Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life

by Shauna Niequist
personal copy, paperback 235 pages
genre: NF essays, Christian life

This was recommended by Rachel Culbertson and I ordered a copy for myself from Amazon. Niequist has such a gift for writing! I think I would have *loved* this book as a 30-year-old, but I definitely enjoyed it as a 51-year-old. Some of the essays really impacted me (so I'm scanning two to save and re-read). This is a book to be shared (first with my friend Kim, then with my daughter-in-lay Angela) and given as a gift . . .

page 98 - "One of my deepest secret beliefs is that I am actually not a good person at all, not a talented or helpful person in any way, and that someday everyone will find out . . . " I've been struggling lately with feelings of inadequacy (at work and as a human being) and her experience resonated with me.

page 134 - her sentiments on writing also resonate for me . . . and procrastinating . . . and her final sentence here "After I've been writing for a while, I get sort of sensitive and strange, like a theater kid in high school." I can so relate!

Her essay "Broken Bottles" on pages 139-144 is one that I need to copy, re-read, and keep. It's about a trip she took to Africa and the impact it had on her. What a powerful and personal story!

page 195 - "Writing is about choosing the one narrow thing and following it as far as it will take me, instead of chasing all the snaps and crackles in my head."

"Writing in Pencil" is the other essay that really spoke to me! I think I need to scan and save this one, too. I sure marked it up a lot. I love how Niequist is honest and not a holier-than-thou type of Christian. Clearly, she loves the Lord and her faith is vital to her. But I think her genuine style of writing will resonate, especially with younger people. In the author interview in the back, it sounds as though she's gotten flak for not being spiritual enough . . . but she isn't trying to be someone she's not - she's sharing her joy and struggles and life. Authenticity rings through.

pages 234-5 . . . I want to read this aloud in church. I bookmarked it to ask Pastor Jamie. This is part of her "Cold Tangerines" essay. What a great ending to a wonderful little book!

Tetris: The Games People Play

by Box Brown
Hennepin County Library paperback 253 pages
genre: YA graphic novel non-fiction

I had not heard of Box Brown before this title started showing up on recommendation lists (and he's an author at next month's Teen Lit Con). I am not a huge fan of his art style, but I found the story very interesting. It was hard to keep all the "players" straight, but the Russian who truly created Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov) was definitely my favorite. His love of games, logic, and desire to share something cool he had made was the best!

The larger history of games and humanity didn't engage me as much . . . but there was definitely some interesting history from the Ancient Egyptians to the start of the Nintendo company (trading cards, then video games). I'm not sure if I would buy this for a middle school collection - the non-fiction aspect is harder for me to "sell" to my readers - but they would be drawn to the video game theme.

Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz

by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
Hennepin County Library hardcover 318 pages plus pictures and index
genre: autobiographical

This is two days overdue and has a waiting list! I finished it last night and must get it back. I had read a review and am glad I've read it even though I've been too sad lately to read a Holocaust book . . . The author and his daughter did a lot of research and wrote an incredible story. I love that they were able to find other survivors, photos, stories, etc. and were willing to write and share this story! (Though the thought of Mr. Bornstein seeing the photo of himself as a child on a website "disproving" the horrors of the Holocaust appalls me.)

Page 44 - "Hilda! No more risks. No more daring escapes. . . . Hilda, this situation in Poland can't last. You need to stay in Warsaw until the war ends, my sweet daughter. The conflict will be over soon enough." It makes me unbelievably sad to think of how many people thought it would soon be over . . . and yet the suffering, pain, and innocents' deaths just kept happening. What fortitude to not only survive this era, but to keep a positive attitude! I loved how so many of the adults in young Michael's life had a "this too shall pass" / "look forward, not behind" attitude. Wow!

He was born on May 2, 1940 and experienced life in a Nazi-controlled town, then a ghetto, then Auschwitz, then a post-WWII Poland and Germany that largely still hated Jews, then America with no money . . . what an amazing man to share his story and his optimism and faith!

Page 158 - "Heartbreak was starting to feel as natural as hunger and fear to me. I was numb with hurt." This after his mother was sent to a different work camp. I'm so glad his grandma was able to stay with him and protect him! Again, he survived due to many, many unique situations. What a blessing! I'm so glad his daughter worked with him to tell this story.

Every Time a Rainbow Dies

by Rita Williams-Garcia
PRMS hardcover 166 pages
genre: YA realistic fiction

I picked up this book because a student really liked another book by Williams-Garcia. (Diamondland, which is nigh impossible to find . . . due to Scholastic using it in a basal reader??? I've *never* had such a hard time finding a book! 64 page novella . . . in a library in Missouri and for over $100 on any book-selling site with used books. Really?!? I'm so tempted to write to the author and ask if she has any extra copies for my kiddo.)

Williams-Garcia wasn't really on my radar until my advisee's reading teacher paraprofessional mentioned the above reponse. The student in question struggles to read and doesn't like it . . . but raved about Diamondland! (The excerpt provided in the Scholastic reader, anyhow.) So I read this book.

And I'm not really sure what to do with it. The jacket blurb says, "Ever since the night he found her battered and raped, in the alley near his home, Thulani has not been able to think about anything but Ysa." This is most definitely a book for more mature readers, but it has grief, family relationships, identity, violence, sexuality, and so much more!

Page 15 - "Spending his days on his rooftop did not make him ignorant of the streets below. He had seen enough to know how to carry himself and was determined to pass without being stopped by cops looking for a suspect." This makes me so sad! For black teenagers, working at (and even being aware of) *not* appearing suspicious is part of "normal" life! Thulani is a wonderful young man, raising pigeons and dealing with the loss of his mother when he was 13. But the author drops this nugget in . . . while he is trying to connect with Ysa, he is also aware of not seeming suspicious.

Page 149 - I was so upset when I read this! (Don't want to put a spoiler here.) The author is brilliant at getting you inside Thulani's head and life so that you care about what he cares about. I am so glad I read this book, but it is definitely not for my "average" middle school reader. I'm not going to remove it from the shelf, but I may need to warn Belle that some of the books are *quite* mature.

The Cruelest Month

by Louise Penny
Hennepin County Library audiobook 10 CDs
read by
genre: mystery fiction

I'm glad this is the third one of her stories I've listened to . . . because had it been the first, I don't think I would have finished it, much less read others. My recommendation to readers who haven't read any Louise Penny "Gamache / Three Pines" books? READ THEM IN ORDER! (I've now read #4, #1, and #3 . . . I do *not* recommend this method.)

A seance on Good Friday . . . not an auspicious start. Mr. Beliveau, the grocer - I predicted the story would "hinge" on him . . . not so much. The Hadley House. Clara - both sensible and sensitive. (I still don't understand Peter's motivations, though we get a bit more of his back story.)

Odile and Giles? Hazel and Madeline? Sophie? Why is April the cruelest month? The weather? Easter? Sometimes I think I miss too much when I listen to the audiobook rather than actually reading the text. (Love the allusion to T.S. Eliot's poem The Cruelest Month . . . but now I have to look it up and re-read it!)

Ugh! Which woman died?! I hate when Penny does this . . . but yes, it builds suspense and makes me think about the characters and events. Brebeuf and the odd phone calls . . . I don't like where this is going.

Author drops clues and leaves the reader hanging! Seance . . . wouldn't have read this author's other books if I'd started with this one.

Gamache - back to the Hadley house. . . really? And why so much personification of the house? It's like another character in the book.

"The near enemy" . . . is one's self. Hmmm. Earlier, the near enemy was one's closest friend.

"Fairies at the end of the garden . . . Oliviet and Gabri - ha! Ruth makes me laugh.

Found this site: http://gamacheseries.com/ to help me spell character names!

Another note from my car: competition (between Hazel and Madeline as well as between Brebeuf and Gamache) is a big theme in this story. I still can't understand how two friends who have been through so much together could turn on one another!

The Silver Star

by Jeannette Walls
Hennepin County Library audiobook 7 discs
read by the author
genre: realistic historical fiction

Oh my! I thought this might be a "lighter" / "easier" book than her memoir or the stories of her grandmother's life . . . not so much. Walls has an amazing gift of storytelling!

Jerry Maddox - yuk! Awful person! He creeps me out! Bank accounts - don't trust him! Good girl, Jean! Get your pay in cash. (Made me think of Financial Peace University. Grin.)

Historic background, opinion vs fact, Maddox is a slimeball! I had such a strong visceral reaction to the story that I had to stop the CD at times. I simply couldn't keep listening!

"There was only one thing to do. I had to kill Jerry Maddox." Uh-oh . . . I know how you feel, but this isn't a great plan.

The trial was awful! Even worse than I was expecting!

Love love love Miss Jarvis providing a safe haven in her classroom for all the "misfits" . . . gathering up the outcasts. She's my kind of teacher!

Loved the emu roundup!

So intense! Maddox / justice / emus home / heard a bear . . .

From Goodreads:
It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean soon discovers who her father was, and hears stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, and the sisters start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, who bullies his workers, his tenants, his children, and his wife. Liz is whip-smart--an inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, nonconformist, but when school starts in the fall, it’s Bean who easily adjusts, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.