Review: Kozol’s Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol.
Perennial, HarperCollins, New York, first published 1995, my edition 2000.
Adult non-fiction, 286 pages.
Not leveled.
NOTE: There are many books with the title Amazing Grace. Also, the initial note explains that there are some differences between editions – I read the paperback version.

A sociological narrative of how drug use and AIDs, among other things, impacted one community.

Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol.

Kozol attempts to cover many topics within these few hundred pages, touching on racism, classism, AIDs, poverty cycles, medical inequalities, drugs, politics, systemic injustice, religion, childhood, environmental racism, the justice system, hunger, bureaucracy, homelessness, cancer, and other topics. Needless to say, he doesn’t cover all of them fully.

This book and the vast popularity of it on initial publication likely informed many of the more recent, better coverage of these topics, and for that I am grateful. But Kozol meanders through many things without ever making any points, or systematically documenting any particular issue. It’s neither commentary nor journalism, and surely not academia.

Review: Refuge in Hell

Refuge in Hell: Finding God in Sing Sing by Ronald D. Lemmert.
Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2018.
Nonfiction/memoir, 186 pages.
Not leveled.

The story of a chaplain at Sing Sing, New York’s infamous prison, over the 16 years he worked there.

I debated quite a bit over whether to review this one.  Our church library has been getting quite a few of these Orbis books with the little red dots.  They’re Christian, but cover a lot of social justice topics, which it’s nice to see people getting interested in locally.

Lemmert himself is not diverse within his own context.  But the people he works with definitely are, and can be counted among the most disenfranchised in America.  So in the end that tipped the scales in favor of reviewing this book, especially since I had several other books on imprisonment to read and review.

Review: The Girl From Everywhere

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig.
Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2016.
Speculative fiction, 454 pages.
Lexile:  750L  .
AR Level:  5.2 (worth 13.0 points)  .
NOTE: This book is not suggested for MG readers despite the reading level.

Nix’s father is a Navigator who can travel to any place, real or imagined as long as he has a map for it, but he’s only obsessed with getting back to the one place he cannot reach – 1868 Honolulu, where Nix’s mother died.

Now having read this book, I can finally fully appreciate why all of the reviews were so maddeningly vague.  This is, unfortunately, the type of book that you can’t discuss with any real depth unless you’ve read it, because to discuss anything interesting is to give away part of the action.

So I apologize in advance that you might find this review to also be maddeningly vague.  In a book where the majority of the setting and even the time frequently changes (and further changes amongst real and imagined places), the focus is rather on both the characterization and the action.  Both are fast-paced!

Review: A Child Called “It”

A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer.
Health Communications, Inc. Deerfield Beach, Florida, 1993.
Adult memoir, 184 pages.
Lexile:  850L  .
AR Level:  5.8 (worth 5.0 points)  .
NOTE: Despite the reading level, these are books written for adults, not MG readers.

The early childhood of a severely abused boy.

This is the first, and most well-known, book in an autobiographical trilogy.  Dave Pelzer was one of the most severely abused children in California.  His father kept his mother from murdering him, but otherwise he was routinely tortured, starved, beaten, and otherwise maltreated.

The entire book should probably not be read by anyone who might find these events triggering.  His parents also rely heavily on alcohol and his mother occasionally turns her rage from him to his father or others.  It’s interesting that few reviews remark on this being an example of domestic abuse from a woman to a man.  Male perpetrators are certainly more common, but it’s important to recognize that women can be abusers as well and to validate and hold a mirror up for male victims of abuse.

While the book is intense, it’s not overly emotional (although it can feel overwrought at times).  Pelzer narrates with a steady, precise flow, documenting what it felt like for him to be a child in the total control of a sociopathic parent.  I remember crying and crying on my first read through.  However, after hearing or reading the stories of other children, this book is not so affecting on the second readthrough.

Graphic Novel Review: Sunny Side Up

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm, coloring by Lark Pien.
Graphix, Scholastic, New York, 2015.
MG historical fiction, 220 pages.
Lexile:  GN490L  .
AR Level:  2.4 (worth 0.5 points)  .

Sunshine Lewin is spending the summer in Florida visiting her grandfather, who lives in a retirement community there.  But that wasn’t the plan for this summer, and there’s something going on that she isn’t talking about.

This series gotten a lot of buzz, both positive and negative.  The Holm duo are already well-known for their Babymouse series, but this is aimed at a slightly older crowd.  There will be some spoilers for this book discussed in my review, if you want to avoid them please scroll down to the final paragraph for my general opinion.

It’s historical fiction set in 1976, but some parents take issue with the fact that drug addiction and smoking are portrayed.  It’s difficult to tell from online hysteria whether or not a book is actually suitable for a certain age range or group of students, so I decided to see for myself.

Review: Everything She Lost

Everything She Lost by Alessandra Harris.
Red Adept Publishing, Garner, North Carolina, 2017.
Adult thriller, 309 pages.
NOTE: I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Nina Taylor is in recovery from a mental breakdown, and honestly, still suffering from an unexpected loss almost a decade ago.  Her best friend is single mom Deja Johnson, a woman with a tragic past of her own.  While Nina is wondering if a full recovery is even possible, Deja is wondering where her own life will go next.

I don’t review many thrillers, mainly because I haven’t found many good diverse ones yet.  The description of this one immediately sucked me in, especially since I’m always looking for new books about people of color with disabilities.

This book has alternating viewpoints, with one chapter from Nina’s point of view, and the next telling Deja’s part of the story.  Normally I’m not a fan of alternating viewpoints, but it worked well here.  The narration is from a third person limited point of view rather than first person, and the action moves so quickly that the back-and-forth worked.  This book takes place over only a few weeks.

Review: Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.
Random House, 1987.  My edition McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988.
Adult fiction, 403 pages including recipes.
Lexile:  940L  .
AR Level: 5.6 (worth 15.0 points)  .
NOTE: Although the reading level is low, this is an adult novel.

This is going to be a complicated review.  There are two main threads to the storyline, which covers events in the fictional town of Whistle Stop, Alabama (just outside of Birmingham) between the early 1920s and the late 1980s.

The story is told through four different elements.  Evelyn Couch is struggling with her weight, her marriage, menopause, and an inevitable feeling of doom.  She accompanies her husband on visits to his mother’s nursing home every Sunday, but can’t stand to sit and watch TV, so she finds herself in the visitor’s room with Ninny Threadgoode.  At first she just wishes the old lady would shut up so she can eat her candy bars in peace, but then she gets interested in the stories and they forge an unlikely friendship.  When the novel was first published, these scenes would have been roughly contemporary – it’s now historical fiction.

Review: Dreamland

Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones.
Bloomsbury Press, New York, my edition 2016, first published 2015.
Adult nonfiction, 374 pages including index and notes.
Not leveled.

Dreamland is the far-reaching narrative of America’s unprecedented struggle with opiate addition.  It looks inside doctor’s offices and pharmacutical marketing, studies villagers from Xalisco, Nayarit in Mexico, and interviews street addicts, rehabilitation workers, and more to form a comprehensive picture of how this situation developed.

Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones.

This book doesn’t entirely fit my usual review criteria.  After all, the author and the majority of people in it are white, although there is a substantial Mexican and Mexican-American element present.  However, I decided it was close enough to my usual topics (since addicts are generally not a privileged group, even if they are white or privileged in other areas) to discuss here.

America’s opiate epidemic has been getting a lot of attention because it’s affected a lot of people that those in power don’t usually think of as potential addicts – middle class Midwestern white suburbians.  Another, lesser known, oddity of the problem is that nearly all of the black tar heroin dealers in American’s smaller cities are from small towns in the tiny Mexican state of Nayarit.

Quinones interviews addicts, dealers, medical professionals, reformers, and law enforcement to provide as accurate a picture as possible of how this came to be.  Most of the people he talks to are white, Mexican, or Mexican-American, although he does talk to some people of color, and he brings up the disparity between political response to this ‘epidemic’ and previous reactions such as the ‘war on drugs’.

Review: Un-Ashamed

Un-Ashamed by Lecrae Moore, with Jonathan Merritt.
B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2016.
Autobiography, 204 pages including notes (211 pages including blank note space).

The autobiography of a “Christian rapper” who successfully transitioned to general rap spaces and overcame many personal challenges.

Un-Ashamed by Lecrae.

This one is from the library.  I knew it was somewhat religious, but didn’t realize just how Christian it was.  There definitely were points that could apply to everyone, but it also was very heavy on religion.  For example, his conversion experience takes up most of a chapter, while other aspects of his life are given much less detail.  Lecrae sees his life through the filter of Christianity and views everything with God’s purpose in mind.

I’ve reviewed other books that deal with religion: with a religious main character, attempting to educate others about a misunderstood religion, a character discovering their religious identity, and even tackling a non-fiction topic from a religious perspective.  After some debate, I elected to review this book, since I did finish it, and it fits the main objective of my blog (to review books by/about marginalized groups).

Review: The Kids Got It Right

The Kids Got It Right: How the Texas All-Stars Kicked Down Racial Walls by Jim Dent.
Thomas Dunne Books, Saint Martin’s Press, New York, 2013.
Sports nonfiction, 288 pages including index.
Not leveled.
NOTE: For international readers.  As an American, I use the word football for American football, the team sport with helmets and tackling.  For books involving the team sport with cleats and goals with nets, see the tag soccer.

This is a story of small-town Texas football, particularly those involved in the 1965 Big 33 game.  It’s the story of high school stars Jerry LeVias and Bill Bradley, an unstoppable duo who changed football at that game in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

It’s pretty clear within the first ten pages that this was written by a white man.  The subtitle notwithstanding, this book is not about race.  This book is about football, and specifically one football game in which an All-Star team began to be slightly integrated.

I picked up this book at the dollar store and after reading and reviewing, will be passing it along.  Elsewhere I’ve seen this recommended to fans of the TV show Friday Night Lights and high school football fans.  I am neither.  Sports in general are not my thing, but in particular high school football holds little interest to me unless I personally know the participants.