This Is How...

I'm a fan of Augusten Burroughs and was excited to hear he had a new book out. When I heard the title--This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike--I was pretty sure it was a joke. Alan read the book first, thinking the same thing. "I'm pretty sure he's serious," he said after reading the first chapter. After he finished, I picked it up and indeed, it is actually a self help book, a perceptive and intelligent one at that.

Burroughs has been through a lot so he can empathize about many of the issues he covers in the book. Others (such as "How to Let a Child Die") he doesn't have experience in, yet still manages to offer some insightful advice. One of the most interesting is "How to End Your Life" in which he argues that suicide does not accomplish what it is meant to and that far more effective is to walk away from your life, leave and start over. He actually did this and adopted a new name, Augusten Burroughs, and freed himself from his past. Like I said, a lot of it comes from a place that he visited so it seems like he really knows what he's talking about. It is an interesting book, at times funny, and gives you alternate perspectives to consider. If you're looking for a good self help book, check it out.

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness

A couple of weeks ago my brother and his girlfriend came to visit, which is always reason to rejoice. I adore them both and I love talking to them, especially his girlfriend who is an avid reader. I had a blast sitting with her one afternoon, comparing notes on books and giving each other recommendations. I made a list of ones that she recommended and plan to read them all, but the first I picked up was Brianna Karp's The Girl's Guide to Homelessness.

This book is a memoir about Brianna's life and her struggle with homelessness. She was not the typical homeless person since she possessed a cell phone, laptop, and trailer, but as she argues, it doesn't make her experience any less real. She admits she had it easier than most, but still she struggled tremendously. The story is not only about her homelessness, but also her family's mental illness. I cared about Brianna almost immediately and was amazed with her level head and lack of anger or self pity. Here's a young woman that has every right to be angry and she doesn't seem that way at all. The book is worth checking out (so is her website ) because it really is an incredible story.

Big Girl Small

It's taking a lot of self control to not file this post under recommended books, but I'm trying to keep that label as books that could have universal appeal and Rachel DeWoskin's Big Girl Small can at times be crude, possibly offensive to some people. That said, I absolutely loved this book! After listening to Starters I was looking for another Playaway and this one jumped out at me. Not the title, which I don't particularly like, but the spine and author's first name. (Silly, I know.) I listened to about a third of it before the Playaway broke--Arrg!--which I've since learned happens often to these new devices. Therefore, I had to wait two agonizing weeks to find out what happened to the unforgettable Judy Lohden.

Judy Lohden is a person of short stature (more commonly, though derogatorily called a midget). She begins a new arts high school where her amazing singing voice makes a big splash. She's hiding out in a seedy motel following something that happened that is not revealed until the ending. She meets a man there who listens to her tale which she begins with her arrival at the high school. Judy is absolutely hilarious and an extremely lovable character, one I came to care about intensely. After I read it, I strongly encouraged (aka pestered) Alan to read it and he too found it funny, though also disturbing. I can't get into that without revealing too much, but I should at least acknowledge that yes, this book is not only funny, but also disturbing and sad. But that's one of the reasons I love it so much--its complexity and its ability to both delight and shock the reader. I'm looking forward to checking out more of Rachel DeWoskin's work. A glance at her website shows what an interesting person she is and obviously a very talented young woman. You'll likely see me writing about another one of her books sometime in the future.

A Wedding in Haiti

A while back I was hungry for Julia Alvarez's work and when I found Something to Declare I saw that she also had a new book coming out and I immediately put it on hold with absolutely no idea what it was about. Her new book, called A Wedding in Haiti, is an account of two trips she made to Haiti, one before and the other after the earthquake. She and her husband bought a coffee farm in the Dominican Republic and the story she tells centers on her friendship with one of the workers, a young man from Haiti who came to her home country illegally to work. Julia promises him that she will attend his wedding someday and then goes to fulfill her promise. The book is the story of this friendship and her travels, but also is a reflection on the complexities and tragic history of Haiti. Fans of Alvarez will enjoy it (her prose is just so charming!) but it's not something that I'd tell most people to run out and read as I doubt the book would have wide appeal.

Home

When I found out Toni Morrison had a new book out, I put it on hold. I picked it up and it looked interesting, but I had other books to read that were tugging harder at my interest than Home. Then, I noticed on Monday that the book was due today and I couldn't renew it, as someone had a hold on it. (Or more likely, many someones.) Normally, the suggestion of reading a Morrison book in a couple days would seem laughable, but Home is her shortest work yet. I flipped through the slim book and saw blank pages and knew it was a possible feat.

Home is the story of Frank Money, a solider who returns home from the Korean War. He must confront his past (both his childhood and the trauma of the war) as he tries to find his place back home. Here in America his younger sister has experienced her own trauma and Frank is desperate to rescue her. The prose is breathtaking, as everything by Toni Morrison tends to be. All the hype about her writing is well-deserved; she really is that good. Home is a more accessible book than some of her other novels and not as striking, but a worthwhile read nonetheless.

Wonder

My mom bought my oldest R.J. Palacio's novel Wonder a couple months ago. She found it at  Wonderland, our city's only independent book store. The owner there is great and she highly recommended the book. 

Wonder is the story of a child named August (Auggie) who was born with a severe facial deformity. His parents have home-schooled him to protect him from the unkindness of other kids, but decide he should attend a mainstream school when he is in fifth grade. The novel is a chronicle of this year--not only through the eyes of Auggie, but his family and peers. You come to care deeply about Auggie almost immediately in the first couple pages, which creates a drive to find out what will happen to him. Entertainment Weekly described it as a "page-turner" and at first I thought that was a bit of a stretch, but my son couldn't put it down, begging each night to stay up longer to keep reading. So yes, it really is that good. It is one of those books that makes you a little kinder and richer from having read it. In other words, a book everyone should read.

On the book tour, R.J. Palacio (right) met an 8th grade boy with a similar medical condition as Auggie's.

Hope's Edge

In April, I mentioned how I read Diet for a Hot Planet in anticipation for seeing Anna Lappé at at food workshop/conference. I didn't know then what an interesting person Anna is and what kind of fascinating stories she can tell. She gave two talks and after her second someone in the audience asked if she was drawing from her new book for the talks. I knew the second talk was all Diet for a Hot Planet, and she explained the first talk was derived from the book she wrote with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet. 

Hope's Edge tells stories of food revolutions around the world. Frances and Anna visited the San Francisco Bay Area to see how prison and school programs incorporating vegetable gardening improved the life of their participants, Brazil to see the Landless Workers' Movement, Bangladesh to learn more about the Grameen (microcredit) Bank, India to witness food scarcity, Kenya to learn about the Green Belt Movement, France and back to America. One of the themes is the true cost of cheap food and the issues of fair trade. It is an incredible book full of inspiring stories about people who have faced hopeless situations and yet rose up and did what seemed impossible-- for example, a woman who was told she could not help plant trees in Kenya turning around and training a force of women who would go on to plant 20 million. This book reiterates the idea that there is no such thing as a shortage of food, but shortage of democracy. The earth can produce enough food to feed the world, the problem lies in the allocation of the earth's resources. But the book goes a step forward and shows what people are able to accomplish when they are pushed to hope's edge.