A Mixed Bag of Mini-Reviews

Thanks to the local library I was able to read Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing.

As I read Sing, Unburied, Sing, I kept worrying that something horrendous was going to happen, something I could not bear. The feeling of impending tragedy was ominous. The characters were well drawn, their stories heart-rending. They will live with me for a long while.

#Hockeystrong by Erika Robuck

My family was never into sports. We were given tickets to see several hockey games at Michigan State but that is my sum experience with the sport. But I can appreciate a good social commentary.

This book dissects the crazy things parents will do when their kids enjoy a sport, making a game into a fetish and giving up all control to the machinations of an obsessed coach. I’d have laughed at the extreme things they do...except I was so appalled. Over the top, hilarious, and disturbing—the novel left me grateful we were never #Hockeystrong.

I purchased an ebook.

Book Club Reads

Both my book clubs have recently read Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue much to my pleasure. Overall, everyone enjoyed the book. Here is the review I wrote after reading it in 2016:

I was thrilled to win Behold the Dreamers on Goodreads Giveaways! After reading it, I am grateful to have won it. It is a beautifully written, deep, and thoughtful exploration of the oldest theme in American literature: The American Dream. What makes this treatment stand out is the juxtaposition of the dreamers who hope to achieve the dream against the family who already lives the dream.

Jende and Neni have come to New York City hoping for a better life. Neni is a strong-willed woman who defied her father to marry Jende. She is determined to get an education and a career. Jende was forbidden to marry Neni, and when she became pregnant her father had Jende imprisoned. In 2007, now together and living in Harlem, Neni is in school and Jende has landed a posh job as a chauffeur to a Lehman Brothers executive. They are full of hope for the future. All they need is to become permanent residents.

Jende's boss Clark and his wife Cindy are successful, rich, beautiful people, who have come up from the lower and middle classes. In truth Clark is a workaholic whose moral sense must be suppressed as he conforms to the business ethics of Lehmans, while Cindy obsesses over fitting in, passing as one of the 1% to maintain her status.

As the two couples struggle with their personal demons, watching their dreams unravel, choices are made that will alter their lives forever.

I enjoyed this book on so many levels. Mbue is a wonderful storyteller, her characters are vivid and unforgettable. The treatment of the immigrant experience and American immigration law is relevant and revealing.

I loved how Jende and Neni were hard-working idealists about America. The battle between Clark's Midwest values and the realities of Wall Street destroy him while his wife escapes into the oblivion of drugs and alcohol. Cindy and Clark's son Vince understands the spiritual death of American society, dropping out to find a life worth living. I loved the ending as Jende and Clark meet a final time, no longer boss and servant, but as men recognizing their mutual struggle to do what is best for their families.

It impressed me that Mbue, born in Cameroon and living in America for ten years, has a masterful writing style and a deep and intelligent insight into the psyche of both immigrant and American. This is her first book, and I can't wait to read more from Mbue.

I received a free book from Random House in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. (less)

Another book club selection this month was Barbara Kingsolver's 2001 book Animal Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

Had I read this when it came out it would have made a bigger impact on me. Most of my library book club was not inspired and many did not finish the book. Several of us admitted the information was no longer fresh. The inserted essays seemed to put people off from reading it.

I commend the message of the book to eat local, to raise your own food, and to be concerned about the impact of factory farming and processed foods.

Some of My Favorite Books Published So Far in 2017

Here are some of the books I have enjoyed reading in the first six months of the year. Readers and book clubs often pick books that are on 'top' lists and miss others which are as good, and even better. Here are some not to be missed, presented from the earliest to the latest 2017 publications.

Non-Fiction

The Tunnels by Greg Mitchell. The story of the Berlin Wall and those who dug tunnels under the wall, the journalists who filmed the tunnelers, and President Kennedy's surpressing the story.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-tunnels-escapees-under-berlin-wall.html

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel reminds us of the cost of allowing our fear to negate the rights guaranteed by our laws and warns against the misuse of power.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/high-noon-hollywood-blacklist-and.html

The Life and Death of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan lays out the natural history of the lakes the ecological problems we have created, and what it will take to preserve and restore the Great Lakes.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-death-and-life-of-great-lakes-by.html

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson book is sure to bring another generation under the thrall of the tragic story of the Franklin Expedition.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/ice-ghosts-200-years-searching-for-lost.html

A $500 House in Detroit by Drew Philip. "We have an amazing opportunity to become, as strange as it sounds, the city of the future."
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/building-new-world-order-500-house-in.html

The Gatekeepers: How The White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple. I enjoyed this both as history and as a model for understanding the present.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-gatekeepers-how-white-house-chiefs.html

Mozart's Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. I was charmed, then delighted; then I felt educated, and finally, elevated. In beautiful language and uplifting insight, Mozart's Starling is my most unexpected find of the year.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/mozarts-starling-exploration-of-nature.html

Apollo 8 by Jeffry Kluger is an exciting narrative about the Space Race.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/manderley-forever-by-tatiana-de-rosnay.html

Detroit: 1967 considers the riot/rebellion from a historical perspective and first-hand accounts.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/we-hope-for-better-things-detroit-1967.html

The Making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser traces how Austen was 'made' through her illustrators, the dramatization and adaptation of her novels in plays, movies, and television, the political use of Austen, and finally through how her novels were used in education.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-making-of-jane-austen-creation-of.html

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley. I so enjoyed and loved this book about Jane Austen. A must read for Janites.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/jane-austen-at-home-by-lucy-worsley.html

Fiction

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich. The novel is a complicated, slow moving, intense story, delving into characters linked by love and horrific tragedy, in gorgeous writing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/12/devastatingly-beautiful-devastatingly.html

Lucky Boy. Parental love, it's obsessive envelopment and fierceness, is the theme of Shanthi Sekaran's moving and thoughtful novel. I loved the writing, the characters are sympathetic and real, the story heartbreaking.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/01/lucky-boy-by-shanthi-sekaran.html

The Animators. Kayla Rae Whitaker's novel is about two women who use their life stories in their animated films then reap the consequences.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-animators-enduring-friendship.html

The Refugees. Viet Thanh Nguyen's 2015 novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. These short stories explore the refugee experience, informed by his own family history.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/for-all-refugees-everywhere.html

The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis. A remarkable story, beautifully written and wise. Henry's journey resonates with self-recognition and affirms that going home can open the path to the future.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/you-must-go-home-again-barrowfields-by.html



Things We Lost in the Fire by Argentinian author Mariana Enriquez are more than eerie or creepy. They are disturbing, upsetting, and some are even repulsive. They are amazing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/unsettling-stories-from-argentina.html

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar is an unusual book, at once funny and probing, emotionally wise, and improbable; a blend of philosophy and fantasy.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/spaceman-of-bohemia-truths-must-not-be.html

The Underworld by Kevin Canty. People in a small town react to a devastating mine disaster.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-underworld-by-kevin-canty.html


To the Stars Through Difficulties by Romalyn Tilghman. The empowerment of women to impact their community, the use of art for healing, and a belief in the power of books are the themes behind the stories of three women.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/to-stars-through-difficulties-by.html



Grief Cottage by Gail Goodman. A 'ghost story' in which character's inner ruins lay concealed, their grief diverted by obsessions and addictions.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/grief-cottage-by-gail-godwin.html

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. To understand the experiences of those who are from different backgrounds, forget some of the over-marketed best sellers. Read Strout.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/anything-is-possible-by-elizabeth.html

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker. Shoemaker gives us a kinder and more lovable version of Jane Eyre's Rochester.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/mr-rochester-by-sarah-shoemaker.html

Some Rise by Sin by Philip Caputo. If God is good, why is there suffering and evil? Set in Mexico where 60,000 murders in six years have brought Father Riordan past doubt--he is losing his faith altogether. Should he break his vows to save his flock?
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/some-rise-by-sin-and-some-by-virtue-fall.html

Allie and Bea by Catherine Ryan Hyde. An elderly woman and a teenage girl, both escaping their past, are thrown together by fate and become family.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-friend-in-need-allie-and-bea-by.html

The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris are short stories about how good people can make very bad decisions. Mesmerizing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-dinner-party-and-other-stories-by.html

The Reminders, musician/actor Val Emmich's first novel, is a heartwarming story of the friendship between a girl who remembers everything and a grieving man who is forgetting his beloved.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-reminders-by-val-emmich-love.html

The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron draws on new research to recreate the waning days of the Neanderthals.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-last-neanderthal-reimagines-shared.html

The Quiet Before the Thaw by Alexandra Fuller follows the lives of two Sioux boys, in writing beautiful and eloquent and charged with emotional intensity and devastating revelation.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/quiet-until-thaw-by-alexandra-fuller.html

Devastation Road by Jason Hewitt, set after WWI, is a chilling vision of the impact of war, a mystery, a love story, and a revelation of war's human cost.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/devastation-road-by-jason-hewitt.html

Tell Me How This Ends Well by David Samuel Levinson is wildly funny and yet deadly serious, a dark comedy and a chilling look at how America, and the world, is evolving.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/tell-me-how-this-ends-well-dark-family.html

We Shall Not All Sleep by Estep Nagy is an intriguing Cold War family drama with elements of a spy thriller and mystery. I was riveted.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/we-shall-not-all-sleep-by-estap-nagy.html

Grace by Paul Lynch recreates Ireland during the famine. The writing is gorgeous, the protagonist, Grace, memorable, the descriptions of what she experiences while on the road crushing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/grace-by-paul-lynch-story-of-girl.html

Central Station by Lavie Tidhar imagines a world where divisions have blurred between man-created and biological entities and corporate and personal memory. Award winning science fiction.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/central-station-by-lavie-tidhar.html

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed is a compelling dystopian novel concerning a disturbing cult, with sympathetic characters and enough mystery that kept me turning pages.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/gather-daughters-by-jennie-melamed.html

Brave Deeds by David Abrams. Six soldiers are denied permission to attend their captain's memorial service. They go AWOL, risking their lives to honor him.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/brave-deeds-by-david-abrams.html

Biography

My Life, My Love, My Legacy: Coretta Scott King. A timely lesson in how resistance movements can alter policy, raise awareness, and impact cultural norms.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/01/coretta-scott-king-tells-all.html

Manderley Forever by Tatiana De Rosnay brings alive a complicated author in context of her family history, her personal and creative growth, and literary place.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/manderley-forever-by-tatiana-de-rosnay.html


The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber. The compelling story of the daughter of Margery Williams Bianco (author of The Velveteen Rabbit) who was a child prodigy in art, and her struggle with mental illness.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-velveteen-daughter-genius-touched.html

Morningstar: Growing Up With Books by Ann Hood is a wonderful memoir about the impact of books on her life. Beautiful.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/morningstar-growing-up-with-books-by.html