Review of A Very Large Expanse of Sea, by Taherah Mafi

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Romance, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

by Taherah Mafi
read by Priya Ayyar

HarperAudio, 2018. 6 hours and 43 minutes.
National Book Award Longlist.
Review written August 17, 2020, from a library eaudiobook

A Very Large Expanse of Sea is a book I didn’t get around to in 2018 mainly because it was obviously geared more for young adults than for children. This book is set in 2002 about Shirin, a Muslim girl who wears a headscarf, at yet another new high school for her Sophomore year. Her parents move the family often, always moving up to a better neighborhood. But it means that Shirin and her older brother have trouble making connections in high school. Or at least Shirin does.

Shirin is disgusted with humanity and the way she gets treated because of her scarf. She wants nothing more than to be invisible. She doesn’t look people in the eye. She listens to music under her scarf and gets away with it.

Then in her Biology class, she’s given a lab partner whose name is Ocean. Romantic sparks start up between them. But Shirin doesn’t think he realizes what he’s getting into, and it turns out she’s right. What she doesn’t realize is that he’s the school basketball star and the whole school is interested in whom he dates.

This is a romance about teens who face some formidable obstacles, and it includes characters who feel realistically flawed, but who will find their way into your heart.

taherehbooks.com

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Review of Black Cake, by Charmaine Wilkerson

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Black Cake

by Charmaine Wilkerson
read by Lynnette R. Freeman and Simone McIntyre

Random House Audio, 2022. 12 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written August 2, 2022, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This audiobook had me fully drawn in right from the start. It’s a richly textured story, rooted in the present with a brother and his estranged sister shortly after their mother’s death. Byron and Benny think they knew their parents. They think they lived boring lives, both of them orphans from a Caribbean island who met in London and then built a family in California, where they prospered.

But their mother’s lawyer has a recording for them. And a Black Cake sitting in the freezer which they are to eat when the time is right. In the recording, their mother tells her actual story – how she changed identities three times in her decidedly not boring youth. And they have a sister they knew nothing about.

They also learn where their mother learned to make Black Cake — a traditional cake from the island using dried fruit soaked in rum and port and served at weddings and special events. Black Cake has long been an important part of their lives, and now they learn there was Black Cake at a huge turning point in their mother’s life.

The stories of the past and the present are layered together beautifully. When Byron and Benny need a break from the revelations, the reader gets a break, too. The story is dramatic and heart-wrenching and had me transfixed. The narrators use beautiful accents for characters from the many different parts of the world represented.

This book appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list. I felt like a winner because my hold on the eaudiobook had just come in — I’m sure then the list got longer.

As a debut novel, this book is amazingly rich and layered, kind of like cake. I highly recommend it, and especially the audio version enhanced by the beautiful accents.

charmspen.com

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Review of State of Terror, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny, read by Joan Allen

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

State of Terror

by Hillary Rodham Clinton
and Louise Penny
read by Joan Allen

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2021. 15 hours, 41 minutes on 13 CDs.
Review written May 27, 2022, from a library audiobook

Normally I would never check out a novel written by a celebrity, but the pairing with Louise Penny, a distinguished mystery writer, was enough to intrigue me. Surely a former Secretary of State can write very convincingly about plausible terrorist threats.

Actually, it’s a little too convincing. The story begins with a female secretary of state recently appointed by her political rival. The new president appointed Ellen Adams essentially to ruin her political power, and they don’t like each other very well. The narrator sounded a lot like Hillary Clinton, and the set-up got me wondering if Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had disliked each other as much as the two characters do.

But the characters are in a very different situation. The previous president was “Eric Dunn,” and they go on about what an incompetent buffoon he was. There’s another scene that includes the president of Russia, I guy named Ivanov, who is portrayed as pure evil. Mind you, the secretary of state gets the better of both of them! How much is that wish fulfillment fantasy and how much is it just rational commentary on what the world could be like after our last president?

I didn’t think the writing was stellar, and the plot had things about it that I can nitpick and also that I did see coming, but it certainly held my interest and kept me awake on my commute.

Shortly after the book starts, a large bomb goes off in Europe, followed by another. And then they get evidence there will be a third bomb, and it’s going to happen on the same bus in Frankfurt where Ellen Adams’ reporter son has been following a lead.

But that’s only the beginning. Who is responsible for the bombs? And what are their plans now?

It was probably a little self-indulgent of the author to make it the female secretary of state who figures out the answers and deals with tyrants and saves the day. I mean, why not write a book where the hero reminds everyone of you?

I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I reveal that some of the villains are right-wing idealists in the United States, even in positions of power. They’re willing to work with Al Qaida and bring terror to American soil if it will put a liberal president out of power and start things fresh, back to “real” America.

This was published in October 2021, and would have been written well before that. I thought it was interesting that even in this scenario, the authors didn’t think of having the right-wing talking about election fraud. And they talked about the danger that the Taliban would take over Afghanistan when they had to pull out troops based on the deal made by “Eric Dunn.”

So it was all rather disturbing. And probably a touch too realistic.

I don’t think there’s any danger that people who are politically conservative will want to read this book. If you pretty much agree with Hillary Clinton’s assessment of Donald Trump, I mean “Eric Dunn,” then this book emphasizes how many bad results could still come to pass from his presidency.

But try to listen to it as a realistic thriller of what could have happened, but is not happening in real life.

simonandschuster.com

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Review of A Comb of Wishes, by Lisa Stringfellow

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

A Comb of Wishes

by Lisa Stringfellow
read by Bahni Turpin

Quill Tree Books, February 2022. 5 hours, 32 minutes.
Review written July 23, 2022, based on a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Oh, this story was wonderful, and the audiobook version adds the perfect touch of atmosphere to pull me into its spell.

Set on the Caribbean island of St. Rita, Bahni Turpin used appropriate accents for the characters, but my favorite was hearing her say “Crick! Crack!” at the start and end of the chapters about the Sea Woman, as a storyteller on the island would do.

In the chapters set in our world, we see a girl named Kela whose mother died three months earlier in a car accident, whom Kela is still deeply grieving.

So when a magical comb seems to call to her in a sea cave, and Kela learns she can use it to get a wish, it’s no surprise what she would wish for. Of course there are consequences. Especially when adults get wind of the comb, and she can’t give it back to the sea as she had promised.

I loved the way this story is woven. Normally, I’d see all the drawbacks of magic messing with something so major — but the story itself brought those to the front, and I could believe the way it played out. The depiction of the island and the sea people added to the beauty of the story.

I loved the way Kela made jewelry with sea glass — something humans had thrown into the sea so she was allowed to remove — and the common name for them of mermaid’s tears.

This tale features a Black girl in the starring role, and people of all backgrounds will be enchanted.

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Review of Playing with Myself, by Randy Rainbow

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Playing with Myself

by Randy Rainbow
read by the author

Macmillan Audio, 2022. 7 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written July 21, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I love Randy Rainbow! If you lean at all liberal politically, or maybe if you just enjoy show tunes, I hope you’ve seen his parody videos. They usually deal with current issues, but often include other fun content. He has a new one out, written with Alan Menken, called “Pink Glasses” about being willing to be yourself, using his trademark pink glasses as a symbol.

If there’s anyone out there who still doesn’t believe that some people are born gay, this audiobook is solid refutation of that world view. From childhood, Randy Rainbow (Yes, that’s his real name.) loved Broadway show tunes and dressing up and acting out the female parts. This is the story of his unconventional route to fame — making parody videos in his bedroom.

In the audiobook, Randy’s mother makes a special appearance as he interviews her about his childhood. I thought that chapter was especially fun.

But I found the whole thing adorable and inspiring. Yes, there’s profanity peppered throughout — at a similar level as in his videos. Also a touch of adult humor here and there. But overall, it’s a story of a kid who was bullied in school for being gay and overweight and having a funny name — going on to smashing success in part because of his exhaustive knowledge of Broadway show tunes.

It’s fun hearing about his unlikely path to stardom and his unbridled joy in getting appreciation from his idols such as Barbra Streisand and Patti LuPone. This audiobook felt like hearing a friend tell his story and just made me so happy for him as he found a true expression of his unique talents and a way straight into people’s hearts (well maybe not exactly straight), including mine.

randyrainbow.com

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Review of The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot, by Marianne Cronin

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot

by Marianne Cronin
read by Sheila Reid and Rebecca Benson

HarperAudio, 2021. 10 hours, 54 minutes.
Review written July 9, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2022 Alex Award Winner (books published for adults of interest to teens)

Oh, this book touched my heart!

You’re warned right from the start. Lenni is a Swedish girl living in the terminal ward of the Princess Royal Hospital in Glasgow. She’s 17 years old, and she doesn’t want to die.

As the book begins, she can still go on adventures around the hospital. She goes to the chapel and meets Father Arthur. She asks him some uncomfortable questions about why she’s going to die, and ends up making friends with him. She helps a temp name the new room for hospital patients to do art. They call it the Rose Room — and that’s where Lenni meets Margot.

Margot is 83 years old and also dying — and Lenni notices that between the two of them, they’ve lived 100 years.

They begin a project together in the Rose Room — 100 paintings, one for each year of their lives. And along with the paintings, they started telling stories, stories from different years of their lives.

I love the two narrators for this audiobook. The narrator reading Lenni’s part sounds 17, and the narrator reading Margot’s stories sounds 83. And they both have wonderful accents, so the whole thing is a delight to read.

We know from the start that Lenni and Margot are dying. So you can simply expect some heartbreak at the end. But that’s going to come because this unlikely pair will have completely wound their way into your heart before you’re done with their stories and their enthusiasm for living.

Oh, and there’s a Swedish man in the book named Mr. Eklund, so that’s proof it’s a great book!

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Review of The Boys in the Back Row, by Mike Jung

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

The Boys in the Back Row

by Mike Jung
read by Koong Sim

Dreamscape Media, 2020. 5 hours, 13 minutes, on 5 CDs.
Review written June 17, 2022, from a library audiobook
Starred Review

I missed this book when it came out because I was judging for the Cybils Awards in a different category, but I’m glad I finally caught up. The reader is excellent, making you believe you’re hearing the voices of middle school boys.

This is a book about deep and lasting friendship between two comic-book-and-band geeks. They’re bullied because of the friendship and because they’re geeks, but the friendship just shines.

Matt and Eric are starting another year of middle school. This time, instead of flute, where he was the only boy, Matt is playing bass drum, so he’s in the back row with his best friend, Eric. But there are some bullies in the back row, too.

Early in the year, the band learns that they’re going to compete in a band competition at World of Amazement at the end of the year. (I love the names Mike Jung invents for amusement parks and comic book characters!) But then they learn that Eric’s family is moving away after the year is done. So the final piece that sets their planning in motion is when they also learn that on the last day the band will be at World of Amazement, there’s going to be a DefenderCon where their favorite comic book creator is signing comics — just a mile away from the amusement park. Of course they have to go, in a final adventure together as best friends.

The catch is that they also realize they won’t be able to get permission. But if they can manage to keep things quiet, they might be able to pull this off. But then a back row bully finds out what they’re up to….

Naturally, I didn’t expect all to go smoothly with their plans, but I still was completely surprised by what happened. And the tenderness at the end almost brought tears to my eyes.

This all sounds serious, but the book is full of humor throughout, fun nerdy humor, the best kind.

Let’s hear it for nerdy middle school boys who care deeply about their friends!

dreamscapepublishing.com

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Review of An Arrow to the Moon, by Emily X. R. Pan

Audiobooks, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

An Arrow to the Moon

by Emily X. R. Pan
read by Natalie Naudus, Shawn K. Jain, and David Shih

Little, Brown Young Readers, 2022. 8 hours, 24 minutes.
Review written June 29, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I read and loved Emily X. R. Pan’s debut novel, The Astonishing Color of After, during my Newbery committee year, so I made sure to get my hands on this book.

This book is more lyrical writing and magical realism as Chinese mythology collides with the modern world.

The book follows two Taiwanese teenagers who were born on the same day. They both have strange magical things about them. Hunter Yee never misses a shot — whether with a bow and arrow or balled-up paper into a trash can. Luna Chang is followed around by magical fireflies that show her what to do. And when they come together – their kisses leave soft blue marks on each other’s skin.

But like Romeo and Juliet before them, their families hate each other. And Hunter’s family is living in hiding after his father stole an ancient Chinese artifact. A powerful mob boss is looking for them, and their protection is somehow wearing off.

And before the story of the teens, we hear a tale of something that happened in the sky long ago, and then in China.

Against that backdrop, Hunter and Luna’s romance blossoms. They’re drawn to each other, despite their parents. And intrigued by the magic they each contain. Hmm. My summary doesn’t convey the atmospheric resonance of this book. It was a magical listening experience.

While I was listening, it bothered me a little that, while Luna talks with girlfriends a little at the beginning, they seem to disappear as her romance with Hunter blossoms. They kiss while riding the school bus and no one notices or comments. The world seems to become just them. When they find a private place and have sex (off-stage), nobody else suspects or is at all interested in their all-absorbing relationship — and that made me wonder a bit.

But given how the story turned out — my quibbles seemed less important. This book is transcendent and beautiful. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the ending, since it was foreshadowed nicely — but I was indeed amazed by how beautifully Emily X. R. Pan pulled it off.

exrpan.com
lbyr.com
thenovl.com

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Review of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, read by Lin Manuel Miranda

Audiobooks, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
read by Lin Manuel Miranda

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2013. 7 hours and 29 minutes.
Review written February 12, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2013 Pura Belpré Author Award Winner
2013 Stonewall Book Award Winner
2013 Lambda Literary Award Winner
2013 Printz Honor Book

I got to hear Benjamin Alire Sáenz give his Printz Honor acceptance speech in 2013, and that speech made me very much want to read this book. I finally got around to it after a sequel came out in 2021 – and the same day I finished listening to this, I began listening to the sequel. I am so glad to finally read this marvelous book.

It’s a friendship story about two Mexican American boys. They meet at the start of summer before their sophomore year of high school at different high schools in El Paso, Texas, and have a laugh over their similar names. Ari is the narrator of the book, a boy who spends a lot of time in his own head – which makes him a good narrator. Dante is an open-hearted boy full of philosophical questions and free with his emotions – the sort of boy who’d try to rescue a bird with a broken wing in the middle of the street.

But when Dante does that on a rainy day and a car comes around the bend, without thinking, Ari runs and pushes Dante out of the way – at the risk of his own life. There are some other crises in the book, and lots of thinking about life and what things mean. Ari has a brother twelve years older who is in prison, and his family never talks about that brother.

I knew from the Printz acceptance speech that this is also a book about coming out as gay and figuring out who you are. But that takes up most of the book, so I won’t say a lot about that – except it is heart-wrenching and feels true. The book is set in the late 1980s, and they’re up against harsh attitudes in the world around them, many of which are internalized.

Something I love about this book are the two sets of parents, both of whom are wonderfully drawn and love their sons with all their hearts. It’s refreshing to read a book about teens with loving and supportive parents. Ari’s dad is dealing with post-traumatic stress from his time in Viet Nam, but that makes him human and real, not irreparably scarred.

In fact, that’s what’s so wonderful about this book – all the characters feel true. Nobody’s perfect, and they’ve got flaws consistent with their strengths. I found myself wanting to hug these two boys.

And it’s narrated by Lin Manuel Miranda! He didn’t do a tremendous job distinguishing between the voices of the different characters, though I find I’m picking up on subtle differences a little more by the time I’ve started the second book. But in spite of that tiny quibble, I could listen to Lin Manuel Miranda read anything. When it’s a wonderful book he’s reading, it simply added to my love. Of the book!

benjaminsaenz.com/

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Review of The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams
read by Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting

HarperAudio, 2021. 12 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written June 8, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

This book is about a handwritten reading list that several people find in different surprising places in Wembley, a suburb of London. And then how reading those books changes people’s lives.

The two central characters who get most of the book’s time are Aleisha, a 17-year-old who’s working at the library as a summer job, and Mukesh, an elderly Indian gentleman who lost his wife two years before. Aleisha has her own pressures as she and her older brother are trying to care for their mother, who keeps the house dark and rarely leaves her bed. Aleisha’s planning to head to university and study to be a lawyer when the summer is over.

The first time Mukesh comes to the library, he encounters Aleisha, who has no recommendations for him and is quite rude. But Aleisha feels guilty, so when she finds the Reading List, she decides to read the books and then pass them on to Mukesh. Both their lives are profoundly touched.

I love the way this book highlights how a good book can affect you so deeply. Books can give you insights into your own life and even help build relationships. Besides Mukesh and Aleisha, Mukesh also gains new ground with his granddaughter through books.

I’ve read and loved all but three of the books on the list. Here are the books:

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier
The Kite Runner, by Kaled Hosseini
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

The book The Time Traveler’s Wife is also featured.

The three I haven’t read are The Kite Runner, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy. Now I want to go out and read those three if they’re anything as good as the others.

I did laugh that my favorite on the list – Pride and Prejudice – was the least favorite of the characters in the book. Oh well! At least it got included.

So it was all a wonderful story. I particularly loved the narrator who read Mukesh’s chapters. I felt like the character was talking with me and this kind elderly widower won my heart.

I did have some things that bothered me a lot about their portrayal of a library. Maybe things are different in the U.K., but I’m not really convinced they are.

First, a student working in the library for the summer is not called a librarian. A librarian is someone with a master’s degree in library science. Although a customer might mistakenly call such a person a librarian, the workers would not perpetuate that mistake.

Next, this poor hardly-occupied library needed library outsiders – Mukesh and Aleisha – to come up with an idea to “save” it – by having a program! A program where the community gets together. That’s all well and good and they had a very nice reason for it. But come on, is the author aware that most libraries have a full schedule of programs to engage their communities? It’s not actually a novel idea.

I did think it was interesting that while they talked about a few regulars, that particular library didn’t have any patrons experiencing homelessness. Maybe that’s not a problem in England? Of course, the library in the book was much, much less frequented than the one where I work. We get more than 800 customers on a typical day. I know there are libraries that don’t get so many, but the portrayal – in a book reminding us how reading can change lives – made me wince a little bit.

I also really wondered how the books on the list were chosen. It was interesting that there was only one children’s book – Little Women – and it’s a very old children’s book, set in 1860s America. But that of course got me thinking: If I were to make a list of my favorite books, books that had power to move people deeply and affect their lives and relationships, which books would I choose?

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