The Prodigal

by Brennan Manning and Greg Garrett
Hennepin County Library paperback 282 pages
genre: Christian fiction, relationships

When I first saw "A Ragamuffin Story" below the title, I thought, "I've heard of that but never read it." Not to worry - this works as a standalone title.

Jack Chisholm has built a mega-church on the credo "we have got to do better." When he has a fall from grace, he loses his job, his family, and his status overnight. Estranged from his father for the past decade, Jack finds himself back at his dad's house to pick up the pieces of his life.

Page 127 - "Funny, he and Grace Cathedral had done good things for people on the other side of the world. A lot of good things. For a lot of needy people. But he couldn't remember the last time he'd done a good thing for someone standing right in front of him." This made me think of my mom and how she disliked Mother Teresa - because people would send money and "take care" of their obligations to do good without actually changing anything in their own comfortable lives.

Page 149 - "Jack had always been a nervous flyer, couldn't talk until after they'd taken off and clearly weren't going to crash back to earth. A part of him could never quite believe that something so big could take to the air." This made me think of Jamie (and myself a little!) and the fear of flying.

Page 203 - This was the best scene in the book! When Bill, his former friend who was furious with him and his selfishness, offered him communion with tears in his eyes. Yes!

Page 281 - Wait! What? The conclusion to the story came so quickly that I thought I'd missed a few pages . . . .  the author apparently doesn't believe in denouement.

Overall, I liked it but didn't love it to the moon and back. It'll be fun to discuss it with my book club tonight! I love those women and am always interested in their perspectives and opinions.

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

by Steve Sheinkin
Hennepin County Library hardcover 324 pages + notes, biblio, etc.
genre: non-fiction history

This was interesting in that it pulled together bits and pieces of what I knew about the Vietnam War, Watergate, etc. and made it much more clear in my mind. I wish I'd paid attention in history classes back in the 80s! It was not as interesting as I expected it to be, based on our discussion at Litwits earlier in August. Still, I'm glad I read it.

I love the part when Senator Mike Gravel  "called a special session of his Sub-committee on Buildings and Grounds - just about the least prestigious subcommittee in the Senate. He opened the session with a crack of his gavel at nine forty-five. He was the only senator in the room." He started reading the Pentagon Papers, with a stenographer taking it down. The description of this event, particularly when Gravel wept at "reading a graphic description of combat wounds suffered by American soldiers." At the end of his session, "Senator Gravel asked for the unanimous consent of all sub-committee members to insert the rest of the Pentagon Papers into the public record. There were no objections."

The book raises questions about the balance between "state secrets" and the peoples' "right to know." The court cases raised questions about free speech, the press, and so much more. I'm glad Daniel Ellsberg didn't go to prison for what he did. Now I feel as though I should probably read more about Snowden and what he did . . .

Tiltawhirl John

by Gary Paulsen
PRMS discard hardcover 127 pages
genre: YA realistic

The first part of this story reads like a less-entertaining version of Paulsen's The Beet Fields. The rest is about the main character's experience working with the carnival. It's a pretty standard coming-of-age story, but definitely not one of Paulsen's better told stories. I'm okay with removing it from my collection and donating it to Better World Books.

Seriously . . . I'm Kidding

by Ellen DeGeneres
Hennepin County Library audiobook 3 discs
read by the author
genre: humor

Okay, I like Ellen DeGeneres. Her show is fun to watch and she's amazingly talented. This audiobook, however, was disappointing. The short chapters (50+ on three discs) were silly and most of them more irritating than amusing.
I like her emphasis on being kind - that's a wonderful part of her appeal. It was very interesting to hear about her stint on American Idol and how hard it was to judge people's performing. She is a very nurturing, encouraging person.
Chapter 29 was noises for the audiobook listeners . . . and incredibly obnoxious. There were definitely some amusing parts, and twice I laughed, but this just lacked the substance of her TV show hosting.

Creative Schools

by Ken Robinson
Hennepin County Library hardcover 257 pages
genre: non-fiction

I didn't get this done before I needed to get it back to the library. A bunch of people in Litwits told me to just watch his TED Talk - it's better and takes less time. Okay, then. Here's the link to his talk "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"

I don't have time to watch it now, but I need to. This is too important to ignore. My school is already focusing on things that are more important than compliance. How do we foster creativity in our students? 

Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian

(With Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families, and Teachers)
by John Elder Robison
Hennepin County Library audiobook 5 discs
read by the author
genre: non-fiction

This was very interesting! I took quick notes as I was driving in the car.

• Billy the Kid (documentary) - about an Aspergers kid. I'd love to watch this, but probably won't find it and/or the time. 
• He talks about three types of humans - Aspergians, proto-Aspergians, and "Nypicals" (neuro-typical). Most people are "nypicals" - what some would call "normal," though he emphasizes that these different types just use their brains differently.
• What was "weird" as a ten year old has helped him to become a successful adult. He shares how he got from weird kid to successful adult.
• Find your strengths! He emphasizes "positive attitudes translate to positive results."
• rituals / habits / behaviors - what are norms? who decides?
• manners, like "please" and "thank you" make things smoother / he makes a funny comment about how matters are important, but not at sporting events, where they just don't matter
• He gave advice at the end and emphasized again - finding your strengths and interests. "Greatness happens when you find your unique strengths and build upon them." / Environment matters / Resolve / Focus / Find Real-World Applications / Work Hard.
• Identify and improve your weaknesses if they're holding you back, but focus on your unique strengths!
• I like how he identified the differences between Aspergers and the rest of the autism spectrum disorder . . . language skills.
• Oh. My. Word. I listened to the very end, through the acknowledgements and he gave some credit to his brother Augusten Burroughs! They are brothers?!?! When I read Running with Scissors, I was horrified at Burroughs' life. They are brothers?!

This book is amazing and I wish I could buy it for PRMS. I think his insights and personal experience with Aspergers is valuable.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here

by Patrick Ness
Hennepin County Library hardcover 317 pages
genre: YA realistic / fantasy

This was weird. Just really weird. Some normal kids dealing with teen stuff - OCD, eating disorder, friendships, romance, family, graduation, etc. And then there were the indie kids getting killed, the blue lights shining out of possessed people's and animals' eyes, a dead deer becoming a zombie deer, etc.

I actually got into the story after a while and enjoyed aspects of it, but it's definitely for older teens and a unique kind of reader.

Sacred Heart

by Liz Suburbia
Hennepin County Library paperback 309 pages
genre: YA / teen graphic novel dystopian

I didn't love the art style, but that didn't bother me too much. (I don't like Backderf's style, either, but can appreciate his storytelling.) This story had lots of partying, crude graffiti, sex, and random murders . . . but no police, no parents, and no clear sense of what this horrible society of teens and kids was all about.

Ben (a girl, but that's not apparent at first) is best friends with Otto. Otto is the only one who knows Ben's real first name . . . and since it was my favorite "reveal" of the story, I won't include it here. Ben's sister is named Empathy, an interesting choice. I'd love to talk with someone else who read it to see what I missed in understanding it.

The "gotcha" at the end helped, but was too little too late for this reader. With full-frontal nudity, I wouldn't buy this for my middle school anyhow. I hope Suburbia continues to create and to hone her storytelling and art style.

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

by L.A. Meyer
Hennepin County Library audiobook 6 discs
read by Katherine Kellgren
genre: YA historical adventure fiction

Loved this! Kellgren's vocal work was fantastic, but I almost wished I'd had the print version at home to finish more quickly. A student had raved about this series last year and now that I've read it, I can see why! I want to keep reading the series, but will probably not have time.

The story opens with Mary being orphaned and joining a street gang of kids who beg to survive. The adventure (and some suspense) just keep the story rolling along. What a strong female protagonist. Love it!

I wrote the above on 8.13.2016. Louie and I listened to this audiobook on our trip to the lake last weekend. Today is 9.7.2017 and I just wanted to add that I liked it better the first time . . . but I definitely want to read the next book in the series. I can't believe she'll just go to boarding school in Boston . . .

Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva

by Rosemary Sullivan
Hennepin County Library audiobook 16 discs
(print version has photos and 623 pages plus bib, index, notes, etc.)
read by Karen Cass
genre: non-fiction biography

Wow! So glad I listened to this on audiobook. Cass' voice was perfect once I got used to the British accent. Her pronunciation of Russian names leads me to believe she's fluent in the language.

Notes from listening in the car:

• abortion as a form of birth control - how incredibly sad!
• Stalin as dictator / the csars before / Pultin now . . . cult of personality
• people and place names - confusing - what's a dacha(?) / I looked it up - like a summer house
• arrests, torture, imprisonment, death by firing squad, fear, talk, forced confessions, . . . horrible. I can't imagine living in this environment.
• Stalin's death . . . everyone too frightened to call a doctor. Wow.
• Laventiy Beria - never heard of him before. What power over people's lives!
• after Stalin's death, people either worshiped or reviled him (and Svetlana)
• Olgivanna Wright - what a psycho! Taliesin - now I need to read more about Frank Lloyd Wright and this crazy place.
• 20 Letters to a Friend by Svetlana - I am interested in reading this.
• Olga - interesting to look up pictures of Svetlana's daughter! (Stalin's granddaughter is a tattooed biker chick in Seattle!)

Overall, I was fascinated by this history lesson. I believe the author researched extensively. Others in Litwits thought it was too long, too detailed, and had too much of Svetlana being a crazy woman . . . but I think she was in such a unique position in history. Yes, she was an odd duck - part Russian princess, part defiant rebel, part ??? I'm glad I "read" this, and I like that it piqued my curiosity on many levels.

The Great American Whatever

by Tim Federle
Hennepin County Library hardcover 274 pages
genre: YA realistic fiction, LGBTQ

I liked this better than his "Better Nate Than Ever" because it's more accessible to kids, I think. Overall, it seems to be more about grief and loss than anything else, but has loads of romance, film references, and typical coming-of-age content.

Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old boy who hasn't yet come out (though those closest to him all know it already). His beloved older sister (and film-making partner) Annabeth died in a car crash just before Christmas break and Quinn hasn't been back to school in the six months since the accident.

Best friend Geoff, Geoff's sister Carly, and Carly's friend Amir help Quinn find his way out of the grief over the course of this very well-written and engaging book. The Ricky Devlin part was a bit much, but overall this was a good read.

Caveat: swearing, alcohol, sex . . . the "usual" teen content make this more for high school than middle school.

I actually put a post-it note on a page. Just like in Silver Linings Playbook, this book refers to "Native Pittsburghers" and the dialect. He writes "If you don't know anyone from Pittsburgh, look it up on YouTube." So I had to . . .

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson
Hennepin County Library audiobook 4 discs
read by the author
genre: non-fiction memoir

I had seen positive reviews, but absolutely luxuriated in the author's memories and love of language. Her prose poetry takes us to the places she grew up. I feel as though I've spent time with her grandpa - "Daddy" she calls him, as her own mother does. Her love of words and writing (and the people who either inspired her or shot her down) are fully come to fruition in her adult life. I enjoyed her writing before reading this, and now I love it even more!

This would be good to use alongside All-American Boys and How It Went Down to help students understand why "Black Lives Matter" is such a big thing right now. How sad that little has changed since the Black Panther Movement, in terms of truly equal rights and fair treatment of all people.

The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice

by Alex Kershaw
Hennepin County Library hardcover 238 pages
genre: Non-fiction WWII history

This was so very sad, as all war books are. The copyright is 2003, so I'm not quite sure how it got on our Litwits list . . . but it was well-written and worthwhile, albeit more than a decade old.

Already on page 50, as the young Americans were heading to Europe, they saw horrors. The ship they were on (Queen Mary) rammed an escort ship (Curacoa) accidentally and "only 101 men from the Curacoa's crew of 439 were saved." How awful! Even with the information they had and being able to SEE the other ship, they couldn't avoid cutting it in half and continuing on themselves? Ugh. "Seventeen-year-old private Bob Sales of Company B had gone on deck to get some air. He couldn't understand why the Mary did not stop to pick up survivors." "'You're crazy as hell, man,' a soldier told him. 'The Mary, sitting still in the water - a German submarine could blow [us] off the face of the earth.'" Later the author notes "With their own eyes they had now seen how expendable men were in war."

It also makes me sad that in the 1940s, race problems were so awful (and on into the 1960s and nowadays . . . ). After mentioning what the soldiers read in Stars and Stripes, including the zoot suit riots, he notes that "In Detroit that June, where 300,000 whites and blacks had migrated to work in war factories, thirty-five people were killed, 600 wounded, and thousands jailed in two days of rioting."

New factoid for me: "Run by an ultra-secret intelligence committee, 'The Twenty Committee' (so-named after the Roman numerals XX - double cross), Operation Fortitude was arguably the most successful of all preparations for Overlord." I kind of like the clever wordplay, although I dislike the war strategies and the killing.

As far as WHY this young group of soldiers was chosen to be in the first wave, I don't want to think too hard. "Their lack of combat experience actually increased their confidence, some historians have argued. It was to the Allies' advantage that so many men had not seen combat; young men who have seen the horror of war are far less likely to rush headlong towards it. Naivete can perhaps be a powerful weapon." Reading this as a pacifist and a mom, I'm so sad for their relative innocence and their short young lives. I vividly remember watching Saving Private Ryan and being completely tense during the first twenty minutes, thinking "I'm watching this on a SCREEN in my LIVING ROOM! How did those young men DO this?" I know, I know. It's not like they could climb back onto the landing vehicle and say, "guess not. This is just too awful."

There's a paragraph on page 119 that actually made me laugh (amid all the depressing fighting and dying). I don't want to include it here, but the line, "made the most of an opportunity that Englishmen have sought since 1776" capped it for me.

Page 178 - "Stevens returned to his foxhole where he sat and prayed. 'I had come back,' he recalled, 'just like Jesus had said.' There and then I made  a deal with God. 'If you let me get back home,' I asked him, 'I'll be your servant.'" Roy Stevens was one of only six guys from Bedford who landed on D-Day and survived. Twenty-two others were killed in the Normandy campaign (19 right away in the first wave).

Very well-researched (lots of interviews and other primary source material) and written. Just a really sad book.

Anna and the Swallow Man

by Gavriel Savit
Hennepin County Library audiobook 6 discs
read by Allan Corduner
genre: YA historical fiction

"Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Łania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She’s alone. And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see"

This book was not at all what I expected!There were so many times that I expected one thing to happen and something entirely different did. It kept me in suspense. I went on Goodreads after I finished it to see what I had missed at the ending . . . what was up with the fisherman, the trade, the professor? The narrator's vocal work was fantastic in bringing the story to life, but I re-listened to the last part of the last CD two times because I couldn't figure out what I had missed.

Throughout the first half of this, I thought it would be a fantastic companion book to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (young protagonist, WWII, the horrors of the Holocaust, etc.). But now I'm not so sure. It's definitely more sophisticated (what an extraordinary little girl she is!)

Awkward

by Svetlana Chmakova
Hennepin County Library hardcover 210 pages
genre: YA graphic novel, realistic

Such a cute story! The artwork was a little too manga-style for me, but I'm sure it will appeal to the kids. (Side note - the author is Svetlana and I'm reading Stalin's Daughter, who was Svetlana. Every summer, I seem to have these intersections of names, ideas, events . . . )

Peppi (Penelope) Torres is new at school. She loves to draw and joins the art club, making good friends there. The rival science club is competitive and active. Jaime loves science, but isn't as aggressive as the other science club kids. The two groups both want to have tables at the school's club fair, but have had some transgressions.

Very middle school - embarrassment, friendships, competition, etc. I will buy this one for PRMS!