APRIL AND MAY 2016 BOOK LIST

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool  / *** / YA / Kindle

Favorite quote: "Finding your way doesn't mean you always know where you're going. It's knowing how to find your way back home that's important".

I always love boarding school stories. I think because in my past life I was British.  Or maybe because so many of my favorite books involved boarding schools (Harry Potter / Narnia /  Catcher in the Rye).  Probably the real reason is because boarding schools somehow represent who I am as a person (on the surface structured, decorous and controlled but on the inside wild and savage and subversive).

Set in WWII times, Jack is sent to boarding school by his Navy father after the death of his mother.  He is drawn to an unusual boy named Early, who has suffered the loss of his own family. The boys end up on a quest together to find a mythical great black bear - each needing to find it for reasons of their own.
The story is a great coming of age story about the magic of friendship and never giving up on family. It is written for juveniles but is one of those books that is great for adults, too.  It has several stories within stories that provide a many-layered narrative. The story really has a lot of emotional depth and a tender sweet nostalgia to it. And I loved the hopeful ending.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley / **** / YA / Kindle

This was a Newbery Honor book from 2016, and is destined to be on my list of favorites of the year. Young Ada has a club foot and is never allowed to leave the vermin infested apartment shared with her abusive mother.  Her only link to the outside world is her younger brother, Jamie.  When Jamie is required to evacuate to the countryside to escape the bombing of London in WWII, Ada drags herself to the train station and goes with him. When they arrive in the countryside, no one wants the dirty boy let alone his disabled sister.  What follows is a beautiful story of growth, belonging, love, and family.  Even though this is a juvenile fiction book I think I may choose it for book group next year.

Interpreter of Maladies  by Jhumpa Lahiri / ***** / A / Kindle

Favorite quote: "I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination".
This series of short stories won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. There are not enough superlatives to describe the writing for these stories.  They are beautiful. Rich. Contemplative. Nostalgic. Moving.  I have a distinct admiration for anyone that can write a good short story.  How do you develop characters and make a strong impression in such a short amount of time?  As I read each story, I literally felt like I was picking up a shoe-box diorama and peering into the hole as the writer created these complete, rich worlds,... while also feeling the story grow outside myself as each touched on the common human experience.  So well done. Read it.

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus / ** / Kindle
A 2011 Newbery Honor book. It tells the story of a poor uneducated Japanese boy, Manjiro, who is picked up by a passing American ship after being marooned after his fishing boat sinks.  At the time of the story (1840's), Japan's borders are closed to all Western nations. Through a series of adventures and mishaps, the always curious Manjiro learns about the whaling trade and the barbarous "white people". He lives for a time in America, but then returns to his homeland years later.  His experiences are life changing but do not help him truly fit in either culture. I believe it is based on a real character.

Here We All Are by Tomie dePaola / *** / JF / Kindle
I read this one as it was listed on Overdrive as a Newbery Honor book (which I just discovered is not true... it is the sequel to one).  It is the second book in an autobiographical series about Tomie dePaola's childhood.  It is a fun and sweet look into the life of a gregarious boy growing up in a loving Italian-American family.

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez / *  / YA / Kindle
This book was an award winner (Printz Honor book 2016) so I feel like I should have loved it . But I just didn't. It is considered a young adult book but addresses child sexual molestation, rape, racial prejudices, pedophilia, domestic abuse, lynchings, masturbation, and violence.  It was like an Oprah book club selection but for young people.  And in the end everyone gets blown up due to a gas leak at the school.  I'm not kidding.  I can handle "dark" subject matter but this one just was too much.  I didn't enjoy it at all.

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow / **** / A / Kindle
I read this 900 page biography in preparation for our trip to Washington DC. I annoyed everyone in my home as I shared interesting tidbits about Washington's life.   The author gave a fair picture of a man that was oftentimes viewed as a saint but was just as flawed as the rest of us.  He was proud. He couldn't live within his means. He was controlling. But he was also courageous, conscientious, honest, and hard working. Basically, he was the exact man that our country needed at that exact time in history.  The author seemed to share my view, that it was divine providence that Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin (among others) were born around the same time and were brought together to forge a new nation.  Despite his personal shortcomings, Washington did what needed to be done for our country.  Weirdly, it made me think about LDS prophets, especially Joseph Smith, and even myself in my work in the church.  Prophets are real men. They are not perfect in anyway. It is their efforts toward the over-arching work they are called to do which is ultimately important.
But anyway, it was such an amazing experience to be in DC and be viewing the actual portraits and sculptures that Chernow had described Washington sitting for. And to see his actual uniform and other personal belongings like his writing desk and etc.  It was seriously just so cool and made my trip so fulfilling.

Fates and Furies: A Novel by Lauren Groff / *** / A / Kindle
This book was beautifully written, which enables me to give it somewhat of a rating. It just wasn't for me. It is my guess that the author wrote the book to point out we never truly know someone. This was the story told from the point of view of first the husband and then the wife over the course of their 20+ year marriage. I think I would have liked it more if I had liked either of the main characters.  The funny thing is I keep thinking about this book weeks after I finished it, so it must have had more of an impact than I want to admit.

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park / * / YA / Kindle
I hate books that make me feel obligated to like them.  And then I don't and then I feel angry about it as I'm not meeting some unwritten expectation.  I mean what normal human being wouldn't love a book written to highlight the refugee situation of children in Sudan?  

Me.  I am that person.

I am reading about these poor refugee children wandering through camps for YEARS and living in deplorable situations. And I'm reading about this poor child who walks hours EVERY SINGLE DAY to fetch water. And I know these situations are so real and so true.  And I felt absolutely NOTHING. It just wasn't good literature.

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes / ** 1/2 / YA / Kindle
Another quick juvenile fiction find that was a Newbery Honor book. It tells of a young girl's summer after the death of  classmate. In a non-sappy way it shares how she sees her own life in a different way through the lens of loss and how we really need to try and live life with no regrets.  Quick read, the highlight being the relationship between Martha and her grandmother.

City on Fire: A novel by Garth Risk Hallberg / *** / A / Kindle
I can't review this book. It is too hard. At the center of the novel is the shooting of a teenage girl in Central Park on New Years Eve, although that is not even close to being what the book is about.  It is a novel told from about six different people who jump forward and backward in time as they relate their portion of the story.  All the narrators eventually link together in crazy ways which miraculously never felt implausible.  It is a huge puzzle with each chapter being a piece of the larger picture.  It took me FOREVER to read this book as I would have huge periods where I was just slogging through and then would read other things for a while and then get back to it.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yeng / *** /  YA / Hard Copy
Favorite quote: "I do not make mistakes, little monkey. A monkey I intended you to be. A monkey you are."
This was Tami Smith's book group selection for April. This was my first graphic novel. It is about a teenage boy trying to fit into high school as the only Chinese-American student twinned with the fable of the all powerful Monkey King who doesn't want to be a monkey but wants to be a God.  It was funny, thought provoking, and real. I loved the surprise Christian bent to the whole thing.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving / *** / A / Hard Copy
I got a double bonus by reading this book as it was our May book group selection and is also on the Goodreads list I am working my way through.  
I can totally see why people love this book. The characters were so well written that they feel like real people. The story is engaging and thought-provoking. There was the right amount of love, drama, sorrow, joy.  I laughed out loud in parts of it. The beginning part of the book was brilliant, as were the last few chapters. Some of the stuff in the middle was yawn-inducing.  Based on this, I will give it an average rating of three.

Flamecaster (Shattered Realms #1) by Cinda Williams Chima / **** / YA / Hard Copy
What a lovely surprise to be wandering through WalMart and find a new novel by one of my favorite authors!  Of course I snatched it up and read it instead of "Dodger" (see below).   Even more delightful was that the story was set in the same realm as the "Demon King" stories!   I loved the "Demon King" series, and recently re-read them with Elissa.  I was totally satisfied with the ending of the series, especially as my beloved characters were loved and happy and safe and thriving.  As I am inherently greedy I so was happy to have MORE stories.  Well all I can say is be careful what you wish for as within three chapters the feeling I had at the end of the original books was crushed beyond oblivion.  My heart is broken. My happy ending was DESTROYED.  Maybe that is why it took me a while to get into the story, but really I think it is because it didn't have the same delightful flow as the others.  That being said, I will buy the next and the next and hopefully the next.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare / **** / YA / Hard Copy
So excited for the start of a new series by Cassandra Clare.  I loved the first three of her "The Mortal Instruments" books, I ADORED her prequel series "The Infernal Devices". This amount of rapture is sure to lead to disappointment in the next series, "The Dark Artifices", but so far so good. It is a pleasing mix of familiar and new. Clare has the most amazing gift of writing dialogue and writing characters you totally fall in love with.  This series is set in the West Coast and captures the cool California vibe. 

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson / **** / YA / Kindle
This story is about twins and is told from their points of view over several years. It is a coming of age story as they are trying to figure out who they are apart and who they are together. It kinds of reminds me of a Rainbow Rowell story as it was beautiful and heart wrenching and engaging and character driven and complex and very real. I really enjoyed it.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett / * / YA / Kindle
I don't know why this book took me so long to read. I don't know why I fell asleep every time I read it. I don't know why it won the honor category for the Printz award in 2013. The plot was fine, it was the constant monologues by the characters... all of which were uninteresting.