Adult Review: Love and Other Consolation Prizes

Love and Other Consolation Prizes
By Jamie Ford

Advance copy provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes is the story of Ernest Young, a boy who was brought from China to be auction to "a good home" in the 1909 World's Fair in Seattle. The book opens in the 60s as Ernest over looks the second Seattle World's Fair and reminisces about his life and where he's come since then. He thinks about his wife, who now barely remembers him, and his children, the life he's built and how parts of it were taken from him over the years.

And it is beautiful.

Every word encompasses a world of sight, sound, taste, and scent. Ford's descriptions are to die for and I hung on every word. The characters feel with such incredible clarity that they could have stepped out from the pages and it wouldn't have surprised me.

From what I've read, this book is very much in line with Ford's other offerings, which include the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which I have not read. The impression I have of this author is that his work flows from a sensitive place, an inner world which watches leaves fall and the way a slight breeze moves forgotten things across the ground.

Due to time limitations, I was only able to do an overview of this book, but I read the first two chapters, several chapters throughout, and the final two chapters. I had plans to cancel my hold on the book when I had an opportunity to explore it, but the lyrical story, sharp characters, and beautiful writing convinced me to wait and read the entire thing. This is an excellent book and if you enjoy bittersweet nostalgia and love that doesn't always fit the world's narrative, I think you would love this one, too.

Non-fiction Review: The Happiness Hypothesis

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
by Jonathan Haidt

Overall Rating: 4/5
Subject Presentation: 4/5
Characters: n/a
Writing: 4/5

The Happiness Hypothesis delves deep into the simple origins of psychology and philosophy to discover the relevant truths in old wisdom. A fascinating study melding science and philosophy, this book gives simple, clear explanations for the concepts presented and is firmly grounded in modern psychological science. An excellent read for mildly jaded cynics (like me) seeking a simple approach to finding some peace in a fast-paced world.

On a more personal note, I read this book for my Psychology of Happiness class a few summers ago and it really changed how I looked at things like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and some of the older origins of mindfulness and meditation. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and refused to give my copy up to the bookstore at the end of the summer session.

Children's Review: My Brigadista Year

My Brigadista Year
by Katherine Paterson

Final Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Paterson presents a historical fiction story from a bright young Cuban girl who volunteers to take part in the Cuban literacy campaign of 1961. Lora leaves her comfortable home in Havana to trek deep into the mountains to teach the compesinos, the farmers living in the countryside, to read and write. She tells the reader about her year as a brigadista, one of those teachers who strived to teach and learn beside their students until Cuba could be declared by the United Nations in 1962 as an illiteracy-free country.

Through Lora's eyes, Paterson finds the voice of a young girl in an entirely different country, who sees race and social standing from a Cuban perspective. Her passion for literacy brings Lora into conflict with her family and her father refuses to allow her to sign up for the program until her grandmother convinces him how important it is.

Included at the end is Lora's epilogue, telling the reader where she went, where those families went, how their lives have changed. Her story is almost a call to action, describing the doctors fighting Ebola in Africa and reminding the reader that she wasn't and never has been a hero, but she still made a difference in those people's. How could she not go?

This book should be in every library. If Katherine Paterson isn't nominated for an award this year, I will eat something one would not normally eat (I don't have any hats). The story is powerful, the characters are memorable, and the message stands loud and proud: we can overcome fear and ignorance to be better people together than we were before. Read it. Read it to your friends. Share it with people on the street. It's worth it.

Fanfiction Review: The Billionaire and the Bellboy

Trump Temptations: The Billionaire and the Bellboy
By Elijah Daniel

Total Rating: that smell somewhere between skunk spray and old coffee grounds
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 2/5
Giggle Factor: 8/5

Okay, guys, time to face facts. If you were fool enough to read this story, as I was by the eager pushing of my teen Pathfinder group you know as well as I do that this is terrible prose at its finest. Are there mistakes? Oh, yes. Is the grammar atrocious? Definitely. Did the main character have as much to define him as a squashed avocado? That'd probably be generous.

Did I laugh? Hell, yes.

In three short chapters, Elijah Daniel manages to send up both the romance genre (and its amateur offspring, the fanfic) and our current president before he was in a position to throw paper towels at Puerto Rican survivors of a natural disaster with all the personal empathy of a constipated moose. It reads like some of the worst earnestly written fanfiction I've ever read and still manages to grasp all the parts of Trump that I would never, ever want to grasp.

I think my favorite line will always be "his oily orange skin glistening in the sunlight as if he were a soggy cheeto." Bravo, Mr. Daniel. Bravo.

Teen Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls
By Patrick Ness
Inspired by an idea by Siobhan Dowd
Illustrated by Jim Kay

Overall Rating: 5/5 
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5

A Monster Calls tells the story of Conor, a teen living with his mother. His mother is in the advanced stages of cancer and continually tired from chemotherapy, leaving Conor mostly on his own.

And then the Monster shows up. Dark and imposing and utterly tree-like (without resembling Groot in text or in illustration), the monster says he came walking to answer Conor's call and would tell him three stories.

I read this in one day. At the desk and in the window at work, then in a wild desperate sprint at home that evening. I cried so hard by the ending. This is a masterfully-told story about a young boy coming to terms with the unthinkable, with survivor's guilt, with all the things that come before the after. Conor's story is heartbreaking and so very, very true to the experiences of anyone who has watched a loved one dying. The very idea of the book is gut-wrenching, terrifying and still holds a fragile, resilient hope at its center. That there will be an after. That we can move on.

The illustrations are intense, beautiful black-and-white pieces that mix pen and ink drawing with block cuts and stamping to produce the wildness of the untamed wilderness in a stark world that no longer cares for it. It evokes emotions of longing, of loneliness, of that feeling of watching a single crow flying overhead on a cloudy day. I could not review this book without gushing about the visuals. They added so much to the story, literally framing the narrative and giving the reader a sense of how important certain scenes were to Conor and the people around him.

I intend to watch the recent film release in the near future in order to post a book-to-film essay on Books by Day, Films by Night. There should also be a video forthcoming (I swear!) talking about what this book did better than the movie and vice versa on my (much neglected) YouTube channel.