All There Is

All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps edited by Dave Isay, 157 pages

This is my second dive into a StoryCorps transcript collection (read about the first one here), and it was again an excellent experience. This volume focuses on stories of romantic love, split into three sections themed on falling in love, losing love, and finding love after giving up on it. They're wonderful stories, told from the heart.

A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman  337 pp.

I liked this book so much. It has a little bit of everything, humor, romance, conflict, drama, tragedy all packed in a very readable package. Ove is a very grumpy man, set in his ways, and dedicated to his principles which put him in conflict with just about everyone. He is determined to kill himself because he's had enough of life and wants to join his beloved late wife Sonja. But every suicide attempt is interrupted, by the hook falling out of the ceiling, a nearly frozen cat, a neighbor falling off a ladder, another neighbor needing radiators bled, and so on. In between these episodes the story of Ove's life is told. Eventually a crisis brings together Ove and his neighbors to right a wrong against the man who was once Ove's friend. The result changes Ove in ways he never imagined. 

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains: A Tale of Travel and Darkness with Pictures of All Kinds by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Eddie Campbell, 73 pages

With this illustrated novella (can't really call it a graphic novel, I suppose), Gaiman has once again created a beautiful simple tale, this time of two strangers, a man and his guide, traveling to a mystic cave full of cursed gold. As the haunting story unfolds, Gaiman reveals more and more about these mysterious traveling companions. Campbell's paintings offer an excellent companion to the prose. An awesome book.

Dear Committee Members

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher, 180 pages

Jay Fitger is a beleaguered English professor, trapped in a land of constant funding cuts, construction debris (for the nearby economics department, of course, not the poor English department), and letters of recommendation. It's this final constant in Professor Fitger's life that comprises this book: recommendations for committee appointments, writers' retreats, graduate schools, and of course TONS of job applications, none of which seem to be related to a degree in English.

This was an enjoyable book, though Fitger is probably the last person you should ask to write you a letter of recommendation. The salacious elements of his past romances, the bald-faced and snarky way he dismisses those last-minute requests from students, the way he cannot stay on topic for more than a sentence or two... these letters were certainly fun to read, but only because they're not about us.

The Scar Boys

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos, 256 pages
A 2015 Morris Award nominee

Harbinger Robert Francis Jones (Harry for short) hasn't had the best start in life. Recounting his life in an admission essay to get into college, Harry starts at age eight, when a group of neighborhood boys tied him to a tree as part of a game and then left him when a summer thunderstorm rolled in. While bullying is never good, Harry's situation is made worse when lightning strikes the tree he is tied to, causing a chunk of it to hit him on the head and then setting the tree (and him) on fire. Naturally, he comes out of this with an incredible fear of thunderstorms, anxiety around other kids, and a methadone addiction that he has to be weaned off from at the tender age of nine. You might think he would spend the rest of his childhood alone, as his facial scarring keeps a lot of kids away, but that changes when Johnny McKenna decides to be his friend. And things change even more when Johnny decides they should start a punk rock band. Calling themselves the Scar Boys, Harry focuses on the summer they get really good and decide to go on tour. Drawing from his own experience of being in a band, Len Vlahos spins an engaging tale about a boy finding his way through life, despite the cruddy start. Harry is relatable, and just self-deprecating enough to inspire sympathy and not annoyance. It's a great slice-of-life story, one that focuses on one moment in time than it does about a specific conflict (and the song title chapter names are a great touch). Great for fans of underdogs, punk rock, or anyone into an easy story about figuring out who you are and the road to getting there.

(Read as part of YALSA's Morris/Nonfiction Challenge.)

The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards: Poems / Rachel Mennies, 79 p.

Mennies' poems treat her grandparents' Holocaust experiences as well as her own contemporary life in Philadelphia. Fluid and technically pleasing, they are for my taste too emotionally overwrought. I suspect in isolation any single poem might have seemed interesting, but as a collection she is too insistent on the dramatic kick in the teeth effect. My favorite was "Schonewetter & Grunewald, Coatmakers," a fine picture of her grandfather hemming coats for Gentile women. It's highly visual and suggestive without trying to make the lines bear too much weight.

December totals!

Amy 5/1367
Christa 14/4054
Kara 4/934
Karen 8/2430
Kathleen 6/1653
Linda 5/1458
Marilyn 6/1778
Patrick 20/8751

Total:
68 books
22,375 pages
8 bloggers

Flight: Volumes 1, 2, 3

Flight: Volumes 1, 2, 3 by Kazu Kibushi and many others.
volume 1-208 pages, volume 2-351 pages, volume 3-431 pages.
A series of excellent collections of short graphic stories by a wide variety of artists and writers. Many of the artists appear in more than one volume and some of the stories continue from volume to volume, but more often the artist begins a new tale. Well worth the read.

Check our catalog.

Stranger in My Own Country: a Jewish Family in Modern Germany / Yascha Mounk 261 p.

Extremely interesting and readable, but a little hard for me to review.  Mounk is now a graduate student in the United States, but was born and raised in various parts of Germany, after his mother's family migrated there from Poland after the war.  Mounk narrates his increasing sense as he matured that as a Jew, he would never truly be German as well.  Partly a recounting of personal anecdotes in which he experiences philo-Semitism (as opposed to the anti-Semitism of earlier generations), and partly a sketch of Germany's postwar history and relationship to its past, Mounk is convincing and graceful in his presentation.  It's difficult to evaluate how important some of the trends he describes truly are, in particular what he describes as Germany's recent insistence on reaching the 'finish line' of apologizing for their past.

For me, the most powerful part of Mounk's writing is his comparison between German/Jewish relations and Black/White tensions in the United States.  He is thoughtful enough not to overstate his case here, but there is a lot of food for thought.

Nocturne

Nocturne: Creatures of the night / Traer Scott 128 pgs.

OMG, the photos in this book are SO CUTE.  You really need to see them yourself.  Traer Scott makes her way into taking photographs by hanging out at rescue places and zoos.  Some of her stories are amazing because these are all wild animals and the utmost care is taken to protect them and keep them safe so when a porcupine climbs into her lap, it is pretty amazing for all.

Great photos, great narrative, this is book is a treasure.

check our catalog