February 2.0

All Our Wrongs Today by Elan Mastai
Wow, just wow - this book is a bit mind-blowing. Author Elan Mastai, Hollywood screenwriter and first-time novelist, has written a unique, creative take on time travel and all the inherent problems involved in not only going back in time, but in attempting to right past mistakes.  Does this sound a bit Back to the Future - ish?  Perhaps, but that would be like comparing Dr. Seuss to Emily Dickinson.  Mastai's take on time travel is deep and puzzling and mind-bending and exciting and humorous and dark...all in just one book.  Main character Tom, who becomes John and then Victor, thanks to different mishaps in time, is a 32 year old whose father invents a time machine that takes him, accidentally, back to the inception of the greatest invention of all time - a generator that has unlimited energy, that creates a 2016 that is reminiscent of the Jetsons.  However, in Tom's time travel, the world is disrupted and he ends up back in our 2016, a world of questionable food choices, lack of environmental protection, and archaic automobiles that stay on the ground.  The voice for Tom is highly engaging, drawing us in to his world through his humor, his frustrations, his eventual insight into what life ultimately should be.  What a provocative choice for a book club as well as a fantastic read on your own; I highly recommend this debut novel!

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
Cyber bullying, nasty gossip, and treacherous friendships all located in...where else, a public high school!  As a retired English teacher, this was right down my alley.  I confess, I was underwhelmed by the first few chapters; I did not find it particularly well written, nor full of depth. Yet as I kept reading, I realized that these teenagers are more complex than I had at first thought.  The book begins with the suicide of a bullied young man in eighth grade and then follows the bullies as they enter high school.  Each student has dealt differently with the death, either becoming someone they never thought they would be, hiding their feelings under baby fat and criminal behavior, using their parent's money to protect themselves, or chasing popularity through wild partying.  Sound familiar?  My one complaint would be the young innocent teacher who wants to save the world, be her students' best friend, and ignore the cynicism of the veteran teachers. I was once that curmudgeonly veteran, and occasionally, we actually  have some wisdom for the newbies.  However, I do agree with many of the reviewers out there that this was a fascinating, yet disturbing, look at high school life in the 21st century.  It would be an interesting book to read with your own teenage child and see where their life connects with the vision of this author.

Himself by Jess Kidd
Ah, tis a beautiful little Irish tale found within the pages of this debut author.  Set in County Mayo, a poor young Irish lass is viciously murdered and her child taken to the church orphanage in Dublin.  Years later, Mahoney, the babe all grown up, returns to his hometown of Mulderrig to solve the mystery of his mother's death.  Steeped in Irish folklore, this beautiful little book recounts the town's reaction to this citified young man as it also remembers the life of his teenage mother.  The prejudice towards the poor is on full display here, making my skin crawl at times and my anger awake.  Mahoney is not the perfect hero; he has some criminal tendencies, is a bit loose with his affections, and batters at the lines drawn by the town.  Yet there is beauty in Mahoney, in his friendship with the ancient old stage actress who takes him under his wings, in the love he shares with a young woman, in the interactions he has with the many ghosts he encounters in Mulderrig. And yes, many ghosts flit through the scenes and become well-loved characters of this beautiful book.  Jess Kidd can write not only beautiful prose, but is adept at creating characters who sing with life, who make you smile at their conversations, and make you care about both their past and their future.  Heading to Ireland in the near future to explore small villages?  This is the book for you:)

The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo
Meredith, a very typical eighth grader, is low on self-confidence, longs to be part of the popular crowd though she protests that she does not, has an older brother she adores, parents who are in her business too much, and ultimately gets caught in a 'moment' that will change her life.  As she stands in a convenience store next to Miss Popularity, Lisa Bellow, a robbery ensues, ending up with Lisa being kidnapped while Meredith lays on the floor, unmoving and terrified.  As the news of Meredith's involvement slowly leaks out, her hum-drum life changes as she attempts to deal with the trauma this incident does not only to her social identity, but to her psychological identity as well.  Thrown into this mix is her brother, Evan, dealing with the aftermath of a terrible accident that ended his baseball career, the grieving mother of Lisa Bellow who is unable to move on, and the parents, dentists who are rightfully concerned about the traumatic changes in both their children's lives over the past year.  The plot premise is creative, yet the character development lost me, as did all the tangents taken throughout the story line.  I kept searching my brain for some compassion for any of the characters and came up empty; the mother has nary a redeeming quality, dad has no backbone, and Meredith is beyond annoying, when I wanted her to be more complex, heroic, intuitive, you name it.  About the only character I could stomach was Evan, the brother.  Ultimately, I skimmed through the last quarter of the book, hoping for an ending that could redeem a rather 'meh' book for me.  Sadly, I was disappointed.

February Reading

Kill the Father by Sandrone Dazieri
A huge bestseller in Italy, it has finally been translated for the American market.  Think Girl With the Dragon Tattoo meets Law and Order.  The two main characters are highly appealing:  Dante Torre, a middle-aged man who was kidnapped and psychologically tortured throughout his childhood, living now in an open-air apartment to deal with his claustrophobia, addicted to chemical relief and high-end coffee, highly sensitive reader of body language, provides help with kidnapping cases; his sidekick, Columba Caselli, deputy captain of the Italian police on medical leave, suffering from PTSD, tenacious, intelligent, and courageous, pulled back into police work when a child is taken and his mother viciously murdered.  This is not a mystery for the faint-hearted or impatient (it is loooong), but it is well worth it.  The story line, while extremely complex, is creative and compelling, filling in the pieces right when needed and pushing one to turn pages faster and faster.  As a connoisseur of mysteries and thrillers, I often know 'who dunnit' before the end, but not in this case.  This is an extremely well written and well developed novel that should find it a loyal audience here in America.

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
As a teacher of English literature, I would delve superficially into the story of Emmett Till when we read Toni Morrison novels; the emotional beginning of the civil rights movement still had interest to my students of the 21st century.  However, I 'did not know what I did not know.'  Having read Tyson's previous book, Blood Done Sign My Name (it is also excellent),  I knew this author was a perceptive researcher and a powerful, honest writer.  The first page of Emmett Till and I was hooked.  This is an in-depth look at the story of 14 year-old Chicago boy, visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955, whose body is found beaten, shot, and drowned in a river.  His mother's decision to hold an open casket, to show the world what was 'done to my boy,' mobilized the nascent movement for civil rights in the south.  WWII had opened up the power of resistance, but the laws of the South, as well as the purposeful blindness of the North, demanded a passionate call to action.  Emmett Till's murder was it.  Tyson does a masterful job of detailing the life of Mamie Till and Emmett's other relatives, the background on the many heroic NAACP workers at the time, the arrest and trial of the two perpetrators, and the life behind the woman who accused the young boy of verbally and physically assaulting her.  At times the long lists of organizations and occasional repetition, particularly in the epilogue, slowed the book down.  However, the historical significance of this event, the tie-in to today and the Black Lives Matter movement, and the powerful story-telling of Timothy Tyson makes this a book that I believe deserves, and needs, to be read.  It would be a powerful tool in a classroom, as well as a worthy book club choice to provoke conversation and connections.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
As a die-hard Jon Stewart fan, I was heartbroken when he left the Daily Show.  I was also 'underwhelmed' when South African comedian Trevor Noah took over for him.  While I do not watch Noah as religiously as I did Stewart, he is starting to grow on me. However, after listening to his autobiography (he reads it himself and is MONEY), I do believe I will be taping his show more.  Noah does a masterful job in this book, and that means a lot coming from me as I am not usually one to pick up memoirs.  Born to a Swiss white man and an African black woman, his birth was quite literally a crime under apartheid, and those laws and beliefs did not just merely vanish when Mandela took over.  Noah's childhood in Johannesburg was in turn scary, fascinating, heart-wrenching, poignant, and quite often, gut-busting hilarious.  As in, I would be walking the dog, listening to this book, and literally shrieking with laughter.  His extremely religious mother makes for some riotous moments, and his alcoholic stepfather creates some pretty scary tension.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough; it would be fantastic for a book club, providing humor as well as conversation.  In addition, for those of us who need some laughter right now with the dark cloud of tyranny seemingly paused over our country, this book will hit you right where you need.

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero by Timothy Egan
For those of you who have not yet read Seattle writer and New York Times editorialist Timothy Egan (Pulitzer prize winner The Worst Hard Time, The Big Burn, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, etc.), and you like narrative history, I would high recommend picking up any of his books.  Yet, admittedly, his newest book about famed Irish and American patriot Thomas Meagher is just truly fantastic, and struck me at a visceral level as I watch the plight of refugees and immigrants in America today.  Read in a delightful Irish lilt, I listened to this 14 hour book rather quickly.  The life of Meagher begins in the middle of the 19th century in Waterford, Ireland.  Egan does a masterful job of weaving in the previous Irish history to give the reader a sense of how Ireland operated when the great potato famine hit.  We see the beginnings of the Irish independence movement, the use of Australia as a penal colony, the treatment of Irish immigrants in 19th century America, and yes, even their participation in the Civil War and the movement West to conquer the great frontier, and all through the life and times of one extraordinary man. This is a sweeping novel that eloquently tells the story of an immigrant: the despair when leaving one's beloved homeland, the prejudice of an adopted homeland who creates laws and cultural barriers to full citizenship, the fight to be seen as loyal to one's new country.  These are all themes America continues to struggle with today, as we see orders being carried out to deny a religion access to a safe and free homeland.  Egan has written another historical masterpiece and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this 'immortal' Irishman's life.

Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach
I am rather torn in my review for this debut novelist (thank you Net Galley).  On the one hand, Dolan-Leach has created a creative and intriguing plot line.  Identical twin sisters, estranged for two years, are brought back 'together' through the seeming death of the eldest one, Zelda.  Ava, the younger twin, is led on an alphabetical chase through her past, attempting to uncover what happened to Zelda, while at the same time trying to draw some conclusions about her own life and past decisions.  Dolan-Leach segues through time, jumping around a bit much, as she tries to draw the strings together.  The characters are not wholly sympathetic, which is not a prerequisite for me, yet I would have liked to see more depth with not only the two girls, but also some of the peripheral characters.  Although the voice of the girls was sassy and appealing, I felt no connection to either, thus prohibiting me from cheering on either one of them. The ultra-long paragraphs hurt my high-school teacher's heart; it was at times like reading a student's essay and wanting to put the paragraph editing symbol in to remind her to create more of those little beauties.  I was ultimately disappointed in what I saw as a rather cliche ending, but I do have hope for the second of this author's book as I see great potential in her creative plot development.