Memoir: Witches of America, Alex Mar

Witches of America

Alex Mar

ISBN: 9780374291372

Read January 6, 2016

Hoooo boy is this one causing controversy.

I'm not religious, nor am I religiously affiliated, but I have a perpetual curiosity about wicca and witchcraft that would probably be considered religious interest - if I weren't an incurable skeptic.

This book (out right before Halloween, natch) is right up my alley - this "journalist" is religiously-raised, over-intellectual, self-critical, endlessly obsessed with appearance (at least I'm a makeup artist and costumer, so I have an excuse), skeptical but emotionally and spiritually passionate, heir to lots of christian guilt and mental baggage, afraid of sensation and of being "in the moment," and yet simultaneously intensely curious and covetous of having overwhelming (spiritual?) experiences.  Her work on a video documentary of American mystical spiritual paths led her to realize that this particular sub-culture/counter-culture of practicing wiccans, pagans, druids and others would make an excellent subject for a book.  (Also I think she ended up with a sort of lifestyle crush on Morpheus, who appears from all accounts to have an amazingly magnetic personality.)

Using her contacts from the documentary film, Mar slowly becomes a part of the pagan community, always reminding people that she's writing a book.  She half-heartedly tries the anthro approach for a little bit, but that's just not her style, and she manages to convince herself (and, importantly, the community she's joining) at regular points along the way that despite the book, she really is personally interested in discovering if there really is anything to this world of spells and chanting and invoking goddesses and gods.   So she "goes native."

Now the book is out, and in it she explores only three traditions in any depth (eclectic Wiccans are immediately passed on because they're "too eclectic" - well, what did you expect? and Dianic Wiccans are just too seriously 2nd wave stridently feminist and woman-worshipping for someone with Mar's obsession with good/bad female forms and social appropriateness, and she never even thinks about Druidry as far as I can tell).  The trio ends up as Andersonian Feri (specifically the BlackHeart strain), Pagan rockstar Morpheus Ravenna's (at the time of Mar's research) growing Coru Priesthood, and New Orleans' developing O.T.O. temple.  

Oddly enough, none of these are really what I would think of as "traditional" American witchcraft or wicca practices, but what the hell ever - those are the connections Mar ended up with, so that's what she's investigating.  What is really interesting is that post publication, the Coru, and Morpheus by extension, rescinded their prior approval for Mar's book (with some harsh words about intent not matching actions), and Mar's Feri teacher has also expressed a sense of betrayal at her own portrayal.  The O.T.O. hasn't said anything, but I would be shocked if they felt it necessary.  In addition, Mar's less than entirely glowing portrayal of two major pagan events seems to have personally pissed off just about every witch in the entire country.  Balancing this outrage from the pagan community is a series of glowing recommendations from the mainstream press, and lots of positive acknowledgement from other powerhouse literary figures.

So what gives?  First off, the main issue I see from the Pagans is that Mar violated consent by recording (or transcribing from memory) quite a few personal conversations without explicit permission, and by writing about ecstatic rituals and shared sacred spaces in the first place, but secondly for writing about them in a very intellectual, somewhat sardonic, detached journalistic record-keeping manner.  As a note (spoilers?) Mar did not end up continuing her Feri practice, and she is currently carefully vague about her present involvement with the O.T.O, - this might help explain why so many in the community felt personally betrayed or violated by the portrayals of events and people (or of themselves) found in the book.  There are several smaller ritual events depicted, and Mar's sense of alienation and shaky self-image makes these events a bit warped in the recounting.  I don't get the impression that Mar TRIES to be hurtful or to exaggerate, but her personality (which she is constantly referencing and using as a narrative scaffolding) makes that nearly impossible to achieve.  Many of her comments ARE hurtful, or they read as uncomfortably exploitative or overdramatized.

Some things I wonder after reading: 

Was she faking her spiritual journey the whole time? (I truly don't THINK so, but then I see a lot of myself in her personality, and I very much understand that nearly impossible-to-shake desire to quantify and intellectualize experiences, and to second-guess and quarterback the "validity" of my involvement in communities.  Other reviewers who were actually there, or who knew her, do question whether she was actually ever a true "seeker.")

Was she perhaps a "spiritual tourist" and only interested in spirituality as long as it was easy and didn't require self-abnegation or hard emotional work, thus betraying the community through her dilettantism?  (Does that actually matter?)

Are the conversations and events revealed in the book consensually obtained?  (This last question becomes really interesting when considered in light of an interesting chapter about "Jonathan" the corpse-stealing necromancer.  Mar gets very philosophical here, and also in a subsequent disturbingly adoring chapter about Morpheus and her desire for her corpse to be left for the carrion birds) about the concepts of consent and of intent, and of magical purpose, and of violating people's autonomy and free will.  Perhaps a spate of guilt - a textual attempt to claim: at least I'm not as bad as this guy is?) 

Was any ritual secret or magical information disclosed that she either promised or implied that she would hold secret?  (Mar appears to have a very sincere belief that ONLY the very specific "secrets" of initiations (one from Blackheart Feri, and one from O.T.O. - both involving the names of gods) are off limits, and cheerfully (perhaps even licentiously?) reveals all sorts of other lurid details (again in a self-deprecating and intellectually-reserved way, distancing herself from the events even as she participates in them), shoving the curtains wide open about the specific and sometimes explicit activities that comprise circles, rituals, and initiations.  This attitude (and to be frank, the writing style) also seems to account for much of the vitriol from the community, and one hopes that either Mar's oaths were truly that literally specific, or that there truly is no magic for these very angry and betrayed people to invoke against her.)

Overall, a really interesting book about one flawed person's lurching journey along the borderlines of spiritual awakenings in a marginalized and deeply distrustful private community, made even more interesting by what the fallout reveals about that community, and about Mar's methodology in researching and in obtaining full and active consent from the people she interacted with.  One senses that her naively optimistic comment in the acknowledgements about an essay updating readers on her contacts' continuing lives is going to be a haunting memory, and one I predict will vanish from any re-printed editions.  

  

2015 Review Round-Up: Graphic Novel: Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Tony Cliff

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
Tony Cliff
ISBN: 9781596438132
Read December 2015 for Graphic Novel Book Club

Previously reviewed here.

All of that remains true, and to add that the sequel is offically named and release-dated:
Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling
out March 8 2016
(yay we're finally in the same year as the release Oh MY God I've waited FOREVER!!!)

2015 Review Round-Up: YA Fantasy: The Girl with Ghost Eyes, M. H. Boroson

The Girl With Ghost Eyes
M. H. Boroson
ISBN: 9781940456362
Haunting story of a magical Chinatown during the Chinese Exclusion Act days.
Read December 2015

I'm torn.  I enjoyed this story, but once I figured out the author was male, it made me feel just a little bit squicky.  There's a lot to unpack here in terms of cultural and gender roles, and internalized racism and sexism, and the juxtaposition of a very traditional YA sort of tentative girl-power heroine of color with a white male author was a little offputting.  I'm not sure if that says bad things about me, or about our culture, to be totally honest, because the book was really quite good, and the Author's Note seemed to indicate that care was taken with the language and the customs represented.

All that aside, this was a rollicking good ghost story, and I really enjoyed every minute of it.  The nasty creepy ghosties, the relentless focus on "face" and reputation, the tensions between the old ways and the new, between China and America, between folkways and revolvers, all made for a tense and exciting story.  Characters were vibrant, the plot was juicy and twisty without being unnecessarily convoluted, and our main character was flawed, desperate, and resourceful.  Also I want to be a Buddist were-tiger in my next role-playing game, because YES PLEASE.

Fascinating, interesting, and a rocking good read from start to finish.

2015 Review Round-Up: Juvenile Graphic Novel: Baba Yaga's Assistant, Marika McCoola & Emily Carroll

Baba Yaga's Assistant
Marika McCoola, illustrated by Emily Carroll
ISBN: 9780763669614
Read December 2015
Gruesome but light-hearted romp through a magical forest outside the modern world.

Her grandmother was her only comfort after her mother died - her botanist father was distant and didn't understand her.  Grandmother would tell her stories of her own childhood, when she braved the terrors of Baba Yaga with her own mother's doll to help her.  When grandmother passes on, and her father starts eating dinner with a new date - one with a bratty child at that, Masha knows just what to do.  She snatches up her matryoshka dolls, snips out the classified ad; "Assistant Needed ASAP... Enter Baba Yaga's house to apply." and heads into the forest.  From there on, we're into a madcap magical adventure where Masha (with a little help from Grandmother, and perhaps some from Baba Yaga herself, not that she'd ever tell) Masha learns that she really does have a place in the world, and even finds it in her heart to rescue the bratty maybe-eventually-little-stepsister.

So fun, and so subversive.  Loved it.  Reminded of Nimona, and of Ms Marvel, and of the Hildafolk stories, where the normal mundane and the utterly magical are just a stones throw apart, but no one in either world seems to notice or care.

2015 Review Round-Up: Fantasy Novella: Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente

Six-Gun Snow White
Catherynne M. Valente
ISBN: 9781481444729
Sets Snow White in the American West, with a side-plot giving the Wicked Queen actual motivation.
Read December 2015

This was an interesting and powerful retelling, and I finished it off quickly.  I loved the addition of the sub-plot that gave the stepmother/wicked queen an actual motive for Snow's heart, and the interesting twisty development that ensued.  I thought that the "six-gun" motif was undertilised and somewhat forgotten as the story progressed, and especially the detail of the gemstones seemed to fall by the wayside.  Likewise the ending of the story felt a bit rushed, and the epilogue was peculiar.  I had the oddest feeling that the story beforehand, all wild west and openly magical and folkloric, was the reality, and that the glimpse of modern life with professors and physics and apartments was the fantasy, all hazy and unreal.  It was the strangest sensation of disjointed impressions I've ever gotten from a story that I liked.

Despite all that, it was a glorious magical (grim, depressing, hellish) world to visit for a short while, and Snow was a captivating protagonist to follow.

Tuesday Storytime: International Festival - Italy! Pizza Party

We took a brief break from our wintry books to participate in our county-wide international festival; we're celebrating all things Italian for these two months, and it was requested that at least one of the programs at every location be thematically matched to the festival at some point.  Our book club is already enthusiastically participating, as are many other community partners, so I wanted to make sure our storytime was a team player as well.

We (along with most of the other storytimes in the system) decided that a "pizza party" would be the easiest age-appropriate way to incorporate the festival into our routine, not least because finding age-appropriate and storytime-appropriate books about Italy proved quite difficult for this age group.  The slightly older kids had it easy with Strega Nona, but you try getting a not-quite-two-year old to sit through Strega Nona, and then two more books as well?  Not for me.

Pizza at Sally's  
Monica Wellington (Apple Farmer Annie)
ISBN: 0525477152
Sally's Pizzeria is downtown, illustrated with a strange mix of collage and flat line-art.

Sally grows tomatoes in the community garden, and gets her cheese from the cheese shop next door, and she spends all day (there is a clock face in the top corner of most pages, showing the day's progression) preparing the ingredients and making pizza for her customers.  Short, factual, and peppy language.  A perfect introduction to the concept of making pizza, with a recipe in the back.


Pizza Pat
Rita Golden Gelman, illustrated by Will Terry
ISBN: 0679991344
In the vein of "This is the house that Jack built..." with really lovely illustrations, and great language.

The language on this is fabulous.  Another one of the dreaded "leveled readers" (this one is a STEP into Reading book) I love to show that they aren't necessarily all joy-killing slogs.  Here we have delightful rhymes: "This is the cheese, all white and sloppy, that topped the sausages, spicy and choppy, that sat on the sauce, all gooey and gloppy, that covered the dough, all stretchy and floppy..." heavenly to read.  The illustrations are sweet and filled with color and movement and intention.  There is a twist ending (mice steal the pizza from poor Pat) that might be a bit of a downer for sensitive listeners, especially since the final illustration is drenched in pathos, but most will simply think the fat pizza-stealing mice are funny.

Secret Pizza Party
Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri (Dragons Love Tacos)
ISBN: 9780803739475
A pizza-loving raccoon has a brilliant plan to get access to humans' pizzas.

Poor raccoon.  He keeps getting chased away from the pizza by people with brooms.  He can't even forage in the pizzeria trash without getting shooed away.  He has a great plan tho - he'll host a SECRET PIZZA PARTY!  Mainly to avoid the brooms, but also because secrets are awesome!  His plans are not thought through very well (his escape route in particular needs help - he's found all the broom-related locations in town, in addition to broom-wielding robots!) but he does manage to get back home for a sad little quiet furtive "party" until he sees the giant pizza bash next door, and hatches a new daring plan.  I got a lot of strange looks from the grown-ups, but the kids loved it to pieces, and I always enjoy reading something openly narrative and a little off-kilter.

    

2015 Review Round-Up: Nonfiction: Too Much of a Good Thing, Lee Goldman

Too Much of a Good Thing: How Four Key Survival Traits are Now Killing Us
Lee Goldman, MD
ISBN: 9780316236812
Interesting study of big systemic medical problems, and how they're actually ancient survival traits.
Read December 2015

Here's the four, because I know you're curious.
1) Obesity: fat craving and hoarding.  We used to need all those calories to survive, now they're making us fat and diabetic

2) High Blood Pressure: salt craving and dehydration.  We are able to store and retrieve water for a very long time compared to other mammals, but the tradeoff is liver damage and high blood pressure.

3) Anxiety/Depression: fear/aversion mechanisms.  They used to keep us alive when a rustling branch could have been a tiger, or a sign of an incoming hailstorm.  Now they force people to relive trauma and to be overly anxious or beaten down.

4) Strokes/Heart Attacks: clotting mechanisms.  Once upon a time, we were surrounded by a world that made us bleed pretty often.  Especially childbirth, which without overactive clotting, would have doomed the species.  Now we're often within hailing distance of a hospital, and the clots themselves are killing us.

The first three quarters of the book, where he dissects these four sets of biological phenomena, is really fascinating, and I wish he would have stopped there, but I imagine the publisher or his editor demanded that he provide a solution (there isn't one) which he attempts in a sort of half-hearted coda about altering genetics or behaviors or both.  I get why it's there (the book is a bit of a downer, to be completely honest - so scientifically interesting, but a downer) but it really throws the book off stride and makes the finish a lot weaker than it could have otherwise been.

2015 Review Round-Up: Historical Fantasy/Steampunk: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Natasha Pulley
ISBN: 9781620408339
Sumptuous cover hints at a rich and clockwork-detailed plot, filled with multifaceted characters.
Read November 2015

The most interesting thing about this book is how Pulley manages to keep you from deciding which characters are good guys and which characters are bad guys for the ENTIRE BOOK.  It's nothing short of a magic trick all of itself, and it makes the perfect cherry on top of this confection of a story.  It's rich and mellow and tooth-achingly dense, and just jammed full of atmosphere like plummy preserves inside an overstuffed tart.  From the very first paragraphs, you realise that you're in for something enjoyable, but it's the absolute opposite of a light quick read - it's dense and full of philosophy and humanity and the big important questions of free will and fate and predestination.  Yet even so it doesn't feel like a slog - it all just seems naturally flowing from the premise, which I'm not even going to hint at here, because it's so amazingly absurd and complicatedly simple.  If you like peculiar characters studies, and atmospheric steampunky London, you'll be right at home here.

2015 Review Round-Up: Juvenile Illustrated Fiction: The Story of Diva and Flea, Mo Willems & Tony DiTerlizzi

The Story of Diva and Flea
Mo Willems (Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie), illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi (Spiderwick, Changeling)
ISBN: 9781484722848
Quirky illustrations and an almost Lemony-Snicketish narrative voice make this friendship story sing.

This is the most adorable book I've read all year and it's absolutely perfect.  Diva is a VERY small dog who lives with the caretaker of a set of Paris flats, and she's petrified of feet, but otherwise very brave and very clever.  She is pampered and spoilt and happy.  Flea is a lanky angular black cat, famous as a neighborhood flaneur (professional wanderer).  When Flea happens upon Diva's set of flats, a beautiful friendship develops as both these spectacular personalities learn new and exciting things from their very different friend.

Did I mention that this book is PERFECT?  It is.  It is beautiful and perfect and special and it is why the universe was created, and why books were invented.  Just for this story.  Go find it and see if I'm wrong.  I dare you.

2015 Review Round-Up: Nonfiction: The Patient's Playbook, Leslie D. Michelson

The Patient's Playbook: How to Save Your Life and the Lives of Those You Love
Leslie D. Michelson
ISBN: 9780385352284
A guide to choosing and navigating the American healthcare system to optimize health and safety.
Read December 2015

A sobering look at how messed-up our healthcare system is, and how absolutely critical it is for people to know how to stand up for themselves and organize themselves to gain the best care and the best medical outcomes for themselves.  Solid tips for choosing a primary care provider, a hospital, a specialist, and for navigating the world of consultations, test results, and second opinions.

Really useful, well organized, and practical, with a lot of case studies and individualized examples, which I especially like reading.  An excellent resource.

2015 Review Round-Up: Graphic Novel: V for Vendetta, Alan Moore & David Lloyd

V for Vendetta
Alan Moore, illustrated by David Lloyd
ISBN: 9781401208417
The classic english dystopian/anarchist graphic novel.
Read November 2015

When you have a graphic novel book club, and it's November, you sort of have to pick V for Vendetta the first year.  It's only natural.  If you're only familiar with the story from the movie, you really owe it to yourself to check out the much deeper and much more morally complex original.  Moore tapped into serious fears of mid 1980s England, and used them to craft an ambiguous story about a larger-than-life figure that uses government abuses as a moral justification (to himself and to others) for wreaking a very personal vendetta.  It's powerful and unsettling, and very much a product of it's time (and politics).  It's like the English graphic novel version of Fahrenheit 451.

2015 Review Round-Up: Picture Book: Friendshape, Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

Friendshape (Exclamation Mark)
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
ISBN: 9780545436823
Read December 2015

The entire picture book is a beautifully crafted series of visual puns, and I love every single bit of it.  It's going to show up in storytime, even though the kids won't get it - the grownups will, and it's short enough that I don't feel bad reading something that largely goes over the kids' heads.

So sweet.  So cute.

Tuesday Storytime: Snowy Landscapes

We've doubled down on the wintry weather - after a delightful and decently warm Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, we woke up this morning to 19 degrees!  Brrrr!


Snow
Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 9780152053031
Stringer's beautiful gentle paintings make this sweet lyrical ode to snow nearly transcendent.

Rylant takes us through sweet vignettes of modern children and their (diverse) families as they encounter different types of snow.  The end of the book plunges swiftly into poetic stillness, which was aaaaalmost too much for the crop of littles today, but we managed it.  Despite the down-tempo ending, the entire book is heartwarming and beautiful and evocative.


Red Sled
Patricia Thomas, illustrated by Chris L. Demarest
ISBN: 9781590785591
Demarest's chunky lively scenes and bright happy expressions really carry the minimalist poetry.

Thomas uses the form of a chiasmus (a sort of mirrored, repetitive, poem - most likely used to aid memorization of epics) to present the tale of a father and son going on a night-time sledding run.  The text is therefore very short (even the words used are crisp and simple), so Demarest creates illustrations with punch and movement to carry the momentum of the story through the page turns.  The pairing is suprisingly powerful, making this an excellent middle book - short and punchy and fun.

 

Big Snow
Jonathan Bean
ISBN: 9780374306960
David is very excited about the incoming snow-storm, and "helps" his mother around the house.

I enjoy the realism of the energetic kid "helping" mother by starting various chores and getting distracted and running off halfway through (leaving mom to pick up the mess, of course) but I think that the inclusion of the dream sequence involving a snowstorm mess in the house makes for an intense and not quite congruent interlude especially since it comes so close before the comparatively anticlimactic and unmemorable actual ending.  Despite that, it's a cute read, and a great snow day story.

2015 Review Round-Up: Planes Fly! by George Ella Lyon & Mick Wiggins

Planes Fly! (Trucks Roll!)
George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Mick Wiggins
ISBN: 9781442450257
Rhyming cadence language and rich illustrations make this a storytime natural.
Read November 2015

I was so happy when I saw this picture book show up in our new piles of books!  It's by the author that did the also-excellent Trucks Roll! and I am super stoked to see this one.  Oddly enough, there are simply not that many good picture books about planes and flight.  Considering it's a yearly rite of passage for many kids going to see relatives, and considering that picture books are a perfect conduit for illustrating new concepts and introducing new activities to kids, I'm always staggered that I have so much trouble finding good airplane travel books.  This one has a few niggles; I don't love it quite as much as I do Trucks Roll!, but it's solid and catchy, and very much welcome.

2015 Review Round-Up: Juvenile Fiction: George, Alex Gino

George
Alex Gino
ISBN: 9780545812542
George (who really knows she is Melissa) uses the school production of Charlotte's Web to help correctly identify herself to her school and family.
Read October 2015

This is a really powerful book, and it does a great job explaining something that most people will (luckily for them) never have to worry about experiencing in their own lives.

2015 Review Round-Up: Juv Nonfiction: A Smart Girl's Guide - Babysitting The Care and Keeping of Kids, American Girl

American Girl's Smart Girl's Guide
Babysitting: The Care and Keeping of Kids
Harriet Brown, illustrated by Karen Wolcott
ISBN: 9781609583934
A short but information-dense and updated guide to 21st century babysitting.
Read October 2015

The over-polished illustrations aren't my style, but they are diverse, and are also generally illustrative of concepts presented in the book itself, which makes them useful as well as (presumably) attractive to the target audience of pre-tween and tween girls making their first forays into the wild world of babysitting.

The book doesn't shy away from dealing with the nitty-gritty - how to set a pay scale, how to ask for money, how to handle emergencies or kids who won't go to sleep or siblings who fight.  All of the information is presented in a "you've got this down" up-beat peppy style that is encouraging while still being helpful.

2015 Review Round-Up: Early Reader: Bunjitsu Bunny's Best Move, John Himmelman

Bunjitsu Bunny's Best Move (Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny)
John Himmelman
ISBN: 9780805099713
Isabel the bunjitsu is back, and better than ever with a new collection of black-and-white-and red illustrated stories.
Read October 2015

I am seriously in love with these books.  In this round, we learn about the gift of failure, to avoid letting your opponent set the terms of your conflict, and lots of small child-sized life lessons (although honestly most adults could learn a thing or two from Isabel, her friends, and her teachers about how to live your best life).  The stories are short, and the "lessons" are a bit more preachy than in the first book, but they're still not treacly or saccarine or false-faced.  Isabel remains a flawed character, as do her friends and teachers, which is nice to see in this sort of story.  Most of the concepts are centered around jujitsu ideals and concepts, but equally, most of them are applicable to the wider world and to personal development as well.  An excellent read for the earliest of bunjitsu!

2015 Review Round-Up: YA Fantasy: Court of Fives, Kate Elliott

Court of Fives
Kate Elliott
ISBN: 9780316364195
Read September 2015

This is Elliott's first YA, and I found it really enjoyable, although the set-up to the inevitable series relies on the ever-exasperating trope of characters feeling betrayed because they didn't actually communicate with each other for whatever shoehorned reason the author imagines to keep them from communicating so that they can feel betrayed.  I hate to feel personally offended by this when it is a common trope and not even unique to YA, it just bugs the ever living crap out of me.

That said - despite ending on a note that personally pissed me right off, this was a very good story, and an enjoyable read, and I've been recommending it to people.

Our fantasy world is pretty small: a single city, with stories and legends of other places that come into play later on, but I like that we're tightly focused on the here and now, because that place is exceptionally well-crafted and interesting.  The city was somewhat recently conquered, and the indigenous people are now very much second-class citizens.  Their folkways and traditions are outlawed, they're barred from the nobility and from the army, and even having one as a concubine can be a social millstone.  Which is unfortunate for our story, as our main character Jessamy, along with her sisters, are the result of one such relationship - even worse is that her father, a respected military leader, actually loves his concubine, and would even marry her if it were legal.  Of course all this leads to grief, and that rich backstory provided a lot of interesting food for thought while reading.

Despite all that class-based melodrama, the real action comes in the American Ninja Warrior-style martial arts competitions that are staged throughout the city: the Fives games.  Gyms sponsor promising athletic youths (male and female both - which I loved) who compete against each other in an obstacle-course area.  Winners are feted and upwardly mobile, middle tiers can somewhat comfortably retire into training the next generation of athletes, losers generally end up unpleasantly dead in the arena somehow.  Jessamy is of course, obsessed with this game, and naturally quite good at it (I adore that Elliot has her taking after her father in many respects - a very nice touch).

The magic is low-key, and the world building is fantastic.  I'm very much looking forward to the next one in the series, and I hope that the "relationship troubles built on miscommunications" aren't a death knell for characters I actually like.

2015 Review Round-Up: Graphic Novel: Deadpool's Art of War, Peter David & Scott Koblish

Deadpool's Art of War
Peter David & Scott Koblish
ISBN: 9780785190974
Gleefully irreverent take on the Art of War, featuring the best 4th-wall-shattering disfigured merc.
Read July 2015


Deadpool is bored, and he's broke.  He wants to make some money, so he needs to write a book.  What better book could there be for this violent modern world than a guide to the best warfare manual ever written, the epic and detailed Art of War?  In the process of writing, of course he has to see if the tips actually WORK, so he's drafted Loki (old-school Loki, thank you very much) to be the guinea pig who follows Deadpool's directions.  That goes about as well as any plan involving Deadpool and Loki, and the world is summarily engulfed in mayhem and violence, with Deadpool floundering along trying to take back the reins of his headstrong manuscript before it puts someone's eye out.

Tuesday Storytime: Snowy Days

January is my time for snowy storytimes: it's (usually) finally gotten actually cold outside, and even if it doesn't ever actually snow here, there's frost on the ground in the mornings ("South Carolina Morning Snow") and the skies are often heavy and grey.


The Snowy Day
Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 9780670012701 (50th Ann. oversized hc edition, with background info, and author bio)
Classic tale of Peter and the snow in a city-scape, with Keats' vibrant colorful collage minimalism.

This is actually my own personal copy, signed by LeVar Burton. (Please imagine my eyes with big sparkles and hearts right now) and it's one of my favorite classic children's books.  There are a lot of my childhood favorites that are quite special in my heart, but a lot of times, re-reading them reveals that they aren't anything I would feel comfortable recommending.  Not this gem.

Peter is a young black boy in a bright red hooded coat, and he's outisde in the city, in the deep snow, just being a child and exploring.  It's simple, clear, childlike in the best way, and just delightful in every way.


I Love Snow
Hans Wilhelm
ISBN: 9780439795944 (Scholastic Reader)
Excitable white floofy dog explores in the snow, and helps out a wild friend.

I've used this book (and others by this artist) before because I feel like lots of people think that leveled readers are automatically terrible books with no artistry or joy or fun in them.  They VERY OFTEN ARE.  But prejudice is terrible, and there are beautiful and enjoyable leveled readers out there that have fun stories and enjoyable to read through in their own right.

Our little white puppy is out in the snow and enjoying every minute of it.  He does all sorts of traditional snowy activities, and then near the end finds a wild creature in need of some help, and gains a new friend to play with.  The plight of the hungry raccoon is adorably sad, and the conceit of eating the snowman's carrot nose blew some of my kids' minds!  Cute and very short.


Polar Bear Night
Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9780439495240
Textural blocky outlines and sleepy gentle blue tones make this a very good bedtime candidate.

Savage has outdone himself this time around, inspired by Thompson's lyrical language and sleepy sweet tale of a polar bear cub out in the soft still nighttime.  There isn't much focus on snow here, but the theme of a young creature out by themselves enjoying the outside in their home environment (as opposed to "going out to nature" or something like that) fit really nicely with the other two stories, and the gentle wording and evocative and minimalist artwork spreads are just too beautiful to pass up.

   

2015 Review Round-Up: Nonfiction: Mindware, Richard E. Nisbett

Mindware
Richard E. Nisbett
ISBN: 9780374112677
Unpacks basic cognitive errors and offers alternative thought-patterns.
Read September 2015

We're really not designed very well, and we've evolved our environment into a place that our ancestors - where we get our basic mental frameworks - would never even recognize, let alone be able to navigate.  Despite this, we do fairly well, until we pretty spectacularly don't.  Nisbett identifies some basic cognitive errors that humans make when we're trying to think about difficult or abstract things, and offers suggestions for how to counteract those tendencies, or at least how to recognize when you're doing them so you know you're not actually being rational, even when you think you are.

2015 Review Round-Up: Graphic Novel: The Graveyard Book (Volumes 1&2) Neil Gaiman et al

The Graveyard Book: Volume 1
Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
Kevin Nowlan, P. Craig Russell, Tony Harris, Scott Hampton, Galen Showman, Jill Thompson, Stephen B. Scott
ISBN: 9780062194817

The Graveyard Book: Volume 2
Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
David LaFuente, Scott Hampton, P. Craig Russell, Kevin Nowlan, Galen Showman
ISBN: 9780062194831
Both Read October 2015

The graphic novel adaptation of the epic fantastical and ghostly re-telling of the Jungle Book.

Just go read it.  It's Neil Gaiman, and it's beautiful.  I would recommend reading the actual book first - it makes things clearer and deeper to have that background to draw from, and it makes for a nice sense of anticipation about what the various artists are going to choose to do to depict various people and scenes.  This was the October read for our library's Graphic Novel Book Club, and it was a big hit.  Everyone enjoyed the story, even though most people didn't realize it was an homage to the Jungle Book (which you should also read, but remember that Kipling was an AWFUL racist.)

Bod wanders away from a gristly scene, and takes refuge in a cemetery, under the protection of the Grey Lady, the cemetery ghosts, and the mysterious nocturnal caretaker Silas.  These grim beings form a protective family for Bod to grow and develop, but all too soon he is going to learn about the wider world, and once he leaves the cemetery grounds, he's dangerously vulnerable to the strange man Jack who hunts him relentlessly.

2015 Review Round-Up: Nonfiction: Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess)

Furiously Happy
Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess)
ISBN: 9781250077004
Lawson's trademark insanity-deprecations; part memoir, part celebration of humanity's weirdness.
Read September 22, 2015

If you ever feel like you're just a little too weird, or perhaps that you are odd in some way that other people just wouldn't quite understand, just pick this up and then come hang out with us on twitter and the blogosphere.  You'll find that the Tribe is overflowing and delighted to welcome you in with questionable taxidermy and oddly specificly morbid Google queries.

2015 Review Round-Up: Science Fiction: Star Wars Aftermath, Chuck Wendig

Star Wars: Aftermath (book 1)
Chuck Wendig
ISBN: 9780345511621
Mostly focused on a rag-tag band of thrown-together allies on a single world under imperial influence, with obviously-required-by-Disney snippets of scenes with major characters or locations.
Read September 2015

This is the first official Disney-licensed Star Wars book after all the rest of them got relegated to the "Legends" trash heap.  Wendig has his work cut out for him, because anything he does is going to contradict or re-write EU canon, well-established in the hearts and minds of rabid fans everywhere.

Despite that hobble, and the obvious contractual obligations mandated by his mouse-eared overlords, Wendig crafts a lovely "Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina" sort of adventure.  We have a ragged band of tired Rebels, the squabbling and back-biting remains of the Empire, and all sorts of planets and peoples who really don't like or want much to do with either of those institutions.  There's a rocking bounty hunter, a droid with an oversized personality, and a maybe-innocent kid thrown into a situation he's really unprepared for.  Mix all that together with the patented Star Wars brand of intense family issues, a few x-wing and tie-fighter dogfights, a healthy helping of explosions, a dash of squicky alien biology, and you've got yourself a solid textual re-introduction to that galaxy long ago and far away.

2015 Review Round-Up: Fantasy Novella: The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss

The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Patrick Rothfuss
ISBN: 9780756410438
Lyrical and quirky novella set in the Kingkiller Chronicles universe, focused on Auri.
Read August 23, 2015

This book is just like Auri - it's not quite right in the head, but it's sweet and endearing and a little bit scary around the edges, and if you expect too much of it - if you WANT too much - it'll break and twist under you, but if you can just slip into it and glide along the broken and shattered road, you'll have delightful company, and perhaps feel a little less alone in your own brokenness and peculiarity.

2015 Review Round-Up: Juv Fiction: The Scavengers, Michael Perry

The Scavengers
Michael Perry
ISBN: 9780062026163
Juv dystopia, spunky girl heroine, a bit overexplained at the end.
Read Summer 2015

This was a fun "beginner level" dystopia.  It had elements of zombies a la Walking Dead, it has the scrappy heroine and a grizzled old mentor and his kitchen-witchery wife.  Family in peril, younger sibling needing protection.  Bonus points for random wordplay (sometimes genuinely funny, sometimes seemed a bit effortful) and a demented chicken.

Our girl has named herself Ford Falcon because it sounds really cool.  Please don't look at the actual car, she knows it's a beater.  But it does provide a nice cozy place to sleep, all half-buried in the abandoned rural scrapyard her family now calls home.  There aren't many people out in the country now, what with the government offering everyone free food and protection inside the new domed cities.  But a few holdouts linger, and her family is one - or they were, until someone trashes the family home and they all vanish.  Now Ford is on her own (but not really, there are wily neighbors to help out) and it's up to her to find her family, and try to build a home again.  A pretty good yarn, and a good gentle allegory for the push-pull of adolescent yearning to be safe at home, but also pretty sick of being stuck at home.  Recommended for kids who are ok with pretty intense scenes of abandonment and lots of pages spent with creepy corn zombies.

Tuesday Storytime: First Snow (Happy 2016!)

Can you believe it's freaking 2016 already?  It's just unreal.  I'm still not certain when I'm actually going to feel like a grown-up, let alone this weird middle-age development.

Anyway, over the weekend it finally realized that in winter it is supposed to be cold, so we're into proper winter weather, for a proper winter storytime.

First Snow
Kim Lewis
ISBN: 1564021947
Atmospheric colored pencils of windswept wintry landscapes and expressive faces.

Sara, Sara's teddy, and Mommy are up early and out into the fields to feed the sheep before the first winter snow.  This is a slow-moving atmospheric story, focusing on the feel of the land and the air as a snowfall approaches, and on the earthy rhythms of farm life, close to animals and nature.  The astute or experienced storytimer will recognize that Sara's teddy is brought along to provide a bit of narrative drama, but it is gentle and quickly solved, even by picture book standards.  Sweet and gentle, just like a first snow.


Dream Snow
Eric Carle
ISBN: 9780399235795 (with battery-operated sounds and lights on the final page/endpaper)
Carle's signature collage pastiche and bright colors in a dreamlike not-quite Santa Claus story.

I had pulled this book a while ago, and was tempted to use it for my Christmas storytime, but the farmer in the story is never actually identified as Santa, even though just about every child will make that connection based on the illustrations.  Our farmer has a simple life; animals named One through Five, a single tree (named Tree) and simple tastes.  He dreams of snow covering the animals (achieved in the book by a series of clear overleafs with white "blankets" turned to reveal what animals One through Five actually are) and when he wakes, the snow has truly fallen.  He realizes that he's forgotten something, and dons coat and hat and gloves and boots (and here is where the Santa reference materializes) grabs boxes and a sack and rushes outside to put presents under Tree.  At this point, if you like, you can press the battery-button and the stars "twinkle" and a short chiming mysterious melody plays.


Winter is the Warmest Season
Lauren Stringer (Red Rubber Boot Day)
ISBN: 0152049673
Exuberant acrylic paints vibrantly reveal the warm heart of winter.

You may think that Summer is the warmest season, but Ms Stringer will have you convinced by the end of this lovely book that you were quite wrong.  Her lyrical and evocative text (in large letters, and not much of it per page) draws attention to all the warm delights that winter brings: grilled-cheese sandwiches, roaring radiators and fires, warm cats and glowing candles, cozy blankets and cozier snuggles.  This is one of my favorite reads, and the language just flows beautifully along with the bright and cheerful page-spreads, just busy enough to reward close attention without losing focus or attractive composition.  I think I read this at least once a year, and I'm happy to do so.