Elena Vanishing

This is a Cybils book, but the opinion expressed in this review is just mine, and not the committee's.

Elena Vanishing: A Memoir Elena Dunkle and Clare B. Dunkle

It opens with Elena in a hospital in Germany, not sure why her chest hurts so much. She's then medically evacuated to the US, to be treated for anorexia. She next years are a tangle in and out of treatment as everyone watches Elena slip away while she insists she's fine.

This is co-written with her mother, who is a novelist, and it was that story-telling sensibility. Part of that is we are in Elena's head for the entire time, and not Elena-looking-back, but Elena-then, so... holy unreliable narrator Batman. It's a pretty warped (albeit fascinating) perspective.

One thing I would have liked is something on what was "really" happening during all of this, because Elena's POV is so divorced from reality. (of course, I could just read her mother's memoir of the same time, Hope and Other Luxuries: A Mother's Life with a Daughter's Anorexia)

It's painful and hard to read, but also hard to put down.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Cybils books about Trans* people

Leelah Alcorn was a trans* teen who commited suicide this weekend. Her parents wouldn't accept her, her friends, either. She was alone with no support, and she killed herself. Her mother then posted on Facebook about how her son had been hit by a truck, implying it was a horrific accident. There is a beautiful hashtag right now, #RealLiveTransAdult to let trans* teens know that there is hope.

Four books about trans* people were nominated in the Cybils YA Nonfiction category this year. 4. That's tied with perennial favorite subjects of the Civil Rights Movement and WWII. I've read them and had reviews written on each of them, picking apart their merits and weaknesses, judging how they may or may not be award worthy. Some obviously compare against others, pitting themselves against each other in my judge-y reader's brain.

You know what? In light of this? Fuck that. I just can't pick them apart when the importance that they even exist is so painfully obvious today. None of them have fundamental flaws, they are all worthy of recommendation, and here they are:


Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition Katie Rain Hill. A college student when she wrote this, Katie tells her story of growing up in a body that didn't feel right--the body of a boy. She tells of her depression and pain and the sheer relief of discovering that transgender was a thing--there was a word for what she was and she wasn't alone. She details the process of coming out and transitioning, the support of her mother and the bullying at school, her advocacy work in Oklahoma, and starting college. A wonderful memoir.





Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen Arin Andrews. A high school senior, this is also a memoir of a trans* teen, detailing his life growing up, his depression and his problems at his very conservative Christian school, as well as coming out and transitioning. There is also the real heartbreak of falling in love and a painful breakup after his girlfriend goes to college. This one has a little more medical information than Rethinking Normal

I would read these two as a set, as Arin and Katie are both from the Tulsa area and had some very similar, and some very different experiences. They also used to date and their relationship (and messy breakup) is well-documented in both books so they can be a sort of he said/she said set. Having two (sometimes drastically different) takes on the relationship (including different versions of events and conversations) might be a very successful way to hand sell the set to teens who might not be otherwise interested in reading a trans* memoir.





Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out Susan Kuklin. Kuklin interviewed several trans* teens for her book, editing their conversations down to a narrative in the teen's own voice. In the range of interviews and photographs, Kuklin captures a wide-range of trans* experiences and showcases the diversity within the trans* community. (Also, it's just a plain gorgeous book. I'm usually all about a smaller trim size for YA nonfiction, but yes, this is a book that can justify being larger.)





Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices Kirstin Cronn-Mills. Much like Beyond Magenta, this book focuses on several trans* narratives (although not exclusively young people) and the personal stories of trans* people. Interspersed are chapters to offer background and context--challenges faced by trans* people (covering topics such as legal, health, and social), trans* people in history, introduction to trans* issues, how trans* people and issues are viewed in different cultures, and more. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the cover is a shiny silver, making it a fuzzy mirror.









Books Provided by... my local library, with the exception of Transgender Lives, which was given to me at a publisher dinner with the author at ALA.

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How I Discovered Poetry

I am a Cybils second round judge. I am currently reading the all the nominated books in a fun "armchair readalong" way with the first round judges. My reviews and opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the work of the committee.

How I Discovered Poetry Marilyn Nelson

Traveling Light (Smoky Hill AFB, Kansas, 1956)

In memory, Pudgy is just a tail
brushing my thighs as we surveyed the shelves
in the icebox. “Pudgy,” Daddy explained,
“went to live with a different family;
she’s fed and happy.” Lady welcomed us
to one Officer’s Housing, where she lived
under our unit. She was a good dog.
She seemed almost sad when we drove away
behind the moving van. And General
did have a knack for causing us trouble:
He dug up gardens, dragged whole clotheslines home.
“He’ll be happier with his new family,”
Daddy explains. We’ve been transferred again.
We stand numb as he gives away our toys.

This is a beautiful collection of unrhymed sonnets exploring life growing up on a series of military bases--a child of one of the few black officers. It explores so well the pain of growing up coupled with the pain of moving every few years, always saying goodbye, always trying to fit in with a new group of kids--sometimes made even harder by racial differences.

It’s a sparse book--only 50 sonnets--but packs a punch. Inevitably it will be compared to the other memoir-in-verse that came out this year, Brown Girl Dreaming, and I fear it will be overshadowed by it, which is sad, because this one is so good and so lovely.

It’s also wonderfully illustrated by Hadley Hooper in black-and-white drawings (maybe prints?) occasionally accented with muted goldenrod or blue.

Now, how do I feel about it as Cybils book? This one’s interesting… it’s a nomination in both YA nonfiction and in Poetry. I think it’s an outstanding choice, and strong contender for poetry, I do not think it’s a strong choice for YA Nonfiction. If nothing else, her author’s note states: “I prefer to call the girl in the poems ‘the Speaker,’ not ‘me.’ Although the poems describe a girl whose life is very much like mine, the incidents the poems describe are not entirely or exactly ‘memories.’ They are sometimes much enhanced by research and imagination.” So, a wonderful book that everyone should read, but not the right book for this award.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Orange is the New Black

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison Piper Kerman

Piper used to run drug money for her then-girlfriend. 4 years after she got out of the game (when the girlfriend asked her to start running drugs, too) she was arrested. They also charged her with conspiracy and was subject to harsh mandatory minimum laws, so she plead guilty to hope for leniency at sentencing. She then waited. The US wanted to try the head of the operation, but needed to extradite him and wanted Kerman to testify against him as a civilian, not a prisoner. 6 years after pleading guilty, Kerman was sentenced to 15 months in minimum security.

This memoir focuses a bit on her life before Danbury, but mostly looks at her year in prison and what she learned about herself, the institution, and the societal and political structures we have in place to keep landing people there. Kerman does not have a lot of sympathy for our drug sentencing laws--especially the prosecutorial catch-all of the conspiracy charge. She knows how lucky she was in having the resources to have good legal counsel and saw many, many, many women who did a lot less than she did go down for a lot more time.

It is pretty eye-opening to the realities of the prison system--how it sets people up to fail, how it doesn’t actually fix our issues, but also the camaraderie underneath as people turn to each other to build family and support mechanisms in order to survive (mostly emotionally, though a bit physically).

One thing I appreciate about Kerman is she never denies that she did wrong. She never says she didn’t deserve to go to prison. In fact, it was in prison that she finally came face-to-face with the realities of the drug trade--not the people who go down for being in it, but the addicts and the what addiction does to people, families, and communities. And she doesn’t turn away from facing it and dealing with her shame and guilt (both moral and legal) head-on.

It’s an easy read, written in short sections and vignettes, part personal story, part character sketches of the people and scenes around her. The pacing works really well to move it ahead quickly. That said, it would benefit from tighter editing. I think many were originally written as a series of essays, and so some characters are introduced with the exact same language multiple times while others show up out of left field with no context given.

But, let’s be honest--I picked this up because I’m a fan of the show and wanted to check out the source material. So, how does the book compare? Well, book-Piper has a much better head on her shoulders than TV-Piper. She’s much more aware of her privilege and also knows how to keep her head down to avoid trouble and extra time. I often want to smack TV-Piper up against the head with a clue-stick when it comes to socioeconomic issues, but not so much with book-Piper (but, book-Piper also has the benefit of hindsight). Book-Larry is also much more together than TV-Larry.

Also, not surprisingly, there is a lot less drama in the book than the show. While Piper does eventually come face-to-face with her ex-girlfriend, it’s not until the end, and there are no lingering attraction issues. We also don’t get a good look at many of the other women in Danbury with Piper. Some of the nicknames are the same (Pennsatucky, Big Boo, and Delicious instead of Tastee) but they don’t have backstories and often the personalities we see on screen are nothing like the glimpses we see in the book. Other characters don’t have names, but you see some character traits to make them recognizable (such as the Russian kitchen boss, or the strict, older bunkmate, the aging hippie who teaches yoga and the activist nun) but the stories aren’t quite the same. On the reasons is in prison, you don’t ask, so Kerman just didn’t know the backstory of a lot of her fellow inmates.

I do recommend it to most people, but especially fans of the show. It’s fascinating and a fun read that doesn’t bog down, despite the repetition issues I mention above. Also, if you do watch the show, it’s really interesting to see which parts are TV and which parts are actually true.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Little White Duck

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China Na Liu, illustrated by Andres Vera Martinez

So, I may have been a little over-excited about this one. There aren't a lot of books about post-Mao, pre-Tiananmen China. Let alone for kids. Let alone in comic book form. Na Liu was a small child when Mao died and everything changed. In a series of short stories, she shows glimpses of her childhood, comparing it with how her parents grew up during the Great Leap Forward and Great Famine. In one memorable story, she accompanies her father to his country home and sees how privileged her life really is. This will be enlightening to American readers, as Na Liu's life isn't easy compared to modern American standards-- I don't know of any America schools where kids are assigned the duty of killing rats, and have to bring in the tails as proof.

That said, I wanted more. I wanted more context and more history for these stories. I don't think that will turn off of confuse the intended audience-- if nothing else more context might overwhelm the younger readers this is aimed at. There's enough her to understand what's happening, and I think it's great for children. But, as an adult reader, I did want something more than a few childhood vignettes--especially because this is a time period SO unexplored across all age-ranges, formats, and genres. It's a great book for kids, but it left me a little underwhelmed.

Today's Nonfiction Monday is over at Abby (the) Librarian.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Relish

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

This comic-book memoir focuses on Knisley's relationship with food, and how the turning points of her life were connected to food. Even better is that each chapter ends with a recipe related to the chapter-- and, because this is a full-color comic book, it's an illustrated recipe.

Knisley was raised by foodies-- her mother's a chef, her father a gourmand. Some of her biggest issues with them stem from her love of McDonald's. She's worked in farmer's markets and high end food stores. She's eaten fabulous meals around the world and straight from her garden.

She examines how her mother uses food to show love, her parents marriage and divorce through the lens of food, today's food culture in New York and Chicago, and her own relationship with food-- both as sustenance and as shared experience.

Knisley's work is honest and funny. I loved that the was some back matter of family photographs.

I can't wait to make some of these recipes. Before reading, I'd flip through to see what food she's going to make you crave, so you can have some on hand-- this is a book that will make you super hungry.

This is a book for older teens/adults and some of the recipes involve alcoholic beverages, although she offeres non-alcoholic substitutes. She also offers vegetarian and vegan substitutes in some recipes, to cover multiple diets.

Today's Nonfiction Monday round-up is over at: Practically Paradise.

Book Provided by... a coworker, who lent me her copy.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Magical Life of Long Tak Sam

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam: An Illustrated Memoir Ann Marie Fleming

This is two stories-- the story of how Ann Marie tried to find out about the great-grandfather she just discovered was a world-famous magician and vaudeville performer, and the story of his life.

It’s a graphic novel, but more. There are a lot of photographs and documents in with the drawings, telling this tale.

And what a tale it is.

Long Tack Sam’s origins are a bit hazy (there are a few versions) but he rose to become an international superstar. He was Chinese, his wife was Austrian. They traveled the world and lived all over, fleeing wars and performing.

The family remained largely international in origin and much of Fleming’s work revolves around being multiple ethnicities, visas, and citizenship. Fleming herself was born on Okinawa when it was UN protectorate. She couldn’t leave the island because she didn’t have an exit visa. She didn’t have an exit visa, because you needed an entry visa. She didn’t have an entry visa because she was born there. It’s pretty representative of many of the issues her family goes to through over the years.

After WWII, Long Tack Sam could become a US citizen, but his wife couldn’t because Austria wasn’t under Russian threat.

Visually, the mixed media works really well. Fleming weaves her stories and broader themes in and out in way that makes for a great read and draws you in. You’re fascinated by Long Tack Sam’s life and fame, but also by Fleming’s journey of discovering her family history.

I appreciated the sidebars of contemporary world events that helped ground the story in time. It’s a sweeping story that takes much of the twentieth century and is affected by much of twentieth century history.

Originally, Fleming told this story in film, and the book comes from the film. Sadly, I can’t find the film anywhere to watch. I’d love to see more of this story.

While this is a book published for adults, I think teens will really enjoy it-- especially the exploration of identity and family.

The Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at The Flatt Perspective. Be sure to check it out.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Unorthodox

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots Deborah Feldman

At the age of 23, Deborah Feldman took her toddler son and walked out of her life. She left her house, her husband, her extended family, and her community.

Starting in her childhood, Feldman tells of her life growing up in the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her mother left the Hasidic community shortly after she was born. Her father has mental issues (largely undiagnosed, completely untreated.) She's raised by her grandparents, the family charity case, never having what her cousins have, always feeling unwanted and unloved.

Feldman also spends a large time questioning the world around her, sneaking library books written by forbidden authors in Yiddish or, even more scandalously, English. She slowly becomes more and more dissatisfied with the life carved out for her, her inability to forge her own path within the confines of the community. She thinks that marriage will offer her some freedom. That getting out from under the thumb of her extended family will help. But her husband's family is even more domineering. Her ingrained shame of her body (not even the furniture should see your naked body) causes extreme complications.

But it's not a misery memoir or a tawdry expose of the Hasidic community. While there is extreme hardship and unjustness, Feldman doesn't wallow. A lot of the lack of wallow is due to the pace of the book. She tends not to dwell. Feldman also has a gift for remembering the raw, stinging emotions of childhood. Many of the events lead her to realize things shouldn't be that way, but in the writing she remembers the shame and guilt of the moment. The anger and sadness come later. Also, despite the fact she left, the Satmar Hasids are still her family and her people. She recognizes that this is where she came from, it's a large part of who she is. Even after leaving, she feels defensive and offended when people badmouth Hasids or her family.

One of things I found most fascinating was her explanations of the Hasidic community. She weaves in history, explanation of belief and culture, the difference between different Hasidic communities, even the rifts in the Satmar community over Rabbinical succession. It never overwhelms the core story, and is often seamless. While it was more than enough for me to understand the book, it left me wanting to know more about the community. I also like how she shows that even in this closed community, it's still Brooklyn. 9/11 happens. And oh! when the Hipsters start moving to Williamsburg...

While this is an adult book, there is more than enough teen appeal here. The obvious pairing is with Hush (even though Feldman describes the girls from Borough Park as being "modern"). When Hush first came out, a lot of the kidlit community questioned it-- can such isolation and ignorance of the modern world really exist today? in BROOKLYN? It was hard to wrap our heads around. Feldman's book does more than validate the truth of the lifestyle described in Hush, but explains it more, and does more than point out its flaws.

Today's Nonfiction Monday round-up is over at Books 4 Learning.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Stranger at Home

A Stranger At Home: A True Story Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

I haven't read Fatty Legs: A True Story, the story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's time at a church run residential school. A Stranger At Home is the story of what happens when she returns home to her Arctic village, Tuktoyaktuk, after two years at the school.

Only when she gets home, her mother no longer recognizes her. She no longer remembers the Inuit language, her native tongue. Her once favorite food, muktuk (made from whale blubber and skin) now makes her sick.

She has become one of "them," the outsiders who try to change the Inuit way of life, the ones who made her two years at school a horrible experience. Only her father, who also attended one of the church schools, knows what she is going through.

Slowly, Pokiak-Fenton figures out how to fit back in at home, even though she's not the same girl she was when she left it.

You don't need to read Fatty Legs to appreciate this story. The language is simple and is a good fit for younger middle grade readers. But it's still a moving story that will speak to older readers as well. There are several photographs, as well as full-color illustrations by Liz Amini-Holmes. There are also small photographs and in the margins and little facts to help understand life in Tuktoyaktuk.

It's a very good and interesting read. I want to seek out Fatty Legs so I can know more of the story.

Be sure to check out today's Nonfiction Monday round-up over at the Nonfiction Detectives.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

To Timbuktu

To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story Casey Scieszka illus. Steven Weinberg

Casey and Steven meet while studying abroad in Morocco. They then return to their colleges on opposite sides of the country. After graduation, they move to Beijing to teach English for 6 months before backpacking through SE Asia and then going to Mali for a year, where Casey has a Fulbright to study the role is Islam in education.

There are a few things that make this book transcend the genre of “here’s a tale of my crazy adventures abroad”. One is Casey’s frank honesty in her writing, especially about the strain certain things put on their relationship. The other is Steven’s illustrations-- there’s a picture on every page and I most appreciated the crazy patterns he puts on the Malian fabric (which Casey assures us are not made up.)

They see many problems with gentrification of Beijing and the destruction of the hutong and with backpacking culture (going to a place to see the ‘unknown’ changes it) and they see both sides of the issue without taking sides. I think these issues are often glossed by travel memoirs or writers aren’t self-aware enough to see that they’re part of the problem (especially when writing about how tourism has spoiled a place that you’re a tourist in.) Casey handles such things really well.

They capture China so perfectly. It made me a bit heartsick, actually. Especially when talking about the street food.

It’s a great book, but I’m not sure it’s a YA book. (I read it because it’s a Cybil’s nominee.) It’s mostly a post-college adventure and I’m not sure on the teen appeal.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, Casey Scieszka does mention her father is a children’s book author. :)

Book Provided by... my local library

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How to Die of Embarrassment Every Day

How to Die of Embarrassment Every Day Ann Hodgman

This memoir is basically made up of short, funny essays about all the embarrassing things Hodgman did as a young girl in the 60s. Nothing crazy or over-the-top, just the basic every day embarrassing things that kids are still doing today and getting embarrassed about.

It took me a while to get into it, even though I loved Hodgman's voice throughout. It grew on me. It's not over the top ROFL funny, but I did chuckle out loud on several occasions. I also share her righteous indignation over the ropes unit in gym class-- she's right! How the #$%#$^ do they expect you to climb a rope by "trying really hard." They should totally work on conditioning and training for it! Yeesh. Also, I'm with her-- I hope they don't do this anymore. Not just because it sucks, but climbing a rope to the top of a gym with only a mat underneath you sounds like a major safety hazard. (In general, I find society way too overprotective about stuff like this, but if it ends the rope unit in gym, I'm all over it. I own my hypocrisy.)

A lot of it reads like "let me tell you about all the stupid stuff I did when I grew up in the stone age." It's straightforward, blunt, sarcastic, and very enjoyable. My main question though is will it be as enjoyable to kids? Or just to adults? While Hodgman clearly remembers her thoughts and feelings as a kid, I'm not sure she's telling them anything they don't already know-- superballs are awesome, the rope unit isn't, teachers can be wrong, a kid who corrects other people's grammar is annoying.

I liked the design-- lots of pictures scattered throughout of her growing up and of her family members and friends, as well as other things mentioned in the text. The short-essay style also makes it easy to read and as Hodgman says in her introduction, you don't have to read the chapters in order.

Some of my friends actually enjoyed flipping themselves around, though. My two-houses-down-the-street friends, Robin, loved it. She also loved doing cartwheels, which I've never been able to learn and never will. (Okay, maybe if I practiced for ten years, but I won't do that.) We'd be sitting on the lawn talking, and suddenly Robin would jump up and do a bunch of backflips. I've never been happier than the time she started to cartwheel, threw her landing hand to the ground, yelped, and collapsed. "I put my hand into dog doo!" she shrieked.

That's what should happen to everyone who suddenly does a cartwheel.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Smile

Smile Raina Telgemeier

One night after girl scouts, Raina trips. She knocks one of her front teeth out and jams the other one entirely into her gum and jaw bone. What follows is years of corrective dentistry. Which is just what you need in junior high when you have to deal with puberty, younger siblings, mean friends, and boys.

This is such a wonderful story of growing up and the pain of crappy friends and first crushes and the 1989 San Fransisco earthquake... and a really gross (but wonderfully told) story of dental drama/trauma.

I had to pick this up because I'm a huge fan of Telgemeier's work in The Babysitter's Club graphic novels. (I mean, she was *perfect* in making Claudia and Stacey super-stylish, but Claudia artsily so and Stacey NYC-so without coping their crazy-ass outfits from the book. She perfectly captured the spirit of their styles.) Anyway, I ached at her changing friendships and how her friends became more and more mean. I love that she says she wanted to become an animator after seeing A Little Mermaid, but what she's thinking is that she really wants to be is a mermaid.

Also, I love the fact it's in full color.

All in all, love love love love love love love.

Although it hurts to see that references to Joey McIntyre now need explanatory footnotes.

Round up is over at Shelf-Employed.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Two Biographies

For today's Nonfiction reviews, I give you two amazing biographies that were both Cybil nominations this year...

Leaving Glorytown: One Boy's Struggle Under Castro Eduardo F. Calcines

In January, 1959, Eduardo is only 3, but he remembers the coming of The Voice. Suddenly, The Voice is everywhere, being broadcast for hours from every radio, speakers rigged up outside. Everyone's listening to The Voice. Then, the soldiers are on every corner. As a 3-year-old, he's first fascinated by them, but then all the adults are short tempered and there's less to eat.

As he grows up in Castro's Cuba, Eduardo gets used to watching what you say, used to hunger, used to his father being gone at labor camp (for daring to apply for an exit visa), used to the jealousy as other families get their visa and his family is still stuck. They're on a deadline for the visa. When Eduardo turns 15, he'll be drafted into the army, so once he hits 14.5, his family's no longer eligible and they'll have to stay.

We don't get enough memoirs out of Cuba, especially for teens. This one is hard to put down, as we watch the situation grow worse and worse. Unlike other communist memoirs, this one's more chilling because while Mao and Lenin and the other revolutionaries are dead, Castro isn't and the situation in Cuba has only grown worse. Not only is is a good read, it's an important one.

Book provided by... my local library

Rock 'n' Roll Soldier: A Memoir Dean Ellis Kohler with Susan VanHecke

After graduating from high school in 1965 Dean Kohler's rock band landed a record deal and then he was drafted into the US Army. The deal got dropped when Kohler shipped out to Vietnam, serving as an MP in Qui Nhon, which was a port used to off-load supplies going deeper in country. Despite the fear and death and shooting, Kohler knows how lucky he is to not be on the front lines in the jungle, to not be in the Deep Serious. Things also take a better turn when his commanding officer orders him to form a rock band. Kohler's band is soon traveling the area, playing shows for soldiers who are in the thick of things. Kohler has to balance the two sides of himself, is he a musician? Or a soldier? I deeply appreciated that there are two chapters and a epilogue that take place after he returns home. While not the focus of the book, Kohler does talk about returning home and trying to decide what to do next. Re-entry is a dimension that is often sadly left out of war stories.

One thing that's interesting for me (coming from a perspective of one who has done quite a bit of cultural and academic study of the Vietnam War) is that it takes place mainly in 1967 (1966 was spent in basic training), which was when the armchair historian tends to think things were just starting to heat up. Kohler is home before the Tet offensive. This is most obvious in the music. This is, after all, a book about a rock band. They do several covers, but when I (and, I think, many people) think 1960s, Vietnam, and Music, I tend to think of music from the late 60s, early 70s. Songs like "Fortunate Son" (thanks Forrest Gump) "White Rabbit" or "Purple Haze." Kohler's band is playing current hits-- "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" "Wipe Out" "Louie, Louie" "Louie, Louie" and "Twist and Shout." I'm thinking Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but Kohler's playing music by The Hollies.

But, in the end, that just adds to the punch of the book. So much of our focus is on the later, post-Tet part of the war. We don't pay attention the what happened before and when we do, well, it was before things got bad. Even though Kohler isn't on the front lines, this is still a book about a war and forces us to re-look at our assumptions about it. While I do think older teens will enjoy this book immensely, I wonder if they'll have that same perspective. On the other hand, if we remind them from the beginning that there was a war before 1968, that can't be a bad thing.

Book Provided by... my local library

Round-Up is over at Playing By the Book

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Stitches Review

Stitches: A Memoir David Small

This graphic novel memoir tells of David Small's early life, how he was often sick and how the treatment at the time-- frequent sinus x-rays, ended up giving him throat cancer, robbing him of his voice. Moreover, it's a look at parents who didn't love each other, and a mother that didn't love him.

What I wanted more of was his story of emotional and mental recovery. The bulk of the book is devoted to his awful childhood, and the end rushes through the explanation of how he overcame that. There's a brief paragraph at the end, where he relates information about his mother that he learned later in life that allows him to be more sympathetic to her. I wanted more of that shown in the book, not just as a note in the back matter. I'm much more interested in stories of overcoming adversity, not stories of a crappy life. Small fulfilled his dreams of becoming an illustrator, but we're not shown or told how. I'm inclined to agree with Tyler Cowen, who says "This much-heralded story of a sick child, mistreated by his parents, struck me as professionally done but pointless."

But, oh, it is so beautifully done. I (think) it's watercolor and pencil, all shades of gray. Here's a (rather low-quality) picture of my favorite panel, showing Small's isolation after the removal of the tumor leaves him voiceless:



It was the art that wouldn't let me put it down.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday

Well, it's not for kids, but it's Nonfiction and might be a good one for those of you signing up for my China Challenge!

Also, check out other reading challenges at the brand new Reading Challenges Clearinghouse. I did a lot of work over the weekend and its success will depend on your help.

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang, translated and edited by Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius with a foreword by Roderick MacFarquhar

Zhao Ziyang joined the Communist Youth Leage in 1932 and the Party in 1938. In 1939 he was party secretary for Hua County. He then rose through Party ranks. He was temporarily purged during the Cultural Revolution, but reinstated before its end, by being appointed Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Revolutionary Committee for Inner Mongolia in 1971. In 1973, he arrived in Beijing and rose through the ranks of the Central Committee. By 1980 he was Premier and in 1987 he became General Secretary.

The bulk of Zhao's career was spent on China's economic reforms, but he is best remembered for opposing Deng Xiaoping's orders for martial law during the 1989 Tian'anmen Square protests. He refused to the be man who ordered the army on students. Because of this, he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Historians always wished that he had written his memoirs to tell his side of the story, but he didn't. After his death in 2005, it came to light that while Zhao hadn't written his memoirs, he had secretly recorded them and hid the tapes in plain sight.

This book is the transcription and translation of those tapes.

It's an undeniably important document and parts of it are very accessible. I really enjoyed the chapters on the Tian'anmen protests and all of the cut-throat politics used in the upper echelons of Chinese power. The false rumors, two-faced comments, and back-room maneuvering is rather spectacular. The chapters on economic reform are actually probably the most useful for those studying the current Chinese market, but I found it to be dragging, because frankly, I'm not that interested in such things.

I wouldn't call this book overly academic, but you should have some China-geek tendencies. The editors do all they can to make this book as accessible as possible-- every chapter has an introduction to give background information and there is a really hand list of who's who in the back. That said, you'll probably want some background on 1980s China or at least the Tian'anmen protests.

Overall, I found most of it fascinating.

Non Fiction Monday, Challenges, Awards, and ZOMBIES!

First things first, HT to Bookshelves of Doom.

You may want to preorder your copy NOW of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance+Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! How can you resist?!

Y'all saw the results of this morning's ALA Youth Media Awards, right? For me, it provided the perfect excuse not to work out. Ok, the cuteness of the dog would have worked this morning, but obviously, a good children's librarian should watch the awards webcast instead of working out, right? RIGHT!

I have very strong opinions in some of these categories, but they're the same categories that I'm sitting on non-ALA awards committees for (Cybils and Blue Crab) so I'll keep my trap shut until I'm allowed to discuss such things.

In other news, The New Classics Challenge ends on the 31st. This started in AUGUST, but I forgot about it until this month. Whoops. So far, I've read 2.5 of my 6. Also, I was supposed to read The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel but I couldn't find our copy, so given I was checking a book out of the library, I figured it should be The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes.

Anyway, the two I finished are both nonfiction! Yay!

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Anne Fadiman

I have long wanted to read this book because of the fact it deals with Hmong culture. Growing up in the 80s and 90s in Northeast Wisconsin, the Hmong made up the vast majority of the non-white population, but this isn't an ethnic group that you hear a lot about, which has always surprised me.

One of the reasons I love the Jackson Friends series so much is because there is a Hmong character.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a heartbreaking tale of a young Hmong girl in Merced, California, who has severe epilepsy. Due to the language and cultural barriers between her family and the medical community, the system fails her utterly.

Fadiman's account explains how each side tried its hardest to help Lia Lee and how each side completely failed her. Mostly, she does this without judgment and anger, but once and awhile, she can't, and I can't really fault her for that.

Fadiman does an excellent job of explaining the medical issues surrounding Lia's condition and treatment, as well as the cultural issues surrounding her life, and the history of the Hmong people and their life in America.

My only fault with the book is that it tends to treat Hmong culture as completely homogeneous, without the usual disclaimers or sentence weakeners you see in other cultural books, such as "traditionally X culture does... " or "many member of Y ethnic group feel..."

My other wish is for an updated version, as many of the troubles facing the community Lia and her family lived in had to deal with immigration and welfare status--both contentious issues that have undergone drastic changes since this book first came out in 1997. Luckily, the book's website does offer updates on how the people we meet in these pages are doing since publication.

Oh, and when discussing China, it uses the Wade-Giles instead of Pinyin system of romanization, but that's a China-geek complaint, and the book isn't about China, so I'll let it slide.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir Jeannette Walls

I picked this one because it's on the scary list.

Jeannette Walls grew up unbelievably poor. Her father was a dreamer and drunk, her mother an artist who didn't want to be tied down with a regular job. As a result, they moved a lot, lived in places with no water or electricity and often went hungry. Despite this Jeannette managed to attend Barnard and is now a gossip columnist for MSNBC.

While Walls life was unbelievably hard, the plot is the only driving factor in this book. The events make it readable, but the characters are flat--there's little insight, or feeling. (Except for Walls embarrassment when she feels people are laughing at her, or staring. So it's odd that she became a gossip columnist, right?) Many times when writing about something horrible, survivors tell their tale in a detached manner--as if truly engaging in the subject matter again would inflict great physiological damage, which it might. While this is quality I will forget in stories that we would otherwise might not hear, such as This is Paradise!: My North Korean Childhood, I'm less forgiving in instances such as these. First this happened, then this, then this, then this. No analysis, just plot.

While engaging, I'm not entirely sure why it won so many awards because the literary merit isn't as there as it could be.

Overall, I give it a resounding "meh"

Nonfiction Round up is here.

New Classics Round up is here.

Non-Fiction Monday

School is eating my brain. BUT! I did run into Susan today before class, which was great! I haven't seen her since... this fall? (Have we seen each other since Kids are Customers?) Also, because I blog everything I read, you might want to check this out.

I added a few new tracks to the MP3 widget on my sidebar.



Anyway, it's nonfiction Monday! So, today we're talking about...

Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution Moying Li

Li’s autobiography of her Beijing childhood starts with China’s disastrous Great Leap Forward and quickly moves through the Great Famine to the Cultural Revolution. In middle school at the time the Cultural Revolution began, she sees many of the confusing actions of high school and college students. After her headmaster commits suicide, she returns home, only to find no safe place as her family and their associates are targeted and imprisoned, several dying. As Li ages and the events hit closer and closer to home, her understanding of what is happening grows.

The narrative focuses more on Li’s personal story and, with the exception of the death of Zhou Enlai, the history and politics are only brought into play when explanation is needed. However, some things could use more explanation, such as why Li’s parents, both Communist veterans of the Revolution, are targets for the Red Guard.

Li’s English is straight-forward and she tells her story simply and matter-of-factly. In text explanations, as well as a chronology and a glossary of the Chinese terms add to the accessibility of this title. The pages are scattered with Li’s family photographs, which show a young girl growing up while the text outlines the drama, fear, and chaos that surrounded her.

Overall, I'm going to say it's a good introduction to the Cultural Revolution, even though some other books go into greater detail.

Back when we did the Weekly Geeks #12, Dewey asked:


What did you learn about China's culture that surprised you in Snow Falling in Spring?

Um, nothing. This isn't because there wasn't a lot in there, but I was a Chinese minor and college and spent a semester in Nanjing and have read a lot on the Cultural Revolution, so aside from Li's personal story, there wasn't a lot new for me in the book. For people who don't have a huge background in Chinese history, I think there is a lot to learn. I especially enjoyed her memories of the Great Leap Forward--it's not something you see a lot.


Round up is at Picture Book of the Day!

2006 Bloggin' Blast

First off, if you want to waste some time by seeing what happens when LOLcats take on Presidential Politics, check out Ron Paul Can Has Cheezburger? After all, the American Dream is for every person to have a bukkit of their own...

Anyway, it's the last day of 2007, so let's talk about all the books that I read in 2006 and haven't talked about yet. La la la la la la la la.

First off, a book I really, really loved.

CHERUB: The Recruit Robert Muchamore

James can't catch a break. His mother is awful (and a major dealer in stolen goods) his sister's father isn't any better. Then he gets suspended for fighting in school and his mom dies.

Enter CHERUB. Founded over 50 years ago, CHERUB is a division of MI5--British Intelligence. No one ever suspects a kid, so that's who they send--kids.

James will be a spy and receive a top-notch education, but only if he can survive the training period.

And then, if he does, the real work begins.

A fun and gripping adventure story, I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series...

College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-Eds, Then and Now Lynn Peril

This is a well-done, not overly academic look at the history of women's high education. It's a pretty balanced account with a lot of pull-out boxes about various aspects of female college life and lots of "Femorbilia" looking at different items marketed to the college girl. I especially enjoyed the "College Girls Book Shelf"-- a running thread of literary treatments of college girls throughout history.

I Am the Messenger Markus Zusak

I liked this book.

Ed is a slacker cab driver with no future. After foiling a bank robbery, he starts to recieve playing cards with messages on them.

With nothing to lose, he starts following them, discovering problems to be solved, some are easy and heartwarming, such as a church with no congregation and some are dangerous and chilling, like a woman being raped every night by her drunk husband.

Through solving these problems, he starts to find direction in life.

Zusak is an awesome writer. It's about as different from The Book Thief as can be, but that just shows his range.

White Is for Magic Laurie Faria Stolarz

A fun guilty-pleasure type read.

Stacey has nightmares about people being murdered--nightmares that have an awful habit of coming true. It's been a year since she saved her best friend last year (in the first of the series, Blue Is For Nightmares. Now the target of her nightmares is... herself. Luckily, she's a witch with an arsenal of spells to help her find the strength and courage she needs.

I couldn't put it down, but I also have no desire to read the rest of the series. The spells felt really, really hokey.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel

This is a graphic novel memoir of small town America, literature, coming out, and family secrets.

It was really, really good, but the amount of literary allusion and quotations got old after awhile--that aspect was a bit overdone.

Mermaid Park Beth Mayall

Amy hates her family--her jerkwad of a step father, her perfect sister... so she is very much not looking forward to a long weekend on the Jersey shore at her mother's godmother's motel.

But, she finds a boy, and a waterpark of mermaids. (A forbidden waterpark of mermaids.) She talks her mother into letting her stay for the summer, and talks her way into a job at Mermaid Park, unraveling a few family secrets along the way.

A perfectly lovely book, although it didn't stay with me for long.

Poetry Friday

So, this update is a little late, but it's been a really surreal day. I've been really impressed by the kindness of strangers. This is what happens when you accidentally hit a curb, resulting in two flat tires... because who the $%#& has two spares?

But, in honor of Poetry Friday, I thought I'd review some poetry novels, both by Sonya Sones

First on the list is What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know

This is the sequel to What My Mother Doesn't Know. Told from Robin's point of view, it picks up exactly where the first one left off, in the lunchroom. By choosing to date Robin, Sophie's social status plummets, making her an outcast--all of her friends ditch her. Robin can't stand it, but at the same time is amazed he is lucky enough to have her. As they navigate the bottom of the high school social ladder, Robin is also taking art classes at Harvard and making friends outside of school. Touching and humorous, this is my favorite Sones work to date.

That said, if What my Mother Doesn't Know is frequently banned (and it is) hooboy, What my Girlfriend Doesn't Know is going straight to the top of every one's list. In keeping with her hyper-honest teen voices, Robin has some very frank thoughts, mainly about his desire to touch Sophie's breasts. This will probably cause some brain hemorrhages amongst the crowd that can't handle What My Mother Doesn't Know. It's too bad, because Robin's views on this aren't only honest, but they're hilarious. (Check out the poem "I Do Not Have a One Track Mind" which is just the words" yeah, right" over and over again in the shape of two breasts.)

The best part about this book, and its predecessor, is that Sones manages, in a way very few people since Judy Blume have, to make the pain of teenagerdom both honest, true, and hilariously irreverent.

Read some of the poems

The next book is Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy which is a very heart-wrenching, true look based on Sones's own experiences when her own sister was hospitalized after a nervous breakdown at the age of nineteen. It's a very stark look at mental illness and the stigma is carries in our society. Because of the subject matter, it's not as funny as her other books, and the humour is where Sones's genius really lies.

Read some of the poems

I'm not sure how I feel about the poetry-novel genre/form in general. I think most of the content would have worked just as well had they been written in prose--the exact same words and lines...

Does Sophie's just standing there staring at me from across the cafeteria. Geez. Look at her. Have you have ever seen anyone so beautiful in your life? How could a girl like her ever have wanted to be with a guy like me? Even just for two weeks?

really work better when written as

Sophie's just standing there
staring at me
from across the cafeteria.

Geez.
Look at her.
Have you ever seen anyone so beautiful
in your life?

How could a girl like her
ever have wanted
to be with a guy like me?
Even just for two weeks?

That said, I think the first poem in the above link from Stop Pretending has more poetic rhythm, especially with the repetition of "One day... the next..." and she plays more with visual form in What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know.

I haven't actually made my mind up yet on the genre. I'm just thinking out loud and wondering what you think...

Crazy Time

Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters by Annie Choi

To paraphrase Tolstoy, Boring families are all alike. Crazy families are crazy in their own way.

And everyone's family is crazy, but it takes a special author to make you, the reader he or she has never met, love their crazy family, laugh at the craziness, and kinda want to hang out with them.

David Sedaris has this special gift. Annie Choi has is in spades. Whether talking about her mother's battle the breast cancer, failing Korean school, or surviving the entire family on New Year's day, Choi will have you squirting milk out your nose with laughter. (Really, my coworkers, who tend to look at me oddly anyway, because, well, most people look at me oddly, were really staring as I laughed hysterically over this book over lunch this past week.)

Trust me on this one and just read it, ok?

Check out the first chapter.

Check out her blog.

Other blog reviews: Welcome to the Confessional