Heroes by Alan Gratz

Frank and Stanley's fathers both serve in the Navy Air Corps at Pearl Harbor in 1941.  The boys, one white and one Japanese American, enjoy making up comic book characters and plots together.  One Sunday the boys go with Frank's sister's boyfriend to tour the USS Utah, when suddenly bombs start dropping all around them.  As the boys struggle to get to safety through all that happened during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and afterward, they both have hard lessons on what it really means to be a hero.

I saw this one on the shelf, and being someone who enjoys WWII historical fiction, decided to give it a try. It is a pretty historically accurate description of trauma and destruction of that event. Gratz doesn't sugar-coat anything.  The reader sees soldiers get shot, blown up, even body parts fall from the sky.  Even though Gratz doesn't spend a lot of time describing each scene of blood and gore it was enough that it gave me, a 59-year-old lady, bad dreams. Not only does Gratz describe the battle, he also deals with the instant prejudice Stanley's family suffers after the battle is over. I can imagine a certain set of young readers who would really like this book, and another set who would be really upset by it. This is way more hard-core than the "I Survived" novels.  I suggest a parent/teacher/librarian read the book before handing it to a child. (272 p. 2024)

Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs

 Ben Ripley has survived his first year at Spy School, and even thwarted a an evil plot to kill a lot of people. Now it is summer and all Ben wants to do is go home and hang with his old friends.  It is not to be. Someone failed to tell him that in Spy School summer camp is mandatory. Not long after he arrives at camp, he starts receiving threatening communications from SPYDER. The camp's leadership's attempts to protect him play right into SPYDER's plans.  Can Ben and his friends outsmart SPYDER again, even when it seems they are always one step ahead?

It has been several years since I read the first in this series, but in keeping with the "spy" theme of my previous reading, I thought it would be fun to revisit it. It was fun.  I enjoyed the characters, and was pretty impressed with the mystery plot.  I didn't really see the solution until quite near the end.  I found it even more amusing that they also openly mock James Bond (see previous post:).  I have rarely been disappointed by Stuart Gibbs.  He is a really solid middle grade writer and I need to remember to recommend him to my young patrons more often. (352 p. 2014)

The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky by Mark Oshiro and Adam Silvera

Brett has moved in with his best friend's family while his adopted mom battles cancer. The loss of his home with her has thrown Brett into deep mourning which he deals with by binge eating and drinking. His best friend, Reed, tries to support him as much as he can, but is dealing with his own feelings of loss about his parents' divorce. As Brett's mental state swirls deeper into destructive behaviors, his only life line is a girl, Malory, who is a "super fat" and is struggling with self acceptance. The three are a hot mess but eventually find the path to healing and acceptance. 

One book that I have thought about writing is either a fiction or a memoir of my own teenage eating disorder, so I was interested to read this one.  It was clearly written by someone that has gone through the experience. Bretts thoughts, feelings and mood swings are authentic and sympathetic.  The reader comes to respect and admire his steps to get help, even when he makes one stupid choice after another.  There were some really poignant scenes and some laugh-out-loud ones.  One part of the story that is heartwarming is the amount of affection and devotion between Brett and Reed.  It was nice to read about, but I kept wondering, would two teenage boys really be that warm and fuzzy to each other?  I hope Reed is based on someone the author had in his life as he was going through his disorder but I think it is more likely it is a depiction of someone the author wished he had had in his life.  The reader should beware that this is a fairly gritty book.  The dialog between the kids contains a lot of language and explicit discussion topics.  It sounded authentic to me, not gratuitous, but it was still hard for me to listen to. Still, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone looking for a story on this topic. (313 p. 2024)

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margaret Magnusson

 When you die, do your really want your children or others to have to clean up your mess?  That is the driving question behind this charming little self-help book.  Ms Magnusson tells us she is "between 80 and 100) and would like to share with us the important practice of "death cleaning". Death cleaning is going through your things, getting rid of many and deciding what will happen to the rest after you die.  She has some wonderfully practical advice for dealing with clothes, photographs, pets and keepsakes.  She also gives tips about what to tackle first, and suggestions like starting early so that you won't feel rushed at the end. 

The book is incredibly charming.  It is as if the reader has flown to Sweden, and sat down in a small, clean sitting room to chat with a wise and lovely octogenarian. The writing is completely free of pretence, and Magnusson states things frankly, but with sensitivity.  As an example, when talking about pets, she says something like, "if you want a pet for your final years, choose an elderly dog or cat that won't need a lot of exercise, and is unlikely to outlive you.  If you can't be sure you will be able to care for the pet until the end of your life, you should consider not getting one at all."  I think everyone who has aging parents would like their parents to read this book. It gives the reader permission to respectively discard things that are usually hard to get rid of.  It also depicts preparing for death, not as a drugary, but as an opportunity to review your life-long memories and serve your surviving family members. One charming thing about the book is occasionally Magnusson goes off on a memory tangent. The little stories she tells of her life make the whole book feel personal and friendly. This book is quite popular right now.  It is a more palatable approach to dejunking and organizing than Marie Kondo's book, The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, and one I hope I will remember as I move deeper into senior citizenship. (2020, 144p)

Great Courses: The Secret World of Espionage

 Espionage has been a part of society as long as there has been society.  This fairly new Great Courses recording explores the nature and history of espionage focusing on the last two hundred years in Europe and the US. There are lectures on misconceptions about spies, women spies, coding and decoding, famous spies, and double agents. The course concludes with a discussion of new challenges to espionage in the modern computer and internet age. 

This Great Courses offering is different from others I have listened to because it isn't a set of lectures given by one professor. Instead, there are short discussions with a variety of professors and one x-CIA officer on each of the topics. The format was engaging and I found the lecture series very interesting and entertaining.  There were some of the historical figures and events that I recognized, but many that the speakers assumed people know about that I had never heard of.  I was a bit amused that they kept on bringing up James Bond and how unlike that fictional character real intelligence agents are. The recording is only four hours long, and I think it would be a great choice for a couple to listen to on a road trip. (2023)

Mortal Arts by Anna Lee Huber

When Lord Sebastian Gage left Lady Kiera Darby at the end of their first investigation together, Kiera thought she would never see him again. A few short months later, she meets him again at the estate of an old friend, Michael Dalmay.  While there, they are sucked into investigating the disappearance of a local girl.  The chief suspect is Lord William Dalmay, Michael's older brother, who suffers from PTSD.  Michael had been one of Kiera's early art mentors, but now he draws disturbing images on the walls about his time at war, and subsequent confinement in a mental hospital. The investigation drives a wedge between Gage and Kiera, but is it stronger than the attraction they both keep denying exists between them? 

When I finished the first "Lady Darby Mystery" I put the next one on hold.  It became available pretty quickly, while I was already listening to the Influencers book below.  I must admit, I stopped listening to that book and listened to this one all the way through before going back and finishing Influencers.  Mortal Arts is another fun gothic mystery very reminiscent of the first.  I like Lady Darby's quirky social awkwardness and Gage's evasiveness about his own past.  They seem less like dimensionless cut-out characters than many in this genre.  The mystery is maybe not as clever as in the first novel--I was pretty sure who the culprit was about 1/3 of the way through the story--but Huber still does a good job of dropping clues that you don't seem like clues until the story progresses. I just looked it up and there are 12 Lady Darby mysteries!  I wonder if I will read through them all. (2013, 384 p) 

Influence by Robert B Cialdini

 How do people try to influence you do to something?  In this book Cialdini goes over seven ways influence "ninjas" try get you to do what they want: Reciprocation, Commitment, Social Proof, Liking, Authority, Scarcity, and Unity.  He gives lots of examples of each principle, most of them involving scammers who are using the techniques maliciously.  He also gives advice how to recognize and avoid such tactics. 

I must admit I picked up this book hoping it would give me advice on how to influence people to do positive things, like support my library, not how to scam people. Also, as I read it I realized that most of the book was written decades ago. He added a chapter at the end about influence and computers, but even that was written eight years ago.  A lot of his ideas are timeless, and apply as much as they ever did, but the internet has changed the tactics of would-be scammers. It has even changed vocabulary.  "Liking" has a totally different meaning than it did in 1984.  I am glad I read it, since I think it is something of a classic, but I was disappointed that the "updated" version was not really very updated. (2016 ed, 336 p)

The Anatomist's Wife by Anna Lee Huber

 Lady Kiera Darby accepted her father's choice for a husband. Only after they were married, did she find out that Dr. Darby wanted her to act as clinical illustrator to record his human dissections. When her husband died unexpectantly, the truth came out that she was the artist of his work, and she was shunned in society as an "unnatural" female. She escaped to her sister's home in Scotland where she lived peacefully with her art for over a year. When the mourning period was over her sister begged her to join a house party she would throw for her aristocratic friends. Soon after the guests arrive, one woman is found murdered in the garden.  Knowing her experience with anatomy, her brother in law asks Kiera to help with the investigation of the murder. She is teamed up with an insufferable rake named Sebastian Gage whose father is a famous investigator. As they work together they become more tolerant of each other's eccentricities, and more impressed with each other's intelligence and courage. As they grow closer together, and closer to the killer, they also get closer to  mortal danger. 

This is my first novel by Anna Lee Huber and I am impressed.  The mystery plot is well crafted with enough clues that the reader believes the solution, but with enough red herrings that the conclusion isn't obvious. The characters are more dimensional than in many of the novels I have read from the same genre, but what makes the book stand out even more is the occasional really nice use of language. There were a few passages that made me pause and think to myself, "wow, that was nicely written."  This is the first in a series, and I am excited to put the next one on hold. (2012, 357 p)

When I was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds

 Ali, age 15,  lives in the Bed Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York with his mom and sister.  His dad is an ex-con who his still working a "hustle" to support himself. Ali befriends two brothers who live in a nearby tenement.  Noodles is toughened by a hard life, and his brother, Needles, deals with Tourette's. Ali tries to steer clear of the worst elements of his environment, and Ali's family try to support Noodles and Needles because they often don't have enough food to eat. Ali takes boxing lessons from an old Vet in exchange for cleaning up his place. One day the boys find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Ali has to use his boxing skills to keep them from being beaten up. As a result, some bad dudes are after all three of them. What can a basically good kid in a bad "hood" do?

This was Jason's Reynold's first book and his genius was already evident. His portrayal of life in the "hood" is authentic, and his characters are sympathetic.  He doesn't sugar coat anything. For example, even though he never states it, it is clear the Noodles and Needle's mom is a sex worker. He lays out what the temptations and dangers are, and then tries to model how someone can successfully navigate them. He also deals with issues about friendship, and how far should you go for a friend. I am so grateful that a writer like Jason Reynolds exists.  I can only imagine all the good he has done in the world. (256 p. 2014)

note: this book is squarely YA.  There are some elements that aren't appropriate for middle grade. 

Of Jasmine and Roses by Jill Warner

 Anna Beasley had an English mother and a Indian father.  She was raised in India until her mother died in an epidemic and then was sent to live with her aunt, who was a baronet, in England.  She was raised along side her cousin to be a proper aristocratic young lady, but when their steward made off with the family fortune, Anna felt obliged to make her own way and became a governess. Even as a governess, her mixed heritage caused problems.  She bounced from household to household until she finally landed where the lady of the house had recently moved up from the merchant class into the aristocracy through an advantageous marriage. At a house party, Anna meets William Thaxton, a third son hoping to make a name for himself in politics. Of all the Englishmen Anna has ever met Mr. Thaxton is the only one who treats her like he would any other lady. They strike up a friendship that then starts to mature into something more.  Then tragedy happens, and they budding regard for each other meets its greatest test. 

Here is a new historical romance writer from Covenant Communications.  She does a decent job.  The fact that Anna isn't a blond, blue eyed beauty is refreshing and I feel like the challenges the couple face are realist, and not just the result of some petty miscommunication. Both main characters have pretty good character development, and both have to sacrifice to make their relationship work out in the end. There is a different ending that I thought the author was leading up to and I thought would have been more satisfying, but the author's ending was fine. This is the first book I have ready by Jill Warner, but it was good enough she has won a tentative place on my Good Clean Romance Writers list. (2023, 256 p)

Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim

Wen Zhou's parents immigrated to Australia looking for a better life.  Instead, Wen's father gave up his medical training and is working at a Chinese restaurant.  There is not much money in the house, but Wen's father expects everyone to maintain appearances even if their clothes are threadbare and discretely mended. He rules the home with an iron hand and has a sometimes explosive temper. Wen is a constant disappointment to him, and she finds solace from his verbal abuse in her friendship with Henry, a first generation Chinese immigrant in her class.  Even though his English isn't very good, he is smart and has dreams of qualifying to attend an exclusive charter school. He and Wen are working together toward that goal with tragedy strikes in Henry's family.  Wen wants to reach out and help her friend, but her mother is afraid of the retribution they would both receive if her father found out. Can Wen find the "tiger" within to help her friend, and maybe heal her own family?

This got a ton of starred reviews when it was first published in the US In 2023. Lim creates such an authentic voice for Wen that one must wonder how much is autobiographical.  I have read many immigrant stories about Chinese Americans, but never of Chinese Australians.  If this story is accurate, the immigrant situation for Chinese people in Australia is just as bad, if not worse, than in America. It was a little different to have the book narrated by someone with an Australian accent, and it made me remember that the US is not the only place where immigrants struggle to adjust to a new life. I thought Lim did a good showing how a girl can realistically stand up to a domineering father.  I also liked seeing Wen's mother be inspired by her daughter's show of strength. This is a good choice for kids who like reading books from other cultures, but young reader beware that it deals with some heavy issues. (192 p. 2023)