Just finished "Outcasts United" (kids' version)

I'm reading through boxes and boxes of galleys for the fall season, and I just found the kind of well-written narrative non-fiction for kids I've been waiting for!!! It's the young reader's edition of Outcasts United by Warren St. John, coming from Random House Sept. 11, 2012.
Inspiring and informative, the book tells the true story of Luma Mufleh, a young woman from Jordan who moved to the US for college and decided she couldn't return to her home country after graduation; even though her parents threatened to cut ties with her, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunities available to women in the United States.
But in Atlanta, Luma felt lonely and isolated. She found joy in pick-up soccer games, and decided to start a youth soccer team for the children of refugees in nearby Clarkson, GA. She recruited and coached boys for under-13, under-15, and under-17 teams-- the Fugees. With some help from the local YMCA and Tracy, a young volunteer, she not only coached and managed the three teams, she also started a tutoring program to help the boys off the field. She assisted families with everything from paperwork to groceries to introducing the kids to trick-or-treating. She literally gives one boy the shoes off her feet. She's tough, she's strong, she's caring, and she's real.
But what really got me about this book is the way the author uses the boys' personal stories to teach an overview of atrocities of the modern world. Just a handful of players' backgrounds provide a shocking tour of the world's conflicts-- Sudan, Iraq, Bosnia, Congo, Liberia... St. John gives a clear overview of the situations and the boys' heartbreaking reasons for coming to the US. It made me get out a map to appreciate the global diversity of the Fugees. Then I wanted to get out my wallet to donate to the Fugees. And finally, I wanted to get out my old soccer cleats and play some soccer, because the kick-by-kick descriptions of some of the games were that exciting!
I haven't read the original version of this book, but the kids' version is extremely satisfying. It will be a great discussion book, a fabulous gift, and a wonderful read for kids who are curious about the world, kids who like soccer, or kids who just enjoy a good story about likeable underdogs. 

Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt

This week, I wrote a book report for the other blog I feed, www.onebravethingaday.com. That's the blog for the book I'm working on-- the inspirational memoir of my co-author, Linda Lewis Keeney.
Since we started writing together, Linda and I have been reading and comparing notes on books that might be good comparisons to ours. I chose Making Toast because it deals concretely yet tenderly with the after-effects of grief. One Brave Thing a Day is a lot about moving healthily through grief-- the daily mourning that comes with having a severely disabled daughter who cannot communicate; the mourning of the deaths of Linda's mother, her creative partner, and her good friend's son; and anticipatory mourning, thinking ahead to the death of her medically-fragile daughter.
Want to read my recommendation for Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt? Getting there is as easy as clicking here. An excerpt from my  book report: "At times, reading [Making Toast] felt like attending the wake of someone I didn't know (but wished I had)." 

WILD by Cheryl Strayed

How cool!  Random House's blog, Random Acts of Reading, featured my recommendation of the memoir Wild by Cheryl Strayed. What an honor to be one of the first voices out there to publicly praise this brave, fascinating book. 

Top Teen books of 2011

Here we go! I compiled a Top 10 list of books for teens for the store, but my personal list has a few differences...


I'm going to go ahead and use my commentary from the store lists when applicable, though.


TEGAN'S FAVORITE TEEN READS FROM 2011


Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi.  The title/subject may seem offputting, but it's one of the most beautiful (and funny) books about grief I've read. Violi nailed it.


Legend by Marie Lu. Dystopian thrills abound as June, the government's prodigy, is pitted against Day, its Enemy #1.


Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. A planeful of teen pageant contestants gets stranded on a desert island-- "Miss Congeniality" crossed with Lord of the Flies, with a healthy dose of fierce feminism.


Divergent by Veronica Roth. In this page-turner dystopian thriller set in Chicago of the future, the city is divided into five factions, with each valuing one trait above all else. Beatrice's choice to give up the gentleness of Abnegation for the power of Dauntless is riveting, and the romance made my heart race, too.


To Timbuktu by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg. I'm always on the lookout for great non-fiction for teens, and this memoir (written and drawn by recent college grads) about travelling the world is fantastic: inspiring and entertaining.


Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy. I still think about Zulaikha, the rural Afghan girl in this story. Hope and perseverance make this a rewarding read.


Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma. The modern gothic atmosphere and mysterious characters make this contemporary story of two sisters so fascinating.


The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Need a stay-up-late-then-sleep-with-the-lights on read? Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of modern London in this first of a series.


Hourglass by Myra McEntire. I thought I was done with any paranormal romance, but this was fresh and oh-so-readable. Think teens with super-powers instead of vampires/werewolves/zombies etc. More! More!


Enclave by Ann Aguirre.  A vivid post-apocalyptic world, a tougher than nails protagonist, and the battles for survival left me breathless. The surprise bonus? A character named Tegan! 


Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton. This was creepy and suspenseful, and I just couldn't stop reading, even though I wanted to shake the characters and force them to make better choices. It's my surprise compulsion title of the year.


Wherever You Go by Heather Davis. This heartfelt contemporary novel about a teen who has to grow up too fast to care for her little sister and her grandfather with Alzheimer's, all while dealing with grief from her boyfriend's death, is powerful, and thanks to some beyond-the-grave communication, wonderfully healing.


Finally, an adult book I'd recommend to teens, or to adults who are feeling in that escapist, easy-to-get-lost-in kind of mood: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Atmospheric and engrossing, this is a grown-up Harry Potter fanatic kind of book, where magic feels real. The story, about two young magicians who are raised to fight a lifelong battle in an enchanted circus on behalf of their teachers, is really just an excuse for amazing images and flights of incredible imaginative fantasy. Don't worry about how it all works; if you're in the right frame of mind, just let yourself just get swept away. There's nothing to make this inappropriate for teens (except, perhaps, for the higher hardcover price of an adult title).

A Covert Affair by Jennet Conant

I've been remiss in posting about what I've been reading. I've been busy getting the site set up for the book I'm writing with Linda Lewis Keeney, One Brave Thing a Day. (Shameless plug, I know, but I'm full of arugula!)

Here's to getting back on track with updating my current reads, though. A few days ago I finished the advance copy of the latest history by Jennet Conant (The Irregulars)-- A Covert Affair: The Adventures of Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS.

It was a great read. How could I not love a book that quotes this letter from Julia to Paul when he was being investigated by the HUAC?

"You are finer, better, more lovable, more attractive, deeper, nicer, nobler, cleverer, stronger, and more wonderful [than other men]... I am so damned lucky even to know you, much less (or more) to be married to you." (pp 20-1)

Conant does a great job of revealing bits about these now-familiar dears. What the title doesn't adequately convey is that the Childs are only about 1/3 of the book, though. The other 2/3 are dedicated to their OSS colleagues and their adventures in the Pacific during and after WWII and the horrors of McCarthyism after the war.

This was a fun-to-read history that taught me loads about the OSS, the politics in the Pacific Theater, and the Red Scare.

Why so quiet?

Yes, it's been a while, but I blame my non-blogging behavior on my bad secret-keeping skills. This year I served on the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award committee, and while I was reading the oodles of books nominated, I didn't feel right blogging because I was afraid I'd let something slip about the award.

The awards are given in January, but I can breathe easier-- and blog!-- because the shortlist has been revealed. Phew-- now I can just direct you to our shortlist announcement and stop worrying.

I think I can also tell you that my write-ups were used for the committee comments for The Atlas of Love, Shell Games, and What We Are. I loved many other books on the list, but fellow committee members beat me to the recommendations on those. (There's also one I hated, but I'm trying to take a page out of Nancy Pearl's book and never put anything mean about a book in writing, so that title will stay my dirty little secret.)

Another reason I've been quiet on the blogging front is that book writing and agent-seeking have been on the front burner. Oh, and this little thing in retail we like to call The Christmas Season has also been taking some time.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope to make the blog worth bookmarking now that I'm over my secrecy anxieties.

Let's Take the Long Way Home

I have lots of reading to catch up on here, but I just wanted to make sure I write about Gail Caldwell's gorgeous new memoir, "Let's Take the Long Way Home." It's a love song to friendship, dogs, and rowing. It's a beautiful reflection on loss and grief. It's poetic, strong, sensitive, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and empowering.

Caldwell writes with grace and power about her friendship with fellow author and dog-lover Caroline Knapp, and about Knapp's death from lung cancer. Anyone who has loved someone or ever hopes to love should read this book! Caldwell's descriptions of the balance of self and relationship that she and Caroline negotiate as two self-proclaimed "happy hermits" is tender and true. The risks and rewards of loving deeply are all here, in lovely prose.

I can't help but gush.

This is not an easy book, but it is a very meaningful one. I bawled and cheered and hugged this book to my heart.

"I Am a Strange Loop"

I finally moved husband-recommended "I Am a Strange Loop" to the top of my pile! I've been thinking about it for over a year now, and the universe encouraged me to think that now is the right time: a damaged copy in the donate box at work beckoned at lunch break.

WOW-- now I can see why Jordan was raving! Some parts are for skimming, but so much is for enjoying and pondering. Hofstadter is exploring consciousness and the sense of "I," so far delving into such fascinating concepts as "soul shards" (bits of people's souls that live on in objects and memories-- not horcruxes, but the way a photo of someone you love will call to mind that person) and a gradation of "souledness" (there can be bigger and smaller souls-- the difference between your beloved pooch and your beloved, wise old grandmother... or the difference between Ronald Reagan affected by Alzheimer's and President Obama).

I'm riveted! There are some bits that remind me of my least favorite part of my Philosophy core class ("What if the car were made out of CHEESE?"), but even those are funny and punny, like little tickles to my brain, rather than big brain squeezes of absurdity. I really enjoy Hofstadter's rigorous arguments coupled with playful analogies. His examples are delightful, as is his sense of humor. (For example, he writes something about the fact that he can't imagine his audience could have possibly missed all the Star Wars movies-- and the interesting examples of soulful robots C3PO and R2-D2, acknowledging that many of his readers might be classified as, well, geeks...)

Huzzah, Mr. Hofstadter! You're a gentleman and a scholar! AND a vegetarian!