Non-fiction Review: Happiness Like Water

Happiness Like Water
by Chinelo Okparanta

Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 3/5

This collection of short stories and essays is written by a Nigerian immigrant in scenes from her homeland.

While I found the stories and characters fascinating, I struggled greatly with the voice. I didn't finish the material, but I hope to go back when I have more cognitive space to give this collection the attention it deserves. I can tell it's important and meaningful, but I just wasn't in the right place to read it this time around.

Watch this space.

Teen Review: March: Book Two

March: Book Two
by John Robert Lewis and Andrew Aydin, artist Nate Powell

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

This title is the second in a planned trilogy of nonfiction graphic novels following the life of Congressman John Robert Lewis and his activities during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The story progresses through flashbacks with Lewis' narrative descriptions and storytelling interspersed with flash-forward sequences centered on President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony.

I am wildly in love with this series for a variety of reasons. I am personally very much a product of my culture and time period. I grew up in the 80s and 90s in an entirely white area of northern Michigan. My American history was focused mostly on the Civil War and WWII. I have a smattering of information about what happened during the Civil Rights Movement, but mostly, I admit that I have no idea. None at all.

This graphic novel series has helped me realize how little I actually know. I didn't know about the Freedom Riders. I didn't know what they went through, the choices they made, the way political and social decisions shaped the movement. I don't know anything about it and reading this and it's predecessor makes me both ashamed that I know so little and ravenous to learn more. This is part of American history that we should not be ignorant of and I am profoundly grateful that these graphic novels are making that history easily accessible to the public, both young and old.

The artwork is fantastic, the writing is accessible and easily understood. The subject matter is graphic in the violent and bloody sense of the word, but there's a reason for that: this period of history was violent and bloody; people called each other horrible words and they are present in this book. But to remove those aspects from this history would be to make the struggle pretty, take away the gritty reality that was a real life-and-death struggle for black Americans.

I can't wait for the next book. And while I wait, I'm going to do more reading. I feel that I owe the Freedom Riders that much.

Adult Review: Saga vol 4

Saga, volume 4
by Brian K. Vaughan

Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Artwork: 5/5

The next installment of the comic collection which follows the lives of a pair of renegade lovers from opposite sides of a planetary civil war. Easily on par with the rest of the series and I've been rabidly checking our catalog for it since I heard it had been released.

I adore this series. Definitely not for children and even parents of young adults should be wary due to language and the sexual nature of some of the imagery. But the story of these vital characters fascinates me and I want to know where they're going. I want to know how their daughter grows up and what will happen next. I'm breathless with anticipation at every turn of the page and the artwork is absolutely stunning. The characters are complex and powerful on many levels. And I totally want a Lying Cat of my own.

Non-fiction Review: White Girls

White Girls
by Hilton Als

Overall Rating: 4/5
Plot: n/a
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 4/5

White Girls is a collection of essays by Hilton Als on such subjects as gender identity, representation, intersectionality, and pop culture. As such, there really is no plot to rate, but the characterization of the people he talks about and the way in which he writes are what I'm basing my rating on. I particularly enjoyed his essay on Truman Capote.

I feel like I did this book a disservice by not reading it as deeply or as carefully as it deserved. This needs to be held up with other writers of his era, like James Baldwin and Truman Capote. This is an important book and should be given the attention it deserves. I really didn't do that and I blame the manner in which I read it: there was a hold behind me, so I rushed through the essays and didn't spent much time meditating on their meaning and place in the scheme of life. This is not a light read, but it definitely one that needs to be read to be appreciated.