Bloom County Episode XI, by Berkeley Breathed

Great news for fans of Berkeley Breathed's classic comic strip Bloom County: he has a new collection of comics out!  It's been a quarter century since he's been in the funny papers, but folks like me, for whom Opus and Bill the Cat are old friends and icons, will be delighted to see the old gang back in Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope.

In his introduction, Breathed mentions his literary hero, Harper Lee, whose characters Atticus Finch and Scout took on a life of their own for readers long after Lee was done with them.  He writes, "Rare, these: Worlds and characters that are more alive for one's readers than they are for their creator.  We who stumble upon them are the Blessed Ones. . . not so much clever as maybe just plain lucky.  We shouldn't walk away too easily."  After walking away for twenty-five years, Breathed walked back and found new joy, or, as he puts it, "joyfulishness" in Bloom County and its inhabitants.    

Breathed gets a laugh out of plenty of corners of recent pop culture and social media.  Opus's main presidential campaign platform is a return to two spaces after a period.  (I'm in!)  He pokes fun at the red Starbucks cup controversy.  He explores the consequences of letting a baby loose on Facebook.  Trump gets skewered.  Bill the Cat is Bill the Cat.

Like most readers, it's been twenty-five years since I've read Bloom County strips.  I remember liking it better than the I liked this new collection.  But I'm still happy that Breathed found new joy in these inimitable characters and has "breathed" new life into them.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Evicted, by Matthew Desmond

I'm not sure I've ever read a more depressing book than Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.  It's so depressing, it made the author depressed.  Desmond, a Harvard sociologist, embedded himself in some of the worst neighborhoods in Milwaukee.  Focusing on the private housing market, he tells the stories of several renters and their troubles with evictions, as well as the landlords and property managers.

Like no other book I've read, Desmond captures the realities of poverty.  He emphasizes the fact that without adequate housing, other issues of poverty domino and exacerbate one another.  Without a stable home, keeping regular income, maintaining family life, keeping a job, succeeding in school all become exponentially more trying.  Desmond's detailed narrative, compiled from years of interviews and first-hand observations, got a bit too detailed for me at times, but realistically portrays the day-to-day struggles.

As his observations in Milwaukee, as well as the broader literature he cites, demonstrate, eviction is a huge problem, especially for black single mothers.  I couldn't help but feel sympathy for their plight.  Desmond writes in such a way that I felt like I could be in their shoes quickly.  A medical crisis, loss of a job, a natural disaster, who knows what, could be all it takes to get an average family evicted and into the cycles he describes.  On the other hand, nearly all of the people he profiles have some history of drug abuse, a criminal record, dropped out of school, had children out of wedlock, or some combination of the above.  While I am a firm believer in second chances in life, you can't ignore the fact that some (many?) who share the struggles of Desmond's subjects are where they are as a result of their poor choices.

I have some sympathy for Desmond's solution: expanding housing vouchers.  He sees housing as a basic human right, and sees the private housing market as the best way to provide it.  People who can't afford housing should have access to vouchers, which would be cheaper than shelters, and certainly cheaper than all of the social costs associated with housing instability.  His policy proposals are the meat of the book, but the bulk of the content is his narrative account of the lives of the poor.  This narrative sets Evicted apart, spotlighting a side of life that few middle-class or upper-class Americans ever see.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Nazi Hunters, by Andrew Nagorski

Today, we commonly, almost universally think of Nazis as the worst kind of criminal.  Andrew Nagorski tells the stories of many of those who have hunted and prosecuted those criminals in The Nazi Hunters.  Nagorski follows the history from the time during and immediately after World War 2 up to the present day.  Obviously, the story won't go on much longer, as the Nazis from the WW2 era are nearly extinct.

Some of the names of the Nazi hunters may be familiar, especially Simon Wiesenthal.  Nagorski makes plain that, while the crimes of the Nazis were heinous, the Nazi hunters, despite their virtuous mission, were no strangers to violence and skirting the law.  One of the themes Nagorski visits is the antipathy toward Nazi hunting among the German people.  Many Germans, understandably, just wanted to forget about that period of history.  Despite the efforts of the Allies and of the post-war German government, many Nazi officials and sympathizers retained power in East and West Germany.

Holocaust deniers persisted (and still persist).  Some of the Nazi hunters saw their task not as revenge or even justice, but as a mission to ensure that future generations never forgot the Holocaust.  By recording testimony of camp guards, Nazi commanders, and camp survivors, and by presenting evidence (that is, any they could find that wasn't destroyed by the Nazis), a record was created that should not be subject to dispute.  It's an ugly chapter in human history, but one that should not be ignored or forgotten.

The lives of the Nazi hunters weren't as dramatic as the action heroes in the movies about Nazi hunters, but their task was important.  The excuse of "just following orders" wouldn't wash with them.  As Nagorski recounts, Nazi's attitudes ranged from willful ignorance to malicious animosity.  Whatever the case, only a small number of the guilty were punished.  Were it not for the Nazi hunters, that number would have been even smaller.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Best. State. Ever., by Dave Barry

Dave Barry.  Funniest.  Writer.  Ever.  Sure, he has great source material, spending his time as a columnist in southern Florida.  In Best. State. Ever., Barry travels the highways and byways of this silly state and gives readers reason to love it.

Sure, Florida has become a national joke in recent years, ever since the "hanging chad."  But, as Barry points out, it's not Florida's fault.  It's all the immigrants from other states who can't find their way home.  Like rats in a maze who can't find their way out of a box, all these migrants are flummoxed by this oddly-shaped piece of land that is surrounded by water on three sides.  "They keep coming and coming, because it's warm, because it's wild, because it's weird, because whatever.  People keep coming to Florida, and things keep happening here."

Playing tourist in his own state, Barry visits spots like a firing range called "The Machine Gun Experience," the "Skunk Ape" center (Florida's Bigfoot), Spongeorama, Weeki Wachee (featuring the famous mermaids), and Key West.  (He certainly does not visit Disneyworld.)  He provides his inimitably hilarious commentary and observations:

On alligator "wrestling"; "The gators display the same fighting spirit as a Barcalounger."

On the Machine Gun Experience: "Show me a group of individuals who are spending a Sunday afternoon entertaining themselves by using explosives to blow up, say, major appliances, and I will show you a group of males.  Any females in the area will be holding their fingers in their ears and saying, 'Why?'"

On Miami: "the disorderly, haphazard, weird, sensuous, sometimes dangerous, often insane and always unpredictable place where I live."

On the Everglades, which he finds to be exceedingly dull, but in which there's always the chance of being eaten by something: "Florida: even our boring parts are exciting."

Like virtually every book I've ready by Dave Barry, Best. State. Ever. had me laughing out loud at least once per page.  Before you plan your next Florida vacation, be sure to read this.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails? by Carmela LaVigna Coyle, illustrated by Mike Gordon

If only it were this easy!  A family is sitting around asking, "What can we do for a super fun day?"  They decide, "The national parks look like a good place to play."  So they load up the car, and visit a dozen national parks.  Don't I wish!  So goes Carmela LaVigna Coyle's Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails? 

It's an over-simplified idea, of course.  Anyone who has travelled to our national parks knows that, in most cases, you have to plan carefully and well in advance.  But those details are for the grown-ups. This book is for the kids!  Coyle, along with Mike Gordon's cute illustrations, manages to capture the essential idea of these national parks in a couple of pages each.  It's enough to inspire young and old readers to start making plans now for a visit.  A lava tunnel?  A mule ride into a canyon?  Giant cacti?  A moose?  Gorgeous views?  Count me in!

Do Princesses and Super Heroes Hit the Trails? is simple and fun and is sure to plant some seeds in little minds who are already planning their next vacation.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Spirit Magnet in Texas, by Ann Bridges

I gotta admit, I'm quite skeptical of claims about ghostly activity, so a book about ghosts would not normally appeal to me.  But Ann Bridges has lived for many years in the Fort Worth area (where I live) and writes about her encounters in Fort Worth and around Texas, so I decided to check out Spirit Magnets in Texas: 20 Ghostly Encounters.

This woman has had repeated experiences with ghosts, both in public places and in her own homes.  I don't know if she's looking for it more than others, or has a natural sensitivity, but I would guess very few of us have similar experiences.  She uses an "EMF detector" to measure the presence of spirits, and a "spirit scanner" through which spirits actually speak to her.

I have to admit, even reading her first-hand accounts, and seeing the photographs that contain mysterious orbs or blurry images of faces or figures that weren't there, my skepticism remains high.  Sorry, Ms. Bridges.  However, one thing I really enjoyed about her book is the tidbits of history.  Towns like Granbury, Mineral Wells, and Bandera, and historic places like the Fort Worth Stockyards and the Alamo and the neighboring Menger Hotel have such rich histories and endless anecdotes.  Her stories of ghosts in those places really make history . . . come alive?  Now I know where the namesake of my high school, Richard King, can be found--in his suite at the Menger.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Josiah's Fire, by Tahni Cullen

I really don't know what to do with this book.  Josiah's Fire: Autism Stole His Words, God Gave Him a Voice, written by Tahni Cullen, Josiah's mother, and Cheryl Ricker, describes Josiah's early use of language, his diagnosis of autism and loss of language, and his incredible expressions of language later on.

At first, Josiah's Fire is a poignant memoir of parenting a child with autism.  When Josiah, a seemingly typical child, began acting detached from his surroundings and stopped speaking, his autism diagnosis hit the Cullens hard.  Parents of children with autism can relate to the desolation and frustration with God, their social awkwardness in relating to parents of typical children, and their many efforts, through schools, therapies, and treatments, to recover the child they felt they had lost.  This is the book I was expecting.

I did not anticipate the turn the Cullen's life took when he unexpectedly began to communicate in ways they never expected.  He started to show signs of interacting, spelling simple words on his iPad.  Then, after reading about Jesus healing a blind man, he typed "godisagoodgiftgiver."  Thus began his writing, which poured out, showing spelling and writing ability that he had never shown, along with spiritual insight that defied natural explanations.

Here Josiah's Fire--and the Cullens family--takes a turn for the unbelievable, the unexpected, the unprecedented.  Josiah wrote and wrote, describing his trips to heaven, where he sat at a table with other students to learn from the likes of Moses and Abraham Lincoln.  He describes long-dead family members he meets there, and what their jobs are.  He has prophetic insight into his mother's life, and theological insight that astounds his family.

His writing is enigmatic, insightful, and at times poetic.  Keep in mind that he was not yet seven when he wrote that first phrase, and began writing more and more.  His use of language almost makes him sound like a non-native English speaker, which makes sense, since he really hadn't learned to write at all before he began getting these revelations.  Here are some snippets:

In the Trinity, the Father is the manager.  The Son is the love of operations.  Holy Spirit is worker.  So it's the three-in-one getting things done. 

So voice the little hands to say, "Pick me, Jesus!  I am that person who will partner with your plan to be the fullness of miracles in this earth!" 

If you order something from God's list, you should get it.  If you don't right away, you should make another call and ask why.  Order it up again.  Then it will be spoken to the warehouse that you want that thing, and checked it is on God's list for you to have it. 

The world is trialed now only by the truth.  Break, taste, drink, see that the truth is so good.  Trials are to truth, not to suffering.

As you might imagine, Josiah's parents were overwhelmed with Josiah's writing.  They began posting them on Facebook, gaining a following.  Some of his writings were very specific, and directed toward certain people, who confirmed their accuracy.  Theologically, I saw nothing objectionable or contrary to scripture.  Whether his descriptions of heaven are accurate--well, I suppose I'll just have to wait and find out.

Interestingly enough, Josiah prophesied healing for autism.  Yet he still acted out, had tantrums, and interacted with others in ways that indicate autism.  He felt frustration that his physical body would not behave sometimes, while he had such insights and spiritual experiences.  (During his heavenly forays, he did not have autism.)

So, what to do with Josiah's Fire?  For parents of children with autism, it may be hard to relate to Josiah and his family.  I never got the sense that they believe this type of communication would become the norm.  But do I believe that individuals with autism can have spiritual insights and experience the presence of God?  Absolutely.  They just may not have the ability to describe it.  In the meantime, I'll rejoice with Josiah's family that they have been given such a gift and appreciate the wisdom and insight that Josiah's unique link to heaven can give.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!