The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Set against the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and then just before the outbreak of the Civil War, The Freedom Maze explores both political and personal liberation, and how the two intertwine.

In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer at her grandmother’s old house in the Bayou. But the house has a maze Sophie can’t resist exploring once she finds it has a secretive and mischievous inhabitant.

When Sophie, bored and lonely, makes an impulsive wish, she slips back one hundred years into the past, to the year 1860. She hopes for a fantasy book adventure with herself as the heroine. Instead, she gets a real adventure in the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar plantation in 1860, where she is mistaken for a slave.  

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is still two years in the future. The Thirteen Amendment—abolishing and prohibiting slavery—will not be not passed until April 1864.

Muddy and bedraggled, Sophie obviously isn’t a young lady of good breeding. She must therefore be a slave. And she is.




This book feels a lot like Kindred for the Young Adult crowd: time travel; modern girl/woman turned slave; and two historical fiction books in one.

And it's SO good!

I've been trying to get my mother to read Kindred for over a year, but she has no interest in reading sad stories anymore, so she's sticking to Romance.  I think I could get her to read this one, though.  It's not as graphic as Octavia E. Butler's writing, and there's more of a happy ending.

There are definitely some creepy moments; you can't take a subject like slavery and make it all rainbows and unicorns.

This is the first book I've read by Delia Sherman; I will be sure to read more.

Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War, by Colum McCann

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads


These stories aren’t pretty and they aren’t for the faint of heart. They are realistic, haunting and shocking. And they are all unforgettable. Television reports, movies, newspapers and blogs about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have offered images of the fighting there. But this collection offers voices—powerful voices, telling the kind of truth that only fiction can offer.

What makes the collection so remarkable is that all of these stories are written by those who were there, or waited for them at home. The anthology, which features a Foreword by National Book Award winner Colum McCann, includes the best voices of the our wars’ generation: Brian Turner, whose poem Hurt Locker was the movie’s inspiration; Colby Buzzell, whose book My War resonates with countless veterans; Siobhan Fallon, whose book You Know When the Men Are Gone echoes the joy and pain of the spouses left behind; Matt Gallagher, whose book Kaboom captures the hilarity and horror of the modern military experience; and nine others.




The first thing I want to make clear is that my rating has nothing to do with the content and the events experienced by the authors.  I am a pacifist, but I greatly admire the men and women who fight for our country and our safety.

This anthology started out promising.  The second story—Tips for a Smooth Transition, by Siobhan Fallon—is my favorite and deserves five stars.  I love how she transitioned back and forth between the story and the written advice given to military spouses.  

I would give four stars to The Train, by Mariette Kalinowski.  Her writing is beautiful and I could feel the desperation and anxiety of her homecoming.  Another four stars to Raid, by Ted Janis.

Things started going downhill halfway through.  Television, by Roman Skaskiw was hard to understand because each person's rank was used over and over and over.  In one sentence, "Sergeant" was used three times for only two people.  

It was also at this point that stories stopped including any sort of resolution and became simply a recounting of events that occurred: "First we did this, then that, and then this other thing, and then that thing over there, the end."  There was no conflict (I'm not talking about the war here, but the conflict within the story that sets you up for the resolution), no "oh, wow" moment, no conclusion that left the reader sated.  It was more of a "that's it?" than a "holy crap."

The notable exception to the lackluster second half is When Engaging Targets, Remember, by Gavin Ford Kovite.  I do love a good choose-your-own adventure story.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Girl You Left Behind, by Jojo Moyes

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads

What happened to the girl you left behind?

In 1916 French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened...

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most - whatever the cost.





I love Jojo Moyes.  She makes her characters so real and imperfect and TRUE.  I love how she intertwined the lives of Sophie and Liv through the painting and went back and forth between their stories.

Like Me Before You and Honeymoon in Paris, The Girl You Left Behind is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel.   I cried several times, especially near the end.  Thankfully, I wasn't as emotionally overcome as when I read Me Before You; there is more of a sense of relief and hope in this story than in her previous work.

There is one continuity problem between The Girl You Left Behind and Honeymoon in Paris regarding how Liv's husband purchases the painting, but it doesn't affect the story.

I will definitely purchase this book for my personal collection.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

War Brothers: The Graphic Novel, by Sharon E. McKay

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Jacob is a 14-year-old Ugandan who is sent away to a boys' school. Once there, he assures his friend Tony that they need not be afraid -- they will be safe. But not long after, in the shadow of the night, the boys are abducted. Marched into the jungle, they are brought to an encampment of the feared rebel soldiers. They are told they must kill or be killed, and their world turns into a terrifying struggle to endure and survive.

In time, the boys escape. Hunted by the rebels, stalked by a lion, and even pursued by river crocs, they miraculously succeed in reaching safety. However, it is no longer enough. Jacob wrestles with the question of whether we are all really beasts inside. He decides the way through the pain is to record his story.

Daniel Lafrance's powerful, striking, and poignant artwork and the crisp, evocative text vividly capture the haunting experiences of a young boy caught in a brutal war.

This graphic novel is based on an award-winning YA novel by Sharon McKay. Sharon has spent time with child soldiers and based this story on real-life accounts.




This is not a book for children.  Repeat: NOT a book for children.  It's a graphic novel, but don't let that fool you.  I felt absolutely sick while reading this and I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares tonight.  I wouldn't dare give it to a child.

However awful I may feel after I finished this graphic novel, it's nothing near what the children in the Lord's Republican Army in Uganda experience on a daily basis.  Intellectually, I know about Joseph Kony and his group of rebel soldiers.  I've heard of the atrocities he advocates and the kill-or-be-killed mentality amongst his varied groups of soldiers.  This book -- this perfectly-illustrated, emotionally-charged, scary-as-hell look at what a boy goes through after he is kidnapped -- brings it all home.

If you are bothered by children put in terrible situations, don't read this graphic novel.  If, however, you want the experience of what it's like to be a child of war, pick this up immediately.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Chocolate War (Chocolate War #1), by Robert Cormier

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Stunned by his mother's recent death and appalled by the way his father sleepwalks through life, Jerry Renault, a New England high school student, ponders the poster in his locker: Do I dare disturb the universe?

Part of his universe is Archie Costello, leader of a secret school society--the Virgils--and master of intimidation.  Archie himself is intimidated by a cool, ambitious teacher into having the Virgils spearhead the annual fund-raising event--a chocolate sale.  When Jerry refuses to be bullied into selling chocolates, he becomes a hero, but his defiance is a threat to Archie, the Virgils, and the school.  In the inevitable showdown, Archie's skill at intimidation turns Jerry from hero to outcast, to victim, leaving him alone and terribly vulnerable.




If I had read this book a few years ago, I would have scoffed at the idea of a group of kids excluding a single student.  But times have changed--or social media is allowing for more publicized accounts--and this book is highly relevant in today's culture.

Even though it's relevant, I didn't like it.  Teenagers who torment their fellow classmates.  Adults who turn a blind eye or encourage such actions.  Kids who don't stand up for their friends.

Throughout the book, I expected a certain outcome, and I'm disappointed in the one that was delivered instead.  Not that it's the wrong ending, but it's not what I wanted; it left me feeling like there was something missing.  There is a sequel, and maybe that answers some of my niggling questions, but I have no desire to read the second book.

How to Lose Everything: A Mostly True Story, by Philipp Mattheis

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

One summer, an incredible discovery gives Jonathan and his three closest friends many things they so desperately want – but at what cost?

Jonathan, Sam, Schulz, and Eric usually spend their summers hanging out at the park, skateboarding and dreaming about the days when they’ll finally move out of the suburbs. But one summer, the four teenagers find a small fortune hidden inside a mysterious abandoned house, and that changes everything. The dizzying thrill of money and power makes the future seem irrelevant; the only question that matters is what they should buy next. It was a dream come true, but it couldn't last. What starts out as a blessing soon turns into a curse, as stress, drugs, criminal behavior, dwindling funds—and even death—raise serious questions about their choices, and their futures.




This coming-of-age novel is like nothing I've read before.  Due to the fact that it's based on a true story, I couldn't decide if I wanted it to be more memoir-ish or more fictitious.  I don't mean that in a negative way.  It's simply the fact that it scares the bejeezus out of me that much of what's in this book actually happened.  And I don't know which parts!

How to Lose Everything will appeal to teenage boys.  I think this would be a great book for parents of early- to mid-teens to read with their sons in order to launch discussions surrounding theft and drug & alcohol abuse.

I read this short book—only just over 200 pages—in one evening.  Mattheis doesn't use flowery language to move the story forward: he is concise and pragmatic and doesn't leave out any of the "good stuff."

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Wine and War: The French, The Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure, by Don & Petie Kladstrup

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

The remarkable untold story of France’s courageous, clever vinters who protected and rescued the country’s most treasured commodity from German plunder during World War II.

In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown–until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.

"To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine." 

–Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d’Argent

I received this book from my grandfather (?) a decade ago.  I wish I had read it when he was still alive so I could talk to him about the events in this book.  Like me, he was a Francophile and we shared stories of the different trips we took around France.  He fought in WWII, but never spoke about his time code-breaking.  I wonder if discussing this book could have opened that door.

This was an interesting look at the economics of wine during Hitler's reign and the Occupation of France.  The histories of the different vineyards, the details of the wines, and the stories of the owners--some who were left to run the vineyards and others who were in hiding or sent to concentration camps--make this book come alive.

And though war is a solemn subject, humor makes itself known throughout the novel.  My favorite is the section about the wolves:


The grapes had an "exhilarating effect" on the wolves.  "I suspect the stomach of the wolf is so constructed that the fermentation of the fruit juices proceeds rapidly after the animal has eaten the grapes.  At any rate, intoxication is frequently the result." 

Monsieur Le Brun says he recalls seeing a drunken pack running by his home.  "...the wolves were all intoxicated.  That was what caused them to run into the town in the first place, and it was also what saved the townsfolk after they had come in.  They were too drunk to remember that they were wolves...they just lay down in the street, stupidly drunk."

This book isn't for everyone: if wine isn't your cup of tea drink of choice, or you don't care about French wines, then you'll probably find this too dry to swallow.*

* pun not intended, but it totally works

Still Alice, by Lisa Genova

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Alice Howland—Harvard professor, gifted researcher, and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children—sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home.  She has taken the route for years, but nothing looks familiar.  She is utterly lost.  Medical consults reveal early-onset Alzheimer's.

Alice slowly but inevitably loses memory and connection with reality, as told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before.  Genova's debut shows the disease progression through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so readers feel what she feels: a slowly building terror.



 
I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to Alzheimer's.  My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with the disease when I was in my teens, but she lived halfway across the country and I never saw her health decline.  My paternal grandfather suffered from some dementia when he was in his 90s, but it was never very obvious.

Listening to this audiobook was not easy: Alice is a brilliant woman who loses everything about herself.  It's a heartbreaking story and one that I hope I never have to experience.

Lisa Genova narrates this audiobook and she does an amazing job.  Not all authors are qualified to read their own works; Genova is a rare exception.

There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes, by Robert Jacoby

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

You need your eyes, don't you?

So does Richard Issych. Two weeks ago he overdosed. Now he's fighting for his life, finding threatening notes like that one on his nightstand.
 
There are Reasons Noah Packed No Clothes is the story of 19-year-old Richard Issych, who wakes to a harsh new reality inside an inpatient unit. Now Richard's journey turns into one of revelations and struggling through his own reasons for being as he discovers new meanings for redemption, sacrifice, hope, love--and the will to live.

In the end, what are the reasons Noah packed no clothes? Richard can only imagine. But it has something to do with a size 3XL bowling shirt with the name "Noah" stitched over the pocket.

There are reasons . . . everyone uses his own dictionary.

There are reasons . . . some new heavens come from some new hells.




Wow.

Just, wow. 

I just finished this book and I find myself searching for the right words to describe how I felt while reading it. 

As someone who has had suicidal tendencies for more than two decades, I feel very attached to Richard's story.  It hit home on so many levels, and I cried on multiple occasions (though, to be fair, it's not hard to make me cry), thinking about my own experiences: the heavy, black pressure on my heart; emotional pain at having to live through another day; believing that I wasn't good enough; and more.

The stream-of-consciousness writing fit the story perfectly: like in Jose Saramago's Blindness, or Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the stylistic use of language helped me to know the characters and believe their histories. 

The ending left me reeling, which is part of the reason I can't fully express myself.  I had to read the last few pages a few times to be sure that I actually read what I did.

This isn't a happy-cheery-fluffy book.  It's a powerful, thoughtful novel that should be absorbed slowly.  I'm really happy that I read it; it's given me a lot to think about.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Viral Nation (Viral Nation #1), by Shaunta Grimes

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

After a virus claimed nearly the entire global population, the world changed. The United States splintered into fifty walled cities where the surviving citizens clustered to start over. The Company, which ended the plague by bringing a life-saving vaccine back from the future, controls everything. They ration the scant food and supplies through a lottery system, mandate daily doses of virus suppressant, and even monitor future timelines to stop crimes before they can be committed.

Brilliant but autistic, sixteen-year-old Clover Donovan has always dreamed of studying at the Waverly-Stead Academy. Her brother and caretaker, West, has done everything in his power to make her dream a reality. But Clover’s refusal to part with her beloved service dog denies her entry into the school. Instead, she is drafted into the Time Mariners, a team of Company operatives who travel through time to gather news about the future.

When one of Clover’s missions reveals that West’s life is in danger, the Donovans are shattered. To change West’s fate, they’ll have to take on the mysterious Company. But as its secrets are revealed, they realize that the Company’s rule may not be as benevolent as it seems. In saving her brother, Clover will face a more powerful force than she ever imagined… and will team up with a band of fellow misfits and outsiders to incite a revolution that will change their destinies forever.




Argh!  THIS is the reason that I don't like to read series before all of the books are complete!  I WANT MORE!  Seriously.  Duets, trilogies, etc. need to come with warning labels.

I plead ignorance.  If I had known that there was a sequel, I wouldn't have requested it from NetGalley.  But honestly?  That would have been a shame.  Because I really liked this book!  

This is a great addition to the Dystopian genre: great characters; crappy living conditions for some & posh lifestyles for others; Bad Guys who control the rest of the population; puppy love; and time travel.  The best part?  The main character has Autism!  I Pink Puffy Heart LOVE unconventional protagonists.  And Clover is definitely not your typical attractive-teenager-who-invents-problems kind of girl.

 I really can't wait until the next book comes out (get writing, Shaunta Grimes!) so I can learn what happens next.





I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Lie Still, by Julia Heaberlin

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

When Emily Page and her husband move from Manhattan to the wealthy enclave of Clairmont, Texas, she hopes she can finally escape her haunted past—and outrun the nameless stalker who has been taunting her for years. 

Pregnant with her first child, Emily just wants to start over. But as she is drawn into a nest of secretive Texas women—and into the unnerving company of their queen, Caroline Warwick—Emily finds that acceptance is a very dangerous game.

It isn’t long before Caroline mysteriously disappears and Emily is facing a rash of anonymous threats. Are they linked to the missing Caroline? Or to Emily’s terrifying encounter in college, years earlier? As the dark truth about Caroline emerges, Emily realizes that some secrets are impossible to hide—and that whoever came for Caroline is now coming for her.




*** Trigger warning: parts of this book may be upsetting to survivors of sexual assault ***  

Yet another book that I would have kept on my To Read list if it hadn't been for NetGalley.   I really enjoyed this mystery.  I kept declaring AHA!, certain that I figured out the "who" behind the stalking and the disappearance.  I'm happy to admit that I was completely wrong on both counts. 

I love how the book opens with a literal bird's eye view of an area that shows its importance later in the book.  The end comes full circle and closes the book beautifully.

Heaberlin's writing reminds me of Gillian Flynn's and I'm looking forward to reading her previous book, Playing Dead.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Jumping the Scratch, by Sarah Weeks

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Jamie Reardon has always heard that bad things come in threes. So after his cat, Mister, dies, his father leaves, and his aunt Sapphy has an accident that causes her memory to develop a skip, Jamie hopes his life will go back to being as normal as cornflakes.

But unfortunately there's one more bad thing in store for Jamie -- something he'd give anything to be able to forget -- and this one leaves him feeling like a stranger to himself.

Jamie tries in vain to find the magic trigger that will help Sapphy's memory jump the scratch, like the needle on her favorite Frank Sinatra record, but in the end it's Aunt Sapphy who, along with a curious girl named Audrey Krouch, helps Jamie unravel the mysteries of memory and jump the scratch in his own life.

Sarah Weeks's poignant characters and powerful prose come together in a story that is both heart wrenching and inspiring -- another gem from the award-winning author of So B. It.





***Trigger warning: this review contains information about sexual assault that may be upsetting to survivors***

This was a hard book to listen to because it was so real.  Because it's a kid's book, there are no gory details (thank goodness) about what happened to Jamie, but it's painfully clear.  Well, at least to an adult.  I don't have 8- to 12-year-old children, so I'm not sure how quickly they'd pick up on the molestation.

I worry about how to talk to my kids about sexual predators.  I feel sick to my stomach at the thought of someone hurting either of them, but how do you bring up such a difficult subject?  Adults tend to forget about what they knew as children; I knew about "bad touching" when I was little.  We were taught by our parents, our teachers, and our daycare providers.  But as parents?  We don't want to expose our children to such an awful part of life.  We want to protect them!  Shield them!  Make sure no harm comes to them!

This book is a great way to help explain what happens when a child is molested, why he acted the way he did, and how he'll deal with it in the future.  I am adding it to the list of books to read with my kids in a few years.

In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. 

But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.




For all of its dehumanization and repugnance, WWII fascinates me.  No matter how much I read, I can't wrap my head around the atrocities committed by the Nazi Party.

I usually read accounts of the war from the early 1940s, so I was interested in this book's focus on the 1930s.  There were so many people -- American, German, and Russian -- that I hadn't heard of before.  At times, it was hard to remember who was who, but Larson does a good job of reminding you who each person is and how each relates back to William or Martha Dodd.

This book focuses on the lives of the Dodds during the nearly five years they spent in Berlin.  Larson doesn't delve into the lives of Dodd's wife and son; instead, he produces an interesting juxtaposition between father and daughter.

William.  Poor, old, boring William.  I don't think descent into war would have changed if someone else had been the Ambassador, but Dodd was certainly not the right person for this position.  He was an introvert who preferred reading and writing to participating in the social niceties required of such a post.  And he certainly didn't have the cojones to stand up to his superiors back in the States, much less those who reported to him in Germany.

His daughter Martha, however, was his complete opposite: flirtatious, ambitious, and the life of the party.  She was power-hungry, selfish, and held no qualms about going from lover to lover & pitting them against each other.

Neither protagonist was very endearing.  Since this is a book about the beginning of the Holocaust, that's not too unexpected.

Erik Larson covers a vast amount of information; wait until you're in a position to concentrate before delving into this non-fiction account.

Escape from Camp 14, by Blaine Harden

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence: he saw his mother as a competitor for food; guards raised him to be a snitch; and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.



Well, that was sobering.  I had absolutely no idea -- NONE -- that things were so bad in North Korea; I felt sick to my stomach on more than one occasion.  It was really hard to listen to the account of Shin's life in Camp 14: starvation; torture; lack of parental affection; and worse.

I can't even...

It really puts things into perspective, you know?  I have a good job, a wonderful husband, two great children, fantastic friends, and a loving extended family.  I don't live under a constant threat of execution.  I'm not in a constant state of hunger.  When I'm cold, I can put on warm clothes, sturdy shoes, and a comfy coat.  If I disagree with a government policy, I won't be arrested for sending a letter or expressing my opinions.

I listened to the audiobook version, as narrated by the author.  He did a great job with the voice-over work, but the editing was shoddy.  Maybe it's because I work in multimedia production that I noticed the timing and voice quality issues, or maybe it's because I listen to a lot of audiobooks.  In either case, I'm surprised that Blackstone Audio released this recording as their final product.

Surviving the Angel of Death, by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Eva Mozes Kor was just 10 years old when she arrived in Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele.

Subjected to sadistic medical experiments, she was forced to fight daily for her and her twin's survival. In this incredible true story written for young adults, readers will learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil.

The book also includes an epilogue on Eva's recovery from this experience and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis.Through her museum and her lectures, she has dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and working for causes of human rights and peace.




I don't know why I continue to do this to myself.  Hey, I think, I haven't read anything scary in a few days.  Why not pick up a WWII memoir?

You would think I'd know better.  Clearly, I am a glutton for punishment.  But I am fascinated by the atrocities and heroics of the early 1940s, so I read on.

Josef Mengele was a truly horrifying doctor  human being monster who experimented on Jewish prisoners held at Auschwitz concentration camp.  He was especially interested in twins: how they came to be; how they were the same and different; how he could create twins and multiples in order to grow the Aryan German race.  He would inject one twin with a deadly disease and when that child died, he would kill the other one so he could study the differences between the two.

Like I said, horrifying.

I imagine Eva Mozes Kor as an old woman, sitting in an old leather chair in a small cozy room, recounting her story for posterity.  I can't even begin to imagine the strength involved for a child of ten to survive Mengele's experiments.

This is a great book for younger teens who are learning about the Holocaust.  It's not terribly graphic and feels more like a grandmother telling her grandchildren about growing up during that time period.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story" (mostlyfiction.com).

Dear Alan Brennert,

Aloha!  I must apologize for not having read this book sooner.  It's been on my To Read list for quite some time, and I even own the audiobook.  I should have listened to my friends and read your novel sooner.  

I am in love.

Rachel is my new favorite person.  I don't care that she's a fictional character.  She is strong.  Caring.  Quick-witted.  I can't imagine being a young child separated from my family and sent to live in a new place with complete strangers.  Though Rachel's first few years are tough, she is tougher.

I was completely captivated by her life, by the Hawai'i you described (I miss it!), and by the clash of cultures throughout Rachel's time in the settlement.  I cried ugly tears (stupid onion-cutting ninjas!) at several points, but the heartache was soon replaced with understanding.

What a powerful novel.

The S-Word, by Chelsea Pitcher

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads 

First it was SLUT scribbled all over Lizzie Hart’s locker.

But one week after Lizzie kills herself, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it—in Lizzie's looping scrawl.

Lizzie’s reputation is destroyed when she's caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on prom night. With the whole school turned against her, and Angie not speaking to her, Lizzie takes her own life. But someone isn’t letting her go quietly. As graffiti and photocopies of Lizzie’s diary plaster the school, Angie begins a relentless investigation into who, exactly, made Lizzie feel she didn’t deserve to keep living. And while she claims she simply wants to punish Lizzie’s tormentors, Angie's own anguish over abandoning her best friend will drive her deep into the dark, twisted side of Verity High—and she might not be able to pull herself back out.

Debut author Chelsea Pitcher daringly depicts the harsh reality of modern high schools, where one bad decision can ruin a reputation, and one cruel word can ruin a life. Angie’s quest for the truth behind Lizzie’s suicide is addictive and thrilling, and her razor-sharp wit and fierce sleuthing skills makes her impossible not to root for—even when it becomes clear that both avenging Lizzie and avoiding self-destruction might not be possible.



Can we just talk about the cover for a second?  It.is.perfect.  A scarlet letter.  Scratched-in words.  A title that evokes humiliation.  The S-Word.  Like its friends—the c-word and the n-word—it is not to be uttered.  It is dirty, uncouth, and disrespectful.  It carries weight.  It destroys lives.

Slut.  Suicide.  Shame.

The cover drew me to the book, and the description bowled me over.  In the wake of Steubenville and the suicides of Audrie Potts, Rehtaeh Parsons, Hope Witsell, and Felicia Garcia, this is a book that I needed to read.  I was overjoyed when I was approved for the galley!

Unfortunately, the book was not as wonderful as I had expected.  The writing felt very choppy and disjointed, and quickly turned from supposed-to-be-witty dialogue to a soliloquy on the ramifications of slut-shaming.  And while I agree with those sentiments, it detracted from the plot.  I want the author to show me, not tell me.  

The book was predictable, with flat characters and too many plot points; it would have been better had they been limited.  If the characters had been fleshed out a bit more, and more attention paid to developing the action, this would have been a four-star book.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Children of the Dust, by Louise Lawrence

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

After a nuclear war devastates the earth, a small band of people struggles for survival in a new world where children are born with strange mutations.

Everyone thought, when the alarm bell rang, that it was just another fire practice.  But the first bombs had fallen on Hamburg and Leningrad, the headmaster said, and a full-scale nuclear attack was imminent.

It's a real-life nightmare.  Sarah and her family have to stay cooped up in the tightly-sealed kitchen for days on end, dreading the inevitable radioactive fall-out and the subsequent slow, torturous death, which seems almost preferable to surviving in a grey, dead world, choked by dust.

But then, from out of the dust and the ruins and the destruction, comes new life, a new future, and a whole brave new world.




There are a few things I remember about this book:

1. It was one of my favorites when I was a freshman in high school.  I wrote an awesome book report and I'm pretty sure I got an A on it.
2. A little girl hid under the table, which was covered with a blanket.  Dust fell down the chimney and contaminated everything in the house, and the family "knew" that the little girl was going to be the only one to live.  The little girl was left with a man who lived on a farm.
3. A generation later, after the dust has settled, some people come up to the earth from an underground shelter and find this now-grown little girl, who is giving birth to another baby.  This baby is covered with fine white fur.
4. One of the group members is actually the girl's half-sister.  Their father had been escorted underground when the bombs hit and then proceeded to make a new life according to the needs of the remainder of society.

I've thought about this book off-and-on over the years, so it was my first choice when--for a book club challenge--I needed to re-read a book from high school English class.  Unfortunately, the book was first published nearly 30 years ago (man, I feel old), so it wasn't easy to find.  I lucked out and bought one of a handful of copies available online.

I am happy to say that I was right about the four bullet points above!  I'm thrilled that I remembered correctly.  What I didn't remember, however, was the hope for the future that each generation showed.  Somehow, I also didn't realize that it was Christian Fiction.  So I was more than a bit surprised at all of the religious references.  And a lot surprised that this was one of my favorite books all those years ago.

I don't think this novel would stand up to modern Dystopia, but I can't help but give it five stars.  The story has stayed with me for twenty-something years, which counts for a lot.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Two Pulitzer Prize winners expose the most pervasive human rights violation of our era—the oppression of women in the developing world—and tell us what we can do about it.

An old Chinese proverb says “Women hold up half the sky.” Then why do the women of Africa and Asia persistently suffer human rights abuses? Continuing their focus on humanitarian issues, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn take us to Africa and Asia, where many women live in profoundly dire circumstances—and some succeed against all odds.

A Cambodian teenager is sold into sex slavery; a formerly illiterate woman becomes a surgeon in Addis Ababa. An Ethiopian woman is left for dead after a difficult birth; a gang rape victim galvanizes the international community and creates schools in Pakistan. An Afghan wife is beaten by her husband and mother-in-law; a former Peace Corps volunteer founds an organization that educates and campaigns for women’s rights in Senegal.

Through their powerful true stories, the authors show that the key to progress lies in unleashing women’s potential, that change is possible, and that each of us can play a role in making it happen.


***Trigger warning: this review contains information about sexual assault that may be upsetting to survivors***

I finished this book a few days ago, and it's taking me longer than expected to gather all of my thoughts and feelings.

First and foremost: Holy. Smokes.

I thought I'd dealt with some pretty crappy events in my life, but nothing compares to what hundreds of millions of women endure: sex trafficking; forced prostitution; government-sanctioned gang rape; female genital mutilation; maternal health and mortality; and brutal attacks. All based on gender. All because they are women.

As horrifying as the stories and statistics show, there also some incredible sources of inspiration: Mukhtar Mai, the young Pakistani woman who was gang raped as a form of "honor revenge" on the orders of a tribal council. Rather than commit suicide, as was expected of her, she pressed charges. Though her life was in jeopardy and the courts were less than helpful, she carried on. Even when then-President Pervez Musharraf threatened her, took away her passport, and put her under house arrest, she continued to fight.

The book is filled with such stories. And my sensitive self cried during most of them.

The book also lists different ways that individuals can help! The first thing I did when I finished listening to the audiobook? I set up a Kiva account. I am now the proud lender of four differing projects in four areas of the developing world. I can't change the whole world, but I can help individuals improve their own lives.

Under the Dome, by Stephen King

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away. 

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.



SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO good! I want more!