Review of The Catch Me If You Can, by Jessica Nabongo

Adventure, Nonfiction Review, Photography, Starred Review, Travel, True Stories 0

The Catch Me If You Can

One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World

by Jessica Nabongo

National Geographic, 2022. 413 pages.
Review written February 11, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book is awesome!

Jessica Nabongo has traveled to all 195 United Nations-recognized countries in the world. In this book, she takes us along on that journey, complete with stunning photographs. She tells us about the people she met and the experiences she enjoyed.

Jessica is the first Black woman to officially achieve this milestone. I love her attitude of putting aside fear and looking for the good in every place in the world.

And oh my goodness, her outfits! She shows up in many of the pictures, wearing stunning outfits reflecting the location. The photography alone in this book makes it amazing, but combined with her stories, I was fascinated from start to finish.

My plan was to read about one country per day. Well, that was taking a long time, so I upped it to two or three countries per day. And yes, I renewed the book several times. But the dose of adventure and delight became a nice part of my routine.

Jessica’s Introduction is inspiring. Here are two of the lessons she learned:

I have visited the world’s 195 countries and 10 territories. Through these travels I learned two key lessons: First, most people are good. My journey was made possible by the kindness of strangers — some who opened their homes to me and others who donated money to help me reach the finish line. I do not know when we started to assume the worst in each other, but if you consider yourself to be a good person, why would you assume that a stranger is a bad one? I always assume the best of people because that is what I received nine times out of 10 in every corner of the world. The few bad experiences will never outweigh the good.

The second lesson I learned is that we are more similar than we are different. In the end, neither race, gender, social class, religion, sexual orientation, body type, education level, nor nationality make you better than the next person. The French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Once you fully accept that, you realize how much our differences simply do not matter.

I love her goal for the reader:

The intention of this book is not to convince you to travel to every country in the world, though it might. That was my dream. My intention is to show everyone — not just Black women and men, but all women and men — that your dreams are valid. Your dreams are achievable.

Let me encourage you to travel the world with Jessica Nabongo!

thecatchmeifyoucan.com
natgeo.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Premeditated Myrtle

by Elizabeth C. Bunce
read by Bethan Rose Young

Recorded Books, October 2020. 8 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written September 25, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 General Children’s Fiction

I am so happy I finally listened to this book! I’ve meant to read it since it came out in 2020. But October is when I’m reading for the Cybils Awards, and that year I was reading for both Young Adult Speculative Fiction and Young Adult Fiction, so I put off reading Myrtle, but finally found it again now that I listen to eaudiobooks. I’m afraid my Cybils reading is starting up again this year, but some time I look forward to reading three more books about Myrtle, the 12-year-old detective from the 1890s.

Premeditated Myrtle is the first book about Myrtle, a girl who lives in England in the town of Swinburne with her widower father and her governess, a very capable young lady from French Guiana. Myrtle’s father is a prosecutor, and Myrtle is very interested in his work. So when their next door neighbor is found dead in her bath, Myrtle is curious about her death.

The neighbor, a grumpy old lady named Miss Woodhouse, always took a bath at the same time each morning. So why would she have taken one in the middle of the night? And why is there pollen and mud on her nightgown? And whose tracks are in the mud by the pond? And where is the cat named Peony? Worst of all, why is Mr. Hamm, the gardener, burning Miss Woodhouse’s collection of prize lillies and lying about it?

The mystery takes several twists and turns, in some ways reminiscent of the penny dreadful books that Myrtle enjoys. But she finds an actual case more challenging than what the book characters navigate.

Myrtle’s a kid, but the author does a nice job of giving her a believable amount of agency in this story, with Myrtle also being aware when her detecting goes against the rules for what “young ladies of quality” should be doing.

The whole thing is lots of fun, and I’m glad that the fourth book about Myrtle was recently published, so I can enjoy more of her adventures.

elizabethcbunce.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Carotid and Vertebral Artery Dissection, by Jodi A. Dodds and Amanda P. Anderson

Health, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Carotid and Vertebral Artery Dissection

A Guide for Survivors and Their Loved Ones

by Jodi A. Dodds, MD
and Amanda P. Anderson, MS, CCC-SLP

Printed in Monee, IL, January 11, 2022. 261 pages.
Review written February 1, 2022, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 General Nonfiction

I can’t even tell you how happy I am that this book exists.

Ten years ago, at 47 years old, I had a cerebellar stroke caused by a vertebral artery dissection. I was in pain with a horrible headache centered in my neck from the vertebral artery dissection more than a month before I had the stroke, but no doctor even thought to check for a dissected artery. Then I had an initial stroke, with sudden room-spinning vertigo — and the Emergency Room did a CT scan, which didn’t catch it, and sent me home, saying the dizziness meant my migraines had changed.

I had a second stroke three days later. That one they did catch, and I was in the hospital for ten days. It wasn’t until two days after my stroke that they thought to check for vertebral artery dissection.

I was sent home from the hospital on coumadin for six months, but they told me I didn’t need physical or occupational therapy and no major deficits. I didn’t understand all the minor deficits that would follow. And when I tried to find out information about recovering from vertebral dissections or cerebellar strokes, I only found information about major disabilities.

What’s more, when my neck pain continued, in the exact place where the vertebral artery dissection happened, my neurologist (ludicrously) started looking for arthritis in my neck! Later, after I’d aggravated the injury lifting too much weight, a neurology intern told me that arteries don’t hurt!

So reading this book ten years after the fact, I feel validated. I had learned on the internet that CT scans only catch 20% of cerebellar strokes when they’re happening. This book told me that CT scans only catch 35% of any kind of ischemic stroke while they are happening, and should never be used to rule out ischemic stroke. (They are good at catching hemorrhagic stroke, so still a good test to run.) I still can’t believe the doctors sent me home when I had that first stroke.

Also, pain for months and years after a vertebral artery dissection is just plain common. I know what that pain feels like — it was intense for the month before the stroke. So when it shows up again, I’m sure I aggravated the old injury, and this book confirms that may well be what’s happening. It also made me less afraid that pain there means a drastic reinjury — they emphasized that your scans can look normal, and yet you may still have pain long after the dissection happened.

I’ve also had dizziness since the stroke, and many vestibular migraines (similar to headache migraines, but with dizziness). This is common for vertebral artery dissection patients even if the injury was discovered before they had a stroke, though I’m sure the deficit in my cerebellum doesn’t help.

In summary, this book didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t figured out from my own experience, but it was oh, so validating! And I very, very much hope some doctors will find it. I’m posting this review in hopes of one more way cervical artery dissection survivors might find this information. I recommend that anyone in that situation purchase this book. You’ll find a wealth of information that will help you understand what you’ve experienced.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf, by Davide Cali and Marianna Balducci

Award Winners, Delightfully Silly, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf

by Davide Cali and Marianna Balducci

Tundra Books, 2022. 32 pages.
Review written January 8, 2023, from my own copy.
Starred Review
2023 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Grades K-2
2022 Sonderbooks Standout: #9 Silly Fun Picture Books

This very silly book is a counting book that’s not really a counting book.

Here’s how it begins:

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs.
Then the wolf ate them.
THE END.

This story is too short!
I want a longer one!

In the longer story on the next page, there are four little pigs that get eaten.

And so it progresses, the narrator adding wild things to the story, the “reader” complaining, and the result always the same.

The pigs are drawn from beads on an abacus. There are not more than ten beads on a row, and often they’re grouped by fives, so counting is easy.

The graphics, the silly stories, and the dialogue between the narrator and the objector are simply loads of fun. We never see the pigs get eaten, and there’s a feeling that these are actors that are not really harmed, since the same abacus gets reused. So it keeps things light and silly, despite so very many pigs supposedly getting eaten.

This is another one you’ll enjoy most if you check it out for yourself, as my description can’t do justice to how much fun it is. You can throw in some counting when you read it to your kid, but I don’t think they’ll think of it as a counting book.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of So This Is Ever After, by F. T. Lukens, read by Kevin R. Free

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

So This Is Ever After

by F. T. Lukens
read by Kevin R. Free

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2022. 9 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written December 27, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

So This Is Ever After is simply a whole lot of fun. The book begins when there’s supposed to be a Happily Ever After — after Arek defeated the Vile One by fulfilling the prophecy, assembling a band of allies, infiltrating the castle, and chopping off the evil king’s head.

What Arek hoped would happen after that was that things would slow down and he’d get a chance to confess his love to Matt, his best friend and the mage who fought beside him on the quest.

But they don’t want to leave the throne empty for just anyone to take over, and Matt urges Arek to put the crown on his head and take the kingship for a few hours while they go rescue the rightful ruler — the last princess of the royal line, who’s locked in a tower.

Well, they do find the princess in a tower — but she’s so dead, she’s become a skeleton. And Arek discovers, much to his discomfort, that he’s magically bound to the throne. He can’t abdicate, or it will kill him. And then he learns that he has to bond with a soulmate by his eighteenth birthday only four months away. He doesn’t want to tie Matt to him unless Matt is willing, but when he awkwardly tries to find out, the door gets totally shut. So instead, Arek asks Matt to help him find a soulmate in four months.

What follows is a comedy of errors. Yes, it does feel contrived for Arek to do everything exactly wrong. Arek isn’t particular about whether his soulmate is male, female, or neither, so he tries to woo each one of his friends in turn — with comical results that always seem to throw him toward Matt.

This is a totally fun, light-hearted story about what happens after the quest is done and you’re stuck ruling a kingdom. It helps if you have tried-and-true friends by your side.

ft-lukens.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Finish Line – 24-Hour Book Blitz, February 2023

48-Hour Book Challenge 0

24 hours isn’t enough time!

But my final stats are:
9 hours, 10 minutes reading,
3 hours, 15 minutes listening,
1 hour, 25 minutes online with related stuff.
Total: 13 hours, 50 minutes. And I spent more than half the 24 hours actually on books.

I finished 3 books, and read or listened to parts of 16 books. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. I read a page or two of several books as part of my daily quiet time. I read a total of 810 pages.

Like I said, it’s not enough time. I’m in the middle of Sidney Taylor Award Winner and Printz Honor Book, When the Angels Left the Old Country, and it’s amazing! But that means I didn’t get going on Morris Award eligible books. However, I greatly narrowed down the list of award winners I’m going to try to read before I do a program a week from today. I hope to at least start a Morris book this week. And after that — No more excuses! If I don’t read two Morris eligible books in a given week, I’ll finish up on Sunday instead of going to my usual gaming group. That’s the plan, we’ll see if it works!

And meanwhile, how much fun was it to spend a day reading?

24-Hour Book Blitz – February 2023 – Starting Line

48-Hour Book Challenge 0

It’s time for a 24-Hour Book Blitz!

And yes, I’m using the 48-Hour Book Challenge logo that my friend Pam, who once posted at Mother Reader, created. This is a half-time challenge for President’s Day.

Here’s the thing: I’m on the Morris Committee this year!

The Morris Award is for the best young adult debut book of the year. The eligibility is well-defined — a book for teens published between November 1st and October 31st, and it must be the creator or creators’ first published book.

The number of books eligible is much, much smaller than the number of books that were eligible for the Newbery when I was on it in 2019. But the thing is — it’s still more books than one person can read. But since the task is finite, we’re going to try to have at least two people from the committee read every eligible book. And everybody read the books that are nominated by at least two people.

I already have a list of 95 eligible books, and this is just the beginning of the year.

And — because I was on the Cybils and Mathical committees at the end of last year — so far I have only read 3 books eligible for the Morris! So I am starting out way behind.

To make matters worse, except in a good way, I’m doing a program for other youth services staff in my library system on February 27 about this year’s award winners — and I very much want to read more of the winners before the program.

So during my Book Blitz, the first thing I’m going to do is try to narrow down the books I’m going to read for the Award Winners Program, and try to get started on Morris books.

The committee has agreed that we expect everyone to read two eligible books per week. And I have promised myself that I won’t go to my gaming group on Sundays unless I’ve read two Morris books that week. I’m hoping it will be a well-deserved reward!

But now, I’m starting my Book Blitz. The rules are: I’m going for time spent. For the next 24 hours (starting at 10 pm Sunday night), I’m going to record how much time I spend reading books, listening to books, blogging about books, or posting reviews.

I’m not planning to set my alarm – so staying up late may be counter-productive. But it’s time to get busy, and let’s see how I do. Time to read!

Review of The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

by Maya MacGregor

Astra Young Readers, 2022. 350 pages.
Review written December 9, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Sam is an eighteen-year-old nonbinary kid who’s moving with their dad from Minnesota to small-town Oregon after an episode of bullying that almost killed them. They’re comforted that in their new school, they find other queer kids and even start making friends.

But there are bullies everywhere. For years, Sam has been obsessed with the stories of kids who didn’t live to age nineteen. They’ve got a book about those half-lived lives. And as it happens, the house their family bought used to belong to one of those kids, named Billy. And Sam is now sleeping in the bedroom where Billy died thirty years ago.

The adults in town all seem to say the same words about Billy, “It was a tragic accident.” But was it? Sam starts thinking they sense Billy’s presence, and what’s up with that persistent smell of popcorn?

What really happened to Billy? Sam’s new friend Shep thinks they can learn the truth.

But someone doesn’t want them to mess around with the past. Or is it just another case of Sam being bullied for who they are? Sam can’t help but wonder if they will ever reach the age of nineteen or end up as another half-lived life.

This book tells a compelling mystery in a warm and loving story about a queer teen recovering from trauma and finding their people. There is danger as they come close to the solution of the mystery, and the book certainly touches on serious topics, but I was left uplifted and encouraged by a group of people trying their best and landing on the side of caring.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Attack of the Black Rectangles, by Amy Sarig King

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Attack of the Black Rectangles

by Amy Sarig King

Scholastic Press, September 6, 2022. 258 pages.
Review written August 8, 2022, from an advance review copy picked up at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

Attack of the Black Rectangles is a story of censorship in a sixth-grade classroom — and the kids who decide to protest.

Mac and his friends Marci and Denis are happy to be in the same lit circle in their new classroom, reading The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen. But then they discover two places where words have been blacked out with a sharpie — and it’s the same in all of the books. What are the words someone didn’t want them to read?

Naturally, they go to get an uncensored copy of the book. The first passage is in a scene where girls in a concentration camp are naked in front of the Nazis. The words blacked out are “hands over her breasts.”

The kids feel insulted. As Marci points out, in sixth grade, they’re old enough to have breasts, but they can’t say the word? However, when they talk to the principal, she doesn’t seem concerned.

So they decide to take their message to more people. But at the same time they’re fighting censorship, Mac’s dad is causing their family some problems that have Mac torn up inside. And he wonders about his feelings for Marci. And there’s a kid at school who gives him a hard time.

Something I like about this book is that the author shows that even the teacher who censored the book isn’t all bad. As Mac says at the start, “No one is ever just one thing.” I like how the kids take on the challenge and show that in many ways, censorship is a matter of disrespect.

This book is, of course, very timely. And sadly, it’s based on something that actually happened to the author’s son. When she brought up the issue with the principal, they treated it like a big joke. After all, the books weren’t banned.

I appreciate that this book takes on an issue that adults may want to dismiss and shows kids it’s important. They’ll feel empowered to speak up if censorship ever happens to them.

as-king.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of All That’s Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown

Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All That’s Left in the World

by Erik J. Brown
read by Barrett Leddy and Andrew Gibson

HarperAudio, 2022. 10 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written October 21, 2022, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2022 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 General Teen Fiction

All That’s Left in the World is about two teenage boys trying to figure out how to go on in a post-apocalyptic world after everyone they loved died in a superflu epidemic.

The author’s note says that he signed the contract for this book in March 2020 — so he had no idea how realistic it would feel. But the illness in this book is much, much worse than Covid-19, and civilization in America has completely broken down.

At the start of the book, Jamison is in a mountain cabin that has its own electricity and well water. Andrew is in the woods in big trouble because he stepped into a bear trap. He needs help. When he sees the cabin, he tries the door, expecting anyone who lived there to be dead. Jamie almost shoots him, but instead ends up giving him antibiotics and helping him recover.

But after they’re settling into life in the cabin and getting used to each other and Andrew’s leg is much better, a group comes and steals their food, trying to get them to join their settlement. Andrew takes off to where he was going before — following rumors that the European Union is going to bring help to Reagan National Airport. He tries to sneak away so Jamie won’t stop him — and Jamie ends up coming after him.

What follows is a road trip novel with lots of danger. Some of the people they meet along the way are helpful and kind, but most are the opposite. (I wish I didn’t believe there’d be so many guns in post-apocalyptic America!) Just when I’d think they had things in a good place, some new danger would find them.

So there’s lots of tension, and there’s also romance. It’s the kind I like best, very slow and gradual, and you can understand why they like each other. Andrew knows he’s gay from the start, but Jamie has had only girlfriends in the past, and is confused by his developing feelings for Andrew. But it’s all handled really well, and the reader just hopes against hope they’ll be able to make it to somewhere safe.

I read a novel in late 2020 where the whole population caught a bug, and knowing so much about pandemics by then, I thought it was completely unrealistic. (Viruses don’t spread instantly, for example.) With this one, which took place after most people had died, I wish I didn’t feel like it was believable, but unfortunately it very much seems like it could happen like that.

Of course, there are things I would have done differently if I were writing a post-apocalyptic novel, but this author had me believing the story all along, and worrying about how the boys would survive and figure out they loved each other.

For something as disturbing as this scenario, this was an awfully satisfying novel.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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