Seeking Persephone by Sarah Eden

Adam, Duke of Kielder, is one of the richest of England’s peerage, but is without an heir. He does not like his cousin, the heir presumptive, but neither does he like his prospects of finding a wife. He has a facial deformity and constant pity from his mother and society has made him irascible.  When Adam’s lawyer convinces him that marrying and producing an heir is the only way to thwart his cousin's ambitions, Adam lets the lawyer arrange a marriage for him. Persephone Lancaster is a member of the impoverished aristocracy. Motherless, and with a disengaged father, she has scrimped to stretch their meager living but knows she can offer no real future to her four siblings. When she receives the proposal from Adam which includes an outrageously generous financial settlement for her family, she decides to sacrifice her future for the future of her siblings by marrying a man she has never met.  When she does meet Adam, she is not so concerned about his appearance as his total disregard for her.  Adam is determined not to care about her, but her patience and sweetness makes that progressively hard for him to do.

I must have been just in the right mood for this book this week because it ended out being my favorite Sarah Eden novel so far.  Both Adam and Persephone are well rounded characters, with flaws and strengths that are revealed gradually through the story.  Both have been deeply wounded and have issues to work through, but succeed in the end because they keep trying to make the relationship work.  Ms Eden has based the plot on the story of Persephone and Hades from Greek mythology, but it reminded me more of a Beauty and the Beast story.  The book was clearly written by a woman rather than a man, because there is no discussion at all about sexual urges. At one point they are even lying in the same bed, and the only emotion alluded to is companionship and comfort. Still, the book and story are delightful, sweet and just the right thing for my stressful week. (288 p., 2011)

The Nebula Secret by Trudi Trueit

 Cruz Coronado and his dad live in Hawaii and Cruz is a surfer boy.  His mother, however, was an elite scientist who worked for an organization called The Explorer Academy.  Ever since his mother's death in a tragic accident, Cruz has wanted to be admited to the academy as a student. His dream comes true the summer before his 13th birthday.  He flies to Washington DC and joins 23 ultra talented like-minded tweens from around the world.  Once he is at the academy, however, things don't go smoothly for Cruz. Someone seems to be out to get him, and he doesn't know why. Eventually he figures out that it has to do with his mother and a project she was working on before she died.  Could her death have been more than an accident?  As Cruz and his friends try to figure out the clues, they come closer to mortal danger.

This is the first in a long series produced by National Geographic.  The series is fairly popular at my library so I decided to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The writing is decent and there is definitely a coolness/wish-fullfillment element that I think both girls and boys will enjoy.  At the end of the book there is a note that explains what science/tech in the story was real and what has not yet been invented.  It also highlights several of the real scientists mentioned in the book. Another plus is that the recorded book is read by Ramon de Ocampo, who is one of the best kid's book readers out there right now.  Even though the kids on Cruz' team are all from different countries, de Ocampo does a good job at least suggesting all their different accents.  I put the next book in the series on hold. (2019, 208 p)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

 Will Grayson's best friend, Tiny, is very big and very proudly gay.  Will is sometimes embarrassed by Tiny's flamboyant personality and wants to hide when he hears that Tiny wants to produce a musical play he has written about himself. Meanwhile, another boy names Will Grayson is sarcastic, depressed and offensive.  His only friends is an emo girl and a guy he met online whom he suspects he is in love with. After some high school drama in each of their lives, the two Will Graysons meet on the worst day of the emo Will Grayson's life. The other Will Grayson introduces the emo one to Tiny, and everything changes for a while. Can the island of happiness emo Will Grayson found last?  Will Tiny be able to pull off his musical?  With best friend Will Grayson lose his best friend, or find his first girlfriend?  

I put this book on hold while I was putting together my Pride Month display back at the beginning of June.  It was on all the Pride Month lists.  When it came in I braced myself to read something way out of my normal comfort zone. I do that sometimes just to stretch myself and open my mind. In some ways this was out of my comfort zone.  It contains some, (or really, a lot) of sexually explicit dialog, i.e. locker room type talk.  It is also full of other language, include a whole mine field of F-bombs.  However, there isn't any depictions of sexual acts, either homo or heterosexual.  The book is about coming of age and coming out, but it is mostly about friendship and I can see why it has received a lot of attention.  I would be astounded if it were not on a bunch of banned book lists, and it is probably totally illegal in Florida, but I found it kind of wonderful.  (320 p. 2010) 

Great Courses: Origins of the Human Mind by Stephen P Hinshaw

This is an older series of 24 1/2 hour lectures about the evolutionary origins of the human mind.  Actually, about half of the lectures are a basic introduction to the brain and mind, and how they relate with each other through physiology and psychology. He spends several lectures exploring the most common mental illnesses and tries to show their biological and sociological basis and how these maladies could persist in the genome even through centuries of natural selection. Throughout the lectures he is fairly clinically detached, almost, at times, to the level of creepiness.  He almost seems to regret ethical restrictions that don't allow scientists to do certain kinds of clinical studies. I was therefore a little surprised when he finished the series with a fairly personal story of his own father and his struggle with severe mental illness. Overall, it is a good lecture series.  The presenter is knowlegeable and intelligible.  I have listened to several books and lectures on similar topics, so there wasn't a whole lot of new information for me in this series.  I think the main new take-away I had was that sometimes genes that, in certain combinations, cause mental illness, in other combinations probably helped our ancient ancestors survive. That is somehow oddly comforting. (2010, 12 hrs)

Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee

 Maizy lives in California, but is spending the summer in Last Chance Minnesota with her grandparents. She hasn't had much interaction with them because of tension between her mother and grandmother, but now her grandfather's health is failing and Maizy's mother has come to help run the family Chinese restaurant and care for her father.  Maizy ends up being assigned to keep her grandfather company and they strike up a friendship.  As Maizy's grandfather teaches her how to play poker, he also tells the story of his family's journey to American and their experiences as the only Chinese-Americans in Last Chance.  

This book was a Newbery Honor and a National Book Award finalist this year.  It is well written and gives an age appropriate look into the experience of a multigenerational Chinese American family.  During the Covid-19 epidemic, there was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment because some people blamed China for the epidemic. I think it likely that this book was written in response to that.  I think is is a good response to that, but I didn't think it was a lot better written than a lot of other multicultural realistic fiction that I have read.  Still, it was sweet and sincere.  (2022, 288p.)

Brides and Brothers by Anneka R. Walker

 Camille Kelly is pushing 30 and feeling like her dreams of becoming and wife and mother are slipping away.  She lives with roomates who are also dear friends, but she is about to become ineligible to live in the single's appartment because of her age. One of her roomates, Amy, introduces Camille to Aiden Peterson, the oldest brother of Amy's fiancee.  A spark jumps between the two and within a month, they are married. Only after the marriage does Camille realize that five of Aiden's six younger brothers still live in Aiden's (and now Camille's) home, which Aiden inherited when his parents died.  Camille is overwhelmed to suddenly be the "mother hen" to six adult men, and determines that the only way for her to get the house and her husband to herself is to marry them off to her friends and x-roomates. Her matchmaking schemes are frought with disasters, but also surprising successes.  Meanwhile, Aiden leaves for six weeks, trying to secure a buyer for his computer project in order to become financially independant enough to move him and Camille to their own place.  In his absence, Camille feels lonely and deserted. Can such a quick marriage survive the strain?

I have always enjoyed the musical, Seven Bride for Seven Brothers, and this book is a fun retelling.  It is written by a member of the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I think it wouldn't really make a lot of sense to someone not familiar with the culture. Why would they get married so quickly after such a short aquaintence?  Why would a man feel comfortable with his new wife living in the same house with his five handsome brothers, while he was gone for six weeks?  Why would a young bride decide she was going to cook breakfast every day and do the laundry for her husband's brothers.  Why would six grown men have matching cowboy costumes and know how to sing and dance together.  In the modern world none of these things would seem at all realistic, but I personally know people within the LDS culture who have done or who would do all of those things. It was a bit cringe-worthy, but also mildly refreshing. The writing is decent and the characters are sympathetic. (2021, 211p.)

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

 When Atul Gawande was assigned to a World Health Organization (WHO) taskforce to improve mortality rates during surgery, the challenge felt overwhelming.  Surgery is such a complex task, and no two surgeries are the same. He and other researchers looked to other fields that involve complex tasks, and discovered many manage complexity by using routine checklists.  He was especially impressed with the aviation industry and the checklists they use during flights.  Dr. Gawande wondered if developing simple checklists for an operation team to go through each time they perform a surgery might decrease complications and infection.  Implementing their plan took a lot of effort, but the checklist they developed has saved thousands of lives. Gwande includes many examples from aviation and other fields to propose that any complex task can be improved by creating and using a well-crafted check lists. 

I read this in response to a training I participated in at work.  The presenter of the training challenged us to each examine what we do each day and see if using a routine checklist might help improve efficiency and eliminate human error.  As I read the book and took the challenge, I realized that I already use a lot of checklists at work and in my private life.  Some things like the opening and closing procedures at the library we use daily, while I make other "to-do" lists to keep me on task all week long. The book contains  some depictions of surgery that might be disturbing to some because of Gawande's detailed descriptions.  The story is, overall, is a little dry, but engaging enough I had no problem finishing it. (2011, 224 p)

Every Word Unsaid by Kimberly Duffy

 When Augusta Traver's family became rich and proud, Augusta chafed at the change.  She didn't want to be a society debutant among New York aristocrats.  Instead she took a job as a photo journalists and upset her family by going on risky ventures into untamed regions of the country.  She hoped to avoid scandal by writing her articles using a pen name, but when her true identity is discovered, she decides she and her family will be better off if she travels even further afield. The magazine she works for sends her to India where she plans to visit childhood friends, Catherine and Gabriel.  Once there she is thrilled by the exotic beauty of the place, but soon discovers that India has a dark underside of poverty and injustice.  The longer she stays in India, the more her search for adventure conflicts with her search for meaning and love.

I liked the first book I read by Kimberly Duffy from the "Dreams of India" series, and I liked this one as well.  Duffy researches her setting well and tries to help her readers see and feel what different places and time periods might have been like. I appreciate that she shows a balanced view of India, both the beauty and the misfortune.  The romance between Augusta and Gabriel is sweet, as is Augusta's relationship with her uncle. This is a good choice for someone who likes historical Christian romances but is ready for something not set in the US or England. (368 p. 2021)

Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez

 Aniana loves the water and swimming. That would seem a good thing since she lives on the island of Galveston TX and is surrounded by water.  But her Dominican American mother is terrified of the ocean and forbids Aniana from swimming because of the tragic loss of her twin brother during a hurricane. Her father understands Aniana's love of water, and together they arrange for Aniana to join the school swim team without Aniana's mother knowing. Aniana loves it and does very well, but sometimes after a workout her joints swell and get painful.  She ignores it at first, but finally she cannot hide it anymore. Of course, her mother discovers what she has been doing.  Tension in the family is high as Aniana starts going to doctors and specialists.  Her mother feels her illness is a curse from God for her deception about the swimming.  Will Aniana ever be able to swim again?

This is a story written in free verse explaining what life with juvenile arthritis and with a traumatized mother can be like.  The poetry is sometimes free verse, but occasionally rhymes or has a meter.  The story is well written and feels culturally authentic.  The book is almost as much about the mother overcoming her grief and guilt about her brother as it is about Aniana.  The relationship with the father is also very complex.  Descriptions of the effects of the disease are heart-rending and vivid.  This is a good choice for those early teens who love complex and emotionally charged realistic fiction. (384 p. 2023)

I didn't realize until I typed this that this is so recent.  I am guessing it will show up on potential Newbery lists.  It is just the kind of thing a Newbery committee might like.