The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Starr Carter lives in the slums of large city, but attends an upscale private school where she and her brothers are the only black students.  One night she is in a car when one of her black friends, Khalil, is unjustly shot by a white police officer.  Starr gives her testimony to the police detectives, but that is not the end of her story.  Activists seize on Khalil's death as an opportunity to spotlight racial profiling and protests break out across the country.  Only Starr's family knows that she was the secret witness to the crime, and Starr is torn between her desire to live a normal life, and a growing sense that in order for Khalil to receive justice, she will have to abandon here safe anonymity and speak out.

I read this book for two reasons.  It received starred reviews in every major review journal the year it came out, and it was the most often banned book the year it came out (and it was national Banned Book week.)  It is no surprise that it was frequently banned.  The density of swear words is approaching 20 or 30 %.   There is also a scene where, in the midst of her grief, Star attempts to go "all the way" with her white boyfriend, reaching her hand into his pants.  It was a bit difficult for me to read because I am not used to that gritty of content.

I am glad I persisted. As I tried to plow through the profanity, I kept telling myself that to understand someone you need to "walk a mile in their shoes".  That is what reading the book does, it allows you not only to see but to feel a little of what it is like to have grown up as a racial minority in an underprivileged community.  It feels thoroughly authentic, and the author shows that with all the faults, there is also something of value in the "slums" because people, despite their troubles, grow close and make great sacrifices to try to support each other.  (2017, 444 p.)

So You Want to Be... by Judith St. George

Don't you hate it when you have a long drive ahead, and no recorded book to listen to.  That is the situation I found myself in today.  I spent several minutes looking for a new book, but finally just chose some short children's nonfiction.  They turned out to be a good choice.

Of course, Judith St.George and David Small won a Caldecott medal for their book, "So You Want to be President."  I would guess that the success of that book lead to the creation of these two books.  They all have the same format.  St.George tells interesting facts about Inventors and Explorers, and Small contributes humorous illustrations about the facts.  Although the text about each highlighted figure is brief, St. George manages to make each little paragraph interesting and entertaining.  Some of the facts included are ones I had heard before, but a few were new.  These are the kind of books that I used to leave lying around the house, and then watch and see how many of my kids ended up picking it up and reading it through. 
 (2002/2005, about 54 pages)

Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

After powering through the last book, I was ready for a break so I consumed another of Fluke's fluffy baking mysteries.  In this one Hannah is helping some of her neighbors prepare for a big family reunion.  A long lost uncle Gus shows up to everyone's surprise, but then is murdered the very next day.  Hannah is on the case, cooking up a storm and stirring up local scandal, while getting to the bottom of the grisly crime. 

This is the 10th in the series, but at this point order doesn't seem to matter much.  Hannah's relationship with her two beaus is just the same as it was in book 3, as is her relationship with her family and co-workers.  I think the author is getting a little sloppy.  I didn't think the plot was quite as tight as some of the earlier books.  Still, it was just the kind of mindless entertainment I was in the mood for, so it served its purpose. There was one especially funny scene when three different ladies confess to having seen a tattoo on the victim's behind that made me laugh out loud and was worth the effort of reading the book. I imagine I will read more when I need another mental break. (2008, 324 p.)

Victoria and Abdul, by Schrabani Basu

During Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, she arranges for some men from India to be hired to work as servants in her household.  One of the men hired was Abdul Karim, a 25 year old office clerk from Agra. Something clicked between Karim and the queen, and soon she asked him to give her Urdu lessons.  Karim didn't know much English, but as they learned each other's languages, they became dear friends.  The other members of court were worried about the closeness of the queen and this dark Indian man of low birth and did everything they could to discredit him in the queen's eyes, but she stayed faithful to him, giving him a variety of titles, gifts and a substantial inheritance.  He, in turn, helped her understand India, the land that she ruled but that she would never be able to see. 

I picked up this title because it had been made into a movie.  I wasn't sure when I first checked it out if it were a historical fiction or nonfiction.  The book is definitely written as a nonfiction.  Basu's account is based entirely on historical documents including letters, journals and newspaper articles.  She is very careful not to add to much from her own imagination.  When Victoria died, Karim and his family were hastily thrown out of the estate, and the royal family seized and burned all of his correspondence with the queen.  As a result there is little historical evidence to tell us what Karim felt about his relationship with the queen.  Was he a opportunist, playing on the sympathies of an old and lonely woman as the court thought, or was he an enlightened and wise companion that helped Victoria understand the people over whom she ruled as the queen herself thought?  Basu's resists the temptation to portray Karim as merely a heroic victim of racism and leaves the judgement of his character largely up to the reader.

I must admit I almost gave up on this book half of the way through.  Over and over people accused the Munchi and Victoria defended him.  It was a bit repetitive. I finally got through it by turning the playback speed to 1.50.  Still, I am glad I stuck with it.  It is an intriguing story and a glimpse into real life history on a very human level. (334 p, 2017)

The Serpent's Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

Kira has always been a little embarrassed by her parents.  While she just wants to fit in, they persist in emphasizing her Indian (from India, not native American) heritage. They make her dress up like an Indian princess every Halloween, which is also her birthday.  The year she turns 12 she decides to put her foot down. She is just about to tell her parents she will be a vampire for Halloween, thank you very much, when instead of finding her parents at home, she finds a raging demon tearing up her kitchen.  She is "rescued" from the demon, called a rokkhosh, by two young men who claim to be princes, and starts on a crazy adventure in the world where Indian mythology is real.

When I first saw the cover of this book I wondered if it were in the "Aru Shah" series, but is is not. It is a totally different series also based on Indian mythology but it is like the Aru Shah series in a lot of ways.  There is a lot of demon bashing, psychedelic settings, and crushing on cute demi-gods.  I think it was a bit lighter in tone than Aru Shah.  The demons all speak in very silly rhymes, so that even when they were trying to eat our heroes, it is hard to take them very seriously.  DasGupta ends the book with a note about which stories were based on Indian Bengali folk lore, and a their sources. This is another great choice for those who like Rick Riordan's earlier Percy Jackson series. (2018, 332 p.)

Peak, by Roland Smith

Peak hasn't seen his famous mountain climbing dad in seven years, but he seems to be following in his footsteps.  He loves mountain climbing but there are not many mountains in New York City to climb, so he climbs the next best thing, skyscrapers.  When he is arrested for scaling the Woolworth building, he has two options; 18 months in juvenile detention, or leave the country and live with his dad in Shanghai.  Of course, he chooses to go with his dad, but soon discovers that his dad is not taking him to Shanghai. They are heading for Tibet, and he is about to have his first encounter with the greatest climbing challenge of them all, Everest.

I read this book because I met a 13 year old girl who said she had asked for the book for her birthday.  I have read other of Roland Smith's stuff, and enjoyed it.  I enjoyed this one, too.  Smith definitely did his research on what it is like to attempt to summit Everest.  His descriptions put the reader right in the experience, and he manages not to let the copious detail slow down the narrative. Peak is a likeable and believably flawed 14 year old.  My only problem with the book is that I personally can't understand why anyone would suffer cold, frost bite, and oxygen deprivation, and even risk their life just for the opportunity to say, "I climbed Everest."   That is just the old, risk adverse lady in me.  I am sure adventurous kids, even girls, (apparently) would love this one. (2007, 246 p.)

The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish by Cheryl Harness

Myles Standish was a military man who was contracted to sail with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.  Though not a Pilgrim himself, he stayed and protected the Plymouth colony for the rest of his life. This is an interesting narrative of not only Standish's life, but about the Pilgrim's experience getting to the New World and how they were able to make it through hard times with the help of Native American friends.

So why did I pick up a random book about Myles Standish?  My family folklore claims that one of my ancestors came across on the Anne, three years after the Mayflower, and that Myles Standish performed the wedding for two of my direct progenitors. This turned out to be a good choice to satisfy my curiosity about the time period.  Harness's writing is accessible and interesting and I learned a lot from this book. I had not really thought through how populated the "New World" was when the Pilgrim's arrived.  It took the colonists a while after sighting land before they could find an unoccupied spot to start their colony.  It turns out it was only unoccupied because there had been an ill-fated native village there, and was considered cursed land after everyone in the village died of sickness.  I also hadn't realized that for the first 20 years the colonists struggled to repay the investors who had bankrolled their expedition.  I think if grade schools used books like this instead of text books, the kids would learn a lot more about history and enjoy it a lot more, too. (2006, 144 p.)