The Complete Maus (Art Spiegelman)

The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale
The Maus series, Volumes 1 and 2
Art Spiegelman
Pantheon
Nonfiction, Graphic Novel/History/Memoir
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: Art Spiegelman always had a troubled relationship with his father, Vlatek. He knew that the man, like Art's mother Anja, had experienced terrible things during Hitler's reign in Europe, but still Vlatek could be so very, very difficult to be around. It wasn't until much later that a grown Art, now a successful cartoonist and writer, decided to try recording his father's experiences in graphic novel form. Thus, in a series of interviews and encounters spanning several years, the story unfolds, the story of how a successful young Jewish man in Poland saw the world he knew destroyed and witnessed horrors no human should ever have to experience again.
This edition includes Volume I: My Father Bleeds History and Volume II: And Here My Troubles Began.

REVIEW: I've heard of this book for many years, a Pulitzer Prize-winning record of one of history's greatest modern atrocities through the eyes of one survivor, but it never quite ventured onto my reading radar. In recent times, as efforts to censor and outright ban books gain more traction (and disturbing signs of history repeating itself play out in broad daylight, to the unheeded warnings of many and the cheers of those too ignorant to know how this story always goes and those gleefully aware and spurring it on), I decided it was high time to give it a try; anything they're trying that hard to silence must be necessary reading. I finally manged to secure a used copy... and I only wish I'd gotten to it sooner.
The tale opens with a brief glimpse of a young Art - portrayed as a mouse, all characters in the book being anthropomorphic animals - out roller skating with friends only to fall behind when his skates break. He goes home to his father, but if he was expecting sympathy, he gets none. "Friends? Your friends?" Vlatek tells his son cynically. "If you could lock them together in a room with no food for a week... then you could see what it is, friends!" This moment sets the stage for the unfolding tale, which takes up again when Art is a grown man, his relationship with Vlatek best described as "complicated"... as are Vlatek's relationships with many people, particularly Mala, the woman he married after Anja's death by suicide. The two snipe at each other ceaselessly, driving one another to their wit's end (with Art too often caught in the middle). Even many years later, Vlatek still mourns Art's mother, herself also a survivor of the camps, a pain that often expresses itself in anger and helpless frustration, not helped by failing health. Art's efforts to record Vlatek's memories are as much about trying to bridge the gap with his father and reconnect with memories of his mother (whose own memoirs Vlatek burned in his grief, a tragedy Art struggles to forgive) as documenting a vital part of world history as experienced by one man. In this way, Art develops both himself and his father as full characters, in the present and the past, not just hollow placeholders to parrot facts and figures about the Holocaust experience. This lends the story more weight than anything I recall reading in history class, driving home that these were people, real people, warts and all, who thought and dreamed and loved and feared, not statistics and not some dismissable "other" from long ago and far away. In the present, Art and Vlatek meet several times, visits often ending in frustration and arguments, while Vlatek's past - starting from just before the young man met his future wife and Art's mother Anja (daughter of a wealthy and influential man who learned too late that money was no shield against evil) and wending through the buildup to Hitler's invasion of Poland and the relentless stripping down of rights and basic humanity on the way to the camps themselves. The illustrations sometimes bleed into surreality, the only way to effectively render the terrible events unfolding. Through it all, Vlatek persisted then as he persists in modern times, through a mix of resourcefulness, luck, and sheer stubbornness, traits Art comes to understand (even if he still can't help but find the old man difficult to the point of exasperation).
Spiegelman's simple, expressive renderings and heavy lines are surprisingly eloquent and effective, and the story as it unfolds in both past and present comes together splendidly, as much a tribute to one man's endurance as a testimony of an ugly time that should never be repeated (and yet, unfortunately, has been and is and most likely will be; I'd call these times and events "inhuman" if they weren't so often the flame to which humanity seems to keep fluttering like a moth, time again and again). This is a book that only becomes more important and even necessary as witnesses to World War II fade in the rear view mirror just as fresh new horrors appear through the mists ahead, a dire warning sign as well as a tiny glimmer of grim hope that maybe, eventually, these new evils too might fall and light return to a darkened world.

You Might Also Enjoy:
All Blood Runs Red (Phil Keith with Tom Clavin) - My Review
They Called Us Enemy (George Takei et al.) - My Review
The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead) - My Review

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (Emmanuel Acho)

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
Emmanuel Acho
Flatiron Books
Nonfiction, History/Memoir/Politics
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Is racism really a problem in modern times? Can Black people to be racist? What about "reverse racism" against whites? Why can't we all just stop seeing color - won't that make the problem go away? Former football player and current sports commentator and podcast host Emmanuel Acho answers questions about race that many white people hesitate to ask.

REVIEW: If nothing else has become glaringly apparent in the decade since Barack Obama's presidency, it's that American racism is not only alive and well, it's become emboldened enough to step from the shadows and openly feast on whatever progress has been made since at least the 1960's. Acho does not pretend to speak to the experience of all Black Americans, but he does honestly and thoroughly explore a number of topics related to racism, from the personal prejudices and biases that seep into daily life and color decisions to the systemic racism built into the institutions that govern all aspects of our public existence, going all the way back to the nation's founding and persisting to the present day. He even addresses "that" word, its volatile history and if it's ever okay for someone outside the community to use it. It makes for an interesting, candid, and frequently depressing and infuriating look at the many faces, many forms, vexingly persistence, and adaptive mutability of a problem that underlies so many of today's challenges, challenges that threaten everyone but that share common roots.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? (Keith Boykin) - My Review
Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates) - My Review
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review

Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Random House
Nonfiction, Essays/Memoir/Sociology
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: In a series of essays written for his son, award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates reflects on the long, complicated history of race and his own unfinished journey to understand what it means to be Black in America.

REVIEW: If there's one thing recent events/backslides in national policy in 2025 have driven home with the force of the Chicxulub dinosaur-killer asteroid, it's a need to confront the ongoing cost of racism in regards to... well, pretty much everything in the modern world, particularly the "Western" modern world, because what looked to many of us like progress was just more wallpaper plastered over the gaping cracks and toxic mold devouring our collective house. (And, yes, as a straight white woman I had an unearned luxury of ignorance for far too long.) By tying lessons and lives and events from history into his own life and ever-evolving understanding, Coates presents a gripping, often cutting narrative. To ask if there's hope for a race-free future is to ask the wrong question, another wallpaper-over-the-mold question that tries to handwave away the hard, individual and institutional self-examination and systemic changes that would be required to begin to reach such a place. There is anger, there is despair, there is even bewilderment, but also a certain determination (it would be wrong to really call it optimism or hope, especially not in the flowery bright-sider way those words are too often used). These are not always easy essays to read (or listen to, as this was another audiobook - as a side note, the author does a great job narrating, which is not something I can say for all authors, but I digress), but they are needed essays.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? (Keith Boykin) - My Review
All Blood Runs Red (Phil Keith with Tom Clavin) - My Review
How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi) - My Review

Pageboy (Elliot Page)

Pageboy: A Memoir
Elliot Page
Flatiron Books
Nonfiction, Memoir
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Since before grade school, Elliot knew something was different about him. What it was, he lacked the vocabulary to say, the life experience to articulate even to himself, but he never quite felt at home in the skin of the girl "Ellen" that his parents, his friends, and society at large insisted that he was. It would take three decades and a roller coaster of life events and setbacks and even instances of self-harm and near-suicidal depression before he would come to grips with his true identity... revelations that come as his acting career is taking off.

REVIEW: There would seem to be few things more inherently personal than gender and sexuality, yet we live in a world where society at large either tacitly permits or actively encourages total strangers (many with disturbing amounts of authority behind them) to strictly and intrusively police both. The scrutiny doesn't even need to rise to the level of law (though several places, unfortunately and terrifyingly, are doing just that) to create almost unbearable social pressures to conform, pressures that would rather see square pegs sledgehammered to splinters than admit that not everyone fits into neat little round holes. It's even worse for those in the public eye, especially when part of an industry that too often helps reinforce those pressures and associated social stereotypes. This memoir, written by a popular actor (whose works I admit to being only vaguely familiar with), digs deep to lay out a life often warped out of shape by the disconnect between internal truth and external expectations, by survival mechanisms that ultimately worked against him until confronted (and even then it's not as easy as flipping a switch to stop unhealthy coping mechanisms of avoidance and self-destruction). Events are not related in a strictly linear fashion, moving back and forth from Page's childhood through turbulent teenage years and adulthood and in and out of various relationships and breakups, but the process of discovering, let alone embracing, one's true self is rarely a linear process. The end result reveals some ugly moments and beautiful ones, times of gains and times of backslides, ultimately culminating in an epiphany that by no means ends the lifelong journey of self-discovery but marks a pivotal milestone. Throughout, Page must contend with other people telling him who and what he is, even beyond the scrutiny of Hollywood and tabloids; some of the most hurtful moments come from his own family. Page does not paint himself as a flawless hero of his own life story, and comes across as stronger and more empathetic for it. He also admits where he has some amount of privilege, insofar as getting access to help and even a supportive community, which too many people unfortunately lack in today's world. As many people seem eager to roll back gains in equality made in recent years, stories like this one, told honestly and from the heart, become all the more important - not because they serve as a template or substitute for all nonbinary experiences, but because they demonstrate how much pain and lasting damage is caused by trying to force people to live socially convenient lies rather than seek their own truths.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Never Say You Can't Survive (Charlie Jane Anders) - My Review
Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki) - My Review
Across the Green Grass Fields (Seanan McGuire) - My Review

This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch (Tabitha Carvan)

This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something - Anything - Like Your Life Depends on It
Tabitha Carvan
Putnam
Nonfiction, Fandom/Memoir
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Tabitha Carvan did not intend to fall for Benedict Cumberbatch that day in the coffee shop. She'd seen his work before, but until that moment, looking at his face on that magazine, she had never felt that bolt to the heart. It made no sense; she was a sensible woman, happily married to a wonderful man, a mother to two young children, living as ordinary a life as anyone could imagine. So why was she suddenly swooning like a schoolgirl over an essential stranger half a world away? She sets out to understand the phenomenon of Benedict Cumberbatch fandom, what makes so many perfectly sane people of all ages and from all walks of life become so very passionate about the characters and the actor behind them... finding that it's not really about Benedict Cumberbatch at all, but about something far more fundamental to human existence, something society has trained too many people (especially women) to ignore and suppress and be ashamed of: the sheer, basic joy of expressing wholehearted love for something.

REVIEW: I'm no stranger to the joys and heartbreaks of fandom, though I tend to latch onto imaginary worlds and characters more than celebrities. I'm also familiar with how society tends to treat the majority of fannish passions (sports fandom is one of the few given a pass, even a boost - particularly when it's cishet males behaving in ways that would get the average woman mocked and bullied off the street), as something shameful and the butt of too many punchlines and stereotypes. (There's also more than a little intrafandom shaming and stigma and gatekeeping, even within the same interest niche, but that would be a topic for another book altogether.) Though I've read a few other fandom-related books, this one takes a different angle. It's not so much about what it's like to be a fan as it is about the forces behind that fannish feeling, which can strike - as it did with Carvan - seemingly out of the blue. It's about why it's so hard to simply enjoy enjoying something, how so many of us learn early in life that the opinions of others and society at large should take precedence over our own needs and wants, and how embracing fandom and related passions can open doors to improve all aspects of our lives. Carvan reflects on her own life and influences as she learns to accept her unanticipated crush, delving into the world of internet fandom and even fanfic (unauthorized fiction written by and for fans). She interviews other fans and experts, some of whom have studied the matter at a doctoral thesis level, to further understand the fannish phenomenon in general.
Sometimes it feels a trifle repetitious, but overall it presents an interesting look at fandom from a perspective I haven't quite seen before. It never occurred to me to link the stigma associated with so many fandoms with other social stigmas and apparent taboos, especially those linked with women's perceived roles (who have been so often encouraged to temper our happiness, to not feel too much or too strongly, lest we be deemed "hysterical"), but it tracks.
At the end is an appendix of facts about Benedict Cumberbatch, which is the only part of the book solely dedicated to the British actor. He was, after all, the inspiration behind the book, so he deserves a little attention. As the title states, though, this book isn't really about him, as Carvan's obsession isn't really about any delusions of personal connection to a man living half a world away from her native Australia, but about what it means to accept and embrace joy where we find it, and having the courage to pursue that passion - and the self-discovery that comes with it - for a more fulfilling life. Cumberbatch and other objects of fandom, be they tangible or imaginary, are just the keys, not the door, nor are they paths where that door may lead.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? (Allyson Beatrice) - My Review
Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) - My Review
Fan Fiction: A Mem-Noir (Brent Spiner) - My Review

Ruthless River (Holly FitzGerald)

Ruthless River: Love and Survival By Raft on the Amazon's Relentless Madre de Dios
Holly FitzGerald
Vintage
Nonfiction, Memoir
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: The year is 1973, and two Americans - counselor Holly and journalist Fitz FitzGerald - are traveling around the world on their belated honeymoon. When their plans to get to Brazil in time for Carnivale season are disrupted near the Peru border, they decide to travel as the locals do: by log raft down the Madre de Dios river, one of the wide tributaries to the great Amazon. Neither one has rafting experience, but everyone assures them there's nothing to it; the river does all the work, after all, and the waterways are dotted with settlements if there's any trouble along the way. Thus, Holly and Fitz set forth on the Pink Palace, certain they'll be at their destination soon with a great story for the relatives back home.
They didn't count on the wild currents that seem to have a will of their own, the gun-happy Bolivian border guards, or the terrible storm that sweeps them off course, into a swampy backwater far from the main channel and countless miles from the nearest settlements.
With no map or compass, barely any food, little clean water, and only the tattered shelter of the plastic tarp on their raft, the American couple face a survival nightmare in terrain that has claimed the lives of travelers far more experienced and prepared than themselves... and all without knowing if anyone even knows they're missing.

REVIEW: The rain forests of South America remain some of the most forbidding wildernesses in the world, and were even moreso in the 1970's. Even seasoned travelers could run into trouble easily, let alone starry-eyed tourists like the FitzGeralds. They thought their previous experiences getting to Peru had made them equal to any challenge, but even before their ill-fated raft trip, things start going wrong, such as when a plane trip ends in a crash-landing that strands the couple and other travelers in a jungle prison while waiting for another flight. Of course, memoirs have the advantage of hindsight; what looks like foreshadowing here was just part of the adventure of international travel in the moment. Still, even then, Holly and Fitz get occasional twinges and warnings before they set out on the Madre de Dios... but they were young, in love, dazzled and excited by their grand adventure, and - despite Fitz's previous tour in Vietnam - still had a certain youthful expectation of immortality, that they would somehow make it through dangers with little but an adrenaline rush and a new story for their next letters home. Thus, they set out on their raft with lots of well-wishes from locals and sky-high hopes... but, as the saying goes, man proposes and nature disposes. Finding themselves in a backwater flooded by the rainy season, the newlyweds get a crash course in the harsh realities of the jungle outside even the thin veneer of civilization that stretches up the main waterways. Fitz's experiences in the jungles of Vietnam do little to prepare him for the South American wilderness; in the war, at least, rescue was rarely more than a radio call away. The couple struggle to come up with a plan, every day growing weaker and more despondent as hopes for escape or rescue dim. The jungle teems with life, but finding food in their swampy niche proves nearly impossible. Then there are the bugs... the bees... Interludes fill in the backstories of Holly and Fitz, how they met and courted, and how it is they ended up on this trip to begin with, as the here-and-now of their plight grows bleaker and more desperate. Still, even amid the terror, Holly finds moments of beauty and personal epiphanies, and the bond between husband and wife only grows stronger as they lean on each other to get through the obstacles nature (or God - there's a religious/spiritual angle to much of the narrative) keeps throwing their way.
As survival tales go, this is a decently harrowing adventure. Something about the later bits felt weaker, though, particularly as it became more about Holly's religious reawakening and personal epiphanies. It also can't help becoming a bit repetitious as the couple struggle and fail again and again. Those issues aside, the rest of the book evokes the dangers and wonders of the deep wilderness, and how quickly that wilderness and its rules of raw survival can take over when one ventures beyond civilization's safety net.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Girl With No Name (Marina Chapman) - My Review
The Adventurer's Son (Roman Dial) - My Review
Lost in Shangri-La (Mitchell Zuckoff) - My Review

The View from the Cheap Seats (Neil Gaiman)

The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction
Neil Gaiman
Harper Audio
Nonfiction, Essays/Media Reference/Memoirs
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: This collection of Neil Gaiman's writings covers a variety of topics, from the state of comic books and graphic novels as art and literary forms through reflections on his life and career to interviews, book forewords and afterwords, and more.

REVIEW: Though I find Gaiman's fiction a bit hit-and-miss, I can always appreciate what he's doing and how he's doing it, and one can't help but stand in awe of a career like his. Much like his fiction, these articles and essays and reflections can be a little hit-and-miss. Some loses context by being, well, out of context: material meant for inclusion in album liner notes can't help feeling a little lost without the album backing it up, and some of the minutiae of industry talk (especially the comic book industry) is lost on someone who only occasionally delves into graphic novels. (One of the coldest shoulders I ever got in a retail store was in a comic book shop, and so many of the popular titles seem to gatekeep themselves by being part of decades-long intertwined arcs and histories and traditions and so forth anyway in ways that can discourage newcomers from even trying to start - I'm lookin' at you, too, Sandman - so I never really felt welcome in that crowd. Yes, I'm officially too much of a social misfit to read comic books. But I digress...) Still, even when discussing stuff I wasn't familiar with, Gaiman manages to be interesting. Plus he's still one of the better audiobook narrators out there; I never have to crank my earbuds up to pain-inducing volumes just to understand what he's saying. The tone of the articles varies, some being lighter and some darker, some fairly focused and others ranging further afield, some short and some long, but few outstayed their welcome. All in all, it made for interesting listening.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Salmon of Doubt (Douglas Adams) - My Review
Never Say You Can't Survive (Charlie Jane Anders) - My Review
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman) - My Review

The Adventurer's Son (Roman Dial)

The Adventurer's Son: A Memoir
Roman Dial
Mariner Books
Nonfiction, Memoir
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: As a boy, Roman Dial became enamored with the wilderness. He pursued a degree in Alaska just to be nearer to the wild places that called to him, the mountains and rivers and deep trackless woods that challenged him, and dedicated his career to studying ecology and wildlife around the world, often in the most remote and inhospitable places. When he married, he introduced his wife Penny to these wonders, and when they had children the couple ensured that young Cody and Jasper, too, were exposed to the wonders and adventures to be found out of doors.
Later, he would wonder if perhaps it was his fault that his son followed in his footsteps.
In the summer of 2014, Cody Roman Dial, then in his twenties, was traveling solo in Central America. Like his father before him, he was an explorer at heart, a wanderer who was always looking toward the next challenge, the next adventure. He'd done several solo trips before, at least as challenging as the one he had planned for Costa Rica, and always kept in touch through e-mail with his family. But in early July, Roman would receive what would turn out to be the last contact he would have with Cody: a map and loose itinerary, and a promise to e-mail again after a planned five-day excursion into some of the wildest rainforests left in the country. But that e-mail never came, and Cody was never seen again.
As Roman heads to Costa Rica to search for his missing son, he confronts language and cultural barriers, indifferent local authorities, and other obstacles, not the least of which is the rainforest itself, brimming with treacherous terrain and deadly snakes and numerous poachers and drug smugglers. Even as he looks, he reflects on his own life and Cody's adventurous childhood - a childhood that may have led him to this beautiful, dangerous land that might have killed him.

REVIEW: Another random selection from the library's audiobook offerings, The Adventurer's Son is the story of one man's love of - and borderline addiction to - the wilderness, and how he wrestles with the legacy of that love when it's picked up by his son. Starting in Roman's own childhood, the book follows him through his discovery of the outdoors, the adventures (and near-disasters) that love led him to, the friends he made, and the career paths it opened up for him. Though his would-be wife was at first not that much of an outdoor junkie herself, and never reaches his level of obsession, he introduces the wilderness to her, and they have their own adventures, adventures they would share with their young family - camping trips in their home state of Alaska, journeys to Borneo and Australia, and more. Introducing his children, particularly his son (who took after his dad in so many ways), to that passion was one of the greatest joys of Roman's life, watching the boy rise to the challenges presented by a hike or unmarked trail or foreign country... and one of the greatest devastations when his adult son goes missing in the very wilderness Roman taught him to respect and explore and embrace so wholeheartedly. The great pride and sense of wonder of the earlier portions of the book, the author's passion fairly leaping off the page, turns quickly to the devastation and frustration of a father pursuing answers about his son's disappearance in a remote area replete with criminals and other dangers, as well as spotty law enforcement that seems to have already made up its mind about Cody's fate before even beginning its investigation... an investigation that would pursue numerous false leads and dead ends for over two years. In pursuit of answers, Roman and Penny even turn to a "documentary" television team, with results that demonstrate how far from reality a lot of so-called "reality" television ends up becoming and how manipulative and exploitative the crews can be, on and off camera. Eventually, closure is reached and answers (some, at least) are forthcoming, but there are clearly some wounds that will never fully heal. Did the father's obsession lead his son to tragedy, or did he simply awaken in the boy a passion of his own, one with certain inherent risks that living fully and deeply always entails? There can be little doubt that Cody Roman Dial lived a full and vivid life, a life made fuller and more vivid by his father's adventurous legacy, no matter how that life ended.
Some of the earlier material can feel a bit meandering, even if it's always decently written. Overall, it's as much about the love of one man for the wilderness (dangers and all) as about the love of a father for his son, and the complicated feelings when those loves seem to collide and end in tragedy.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Gone to the Woods (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
The Lost City of the Monkey God (Douglas Preston) - My Review
The Invention of Nature (Andrea Wulf) - My Review

Never Say You Can't Survive (Charlie Jane Anders)

Never Say You Can't Survive
Charlie Jane Anders
Tordotcom
Nonfiction, Essays/Memoirs/Writing
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: These are trying times, no doubt about it. For many, the very foundations of our reality and the most basic things we have taken for granted have been snatched away, twisted beyond recognition or just plain smashed to pieces. It's tempting to just give up, to decide that there's no point in even trying to do something so seemingly frivolous as write or create. That, argues author Charlie Jane Anders, is precisely what one shouldn't do. This collection of essays covers a range of topics, from basic writing advice to using despair and anger to fuel creativity to understanding that creating escapes from reality and visions of other possible worlds is anything but a waste of time, even in times like these.

REVIEW: I've only read a few of Anders's works; while I like the ideas she explores, I find the stories themselves a bit hit-and-miss for my tastes. That said, I rather enjoyed this collection of essays about keeping the will to write alive even when so much is going so very, very wrong in the world. The writing advice itself is not altogether different from stuff I've picked up elsewhere, if delivered with solid style. The rest, particularly on perseverance though trying and dangerous times and learning to value one's own creativity even when the world at large diminishes it, is fresh and timely and well written (or spoken, as I listened to the audiobook version).

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Art of War for Writers (James Scott Bell) - My Review
Write Good or Die (Scott Nicholson, editor) - My Review
Wonderbook (Jeff Vandermeer) - My Review

Gone to the Woods (Gary Paulsen)

Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood
Gary Paulsen
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Nonfiction, MG? Memoir
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: For decades, author Gary Paulsen wrote many mesmerizing stories, several influenced by his long and unusual life and rough childhood. Here, he relates tales that never made it directly into his other works, incidents and memories that shaped him from a young child through his time as a young man in the Army, from his time at his aunt's remote farm to his years in postwar Manila, from a struggling schoolboy to an eager devourer of library books... and eventual crafter of his own stories.

REVIEW: When the world lost Gary Paulsen, it lost a true treasure, and a window into a mindset and lifestyle that has become increasingly endangered in modern times. He has hinted, in previous books, about various events in his life, but never collected these particular tales (though he does talk a bit about some of these events in books like Guts and This Side of Wild, and the afterwords to some of his fictional works). It starts when "the boy" (oddly, he chose to write his memoir in third person) is five years old; his mother, in Chicago to work in a factory during wartime while her husband is overseas, has become a bar regular (with numerous "uncles" vying for her attention), and encourages him to sing on tabletops to attract attention and garner free drinks, until Gary's grandmother gets wind of the situation and snatches the child away to live with relatives in the deep woods. The solo train journey, among cars full of wounded servicemen back from the front lines, leaves an indelible mark on his young psyche, and is also his first introduction to the green world of the forests that would dominate so much of his future, a spiritual connection he feels the moment he locks eyes with a black bear from the train window. Paulsen, as always, manages to evoke a strong, almost spiritual sense of the world around him, from the green paradise of his summer with his aunt Edith and uncle Sig in the green woods to the nightmare of watching sharks tear into plane crash victims on the Pacific ocean and the bomb-cratered city of Manila, where the stains (and bodies) of Japanese occupation still fill the caves and litter the jungle, even to the Hell of his brutal alcoholic home life and the unexpected sanctuary of the town library. As a final book, this makes a fitting last bow, even as it remains clear that there are many more stories where these came from that will now never be told.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Never Cry Wolf (Farley Mowat) - My Review
Guts (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
The Invention of Nature (Andrea Wulf) - My Review

Born a Crime (Trevor Noah)

Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Spiegel and Grau
Nonfiction, Humor/Memoir
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: In America, comedian Trevor Noah may be best known as the hand-picked replacement for The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Long before that, he was a native of South Africa where he was, quite literally, born a crime: apartheid laws forbade relations between races, laws which his black mother and white father willfully flouted. Noah relates stories of his childhood and young adulthood, stories featuring his force-of-nature mother, his secretive father, numerous brushes with the law, and the stepfather who would one day put a bullet through his mother's head.

REVIEW: At my job in the library shipping center, seeing books pass from branch to branch as patron requests demand, I see many celebrity autobiographies come and go. Most only see a flurry of activity, then sink into obscurity. Some, however, see sustained circulation, such as this one. So I figured it was probably worth a read, myself, even though I don't watch much of Trevor Noah or The Daily Show. (Scheduling conflicts, mostly - plus an overall sense of despair at how little in the nation actually changes, or rather how much progress has actively backslid, since Stewart's days tilting against the Bush regime. But, I digress...)
Reading this, it's clear why Noah was selected to succeed Jon Stewart. He writes with clarity and humor and emotion, making for an entertaining and enlightening journey through his formative years, with personal experiences punctuated by notes on the greater backdrop of 1980's and 1990's South Africa. The system of apartheid was founded on studies of worldwide racism, a cold and calculated effort to pit the majority nonwhites of the nation against each other to protect the superiority of the minority white population. As an American (and a white American at that), I've known that racism exists and apartheid was a terrible thing, but Noah's pre-chapter asides, and numerous instances in his life, spell out just what the practice really meant (and what the legacy still means) to those living it, the arbitrary illogic of racism granted the full force of law and sustained only by deliberately-fomented fear of the Other along largely artificial dividing lines. It is chilling, to say the least... all the moreso as one sees similar ideas once more gaining favor in nations that should really know better by now (or, at least, one would hope they know better, but lust for power over the masses is unfortunately as timeless and universal a human trait as rejection of facts.) Noah does not oversimplify or glorify his youth; he was a hell-raiser at times, and bent more than a few laws in his day. Tales involve the role of various churches in his life, first attempts (and failures) at romance, how language can bridge barriers created by skin color, efforts to connect with his white father, and his sometimes-tempestuous relationship with his fiercely independent and devout mother, a relationship complicated when she meets up with a traditional and abusive man. It's an interesting look at an interesting life, one with high points and low points, lessons learned and lessons relearned, relationships forged and broken and sometimes reforged, but ultimately suffused with a refusal to give up or back down or accept boundaries.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Ryan Higa's How to Write Good (Ryan Higa) - My Review
What Unites Us (Dan Rather) - My Review
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents Earth: The Book (Jon Stewart et al.) - My Review

Ryan Higa's How To Write Good (Ryan Higa)

Ryan Higa's How To Write Good
Ryan Higa
Little, Brown Books
Nonfiction, YA? Humor/Media Tie-In/Memoir/Writing
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Popular YouTuber Ryan Higa may be the winner of the world's first Nobel Prize for internet videos (not true), but once upon a time he was a bullied preteen misfit struggling to find a reason to live (true.) Here, he presents the story of of his formative years, how he learned to cope with an inherently unfair world and push himself to excellence in unexpected ways, such as sports, comedy, and learning to write good. Or well. Whichever the proofreaders and his ghostwriter companion approve...

REVIEW: I confess I'm not a YouTube connoisseur, more of a light viewer than a binge-watcher or hardcore channel fan. But I saw this book go through the library at work, and it looked fun in the few moments I had to skim it - and, if I'm not much of a YouTube watcher, I am (something of) a writer. So I suppose I'm coming at this one a little backwards. Nevertheless, I've always been of the belief that a media tie-in book ought to stand alone, or it's not a well written book. Thus, despite my lack of familiarity with Higa's work*, I gave it a try.
With humor and frankness, not to mention several illustrated interludes, Higa relates a harrowing tale of childhood alienation and bullying. As someone who went through both and still bears certain mental tics from those days, I could readily relate despite the generational gap. It's not much of a spoiler to say that things did get better - if they hadn't, he probably wouldn't be around to have written this book - though Higa's quite honest about just how useful that "it gets better" advice is to someone going through their own personal hell (read: statistically indistinguishable from zilch.) His illustrated conversations with his ghostwriter and publisher add needed levity, with some surreal details. As for the writing angle, while it's primarily a memoir, there is indeed some talk about how to write a story. On the whole, it's a decent and fast read with some nice humor and a message about hard-won hope. My main complaint is the eBook formatting, which insisted on a locked-in scale and landscape view, not to mention a color screen. Half the benefit of an eBook is the ability to customize font text and choose viewing preferences... but, I digress.
(* - In retrospect, I believe I've seen him in a few older Smosh videos, though I don't watch them much, if at all, anymore. Changing tastes, changing world, and all that...)

You Might Also Enjoy:
Write That Book Already! (Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark) - My Review
Help is On the Way: A Basic Instructions Collection (Scott Meyer) - My Review
NigaHiga - Ryan Higa's YouTube channel

On Writing (Stephen King)

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Stephen King
Pocket Books
Nonfiction, Memoir/Writing
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Prolific author Stephen King discusses writing - not just how to write, but what writing has meant in his own life.

REVIEW: I know, I know... I really should spend more time actually writing than reading books on writing, especially having actually landed one (albeit minor) sale. But I've seen this one recommended by sources I trust (and it was half price), so I read it anyway.
Having read enough how-to-write books, I've become familiar with the general format - a format generally eschewed here. On the cover, this is billed as "a memoir of the craft," and that's what King presents, starting with a brief rundown of his life and how he became a writer... not to mention why he remains a writer, as brought into sharp relief with his recounting of the 1999 accident that nearly ended both his career and his life. It's an interesting glimpse at the development of a best-selling novelist (and short story writer, and noveletteer), offering a human perspective of an exceptional career. King follows with his advice on writing, from the nuts-and-bolts "toolbox" every writer needs to suggestions on editing and submissions. Some of this is the same basic material one can find in most writing books, though put in King's own, occasionally blunt words. (Published in 2000, it was just ahead of the e-submission revolution, with advice geared toward physical manuscript presentation.) He closes with a list of suggested reads - not "how to write" books, but novels and such that he cites as good examples of the craft, positive influences, or just good stories.
On the whole, it's a good book, a little different than the usual writing advice tome.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Art of War for Writers (James Scott Bell) - My Review
Write Good or Die! (Scott Nicholson, editor) - My Review
Your First Novel (Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb) - My Review