Hey, Kiddo:
How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction
Jarrett J. Krosoczka

At our recent trade show, I attended a panel made up of graphic writers. Graphic novels are growing in popularity for young adults, but I was drawn to a graphic memoir by one of the panelists, Jarrett J. Krosoczka. His book, Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction, is about growing up in his grandparents’ home after his mother was sent to prison. (Jarrett's father was not in the picture.) Both the text and the graphics drew me in immediately. What really got my attention was this -- in nearly every panel in which Jarrett's grandmother appeared, she was smoking. None of the characters made mention of it, but there she was - smoking, smoking, smoking. I realized such a constant reminder of a character's habits would be hard to deliver to a reader using text alone.

The content of Hey, Kiddo is the kind of narrative I would have been interested in regardless of its format (traditional memoir or graphic memoir.) The target audience of Hey, Kiddo is 13-17 year olds and I would not recommend it for anyone younger than 13. The issue of a parent in prison for drug charges may not be appropriate for every pre-teen, and the same is true for the colorful language of Jarrett’s grandparents, although they are loving family members.

This would be a great book for an adult and a young person to read together and discuss.

Here’s a link to the recent essay Jarrett wrote about exposing kids to literature with tough content.

The Lost Words
Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris

When the most recent Oxford Junior Dictionary was published, a number of words about nature were removed to make room for words about modern technology (ie: blog, broadband, etc.) However, the words removed were not arcane, unknown, no-longer-used words—among them were dandelion, otter, and willow. Unhappy about the omission, MacFarlane and Morris set out to make a spell book that would conjure back some of those lost words. If that sounds a little too "woo-woo" for your tastes, don't worry. It's a book of acrostic poetry and beautiful artwork. The format goes like this: 20 of the lost words have been organized alphabetically in the book. The first entry is "acorn" (yes, really) with an acrostic poem (and these are good poems, the kind that make you forget there's a structure guiding the poem) on the left page and an illustration of a branch with leaves and acorns on the right page. When you turn the page, you are treated to a 2-page spread of an illustration that appears to be the same as the previous page, but as though the artist has taken a step back to give the larger picture—now the branch, leaves, and acorns can be seen as part of a tree with an owl in its branches. Turn the page and see a tangle of nature and letters. Turn the page again and you're on to the next entry, "adder.” And so on. It's a tall book—nearly 15 inches tall (and 11 inches wide.) You can bet we're stocking this one, but check the displays before the bookcases for this gem.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good
Helene Tursten

Somehow, curmudgeons have become the in thing in contemporary fiction. Usually these curmudgeons are crusty old men with a secret heart of gold. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good is about a crusty old woman named Maud who has no heart but has the stomach for revenge and murder. Maud lives alone, rent-free, in a spacious apartment in Sweden. An Elderly Lady… contains five episodes in which Maud  eliminates someone in her life. Each episode is titled— ie: An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmastime. Despite a ruthless (perhaps sociopathic?) main character who murders, you’ll find yourself laughing. The book is short, less than 200 pages and a quick read. It would be a great book to share out loud with family and friends (heads-up, you might want to read the episode An Elderly Lady Has Accommodation Problems to yourself before reading it out loud…or maybe have a glass of wine first.)

When Lee Sandlin was a boy, he and his cousins spent summers with their great aunts and uncles, as their parents had done before them. In The Distancers he wrote a portrait not only of those summers, but of several generations of his family. Among other themes, we explored the role of place in family life, and talked of the particular houses each of us experienced as home as we grew up.

The End of the Wild is a coming of age story written for middle grade readers which explores issues such as poverty, fracking, PTSD, and the way those issues pressured one young girl and her family.

Stray City is the story of a young lesbian who forms a family of friends, her chosen family, after experiencing the rejection of her born family. A brief affair with a man results in an unexpected pregnancy, and the formation of a new family. The book was filled with humor, and also showed us a sub-culture new to many in the group.

Have you ever found yourself reading and/or discussing books which, intentionally or not, dealt with a theme? We’d love to hear about your experiences.

The Great Minnesota Cookie Book
Lee Svitak Dean and Rick Nelson

Holidays and baking seem to go together! The Great Minnesota Cookie Book, released just a few weeks ago, is a collection of recipes from fifteen years of the Star Tribune newspaper’s popular holiday baking contest. I’ve sampled some of the cookies, and they were scrumptious! The recipes are clear, the photographs are beautiful—it’s time to pre heat the oven and start baking!

The Consuming Fire
John Scalzi

Sally and Jen went to a book show lately and, on my behalf, looked for interesting SciFi. They know the rules….no Fantasy and it’s better if there is a spaceship on the cover. Well they brought me back a book, The Consuming Fire, that met my tough standards (it actually had multiple spaceships and rockets on the cover! Bonus!)

The premise is that the shortcut conduits between galaxies, called the Flow, (what we today would probably call Wormholes) are going to collapse. If they do collapse, it would isolate those galaxies that are part of a consortium called the Interdependency, all of the galaxies having special resources and manufacturing. As you might guess, the writing now turns from cool space things to “how are we going to deal with this mess?” This involves people in high places, not only the rich and politically connected but also a heavy duty religious faction…a real power struggle on several levels.

An interesting read of about 300 pages with R rated language and tongue-tying names (at least it’s not written in Klingon.) The author is up and coming with a Hugo award so he’s a name you may want to follow.

The True Tales of Baker and Taylor
Jan Louch with Lisa Rogak

Jan Louch has landed her dream job as assistant librarian at the Douglas County Public Library in Nevada. There is a mouse problem, so Jan brings in a cat she names Baker. He is a Scottish Fold breed of cat. The ears fold back in an unusual way. Baker is soon joined by Taylor, another Scottish Fold. Unusual names you might think, but they are named for the Baker and Taylor Book Company that sells books primarily to libraries. The cats become famous as their pictures are on all of Baker and Taylor's advertising posters and bags. Children from all over write to the cats and there is even a Baker and Taylor fan club. Although this delightful memoir is primarily about the cats, Jan also writes about the trials and tribulations of librarians as they move into a new building and gradually join the computer age. All familiar to me as we went through the same here in Park Rapids without the cats. A great book for cat lovers and librarians everywhere.

What the Dog Knows:
Scent, Science, and the Amazing Way Dogs Perceive the World
Cat Warren

What started as a hobby to train her unruly German Shepherd puppy eventually transforms into a passion as she learns to train cadaver dogs. The author combines great storytelling with painstaking research. Not being much of a dog person, I was skeptical about reading this book. However, it was the book choice for the Arizona library book club I belong to so thought I'd give it a try. I was so surprised to find this book to be fascinating, plus I learned so much. I recommend this book to everyone and in particular to dog owners and dog trainers. Warren takes us on a wonderful journey to learn what the dog knows and why we keep finding new uses for the wonderful noses of our four-legged friends.

When Books Went to War:
The Stories that Helped us Win World War II
Molly Manning

This is an interesting book for World War II buffs and all of us. It gives an entirely new perspective on the war that I knew nothing about. Men had a lot of down time between conflicts. This contributed to boredom, loneliness, and depression. Hitler ordered the burning of millions of books in Europe. America did the opposite by furnishing millions of books for our people in the armed services to read and share. As Hitler waged total war, America fought back not just with men and bullets but with books, which proved to be the most formidable weapon of them all. How this was accomplished makes for interesting reading.

The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood

Atwood wrote this in 1984, and its impact has been as great as 1984. It’s amazing how relevant a 34-year-old novel is to the times we live in. The televised version does a remarkable job of capturing much of the novel, and then they run with the world and characters Atwood created. The only big change I saw was that in the novel the Commander’s Wife is less attractive and less interesting. The novel gives us more description of the history that leads to the dystopia, and at the end of the book we read the transcript of a talk given in the distant future at a conference about the Gilead culture. We don’t learn what Offred’s fate is, but we do have the comfort of knowing that humanity does in the end prevail. We live in hope that some of the extremes of 2018 will be short lived, and not lead us in the direction laid out in this compelling book.

The Husband’s Secret
Liane Moriarty

Moriarty is the author of Big Little Lies. This novel has a similar structure: chapters end with cliff hangers and the next chapters jump to another woman’s story. But you don’t mind because you can’t wait to find out what’s happening with this woman, too. Tess’s husband spills his secret right away. He’s in love with her cousin/best friend: the three of them share a business in Melbourne, and essentially are a family with Tess’s son. Cecilia is a super-mom in Sydney, president of the PTA equivalent and tupperware party star. She finds a letter from her husband that was to be opened years ago should he die. Could this contain an even bigger secret? School staff worker Rachel is a widow. Rachel lost herself in dreams of revenge when her daughter was murdered years ago. Her heart opens again to her grandson: but her daughter-in-law has a two-year contract in New York so Rachel is distraught. What can possibly bring these stories together?

My Husband’s Wife
Jane Corry

The mood of this novel is similar to Girl on a Train, but there are two female points of view. We know from the outset that one of them is going to do murderous violence. The first is Lily, a newly wed attorney struggling with her first big case, the appeal of a man convicted of killing his wife in a scalding bath. He’s on the autism scale, as was another man in Lily’s life. Then there’s Carla, a girl living with her kept immigrant mother. Lily and her artist husband look after Carla when her mother is entertaining her lover. We spend enough time with their thoughts to see how they are each sometimes good, sometimes not, sometimes feeling guilt and other times rationalizing their behavior. The complex plot and more complex characters keep you fascinated.

Sea Prayer
Khaled Husseini

This is the heartbreaking story of a father who recalls his happy memories of growing in Syria while waiting to start a dangerous crossing of the sea to safety. The illustrations as well as the text are full of emotion. The proceeds of this book go to relief efforts to help refugees around the world.

The Mystery of Three Quarters
Sophie Hannah

An Elderly Lady is up to No Good
Helene Tursten

This little book is just plain fun! How many times have you sat on a streetcar or a bus next to an elderly person and really not paid much attention to them? You have your own concerns, and it's not really polite to pay too much attention to others in public. What are their lives like? What are their concerns, their personal dramas? Rarely do we think that person might just have cold bloodedly murdered someone. Who would suspect? Tursten's small little book makes you wonder whether the little old lady in front of you in the grocery check-out line, with her fruit, cookies, and Metamucil, isn't a pitiless murderer. I'm serious!

The Ides of March
Thornton Wilder

This is one of the best books I've EVER read. It's composed of letters between the principal figures in Rome at the time of the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar, in 44 BC. Wilder's genius is in his ability to shape-shift his own writer's voice into the voices of those whom he has writing the letters. No mean accomplishment. Each is amazingly different and individual! There is no narrator's voice or influence. Politics, romance, poetry, literature, and just plain old gossip... it's a glimpse into the psyche of historical figures which, with time and exposure, we've come to see as stiff, artificial, just lifeless painted buckram. Here they speak!