Turtles All The Way Down -John Green

Wow.

Really.

As I stated in the previous post, YA is not generally my favorite genre of fiction, and I wasn’t super impressed with Green’s other The Fault In Our Stars, but this book was really well done.

Sixteen year old Aza has a lot of issues, she gets stuck inside her own head, gets caught in the spiral of her own thoughts, her mind “intervenes” as her doctor puts it. She is obsessive compulsive, anxiety ridden, emotionally distant, and at the same time, just trying to be a normal teenager. She is not a very good friend, daughter, significant other, but what can one expect, she isn’t even good to herself. How could she be good to anyone else?

Green is able to get into the mind of Aza, because he is letting us into his own mind. He stated that he struggles with anxiety and obsessive compulsive tendencies and that he was writing about many of his own issues. The glimpse inside of Aza’s mind while she struggles to not give into her ticks is so painful to read. She wants so desperately to not give in, but then later finds herself in the bathroom checking a wound that she knows is not infected…but what if?

The depiction of obsessive compulsive disorder in popular culture can often present very hokey with turning lights on and off repeatedly, ding things in threes, counting, and the like, which has turned this painful disorder into a punchline of sorts. Green’s depiction is real, painful and all without the silliness. When you see Aza’s intrusive thoughts written in italics next to her own healthy thoughts in regular font, you really get a sense of the internal struggle and pain that she is experiencing. I personally do not have obsessive thoughts and I found the book to be very painful to read at points, I can only imagine how one that suffers with this would feel reading these painful sections.

I really enjoyed the ending of the book, it did a wonderful job of providing closure without giving too much away so that the reader could imagine life after the story ends, but also know ultimately what happens to Aza.

I loved it, And I feel like I have a greater understanding of what people who struggle with these issues go through, as much as I possibly can.

4.5/5

Next up: 4321 -Paul Auster

 

The Hate U Give -Angie Thomas

Young Adult fiction is not generally my go to genre but I am trying to build my student library at work and my friend and fellow teacher told me that she builds her library by buying YA books, which is excellent advice.

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Angie Thomas’ debut novel, The Hate U Give, and it deserves all of it. It is smart, biting, original, real, and well written without being felt talked down to.

The novel follows sixteen year old Starr Carter, a girl who witnesses her unarmed childhood best friend shot by police at a traffic stop and becomes entrenched in the Black Lives Matter movement as a result. The book does an excellent job of discussing the racial injustice by focusing of Khalil’s life with this grandmother and his drug addicted mother. He was a good guy. Khalil’s story is the story of so many other black men killed by police and the subsequent absence of punishment. It is told well and without being contrived.

What I really found intriguing is Starr’s duality of life that she must live each day. She is struggling with her identity in a way that minorities deal with constantly; trying to live two lives in one body.

She lives in the self described “ghetto” but her parents have the means and wherewithal to send her to the private, rich, white school outside of town. There she must temper her “blackness” in order to fit in and not draw too much attention to herself. And at home she is constantly being criticized by her neighborhood peers for not coming around any more and for having white friends, basically, being bougie.

This idea of living “authentically” in the black community is something that I see my high school students struggle with often. Attending a school and or living in a predominately white neighborhood often has my students pick which person they want to be or what group they want to be a part of.

A recent graduate told me that she isn’t trying to be anybody other than herself but by being herself it appears to others that she is making a choice. Hangs out with white friends? She is trying to be white. Get her hair braided? Acting black.

This internally struggle that is defined by other people must be so trying and painful. And The Hate U Give does a really excellent job of exploring this reality of life as a middle class African American. Or at least as much as this white lady thinks that it does.

The Hate U Give: 4 out of 5 stars.

Up next: Turtles All The Way Down -John Green

Let’s Talk About Books or I Like Big Books or other 90s music references about books…

I’ve had this blog for a few years on Blogger, only to abandon it, come back to it, abandon it again a few times over. But this time. THIS time, I am serious about.  In an effort to revamp the blog I have moved it over to the more serious WordPress and provide an update on my recent readings.

I have become a better reader. Moreover, I have made myself a more accountable reader.

First, I have kept a running log of books that I am reading because I can feel my age creeping up and I find myself not being able to remember if I have read a book or not. I missed out on reading All The Light We Cannot See early on because I thought I read it, but I didn’t. It was good. Makes me wish I read it when it came out. I can be one of those annoying people that quietly delight in being someone who “knew about it first”. Sorry.

This year I have regularly attended my local book club and it has kept me on track and has allowed me to read things I would not read or give me the opportunity to read books that I have been putting off. In addition to the book club, I have been working on this Pop Chart Lab 100 Essential Novel scratch off poster. I currently have 21.5 completed. The .5 is from reading 1/2-ish of Gone With the Wind. I could not keep going. I couldn’t. I tried. It beat me.

Here is the link if you are interested in your own. Pop Chart Lab

At this point in 2017 I am currently reading my 19th book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Below you will find the list of all the books that I have read this year with a rating out of five.

The full reviews will restart when I finish The Hate U Give.

I am really looking forward to writing my reviews and connecting to other book lovers!

 

The list of books read thus far in 2017

My Grandmother Told Me To Tell You She’s Sorry -Fredrik Backman 3.5/5

Commonwealth -Ann Patchett 4/5

The Painted Bird -Jerry Kosinski 2.5/5

The Hillbilly Elegy -J.D. Vance 4/5

White Teeth -Zadie Smith 3/5

The Underground Railroad -Colson Whitehead 2.5/5

Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream -Doris Kerns Goodwin 5/5

American Pastoral -Phillip Roth 4/5

A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food & Life -Jim Harrison 1/5

Silence -Shusaku Endo 2.5/5

Tinkers -Paul Harding 5/5

Family Furnishings -Alice Munro 4/5

The Sellout -Paul Beatty 4.5/5

Dandelion Wine -Ray Bradbury 5/5

All The Light We Cannot See -Anthony Doerr 5/5

Gone With the Wind -Margaret Mitchell 0/5

What Happened -Hillary Rodham Clinton 4/5

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl -Anne Frank 5/5