Paint the Wind

Paint the Wind by Pam Muñoz Ryan  325 pp.

This was another book for my 4th-6th grade book club. Orphaned Maya has been living with her extremely controlling grandmother since the death of her parents. She is only allowed to attend school and the only "entertainment" her grandmother permits is looking at old photo albums where her mother has been cut from all the photos. On the sudden death of her grandmother Maya learns that she will now live with her mother's family on a ranch in Wyoming, a family she does not know. There she is allowed the freedom to grow, learn, and given love and support. Maya's story alternates with that of Artemesia, a wild horse that once belonged to Maya's mother. When Maya and Artemesia finally meet it is life changing for both. This is a wonderful story by one of my favorite children's authors.

Another Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, 175 pages.

I read this last year after hearing a lot about it and the seeing the author at Lit in the Lou in October. I just read it again for our February book discussion.  The discussion was interesting and enjoyable.
Here is what I wrote last year:
Woodson's Another Brooklyn is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about growing up someplace else with someone else, leaving behind people and places that were the most important to you. It is August's story, when it is just her and her brother, and her father. Each night she tells her brother that their mother will join them in Brooklyn tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It becomes a story August shares with Sylvia, Gigi, and Angela as they grow up together, inseparable, and then apart. Woodson limns life's loss, loneliness, and betrayal in this spare, beautiful book.
If you were lucky enough to see the author at Lit in the Lou on Saturday, she even told you how to read this book, "the white spaces mean your supposed to stop, take a breath, think about what you read. The italics mean pay attention.' This turns out to be very good advice for reading this book.

Gone 'til November

Gone 'til November by Lil Wayne, 159 pages.

There's not a lot to see here. The multi-platinum rapper tells of his eight-month stay in Rikers Island prison on a firearm conviction back in 2010 (is having a gun anywhere even a crime anymore?) It's an interesting look more at what it's like to be a celebrity in prison than what it's like to be in prison. Not that it was pleasant for Lil Wayne, he didn't enjoy it, but he can see how much less pleasant the experience is for other non-Wayne prisoners, though he doesn't dwell on that a lot. Snippets of his outside life and lots of litte details about prison, the food and the boredom.
Readable and relatively quick. Fans of the rapper will enjoy

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard, 381 pages.

There are, of course, plenty of books about Churchill out there, and this includes several very well-written accounts of this earlier part of Churchill's life. Manchester's first volume, The Last Lion: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932, is the first to spring to mind. But Millard, who is an excellent, enjoyable, and informative author, makes it all seem fresh. She does a wonderful job of conveying Churchill's almost irrational belief in his invulnerability and his sense of destiny. The fact that he turned out to be right, not just about his destiny, but also about this particular time, the end of the nineteenth century, as the vaunted British army was getting slapped around by the Boers. Churchill's story, his vanity, his blind courage (sometimes selfless, sometimes selfishly putting others at risk), and his perseverance, is well-told here. Fans of history, Churchill, escape tales, and interesting, fast-moving nonfiction will enjoy.

A Torch against the Night

A Torch against the Night by Sabaa Tahir,  452 pages.

An Ember in the Ashes, the first book set in Tahir's Martial Empire came out in 2015.One of the problems with reading a series of books as they come our, especially if you are an aged person, is forgetting the plot, characters, setting, etc., by the time the next book comes out. When I had first checked out this sequel back in August, I felt that I did not remember enough of Tahir's world to make reading this worthwhile. Luckily for me I found Torch in our Overdrive collection and listened to it. In the second volume, Laia, with help from Marcus, must try and rescue her brother from a more-or-less impregnable prison while being hunted by the newly installed emperor, Marcus. The story always seems to be taking a predictable path, albeit in an interestingly constructed world, when things go off the rails in clever and engaging ways. Characters die. Strange forces are seen to have been working behind the scenes. It's all very well put together and makes for a satisfying read. Fans of YA fantasy with solid characters will enjoy this series, though as I said, characters meet some violent deaths, and it's not always the characters the reader would prefer. Plus it's written by a non-white, young female author and has strong female characters (not just Laia, but the evil commandant, and the newly appointed "Blood Shrike," Helene. Who wouldn't want to be Blood Shrike?).

Moonglow

Moonglow by Michael Chabon 430 pages.
This is the a fictionalized account of the life and wartime experiences of Chabon's grandparents, mostly his grandfather. Or, perhaps it's a novel with a narrator named Mike Chabon telling the story of his grandfather's life. I think, after poking around reviews that it's definitely the latter. Probably. Anyway, it is an interesting tale. There's lots of adventure as a man, born poor and Jewish in Philadelphia, uses the fact that he is smart, creative, gifted even, as he grows up and tries to make his way in the world despite a world war, the love he feels for his with anger issues. The anger serves the unnamed grandfather well during the war, less well when he's fired at one point, post-war. In that scene, grandfather uses his OSS training, and a Bakelite telephone to try and kill his boss.
The shifting chronology and the narrator's discovery of the lives of his grandfather, his grandmother (a holocaust survivor), and his mother make for a great book.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, 288 pages.

Trevor Noah tells a very interesting story of growing up with a black mother and white father in South Africa during the time Apartheid was in its last stages. While a lot of his early life was shaped by the big policies of his country and the enormous changes to those policies, and to the country, his life was also shaped by his incredible mother and brothers, as well as the absence of his father and the presence of his increasingly abusive step-father. Anyone who enjoys The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will enjoy this book, as will fans of celebrity memoir (though this is better written and spends less time looking at celebrity and the famous life than almost any other book by a celebrity). This book also provides a unique (though sidelong) view of South Africa at a time when Apartheid was unraveling. Cool and captivating.

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White, 826 pages.
White makes an eloquent and well-researched argument that much of Grant's reputation as a butcher of a general, and as a corrupt, incompetent president lingers as a result of the lingering narrative presented by his enemies, particularly the politicians and press of the southern states. While he was a president whose cabinet was embroiled in scandals, Grant was particularly honest. And while he lost many men during the war, Grant always felt that it was better to attack and then attack again, that fewer men would be lost by ending the war as soon as possible. Lincoln, who watched many generals hesitate and let chances and enemy armies escape, valued Grant's willingness to fight and to keep on fighting.
White also makes a fair account of the evolution of Grant's attitudes towards slavery, from a man who was willing to abide the institution, and make no fuss concerning the slaves in his wife's family, to a man willing to fight not just to preserve the Union, but also to end slavery in America.
A very readable, cogent account of a man who accomplished much but was left with a tattered reputation.

Demon: Volume 2

Demon: Volume 2 / Jason Shiga, 214 pgs.

A continuation in the Demon series, Jason Yee still does not die.  If killed, he takes over the body of the person closest in proximity to him.  The government wants him for a job...and as encouragement, has kidnapped his daughter who is also a demon.  Jason plays along for awhile but ends up outsmarting the intelligence agents.  He isn't really that interested in being forced into ANY situation.

Bloody as hell, this is still a very interesting series and it is fun to try to follow along as Jason and the agents plot against each other.

Commonwealth: a Novel / Ann Patchett, 322 pp.

I always love Patchett's smooth, flowing writing style and the truth of her stories.  This one tells of the lives of the Keatings and the Cousins, 2 families blended by divorce and remarriage.  Spanning about 40 years and set in southern California, Virginia, and Chicago, among other places, it's about ordinary people in love and in conflict, and how those people define family.  I enjoyed reading Commonwealth and was sorry to finish; it felt like the skeleton of a big American epic novel that was never quite fleshed out.