—bullied Ursula Abernathy, queen bee Adeline Bishop, golden boy Elliot Levi, and gorgeous, moody Dean Flores—are pulled into a series of immersive fantasy worlds generated by the minds of their town’s residents, Kane must figure out whom to trust and whom to save before fantasy destroys reality completely. The narrative and aesthetics are joyously, riotously queer, reveling in moments of sensuality between Kane and other boys as well as in Dr. Poesy’s dragqueen ensembles and the over-the-top fantasy worlds. Adeline and Dean are brown-skinned, Elliot is Jewish, and LGBTQ secondary and background characters suffuse the story. While the plot is predictable, the story’s many pop-culture influences feel derivative, and the prose often rings hollow and thesaurushappy, the themes of creating one’s own reality and fighting against the rules imposed by the world you’re born into will ring powerfully true for many young readers. A colorful, queer fantasy pastiche. (Contemporary fantasy. 14-18)
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Two teens from broken families find solace in one another’s company. After the death of his oldest brother, Adam and the rest of his family grieve in ways that pull them apart. When Adam’s father moves out, Adam and his other brother alternate weekends with each of their parents. At his father’s apartment complex, Adam meets his neighbor Jolene, a 15-year-old aspiring filmmaker who is a pawn in her parents’ bitter divorce. Her father cheated on her mother with a much younger woman, and Jolene is forced to spend every other weekend with her since her father is never home. Though details of their situations differ, Adam’s and Jolene’s lives parallel one another as they develop a special kinship in which Jolene is a balm to soothe Adam’s grief and anger with his father and Adam offers a critical remedy for Jolene’s deep-rooted loneliness. Though the story feels long-winded at times, Johnson (Even If I Fall, 2019, etc.) has written a complex and emotionally charged character-driven story that explores a variety of painfully human themes, including loss and emotional abuse. Adam’s and Jolene’s struggles will draw readers in, and the slowburning romance will touch readers’ hearts. The book situates whiteness as the norm; Jolene’s father’s girlfriend is Asian, and two of Jolene’s friends are dark skinned. Heart-wrenching and hopeful—a reminder that we can change our stories. (Fiction. 13-18)
both countries, prompting thoughtful consideration of their distinct social and cultural traditions—and just enough time for romance to blossom. Like Harper in A Curse So Dark and Lonely (2019), Lia Mara proves herself the undisputed hero right up to the stunning conclusion. This sweeping, romantic epic repeatedly turns the tables on the fantasy tropes that readers might be expecting. Apart from Harper’s brother’s boyfriend, who is black, the majority of characters appear to be white; Harper has cerebral palsy. This nuanced sequel offers new perspectives and emphasizes the value and complexity of both sibling and romantic relationships. (map) (Fantasy. 13-18)
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Engrossing and engaging. the map from here to there
THE MAP FROM HERE TO THERE
Lord, Emery Bloomsbury (400 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-68119-938-2
An immersive senior year experience, beginnings and endings included. After an amazing summer with her screenwriting partner, Maeve, in New York City, Paige Hancock’s life back home in Oakhurst, Indiana, is looking up—reminders of the drowning death two years earlier of her boyfriend, Aaron, and her reoccurring anxiety issues notwithstanding. But the start of her senior year heralds changes for relationships that give her life stability: with her tightknit friendship group; new boyfriend, Max; outgoing younger sister, Cameron; and divorced parents, whose relationship seems on the mend. She also works through wavering feelings about her college options—the safe in-state public university or private schools in New York and California? Enter Paige and friends’ bucket list for a final year of bonding! The theme of separation runs throughout the book, from her friends’ changing to Paige’s own evolving views on life. Screenplay references that frame the narration of Paige’s life and descriptions of how she deals with her anxiety make the story shine. The well-developed ensemble cast includes diverse family structures and shifting friendship dynamics that mirror Paige’s own evolution in this satisfying story that ties up all the loose ends. Paige and most main characters are white; one of Paige’s close friends is biracial (black and Polish), one is lesbian, and there is diversity in secondary characters. Engrossing and engaging. (Fiction. 14-18)
MINESWEEPER
Lynch, Chris Scholastic (192 pp.) $18.99 | Dec. 3, 2019 978-0-545-86165-6 Series: Special Forces, 2 A surfer joins the U.S. Navy and fights in the Korean War. Fergus Frew Junior loves the ocean despite its being the reason his father, Fergus Senior, died. It’s June 1949: Fergus has just graduated high school and has no plans except for catching sweet waves on the beach. On one such day, Fergus meets Duke, a U.S. Marine who borrows his surfboard without asking. Despite Fergus’ being hotheaded and having no interest in making friends, the two form a bond over their love of the sea. All the while, Duke—embittered by his experience with other Marines—encourages Fergus to join the Navy, selling it as an opportunity for a comfortable life living in pleasant locations. A tragic accident prompts Fergus to listen to his friend’s advice, and he joins the Navy with perilous consequences, as he 116
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is drawn into the Korean War. Tender moments between Fergus and his mother and the odd but interesting friendship between Fergus and Duke are unfortunately not enough to offset the dry writing and underdeveloped plot. The too-fast pacing leaves little room to form attachments to any of the characters or provide enough historical context for the events at hand. While promising at first, this quick read results in little enjoyment, much like one of Fergus’ listless, aimless summers. All American characters seem to be white. A lackluster story with forgettable characters. (Histori cal fiction. 12-14)
STRANGE EXIT
Peevyhouse, Parker Tor Teen (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-0-7653-9942-7 A young woman must free those trapped in a simulation aboard a failing spaceship before it’s too late. It’s been decades since Earth was devastated by nuclear war. A lottery granted a group of San Francisco teens the chance to board a billionaire’s spaceship and remain in stasis until the Earth is ready for their return. But something has gone wrong with Paracosm, the simulation meant to provide a safe haven for their minds. The ship’s systems are failing, food is running out, and if its inhabitants don’t awaken, returning home might not be an option. Seventeen-year-old Lake is able to dip in and out of the sim without losing herself, and when she rescues a boy named Taren, he insists on helping—but the sim, and some within it, has other ideas. The landscape is shot through with a pervasive sense of dread that follows Lake and Taren as they navigate the often dangerous corners of the Paracosm. However, the inevitable twist offers little surprise, and the narrative grows fuzzy toward the end. Still, Peevyhouse (The Echo Room, 2018, etc.) deftly explores the grief that Lake and Taren carry for their home planet and the loved ones they left behind, which inevitably shapes their virtual world. Most characters are white, but some diversity is suggested through names of secondary characters. A not-quite-satisfying but still heady trip into a creepy, surreal virtual world. (Science fiction. 13-18)
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IT’S MY LIFE
Ramey, Stacie Sourcebooks Fire (336 pp.) $10.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2020 978-1-4926-9452-6
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A Jewish girl struggles to accept her cerebral palsy and advocate for herself. Sixteen-year-old Jenna Cohen feels different from other girls. Her CP saddles her with spasticity, seizures, and speech problems, and she relies on mobility aids ranging from elbow crutches to a motorized wheelchair. Her well-meaning parents make all of her medical decisions, subjecting her to a series of surgeries and ineffective treatments. But when Jenna discovers that her CP was caused by medical malfeasance, she enlists her lawyer uncle to fight for medical emancipation. When she’s not dwelling on her doctor’s mistake or hanging with her gay best friend, Ben, Jenna’s living an imaginary life as her beautiful, confident, nondisabled alter ego, Jennifer. In Jennifer’s persona, she catfishes Julian, her sweet, dyslexic childhood crush, kindling a bantering textmessage romance dotted with described emojis—but soon, pretending isn’t enough. Unfortunately, Julian’s one-dimensional portrayal weakens the romantic tension. Jenna’s close, conflicted relationship with her parents and fierce bond with her siblings are believable, as is her desire for a say in her treatment; however, a late twist is jarringly implausible. Though Jenna’s curiosity about what might have been if not for her doctor’s error is understandable, her nearly relentless self-pity risks alienating readers long before her rather abrupt realization that “[her] real life has far exceeded [her] fantasy one.” All characters appear to be white. Well-intentioned but unsatisfying. (Romance. 13-16)
dark energy take a dramatic and dangerous turn, Tamsin finds that everything she thought she knew about the people she cares for may not be as it seems. Dialogue is sometimes stilted and self-conscious (“If you continue with this version of your rocket boots, I believe you’ll make your twin sister, Rosie, an orphan,” Tamsin chides a classmate), and on the whole characters feel underdeveloped. The illustrations lean toward a classic superhero comic-book style, and inset panels include science facts as they pertain to the plot. This blending of fact and fiction isn’t disruptive, but neither is it as effective as other comics that blend STEM and story (Secret Coders, The Earth Before Us) or other comics with footnotes or sidebars (Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, for example). The teen students have diverse racial and ethnic identities; Tamsin is Indian American, and Garyn is a young woman of color. Enjoyable enough—but not universe-expanding. (Graphic science fiction. 12-16)
SCIENCE! The Elements of Dark Energy Robinson, Ashley & Inman, Jason Illus. by Pittman, Desiree’ & Kinzie, Becka Bedside Press (112 pp.) $14.99 paper | Dec. 3, 2019 978-1-988715-27-8
Supergenius teens explore the potentials of dark energy and uncover secrets at their school. The Prometheus Institute is a science academy for gifted students that seeks to “cultivate the greatest minds of this generation.” Here students specialize in quantum mechanics, mechanical engineering, advanced genetics, and more. Tamsin Kuhn Trackroo is no exception. The daughter of the school’s previous, deceased headmaster and a protégée of its current one, Tamsin is a theoretical and applied physicist determined to use a hologram of her father to understand and avenge his untimely death. But when the experiments her roommate (and maybe-girlfriend), Garyn, is conducting on |
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Kekla Magoon
IN HER NEW NOVEL, THE AUTHOR OF HOW IT WENT DOWN RETURNS TO THE FICTIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD OF UNDERHILL—AND ANOTHER POLICE SHOOTING By Bethany C. Morrow Alice Dodge
In Kekla Magoon’s new YA novel, Light It Up (Henry Holt, Oct. 22), 13-year-old Shae Tatum, a special needs black girl, is shot and killed by a white police officer in the fictional neighborhood of Underhill. With remarkable fluidity, Magoon introduces a circumstance so familiar that one might expect a kind of morbid fatigue; instead readers are ensnared from the first of many powerful vignettes. In 2014, Magoon published another novel set in Underhill. After Trayvon Martin was killed, she began writing How It Went Down, a book that tells the story of Tariq Johnson, a black teen gunned down by law enforcement. While it would go on to receive a Coretta Scott King honor, Magoon recalls how difficult it was to get it published initially. “People thought, everybody’s talking about Trayvon right now, but is that even gonna be a conversation by the time your book comes out?” 118
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she recalls. Devastatingly, the book was released one month after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Magoon might not have known that a slew of extrajudicial killings would follow or that 2014 would see the Black Lives Matter movement begin, but she did believe that young adult literature could participate in what she calls “a general consciousness.” “A lot of the narrative in How It Went Down was about the discussion of [the victim’s identity],” Magoon says. “In the case of Trayvon Martin, that question drove the narrative significantly, because there was this pressure to say...if he was up to no good then maybe what happened to him was deserved.” To that end, Magoon’s novel presented more than a dozen characters, all of whom are convinced of wildly differing narratives, forcing the reader to speculate as well. Years later, Magoon has returned to Underhill in a story set two years later. In Light It Up, she imagines a different shooting affecting the same community. In writing about compounding tragedies, she shines a light on the way in which these recurring incidents have permanently and profoundly impacted the lives and psyches of black Americans. From the killing, the narrative moves like a golden spiral, growing wider and wider as members of young Shae’s community find out about the murder and learn the victim’s identity. Using multiple points of view, which made the first novel so engaging, Magoon succeeds in crafting a living, breathing community, deftly exposing the way these tragedies gnaw at the back of the inhabitants’ minds. Before they know that it has happened again, they know that it can. Alongside them, readers experience the speed at which life and death collide in this oft-misrepresented world, and the triumph of the new novel might be that Magoon is able to
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Bethany C. Morrow is the author of the novel Mem and edi tor of Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. Light It Up received a starred review in the Aug. 15, 2019, issue.
THE TOLL
Shusterman, Neal Simon & Schuster (640 pp.) $19.99 | Nov. 5, 2019 978-1-4814-9706-0 Series: Arc of a Scythe, 3 The sins of the founding scythes now reap terrible rewards in this trilogy conclusion. The Thunderhead—a benevolent, nigh-omniscient, nanite-controlling artificial intelligence—still runs the world but speaks only to Greyson Tolliver. Now deified as the Toll, prophet of the Tonists, Greyson attempts to advise a populace abruptly cut off from the Thunderhead’s gentle guidance. For the scythes—allegedly compassionate and objective executioners whose irreversible gleanings control the post-mortal population—the Thunderhead’s been silent for centuries, but recent scythedom unrest now tests the Thunderhead’s noninterference. Untouchable and unhinged, Scythe Goddard, self-appointed Overblade, encourages unrestricted and prejudiced gleanings. Formerly formidable opponents Scythe Anastasia (Citra Terranova) and scythe-killer Scythe Lucifer (Rowan Damisch) are now fugitives, saved from the sea but pursued by Goddard’s allies. Even in a post-national, post-racial world, Capt. Jerico’s meteorologically influenced gender fluidity surprises some, but as Goddard’s bigotry indicates, discrimination plagues even the post-mortals. Shusterman (Dry, 2018, etc.) wryly unravels organized religion and delivers a scathing takedown of political demagogues. Yet the whirlwind of narrators, sly humor, and action scenes never obscures the series’ central question: If most death is impermanent, and age can be reset, what’s the meaning of life? Long but strong, a furiously paced finale that reaches for the stars. (Science fiction. 14-adult)
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illuminate the ecosystem of neighborhoods that often get flattened, reduced to street or city names, in ways that erase the inhabitants. Magoon showcases those closest to the death and the difficult task of living on. In Light It Up, Magoon also undertakes a telling challenge. “I wanted to erase that piece of the narrative that is about...whether this person deserved to die in the way that they did,” she explains. “I wanted the conversation to be about what happens when this truly is a wrongful shooting.” Magoon decided to make the victim younger, even more vulnerable, and female. Sadly, she acknowledges, the result is not what one might hope. After all, black women—both young and adult—have also been brutalized by law enforcement. In the end, Magoon concedes, “Every effort that I try to make to say this is an innocent character, there’s evidence from society that [bias is] going to infect this experience just because this person is black.” Despite her illustrious career, Magoon is all too aware of the tightrope walked by black authors who face skepticism over the necessity of continuing to write about what she calls “controversial shootings”— and who also receive more attention and support for novels that do. “While to me it’s vitally important that we continue to grapple with these issues...we’re always dancing on this line of needing to push the envelope of what [black authors] are allowed to publish.” Light It Up, with an ambitious style to match its searing commentary, does just that.
SCAVENGE THE STARS
Sim, Tara Disney-Hyperion (336 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-368-05141-5 Series: Scavenge the Stars, 1
A rags-to-riches story with the promise of revenge. At 17, Amaya “Silverfish” Chandra is a prisoner aboard a debt collector’s ship, where she has been worked to the bone under the watchful eye of Capt. Zharo. When she ignores the captain’s orders and rescues a mysterious man—who goes by the name Boon—from drowning, Silverfish is told that her sentence aboard the ship will be extended. Boon offers her a unique opportunity—more wealth than she can begin to imagine—in exchange for her help exacting revenge upon Kamon Mercado, a merchant in the multicultural city of Moray. Silverfish undergoes a makeover and rigorous training under Boon’s |
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A testament to how the mind can reshape reality in order to survive. jane anonymous
tutelage and learns to not only behave like a lady, but also to con and manipulate people. Told alternatingly from the perspectives of Silverfish and Kamon Mercado’s son, Cayo, the first novel in Sim’s (contributor: Color Outside the Lines, 2019, etc.) new duology is rich in detail and well written despite its rushed ending. The romance is heterosexual, but the book creates a world in which people who are culturally and racially diverse and/or nonbinary are fully accepted and unremarkable; Amaya is brownskinned, and Cayo is bisexual. While there are few descriptions of Moray and the lands around it, the historical setting brings to mind a subtropical land under European influence. Captivating worldbuilding and empathetically etched characters make Scavenge the Stars a light and enjoyable read. (Fantasy. 14-18)
WE USED TO BE FRIENDS
Spalding, Amy Amulet/Abrams (368 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-4197-3866-1
The friendship of two girls, best friends since kindergarten, unravels during their senior year of high school. Kat, whose mother died two years ago, lives with her father. James (named after her father) lives with her mother and father—but her parents are heading toward a divorce. Both girls are also experiencing the ending of relationships with their boyfriends. Despite both dealing with absent mothers and broken hearts, the girls’ paths forward are quite different and lead to the end of their friendship. At the root of their breakup is how honest the girls are with themselves and with each other: useful topics for any teen to consider. Over the course of the year, Kat discovers she is bisexual. The subplot of her relationship with her girlfriend, Quinn, is handled smoothly, without hand-wringing on anyone’s part. In fact, LGBTQ rights take an unexpected central role as classmates start a fight for them to be crowned “prom couple.” James and Kat each tell their version of senior year’s challenges in alternating chapters. Kat’s story is told moving forward while James’ story is told in reverse. At times this helps to maintain suspense, but it also proves annoying, as motivations remain murky until the end. Set in Burbank, California, the book features seemingly white protagonists; diversity in secondary characters is indicated through names. A good exploration of the heartbreak of losing a friend— and learning about oneself in the process. (Fiction. 13-18)
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JANE ANONYMOUS
Stolarz, Laurie Faria Wednesday Books (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-250-30370-7 An abducted teen recounts her harrowing captivity. Stolarz (Shutter, 2016, etc.) ups the psychological ante by crafting a confessional narrative in which her 17-year-old protagonist is taken and held for months against her will. Gutsy first-person narrator “Jane Anonymous” tells her story by alternating between two troubling presents. “THEN” details the moments leading up to and including her gripping “seven months away” while “NOW” tells what has happened since her escape to the “girl who sleeps in her closet with a knife tucked beneath her pillow, trusting no one but herself.” Though the cast of characters—from Jane’s abductor to Jane, her family, and friends—exhibits a blanched, generic, suburban quality, the depth of psychological intrigue is absorbing and the twist on the Stockholm syndrome, disturbing. Jane’s probing monologue while captive details both the mental and physical coping mechanisms she developed and convincingly displays her unwitting realizations, such as her heightened sensory awareness borne of being confined. But Jane’s return also clearly shows the fallout of her torment—not only for her, but for those who care about her as well, demonstrating just how far life is from being back to how it was before she was taken and prompting Jane to wonder if her shattered psyche will always be “far beyond repair.” This novel is` a testament to how the mind can reshape reality in order to survive. Main characters are white. Powerfully graphic. (Fiction. 12-18)
HOPE IN THE MAIL Reflections on Writing and Life
Van Draanen, Wendelin Knopf (304 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 14, 2020 978-1-9848-9466-3
This thorough, well-voiced guide to becoming a writer covers everything you need to be published, starting with developing the right attitude. From building believable characters to finding an agent to designing a book cover, Van Draanen’s (Wild Bird, 2017, etc.) guide to becoming a writer has it all. Beginning with her personal history as the child of hardworking Dutch immigrants, the author encourages future writers to be gritty, describing her own relentless pursuit of her craft even during a decade of constant rejections from major publishing houses. She then moves from the attitudes necessary for creative work to the more practical details: how to find a narratorial voice, how to structure
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a mystery, and how to find and work with an editor. Throughout, she uses moments of perseverance and struggle from her own life to urge aspiring writers to keep going, no matter what challenges—internal and external—they must face down. Van Draanen’s voice is charmingly no-nonsense, and the themes she explores are sure to benefit aspiring writers of many ages. Unfortunately, though, by insisting on the connection between hard work and success, Van Draanen ignores structural issues that prevent writers from marginalized backgrounds from breaking into publishing with the same ease as mainstream peers. Furthermore, small moments of ignorance unredeemed by self-reflection—such as shaming her childhood bully for her looks and repeatedly using the charged term “hoodlum” in a context that is loaded with class-based assumptions—make her unexamined privilege difficult to ignore. A thoughtful and entertaining how-to guide weakened by serious diversity-related missteps. (Nonfiction. 14-adult)
LIE TO ME
Webber, Katherine Scholastic (352 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-338-57877-5
A teenage girl refuses to let go of her grief over her dead sister until an emotional crisis obliterates her carefully constructed facade. Five years after the death of her beloved older sister, Reiko Smith-Mori expertly manipulates her seemingly perfect life to avoid talking about Mika even if she sees her and talks to her every day. A chance moonlit encounter with social outcast classmate Seth hurtles Reiko into a clandestine romance that leads to turmoil. At first, Reiko’s shame at dating below her social standing in the popular crowd may make her difficult to sympathize with, but Seth’s about-face from gentle nerd to cocky, insensitive bro stabs
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Ward, Kaitlin Scholastic (256 pp.) $10.99 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-338-53810-6
ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART
Amelia tries to go back to being a normal teenager after nearly dying from a fall, but when other local girls start turning up dead, she thinks what happened to her was no accident. But who would want to hurt her? Her creepy neighbor? A jealous girl from school? Her best friend, who’s harboring a secret? Her new boyfriend is willing to help her figure it out. Her relationship with Liam started after her fall, and it’s intense—not only because of how she feels when she’s with him, but also because of the yearslong feud between Liam and Amelia’s brother, Hunter. Adding to the confusion is Amelia’s blooming attraction for her friend Grace, which doesn’t dissipate even after Amelia starts dating Liam. In a novel that struggles to maintain the tension, Ward (Where She Fell, 2018, etc.) explores what it’s like to suspect the people closest to you of wanting to cause you harm. This is a worthy premise, but the plot feels obvious and predictable while the dialogue often feels trite and forced, causing the book to lag in energy and suspense. Most characters are white; Grace has brown skin and is a lesbian. A mystery romance that works too hard on both fronts. (Suspense. 12-15)
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
London Shah
IN THE LIGHT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD, THE YA NOVELIST IMAGINES THE EARTH COVERED BY WATER—AND CLIMATE CHANGE WAS NEVER FAR FROM HER MIND By Chelsea Ennen how a major modern city like London would function underwater? [I analyzed] our current society, reading books on oceanography, exploring the scientific requirements of such a world, spending far too much time on countless forums that discuss and predict future technologies, watching as many deep-sea programs as possible, chatting with marine biologists and oceanographers, and discussing specific ideas with research scientists and companies designing and manufacturing deep-sea vehicles. I sometimes struck very lucky: The CEO of a leading submersibles manufacturer very generously guided me through a submersible driving tutorial via Skype!
The first volume in London Shah’s debut YA series, The Light at the Bottom of the World (Disney-Hyperion, Oct. 29), is an adventure set in a near-future world where a cataclysmic asteroid has caused the oceans to rise and cover civilization. When 16-year-old Leyla McQueen wins a spot in a submersible race through underwater London, she hopes to win and use the prize to free her imprisoned father. But the government doesn’t want to let him go, and Leyla must learn what secrets her leaders are hiding in the deep. Shah, who lives in London, recently answered our questions about the book. The novel opens with the London Marathon, a thrilling submersible race through a sunken city. How did you figure out 122
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You write that the oceans rose due to an asteroid attack, but you also write about a culture that refuses to adjust to a new reality. Were you thinking at all about climate change as you worked on this novel? Yes, throughout. I imagine we wouldn’t work with the environment beneath the waves any more than we’ve worked with it above the surface. I suspect greed and ignorance would still largely drive our actions, and the cost to the natural world would remain the least of our priorities. The only reason climate change wasn’t the cause of my fictional calamitous floods is all the research said it simply wasn’t plausible for sea levels to have risen to that extent anytime this century. When I considered bending the facts about climate change it felt very wrong, as if I were sensationalizing something too real and devastating. And so I decided the disaster would be the outcome of an asteroid strike that released all the water previously held in deep subterranean reservoirs. When the prime minister refuses to free Leyla’s imprisoned father, Leyla begins a journey full of disturbing discoveries, particularly about her government. Why do you think it’s
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important for young adults to read about resistance and develop the ability to think beyond what they’ve been told? History has proven those seeking control will always cause divisions among the people, play on our fears, manipulate the pull of nostalgia, and ‘other’ those unlike ourselves. This needs highlighting to children from early on, so they are able to recognize this phenomenon when they encounter it. Books are a great place to start. [Teens] need to know that anything that feels wrong to them can and should be challenged. We must help them see that things don’t have to be the way they are in this world they’re stepping out in. And that very often, lives— usually those of the most vulnerable—depend on their ability to think beyond what they’ve been told.
Chelsea Ennen is a writer in Brooklyn. The Light at the Bottom of the World received a starred review in the Aug. 15, 2019, issue.
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CITY OF STONE AND SILENCE
Wexler, Django Tor Teen (368 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-0-7653-9727-0 Series: Wells of Sorcery Trilogy, 2
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From Oscar Wilde to Hermione Granger, you include lots of literary references in the novel. What stories have inspired you most as a writer? Science fiction/fantasy narratives will always be my first and biggest love, though I don’t read hard sci-fi or high/epic fantasy. I’m more excited by speculative fiction, urban fantasy, and light sci-fi. A few of the many stories I discovered and found inspiring and unforgettable before and during my own writing journey are: Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, P.D. James’ The Children of Men, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, Dhonielle Clayton’s The Belles, Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End, Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes, Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone, G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen. In recent years I’ve found the SF/F penned by people of color to be especially inventive, fresh, and all-round brilliant.
even harder at the heart. Reiko’s affluent Palm Springs lifestyle is contrasted with Seth’s trailer home, and as their romance grows, Reiko finds herself questioning her privilege. Ultimately, Reiko’s romantic journey and reflections lead her to accept and move on from her sister’s death. Reiko’s first-person narrative is a carefully constructed web that will have readers taking and switching sides as the characters develop and change. She is a nuanced, sensitively drawn protagonist—though she lacks authentic, internal biracial and bicultural tensions and texture. Reiko has a white American mother and a Japanese immigrant father; her best friend is Mexican American, and Seth is white. An emotional roller coaster with a heroine who prevails. (Fiction. 14-18)
Having recently assumed leadership, Isoka must help her crew survive in a new land and take control of Soliton in this well-executed sequel. After leading everyone to safety from the Vile Rot, Isoka is the new leader of Soliton’s crew. Set on a predetermined path, the ship arrives at its destination, the Harbor. The Harbor is an ancient city of stone ziggurats encased in a dome of Eddica—or Spirits—magic. Living in a delicate balance are the Cresos clan aristocrats, monks called the Minders, and Prime, an Eddicant who terrorizes everyone with the living dead. Isoka must find a way to take control of the Harbor and Soliton to save her sister, Tori. What Isoka doesn’t know is that Tori has been sneaking away from her luxurious life to help at a lower-ward hospital and sanctuary for runaway mage-bloods. When Isoka doesn’t show up for Tori’s birthday, Tori’s search for answers brings her into the middle of a rebellion. Using her secret power of Kindre, Tori bends minds as she seeks Isoka. Alternating between the two sisters’ points of view, each chapter is captivating and ends in suspense. Wexler (Ship of Smoke and Steel, 2019, etc.) does not disappoint, delving deeper into Isoka’s journey but also exploring Tori’s life, thereby revealing hierarchal problems and discrimination in this highly diverse, magical society. A magical, enthralling must-read. (map, Wells of Sorcery list) (Fantasy. 14-adult)
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continuing series REBEL
Lu, Marie Roaring Brook (384 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 1, 2019 978-1-250-22170-4 Series: Legend, 4 (Science fiction. 12-17)
CAPTURING THE DEVIL
Maniscalco, Kerry Jimmy Patterson (464 pp.) $18.99 | Sep. 10, 2019 978-0-316-48554-8 Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper, 4 (Mystery. 15-18)
WHEN SHE REIGNS
Meadows, Jodi Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (544 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 10, 2019 978-0-06-246946-5 Series: Fallen Isles, 3 (Fantasy. 13-18)
DECEPTION
Terry, Teri Charlesbridge Teen (368 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 29, 2019 978-1-62354-106-4 Series: The Dark Matter Trilogy, 2 (Science fiction. 12-18)
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indie THE LIFE WRITING WORKBOOK How To Work Through Your Life’s Unresolved Emotional Experiences
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: SUNLIGHT 24 by Merritt Graves..................................................... 130 ÁNDALE PUSS by Warren Handley; illus. by Erin Gibbs................ 133
Aihi BalboaPress (148 pp.) $12.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Aug. 20, 2015 978-1-5043-3662-8
PUBLIC PARTS by Joel W. Harris......................................................134 THE AUSSIE NEXT DOOR by Stefanie London................................ 137
PUBLIC PARTS
Harris, Joel W. Xlibris (598 pp.) $40.91 | $23.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 30, 2015 978-1-5144-0600-7 978-1-5144-0601-4 paper
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A debut guide urges readers to transform their lives and better understand themselves through a series of straightforward writing exercises. At age 29, the author discovered the process of life writing— a way of using the written word to interpret and understand your own life story—as she was going through a divorce. She found the act of writing about her past gave her “a new sense of self-possession,” and over the subsequent 25 years, the university professor and narrative psychologist has refined the process she used and shared it with others. One advantage of life writing, according to Aihi, is that it can be largely self-directed, though she wisely suggests that readers identify mental health professionals they can contact if working through past issues becomes too difficult to deal with alone. Most people should simply be able to follow the eight life-writing exercises included in this book, all designed to help them come to terms with “a certain set of unresolved life experiences.” The exercises instruct readers to reflect on their names, relationships with their fathers and mothers, childhood homes, and certain significant past events, among other topics. The emphasis is not so much on recounting facts but rather on identifying the specific emotions those recollections spark. By returning to the past, life writing “allows the younger-you to express herself or himself in ways she or he could not at the time.” Easy-to-follow instructions for each exercise are delivered in a friendly, supportive style. Because the process is personal, there is no pressure to share the work that results with others, which should make the technique accessible to nonwriters. The goal is not necessarily to produce a clear narrative of a life or a publishable story but instead to achieve a kind of inner peace and overall sense of well-being. Those who complete all the exercises should “feel lighter, more relaxed, and more present.” Those interested in reflecting on their personal paths could benefit from completing the insightful lessons in this workbook.
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literary labyrinths THE TRUTH CIRCLE
Literary novels can be difficult to define. Many experts believe they feature stronger characters and richer explorations of the human condition than genre tales. According to the critic Terrence Rafferty, “Literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way.” Kirkus Indie recently reviewed three literary novels that tackle such weighty subjects as mortality, psychic visions, and murder. In A.V. Bach’s Eisenstein’s Monster, a man must deal with a series of brain tumors while pondering the idiosyncrasies of language (“Krishawn had always thought it funny how ontology and oncology were separated only by a ‘c’ ”). Along the way, the author provides an assortment of tales involving various elements of the human experience. Our reviewer calls the book, which earned a Kirkus Star, “an incredible debut, as entertaining as it is outlandish.” Dead Mentors by Sandra Nichols focuses on Sophia Deming, a restless 54-year-old Florida resident, and John Burns, a psychic who can see the crucial events of her life and detect the auras and spirits surrounding her. Deming finds a play called The Antiquity, written by her dead mother, which inspires her to embark on a momentous journey. “Well-written and compelling; will appeal to both fans of the paranormal and serious students of the human condition,” our critic writes. A murder and a fatal car accident rock the black and white communities of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in Friday Calls by E. Vernon F. Glenn. Set in the 1950s, the story offers a host of striking characters, including Homer Kenny (“Kenny is the fellow who is there if anyone needs anything—The Master of the Job, the Errand, the Task”). According to our reviewer, Glenn delivers “a lyrical Southern tale of rippling effects.” —M.F.
Ayers, Cameron Time Tunnel Media (565 pp.) $14.00 paper | Jul. 7, 2019 978-1-07-909058-1 In Ayers’ debut horror novel, six strangers on a spiritual journey turn on one another while facing a terrifying menace in the woods. A handful of people meet in Pennsylvania to go on a trip organized by a company called Mystic Tours. The clients include brokerage CEO Ken Berman and personal trainer Gabriella “Gaby” Moreno as well as Beverly Sutton, Coop, Lamar, and the decidedly unsociable Wade. John Lightfoot, a Shawnee member of the Chalakatha tribe, is the group’s guide on what’s billed as a weeklong “quest for a new you.” He drives them all to a remote campsite in the wilderness, and that evening, each experiences a vision during a purification ceremony in the sweat-lodge wigwam that also acts as their sleeping quarters. By morning, however, John has mysteriously vanished, along with his van. Everyone is understandably shaken by this turn of events, and Wade exacerbates their unease with his solo hunting excursions and violent tendencies. But nighttime proves to be even worse, as a strange, ominous black mass stalks the forest, and only light appears to keep it at bay. The group struggles to find a way out of the woods and a method of communicating with the outside world. But it isn’t long before they descend into a vicious spiral of deception, accusations, and betrayal. Ayers’ characters are a motley bunch who each have very different motivations; Coop, for example, is initially excited to go on what will be his second spiritual retreat, and Ken is solely interested in the survival training’s physical components. Everyone harbors secrets, as well, which range from the tragic to the appalling. These all gradually come to light, which keeps the pace brisk and opens up numerous plot possibilities. Although Wade is unsettling from the beginning, other group members also prove to be volatile or have unexpectedly shady pasts. The black mass, meanwhile, is a persistent threat that Ayers describes in proficient, dreamlike passages: “the fog-like haze of steam rising from the endless swirls of ash decorating the landscape.” Many readers will likely be able to predict the ending, but an earlier plot twist is genuinely surprising. A sharply written and delightfully unnerving tale.
Myra Forsberg is an Indie editor. 126
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WILLOUGHBY’S WORLD OF WONDER
A PATH SIMILAR A Play
Barnwell, Stephen Illus. by the author Antarctica Arts (182 pp.) $19.95 paper | Jan. 1, 2019 978-1-73396-490-6
Brisibe-Dorgu, Gesiere AuthorHouse (110 pp.) $23.85 | $13.99 paper | $3.99 e-book May 14, 2019 978-1-5462-3620-7 978-1-5462-3621-4 paper
This illustrated fictional reproduction of a Victorian field guide helps identify imaginary and legendary creatures. According to the Introduction, said to be written by Angus Willoughby, “CRYPTOZOOLOGIST AND NATURALIST,” this volume contains truthful accounts “of the strange and unusual in the world of nature” so that readers may be best prepared to encounter, propitiate, or avoid them. The beings are grouped into four kinds of Folk (Fey, Wee, Great, and Wyre) and five types of Creature: those that live with people and those of the land, sea, air, and night. Each entry includes an illustration with size, habitat, and description. A Banshee, for example, is 4 to 6 feet tall; its habitat is “Houses; Dark and stormy nights”; and it “appears to those who are to suffer the death of a family member.” Many entries include helpful information: “Upon finding a Land Kraken in your barn or stable, it is recommended that you drive it out as quickly as possible.” While some beings are familiar from folklore (such as Elf, Sasquatch, and Goblin), others are humorous inventions (Thinking Cap, Newsie, and Jackalope). An appendix provides an alphabetical index plus Folk calendars, a bibliography, and an advertising section (for example, “Dr. Pythagoras’ Patented Pixilation Cure”). Barnwell (Oneirognosis, 2015, etc.) is a professional artist, printmaker, and illustrator whose work has been exhibited internationally. The book’s images are perhaps the stars of this show—a brilliantly successful pastiche of Victorian engravings in their exquisite detail, subtle tonal and shading techniques such as hatching and crosshatching, and moodiness (romantic, whimsical, solemn, or eerie as suitable to the Creature or Folk described). The Victorian style offers some especially amusing images; Cyclops, for example, is a prosperous-looking, bearded gentleman with a better claim to his monocle than most. But the text, which describes absurdities in all Victorian seriousness, has a delightfully wry undertone and sometimes veers from the expected. Cyclopes, for example, “are cultured and civilized…. Sadly, to date, elected office has eluded them.” A fanciful guide to nature’s wonders; beautiful, clever, and appealing in every way—a fine achievement.
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A play focuses on gender inequality, kidnapping, and rape in Africa. The work begins with a conversation between Abade, a “top public servant,” and his “homemaker” wife, Ladaba. The opening lines indicate the level of patriarchal dominance in the household, with Abade castigating his wife for not having his breakfast ready. As the play progresses, Abade’s staggering cruelty and misogyny are revealed. In a conversation with Aliyah, a friend and neighbor, Ladaba confides that Abade attacked and raped her when she refused to have sex. Ladaba then discovers that her husband also raped their maid, Sarafa. Ladaba approaches a female lawyer, but in a male-dominated society, the odds are stacked against Abade’s being prosecuted. The play also introduces Danlade and Tanmu, a married couple who met at medical school and respect each other as equals. Their lives are turned upside down when their daughter, Asa, is kidnapped and held for ransom. A third narrative deals with Dansibe, “a true African who believes the measure of a man is determined by the number of seeds his loins bring forth.” Agbere, one of his three wives, is confronted with the fact that she is “one big baby factory.” The play draws attention to issues of violence and inequality in Africa but does not establish a specific sense of place. A passing reference to the “UAC” (United Africa Company) of Nigeria suggests a possible location, but that country is never mentioned directly. Brisibe-Dorgu (Love So Pure, 2019, etc.) possesses the ability to shock her audience by writing frank conversations about taboo subjects. Dansibe and his friend Ledi witness a man with AIDS being beaten by a gang on the street. Ledi reveals: “That pathetic man’s idea of a cure” for his AIDS “is the blood of a virgin!” and goes on to say, “This man goes about raping little girls aged no more than six years!” Despite the playwright’s never pulling her punches, the work has its failings. Her writing often lacks consistency. For instance, Kamo, a security guard, “appears dead” but a few lines later “will be alright.” A strong editor is also needed (“helter shelter”; “LAdaba”; “clean your.?”). Still, this disturbing play draws powerful attention to urgent human rights issues and succeeds in delivering an important message. A flawed but brutally truthful drama about Africa.
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COYOTE ALIBI
PADDLE TO PADDLE
Burges, J. & Burges, D. Naaltsoos Press (285 pp.) $14.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Feb. 24, 2018 978-0-9998573-2-8
Chapin, Lois Nightingale Rose Publications (152 pp.) $6.69 paper | May 29, 2019 978-1-889755-10-6 Chapin’s masterful poetry collection traces the arc of a lifetime—growing up in a violent household, teenage rebellion, parenthood, and reuniting with an estranged mother. Chapin’s debut carries a disclaimer stating that it’s a work of fiction. Still, this poetic meditation on lost innocence feels chillingly real. The opening poem, entitled “Proverbs 29:15,” examines Mary’s parenting of Jesus through contemporary eyes: “Seems like Jesus’ mom / was cool. / Encouraged him to argue, / and disagree, / let him hang out / with older friends.” The poem has a spike in its tail, ending: “If only Mary / had written / Child Guidance, / and not Ellen, / the cult leader.” The poet takes a jab at Seventh-day Adventist Ellen White, whose instructional book on child care placed an emphasis on purity, among other virtues. The proverb referred to in the poem’s title reads: “A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom, but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother.” Here, Chapin introduces issues central to the collection, written from the perspective of Lois, a daughter whose unstable Adventist mother brutally wields the rod of punishment. Writing in the first person, Chapin captures the innocence of childhood with nostalgic beauty, such as in the poem “Fishhook”: “we dig holes / to China / and set up Matchbox car / cities in the dirt.” This innocence is soon punctured, and disturbingly so, in the poem “Black and White and Read All Over”: “The escalating voices / and inevitable pleas for mercy / followed by / the sounds of a scrawny boy being beaten / by an obese woman / happened just about / every night.” Chapin’s matter-of-fact language makes the revelation even more troubling, particularly this chilling line: “Last night / she made him bleed / all over the paper, or maybe / she incited our father to participate.” The collection charts a young girl’s coming-of-age, and Chapin’s writing grows markedly more assertive and muscular to reflect this: “Her sharp nails were inches / from my face, / but now I was taller than her / and my grip was more / than physical.” Subsequent poems describe how Lois escapes to become both “an excommunicated fundamentalist” and a parent herself. She describes her own experience of parenthood, with its grave challenges but also moments of enlightenment, such as when climbing with her son: “His life was once again / in my hands / with the pleated blue cord / attached to each of our / bellies.” Chapin’s mode of expression may be laconic, but she possesses the power to touch the reader, often at the most unexpected of moments. The collection twists emotionally once again when Lois accompanies her long-estranged, now-ailing mother to the hospital for treatment. Dealing with the darkest of issues, including domestic violence, addiction, and rape, this collection can be emotionally challenging. Chapin is nonetheless an alarmingly skilled poet whose devastatingly powerful debut demands a cover-to-cover read in one sitting. Acutely observant writing; unsettling and life-affirming in equal measure.
A would-be paralegal and her attorney boss take the case of a woman accused of murdering her unpopular husband in this novel. In the mid-1980s, Sage Landing, Arizona, is a tiny town hard by a Navajo reservation, the kind of place where everyone knows everybody else’s business. Thirtysomething Navajo narrator Naomi Manymules is a divorced mother of two with “only half of a paralegal certificate,” the just-hired office assistant to attorney Grant Carson, a newcomer from Phoenix in his late 40s. Walking around late one night, Naomi unexpectedly becomes a witness to murder when she hears gunshots from the lake below. The next day, Willard Highsmith is found shot to death. Since he was “a crooked son of a bitch with lots of enemies,” possible suspects are many, beginning with his Navajo wife (and Naomi’s friend), Ellen, whom Willard mistreated. Naomi is sure that Ellen is innocent; her alibi makes sense—she drove the long way home after a coyote crossed her path to the east, a Navajo omen not to be ignored. When Ellen is arrested, Carson agrees to represent her. He and Naomi sift through clues, suspects, and complications, including an ever growing potential conflict-of-interest problem with other clients; out-of-town thugs; and personal attacks. Can Ellen’s coyote alibi hold up? Though set in a landscape similar to Tony Hillerman’s mysteries, this series opener by the husband and wife team of J. Burges and D. Burges (Graves Gate, 2003) takes a lighthearted approach while still honoring Navajo culture. That ethos is integral to the plot in large and small ways, whether Ellen’s alibi or how to conduct oneself during a job interview (“The correct white protocol was to ask directly for what you wanted”). The story’s local flavor is also seen in characters like Abraham Bingham and his multiple wives: “Pligs— short for polygamists—are just another minority around here.” Naomi’s voice is amusing and sharp, as when she dubs a shady character’s canine a “dog moll.” The authors do a fine job of keeping readers guessing until the very end. An enjoyably twisty mystery with appealing characters and a vivid setting.
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Though Farley’s novel touches on some serious themes, such as abuse, this story is really a modern-day fairy tale. life on loan
LIFE ON LOAN
Two women change their lives to rediscover themselves in this novel. Olivia Westcoat is a writer in South Carolina who has lost interest in the direction of her blog. She’s sick of the high-society drama she’s been covering and yearns to write a book. Lena Browder is a wife and mother who is in desperate need of an escape from her abusive husband and ungrateful daughter. Both women hop on a plane and leave their troubles behind, bumping into each other at an airport on a layover. The old college friends decide to swap houses for a month, with Olivia traveling to Lena’s small vacation cottage in the Northern Neck of Virginia and Lena heading to Olivia’s chic condo in Charleston. Though it takes time to adjust to the pace of their new lives, Lena and Olivia begin to relax and envision a new future. Lena rediscovers her love of photography as she wanders the streets of Charleston and engages with the city’s friendly residents. And in the quiet of a river cottage, Olivia unwinds and begins her novel. Yet their life swap is not without complications. Olivia finds herself falling for the handsome widower next door, who is still struggling with his wife’s death and his relationships with his children. And Lena stumbles across a case of elder abuse and ends up in some serious legal trouble. Though Farley’s (Only One Life, 2019, etc.) novel touches on some serious themes, such as abuse and the loss of a loved one, this story is really a modern-day fairy tale with some enjoyable but unsurprising events. Her main characters are well crafted and relatable, though some of the supporting cast lacks nuance. Lena’s acquaintance Jade is a classic villain who is “evil and manipulative” while Lena’s daughter promptly and somewhat inexplicably matures in the space of a few weeks. But maybe that’s all part of the fairy tale. And who doesn’t love a story of good versus evil that seems headed for a happy ending? Swapping houses never looked so good in this light and sweet romantic comedy.
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struggling U.S. economy, orphanages are an easy way for the unscrupulous to make money, practically selling children. In one of these “asylums” in Las Vegas live three exceptional kids. Mykl is only 5 years old but is secretly a genius with problemsolving skills beyond most adults. Ditto for muscular teen James, who hides behind a slow-witted demeanor. Both are protectors of Dawn, a beautiful, iron-willed blind girl, so they conceal their gifts to remain in the harrowing environment. But—after a ghastly ordeal—the three are detected, recruited, and transported to a clandestine, subterranean desert facility (though named the City, it’s obviously inspired by Area 51 legends). There, Above-Top-Secret Cmdr. Jack Smith shows the orphans astounding new technologies: cold-fusion energy, faster-thanlight communication, innovative space travel, longevity-producing DNA, and other miracles that could advance humanity. But, Jack says, revealing these wonders would trigger all-out war and attacks by greedy, rival nations—especially China—which are planning an apocalypse to weaken the U.S. for conquest. Jessica Stafford, a college graduate of extraordinary moral character, is another of Jack’s hires, and she and James visit the Vegas casinos—filled with assassins—to play a dangerous game against the Chinese. Just how perilous it is unravels in the avalanche of closing chapters that take an already over-the-top premise way further than most readers would expect. Despite the presence of children and young adults as key protagonists, it would be wrong to label this tale YA, though it carries the gee-whiz enthusiasm of golden age sci-fi (where clever gadgetry was usually the solution, not the problem, and Fu Manchu types like those found here grated somewhat less in the stereotype department). But the giddiness is tempered with gruesome violence and a grim verdict on what it might actually cost to bring forth a utopia of benevolent technocrats. The author’s remarkable storytelling skills make the novel a proper page-turner, although some elements (a lengthy subplot about a serial killer in particular) don’t quite gel with the others. An impressive sci-fi tale despite some peculiar twists and retro turns.
Farley, Ashley Lake Union Publishing (301 pp.) $10.99 paper | Oct. 8, 2019 978-1-5420-4386-1
MAGIC IN THE LEAVES A Boy in Wisconsin
Fleming, J Lee Illus. by Gerdes, BJ Westbow Press (38 pp.) $15.15 paper | $3.99 e-book | Feb. 4, 2019 978-1-973650-97-3
THE PROMETHEUS EFFECT
Fleming, David CreateSpace (498 pp.) $14.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Jul. 27, 2017 978-1-973769-64-4
A boy’s grandfather teaches him how to build a clubhouse out of leaves in this picture book from debut author Fleming and illustrator Gerdes. Six-year-old Iranian American Adrian decides that, rather than vacation in Paris with his parents (where “he had been…a HUNDRED times”), he’d like to visit his grandparents in Wisconsin. Grammy and Grandpa live on farmland surrounded by woods, and at first, Adrian is enchanted by the animals he sees, and he and Grammy play outside together. When Adrian gets bored and homesick, Grandpa teaches him to make a house out
In the mid-21st century, three orphans land on a Nevada base that pits amazingly advanced technologies and spy networks against the threat of a new world war. The world of 2040 is not a safe place to be in Fleming’s debut sci-fi novel. Nations scheme against one another ruthlessly; oil reserves are running out; and in a |
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of leaves. Adrian rakes, picturing the magical clubhouse that he’s building, and he starts making big plans for it. Although a thick snow nearly ruins his dream, Adrian realizes that imagination is the key, and he builds a snow clubhouse that’s even better than the leafy one. Beautifully shaded, highly realistic coloredpencil illustrations bring Adrian to life, though each clubhouse is marred by an unnecessary “No Girls!” sign. The prose is accessible, with simple sentences, but its placement feels uneven; for example, the first page is intimidatingly full of text while other spreads have only a single line. Still, Adrian’s imaginative adventure will likely draw young readers in. A celebration of imagination with vivid drawings and a creative protagonist.
protest song. It’s all a bit random and jumbled, but Foster offers a tasty feast of curious and intriguing lore for readers (and writers) looking to spice up their language. An intriguing romp for word and trivia mavens.
IF I COULD...
Grandma Krazy Illus. by the author Xlibris (26 pp.) $21.99 paper | Jun. 27, 2019 978-1-79604-347-1 978-1-79604-346-4 paper What changes would you make to the world, if you could? Grandma Krazy (Bears, Bears Everywhere, 2018) pitches silly, rhyming ideas in her second picture book. The narrator begins by imagining spending one’s life on the beach and goes on to present some notions that are plain silly (such as getting honey from chimpanzees rather than bees) and others that are idealistic, such as ending all violence. The last section of the book features a series of rhymed questions, asking readers what their world would be like: “If I could make my own world, that’s what I’d do. What about you?” The repeated sounds in the rhymes introduce new vocabulary words (“vacations” and “altercations”; “sandcastle” and “dismantled”) and make each page fun to read aloud. The full-color illustrations feature a predominantly white cast, with few people of different skin tones, even in crowded scenes. When the book directs questions to the reader, however, it invites them to imagine a world that may better reflect their experiences. The images of silly, sneezing snakes, people flying in capes, and a bowl of vegetable candy, among others, nicely match the text’s humorous tone. The rhymes’ lack of strict meter may also encourage readers to write their own. A creative ode to imagination with fun-to-read phrases.
GHETTO TO GHETTO Yiddish & Jive in Everyday Life
Foster, Herbert L. CreateSpace (178 pp.) $20.00 paper | Apr. 19, 2019 978-1-72746-535-8
The languages of the Jewish and black ghettos have enriched the wider American vernacular, according to this pop-linguistics book. Foster (Ribbin’ Jivin’ and Playin’ the Dozens, 2012, etc.), an emeritus professor of education at the State University of New York at Buffalo, explores the mainstream success of two minority verbal cultures. After a fun but pretty hard vocabulary test— “NOSH is to FRESS as NEBBISH is to: a) shtchav b) shnuk c) shmatte d) baleboss”—the work’s centerpiece is a lengthy glossary of selected Yiddish and Jive expressions that have entered common parlance. The former include such essential Yiddishisms as “kosher,” “bagel,” “tush,” and “chutzpa” along with more exotic concepts like “farklempt”—agitated or depressed—and the arcane anatomical terms “putz,” “schlong,” “schmuck,” and “shvantz,” all of which denote a feature of the male reproductive system. Jive entries include the classics “bling-bling” and “booty call”; the somewhat dated “playin’ the dozens” (meaning competitive yo’-mama insults); locutions that most people don’t know came from the ghetto, like from the “get-go” and “24/7”; and arcane terms for white people, such as “Mr. charlie” and “ofay”—the latter said to come from the pig Latin for “foes.” The author’s entries give dictionary definitions along with extensive usage examples gleaned from books, movies, newspaper articles, ads, and even license plates. “ISHLPKDS” (I SCHLEP KIDS) declares the plate on one mom’s minivan. Additional chapters offer a miscellany of information and historical background. These include sections on gentiles who spoke Yiddish, including novelist Ralph Ellison and actors James Cagney and Michael Caine; “Shabbos goy,” gentiles who performed chores forbidden to Jews on the Sabbath, among them Colin Powell, Harry Truman, and Elvis Presley; the Harlem Renaissance; the “Green Book” guide used by black motorists and travelers to find accommodations in the segregated South under Jim Crow; and “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday’s famous anti-lynching 130
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SUNLIGHT 24
Graves, Merritt Time Tunnel Media (462 pp.) $14.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Jul. 31, 2019 978-1-949272-02-4 A jaded high schooler of the mid-21st century commits risky suburban burglaries to pay for the physical and mental modifications needed to stay current in a technology-blighted society. Graves (Lakes of Mars, 2019) creates a memorably compromised first-person narrator/antihero in Dorian Waters, an alienated teenager in America circa 2030 (Oakland A’s references suggest a California locale), where advanced technology comes with a high price monetarily—and in other ways. Robots and artificial intelligence have taken most jobs. Environmental |
The chemistry between the two main characters burns hot from their very first meeting, and it remains so for the rest of the novel. always with you
ALWAYS WITH YOU
collapse has meant scorching sunlight most of the year and the extinction of beneficial insects and most animal species. Humans have met the crises with nanotech and genetic modifications, including their own. Drones shaped like birds and bugs not only pollinate, but also provide constant, camera-feed surveillance everywhere. And people—if they are wealthy—may “Revise” on a cellular level, surviving outside without skin lotion and enjoying enhanced brainpower, stamina, musculature, and beauty. The son of ill-paid civil servants, Dorian started in school smart and athletic, but he has fallen badly behind, realizing he cannot compete—not in college, not in careers, not in romance—against expensively Revised upper-class kids. Taking a cue from RPG-spycraft video gaming, Dorian maintains a double life: hardworking student by day, burglar by night, thwarting the ubiquitous monitoring devices of affluent suburbia while methodically robbing rich neighbors with a classmate as his partner in crime. Dorian wants to finance physical and mental Revisions for them both and perhaps symbolically strike against the ennui and injustices of the system. Meanwhile, police start to close in. Even worse, Dorian’s secret is known to his 14-year-old kid brother, Jaden. Jaden is a self-diagnosed psychopath, and if the authorities knew his mental state, there would be harsh consequences for the household. Increasingly resentful of Dorian, Jaden nurtures his own, much darker plans. Readers may be put in mind of popular YA dystopia authors riffing on Orwellian conformity (usually with a female protagonist); witness Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent three-parter. But Graves, like bad-seed Jaden, is after bigger things (plus he wraps it all up in one sizable volume). While it may bear the trendy tag cyberpunk, this novel is one specimen of the computer-hype-happy sci-fi genre whose grievances and characters would resonate with F. Scott Fitzgerald, who gets a shoutout here. The book’s facets include the inequities of class and wealth in America, the cri de coeur of young have-nots against privileged elites, and the desperation of a member of this Kurzweilian lost generation to reinvent himself (in a literally Edisonian sense, with neural links, surgical implants, and subdermal databases) for acceptance into a neo-aristocracy. These actions turn out to be as disastrous for Dorian as they were for Gatsby (and, as with Gatsby, an unattainable girl provides added motivation and obsession). Unlike so much else in cyber-sploitation’s literary data archives, Graves does not concentrate on virtual-reality FX blasts, awesome mechas, or cool hacker tricks and capers. Yes, such ingredients are present, but the tropes never overshadow Dorian’s essential dilemmas, relationships, and dread, conveyed in a measured, sharply observant narrative that eschews merely fast-forwarding to the next act of mayhem. The wonder-filled, terrible future the author invokes feels uncomfortably real, inhabited, and just around the corner. Teen-centered, future-shock tragedy of a high order, a literate upgrade over standard gamer-hacker sci-fi.
Hagen, Layla Time Tunnel Media (322 pp.) $14.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 10, 2019 978-1-68646-876-6
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A steamy contemporary romance featuring a reluctant hotelier and the public relations expert who works for him. Reid Davenport is in charge of the Hollywood-based Davenport hotel chain after his father suffers a stroke. His dyslexia makes it even more difficult for him to learn the ins and outs of the business, and his famous ex, Marion, is spreading malicious rumors about him to the tabloid press, saying that he’s an insensitive jerk. Reid had planned to just let the scandal blow over, but when his teenage sister, Bianca, says that her classmates are saying bad things about him, he breaks down and calls a public relations firm, which puts Hailey Connor on the case. At first, Hailey believes Reid to be stuck-up and unpleasant, but she changes her mind when she sees how he clearly cares for his younger sibling. She’s completely onboard with the PR job when she finds out that Marion cheated on Reid with his former hotel manager. The more Hailey works with Reid, the more she starts to fall for him—and the attraction is definitely mutual. This is the latest installment in Hagen’s (Fighting for You, 2019, etc.) Connor Family series, featuring the final Connor sibling. The chemistry between Reid and Hailey burns hot from their very first meeting, and it remains so for the rest of the novel. Family is clearly important to both of the main characters; Hailey’s parents died when she was 11, so she’s tight with the surviving Connors. The other family members who appear over the course of the story are also well developed. Their appearances add welcome depth to Reid’s and Hailey’s lives and offer readers something beyond the primary drama about falling in love and dealing with exes. An entertaining and engagingly written tale that will please fans of its genre.
CONUNDRUMS OF INDIGNANT BLISS
Haliday, D.J. Poetry Attic (90 pp.) $12.95 paper | Jun. 1, 2019 978-0-9847218-2-5 With a post-Beat outlook, this volume of poetry considers difficult truths about a declining civilization. “Once I was a beatnik,” declares the opening line of “The Smell of Polynesian Capital,” and in some ways Haliday (Young American Blues, 2012) still is. Much of this collection recalls works by such writers as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso. Like them, Haliday employs long, loose lines; unexpected phrasing; wordplay; and musical rhythms. And like them, he defies the conventional |
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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Amy Gulick
AN INDEPENDENT AUTHOR AND NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER TELLS READERS THE VERY HUMAN STORIES BEHIND ALASKA’S WILD SALMON By Rhett Morgan ing trees, catching frogs, and imagining I was living with elephants and lions in faraway lands. In the second grade, my teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. I drew a picture of me sitting next to a chimpanzee—just like my childhood and present-day heroine Jane Goodall. When did you first start writing about and photographing nature? When I was 6 years old, I wrote and illustrated a tiny, little six-page book about trees. That first endeavor planted the seed, but it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I began publishing my work in magazines. What was most important to you in publishing your work independently? It was critical that I work with an imprint whose emphasis is the conservation of wild places. I make my books to make a difference—to tell stories of nature and its importance to both wild and human communities in the hope of spreading the message that these places need to be conserved. To work with a mission-focused publisher was essential in creating books that could both convey my vision and reach appropriate audiences.
After getting sidetracked by a career in finance, avid naturalist Amy Gulick returned to her main passion: writing about and photographing nature. Gulick has been contributing to magazines for 25 years now, but since 2010, she has also produced books focused on the delicate, fascinating ecosystem of Alaskan wild salmon. Her first book, Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska’s Tongass Rain Forest, was released through the nonprofit conservation imprint of Mountaineer Books and won an Independent Publisher Award and a Nautilus Book Award. This year, Gulick is showing readers the human side of this story with The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind, focusing on different Alaskans’ deep relationship with “these extraordinary fish.”
How did the wild salmon in Alaska first catch your attention? In researching my first book, I found that the common language that everyone spoke was “salmon.” And no matter where I went and who I met with, I always left with salmon in my hands. I was so touched by this generosity, and I learned that people view wild salmon as a gift. The fish are a gift to the land, water, animals, plants, and people. And when you’re on the receiving end of a gift, you give thanks, you give back, and you share.
What made you interested in nature as a subject? I was one of those kids who was always outside climb132
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What gave you the idea to collect stories from the communities involved in fishing? I was intrigued that there is still a place in the world where the lives of people and wild salmon are inextricably linked. Throughout my travels, I asked everyone I met how he or she values salmon. And you know what? Everyone gave me the same answers: family, community, culture, well-being, connection to a home stream and to the land. The Salmon Way is a celebration and exploration of the web of human relationships made possible by these extraordinary fish. What will help these communities to continue? In order for that to happen, salmon must have a healthy habitat in order to thrive. But the threats to salmon in Alaska are greater than they’ve ever been—large-scale extractive development that damages habitats and the impacts of climate change and an acidifying ocean. And yet if wild salmon can thrive, it’s a good indication that other species can too, including us. Our lives are linked. Rhett Morgan is a writer and translator based in Paris.
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and mainstream. For example, “Polynesian Capital” plays with chiming phrases like “Zoot suit riot or grapefruit / diet?”— which could be parsed as “Protest or conformity?” Long lines of pressured speech follow: “Mix the two maniacally for a stalefree sunrise / routed toward that inner state of tumultuously / unstraightened affairs frozen in hot light of loneliness,” concluding with “Where has significance gone?” Despite today’s “betrayed delusions,” the poet nevertheless finds causes for satisfaction, even in fakery itself, like a street magician’s “smokescreen, / velvet top hat tipped to a magic afternoon on Haight. // I can’t surrender the cosmos, / nor San Francisco absurdity, / assistant in lace more lovely / than the magic.” Beneath the misdirection and patter, there are grace and beauty, whether of the afternoon, the assistant, or even the hat. Many poems wrestle with civilization’s horrors and the speaker’s unwilling complicity. “The Empire Builder,” for example, takes its name from a passenger train operating across formerly Native American land—an image of an empire’s nature and cost: “Riding smooth iron scars across a cold American night, / effortless, except for the coal pumped, / except for history travelled upon.” As with other works, the piece can become baldly didactic (“our righteousness / that Natives were slain for / and the Slave’s blood was traded for”), but the piece’s emotional basis comes through strongly. While many poems show cause for despair, the speaker also sees reason to hope: “Waves may consume the highway, / but some path will lead on.” Celebration and elegy underlie these poems and their deep engagement with America’s turmoil.
ÁNDALE PUSS Where to Next?
Handley, Warren Illus. by Gibbs, Erin Manuscript
A cat embarks on a journey and must figure out where she’s arrived in this debut picture book. Ándale Puss is a gray, overalls-wearing cat who packs her bag to travel the world. Parachuting into a new location, she’s not quite sure where she’s landed, only that she’s cold in the snowy environment. After encountering a local warthog who kindly serves her borscht (“She dips in her tongue, and then her whole head. / Her kitty cat whiskers are turning bright red!”), some Matryoshka foxes startle her, causing her to flee into a bookstore. There, a sympathetic bear bookseller hands her works by Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky. Later, Ándale Puss sees a sign for “Moskva” and realizes she’s in Russia. The charming feline is an enthusiastic narrator, and debut illustrator Gibbs’ watercolors present her full of energy along with a captivating cast of animals reminiscent in design, if not technique, of Richard Scarry. Handley relates the humorous adventure in accessible and flowing rhyming couplets. The interjections of Russian script, with suggested pronunciations and the English translations below, help readers feel how strange it must be for Ándale Puss to confront foreign phrases while exposing them to |
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the sounds and shapes of another language. Endnotes describe how the author learned that a smile can bridge linguistic and culture gaps and help travelers make friends—a moral that the cat’s escapades wholeheartedly and effectively represent. Beautiful, kid-friendly images and a charismatic feline narrator should hook young readers on this introduction to Russia.
section, featuring the colorful Bernie “the Attorney” Schwartz, is priceless. The novel also offers an intriguing hybrid of real and fictional characters. Reles, Meyer Lansky, Lepke Buchalter, and others are actual mob figures, but their stories mesh well with those of invented characters, including the Levines; Ann; the perky Dawn Sanders, who helps Ann out around the office; and the vengeful Detective John Mannion. Indeed, by the end of the novel, readers will find that the made-up characters feel like living, breathing people, as well. An entertaining literary work with realistic characters.
PUBLIC PARTS
Harris, Joel W. Xlibris (598 pp.) $40.91 | $23.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 30, 2015 978-1-5144-0600-7 978-1-5144-0601-4 paper
TO SAVE THE NATION
Kass, Robert E. Robert E. Kass/Carob Tree Press
In Kass’ debut thriller, a lawyer takes a case that pulls him into the dark world of organized crime and the grim legacy of a past Argentinian conflict. In 1976, a small private jet crashes in the Sierra Madre in Mexico, killing all three passengers. One of the victims is Ricardo Guttmann, a prominent Argentine banker who’s rumored to have links to the left-wing Montonero guerillas—a paramilitary organization whose principal source of income is ransom from kidnappings. Then a scandal surrounding Guttman’s employer surfaces—more than $200 million has gone missing from the company coffers, and Guttmann is the only person who could possibly explain the discrepancy. Later, a charred body is found, but some people believe it isn’t Guttman’s. In 2017, American lawyer N. David Winkler, who once represented Guttmann’s company, coincidentally meets Maria Theresa Romero, who believes that she may be the banker’s daughter. Maria has evidence that suggests that her mother was a prisoner during Argentina’s notorious Dirty War of the 1970s, in which the right-wing dictatorship in power sent death squads after dissidents. It also appears that her adoptive father, an Argentine military officer, may have played a role in her mother’s death. Kass intelligently plumbs the depths of those violent Argentine years, following Winkler’s investigation into Guttmann’s disappearance after he takes Maria on as a client. The author is an attorney, and his knowledge of his story’s legal landscape is impressive, as is his expertise on the history of Argentina. The prose is straightforward and unadorned, for the most part, but sometimes a touch melodramatic; for example, upon meeting Maria, Winkler declaims, “If your mother was right about this, you are the daughter of an infamous man, and our meeting is either an amazing coincidence or some sort of divine intervention.” The plot is also gratuitously labyrinthine. However, Kass poignantly evokes the generational ramifications of Argentina’s most notorious period, in which unspeakable atrocities were committed. A feast of political intrigue and an astute exploration of Argentina’s nefarious past.
In Harris’ debut novel, a dutiful son wants to make an honest success of his father’s auto parts business—but the mob may still be pulling strings behind
the scenes. Thirty-something Larry Levine has worked at his dad Big Moe’s Public Auto Parts in New York City since he was in college. All of a sudden, Big Moe decides to retire to Florida, leaving Larry holding a mostly empty bag. His dad not only left with most of the company’s funds—he also left a lot of questions unanswered. For example, Larry wonders about the mob’s connection to Public Parts when a sinister gentleman named Carmine lets Larry know that he’s not his own man but an owned man. Moreover, Larry finds out about the supposedly accidental death of mobster Abe Reles 30 years before; the man fell to his death just as he was about to rat out several other criminals. Does that fact have something to do with why Moe decamped so hastily? What’s in the wind all these years later? Although Larry is desperate for answers, the old man is as cagey as ever. Then Larry meets Ann Riordan, with whom he falls instantly and hopelessly in love—even though he’s a semihappily married man. Despite the turmoil caused by their relationship, Ann is also, as Larry’s executive assistant, the best thing to ever happen to Public Parts. The climax of the book is Larry’s trial after he’s framed for arson, receiving stolen goods, and other crimes. How did he get into such a mess? Eventually, Big Moe—a widower whose health is failing fast—comes clean, to a degree, about what happened way back in 1941. This is a very impressive debut, and although its nearly 600page length may be daunting to some, it is, in fact, a brisk and straightforward read. The book doesn’t focus on a huge cast— just Larry, the narrator, trying to reform Public Parts while dealing with his feelings for Ann and hers for him. These are, for the most part, well-rounded characters, precisely because Harris takes his time to develop them. Ann is shown to be competent, enigmatic, and eerily perceptive; Big Moe could have easily been a one-note character, but his love and care for his only son show him to have some depth. Larry’s wife, Laurie, is a study in exasperation, but she’s also there when the chips are down. The dialogue is crackling and sly, and the long trial 134
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Keyser’s personal anecdotes are succinct and revealing—and they all play into his argument for assisting others to help one’s business. you don’t have to be ruthless to win
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE RUTHLESS TO WIN
THE CALIFORNIA IMMIGRANT
King, Barbara Anne Cypress Point Press (392 pp.) $14.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Feb. 19, 2019 978-1-73353-690-5
Keyser, Jonathan Lioncrest Publishing (312 pp.) $19.81 paper | $6.99 e-book Jul. 29, 2019 978-1-5445-0424-7
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In this debut novel, a Croatian immigrant forges a life for himself at the start of the 20th century. When 16-year-old Martin Petrovich leaves his hometown of Dubrovnik on a ship bound for the United States, he knows that he may never see his parents and siblings again. An uncle he has never met is waiting to give him a job in San Francisco. Then Martin can send money home to his relatives. Under his uncle’s tutelage and full of his own ambition, Martin resolves to work hard and learn everything he can in hopes of establishing a business of his own. Yet soon the devastating earthquake of 1906 brings the city to its knees, destroying buildings and taking the lives of many loved ones. In the aftermath, Martin settles in Watsonville, a California town that holds fewer painful memories. Over the course of the novel’s ambitious scope, King neatly summarizes many important political and cultural moments of the time. Martin is affable and honorable, verging on excessively flawless. During his long and rich life, readers see him pour his soul into opening a restaurant, struggle with the law during Prohibition, serve as a naval convoy escort during World War I, and watch his own sons enlist in World War II. A special virtue of the story is the author’s focus on the diversity of the Watsonville population and the changing sentiments of the American public toward specific nationalities. In addition to the large band of Croatian American characters the protagonist befriends, standouts in the cast include Ken Nakamura, a Japanese American community leader whose family is placed in an internment camp, and Hector Lopez, a Mexican laborer who helps Martin maintain Ken’s farm in his absence. Through these relationships, King and her players advocate for universal kindness and acceptance of marginalized groups. A slogan created to unite the town summarizes Martin’s own outlook best: “Strength in diversity. Unity in cooperation.” Although the writing occasionally sounds very similar to a history textbook, Martin’s tale is full of perseverance, integrity, and humanity. An American success story that deftly emphasizes the country’s multicultural heritage.
A former “ruthless” commercial real estate broker makes the case for selfless business models in this debut book. As the child of Christian missionaries living in Papua New Guinea, Keyser grew up helping those with even less than his parents had. After the family’s eventual return to the United States, his parents struggled financially, trying to survive on his mother’s meager salary as a teacher, but they still managed to give back to the community. The author soon left this benevolent world behind for UCLA, where he set his sights on making money. He eventually learned to lie “with sincerity” as a commercial real estate broker and achieved great success by misleading clients and stealing opportunities from co-workers—the norm in that business. But at a conference in Miami, Keyser was introduced to a radical idea that merged the triumphs he expected with the teachings of his childhood: a model for developing long-term relationships that could be based on selfless service to others. He soon began helping people with no expectation of reward or compensation and ultimately built a client base more robust and loyal than any that could be forged with backstabbing tactics and traditional sales strategies. He has since taken this idea into his own firm and established himself as a “thought leader” in the industry, hoping to motivate others to take on his methods of service, “flat structure” (without traditional hierarchy), and an inclusive, caring company culture. The author wisely divides his book into two sections, the first being autobiographical and the second more of a guide to implementing his model. His personal anecdotes are succinct and revealing—such as the humiliating childhood moment when his principal realized he only owned one pair of jeans—and they all play into his larger argument for assisting others in order to help one’s business. The lengthier how-to section’s main arguments and buzzwords, like “being present” and “being disruptive,” become slightly repetitive, but Keyser complements his writing with extensive further reading lists and short, useful summaries. The tactics he has used in his own firm also go far beyond the world of real estate, touching on how gratitude, honesty, and service can improve just about any team dynamic. Valuable, inspiring arguments for a more thoughtful approach to building a successful company.
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OLD NEW WORLDS A Tale of Two Immigrants
GRIEF COUNTRY A New Way of Thinking About Loss
Krummeck, Judith Green Place Books (360 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 25, 2019 978-1-950584-09-3
Larkin, Stephanie Ahadi Publications (214 pp.) $8.95 paper | May 1, 2018 978-0-9976983-3-6
In this cross-genre work, Krummeck (Beyond the Baobab, 2014) interweaves a memoir of her immigration to America with a creative imagining of her greatgreat-grandmother’s journey to South Africa as a missionary’s wife. In January 1815, English newlyweds Sarah and George Barker traveled to Portsmouth to board a ship bound for the Cape of Good Hope. During their voyage to Africa, where they planned to do missionary work with the Khoikhoi people, an armed American merchant ship fired on their vessel. It was the first of many perils that the couple would face during their travels. The author says that she felt a sense of kinship with her great-great-grandmother Sarah after she herself emigrated from Cape Town to the United States, 182 years later. She tells of meeting her future husband, an American French-horn player, while working as a radio host in Johannesburg and goes on to recall how she later became immersed in the story of her missionary forebears. Drawing upon family archives, her study recounts two radically diverse personal journeys that link across the ages. Krummeck’s own story is written as a memoir, but Sarah’s reads like a historical novel, with factual material and imagined dialogue side by side. These forms elegantly dovetail when the author inserts her first-person perspective into Sarah’s narrative: “Sarah had conceived her fourth child around the time of their third wedding anniversary—I like to think on their wedding anniversary.” Krummeck also evocatively describes the landscape through her ancestor’s eyes: “The clean air was pure and rich, the redolent earth a tawny ochre.” The present and past meld well, creating a sense that the author has a foot in both worlds. Nevertheless, this will prove an uncomfortable read for those who view the Barkers’ missionary vision negatively. For example, George declares, “I work to try to give these people a life of dignity and purpose,” implying that the Khoikhoi people are incapable of either without guidance. Krummeck portrays George as being progressive for his time, as he stood against apartheid in its “fledging form.” Still, such issues are sure to divide reader opinion. Elegantly crafted writing on contentious subject matter.
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A widow shares hard-won advice with those facing bereavement. Larkin (Introduction to Chizigula, 2019, etc.) lost her husband, Ron, to brain cancer. Two months after his death, she became the full-time caregiver for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s. This new role kept her from feeling the true weight of her loss. Based on her research, she believes she suffered from “delayed grief.” Moreover, she suspects she had experienced “anticipatory grief,” a term coined by psychiatrist Erich Lindemann in 1944, starting with Ron’s diagnosis. By weaving in expert opinions on “grief work,” the author gives a more nuanced picture of the bereavement process than is conveyed by Elisabeth KüblerRoss’ now-discredited five stages. Larkin fleshes out the models by describing her own sorrow’s emotional range. Throughout the book, she uses the effective metaphor of grief as a country made up of various states, such as Numbness, Depression, Social Withdrawal, and Self-Absorption. The main text is interspersed with essays and poetry written at different points on her grief journey; these offer windows into her state of mind at the time. For instance, in an early poem she writes of Ron: “He is a shadow of himself / A ghost, walking backwards / Away from my outstretched hand / But never beyond true love’s grasp.” Larkin maintained her emotional health through faith, bereavement support groups, and purposeful work with refugees. She found, though, that she had to adjust her expectations when “invisible friends” dropped out of her life. Figuring out her ongoing role in her stepchildren’s lives was an additional challenge. The most helpful sections of the work generalize from the author’s experiences to give lists of what a widow needs in the first few months (most importantly, for people to simply “acknowledge her loss”) and what not to say (“at least…” and other platitudes). It’s common to compare grief, Larkin notes—claiming that the loss of a child is worse than that of a husband, for instance—but such judgmental attitudes are unconstructive. Every death is painful, as she convincingly argues. A personal, relatable study of grief.
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London shows that she truly excels at character development; she makes sure that even minor players are fully fleshed out. the aussie next door
BUILDING WITH CERTAINTY Empowering the Astute Owner With Evidence-Based Construction
THE AUSSIE NEXT DOOR
London, Stefanie Entangled: Amara (350 pp.) $7.99 paper | Aug. 27, 2019 978-1-64063-668-2
Levine, Robert & Burns, Georgeann Time Tunnel Media (124 pp.) $17.50 paper | $12.00 e-book Jul. 17, 2019 978-1-07-527521-0
A pair of experts offer a guide for the management and funding of construc-
tion projects. This collaborative work from the team of Levine and Burns (Capital Projects and Healthcare Reform, 2015) expands from a couple of starkly simple opening assertions. “News articles are full of stories of monumentally botched schedules and budgets,” the authors write. “Even projects that are said to be on time and on budget often have scope and content significantly reduced from the original concept in order to meet those schedules and budgets.” As they observe, despite the best efforts of experts and advisory panels, virtually every building project is still plagued with the likelihood that it will be late, over budget, or scaled back from its original design. Drawing on the authors’ long experience in the industry, their new book provides a series of straightforward and useful ideas to fix this endemic problem, a process of evaluating projects rooted in evidencebased design. The process has multiple components (Levine and Burns stress throughout their succinct manual that seemingly simple answers to any of these issues are almost always useless and can be damaging), sharing the main theme of increasing the knowledge of the owners engaged in the projects. As the authors deftly point out, those owners should recognize the need to educate themselves rather than complacently relying on others; they should build an understanding of “the nuances of the planning-design-construction industry”; and of course they should prioritize communication at all levels and stages, breaking down the “silos” that tend to form when multiple groups are involved in any complicated, long-term project. The authors have devoted their careers to enterprises involving health care, but, as they note, all projects share general concerns with cost, schedules, and scope. All owners will benefit from the concentrated experience and wisdom delivered in these pages. The specific construction details will change from project to project, but the clear common sense advocated here is universal. A concise, forceful, and entirely cleareyed program for getting the waste and disappointment out of the construction business.
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In USA Today–bestselling author London’s (How To Lose a Fiancé, 2019, etc.) latest romantic comedy, a hidebound Australian cartoonist and his American tenant find love. Australian Jace Walters is a creature of habit. He eats plain porridge for breakfast every day after surfing at the beach and has gained a following for his comic strip series about a hermit. His mother understands his autism spectrum diagnosis, but she also feels that he needs to leave his comfort zone; as a result, Jace finds himself saddled with temporary custody of a family friend’s two dogs. Meanwhile, American Angie Donovan learns that her Australian visa is expiring in just two months. She feels at home Down Under; she has money from a lawsuit settlement to live on and loves her volunteer position in a nursing home. One possible solution remains: She can get married to an Australian citizen. However, she had a lonely, traumatic childhood, so she doesn’t want a cold, paper marriage—she wants to fall in love, even if she only has two months to do so. Angie enlists Jace to help her find romantic prospects; soon, sparks fly between them, and they begin a passionate sexual relationship punctuated by picnics by the ocean and 1990s romanticcomedy movie marathons. After Jace proposes, however, their bond begins to crack: Can spontaneous Angie live with Jace’s dependence on routine, and can he learn to compromise for the woman he loves? Over the course of this book, London shows that she truly excels at character development; she makes sure that even relatively minor players, such as Angie’s yoga teacher, Chloe Lee, and Jace’s flirtatious brother, Trent, are fully fleshed out. The realistic yet witty dialogue jumps off the page, and the two dogs in Jace’s care are lovable and endearing even when they misbehave. Jace’s high-functioning autism is never treated in a stereotypical manner; instead, it’s portrayed as something that the character realistically struggles with. The main characters have sizzling chemistry together, and they face believable hurdles on the way to the inevitable happily-ever-after. A sweet, sexy read featuring a couple that feels both true to life and aspirational.
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NURSES ON THE INSIDE Stories of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in NYC
UNDER THE COTTONWOOD TREE El Susto de la Curandera
Matzer, Ellen & Hughes, Valery Tree District Books (244 pp.) $18.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Jun. 11, 2019 978-1-951072-01-8
Meyer, Paul & Meyer, Carlos Illus. by Hardy, Margaret North Fourth Publications (166 pp.) A debut graphic novel focuses on a zany family adventure in the American Southwest. The Meyer brothers take readers to New Mexico in 1949. A mischievous boy named Carlos Lucero loves teasing a local elderly woman. But the woman is not just an average citizen: She is a curandera, or healer. Carlos sees her as an old witch, and he manages to snatch a cookie known as a bizcochito from her home. After Carlos takes a bite of the treat, he is swiftly turned into a calf. Amadeo, the victim’s older brother, and his friend Monree need to figure out how to turn Carlos back into a boy. The first idea is to go to Monree’s grandfather. The man is a shaman, but, unfortunately, he is currently out of town helping a grandson on a vision quest. To make matters worse, the boys realize that the curandera is following them, and she doesn’t seem happy. Her ability to change into different animals only frightens the duo more. The boys make their way back to the Lucero home, where more of the family becomes involved. But how will they manage to save Carlos and battle a woman skilled in magic? Even if it seems unlikely that Carlos will remain a calf forever, the journey to his redemption is full of twists, comedy, and sprinklings of Spanish. The authors provide a helpful glossary at the end that translates the Spanish words like “abuelo” (grandfather) and “cueva” (cave). And the tale’s humor, much like many of the earthy colors used by debut illustrator Hardy throughout the book, comes through strongly. For instance, a large talking rat named José with a fondness for beer, cheese, and dancing tends to steal all the scenes he appears in. In addition, whenever people become creatures, they retain something of their human looks (José has a mustache), and the results are cute and amusing. By contrast, more serious portions can languish. The curandera is given a backstory to explain her cruelness. She mourns a tragic event in her past yet her method of coping seems a little hard to believe even by quirky villain standards. Nevertheless, the narrative never drags and offers plenty of action. There are chases, monsters, and episodes of family bonding galore. There is even room in the end for some sentimentality. A fantastical and satisfying romp near the Rio Grande.
In this debut book, two nurses show how the advent of the HIV infection permanently altered a vulnerable minority and the boundaries of global health care. Based on actual events in their lives, career clinicians Matzer and Hughes begin their intensive, exquisitely moving narrative at the end of the 1970s in a Manhattan hospital where rapid-onset, opportunistic infections like pneumocystis carinii pneumonia first began immobilizing gay men at alarming rates. From the first hints of a “Gay Cancer” to future milestones in disease developments and pharmaceutical intervention, the authors diligently and compassionately narrate firsthand how a community joined together throughout the ’80s and ’90s to care for the dying, to inspire solidarity through candlelight vigils, to extinguish stigma and shame, and to fight for the right to die with dignity. With seamless ease, the book’s timeline smoothly oscillates back and forth from Matzer’s and Hughes’ historical trajectories through their grueling nursing school years into their close friendship and essential work with AIDS patients. Supplementing this poignant chronicle are reflections from both authors on the positive and negative aspects of that indelible era. As an open lesbian who was closeted when the epidemic began, Hughes remarks that she used to view the entire period of death and disease “through my identity as a gay woman, but lately, I think I have viewed it as a New Yorker. I felt that way especially after 9/11.” For lay readers, clinical footnotes are sprinkled throughout, offering explanations and specific terminology on disease symptoms and medical procedures. Structured in an intensely personalized manner with heartfelt prose and intimate, exacting details, the work ushers readers right into the authors’ AIDS ward, where sick men and women lay dying, at the mercy of homophobia and cruel bias, as disease researchers rushed to demystify and mitigate the medical carnage while perplexed politicians vacillated. The book is also a touching tribute to the resilience of a community; its unified, unconditional allies; and the human kindness that continues to interconnect everyone in times of horrific atrocities. “Despite all the bullshit that happens,” Matzer declares, “most of us come together when we need to.” An accessible, universal, heartbreaking, and gutwrenching AIDS chronicle.
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The author’s descriptions, especially of settings, are a joy, whether the location is a fantasy landscape or a detective’s office. the invisible boat and the molten dragon
THE INVISIBLE BOAT AND THE MOLTEN DRAGON
A TEACHERS QUEST Loving Our Students, Serving Their Future Needs, and Saving the Schools
Müller, Eric G. Waldorf Publishing (396 pp.) $21.00 paper | Dec. 2, 2017 978-1-943582-98-3
Murphy, Brian L. Manuscript
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A California educator shares his thoughts on teaching, classroom management, and American schools. Murphy (Drugs, Death, and Auras, 2009) had the noble goal of wanting to teach, but in the early 1970s, jobs were scarce. Instead, he pursued a business career that lasted 18 years. A layoff got him thinking about what to do next; he followed his passion and started a second career as a teacher. Now a classroom veteran, Murphy seeks to educate prospective teachers with this book. He relies on his own experiences, liberally sprinkling classroom anecdotes throughout the volume. Each chapter raises a question that the author attempts to answer, such as “How Does One Decide What Grade to Teach?” and “What Do You Do About the Non-Productive Child?” The chapters are short, and the answers are generally helpful and instructive, infused with Murphy’s passion for teaching. The text often includes strong opinions honed by his business background; for example, about “non-productive” children, he writes: “Not once in all the years I was in the business of manufacturing did one of the units on the production floor REFUSE to be developed in a more useful, more well-developed form. To the chagrin of teachers, students do this all the time.” Some of the author’s ideas about classroom management are creative, such as an inventive technique he learned from another teacher “that makes use of how [students’] brains are actually wired.” On the other hand, the chapters that walk through the teacher-union relationship and California’s methods of school evaluation are a bit dry, technical, and too state-specific to be of broad interest. Perhaps the most intriguing content, which addresses a wider audience than prospective teachers alone, is the author’s expansive commentary about a failed education system. Most notably, Murphy observes that public schools are largely focused on preparing students for college when they should also be providing vocational options for non–university-bound pupils. His novel concept of appointing an “Educational Convoy,” or group of stakeholders to look out for each child’s interests, is bold and refreshing. Rambling at times but a candid, intelligent, and heartfelt look at teachers and the education system.
Three children continue their mission to ensure the world’s survival in this fantasy sequel. In the first installment of this series, the white Temple kids—older sister Julie and her brother, Leo—along with their African American neighbor Annabel—sailed in a magical, invisible flying boat on a quest to free water sprites from their monstrous captors. This was the first step in reuniting humans with elementals (such as dwarfs and fairies), ushering in the new age of light. But a great battle is still to be fought, with the children playing an essential role. As Brathnar, King of the Dwarfs, explains, many forces “desire the destruction of the inner light and our shared world….Earth’s fate depends on you.” The kids make a long and perilous journey to bring the Water of Light from deep underground and distribute it (in the form of magical seeds) as healing medicine for Mother Earth’s droughts and wildfires. The threesome also discover what’s happened to Annabel’s missing older brother, Massud, and retrieve an essential artifact that helps them and the elemental powers battle Zuratrat, the fearsome Molten Dragon. Succeeding could heal the world, gain a treasure, and make many wishes come true. The author continues the fun, thrills, and lively characters from the series opener (The Invisible Boat, 2014) in this follow-up for fourth graders and up. Readers learn more about the neighbors in the Temples’ brownstone who contribute to the quest; Mr. Hoover, for example, is a private detective, and he helps the three children nail down clues related to Massud. Müller’s (Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, 2017, etc.) ending nicely brings all the good guys together for a conclusion that’s logical and satisfying. The author’s descriptions, especially of settings, are a joy, with well-chosen details to linger over, whether the location is a fantasy landscape, a magic shop, or a detective’s office. As before, the book has an urgently serious message of ethical responsibility to the environment, but it doesn’t feel preachy thanks to the story’s highly colored adventures. A fine tale with well-conceived quests, strong characters, exciting confrontations, and a delightful resolution.
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QUEERIES
Shelly Oria, Editor Of Indelible In The Hippocampus By Karen Schechner Dror Sithakol
In Indelible in the Hippocampus: Writings From the Me Too Movement (McSweeney’s), a diverse contingent of writers— including black, Latinx, Asian, queer, and trans women— offers fiery responses to gender-based harassment and violence. The collection uses humor, ire, and insight to show that by recording and retelling #MeToo stories, we can, as contributor Quito Ziegler says, start to “see through the turbulence to the light ahead.” Our reviewer notes that Indelible “functions as an empowered testament and treatise, a book for anyone interested in social justice.” We talk with editor and contributor Shelly Oria about the catalyst for the collection and her hopes for its impact.
How did the collection come about? The book came about when I emailed Kristina Kearns—then Executive Director of McSweeney’s—asking if she’d like to publish a short story I’d recently finished. This was October 2017, soon after Harvey [Weinstein was first accused of sexual assault]. I never imagined #MeToo would become the global movement it’s become; I assumed the conversation and revived hashtag would stay in the news for a week at most. That story I’d written, “But We Will Win,” is told from the point of view of a woman whose ex-girlfriend ran into traffic to escape sexual street harassment. The narrator began murdering men on occasion after that as a way of coping with her grief and rage. It’s a commentary—though that’s perhaps a bit reductive—on the anger women have had to swallow for so long and also a metaphor for the necessity to ruin some existing structures to make room for the new. I emailed Kristina thinking I should try to publish this timely story of mine as soon as I could. My email started an exchange between us; pretty soon we were talking about a book, and soon after she asked if I’d be the editor.
Indelible in the Hippocampus, a multigenre collection, uses a range of styles and tones—wry, revelatory, funny, devastating, serious, seriocomic, informative, galvanizing. How do you hope it might change or inform the way readers view the #MeToo movement? Um, can I use this list of adjectives as a blurb for Indelible? I love it. One of my hopes in this context is that the book reaches some folks that maybe haven’t been too interested in the #MeToo conversation until now. Quite a few people (well, white, straight men) have told me in the last few months that 140
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they’re looking forward to reading Indelible even though the topic doesn’t interest them much, simply because they spotted some names on the list of contributors they admire. Something I love about the book is just how stylistically diverse it is—because of the mix of genres you mentioned but also because you get extremely personal accounts next to essays that are more like think pieces (and they will make you think, potentially even alter your thinking), gut-wrenching moments next to flat-out funny ones, etc. That, too, I hope, is a trait of the book that makes it easier for different types of readers to engage. And when you engage, you’re having a conversation and participating in the larger one. I don’t know that that’ll happen, of course; changing minds, even just a few, or making some people consider a new perspective—that’s a big, heavy weight to put on the shoulders (spine?) of a pretty small book. But if it does happen, if I hear from some readers that Indelible made them see or get something they didn’t before—well, then I’ll feel like we’ve done our part.
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Throughout the collection, narrators gain strength from recounting or reframing #MeToo moments; for example: “It starts when you say it in words, that first push of bravery. The shock of hearing yourself tell another human: I was raped.” What is it about storytelling that allows for this alchemy? There’s such power in language and in the written word in particular. I also work as a life and creativity coach—I’ve had my private practice for over a decade now—and so much of the work I do with clients involves various types of assignments they complete in writing. For most people—people, not just writers—writing is a necessary path to healing. Or at the very least, speaking, and naming. Trauma can never shift form if it’s stuck inside our head.
GOD CREATES A SNAKE
Peterson, Charles Illus. by Russell, Brian The Underfold (32 pp.) $12.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Aug. 13, 2019 978-0-9859277-3-8
In this short picture book, debut author Peterson expands a simple joke
The #MeToo movement, as essential as it is, doesn’t really address the sexual assault faced by people of color and trans and gender-nonconforming communities. Is that something you wanted to counter in Indelible? Oh, absolutely. This is such a messed-up brand of exclusion: Women of color, queer and trans women, so many women who deal with gender-based bias and violence on a daily basis, fell outside the parameters of acknowledgment and discourse because the narrow idea the movement initially put forth for the type of woman who gets harassed or assaulted was “Beautiful Straight White Cis Woman Actress.” And of course everyone was talking about the hashtag as though it was something new, so there was also a lot of erasure of Tarana Burke’s work, who’d started the movement back in 2006. In light of all that, it’s safe to say inclusivity was a top goal for us in assembling writings for Indelible.
Karen Schechner is the vice president of Kirkus Indie. Indelible in the Hippocampus received a starred review in the July 15, 2019, issue.
GREYBORN RISING
Sandy, Derry Caribbean Reads Publishing (332 pp.) $20.99 | $12.00 paper | $6.99 e-book Jul. 1, 2019 978-1-73382-993-9 978-1-73382-992-2 paper In Sandy’s debut fantasy novel, the last surviving member of a Trinidadbased group must stop evil from sweeping civilization. Trinidadian Le Clerc is a member of the Order, which hunts paranormal menaces from a magical realm called the Grey. On a recent mission in the Paria forest, Rohan—along with his cousin Dorian; his grandfather Isa; and fellow Orderman Kimani—battled the werewolflike lagahoo. All the members of the group were killed except for Rohan despite the fact that all had enhanced senses, stamina, and reflexes. Now he’s the last living member of Stone House, which works alongside Wood and River Houses under the guidance of the Watchers’ Council. They keep track of breaches from the Grey into humanity’s realm, known as the Absolute. (A third realm, the Ether, contains heaven and hell.) The morning after laying his relatives to rest, Rohan patrols the trails |
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into a fun story. The book opens with a view of a building labeled “Creation Station.” Inside, a snake and a cat sit in a waiting room. The snake is called in to have a meeting with God—portrayed as a large, bearded man with skin that looks like a starry sky. He tells the newly created snake that he’ll be able to crawl on land, climb trees, and swim. When God asks if the reptile has any other questions, he replies, “How fast will I run?” God nervously notes that they “ran out” of legs. Then a centipede walks in to ask God if it’s really necessary for him to have 100 legs. The snake is annoyed, and God says, “You weren’t supposed to see that.” Russell’s (What I Remember About Dinosaurs, 2012) images are cute, dynamic, and colorful throughout. The text is chiefly dialogue, presented in cartoonish word bubbles, which will make the story appealing to young readers with an affinity for comic books, which this one resembles. Although the title and depiction of God may lead one to believe that this is JudeoChristian fiction, the book contains no specific religious allusions, making it appropriate for all audiences. An amusing book for joke-obsessed early readers.
surrounding Stone House. He’s shadowed by Voss Prakash, who was sent by the Watchers to protect Rohan until he can appear before the Council to report on Isa, Dorian, and Kimani (whose body, it turns out, is missing). At the Council’s behest, Rohan and Voss join forces with Lisa Cyrus, an inexperienced seer. Together they must stop Lucian, an “obeah man,” or sorcerer, who wants to merge the Grey and the Absolute, pitting humanity against primal forces. Sandy crafts a ghoulish tale from elements of Caribbean folklore and shows a great love for gory action. History plays a vital role, as well, as scenes set in the early 19th century depict plantation culture and add weight to the brief appearance of Katharine, a helpful “soucouyant,” or blood-drinker. Characters such as Tarik Abban, a young pickpocket, and Clarence Jeremy, a terminally ill sex worker, represent more realistic horrors of city life. The author truly excels, however, in his meticulous plotting involving supernatural elements. Artifacts such as teleportation boxes and creatures such as the gigantic Moongazers generate entertaining mayhem. There are also moments of unnerving prose, as when “Fat grubs with black beady heads” were “hitting the ground...like rain on leaves,” which make this an unforgettable read—and Sandy, a name to watch. A masterful tale that illuminates terrifying creatures in Caribbean lore.
who marveled at a marathon’s 26.2-mile distance: “That’s longer than the drive between Bowling Green and Toledo.” In another vignette, the author’s college-age stepson Rik got up early on a Sunday morning to hand the author Gatorade during one marathon. Other race locations included California, New York, and Ontario, although most occurred in Ohio and Michigan. The route descriptions offer evocative passages: “For me, that Big Ten Run was about learning how to love a place for the first time, and nothing can quite match that feeling.” The epilogue finds the author taking a chilly December run in Greenville, South Carolina, where he nicely ties together the book’s narrative strands; he cleverly inverts the chronology here so that the events of the epilogue precede the prologue’s, suggesting that he will need all the lessons he learned in order to face an unknown future. Ideal for runners but accessible to all readers seeking wisdom and inspiration.
FORBIDDEN VEGETABLES A Timothy & Alix Murder Mystery Smalley, Bion Illus. by the author Time Tunnel Media (103 pp.) $12.95 paper | Jul. 6, 2019 978-1-07-835530-8
TEN MARATHONS Searching for the Soft Ground in a Hard World
An orange-skinned man with carrotlike features, his dwarf friend, two university professors, and a movie star become embroiled in a murder mystery in Smalley’s (The Bare Bear, 2015, etc.) graphic novel. Lanky circus performer Hugo the Carrot Boy doesn’t know his roots, having grown up on a farm with neglectful adoptive parents. But he does have an old photograph of geneticist Carter Millwheel, who’s currently at Lake Shore University in Chicago. Hugo has a plan involving the scientist that could result in substantial cash, so he heads to the college with his pal Balthazar, “the World’s Mightiest Dwarf.” At Lake Shore, professor Alix Fitzsimmons convinces her boyfriend, fellow professor Timothy Legend, to attend an upcoming protest rally that anti-technology activist Julian Potkin is spearheading. Alix was planning to cover the rally for a local newspaper, but she gets sidetracked by the arrival of famous actress Goldie Hart, who’s at the university on a film shoot. Goldie initially asks Alix for directions, but the two women quickly become friends. Meanwhile, Hugo disguises his distinctive carrot features on campus and retrieves research material from Millwheel’s lab; he subsequently blackmails the geneticist with information about a particular experiment. Before long, someone turns up dead, and amateur detectives Alix and Timothy investigate the handful of people who had motive and opportunity to commit murder. Despite some intermittent violence and sexual themes, Smalley’s graphic novel’s tone is one of lighthearted fun. Timothy is often appealingly facetious, and greedy Balthazar has a loyalty to Hugo that’s endearing. Over the course of the story, there are a few surprises involving connections between a few characters,
Schneider, Doug Saybrook Publishing (128 pp.) $14.99 paper | $7.99 e-book Mar. 7, 2019 978-1-73352-730-9
A runner shares life lessons in a debut memoir that combines inspirational text, a tour guide, and a career survey. The prologue of this book features a fraught phone call between Schneider and his elderly mother, who’s in decline due to Alzheimer’s disease and terminal cancer; this gives way to the author’s childhood memories of Bowling Green, Ohio. Long-distance running, a grueling activity that engages body, mind, and spirit, initially provided the author with stress relief; he relied on it during exams, as he faced uncertainty about his educational options, and when he had troubles in his first marriage. The book’s prominent themes include dedication, pacing, stamina, self-awareness, and the humility that comes with occasional stumbles. Most chapters begin with the date and location of a particular marathon, Schneider’s running time, and a relevant quotation. He employs marathons as structural devices, allowing him to explore his relationships, with a focus on his relationship with his supportive second wife, Elaine. After they received terrible news, he writes, “we were in such a daze that I couldn’t even taste the pepperoni” in their pizza. Schneider thus succeeds at underscoring critical moments through plainspoken language, as in a touching anecdote about his father, 142
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Stephens offers a fantasy focusing on primal good and evil that should entrance fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. samuil and the legendary snow owl
MOONFLOWER IN AUTUMN RAIN Collection of Short Stories & Poems
and the murder mystery plotline is consistently engrossing. However, readers may find it bewildering that quick-witted Alix and Timothy must rely so heavily on the latter’s artificial-intelligence project—especially when a second murder points to an obvious suspect whom the two professors don’t seem to consider. Smalley’s bold, black-and-white illustrations are skillfully organized, rendering occasional directional arrows unnecessary. An unorthodox but diverting whodunit featuring colorful characters.
Stone, Ilish Time Tunnel Media (190 pp.) $10.42 paper | $2.99 e-book Apr. 22, 2019 978-0-578-49758-7
Stephens, Randall iUniverse (336 pp.) $34.99 | $20.96 paper | $5.99 e-book Apr. 17, 2019 978-1-5320-6998-7 978-1-5320-6996-3 paper
This debut historical fantasy sees a Russian family battle dark forces in the wilds near the Black Sea. In 1840s Russia, 17-year-old P’etro Fedorchak fights in the Allied Shadow War. He joins comrades Samuil “The Fox” Wolowitz and Dimitri “The Bear” Popovitch against human soldiers and demons coming from a forest by the Black Sea. Samuil perishes in the war but P’etro returns to Moscow a hero. During the celebratory parade, he saves a young woman named Ilia from being trampled by runaway horses. Later, he works on her family farm, where the two fall in love. They marry and move to Bakota, Ukraine, to start a family of their own. When Ilia becomes pregnant, she’s sure it will be a boy, and they plan to name him Samuil. One evening, P’etro notices an otherworldly fog rolling in from the forest. This is the night Ilia gives birth, but not without complications. P’etro crosses the countryside to fetch aid from Galina, the wife of their friend Ivan “The Boar.” P’etro ends up in a magic cave that leads to a cabin in the “Borderlands.” He encounters a “dark presence” that says, “I am he who will destroy everything and everyone you love.” Luckily, P’etro’s family doesn’t face this evil alone. Nikolai of the Caves and his hound, Wolf Killer, will help. For his series opener, Stephens offers a fantasy focusing on primal good and evil that should entrance fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The heroes embody natural icons, and readers see P’etro “the Rock” earn his name during the war for being “strong, unmovable, and true.” The narrative hops forward in stages, checking in on P’etro’s son, Samuil, as a 3-month-old baby, then at ages 8 and 12. Fabulously realized ambiance, utilizing mist and wild cat screams, portrays the eerie Southern Forest as a place of deepening weirdness. Grounded human elements, like P’etro’s traumatic flashbacks to the war, allow the supernatural motifs to ramp up evenly. This first volume’s magical crescendo should create loyal readers who will return for more fairy tale–style grandeur. A captivating start to an Eastern-flavored and methodically built fantasy epic. |
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These short stories, poems, and a novella explore surreal landscapes of emotions and relationships. The first four parts of this collection each contain a short story followed by three related poems. The final section features a novella and a single poem. A sense of surrealism and uncertain identity underlies these pieces, as in the opening tale, “The Antonym of Flower is Wind,” which begins with a dreamlike image: “The swan that sleeps on people’s bellybuttons.” It’s offered by a young woman called Lorelei, who fascinates the narrator, but he eventually realizes that “something was leaving” inside her, going somewhere he can’t follow. Over the years, some things remind him of Lorelei: the harmonica, fireflies. In the narrator’s mailbox is a letter from Lorelei telling him: “You’re over there, over in the real world. I’m not there….You’d never find me.” He remembers her saying she can’t ever be human, and “in some ways, you’re just like me.” The accompanying poems use associated imagery; in “No Longer Human,” for example, “the fireflies float / then no longer glow / … / So you, too, / so warm and loving, may no longer stay.” In another story, “A Silent Anemone,” a man claims to be from Venus, and the narrator (who pretends to be deaf but isn’t) can’t help believing him. In other tales, characters transform themselves, confront death and evanescence, and look for the real and unreal within the mundane. In his book, Stone (I’m a Duck With Alligator Fingers, 2018) writes in a captivating magical realist vein. His images are dreamy, too, and often melancholic: A girl who tries to sail her ship to the moon discovers that “even in the myth, the moon failed.” Romance, or at least the promise of it, underlies many of these stories, with the mysterious embodied by an attractive young woman. A dream girl isn’t the freshest trope, but it’s complicated by an aura of unease or alienation. At times, the author overrelies on cultural touchstones, especially songs, to establish taste and coolness credentials (including “Another World” by Kinoko Teikoku; “The Dandelion Girl” by Robert F. Young; and Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory). Intriguing journeys through ambiguous states of being.
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unusually believable. His time machine’s origin and development have a strong, plausible basis, and his characters’ backstories and personalities provide realistic motivations. The research project also makes a thorough case for choosing 9/11 as a vital historical inflection point—not only because of the attacks’ impact, but also because the activities and locations of the hijackers before the events are well known. As the main characters carry out their exciting mission and remake history, readers will find it intensely satisfying, and the cliffhanger ending promises new thrills to come. A compelling premise that’s strengthened by solid scientific explanations, well-rounded characters, and nailbiting suspense.
Todd, Richard Time Tunnel Media (410 pp.) $12.95 paper | Sep. 5, 2019 978-0-578-52240-1
A soldier travels back in time to prevent the 9/11 attacks and save his wife’s life in debut author Todd’s first sci-fi thriller in a duology. On Sept. 10, 2001, Maj. Kyle Mason, a sandy-haired, green-eyed, and chiseled U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, can’t believe his luck: “He was newly wed to the most beautiful woman on the planet, and he was at the zenith of his career.” His 35-year-old wife, Padma Mahajan, a few years his senior, is the vice president of a Wall Street investment bank with offices in the World Trade Center. After the next day’s disastrous events, Kyle’s life is torn asunder; griefstricken, he spirals downward into depression and resigns his commission. Then, in 2008, Gen. Aaron Craig asks him, “Major, what if you could change everything?” Kyle, reinstated as a lieutenant colonel, soon joins a secret research project in Nevada that’s been operating for decades. Scientists have constructed a time machine, and the project’s mission is to avert the 9/11 attacks by assassinating the hijackers before they can carry out their plan. Although Kyle and his partner, Col. Annika Wise, are highly prepared, they face unexpected difficulties on the mission, which takes a surprising turn. Todd grippingly conjures a what-if time-travel scenario that’s
DEAD MANKIND WALKING
Townsend, Johnny Booklocker.com, Inc. (240 pp.) $15.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 25, 2019 978-1-64438-034-5
A collection of political and cultural essays tackles big issues. “Most of my life I’ve been called both unrealistically naïve and overly cynical,” writes Townsend (Human Com passion for Beginners, 2018, etc.) in the introduction to this volume, which covers many of the most divisive fault lines in the current political moment. Perhaps both of these things are requirements for a progressive—or at least one with a sense of humor—which is what the author reveals himself to be as he opines on such topics as religion, capitalism, and the ballooning climate crisis. He gets into narrower issues as well, including in his critique of Israel’s Palestinian policy from the perspective of a Jewish American (albeit one who converted to Judaism after leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of his youth). He writes about why classes on race, gender, and social justice should be mandatory in the workplace. He bemoans the internecine fighting in the Democratic Party between moderates and progressives, all of whom seem more willing to blame Democrats than denounce the Republicans. Each essay comes from Townsend’s particular perspective of growing up gay in the conservative confines of the Latter-day Saints church as well as the pull between the traditions of his upbringing and the necessities of an inclusive modern society. Through anecdotes, observations, and a fair bit of ranting, the author attempts to cajole America back into some semblance of common sense. Townsend writes in an energetic prose that balances crankiness and humor. “When Facebook developed its additional line of emojis to satisfy users who wanted to do more than simply Like another person’s post or comment, we were happy,” begins one essay. “After all, if a Friend posted about their dying cat, we could hardly click Like in response.” The book reads more like a collection of newspaper columns than a work of cultural criticism (and many of these pieces did originally appear as editorials). How much readers will
This Issue’s Contributors # ADULT Colleen Abel • Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Colette Bancroft • Joseph Barbato • Amy Boaz Catherine Cardno • Lee E. Cart • Kristin Centorcelli • Joshua Claybourn • Devon Crowe • Dave DeChristopher • Amanda Diehl • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Anjali Enjeti • Chelsea Ennen • Kristen Evans • Mia Franz • Jackie Friedland • Amy Goldschlager • Michael Griffith • Janice Harayda • Peter Heck • Natalia Holtzman • Matt Jakubowski • Jessica Jernigan • Skip Johnson Jayashree Kambel • Tom Lavoie • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Peter Lewis • Don McLeese Gregory McNamee • Clayton Moore • Sarah Morgan • Ismail Muhammad • Christopher Navratil Connie Ogle • Mike Oppenheim • Scott Parker • Jim Piechota • William E. Pike • Margaret Quamme Carolyn Quimby • Amy Reiter • Lloyd Sachs • Leslie Safford • Bob Sanchez • E.F. Schraeder • Gene Seymour • Rosanne Simeone • Linda Simon • Clay Smith • Wendy Smith • Leena Soman • Margot E. Spangenberg • Rachel Sugar • Tom Swift • Claire Trazenfeld • Jessica Miller • Steve Weinberg • Joan Wilentz • Wilda Williams • Kerry Winfrey • Marion Winik CHILDREN’S & TEEN Lucia Acosta • Autumn Allen • Marcie Bovetz • Linda Boyden • Jessica Anne Bratt • Christopher A. Brown • Jessica Brown • Timothy Capehart • Patty Carleton • Ann Childs • Amanda Chuong Tamar Cimenian • Eiyana Favers • Rodney M.D. Fierce • Ayn Reyes Frazee • Laurel Gardner • Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Vicky Gudelot • Gerry Himmelreich • Julie Hubble • Kathleen T. Isaacs Darlene Sigda Ivy • Danielle Jones • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • Megan Dowd Lambert • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart • Kyle Lukoff • J. Alejandro Mazariegos • Katrina Nye • Sara Ortiz • Rachel G. Payne • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Andrea Plaid • Asata Radcliffe • Kristy Raffensberger Amy B. Reyes • Christopher R. Rogers • Leslie L. Rounds • Lenny Smith • Rita Soltan • Mathangi Subramanian • Steven Thompson INDIE Alana Abbott • Rebecca Leigh Anthony • Kent Armstrong • Darren Carlaw • Charles Cassady Michael Deagler • Stephanie Dobler Cerra • Steve Donoghue • Megan Elliott • Joshua Farrington Morgana Hartman • Matthew Heller • Justin Hickey • Ivan Kenneally • Collin Marchiando • Rhett Morgan • Jim Piechota • Alicia Power • Sarah Rettger • Mark A. Salfi • Jerome Shea • Barry Silverstein Holly Storm • Emily Thompson • Amanda Toth • Lauren Emily Whalen
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Treese’s prose is strong and naturalistic throughout, giving readers deep insight into the characters’ thought processes. the language of divorce
EDUCATION FROM A DEEPER AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE Enhanced by Relating to Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Based on Mindfulness, Self-Awareness & Emotional Intelligence
agree with the author will likely depend on their own political beliefs. That said, those who share his worldview—and perhaps feel that same cynic/naif dichotomy within themselves— will applaud his arguments, particularly those regarding the seriousness of climate change. A rambunctious volume of short, well-crafted essays from a man with a strong point of view.
Watagodakumbura, Chandana Time Tunnel Media (250 pp.) $15.00 paper | Aug. 1, 2019 978-1-0721-1375-1
THE LANGUAGE OF DIVORCE
Treese, Leanne Filles Vertes Publishing (404 pp.) $16.00 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 10, 2019 978-1-946802-39-2
A debut literary novel focuses on a troubled couple’s relationship dynamics. What happens when cracks start to form in the ideal life? Hannah and Will Abbott embody the picture-perfect existence, with their supportive marriage, beautiful home, and two wonderful kids. But when each starts to suspect the other of infidelity, the ordinary points of friction in any relationship spiral into a major crisis. The plot really kicks off when Hannah seeks advice from a divorce attorney, dramatically escalating tensions until neither spouse can stop their stories from taking on lives of their own. It’s at this point that the novel truly shines, with the introduction of David Dewey and Rachel Goldstein, Will’s and Hannah’s respective attorneys, as point-of-view characters, lending the portrait of the couple more depth. Additionally, the lawyers spur the proceedings forward, rapidly escalating tensions even as their personal and professional lives become increasingly entangled with the Abbotts’. But an unexpected opportunity presents itself when Will and Hannah get an offer to appear on a reality TV show about divorcing couples. With the gorgeous backdrop of St. John and millions watching, the two are surrounded by distractions and temptations, but they may also finally have the breathing room to think things over the right way and decide whether this is an ending or a new beginning. Treese’s prose is strong and naturalistic throughout, giving readers deep insight into the characters’ thought processes and sticking close to their perspectives. The story also occasionally skips around in time, especially toward the beginning, which provides a detailed look at the relationship. If there is a fault in the characterization, it’s that Will and Hannah lean toward the archetypal. He’s spontaneous while she’s fastidious; she’s composed when he’s childish. These are familiar tropes, but the humor, the momentum of the plot, and the complications and viewpoints presented by Rachel and David more than make up for any sense of rote familiarity. Ultimately, this nuanced and empathetic novel balances the difficult and the heartwarming, managing to become more than the sum of its parts. A clever, incisive character study that explores romance and strife. |
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An educator proposes a research-based teaching method that incorporates broad aspects of the human mind and personal development. In this second edition of his debut book, Watagodakumbura makes a case for what he calls “authentic” education, a holistic practice that maximizes learning by being more responsive to students’ needs and concentrates on deep lessons rather than rote memorization. The work guides readers through research on brain development, learning styles, and the creation of knowledge (Daniel Goleman, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Siegel, and Rick Hanson make appearances in the text, as do frequent mentions of Bloom’s taxonomy and Maslow’s hierarchy), delivering a greater understanding of what it means to be educated. The author establishes the many ways in which contemporary educational environments do not meet student needs and keep pupils from reaching their maximum potentials, and he shows how many aspects of modern life could be improved by a wider approach to the learning process. He then provides readers with examples of how authentic techniques can be used in the classroom while acknowledging the difficulty of implementing these strategies within the current education milieus. The book is aimed at students of pedagogy and classroom teachers who deal with the practical applications of education research, and it stays focused on its specialist audience throughout the text. Watagodakumbura is passionate about the potential benefits of authentic education. The work serves as a generally compelling argument for revisiting the traditional approach to teaching and learning, acknowledging that it represents a substantial change from the status quo: “Authentic education per se is a catalyst for a holistic transformation our societies need in the educational forefront, not a patch to be applied, to be swayed in the presence of economic or market changes with a narrow perspective or to suppress one problem until we encounter another, much bigger one.” The arguments are based on solid and substantial research, with full citations. While the volume skillfully addresses the conceptual aspects of the education system’s shortcomings, it is particularly effective in identifying concrete, accepted practices that limit students’ potential development, such as the use of multiplechoice questions and the imposition of artificial time limits. The book also does an excellent job of explaining why adapting to the neurodiversity and varied needs of the student population is a benefit both to individual pupils (who are not marginalized by rigid definitions of learning and achievement) 145
and society (which gains the talents of more productive folks while isolating fewer who do not conform). The author presents a strong case for the dramatic changes he advocates and the benefits of “an integrated human development-focused sustainable system.” The prose is occasionally awkward (“Many students, especially in teenage and early adulthood, may feel the learning environment in a more neutral manner”; “Under prevailed social contexts”). But there are also plenty of vivid metaphors and imagery that will draw readers’ attention and make the complex topic manageable. An ambitious and well-argued approach to redesigning the educational environment to better respond to student needs.
or Only Will Decision Chart” that clearly lays out whether a trust is advisable in a given situation. In the first part of the book, Willingham candidly, and humorously, writes about “Wordy Lawyer Words”: “Like doctors, lawyers need to make things confusing so we can charge a lot of money.” He goes on to deftly explain common legal terms and define types of property from a legal perspective. There’s also a useful discussion of estate planning as well as what might happen if one doesn’t adequately look ahead. The second part of the book includes a clear comparison of “probate with no will” and “probate with will.” For readers considering a trust, the third section lays out numerous reasons to go with that option as well as a rundown of various types of trusts. Willingham uses relevant examples from his own practice as well as hypothetical cases as he intelligently discusses beneficiaries and estate taxes, among other issues. The author’s “Tips and Tricks” in the book’s third part are noteworthy in that they not only suggest possible strategies for creating certain trusts, but also ways to reduce legal fees. A witty, digestible legal guide.
DO I NEED A WILL OR A TRUST?
Willingham, Taylor Phillip Time Tunnel Media (175 pp.) $29.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Jun. 7, 2019 978-1-07-063083-0
THREE DEGREES AND GONE
Willis, J. Stewart Black Rose Writing (316 pp.)
A lawyer uses humor to enliven a discourse on wills and trusts. Willingham (Why Should I Care? I’ll Be Dead, 2017) directly and authoritatively answers the question posed in the book’s title, but he does so in a style that’s enjoyable, conversational, and engaging. Each chapter in this book of legal advice starts with an amusing quotation from comedian Jim Gaffigan, which makes it anything but stuffy. The author intuitively divides it into three parts that discuss the definitions of legal terms, the basic differences between wills and trusts, and the reasons to create a trust. An instructive introduction is augmented by an excellent “Trust
As climate change turns the United States into a storm-ravaged swamp in the late 21st century, three sets of refugees attempt an unauthorized border crossing into Canada in Willis’ (Deadly Highway, 2018, etc.) post-apocalyptic tale. In 2086, most of Florida and New Orleans no longer exist thanks to rising sea levels. Georgia swells with homeless people, and waves of migrants struggle north to Canada, where rightwingers in the Ottawa government have tried locking down the border. Texas, a fetid bayou, is where the Wilkins family dwells, safe but discontented in domed, bleak corporate oil-company housing. They’re surprised when beer-drinking, abusive patriarch Frank Wilkins agrees to leave for Canada for a fresh start; in truth, he just wants to rejoin his younger mistress, who moved there. Divorced Savannah accountant Harry Sykes, his house ruined in a hurricane, embezzles from a disaster relief fund so that he and his college-age son can flee north. In corrupt Chicago, Cynthia “Cyndie” Sherwood is the pampered but fed-up trophy wife of a successful but philandering lawyer. Using his ties to the migrant-smuggling underworld, she joins a transport with her disgruntled, adolescent daughter in tow. The narrative brings the entire ensemble together for a harrowing exploit. In plainspoken and quietly unnerving language, Willis effectively gives weight even to minor characters and sometimes manages to jolt readers with unexpected revelations. Readers who are looking for future-tech thrills or creatively envisioned ruins in an apocalyptic-dystopic milieu may be disappointed, though; aside from subcutaneous identification chips, self-driving autos, drones, and roll-up pocket computers, the sci-fi gimmickry quickly falls away. Instead, this is an elemental drama
K I R K US M E DI A L L C # Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Executive Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N # Copyright 2019 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 2600Via Fortuna, Suite 130, Austin, TX 78746. Subscription prices are: Digital & Print Subscription (U.S.) - 12 Months ($199.00) Digital & Print Subscription (International) - 12 Months ($229.00) Digital Only Subscription - 12 Months ($169.00) Single copy: $25.00. All other rates on request. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kirkus Reviews, PO Box 3601, Northbrook, IL 60065-3601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, TX 78710 and at additional mailing offices.
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The author manages to craft some memorable characters while maintaining a swift pace and a mounting sense of pressure. passover
TIPS LAWYERS WISH YOU KNEW Going It Alone at the Courthouse
of fairly ordinary, often uncouth people on an arduous, quavering journey, pushed to their limits and crossing boundaries—of nations, of laws, of morality—for the sake of survival or just plain selfishness. An exceptional story of the future that quietly sounds an alarm about extremities of human behavior.
Zeigler, Ann D. Rio Grande Books (158 pp.) $17.95 paper | $7.99 e-book | May 6, 2019 978-1-943681-42-6
PASSOVER
A veteran attorney takes readers on a tour through America’s legal labyrinth. Debut author Zeigler is well qualified to serve as a guide through the maze of the U.S. legal system, having spent more than 30 years practicing law in the federal courts. And in this book, she delivers a handy primer aimed at legal novices who may not know the difference between a deposition and a disposition. “This book is for every ‘normal’ person who comes in contact with the American legal system, voluntarily or otherwise,” she writes. In 17 crisp chapters, the author takes readers through the state and federal courts; the different types of cases, from civil and criminal to probate and bankruptcy; and the vexing details of legal protocols. “When you hear the knocking that signals the judge is entering the courtroom, and the courtroom deputy says ‘All rise!’ you need to be absolutely silent (and stand until the judge says those present can be seated). Silent,” she emphasizes. A particular focus here is to make civil procedure less scary, noting that the rules for conducting litigation “were written by and for lawyers. They are shorthand reminders of many weeks of suffering in law school.” There’s even a comprehensible introduction to hearsay and advice for jurors— “Ignore most of what the lawyers tell you....The only thing that counts in a trial is the evidence—what the witnesses say and what the documents say.” Zeigler has a breezy, familiar style (“Making a will won’t make you dead”) and draws a little on her own experiences in the legal trenches. After a lawyer didn’t show up for a hearing, the attorney’s secretary, whom the author called at the judge’s instruction, was “very politely unhelpful....Finally I told the secretary she needed to call the judge, because I was tired of being yelled at over someone else’s bad behavior. The secretary burst into tears and told me the lawyer had dropped dead during a trial in a different court a week earlier.” Some readers may wish for more personal anecdotes and a less superficial approach to the subject, but Zeigler succeeds in her aim of making the legal jungle more navigable. From the maddening minutiae of legal etiquette to the rules of civil procedure, this work makes the courts less daunting.
Yocum, Jeff iUniverse (262 pp.) $34.99 | $20.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Apr 30, 2019 978-1-5320-7364-9 978-1-5320-7362-5 paper A string of unexplained deaths points to a septuagenarian Holocaust survivor in this mystery. In the spring of 2019, Dr. Chris Malone of the Centers for Disease Control arrives in a remote town in Minnesota to investigate a rash of unexplained and largely symptomless deaths. The deaths mirror others in small towns in Idaho and Pennsylvania, leaving 74 casualties in total. Malone is most drawn to “one bizarre fact that stood out from all the rest—all the deaths from three separate sites thousands of miles apart occurred in the same twenty-four-hour period. And then no more. It was…as if someone had flipped a switch.” Malone soon discovers that the deceased were all known drug users, which leads her to a rehabilitation program launched by a company called Tudos Pharmaceuticals. Tudos founder, Jakob Bauer, is a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp where, as a child of only 4 years old, he caught the eye of the infamous Josef Mengele. The altruistic and innovative Jakob has since been ousted from control of the company for not being properly profit-motivated, but could he have something to do with these mysterious deaths? Something that goes all the way back to the horrors he experienced at Auschwitz long ago? Yocum’s (The Eyes of God, 2005) prose has the detailed efficiency of a police report: “Chris could tell at a glance that Pilsner had been in that same office for decades. Tall stacks of journals, bulging file cabinets, and a well-worn carpet told the whole story. It was a familiar tale for most of the pathologists she had met in her career.” The author manages to craft some memorable characters—Malone and Jakob are the standouts—while maintaining a swift pace and a mounting sense of pressure. The use of such dark history as background for what is ultimately a bit of escapism will likely turn off some readers, but those interested in Auschwitz or Mengele may be intrigued by Yocum’s attempts to grapple with the subject. A well-constructed, Auschwitz-related epidemiological thriller.
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IRON MAIDENS AND THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTERS US Navy Gunboats Versus Confederate Gunners and Cavalry on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, 1861-65
Zimmerman, Mark ZIMCO Publications (184 pp.) $24.95 paper | Sep. 7, 2019 978-0-9858692-5-0-9
A military history book focuses on the Civil War campaigns on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. In his characteristically detailed style, Zimmerman (Guide to Civil War Nashville, 2nd Ed., 2019, etc.) provides a thorough battle history of Union Navy gunboats and Confederate gunners and cavalry in eastern Missouri, middle-to-western Tennessee, and western Kentucky. The unique geography of this region made the military campaigns there different from anywhere else during the Civil War. In one of the only places where the Union extensively deployed its “brown-water navy,” military tacticians on both sides had “no gameplan to consult” as the “rules were created as the battles were fought.” Virtually no other site in the war pitted Union gunboats against Confederate cavalry and field artillery. Adding to the lore of the Tennessee and Cumberland campaigns was that they featured some of the most famous figures of the Confederacy, including Kentucky’s John Hunt Morgan and Tennessee’s Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. In addition to their distinctiveness, the author argues that the conflicts along the Tennessee and Cumberland were critical to the ultimate success of the Union forces in the war. While most of the information in these pages has been covered by historians for a century, Zimmerman’s contribution is his ability to synthesize vast quantities of arcane military data into an accessible package. The book abounds with maps, fort schematics, charts, and photographs. It also features many well-placed insets with vignettes on particular weapons, people, and places. Civil War scholars may be perturbed by the lack of footnotes and references, though the volume does contain a bibliography that cites a number of academic books. General audiences and Civil War enthusiasts alike will be drawn to the work’s aesthetic appeal and ample use of visual aids. The volume concludes with a travel guide to the region’s battle sites that is particularly insightful, given the author’s active participation in numerous state and local Civil War preservation societies. An engrossing, comprehensive examination of key Civil War river battles.
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Books of the Month ATHENA’S CHOICE
SICK KIDS IN LOVE
A daring book that will stay in readers’ minds long after the final page.
A highly recommended work that’s thoughtful, funny, wise, and tender.
WHERE THE WINGS GROW
MISS LUCY
Hannah Moskowitz
Adam Boostrom
A brilliant and imaginative tale of love, death, and literature.
An often gripping account of some fascinating women of the air.
THE BANKER WHO DIED
THE WOMAN IN THE PARK
Matthew A. Carter
Teresa Sorkin & Tullan Holmqvist
An engaging read that’s right on the money.
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William Orem
Irv Broughton
A delightfully complex mystery with a compelling protagonist.
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Fi e l d No t e s Kate Sweeney
Beowulf Sheehan
By Megan Labrise
“I’m writing from a perspective of a fan who’s willing to be wrong, and eager to be wrong almost. I think people like a critic who’s not certain, you know? I came up reading music critics who were singularly gifted at telling me how to feel and why. My hope is that we’ve moved past that.”
—Benjamin Moser, author of Sontag: Her Life and Work, in conversation with Gary Indiana in Interview Magazine
“I agree that giving certain experiences the form she did, whether it was true or not, was very helpful to people. It was generative. I will say it was sad for me to read that she bought into a lot of the myths that she was supposedly dispelling. But that’s a human thing to do, isn’t it?” —Gary Indiana, in response
Heidi Ross
—writer and poet Hanif Abdurraqib, author of Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest, Kirkus Prize finalist and longlist nominee for the National Book Award in Nonfiction, at the Ringer
“Susan had a novelist’s expectation about how certain events are meant to go in life. We know she rewrote events from her life and added fiction, like the essay she wrote about meeting Thomas Mann as a girl. That essay is really about her mother and her own sexuality. But you can see how she is taking something that happened to her and converting that reality into a metaphor. It’s similar to her cancer. I’d argue that her nonaccurate recounting of her illness is actually more useful than a journalistic blow-by-blow. A lot of people kept fighting through their own illnesses because of Susan’s accounts. That’s what’s so fascinating about her fictionalization of herself.”
“Well, I am celebrating by getting a mammogram and driving four separate carpools. I love you all but especially the @nationalbook judges.”
“It was horrible to write. It was like Thelma and Louise going over a cliff. I made so many errors in judgment….I thought, ‘This is like death.’ But actually it was like burning a cake. I thought, ‘I’m going to stand here in the kitchen and eat these little fluffy things and throw everything else.’ ” —Ann Patchett on the series of false starts that led to her latest novel, The Dutch House, in the New York Times
—Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of Fleishman Is in Trouble, nominated for the National Book Award fiction longlist, on Twitter
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Appreciations: Jack Kerouac’s Final Days, Half a Century Ago
B Y G RE G O RY MC NA MEE
Tom Palumbos
Jack Kerouac was not a happy man in 1969. It had been a dozen years since his novel On the Road had been published to much acclaim and excitement. The era of the Beats had passed into that of the hippies. His old friends Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady joined in the next-generational fun, but Kerouac told interviewer Ted Berrigan, “I don’t know one hippie anyhow….I think they think I’m a truck driver.” He didn’t like hippies, even as he bragged of “having smoked more grass than anyone you ever knew in your life.” He proclaimed himself “pro-American,” a supporter of the war in Vietnam, while Burroughs and Ginsberg and company were “very socialistically minded.” Yet Howl and Naked Lunch sold and sold while Kerouac was left to lament the poor reception of his novels Satori in Paris and Vanity of Duluoz even as he hoped that “earlier readers would come back and see what 10 years had done to my life and thinking.” For the most part, they didn’t. In the first half of 1969, Kerouac told a later interviewer, he had made only $1,770 in royalties, the equivalent of about $12,750 today. Granted, he allowed, he had added $3,000 to the trove that summer with a syndicated op-ed piece about “the Communist conspiracy.” His cohort had split up at the beginning of the ’60s, Kerouac said, each going his own way. He added, “And this is my way: home life, as in the beginning, with a little toot once in a while in local bars.” “Home life” meant living with his elderly, paralyzed mother in a small house in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, which He Called “A Good Place To Come Die.” A “little toot” meant sitting in a chair in the living room with a constantly replenished glass of whiskey and a flow of beer, watching television. “Once in a while” meant showing up at a couple of bars down the street at opening time and arguing about politics for a few hours. His wife, Stella, who shared his mother’s house, called him “a very lonely man.” He got into a fistfight at one such tavern in the late summer of 1969, and it didn’t go well for him. He had been speaking in a stereotyped version of Southern African American speech—the same kind of speech he employed in his posthumously published novel Pic—when he was beaten, patrons reported. Though sympathetic to the racial injustices a young man faced in the South, the novel was not well liked, and it soon went out of print. A few weeks after the fight, on Oct. 21, 1969, Jack Kerouac died of cirrhosis of the liver. He was 47 years old. Kerouac had better fortune posthumously. Late in 1975, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan visited his grave and, Ginsberg wrote, “traded lines improvising a song to Kerouac underground beneath grass and stone.” The visit anticipated the widespread rediscovery of Kerouac’s work, particularly On the Road, which has never been out of print since, now half a century after its author’s passing. Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor.
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THE LBYR RAVE REVIEW AND INTERVIEW “The important message of the book is that commonality between humans outweighs the differences . . . the message presented is easily understood and needs to be shared.” —SLC
of this explorer. He and his crew left France in April 1534. Months later, Cartier anchored his ship in what we now call Gaspé Bay. He and his crew would not be alone long. Over 200 Stadaconans arrived to fish for mackerel. We know that Cartier allowed his crew to visit ashore. We know Stadaconans chose to trade with them.
Encounter originated from the question, “What might have happened outside of Cartier’s watchful gaze?” My answer focuses on two working people: Fisher and Sailor. I chose “Fisher” and “Sailor” to reflect their unwritten histories. Cartier rarely referred to the Indigenous peoples he met (or members of his crew) by name.
9780316449182 HC READY TO READ 10.1.19 LBYR: What inspired you to create Encounter and what do you hope readers take away from it? Brittany Luby: An interest in unwritten histories inspired me to create Encounter, a story based on a real French explorer’s travel notes. Jacques Cartier was the name
@LBSchool
Cartier’s refusal to name Indigenous peoples may reflect his sense of European superiority. Indeed, Cartier describes Stadaconans as “the sorriest folk.” Encounter challenges colonial hierarchies that linger today. Children may be taught to think of a sailing ship as an advanced technology. They may not be taught about the struggles Europeans (like Cartier) faced upon reaching shore. In my retelling, it is Fisher who shares environmental knowledge. Fisher ushers Sailor safely through the day. Ultimately, Encounter is designed to challenge narratives of discovery. It shows Europeans unsettled in their geography and in their thinking.
LittleBrownSchool
Michaela Goade: I was first drawn to the world of Encounter because it represents an indigenous voice shining a light on an often misrepresented part of history, and that in itself is very powerful to me. It carries messages that are universal and timely, communicating on many levels. Brittany didn’t shy away from a complex issue and I found that so inspiring. It’s very exciting to think that Encounter can help open the door to important conversations. Additionally, I found that the prominent role and reverence given to Mother Nature fed my creative spirit, as the story provided many opportunities to create a rich and vibrant natural world. I love that the landscapes Fisher and Sailor journey through and the animals they meet along the way are all instrumental in helping them understand their similarities. At the end of the day, that’s what I’d love to see readers take away from this story —that despite our differences in how we speak and what we wear to the color of our skin, there is always a path to common ground. When we remember and acknowledge the history we carry with us, that path forward is powerful and promising.
lbschool LittleBrownLibrary.com
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