World of Trouble, by Ben Winters

Ben Winters' The Last Policeman trilogy comes to an end in World of Trouble.  Hank Palace's investigation in this third book is personal.  With only days before the meteor is due to crash into the earth, Palace is desperate to find his sister Nico.  As we learned in books 1 and 2, Nico has been a part of a group that believed a secret government plot was going to destroy the asteroid.

Palace teams up with his thief acquaintance from book 2 to go on a cross-country search.  OK, I'll save you the trouble.  He finds her but things don't work out like he thought they would.  On the one hand, Winters brings together some of the themes and plot lines from the other two books.  On the other hand, it's all very anticlimactic and dull.  By the end I was cheering for the asteroid--come on, get this thing over with!

Good News! It's Christmas, by Glenys Nellist

Christmas is around the corner (I know it is because last week--the last week of September--Wal-Mart had a forest of Christmas trees for sale. . . .) so here's a new Christmas book.  Glenys Nellist has written Good News! It's Christmas, with illustrations by Lizzie Walkley.

This is definitely for the very young, pre-reading set.  Moms and Dads might get tired of the simple, sing-songy rhymes, but toddlers will eat it up and remember the words.  The pictures are a cute, child-friendly, sanitized version of the Nativity story.  It's a simple book, perfect for snuggling up for story time by the fireplace in the weeks leading up to to Christmas.

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

Someone Farted, by Bruce Eric Kaplan

The Krupke's weekly trip to the supermarket took a nasty turn when
SOMEONE FARTED.
That's the title of Bruce Eric Kaplan's book about a foul smell and the way it derails a routine family outing.  No one will take the blame.  The smell permeates through the car.  Dad is so distracted that he gets pulled over.  The policeman takes them all to jail.  And still, no one will admit they dealt it.

This is a silly, fun book that most any kid and family can relate to.  There's no particular lesson, although it's nice to see how the experience brings the family together.  Check it out.

Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge, by Jeanine PIrro

Judge Jeanine Pirro has a popular Fox News show on Saturday nights.  Her no-nonsense, confrontational tone comes through in her new book Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge: The Left's Plot to Remake America.  It's an (almost) up-to-the minute account of the attacks on the Trump administration and his agenda.  (Seriously, somehow her publisher shrank the usual months between completion and publication down to weeks or days.  I guess that's how publishers have to work in the fast-moving world of Trump tweets and the 24-hour news cycle.)

In her inimitable style, Pirro takes apart the left's positions on the border, on socialism, on the basket of issues with which the left tries to out liberal itself.  If you watch her show or follow conservative news, most of what you read here won't be news to you.  But piling it all together in a brief book makes you realize how much it really stinks. 

The bad news is that by the time you read this, it's already old news.  The good news is that Pirro has gathered her perspectives on the news here in one place, and the better news is that she is, I am certain, already hard at work on the next book in the saga of the Democrats' Quixotic quest to take down Trump.

Strings - The Ables Book 2, by Jeremy Scott

In The Ables, Jeremy Scott put a fresh twist on the superhero origin story, turning a special ed class into a band of superheroes.  I loved the message of inclusiveness and empowerment.  In the sequel, Strings - The Ables Book 2, Scott picks up the story a few years later.  The kids are older, and the special ed class is now larger, bringing in some new emerging heroes.

In the years since The Ables, custodians, as people with super powers are called, have become personae non gratae.  Residents of their enclave of custodians are disappearing, and custodians are showing up around the country doing uncharacteristically criminal acts around the country.  When Phillip, the leader of the Ables, has to face down his own father multiple times, he knows that someone else is controlling the bad acting custodians.

Phillip and his friends show extraordinary creativity as they begin to realize that they are more powerful than they had realized, and that by working together they can be even more powerful.  In Strings, the themes of disability and inclusion fade more into the background, but still play a crucial role in the Ables' activities as they take on those who want to lock up all the custodians.

Book 2 is not as fresh as The Ables, and Scott makes a few leaps in the plot that make the story more uneven than I remember The Ables being.  But it's still a lot of fun and inspiring, a reminder that even those who society looks at as disabled have extraordinary abilities indeed.


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

Squirm, by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen is one of the most entertaining writers around.  In his latest YA nature lovers book, Squirm, he makes a rare departure from Florida to the Rocky Mountains.  Snake-loving, socially awkward Billy Dickens has little memory of his dad.  But he knows Mom gets a regular check from him.  Mom tries to keep Billy from knowing anything about his dad, but Billy manages to reconstruct the return address on a shredded envelope and promptly books a ticket to Montana to surprise his dad.

Dad is working mysteriously in the mountains, but Dad's wife and stepdaughter take Billy in.  As Billy learns about what his dad is actually doing, they team up to thwart a wealthy poacher.  Back in Florida, and then back in Montana, they face off with a guy who loves his money, loves to hunt, and has no respect for endangered animals (or plentiful species, for that matter).

Squirm is a fun story, and Hiaasen fills it with his trademark nature-loving, anti-development characters.  Billy's family (and step family) are quirky and lovable, and he is brave, smart, and a little bit pathetic (in a lovable way).  Hiaasen takes some plot shortcuts at times, but I still enjoyed the story.

Please Stop Helping Us, by Jason L. Riley

I am interested to see the rise of conservative African Americans who are willing to buck the Democratic Party line.  Jason L. Riley has had enough of white liberals and left-wing politicians "helping" the black community.  In Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, Riley bucks the standard positions of black leaders and calls on American to stop looking at race in creating public policy.

Writing during Obama's second term in the White House, Riley wonders how, with a black man in the highest office in the land, the overall progress of blacks in America stalled and even took steps backwards.  Typical liberal policies and talking points, like higher minimum wage laws, softening of crime enforcement, opposition to charter schools, and affirmative action in higher education, while intended to help blacks, end up harming them, on the whole.

With black kids disproportionately suffering through poor education in failing schools, it seems that giving black families more choices in selection of schools would be a no-brainer.  But liberal political leaders and teachers' union leaders, who tend to send their own children to private schools, consistently oppose public funding for charter schools, despite evidence of their success. 

On crime, liberals look at statistics that seem to show disparities in sentencing and enforcement, where blacks are stopped more often, arrested more often, and receive harsher sentences.  In response, liberals want to lessen penalties and enforcement, which ends up harming law-abiding blacks when their communities are not policed appropriately. 

Riley surely hasn't made many friends in the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or the Democratic Party.  But that doesn't mean he's wrong.  He has facts and history on his side, and, for the sake of blacks in America, we should hope that more black leaders like him rise to prominence.

50 Things They Don't Want You to Know, by Jerome Hudson

Jerome Hudson, and editor for Breitbart.com, has been around the media world long enough to see that most media outlets have an agenda and a perspective, and if you try to report something outside of that agenda, well, the story might just get buried.  In 50 Things They Don't Want You to Know, Hudson takes 50 of these topics and provides the sources, statistics, and charts and graphs to arm the reader with corrective information and talking points.

You might just want to read the book straight through, like I did.  But because of the structure of the book, it's handy as a reference.  Maybe he should send copies to the "fact checkers" at newspapers and web sites, who tend to be very liberal and disingenuously favor left-wing perspectives.  Take any given chapter title, such as "From 2012 to 2016, More Black Women in New York City Had Abortions Than Gave Birth," "The U.S. Resettled More Refugees in 2018 That Any Other Nation," or "For Every $1 a Netflix Employee Donates to a Republican, $141 Gets Donated to Democrats," and contrast Hudson's information to what you might read in the mainstream media. 

You'd be correct to assume that Hudson is on the right, given his association with Breitbart, but he's not a shill for Trump.  He is interested in people hearing the whole story, not a media talking point.  It's also interesting to note that he is African-American.  Coming from a white writer, some of his positions regarding affirmative action, black crime, or welfare might be taken as racist, but as a black man from the South, his perspective has additional weight.  For instance, he writes "We are either an affirmative action America, where some among us are held to a lower standard based on skin color, or we are all equal under law, free to fail or succeed no matter what group we happen to be born into.  Both cannot be true."

On many topics, the media outright lies, or at least leaves out significant facts.  For instance, for all the media-induced panic over plastic in the ocean, leading to straw bans and children's protests, we never hear from the media that "About 90 percent of the planet's plastic pollution comes from a few rivers in Asia and Africa."  But instead of stories about banning plastics along those few rivers, they want us to be upset about straws in Starbucks. 

Keep Hudson's book handy next time you're reading a story in the New York Times or watching CNN.  If they are covering a topic that is related to one of Hudson's 50 chapters, arm yourself with the full truth, check Hudson's sources, and draw your own conclusions. 


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

NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, by Nathan W. Pyle

Living in New York City is different from living in most cities and towns, as Nathan Pyle discovered when he moved there from Ohio.  To help out his fellow transplanted New Yorkers, he has written NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, an illustrated guide to navigating the mores and manners of New York City.

A lot of his tips are on the theme of "Stay out of everyone's way!"  In a city where millions of people are living in a few square miles, people have to be a bit more aware of their surroundings and of the people around them. 

Besides the human interactions, Pyle offers some ideas about navigating in the city, especially Manhattan.  It can be confusing, but Pyle can help you grasp the logic of the street layout, as well as its quirks.

Much of Pyle's treatment of New York City is, at times, rather contradictory.  On the one hand, New Yorkers are always ready to help, it's a great community, they look out for each other.  On the other hand, New Yorkers are always ready to pick your pocket, rip you off, or shove you out of the way.  Both things can, of course, be true at the same time. 

NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette is a handy little book which visitors and transplants to New York can benefit from.  The pictures are fun and engaging, without being infantile or insulting.  Here's what I didn't like about it: in my experience, New Yorkers hold themselves and their city in undeservedly high regard.  On multiple occasions, I have been the recipient of condescension from New Yorkers who think we Texans are backwards simpletons.  I will remind Pyle that most of what he says about being considerate of others is equally applicable in Texas and Ohio as in New York.  The content that is specifically regarding crowded conditions, public transportation, and dense population applies equally to urban centers in the U.S. and around the world.

Despite the New Yorker arrogance that Pyle has taken on, although good naturedly, this is a fun book that New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike will enjoy reading and sharing with their friends.

The Children of the Sky, by Vernor Vinge

In 1992, Vernor Vinge won the Hugo Award for best novel for A Fire Upon the Deep.  In 1999, he published a prequel, A Deepness in the Sky, which also won the Hugo Award.  In 2011, he published a third book in the "Zones of Thought" series, The Children of the Sky, which was met with more tepid praise but still won a couple awards.

Unfortunately, Children of the Sky does not measure up to the first two books in this series.  The only thing epic about this third book is its length.  The children who were on the stranded ship from A Fire on the Deep have been revived and have established a community of sorts among the dog-pack natives of the planet.

In Children of the Sky, the humans and the dog packs form alliances, using the ship's technology and the dog packs' medieval technology to develop civilization.  Their alliances split and butt heads, vying for dominance.  I kept waiting for this growing culture clash to impact the larger movements around other planets and interplanetary civilizations, but Vinge keeps it all on planet.

The story goes on and on, doing little to keep my interest and become engaged in the story and the fate of the characters.  It only briefly and tangentially makes reference to the larger narrative introduced in the first two books.  So the result is an overly lengthy, dull, inconsequential story. 

God and Man at Yale, by William F. Buckley, Jr.

When William F. Buckley, Jr., published God and Man at Yale in 1951, it made a huge splash in the academic world, the political world, and launched a great career in journalism and political commentary.  Buckley, who later founded National Review magazine and hosted "Firing Line" for decades, became a fixture in American political media, and this book is what started it all.

So for that historical context, God and Man at Yale is an important and interesting read.  Buckley opines about his student days at Yale, calling out specific professors and textbooks to demonstrate the anti-Christian, anti-capitalist attitudes that had begun to prevail in one of America's oldest and most distinguished institutions of higher learning.  He didn't make many friends in the Yale community with this book, but he made a lot of friends and gained a following in the wider world.

The references are dated and the professors are more than likely all dead, but the book remains in print because of the questions it raises.  Academic freedom and the predominance of left-wing ideas remain hot topics in universities today.  And the conservative movement of which he was at the vanguard continues to own much of its intellectual energy to Buckley.  Read through the filter of history, the relevance still shouts out to the reader.

Backlash, by Brad Thor

If you are a fan of Brad Thor's Scot Harvath books, I know you have been eagerly waiting to read Backlash.  And if you are a fan of Harvath, you probably won't be disappointed.  As readers will remember from the end of the previous book, Spymaster, Harvath's wife and mentor are killed and he's snatched by the murders.  Picking up at that point, Harvath has been beaten badly by his captors who have him on a plane on the way to Russia.

When their plane crashes above the Arctic Circle, Harvath's fight for survival is only beginning.  He takes out his captors and then goes on the run, trying to survive in the frigid snow, knowing the Russian mercenaries are on his tail and he has to scramble for the border.  It will not surprise the reader to know that Harvath can figure out how to outsmart and out-survive the nasty ol' Russians.

Eventually the global implications of the story come into focus--after all, Russian operatives snatched an American citizen from U.S. soil.  But most of the story is simply raw Harvath at his toughest and deadliest.  This is an exciting, adrenalin-pumping read that successfully continues the legend of Harvath.  Eat it up, Harvath fans.

A Particular Kind of Black Man, by Tope Folarin

Tope Folarin, who was born to Nigerian immigrants in Utah, has written his first novel, about the son of Nigerian immigrants who lived in Utah.  A Particular Kind of Black Man is a novel, but even the most cursory look at Tope Folarin's bio tells you that there must be a strong streak of autobiography in the book.  It reads like a memoir of Tope's childhood, through the character of Tunde Akinola.

Tunde and his family are the only black family in a small Utah town.  It's a strange place for a Nigerian family to end up, and Tunde struggles with being so different from everyone else.  He is hopeful that a move to Texas will bring him into contact with other black kids, but he is still the "other" as an immigrant.  Even in college, on a campus where virtually everyone is black, he continues to struggle to find his place and identity.

Folarin has a strong literary voice.  The realism is certainly expected, given the (apparently) autobiographical content.  But Folarin adds some elements that, to me, distracted from the narrative.  He has a recurring theme where he questions whether he is remembering things as they were, or as he hoped they would be.  I thought he might be taking the story in a sci-fi, parallel universe, sliding doors sort of direction, but, no, it was just an insecure guy.  Also, at times he drifted in the second person narrative while he's talking about himself.  Most of the book is told in the first person, but at times he starts that second person memoir style, which I abhor.

This is a memoir with heart, and captures the half-way existence of immigrants, who feel not wholly American, and not wholly Nigerian (or whatever their home country is).  But the lack of drama and direction, along with the weird two-reality sidelines and the second person narrative, made this a just OK memoir/novel to me.


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

The Long Walk Home, by Matt Carter

Matt Carter, pastor of Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, has a message for Christians who have wandered from God.  In The Long Walk Home: Discovering the Fullness of Life in the Love of the Father, Carter writes an extended treatment of the story of the prodigal son.  In the familiar biblical story, a son demands his inheritance from his father, squanders it in a faraway land, and, after he hits bottom, returns to his home, where his father joyfully welcomes him home.

To Carter, the parallel for Christians is that we often come to believe that a better, more satisfying life awaits us in a faraway land than what we can experience with God.  Our faraway land may not be an actual other land. Rather, we try all the things of this world, outside of the will of God, seeking satisfaction and happiness, always coming up short.

This theme was the most convicting and powerful thread of the book.  "When our hearts are divided and we give part of our heart to some other person or possession, that hinders and muddies our experiences of God's presence.  So if the fullness of joy is found in God's presence, if you have a divided heart, you simply cannot experience that fullness."  Simply put, you won't experience the joy of knowing God if you are harboring sin.  "The bad news for the believer walking in sin is that it will produce emptiness and misery every single time."

As bleak as that sounds, Carter's message is a message of great hope.  "There is a place, and a home, and a Person that will always take you back, restore you to wholeness, and fill the deepest longings of your heart."  No matter how far you have wandered, how low you have fallen, home miserable you are, God will take you back.  "God is home to me.  And you are His child, He is home to you. . . . He will never let go of you.  Friends, not believing that is the first barrier that keeps us coming home to the Lord when we fail Him."

Carter writes with a lot of honesty about his own life, and a tone of directness that puts the reader in the spotlight of truth.  Every Christian, no matter how long you have been walking with God or how long you have been wandering in a faraway land, needs this message.  Be prepared for deep conviction and hard questions.  Don't say I didn't warn you.


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

The Night of His Birth, by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Lisa Aisato

Katherine Paterson's The Night of His Birth, with illustrations by Lisa Aisato, is breathtaking.  I love it.  It's the night of Jesus birth, and the young mother Mary is reflecting on the miracle of her pregnancy and the wonder of this child she has birthed.  She faced scorn and doubt from her own family.  Her mother "could not believe the good news my swelling body bore."  Joseph chose to trust her.  "Not knowing--he trusts."  She can hardly believe her own position.  "God's anointed one upon my breast, with milk, just there, at the corner of his mouth."

Some of Mary's emotions are the same as any new mom's.  But her feelings are multiplied by the stunning reality that this is God's perfect son.  I love the emotion, the reflection, the powerful watercolor art.  The Night of His Birth can be your next Christmas Eve classic.


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

The Red Suitcase, by Giles Baum

With sparse text and simple pictures, Giles Baum's The Red Suitcase tells the story of a little dragon who takes his red suitcase on a long journey.  Through adventures and perils, the dragon finally arrives at a place where he can find acceptance and safety.  Whether escaping from something, moving on to another stage in life, or simply looking for a change, this is a cute reminder that getting there can be an adventure, taking risks and/or having fun, but finding one's place is a reward all its own.




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

Heroes of the Realm, by Kerry Nietz, et al.

One of the characteristics of a good anthology is that even though you may have picked it up because it features one or two of your favorite authors, you ended up with a list of some new faves.  Heroes of the Realm: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Anthology, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, gathers stories from authors of the Realm Makers network.

I wanted to read Heroes of the Realm because some of my favorite sci-fi authors are featured.  The book includes stories from Steve Rzasa, Paul Regnier, and Kerry Nietz, whose novels I have read and enjoyed.  Regnier's and Nietz's stories include characters from some of their successful series of novels, so fans will really enjoy these worthy additions to those fictional universes.  (If the other authors' stories are related to their other works, I haven't read them.)  Nietz's "Hard's Watcher" is a great slice-of-life story of his memorable HardCandy character.

Most of the other authors were unknown to me, but across the board made some quality contributions.  In particular, I'd love to read more from Teisha J. Priest, whose story "The Librarian Who Would Be King" is a fun space opera in miniature.  I admit that my tastes lean very much toward the sci-fi side of the sci-fi and fantasy genre, and I was a little disappointed in the slight lean toward fantasy in this collection.  The fantasy stories are good, but the sci-fi stories are better.

Whatever your tastes, get a taste of the stories in Heroes of the Realm.  Revisit some favorite authors and read some new ones.  All-in-all, it's a solid collection.




Check out Realm Makers: https://realmmakers.net/

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov

I recently watched the movie The Bookshop (and enjoyed it).  Part of the plot was the bookseller's decision to stock the newly published, controversial novel Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov.  I know of Lolita, but had never read it, so I checked out the audiobook and gave it a listen.

Well, talk about an overrated and overhyped book.  In my limited opinion, the only thing that sets Lolita apart is the scandal of its publication.  As is well-known, Lolita is about a middle-aged man who has an affair with a young girl.  I previously thought the man was her teacher, and he was her tutor, but he ended up becoming her mother's lover, then husband, so he could get access to Lolita.  When Lolita's mother died, he and Lolita hit the road, traveling across the U.S., carrying on their affair around the country.

The bottom line is it's a mediocre book about a taboo relationship.  The literary quality does not outweigh the ponderous narrative, the question of morality aside.  I remain convinced that the popularity and notoriety of the book remains only because of prurient interest and the historical anomaly of its publication.  Read it or don't, just don't expect a great book.

Countdown City, by Ben H. Winters

An asteroid is barreling toward earth.  Everyone has just weeks to live.  But Hank Palace is still trying to keep a semblance of order and purpose.  In Countdown City, the second book in the Last Policeman trilogy, an old friend comes to him for help finding her missing husband.

What could have been a simple missing person investigation is exponentially complicated by the state of societal breakdown in these last days.  Hank tracks him down, discovers the husband's justice-fueled quest, and cracks the case--sort of.  It's a hodgepodge.  Then throw in his sometimes-crazy sister's ideas about government conspiracies, and the evidence that she might be on to something, and it gets a little wilder.

I didn't like this book as well as the first, but I have to admit it left me with enough questions and curiosity that now I have to find out the fate of civilization in the third book.  World of Trouble, coming up next.

Do Over, by Jon Acuff

Jon Acuff is a writer, entrepreneur, and sometimes comedian who has found his niche telling people how they can make the most of their careers and work life.  Do Over: Make Today the First Day of Your New Career explains itself in the title, but, in my view, didn't live up to the promise of the cover.

Acuff emphasizes building your career savings account: relationships plus skills plus character, all multiplied by hustle.  When a job change happens, whether by one's own choice or by someone else's, it helps to have the CSA full of lots of credit. 

This alone is a great policy.  Develop and maintain great relationships.  Work on your skills and acquire new ones.  Keep your character and work ethic exemplary.  And in the midst of it all, hustle, work your tail off.  This is great advice for that new graduate in his first job, the near-retiree, or anyone in between. 

But the point of Do Over, moving to a new career and all, is a whole other animal.  For Acuff, who's a creative writer with an entrepreneurial bent, jumping from company to company to his own deal makes sense, for him.  But people with more specific skills and training, or with more general administrative skills, I think this is a miss.  The whole time I was reading, I was thinking, yeah, this isn't for me, or for most anyone else I know.

He's a funny guy, and fun to read, and certainly the idea of the career savings account is solid.  But for someone looking for "next steps" to a new job or career, he or she might want to look elsewhere.

Lost and Found, by Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is, of course, most famous for Ender's Game and its sequels.  His newest book, Lost and Found, has the same target audience, and features some of the same type of precious teens with unusual talents, but that's about as far as the comparisons go.

In Lost and Found we meet teens who have micropowers.  These are like superpowers, only less useful or significant.  (For example, the ability to make people yawn, or to tell whether someone's belly button is an innie or outie.)  The main character Ezekiel can see something that's lost and intuitively know whose it is and where to find that person.  This got him into trouble when he was younger, because no one believed him when he said he just knew where things came from; they assumed he stole them.  So he suppressed his power.  Nevertheless, all the kids shunned him, labelling him a thief.

Then several things happened: a detective read Ezekiel's file and tried to enlist him to find a missing girl.  Beth, a classmate with proportional dwarfism, started walking to school with him, forcing her friendship on him against his initial rebuffs.  And the school counselor encouraged him to go to a group called GRUT, Group of Rare and Useless Talents.  This is where Ezekiel and other teens with micropowers meet with researchers who help them develop their talents.

As he learns more about his micropower, Ezekiel decides to work with the detective.  As it turns out, the detective is with the FBI, investigating a significant child trafficking ring.  When Beth goes missing, Ezekiel is, of course, eager to do what he can to find her.

Card's writing is a lot of fun.  He deals with serious questions about things typical teens struggle with, serious questions about the complexities and implications of micropowers, and, as you might expect, mixes in plenty of good humor and fun.  I really enjoyed the banter between Ezekiel and Beth, as well as their mild smart-alecky attitude against authority figures.

I also enjoyed Ezekiel's relationship with his father.  Ezekiel's mother was hit by a car and killed when Ezekiel was very young, so his dad has had to be a solo parent.  It's nice to see a parent portrayed as wise and helpful, not a buffoon.

On the question of micropowers, the FBI agent who recruited Ezekiel wonders if everybody has one, "only we thing the stuff we're doing just happens by chance."  On the surface, Lost and Found is an entertaining adventure story with some silly premises and plot twists.  But Card raises some good questions about using our gifts, whatever they are, about accepting people who are different, and about faithfulness to friends and family.

Lost and Found is not your typical superhero origin story, and it's very different from Ender's Game, but should have a broad appeal for readers of all ages.


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

Assume the Worst, by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen writes some of the most hilarious fiction around.  I don't know if he has ever given a commencement address, but after the publication of Assume the Worst: The Graduation Speech You'll Never Hear I don't think his in-box will be filled with invitations.  Yes, he's hilarious, but Assume the Worst is a little too realistically bleak to be very enjoyable.

Hiaasen takes some traditional advice and douses it with a big bucket of cold water.  "Live each day as if it's your last."  Bull.  If you really did that, "you'll soon run out of money, your car will get repossessed, you'll be evicted from your apartment, and the person you're living with will dump you for somebody with a mid-level management job at BrandsMart."

Or, "If you set your mind to it, you can be anything you want to be."  Again, bull.  "Self-delusion is no virtue.  Anyone who tells you the sky's the limit is blowing smoke up your a--."  Hiaasen isn't completely negative.  He knows something about happiness: "It's slippery.  It's unpredictable.  It's a different sensation for everyone."  But it is possible!  "Those of you who own a functioning conscience, a sturdy set of values and a tolerance for hard work ought to do just fine.  You deserve many happy moments." 

So Assume the Worst isn't a complete bummer.  I'm pretty sure he's not going to speak at your kids' graduation ceremony, but maybe his "advice" for graduates is a needed balance to whoever does give that commencement speech.

Follow Chester!, by Gloria Respress-Churchwell, illustrated by Laura Freeman

College football season is in full swing, and if you watch a game you can't help but notice that black players are everywhere.  A generation or two ago, this was not the case.  In the living memory of the elders among us, black players could not play with white players in college or professional football.  When Chester Pierce attended Harvard in the 1940s, he was one of a very few black students.  When the football team went to play an away game against the University of Virginia, many thought he wouldn't be a part, as no black player  had played at Virginia.

In Gloria Respress-Churchwell's charming picture book, Follow Chester!: A College Football Team Fights Racism and Makes History, she tells Chester's story.  His teammates banded together and supported Chester on and off the field.  When a restaurant said Chester had to use the back entrance, the whole team used the back entrance.  When the University of Virginia said Chester couldn't stay at the team hotel, the whole team joined Chester at alternative accommodations.

For the 60 or 70 and under crowd, the reality of Jim Crow is hard to imagine.  For Chester and his generation it was all too real.  He was brave to step out and cross that color line.  His teammates were brave to support him.  Follow Chester, with Laura Freeman's cute illustrations to support Resress-Churchwell's text, will remind kids, black and white, of these ugly days and the heroes that helped our nation overcome.


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

Mad Politics, by Gina Loudon

It seems like there's no end to political books published by media personalities and journalists, as well as current and former political office holders and appointees, on either side of the political spectrum.  Gina Loudon's Mad Politics: Keeping Your Sanity in a World Gone Crazy is one among many, with lots of familiar talking points in defense of President Trump and conservative politics.

Loudon's book stands apart on a couple of points.  First of all, she was an early organizer in the Tea Party movement, when her husband was a state senator in Missouri.  That movement set the stage for Trump's ascendency to the presidency, and Loudon has certainly been a vocal and active Trump supporter.  She writes as somewhat of an insider, shedding some light on the movement.

One of the major themes of Mad Politics is a psychological look at politics.  Loudon looks at the abuses of the psychological profession, representatives of which have diagnosed Trump with mental illness.  They violate their own rules, issuing diagnoses without personally examining him, collectively published a book to that effect, and are happy to talk about it to anyone in the press.  The press, with a confirmation bias that Trump is a loose cannon and too mentally unstable and/or intellectually deficient to be president, repeats their smears.

This is the condition of madness that Loudon criticizes, the hatred of Trump that causes not only professional political commentators and partisan politicians but also medical professionals to rage against the president.  Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best one available: the only reason some people irrationally rage against President Trump is that they are completely unhinged lunatics.  Loudon doesn't put it in such harsh terms, but her perspective and insights are worth a read.

Eyes on the Prize, by Juan WIlliams

If you watched PBS in the late 1980s, you might remember a 14-part documentary series called Eyes on the Prize.  Political commentator Juan Williams wrote a companion volume to the series, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965.  There are plenty of histories of the Civil Rights Movement, most of which I haven't read.  I don't know if this one is the best, but it is definitely readable, relatable, and thorough.

As you might expect, due to its origin as a companion to the films, this book is set apart by two things.  First of all, there are great pictures from the period throughout.  Second, the best thing about the book is the large number of extended first-person accounts of key events.  The book's coverage of the Montgomery bus boycott, the integration of Little Rock Central High School, the Selma march, and other events includes the basic historical account, but it really brings these events to life with the personal accounts by people on the front lines, not just the official voices.

This is a valuable volume that is worth revisiting even now, more than thirty years after its original publication.  Some of these events may be familiar to readers, but, unless you were living during that time or have read widely on the era, you will probably read about events that were previously unknown to you.  May we never stop appreciating the strides our culture has made since that time.

Grace Will Lead Us Home, by Jennifer Berry Hawes

Most Americans remember all to well the news reports of the young white man who attended a Bible study at an historic black church and, after sitting through the study, opened fire, killing nine of the attendees.  We were all inspired by the response of some of the church members, who, just days after this young man killed their family members, told him they forgave him, and invited him to repent and give his life to Jesus.

Jennifer Berry Hawes's Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness thoroughly describes the massacre itself and the aftermath and impact on the surviving family members, church, and community.  The strongest part of the book is the detailed description of the attack at the Bible study.  It's heart-wrenching, tear-jerking.  And the grace and forgiveness displayed by the survivors is inspiring.

Not so inspiring is the ugliness of church politics and greed that arose in the aftermath.  The senior pastor and several other pastors and lay pastors were in attendance at the Bible study.  The church was left without much pastoral leadership in place.  The church, an important congregation regionally, in the denomination, and in African-American history, is a prime pulpit, so the denomination's bishop took over pastoral duties.  When money came rolling in from well-wishers around the world, this pastor was evasive and secretive about the money, which amounted to millions of dollars, and ended up keeping a good chunk of it for facility improvements at church--and who knows what else.

Berry Hawes personalizes this story and its aftermath with a high degree of detail and depth.  One of the surprising elements, at least to me, is the sympathetic treatment she gives the shooter's family.  Apparently his deep racism came not from family tradition, but from his solitary explorations of the dark reaches of the internet.  (By the way, he says he was concerned about black people murdering and raping white people.  So why target a bunch of church ladies at a Bible study?  This is  evidence of his illogical idiocy.)  His parents and grandparents were rightly devastated by his actions. 

This is not an easy book to read, as it shows such an ugly episode up close and personal.  But the theme of redemption and healing is strong, as is the recognition that the race war this shooter wanted to start did not take root.  When hate could have taken the headlines, grace and forgiveness took center stage.


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

Irreparable Harm, by Randy Singer

Ethical dilemmas and hot social-political topics are common fodder for plots in Randy Singer's legal fiction.  His second novel, Irreparable Harm, explores the ethics of surrogate parenting, abortion, and stem-cell research, along with a touch of immigration policy and disability rights.

In a way, the circumstances and plot are a bit to convoluted for their own good.  An immigrant with questionable status is surrogate mother for a first-time mother who is now a widow.  The baby is diagnosed with Down syndrome.  The mother has a few more frozen embryos which may be available for research due to the timing of laws regarding human stem cell research.  The mother wants the baby aborted; the surrogate mother wants to keep the child with Down syndrome.  The young lawyer is falling in love with the immigrant/surrogate mother.  Yes, it's convoluted, but still enjoyable.

Singer treats the issues behind the story thoughtfully, but doesn't beat the reader of the head with a particular perspective, nor does he let controversial topics get in the way of the story.  Also, fans will be amused by the cameo appearances of characters from Singer's earlier novel, Directed Verdict.  (Maybe some more careful reader with a better memory than me can catalog the characters that show up in multiple novels.)  Singer's fans, as well as any fans of legal fiction with a dose of ethical questions, will enjoy Irreparable Harm.

How to Raise a Reader, by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo

For people who love to read, one of the joys of parenthood is seeing one's children read.  New York Times Book Review children's books editors Pamela Paul and Maria Russo published an article in 2017 called "How to Raise a Reader" that was so well-received and widely read that they have expanded it into a book.  How to Raise a Reader is a great resource for parents and caregivers of children of all ages.

Some of their advice is so basic that you think everyone knows it.  But it's the kind of advice that is worth repeating and constantly reminding ourselves of.  They are not huge fans of forcing early reading, but they are fans of exposing children to books, even before the children are born.  Reading for oneself sets a pattern; "If you want to raise a reader, be a reader."  School is important, but that is "where children learn that they have to read.  Home is where kids lear to read because they want to.  It's where they learn to love to read."

Paul and Russo spend time at each developmental stage, encouraging habits and practices that build readers.  Don't be afraid to introduce even small children to "subjects for which they don't have any context."  Through every stage, parents can introduce books and topics that might spur the young reader's interest, but, especially as children mature, "you're not barreling in through the front door of your teenager's reading life" to dictate what they read.  Helpful suggestions and strategically placed books around the house are nice, though.

I love this idea: "Give your child one special book for every birthday in his life, to be kept in a special place on his shelf."  More than that, though, always make sure to have plenty of books available throughout the house, and not simply as keepsakes.  "Books are meant to be read, and well worn books are like living artifacts, their curled or worn or even marked up pages the record of many happy readers."

For each age level, Paul and Russo give lots of recommendations, including classics that were classic when I was a kid as well as books that were published in the last few years.  You'll find plenty of titles that will inspire you to run out to the bookstore to stock up for your kids (or for you!)  And of course you'll be inspired to pick up a book to read to or read with your kids.  Read on!


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

The article that started it all:
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/books/how-to-raise-a-reader?searchResultPosition=2&redirect=true

A Second Shot of Coffee with Jesus, by David Wilkie

I am not a coffee drinker, but I can't get enough of Coffee with Jesus!  David Wilkie's second collection of the online comic strip, A Second Shot of Coffee with Jesus, is even better than the first.  The comics in this new book hit deeper and more profoundly, as a whole, than Coffee with Jesus.

With good humor and a solid theological perspective, Wilkie challenges readers to engage with Jesus and to evaluate their devotional life and habits of service and worship.  When we pray, maybe we shouldn't be asking for stuff, but should be trying to align our needs with what we ask of him. . . .




And when we spend time in prayer, Jesus reminds us that the focus should be on just being with him, whether or not we feel his presence.  We want to know, not just trust, that he is with us.  Jesus says, "The knowing is the trusting."

When we struggle with the basic Christian discipline of memorizing scripture, Jesus might remind us that we don't have any problem remembering the witty lines of our favorite movies.

He also reminds us that we should get the focus off of ourselves.  "You wanna be blessed? . . . Be a blessing."  His advice for those times when we get a bit too self-centered: "Empty yourself."

Sometimes the things we believe about Jesus are not quite on target.  Do we have to choose between Jesus being our Lord or our buddy?  Jesus says, "I"m fine being both." 

We also tend to believe things like "God will never give us more than we can handle."  Jesus calmly reminds us that it can sometimes feel like we have more than we can handle--"until you let me handle it."

Wilkie doesn't have much patience for attributing partisan politics to Jesus, and provides some reminders that Christians have many different perspectives on political matters.

Wilkie uses the simplest of art to communicate some profound theological truths.  Spend some time having coffee with Jesus.  You'll want to come back for more.