Tag Archives: Friday Reads

One year for Christmas I asked everyone to give me a copy of their favorite book; just one book and hopefully an explanation of why it held that honor. This was well over 20 years ago and my college roommate gave me a copy of A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton. One of the many librarian stereotypes is that we love mysteries so I’d avoided this genre but I read it and I liked it. Sue’s books saved me on a dreadful flight when I was sick and a horrible vacation and the fictional character Kinsey Millhone became a good friend. She’s a low-maintenance, hard-driving, common sense kind of woman whose luck in love has sometimes been similar to my own. If you are a series reader and have yet to read Sue’s books, the book club collection may be just the ticket. The order could not be any easier to understand: A is for Alibi; B is for Burglar; C is for Corpse and on and on through the most recent release X. In the series, Henry Pitts plays Kinsey’s friend and landlord and is a favorite character of mine with the runner up being Rosie who runs the local restaurant and bar where Kinsey often has dinner or meets clients. You may want to know that Sue has adamantly said no to ever selling her rights to turn this series into a movie which actually pleases me because the characters will always stay in my mind, tidy as you please with no alterations from Hollywood. Here is a list of the titles so you can make your reservation.

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family, was released on October 20, 2015, two weeks before the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was defeated in large part due to fears generated over bathroom access by transgender individuals. I learned about the book through the flurry of news coverage immediately preceding its release, and I was first in line for Lincoln City Library’s print copy. Written by Amy Ellis Nutt, it tells the story of the Maines family who, in January 2014, won a landmark civil-rights case against the Orono school district after school officials denied their transgender daughter Nicole the right to use the girls’ restroom.

The value of this book at a time when every news story about transgender rights results in a flurry of mean-spirited comments is that it tells the story of a transgender child and her family from day one. It allows those of us who have no personal experience with being transgender or raising a transgender child to glean, just a little bit, through the power of story and the willingness of the Maines’ family to share theirs, what it might be like.

The story begins in 1997 when Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys named Wyatt and Jonas. Despite having the same DNA and being raised in the same household, the boys identify differently from early on. Even before he’s three Wyatt prefers girl things and displays distress over being treated as a boy. The anecdotes shared to illustrate this early dissonance are poignant and heartrending.

By the time the boys are three Kelly is already doing research, trying desperately to understand what is going on with Wyatt. Wayne, on the other hand, is deeply uncomfortable with Wyatt’s gender nonconformity and disapproves of Kelly’s willingness to partially accommodate the boy’s toy and clothing preferences. Although Wayne clearly loves both boys, his initial response is to withdraw and leave the reins primarily in Kelly’s hands.

Interestingly enough, at least early on the boys’ friends and classmates had the fewest problems with their differing gender identities: Wyatt had no problem making female friends and bonding with them over “girl” things; the son of a family friend contradicted his mother when she referenced the “Maines boys,” telling her that Jonas is a boy and Wyatt is a girl; and at one point, when the twins are nine, Jonas tells his dad to face the fact that he has a son and a daughter.

It wasn’t until fifth grade, when the grandfather of a classmate complained about a boy using the girls’ restroom, something Wyatt (now Nicole) had been doing with school approval for some time, that things got bad. In response to the complaint and ongoing harassment by the boy whose grandfather had lodged it, the school eventually told Nicole she had to use a staff restroom. The continuing conflict and increasingly hostile school climate began to take a toll on the family, and in 2009 they decided Kelly and the twins would relocate to Portland. They also filed their initial lawsuit against the school district.

Although this was a difficult time for the family financially and emotionally, it was also a turning point for Wayne who realized he needed to step up to the plate and begin advocating for his daughter. He became the more public face of the family, eventually giving speeches, writing letters and essays that appear in national publications, and lobbying politicians. In this sense, the story of Nicole’s transformation is also the story of her father’s transformation as he opened himself to a reality unfolding in front of him that contradicted his expectations and beliefs.

Nutt, Amy Ellis. Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family. New York: Random House, 2015.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (Algonquin Books, 2014) What reader doesn’t love a story set in a bookstore? …especially a quirky, little independent bookshop in a purple Victorian cottage on Alice Island where the faded sign reads:

Island Books

Alice Island’s Exclusive Provider of

Fine Literary Content since 1999

No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World

Within the first ten pages of this book, the reader is transported to a place where time is trying to stand still, but of course it won’t. We are immediately introduced to a curmudgeonly bookshop proprietor (A.J Fikry), an eager young publishing representative (Amelia Loman), and a tragic set of circumstance that creates tension between the two of them from the beginning. Fikry is reeling from the loss of his beloved wife and he’s not really coping with his grief and loss. The store isn’t exactly thriving either. We meet Fikry just as his life is about to change dramatically. He suffers another devastating loss and gains a reason to live in the space of a few short weeks.

As the story unfolds, we meet more of the residents of Alice Island and the characters in this book are very well written, interesting, and endearing—with lots of juicy dialog between them. We come to care about them and their community and it goes without saying, we are rooting for Fikry to pull himself together. The writing is clever and crisp and I love a good convention in a book and this one has one—each chapter is introduced with a short book review suitable for a printed shelf-talker. Sometimes it takes until the end of the chapter to figure out what the review had to do with the action in the chapter, but that just makes it more fun. A side benefit of this setup is that I got a bunch of recommendations of books to read.

This is a great selection for a book club, makes a great gift for a reader in your life,  and I promise it’s a page-turner.

Mary Jo Ryan

Steve Sieberson is a world traveler – and a mountaineer. His law career has taken him to numerous foreign places. His expertise in international business has included lecturing and advising. In 2006 he joined the Creighton University Law School faculty. Sieberson’s writing includes a recent textbook on international business contracting. But for those of us not closely connected to international business his book on mountaineering is a much more interesting read.

I met Steve Sieberson and his wife Carmel at an Omaha Public Library book event. It was there that I picked up a copy of his book, The Naked Mountaineer: Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler (University of Nebraska Press). Outside of his years as a practicing attorney and international businessman, Sieberson developed a passion for mountaineering. A family trip one summer from his rural home in northwest Iowa to Colorado began his lifetime fascination with high elevations. From there he read books on mountaineering, books that he found at his local library. His boyhood fascination has endured through his adult years.

Sieberson’s move to Seattle and his many years there provided the proximity to enjoy his passion for the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. During his years in Seattle he was a member of Seattle Mountain Rescue and the Mountaineers organization. The Naked Mountaineer is a delightful commentary on Sieberson’s global travels and opportunities to climb many of the world’s highest and most challenging mountains – the Matterhorn, Mount Agung, Mount Fuji and many more. Especially enjoyable are his commentaries about his experiences as a climber – the places, the people, and the customs. His passion and his good humor are found throughout his book.

I’ve always enjoyed a good adventure tale—swords, boots, sailing ships. These days, many of those are found in the Fantasy genre and often include some magic or monsters as well. Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora fits the bill with the added bonus of a caper. This book is the first in an on-going series, currently three volumes long and looking toward a fourth in 2016. Our protagonist, Locke Lamora, has been raised by a Fagin-esque mentor as a well-educated thief and swindler in a late medieval alternate universe of city states. Much of the action involves Locke and his pals (gang?) cleverly swindling an aristocrat while becoming entangled in lethal underworld wars. Think “Ocean’s Eleven” in tights mixed with a little “Gangs of New York” and a helping of “Game of Thrones.” The twisty fast-moving plot and the charm of the characters carry the book along. Some of the violence is extreme, and the language is salty—although inventive. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Michael Page. The other books in the series are Red Seas Under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves.

Zombies, vampires, ghosts, demons, and other undead citizens like to go on vacation, just like you and me. And, when they visit a new city, they also use travel guides to find the best activities and locations to check out. But, they can’t use just any travel guide. There are certain things that nonhumans need to know about the cities they visit – there are resources and establishments that cater specifically to them. Zoe Norris edits those kinds of travel guides for Underground Publications, a company that specializes in producing travel guides for the coterie, as the nonhumans prefer to be called.

Ghost Train to New Orleans is the second book in The Shambling Guides series written by Mur Lefferty. In what I know will upset many other readers, I read this book first. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities to visit, so I jumped on it first. The first book is The Shambling Guide to New York City. There are many references to the first volume throughout Ghost Train to New Orleans, and some of them could be considered spoilers, but they didn’t have a detrimental effect on my enjoyment of this book. They just made me want to read the first one even more!

After the success of her first travel guide to New York City, Zoe and her co-workers are sent to New Orleans to research the sequel. What could be a relaxing trip ends up being anything but. Her boyfriend is slowly turning into a zombie, the city is trying to talk to her about a new threat to Zoe, and her writing team of vampires, death goddess, Valkyrie, and dragon just can’t get along with each other.

I found this urban fantasy to be a really fun read. The supernatural characters are creatively written, not at all what you’d expect. And the descriptions of New Orleans and use of the city in the storyline were perfect. I’m already planning my next trip there, and will definitely be checking out some of the locations that Zoe visited. Maybe I’ll even see some of her readers on holiday.

I’m not sure I consider myself a child of the 80s, but I’m certainly old enough to appreciate the vast majority of the pop culture references in Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. From Ferris Bueller to Geddy Lee, Max Headroom to Dungeons & Dragons, Monty Python to Back to the Future, there’s a bit of 80s nostalgia for everyone in this story. I listened to the audiobook (one of the pleasures of a long daily commute), narrated by Wil Wheaton.

The year is 2044. Our hero, Wade, is an 18-year-old orphan living in the stacks – an overgrown trailer park where the mobile homes are literally stacked sky-high. Things are not going so great for Wade “IRL” (in real life), but that’s OK! Wade spends most of his waking hours in the OASIS, a sprawling online utopia that most of the population of Earth relies on to escape the crumbling mess that the real world has become. When the OASIS’s creator, game designer James Halliday, passed away, he promised control of the OASIS and his vast fortune (in the hundreds of billions) to the first person who can find the “Easter Egg” he has hidden inside this virtual world. The catch? The egg hunters or “gunters”, as they’ve been come to be known, must possess enough knowledge of 1980’s trivia to decipher the clues Halliday has sprinkled throughout the OASIS. It’s been 5 years and no one has found the first clue that will begin the game and lead to the ultimate prize… Until one day Wade stumbles upon it, putting his name at the top of the game’s scoreboard and making him both a legend among gunters and a target for the ruthless corporation that has its sights set on taking over the OASIS.

If you enjoy fast-paced humorous science fiction (even if you’ve never picked up a joystick), grab this one before it hits the big screen in the not-too-distant future.

In history’s darker days, ne’er-do-wells were marched to public squares, sometimes by mobs waving torches or pitchforks, and displayed publicly as punishment.  Here in 2015, most of us don’t have pitchforks or torches at home.  But almost all of us have Facebook or Twitter or Reddit accounts.  We also have the same basic impulses that drove extrajudicial justice in the past.

This is where Jon Ronson’s latest book begins.  Times and tools have changed, but people haven’t.  Some people still exhibit offensive (if not really criminal) behavior—plagiarism, insensitive jokes, outright lying.  And some other people don’t like it and aren’t afraid to use the tools at hand to do something about it.

It’s probably never been fun to be publicly shamed.  But, in the past, you’d eventually stop riding the rail, or go home and wash the tar and feathers off.  At worst, you could move to a different village.  Public shaming on the Internet has a bit more permanence.  How do you ever move forward with your life when your bad deed has been retweeted thousands of times?  How do you get a new job when that employer Googles your name and sees very cringeworthy images?

This book answers these questions and (re)introduces the reader to some famously shamed people.  Those who have read Ronson’s The Psychopath Test and exquisite Them: Adventures with Extremists will recognize his narrative multitasking and brisk style.  For a book with such substance, this is an exceptionally quick read—you can finish it in an afternoon—and it’s worth your time.  The anonymous “mob justice” aspect of the Internet, which sometimes gets things extremely wrong, continues to grow anyway (and probably won’t be limited to shaming only the worst offenders).  This book is all about that behavior and might make you rethink your next Send, Like, or Share.

My original intention was to write a bit about the Wisdom of Insecurity, authored by Alan Watts and published in 1951. The reasons for this include the fact that I just recently read it, and Watts demonstrates a directness and clarity that is refreshing. The book reads like it could have been written today:

“Human beings appear to be happy just so long as they have a future to which they can look forward – whether it be a ‘good time’ tomorrow or an everlasting life beyond the grave. For various reasons, more and more people find it hard to believe in the latter. On the other hand, the former has the disadvantage that when this ‘good time’ arrives, it is difficult to enjoy it to the full without some promise of more to come. If happiness always depends on something expected in the future, we are chasing a will-o’-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish in the abyss of death.”

And …

“For this stream of stimulants is designed to produce cravings for more and more of the same, through louder and faster, and these cravings drive us to do work which is of no interest save for the money it pays-to buy more lavish radios, sleeker automobiles, glossier magazines, and better television sets, all of which will somehow conspire to persuade us that happiness lies just around the corner if we will buy one more.”

Well, the appeal of Watts (described in many circles as playing a large role in bringing eastern philosophy to a western crowd) is not just in the one-liners. His writing appears to come at least somewhat from the perspective of the ever increasingly trendy “living in the moment” prescription, but also is perhaps at least a precursor to the deeper notions and variants of nondualistic pantheism. After reading Watts, it seemed fairly easy to sum these major points up; I was looking for something with a bit more depth. Oliver Burkeman’s the Antidote provides a little more of that. I say a little because much of what Burkeman writes about is quite similar to Watts, but there is some new material here that is worthwhile. Burkeman’s ideas might at least be a decent starting point.

Burkeman’s title provides some degree of a play on words (whether intended or not) in that the antidote he describes is something to counteract one’s unhappiness and the fact that he provides numerous anecdotes throughout the book. Burkeman draws from many sources, largely from the work of Stoicism and Albert Ellis and smally on things like the Museum of Failed Products, the self-help industry, Zen Buddhism, meditation, Mt. Everest climbers, Eckhart Tolle, and memento mori. Burkeman makes good arguments against the preoccupation with goals, less intensive planning, and ditching the modern day “cult of optimism.” Burkeman notes that “it is our constant efforts to eliminate the negative – insecurity, uncertainty, failure, or sadness – that is what causes us to feel so insecure, anxious, uncertain, or unhappy.”

It might be easy to conclude that Burkeman is advocating negative thinking. He’s not. There is a clear differentiation between negative thinking and the prescribed (stoic) rational thinking.

One perplexing notion, at least to me and requiring further thought and reflection is this aforementioned notion of “living in the moment”. It seems to me that consciousness plays a large role in it, and if a person is consciously thinking about something (including living in the moment), can they really be doing or experiencing it? If we perpetually read books, attend seminars, or participate in groups that bring this idea front and center, can we ever really achieve it under those circumstances? Probably not, and I think Watts would agree: “To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, ‘I am listening to this music,’ you are not listening.” At any rate, if you are looking at an alternative to the positive thinking machine, the Antidote might prove to be a good read, and might turn you on to some other thought provoking stuff.

From Amazon:

“In the village of Lauscha in Germany, things have been done the same way for centuries. The men blow the glass, and the women decorate and pack it. But when Joost Steinmann passes away unexpectedly one September night, his three daughters must learn to fend for themselves. Feisty Johanna takes a practical approach to looking for work, Ruth follows her heart, aiming to catch a handsome young villager”, and quiet Marie develops her talent for glassblowing. This title, by Petra Durst-Benning, and originally published in Germany, is the first in the Glassblower Trilogy. I was fascinated by the description of the intricacies of glass-blowing, the process of how artist’s wares were bought and sold in late 1800’s Germany, and of course, the sister’s trials and tribulations through it all.

It’s the story of the unwanted, unloved fourth, and extra son of an elven Emperor, who unexpectedly, violently, becomes the next emperor. With no training and no one to trust, he’s thrust into a fully imagined court and political wrangling of a complex government that he hasn’t even been fully educated about. On top of all that, he is half Goblin, a distrusted minority in his country. The unexpected part of the story is that, of course, that living with a greedy, selfish, violent guardian has taught him survival skills that he can use. And he has more than a few. And despite all the difficulties, the story is a hopeful one.

The author has not only packed the story with the edgy subject of race, and all the differences that can mean, but many other lines that she handles well. The accident that ends his father, the emperor’s life, and the lives of his three older half brothers, was aboard an airship (dirigible). Two people are set to guard the emperor at all times, one his soul and the other his body. But the one who guards his soul can also cast what we would call spells. New ideas are part of the difficulties the new emperor must deal with, including a new bridge. There is also an ongoing investigation into the deaths of his father and half brothers, which threads through the story, as well as 2 assassination attempts.

The world building is wonderful. One can tell where the origins of many of the foundations come from, but the author handles them in ways that seem fresh. While magic and steam punk flourishes exist, the story, the politics, the struggles, and the people are more interesting. In many ways though, it feels more like a historical story, than a fantasy, despite that fact that the character’s ears move to indicate their emotional state, much like a cat’s.

Katherine Addison, is actually a pseudonym for Sarah Monette.

The novel has received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and nominated for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

Reviews:

Strange Horizons: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, reviewed by Foz Meadows
Building Bridges: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison reviewed by Liz Bourke

“Meet Ben Fletcher: Accidental criminal. Liar. Master of mohair.” So proclaims the cover of UK author T.S. Easton’s delightfully silly YA novel Boys Don’t Knit. Ben Fletcher is a 17-year-old good kid and worrier, who gets drawn into an act of juvenile delinquency by his misfit friends. Ironically, considering he was the most reluctant participant, and due in part to a series of unfortunate circumstances, Ben winds up in the most trouble when they’re caught. Placed on probation, Ben is required to keep a journal (hence the diary-format of the novel) and to take an evening class at the local community college.

Due to limited choices, he winds up as the only male student in an introductory knitting class. (Other options included a car maintenance class taught by his father; pottery taught by the mother of a female classmate he has a crush on; and Microsoft Office for beginners, which he describes as being “for grannies and people who’ve just arrived in civilization after having been raised by wolves in the Appalachians.”) The challenge for Ben is how to keep his participation in the knitting class a secret from his father, who wants Ben to share his manly interest in soccer, cars, and World War II, and his classmates.

Of course, Ben winds up being a natural talent at knitting, so much so that he is drafted to participate in the regional heat of the All-UK Knitting Championship, in the junior category. He also ends up REALLY LIKING knitting, not only the social aspects of class, but also the calming effect it has on his mind. It begins to take over his life: He listens to knitting podcasts; furtively reads knitting magazines at the store (hiding a girly magazine inside the knitting magazine when he sees his friends approaching so they’ll think that’s what he’s really looking at, when it’s actually the other way around); and even sets up an Etsy shop. Eventually, despite his best efforts, he’s “outed” at school by an administrator wanting to capitalize on his success as a young entrepreneur. As you can imagine, this leads to constant ribbing from friends and enemies alike, and while it is painful to Ben it makes for amusing reading.

There is a lot of humorously cringe-worthy material in this book (intentional on the part of the author) which we, the readers, get to experience along with Ben (though as readers we are in a better position to be tickled by it than Ben). This includes conversations between Ben’s parents, which are filled with food-based double entendres that used to go over Ben’s head but now cause him no end of psychic pain. We also get to read excerpts of his friend Joz’s horribly-written novel-in-progress, titled Fifty Shades of Graham, which he’s having Ben proofread. It contains winning lines such as “Her large chest heaved angrily at me.” All in all, Ben has a lot of crosses to bear. His voice, as he shares his experiences with us via his diary entries, is as delightful and appealing as can be, making this a wonderful romp of a read.

Easton, T.S. Boys Don’t Knit (In Public). New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2015.

Anthony Doerr’s book “All the Light We Cannot See” (Simon & Schuster) won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015. I listened to the audio version on a long road trip and read parts of the text version. I tend to avoid hyperbole but I’ll venture without reservation that this is an extraordinary book and I enjoyed it. I’ll go further and say that Doerr’s writing is exquisite. A New York Times bestseller for many months, it is deserving of the attention it has received. World War II and Nazi occupied France provide the setting for “All the Light We Cannot See.”

The book follows the lives of a blind French girl named Marie-Laure and a gifted German boy named Werner who has a special talent for radio technology. Their stories run parallel and eventually converge. Doerr devoted ten years to writing the book and wrote two others during that time.  Doerr’s extensive research is notable. The book is sentimental, and in a good way. This is a lyrical and intricate book with a highly readable format. I’ll be interested in whatever he publishes next.

From the publisher’s blurb: “As an assassin for the Committee, a covert agency dedicated to stamping out international crime, [James Bishop] had no business even thinking about marriage. But it was the only way to protect Evangeline after she’d unwittingly wandered into his operation against a group of human traffickers.”

Not all blurbs sum up a book that well, but this one tells a potential reader what she needs to know. Does he desert her, and then return to rescue her because he just can’t resist her any longer? Of course. Is she hurt and angry and suspicious of him, but so in love that she’ll forgive him?  Was it really a question?

Anne Stuart is known for bad boy heroes. She’s also known for snappy dialog, fast-paced plotting, steamy interludes, and pushing the envelope. The book read so quickly that I didn’t think about the general improbability of it all and just enjoyed the ride. I’d recommend it to James Bond fans.

This title, the first in the new “Fire” series, continues the world of Ms. Stuart’s popular “Ice” series. It carries the Montlake Romance imprint, part of Amazon publishing. It’s available for Kindle, in audio, or in paperback.