Adult/High School

Adult/High School—This is the tale of a 17th-century Persian village girl who makes her way with her mother to a rich uncle's house in the city of Isfahan. As poor relatives, they are treated as servants. The uncle, a master rug maker for the shah, grudgingly teaches her his trade, his love and respect for her increasing with her perseverance and obvious talent. His greedy wife convinces him to accept a three-month "marriage" contract for the girl with a rich horse trader. She learns how to please her "husband" (and herself) sexually, but also learns that he has no intention of making her his permanent wife as she has no money. She vows to make beautiful rugs on her own, and thus ensure her and her mother's financial security. She is banished from her uncle's house when she tells her friend about the marriage contract. She trusts a foreign merchant with her rug and he steals it. Now she must beg and find shelter and a way to begin a new rug. Like Sheherazade, the heroine's mother is a master storyteller, telling tales within this tale that Amirrezvani tells so magically. Readers will not be able to put this book down, from the once-upon-a-time beginning to the well-crafted end.—Ellen Bell, Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, CA

Adult/High School—In this thought-provoking Latin-American fable, the Colombia countryside has been devastated by 40 years of civil war. Leftist guerrillas, rightist paramilitaries, and government soldiers come spouting different political slogans, but leave indistinguishable horror in their wake. In the village of Mariquita, soldiers arrive to demand volunteers; when none are forthcoming, they kill or kidnap the men and traumatize the women and children. Bereft, the women flounder at first; old rivalries are indulged, the town's infrastructure deteriorates, and Mariquita is increasingly cut off from the outside world. The inhabitants are often exasperating, but their postapocalyptic yet nonviolent village proves to be a vivid setting for human nature to be revealed and culture reinvented. Ultimately they create a way of life suited to their resources and their female realities, and it is a delight to see this process unfold. The women's stories (and those of the few remaining males, all with unforgettable stories of their own) have the flavor of folktales—tragic, funny, rich, and magical. In briefer alternating episodes, men's stories of their experiences in the war are related in starkly realistic, intense fashion. The theme of a world in which women and men are separated and pursue divergent paths is always intriguing, and has been explored by a number of fine writers in science fiction, fantasy, polemic, and utopian modes. This title stands among the best of them.—Christine C. Menefee, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Adult/High School—Mike Garrity has two ex-wives, a teenage daughter who isn't fond of him, and a brain tumor named Bob that is probably going to kill him. So when a colleague asks him to use his cop skills to find a missing member of the band Boyz Klub, he figures he has nothing to lose. At 42, he'd retired from the police force and was preparing to let the tumor take him down. But what seemed like a simple missing-person case soon involves illegal gambling, the mob, severed body parts, and forbidden love, as well as Mike's daughter, who is a big fan of Boyz Klub. Cavanagh's writing owes a debt to Carl Hiaasen, except that he moves the setting to Orlando, home of Disney and boy-band central, but with an underbelly that tourists generally don't see. Though it purports to be hard-boiled, this story is actually rather wholesome, with little real violence or sex, but rather suspense that is clean and shiny, like an Orlando theme park. The young characters, from Jennifer to the missing T.J., are well drawn, and both give teens someone to root for. Though the tribulations of a middle-aged man won't be as compelling to them as to adults, the central mystery will be, and its twists and turns will propel readers to its last page.—Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD

Adult/High School—Embarking from a scene in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Clinch has written a debut novel of harrowing intensity. When Jim and Huck find a dead man in a house floating down the Mississippi, the room with the body is filled with mysterious oddities: a wooden leg, two black masks, crude scrawlings over the walls, etc. Huck does not know that the corpse, shot in the back, is his father. Clinch meticulously fills in the backstory of Finn (or "Pap Finn," as Twain usually referred to him). He uses the details of the floating-house scene, and much of Twain's plotting, characters, and themes, to create a story at once intricately entwined with Huckleberry Finn and separate from that novel in tone and focus. The author makes no attempt to duplicate Twain's humor and satire. Instead, he sets his sights on humanity's immense capacity for evil. While Huck's innate good heart won the battle against his society-produced conscience, allowing him to help the runaway slave, Finn has neither the heart nor conscience to aid anyone. Clinch's book contains many surprises: Huck is a mulatto; the extremely racist Finn fancies black women; Finn's father (Judge Finn) is the wealthiest and most respected citizen in town and yet, in significant ways, more evil than his son. Many fans of Twain's masterpiece will want to read Clinch's inspired interpretation of Pap, but some might find it too gruesome, and too void of hope. In any event, Clinch offers a wealth of material for AP English and college-level papers.—Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—Cooper's first solo novel is an engrossing tale of six young outsiders growing up on a colony planet. They were left behind as young children, descendants of a group of "altered" (genetically modified) people who landed on the planet and ultimately fought with its original colonists. Now 12 years have gone by, the "altered" children are teens, and many members of the colony are profoundly uneasy about them. The story is narrated by the eldest, Chelo. They are all big, strong, and fast, and each one has a special skill. When an earthquake literally shakes everything up, Chelo and her friends find themselves drawn to Jenna, the one remaining "altered" adult, who lives on the fringes of society, and to the spaceship that the "altered" left behind. The teens begin to find out who they really are, and what they might become someday. This is an adventure story, because life on this planet can be treacherous, but it is also a story about the relationships between insiders and outsiders, between adults and the teens who are about to surpass them, and between people who need each other in order to survive.—Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, CA

Adult/High School—Two boys work in a Minneapolis bakery—Zap, whose father owns it, and Joseph, recently paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Their most regular customer, Enzo, is an overtly angry nine-year-old who insists on being called the Mighty Thor, and who endlessly clicks her mechanical pencil. The book unfolds slowly as readers learn about these damaged kids, while the adults stay on the periphery. These adults never even get names; they are called "The Figurehead" and "the old guy," with one exception, John Schaefer, the man who investigated Joseph's accident, who is only referred to in the boy's memory. No one knows what really happened, but Enzo is determined to find out, while Zap tells everyone that Joseph is a superhero who can fly, and who fell off a mountain. McGhee's style is at times reminiscent of David Almond's, with the realistic yet magical setting transferred from the Northern England wilderness to an urban setting. Other times, it skirts art movie pretensions, especially when adults pop up and make obtuse statements, then disappear. All of the questions are eventually answered, and, despite the sad subject matter, the end gives the characters hope. Though the mystical metaphor sometimes comes on a bit strong, sensitive teens could easily be drawn into this story of emotionally compromised kids.—Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD

Adult/High School—With this collection of related stories, Muñoz invites comparison with Gary Soto and Francisco Jiménez. The stories take place in and around Fresno, CA, showing the lives of those who stay there, those who leave, and those who return. Most of the main characters are young men, some recently out of high school, who are confronting their futures, and their loves. Although these stories deal with grief and loss, they are neither maudlin nor exuberantly uplifting, but quiet and memorable, the characters taking up residence in readers' minds. Both the title story and "Lindo y Querido" deal with a severely injured young man; in one case the father seeks out a curandera (faith healer) for his wheelchair-bound and despondent son; in the other, a mother waits with resignation for her son to die after a motorcycle crash. In "Ida y Vuelta," Joaquin comes home for his father's last days, bringing his new lover, Robbie, with him to stay with Roberto, the man he left after 15 years. Themes exploring the relationship between parent and adult child and trying to define oneself will appeal to teen readers, and certainly those who are drawn to the stories of Francisco Jiménez in The Circuit (Univ. of New Mexico, 1997) and in Breaking Through (Houghton, 2001) will appreciate these contemporary tales of Mexican-American life.—Teri Titus, San Mateo County Library, CA

Adult/High School—Writers have long associated America's entry into World War I with a loss of innocence, a theme Seebohm adopts in her latest work. The innocents of her title are identical twins Dorothea and Iris Crosby, who, as the story opens in 1911, are 19-year-olds enjoying a comfortable life as members of New York City's elite society. Their first encounter with helplessness in the face of horrifying death occurs when their personal maid loses friends and family in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Determined never to experience such feelings of inadequacy again, and moved by the grim news of the interminable war in Europe, the young women sign up as Red Cross volunteers the day after America declares war. Two years in a hospital tent tending to maimed and dying Frenchmen drastically alter their perspectives on both the present and the future. Seebohm depicts the destructive effects of war on participants on and off the battlefield, whether drawn by altruism, as in the case of the sisters, or by a continued need for glory, as in the case of a parallel story line involving Harry Forrester, a celebrated Harvard athlete turned fighter pilot. The author implies that for many, war's more insidious and depredatory effects come after hostilities cease and survivors contemplate a return to a normality they can no longer define or envision. This finely wrought book will move readers.—Dori DeSpain, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Adult/High School—This gripping story by a children's-rights advocate recounts his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars in recent history. Beah, a boy equally thrilled by causing mischief as by memorizing passages from Shakespeare and dance moves from hip-hop videos, was a typical precocious 12-year-old. But rebel forces destroyed his childhood innocence when they hit his village, driving him to leave his home and travel the arid deserts and jungles of Africa. After several months of struggle, he was recruited by the national army, made a full soldier and learned to shoot an AK-47, and hated everyone who came up against the rebels. The first two thirds of his memoir are frightening: how easy it is for a normal boy to transform into someone as addicted to killing as he is to the cocaine that the army makes readily available. But an abrupt change occurred a few years later when agents from the United Nations pulled him out of the army and placed him in a rehabilitation center. Anger and hate slowly faded away, and readers see the first glimmers of Beah's work as an advocate. Told in a conversational, accessible style, this powerful record of war ends as a beacon to all teens experiencing violence around them by showing them that there are other ways to survive than by adding to the chaos.—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA

Adult/High School—This volume traces the interrelated histories of baseball and American Jews, from Lipman Pike, who, in 1867, became the first Jewish professional baseball player, to the 1930s–'40s Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. The authors cover all major league Jewish players, even those who appeared in only one or two games. They pay equal attention to Jewish owners, managers, sportswriters, statisticians, umpires, manufacturers, and anyone else who influenced the relationship between the culture and the sport. As a consequence, the Boxermans examine the significant role baseball played in Jewish acculturation, as well as the rift it helped forge between first- and second-generation Jews. They also pay close attention to the anti-Semitism endured by the majority of Jewish ballplayers. Many intriguing stories are here, including the profile of catcher Moe Berg, a polyglot intellectual, graduate of Princeton and Columbia Law School, and American spy in Italy during World War II (and previously in Japan). There is also the story of Albert "Dolly" Stark, a universally well-liked and admired umpire who found himself just too sensitive and too lonely to remain in the major leagues. Numerous black-and-white photos and an extensive bibliography and notes are included. A thorough and worthy contribution to collections where baseball books are popular.—Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—This book has a lot to offer teens, major consumers of mass media. Its point of view is that the political far right and corporate ownership of the media deeply influence what we see, hear, and, ultimately, know. However, readers are expected to follow the authors' rhetoric without necessarily coming to it equipped with extensive background information. References to the U.S. Constitution, Aristotle, Marx, and so on are thrown in, but with explanations. The authors also provide a valuable service by discussing net neutrality, a subject anyone who uses the Internet needs to understand. The book is at its most timely and chilling when Plato's Cave is introduced and compared with the effects of modern mass media. The hyperbole is heavy and idioms like "tow the line" and "lockstep" are overused, but the book is alarming and informative. Some readers will be put off by the vitriolic language, while others will find their fears and anger confirmed. A list of alternative media outlets is appended.—Emma Coleman, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—Using diaries, ship logs, and newspaper accounts, Druett re-creates the different experiences of the survivors of two wrecked vessels. In January 1864, the five-man crew of the Grafton left Sydney, Australia, intending to locate a source of argentiferous tin allegedly to be found on remote Campbell Island. In May 1864, the Invercauld left Melbourne for South America, with no passengers and a crew of 25, to sail to Callao to take on a cargo of fertilizer. Neither ship reached its final destination. Instead, both were shipwrecked on opposite ends of the same subantarctic island. Grafton's crew survived, and could even be said to have prospered. By working together, the men managed to build a shelter, hunt sea lions, and, eventually, build a boat and launch their own rescue team. The initial 19 survivors of the Invercauld, on the other hand, fell into arguing and quibbling with no direction or plan. Their number soon dwindled to 16, and then to 3. Viewers of television's Survivor and readers of survival novels will enjoy Island, and the book could provide teens with the know-how to stay alive if they ever found themselves in a similar situation.—Joanne Ligamari, Rio Linda School District, Sacramento, CA

Adult/High School—Each of these surveys presents a series of enthusiastic and illuminating essays on people who contributed significantly to the advancement of their fields. The roughly 500-word entries explain concisely what they did and why it was important. The essays also include an inset stating when and where the individuals were born and died, and a one-sentence summary of what they accomplished, and often include a second inset defining relevant vocabulary. Moore also sets the scientists within the context of their times. In both books, accessibility varies from piece to piece. Some present the central idea simply enough for laypersons to readily grasp; others are difficult for readers without minimal education in the discipline to comprehend. The emphasis on conciseness can also result in misleading information. Moore's discussion of Landsteiner's discovery of ABO blood typing, for example, gives the correct original names of the four blood types, A, B, C, and O, but leaves readers to guess how they correspond to the current nomenclature of A, B, AB, and O (hint: C was not renamed AB). All in all, though, these books are valuable sources of succinct information on key concepts and will provide inspiration for budding scientists and economists.—Sandy Schmitz, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—Born into a wealthy family near the beginning of the 20th century, Laura Dillon attended Oxford University and went on to become a doctor, a published author, and, eventually, a man named Michael. At Oxford, she tried to identify as a homosexual, but that didn't quite fit; it would be years before the words transsexual or transgendered were coined. In 1939, Dillon began to experiment with a new drug, testosterone. Her life changed after meeting Dr. Gillies, a practitioner in the emerging field of plastic surgery, who performed several operations to reconfigure Dillon's anatomy. Upon meeting Roberta Crowell in 1949, Michael believed that he had found his soul mate. Born and raised as a man, Crowell was in the process of transforming into a woman. Following a failed love affair, Dillon traveled to India to study Buddhism. He died a pauper after finally discovering happiness among monks in Tibet. He left a legacy of notebooks, memoirs, and a groundbreaking treatise on the nature of sex and gender. These form the basis of Kennedy's narrative, which leapfrogs back and forth across Dillon's life. Kennedy traces the emotional isolation and triumphs throughout Dillon's struggle to define himself according to his own rules. The author peppers the text with historical details of early-20th-century medicine and evolving notions of gender in Western society. This story is fascinating to modern readers whether or not they have personal questions about gender.—Heidi Dolamore, San Mateo County Library, CA

Adult/High School—This classic World War II autobiography, first published in 1957, opens when Kuwahara received a visitor one night in 1943. While the gentleman had come under the pretense of congratulating the teen for his high academic achievements, it soon became obvious that he really intended to recruit him for a regiment in the Japanese Emperor's air force. Kuwahara trained as a kamikaze pilot, a pilot who straps himself into a plane and then divebombs into the target to gain glory and honor for himself and the Japanese Empire. His training is depicted as inhuman; he was beaten and tormented on a daily basis, all to devalue his own sense of humanity and individuality. It's absolutely terrifying reading about boys and young men so ready to plunge to their deaths. For balance, the author shows a number of people who spoke out against the war effort, a surprising detail that confronts the decades-old stereotype of an entire nation rallying hopelessly behind a dying empire. The book closes with a grim portrayal of the U.S.'s atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its grisly aftermath. Through the eyes of a terrified young man, Kuwahara's descriptions of the horrors of war are accessible and compelling to teens. This book has not become dated, and readers will appreciate the updated introduction, written in light of its 50th anniversary.—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA

Adult/High School—Mosley offers motivation and instruction, wisely defining success in narrow terms: if writers-to-be follow his advice, they will be able to produce a first draft in only three months, and a competent novel in a year. At first that might seem like a tall order, but there is no mention of penning a masterpiece or best seller, just establishing a good, honest start on the long road to honing their craft. The author covers all the basics in a succinct and workmanlike fashion: narrative voice, character development, metaphor and simile, plot and story, editing, rewriting, research, and more. In addition to his many professional tips and practical advice, Mosley has one mantra: write every day—without fail, every day, no excuses. It doesn't have to be more than a few hours per day, but it does have to be every day. A guide to writing a novel may not be needed by many teens, but some will want precisely that, and this book will serve them well. Far more teens are likely to gain a precise view into the mystery of how novelists go about their work, and how they employ the many building blocks of fiction to produce a polished work of art.—Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—Though this Greek philosopher left no writings of his own, he is one of the most influential thinkers of all time. Navia synthesized the works of primary and secondary sources to weave together a vivid account of Socrates's life and ideas. He found common characteristics of his subject's philosophy in his sources and many fascinating differences. Each chapter presents a unique view of Socrates from the writings of his contemporaries and followers. Aristophanes ridiculed Socrates in his play Clouds and influenced public opinion, while Plato carefully recorded Socrates's ideas, and Xenophon regarded him as a master of philosophy. He had devoted friends and followers and also a few powerful enemies, who viewed his ideas as being at odds with those of his fellow Athenians. The Greeks at the time were extremely religious, carefully living their daily lives by rules so as not to anger the gods. Socrates believed that only by acknowledging one's ignorance could one move toward the acquisition of knowledge and achieve virtue and piety. His questioning of popular beliefs has set the stage for many modern philosophers, notably Kant, who wrote that self-knowledge leads to holiness. The carefully documented research provides a valuable resource for those interested in the man and his ideas. Students researching philosophy will benefit from the author's accessible connections between the beliefs of Socrates and those of many modern thinkers.—Susanne Bardelson, Kitsap Regional Library, WA

Adult/High School—Sessums, a journalist who specializes in celebrity interviews, describes and analyzes his own childhood and youth, writing candidly of both sexual orientation and race relations in the '60s and early '70s. As a toddler, he swished and posed instead of responding to his basketball coach father's expectation of masculinity. His mother was more broad-minded. However, both parents were dead by the time he was nine, and he and two younger siblings were reared by their maternal grandparents. Small-town Mississippi during the third quarter of the 20th century was less hostile to the young gay boy than outsiders might imagine. Sessums recalls his grandmother's willingness to call him Arlene, in honor of television personality Arlene Francis; his sixth-grade teacher allowed his book report to be on Jacqueline Susann's best-selling Valley of the Dolls; there was even a local gay bar, which Sessums began visiting at 16. However, life provided great and certain bad times as well: the author recalls a sexual assault by a stranger when he was not yet a teen, and another by a preacher a couple of years later. Most harrowing is the event that frames the narrative, the murder of his mentor, and 19-year-old Sessums's discovery of the bludgeoned body. Whether gay or straight, readers will relate to the author's youthful awareness that self-certainty and terrifying uncertainty seem to be inextricably bound. His observations on—and, more importantly, his experiences of—race relations engage and reveal, and remind readers of the complexity of social status.—Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—These books are exactly what the titles imply: clear, concise, objective mini-reference sources. An introduction explains the author's intent: to provide accessible biographical sketches of 50 important figures in each field, as well as explanatory essays on 10 major movements in philosophy and religion. Stangroom succeeds brilliantly. Each book has a thorough table of contents and an index. The two-page stand-alone entries are headlined with an introductory paragraph that summarizes the topic at hand. Useful diagrams and drawings illustrate key tenets, questions, or theories. The language is simplified but not simplistic. Philosophy begins with the ancient Greeks and goes on to cover metaphysics, epistemology, the Enlightenment, psychology, and sociology; it also addresses political, educational, and feminist theories, and concludes with postmodernism. Religion devotes more than half of its entries to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism as these are the world's most widely followed faiths. Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism each merit a chapter; Paganism, Animism, and Native religions are also included. The physical size of these books will appeal to teens, and the thought-provoking, yet objective contents make them excellent resources for those questioning the meaning of life, exploring religion, or curious about the history of Western thought.—Sondra VanderPloeg, Tracy Memorial Library, New London, NH

Adult/High School—Why is Spider-Man cooler than Superman? Was the original Spider-Man really a horror comic? Does the Webslinger have a religion? What was life like in Forest Hills, Queens, when Peter Parker lived there at the time of the first comic book series? What really makes Spider-Man click with readers and viewers across the years? These are just some of the questions tackled by 16 writers of comics and science fiction in this book on all things Spider-Man: psychology, philosophy, comic book history, movies, and more. Most of the essays assume a deep interest in (and sometimes detailed knowledge of) Spider-Man lore. For this reason, they will appeal primarily to his avid fans, although fans of comics and movies in general may also find this nicely crafted and accessible collection fun and thought-provoking.—Sandy Freund, Patrick Henry Library, Fairfax County, VA