NOVEMBER BOOKS

1) The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe / JF / **** / Hardback
I read this one over Thanksgiving because Emily was reading it, too.  I should have been cleaning or decorating but I was WORN OUT.  So while Darren and the kids were out chasing Pokemon, I sat in the midst of boxes and ribbons and torn up packing paper and re-read my childhood favorite by the light of my library tree.  Those few of you that actually read this blog may know that "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"  was one of my favorite books as a child. I have read and re-read the entire series. I actually remember reading this book for the first time. It was my first "fantasy" type book, and I still remember that feeling of being totally enraptured and swept away. Before that I'd read practical (wonderful) books like "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Bobbsey Twins".  Now all of a sudden there was a secret country in a wardrobe.... with a magic faun that wore a scarf and served tea.... and a beautiful castle on the sea.  I loved Lucy who was just my age and was just like me but was brave.  She is still one of my favorite characters.  I think also this is one of my first books that introduced the struggle of good versus evil in the world - and it is interesting that many of my favorite books since then have this same underlying theme (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Mortal Instruments, etc).  Anyway, it was a delightful hour or so spent re-visiting the big old house in the English countryside and the wilds of Narnia.

2) Blood Red Road (Dust Lands Book 1) by Moira Young / YA / **1/2 / Kindle
I love me some post-apocalyptic dystopian stories.
In this book you don't really know what happened to make the world the way it is (the author briefly references plague, famine, war) or who made it that way (the previous civilization are called "The Wreckers" which I LOVED as ain't THAT the truth).
The story starts when four riders appear out of nowhere at the small homestead inhabited by our main character, Saba (18), her twin brother Lugh, her father, and her 9 year old sister. The riders kill the father and take Lugh.  The rest of the story focuses on Saba's journey to get her brother back.
This book certainly had  tons of adventure - and it had a lot of delightfully flawed characters.  But despite this, I just didn't love it.   I was waiting to be caught up and tumbled and gloriously spit out on the other side.  But it just didn't happen.  The scenes felt rushed and flat, the sentences terse and factual.  And too much improbability combined with stuff that just didn't make sense. Despite this, I will read the second one. Why? I don't know.

3) Breathe by Sarah Crossan / YA / ***1/2 / Kindle
This book has your typical dystopian elements - an oppressive government, duped citizens that have given up their freedom, and rebels on the outside trying to make things change.
In this one, the world's forests were cut down to create the farmland necessary to feed the worlds burgeoning population.  The result of this is that the oxygen levels drop so low that people start to die.  A corporation called "Breathe" builds large bio-sphere domes for the rich, with some poor people allowed in by lottery to do the menial work.  Now, several decades later, things are not well in the dome.  The lower class is charged for any extra oxygen they consume beyond what is needed to live and work. They can't walk far, exercise, or engage in normal human behavior without literally paying the consequences.  The book tells the story of how a few teen friends discover that maybe the world outside is not as bad as it seems and that they are being lied to in the interest of corporate greed.  They discover the rebels and decide to join up.
This one felt like it had too many recycled plot elements that I've read before... and that would be okay if it was done BETTER. But it just wasn't. It was choppy and full of inconsistencies which ultimately left me disappointed. I MAY read the sequel, but not sure.

4) A Night to Remember by Walter Lord / ***1/2 / Kindle
This book was our book group selection for the month. It tells the story of the Titanic. It is not a historical fiction selection, but a re-telling of the night based on in-person interviews and formal reports. I have always been FASCINATED by the Titanic, so I of course enjoyed this book.

5) Fractured: A Slated Novel, Book 2 by Teri Terry / YA / ** / Kindle
Kyla is starting to remember more and more about her past life. She remembers she was part of an anti-government terrorist group and is highly trained in weapons, surveillance, and espionage (like WHATEVER -  I have done a lot of mental eye-rolling with this book). As many people as are randomly killed and "disappear" in this book, it doesn't make sense that Kyla who was supposedly public enemy number one would be "slated" rather than killed by the government.   My other problem is that the author is constantly revealing new information through fractured dreams that Kyla experiences as she starts to remember what was erased.  This makes sense I guess, but the formula is just so overused as a means of revealing new information that I could barely slog through it.

6) Between the World and Me / Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book evoked so many strong emotions in me that I had to talk over a lot of it with Darren (my poor husband... one day I'm talking about the dumb things people do when trying to survive an apocalyptic event and then the next day I'm ranting about racial inequality in America.  He gamely follows along and gives me insightful things to ponder. I love this man and his brain).  The author wrote the book in the form of a letter to his son about what is means to grow up black in America.  He relates a lot of his own deeply-felt experiences from his lifetime.  

What I learned from this book:
I have the luxury of thinking about race when it suits me. African Americans do not have that same luxury.

The American dream is not the dream of everyone, not just in the realization but in the actual desire ( I don't know why this was shocking to me but it was).

I have been acting racist by trying not to act racist (I'll explain this later).

African Americans experience American society differently than I do.

African Americans didn't create this reality but are expected to repair it.

One of the most helpful things to me from this book was reading Coate's explanation that some of the reasons inner city black youth do the things they do is because they ultimately feel unsafe and are just trying to exert some type of control in their life. This was eye opening to me and felt like it rang true. He had numerous examples.  I have to admit that as a white person (that I now realize does not and will never fully "get it"), I have watched the news on the Trayvon Martins and the Michael Browns and thought, "WELL WHAT DID THEY EXPECT THE POLICE TO DO????".  It is only over the past 10 months or so as more and more reports are coming out on the news regarding police violence, that I have come to think maybe something really is going on and there really are problems in some areas.   Do I think, like the author, that there is a systematically constructed and maintained assault on black people? No.  But he did make me aware that there have been proposed solutions to "black" problems that really benefited white people (such as housing projects).

Now to explain how this book made me realize I've been acting racist.  I see a black person in the store (this doesn't happen much in Richfield). I want to make sure this person knows I am not racist in any way shape or form. Racism is ugly and ignorant and I do not want to be any of those things. So I go out of my way to be friendly. To smile. To initiate conversation and show how cool and non-racist I am. This book made me realize that even though I'm being positive, I'm totally treating this person differently because of the color of their skin .... which is inherently racist. ARGHHH.  Talk about a light bulb moment. 

I didn't agree with everything Coates said - in fact there was a LOT I didn't agree with.  He felt the Civil Right Movement was a myth, and the idea that African Americans can someday live a life without fear is a fallacy.  I'm sorry, but you can't tell me that things are not better than they were 50 years ago, let alone 150 years ago.  That being said, there is still a lot to be done.

I loved this book as it made me think. I want to read it again. I also really didn't like this book -  because man, truth can be hard and dark, and sometimes it was too hard and dark.  I felt the author was candid and honest, but it felt like he believes there is no solution and that it is all just hopeless.   As one reviewer stated, "Coates' has no faith in America or its dream".  His words felt cold and bleak - and sometimes struck me as an angry rant. And maybe that is necessary in order to help us get our priorities straight ... because honestly, I feel sick for our country. The author does not want to give any comfort as it, in his eyes, would be a false comfort. But I have to much (maybe unjustified) faith in people and the ability to change. It is probably because I'm religious and our capacity to change and improve are ingrained on my soul. So even though things are an ugly mess,   I do feel there is hope.  I have to feel this way.  And this is why I was ultimately disappointed with this book... that while it helped me realize the problem is bigger than I realized, I am still left not knowing what to do to help.


7) Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
I needed this book. I loved this book. I devoured this book. I ordered this book for myself from Amazon for Christmas and put it under the tree with a tag that said, "TO SONJA FROM OZ" (Oz is my kitty).

First of all, the book has beautiful red edges. RED!  To whom did she sell her soul to get this and why has it not been done more often? It was stunning. Second of all, it was just as good as the first book (which like never happens).  I love this author.  Bardugo is compelling. She is clever.   She writes my kind of characters (as apparently I have a vulnerability for cunning, ruthless, and unapologetic bad boys).  She leaves you wanting more.   I want to be a modern day Rumpelstiltskin and lock her up and make her spin more literary gold. Except that would be creepy.

8) Salt to the Sea: a novel by Ruta Sepetys
After being disappointed with the last Sepetys novel, I was hesitant to pick this one up. 
Set in the last days of WWII it was a story told from four different points of view (which normally I don't like - but this time it was done really effectively).  The four different characters have vastly different back stories, but Sepetys combines them into a compelling tale of friendship, survival, and human decency. It ends with the sinking of the ship the Wilhelm Gustloff, which is the single greatest tragedy in maritime history and surprisingly one that I'd never even heard of.  Sepetys is a powerful storyteller that isn't afraid to pack a punch.