A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me: A Memoir by Jason Schmidt

Youth non fiction is not something I read a lot so when I picked up this book it was partly to fill that void and expand my horizons and it was partly because the name of the book was so intriguing I actually thought it was a fictional tale and I had to look at the call number a few times to convince myself that it wasn't.

This boy's life was harrowing almost from a very young age. His parents' divorce affected him financially as his father's erratic behavior and anti-establishment nature lead him to constantly uproot them and even when they settled somewhere it was usually next to other people with substance abuse problems and dubious parenting skills.

The events in this story occurred in the late seventies and early eighties and while I am not saying things in this book don't occur now, the advent of technology certainly makes it easier for behavior to be monitored and addressed.

The book is heart wrenching at times and you really feel for Mr. Schmidt. He writes about things in such a matter-of-fact, dispassionate manner that it makes it even more difficult to read. He mentions few details about school in his formative years and as a former teacher I am quite shocked that he didn't need counseling and/or  lengthy visits with the school social worker. It is a testament to his natural intelligence and drive that he was able to pick up his schooling later on despite having missed a fair amount of instruction due to his father's reticence about the education system and Mr. Schmidt's own behavioral issues.

In addition to being a coming-of-age story, this is a story about a deadly health crisis, its toll on a family and on the psyche of a young boy. I imagine that writing this book must have been very cathartic for Mr. Schmidt as his father dealt with a host of issues which he struggled to deal with adequately. Because of the strong language, drug references and other strong content I recommend this book for ages 13+.

You can see this and other reviews on my blog here. 

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki

Rose Wallace's family have been going to Awago Beach every summer since, in Rose's words "like forever."

I'm going to be honest, this beautiful graphic novel had me hooked as soon as I saw the illustrated Tim Horton's coffee cup nestled snugly in the cup holder of Rose's father's car. I had no idea this was about a Canadian holiday, luckily, I had no idea what this story was about before reading it, which is, I think, the best way to approach it. 

Due to the aforementioned Tim Horton's cup, This One Summer caused a deluge of memories for me: Visiting my grandparent's cottage on the lake in southwestern Nova Scotia, canning to the tiny sandy beaches sprinkled around the lake like smears of whip cream against the dark green backdrop of the woods beyond them. Making campfires, roasting s'mores, accidentally putting a fish hook straight through my friend Cory's finger and watching him faint from the sight of it and my brother and I having to literally carry him the half mile back to the - wait, I'm going off on a tangent here, back to This One Summer.

Every summer, Rose meets her friend Wendy, who stays in a nearby cottage. This particular summer, Rose and Wendy decide to plough through as many horror movies as they can, rented from the local convenience store, which also sells a barrage of candy and of course, turkey jerky. Rose is also struck by the boy who works at the store, even though he's much older, 18 to her 13? 14? We're never really told how old Rose is but it doesn't matter, her experience throughout this story can cover the entire tween to early teen experience.

The summer isn't spent in idyllic bliss, however. Rose must deal with her parent's constant bickering, which surrounds a family secret that I won't spoil here, you'll just have to read it.

MIKE'S PLACE by Jack Baxter & Joshua Faudem, illus. by Koren Shadmi

Riveting is the first word that comes to mind, once you've finished this graphic novel from :01 First Second and stopped saying things like, "Oh my G-d, oh my G-d."

MIKE'S PLACE: A True Story of Love, Blues, and Terror in Tel Aviv tells the interwoven stories that form the whole of the suicide bombing that blew apart a popular club in Tel Aviv in 2003. It starts in 2003, just before an American filmmaker named Jack turns up in Israel to start an independent movie about Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian on trial in Israel for orchestrating terrorism, only to find that another film crew was already well in-process.

Instead, Jack decides to film at Mike's Place, a popular bar where politics weren't allowed. As Gal, the owner of the club says early on, "Mike's Place is the real Israel--the best part of the Middle East." Jack hires Joshua, a bartender from Mike's with a degree from film school in Prague, to be his cameraman, and shooting ensues, including lots of interviews with the people who work at the club as well as footage of what it's like at Mike's Place each night.

Throughout the graphic novel, other stories are interspersed - we see two British citizens who are preparing some sort of attack, and learn about the relationships among the people at Mike's Place, including a bit of their history and the nature of their relationships. We learn, too, a bit about everyday life in Israel along the way.

The book is split into six sections, each one introduced with words from the Qur'an. As the authors say at the close: "Our long-time friend and prominent Muslim-American cleric, Imam Benjamin Bilal, helped select the scriptures from the Qur'an that are quoted at the beginning of the six chapters of this graphic novel. We wanted to show that if Asif and Omar (the bombers) had perhaps meditated upon and understood these sacred words things may have worked out differently for them and for the victims of the terror act they committed in the name of their religion and politics."

Round Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks

Henry David Thoreau went to the woods to “live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Tony Hawks hitchhiked around the perimeter of Ireland in 1997 with a fridge to win a one hundred pounds from a drunken bet with a friend.

The Six by Mark Alpert

A hardcore science fiction joyride.

 

What happens when you take six dying teens and upload their brains into the most technologically advanced robots ever created by man? You get a team of unruly superheroes who are the only hope for destroying a rogue Artificial Intelligence hell-bent on the destruction of all humanity.

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

The best way to describe Nancy Kress's writing is that she writes emotionally engaging sci-fi, like extended versions of Twilight Zone episodes that would make really cool movies, except you know Hollywood would really mess them up.

On the eve that Geneticist Marianne Jenner is celebrating her recent discovery she is asked -- invited almost against her will -- to assist in a project being arranged by the aliens that have recently parked their vehicle just alongside the moon. Yes, the aliens have arrived, and set up a sort of floating embassy in New York harbor, and everyone is reading their own personal mania into their arrival. It's the end of the earth. They've come to save us from ourselves. They are proof of God, or no God, or they are our new gods. They say they are here to help us, to share their technology, to save us, but we've all seen that show, twice (hello V), we won't be fooled again. Or will we?

On the emotional side of things Dr. Jenner has three adult children, one a cop for homeland security, one a scientist, and one a drugged out loser strung out on Sugar who's never felt like he belonged anywhere. While they argue the point and value of the alien visitors it is impossible to avoid they are all intricately linked to the success or failure of the visitation. In the end lingered the big question: who is saving whom?

Writing by Example

Suppose you've never changed the headlight on a car, but you want to try it. You come across these instructions:

Undo the bolt at the top of the air filter box, lift the top open and remove the filter from the engine compartment. Then, undo the fasteners holding the air dam in place and remove it from the filter box (driver's side bulb replacement only.)
From https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/30368/2006+Front+headlight+assembly

Huh? You might, reading that, take your car straight to a local garage and ask them to just do the job at any damn price. Or you'd run to the Internet and search for a YouTube video to show you what and where, for starters, an air filter box is.

If you are like me, you need a clear example to follow when doing or DIY project or even when trying something more abstract, like writing fiction. There are a lot of fiction writing instruction books out there, and while most of them give you examples to follow, the examples are usually only individual sentences or paragraphs. The focus of most writing instruction is on dispensing advice and wisdom: how to schedule your writing time, or how many words a day to write, or what types of stories to start with, or what editors are looking for, or what basic plots nearly all stories fall into. Some of these books are interesting or even inspiring reads, but few are really useful when it comes time to actually transfer the stuff in your brain to words on a page. What you need is someone, preferably a seasoned pro, to actually show you how it's done. You need the equivalent of a YouTube how-to video for the writing process.

That's what The Anatomy of Curiosity brings you.

THE BOY IN THE WOODEN BOX by Leon Leyson

I constantly have students asking for books about the Holocaust, and now I have another great one to add to my collection.  THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX by Leon Leyson will add an interesting perspective for students searching for more knowledge about that terrible time in the history of our world.

Leon Leyson lived in Krakow, Poland, with his family.  His childhood was filled with family, school, and friends until the Nazis arrived and at the age of ten he was forced to leave school and begin the fight to survive.

Tin Men by Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden's novel Tin Men has officially hit stores - and it's hitting hard. Without giving too much away, l can tell you, this timely story is going to stay with you. Here's the mini-summary from the publisher:

Brad Thor meets Avatar in this timely military thriller for the drone age, which spins the troubles of today into the apocalypse of tomorrow. A rocket ride of a read packed with high action, cutting-edge technology, and global politics, Tin Men begins with the end of the world as we know it and takes off from there.

I love sci-fi stories that are based in science and technology, stories that present us with possible, plausible situations that stir up society as we know it - I adored the original Twilight Zone and was intrigued by Black Mirror - and Tin Men is right in that category. Christopher Golden's take on technology, society, and responsibility will make you think about very real near-future possibilities. Are all of these advancements in medicine, military, and media doing more harm that good? Fueled by strong characters made stronger through interwoven stories, Tin Men will open your eyes to how the world could be, for better or worse, because of human decisions and indecision, action and inaction.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Bonus points for those willing to discuss the various Cybermen storylines from Doctor Who with me.

Read an excerpt from TIN MEN by Christopher Golden.

The Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. Mills

When we're children, we all believe that we're going to be People of Historical Import. No one plays at being a mid-level bureaucrat on the playground -- we're all royalty, astronauts, spies, heroes.

Gerald Dunwoody was no different -- and, just like the vast majority of actual people, when he grew up he discovered that his imagined life of adventure was just a fairy tale. He grew up believing he'd be a great wizard, and instead, he's reduced to doing safety inspections at wand manufacturing plants, dismissed by coworkers, humiliated by neighbors higher up the wizarding food chain. He is miserable, he is unfulfilled... but he is employed, making a paycheck, paying the rent. Welcome to the real world, Gerald.