Book Review: Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Publisher: ‎ Atria Books
Publication Date: April 25, 2017
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

By the lake in Beartown is an old ice rink, and in that ice rink Kevin, Amat, Benji, and the rest of the town’s junior ice hockey team are about to compete in the national semi-finals—and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Under that heavy burden, the match becomes the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown.

This is a story about a town and a game, but even more about loyalty, commitment, and the responsibilities of friendship; the people we disappoint even though we love them; and the decisions we make every day that come to define us. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

Beartown is a small Swedish town that is centered on hockey. Hockey is what brings everyone together and the sense of community is strong. Children start playing hockey before they even start elementary school. Then one of the players is accused of something violent and horrible and it becomes clear how precarious the community really is. What are they without hockey? What are they willing to sacrifice to win?

Beartown starts slow but that’s because Fredrik Backman takes his time to introduce the reader to all of the characters and to Beartown itself. All of the characters are incredibly well-developed. I don’t think the aftermath of the violent event would have been as impactful if we didn’t know the people and the town as well as we do by the time the event actually happens.

Although this is a novel about a sport, it’s not really a “sports novel”. It’s more about morality and the culture of toxic masculinity. It’s not predictable the way some sports books can be. I read this for my book club – it made for a good discussion. I was surprised to learn after I finished it that this is the first in a series. It has also been made into a limited series streaming on HBO max.

I’ve actually already read the next book in the series, Us Against You. Stay tuned for that!

Book Review: The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalia Harris

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Publisher: ‎ Atria Books
Publication Date: June 1, 2021
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career.

A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.

Nella Rogers is an editorial assistant at Wagner books and the only Black employee. While in her cubicle one day, she smells her favorite hair product and looks up to see Hazel, the new editorial assistant, who is also Black. Nella is excited to finally have an ally at work – someone who understands the microaggessions and racism she faces in the office every day.

Around the same time that Hazel starts, Nella starts getting notes telling her to leave Wagner. And some other things happen that make her question if Hazel is really her friend or not. Is Hazel the one leaving the notes? It seems like Hazel is sabotaging Nella’s career at times but is she?

The Other Black Girl has been described as a cross between The Devil Wears Prada and Get Out. I think it has strong The Stepford Wives vibes as well. I was actually hoping it would be creepier based on the hype when it first came out.

There is another plotline that takes place in the past that was a little confusing but by the time it converged with the present day, it made sense. I think this is a book where you discover more about it each time you read it. I may read it again someday and see if that’s true.

The author was an editorial assistant at a major publishing house so I’m assuming that her portrayal of what it’s like for a Black person to work at one is accurate. It’s not surprising – the publishing industry has a long way to go in terms of equal treatment of employees and authors of color. I’d be interested to hear what her former employer thinks of the book!

Book Review: In the Woods by Tana French

In the Woods by Tana French
Publisher: ‎ Viking
Publication Date: May 17, 2007
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Back in 1984, twelve-year old Adam Ryan was found in the woods, scared, with blood soaked shoes and no memory of how he got there. The two friends he was playing with are missing. Their bodies have never been found and no one knows what happened to them.

Back in 1984, twelve-year-old Adam Ryan was found in the woods, scared, with blood-soaked shoes and no memory of how he got there. The two friends he was playing with are missing. Their bodies have never been found and no one knows what happened to them.

Now Adam goes by Rob Ryan and after going away to an English boarding school after the incident in his childhood, he’s a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad. No one he works with knows that he’s the boy from the woods. Now the body of a 12-year-old girl who was raped and murdered is found in the same woods. Rob and his partner Cassie have been assigned to the case. Will Rob’s childhood trauma in the woods affect his handling of the girl’s case? Is her case related to what happened to him and his friends?

I’m not a huge crime reader but I know Tana French is really popular so I thought I’d give one of her books a whirl. In the Woods got off to an incredibly slow start. I didn’t get to that “can’t put it down” phase that I expect to have when reading a mystery or thriller until over 200 pages in. I almost gave up several times and did actually set it aside to read another book and then came back to it. The last 200 pages or so flew by – I read them in just a couple of days! It took me weeks to read the first part though.

I enjoyed Rob and Cassie as a team, especially their rapport when interrogating suspects. Their personal relationship made me cringe a bit, but I think it was supposed to. Overall, the characters were really well-developed. I thought the plot was great – there were twists and surprises, but it was just such a slow build. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling something. If this book were just 150 pages shorter, I would have rated it higher.

Oh, the other thing that you should know is that not all the loose ends are resolved at the end of the book, and from a cursory internet search, it doesn’t look like they are resolved in subsequent books in the series either. This actually didn’t bother me even though I am usually one to like everything tied up in a nice little bow at the end of a book.

Banned Books Week Book Review: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Publisher: ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: April 28, 2020
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting their teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with their loving grandmother, to their first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.

Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.

(The jacket of the book uses he/him/his pronouns for George but they switched to using they/them pronouns in 2020 so that’s what I’ll be using in this review and why I changed them in the Publisher’s Description.)

Like I said the other day, I chose to read All Boys Aren’t Blue for my Banned Books Week read because it was challenged by parents in several school districts in my area. I’m so glad I chose it!

All Boys Aren’t Blue is George M. Johnson’s manifesto and coming-of-age memoir about growing up Black and queer. Even as a small child, George felt different. They didn’t feel like a typical boy so they thought maybe they were a girl. They didn’t see a place for an effeminate male in their culture. They spent recess with the girls, double Dutch jump roping until one day they accidentally discovered they were a naturally good football player and that they liked to play football as much as they liked jumping rope. Then George was even more confused. As George got older, they figured out that they weren’t sexually attracted to girls but they weren’t ready to admit to themselves that they were attracted to boys.

Teenagers going through the same struggles as Johnson will appreciate their unflinchingly honest perspective. Their recounting of an episode of sexual abuse they experienced as a child was particularly brave. This is actually one of the excerpts that the parent groups trying to get this book banned have taken out of context and circulated. The fact that these groups would equate this scene with pornography makes it clear to me that they have not read the book. It’s not erotic at all and they should be ashamed of themselves for cheapening Johnson’s experience with their ignorance.

The other passage parents are upset about is when Johnson shares about losing their virginity – in college by the way. How many YA books feature young, white straight people losing their virginity or just plain out having sex repeatedly? Where’s the outcry? Judy Blume’s Forever, anyone? And again, this is not porn. This is a person being vulnerable and sharing an experience that teenagers will read and know that they are not alone in being scared and unsure. I can only imagine the impact it has on Black LGBTQ youth to read George’s story and know that not only are they not the only one who has struggled and been confused but that someone who went through it came out the other side a successful adult person. Representation matters.

Straight teens (and adults) should read this book too. It’s important to read about other people’s experiences and be able to see the world through a different lens. Books like this one can be powerful tools to build empathy and break down barriers.

Highly recommended.

2022 Banned Books Week Events

I’m late getting this out but there are still some really great events left this week. I’m going to attend the Breaking Bans webinar later today:

American Library Association, Unite Against Book Bans and Banned Books Week Coalition Announce Events for September 18-24

Banned Books Week: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Every year leading up to Banned Books Week, I like to read at least one new to me book from the previous year’s top 10 banned books list. This year I chose number three on the 2021 top 10 list, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson because it caused quite a stir in my neck of the woods last school year. Parents in several school districts in my area called for it to be pulled from school library shelves based on a handful of sexually explicit passages that were taken entirely out of context. Back when the excerpts from the book were floating around, I too, was a little uncomfortable reading them (not enough to call for its ban though!), but after reading this book, it makes total sense why they were included. All Boys Aren’t Blue is a memoir of Johnson’s coming-of-age experience while being both Black and queer. Of course, there is sexual content in it! None of it is gratuitous. And oh my gosh, reading their story will be so helpful for all the other Black and queer folks out there who might feel alone and confused like they did growing up.

Honestly, I think most of these parent groups want all LGBTQ books out of school libraries, whether there is sexual content or not, and will use any excuse for why a particular LGBTQ book is not appropriate. Ironically, some of these people are parents to LGBTQ youth who are not out to their homophobic parents and could desperately need the books their parents are trying to ban.

I’ll have a full review of All Boys Aren’t Blue up later this week but spoiler alert….it gets five stars!

2022 Banned Books Week

It’s time for the 2022 Banned Books week! You can find all sorts of information and events at Banned Books Week.

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

Banned Books Week 2022 will be held September 18 – 24. The theme of this year’s event is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.”

By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. The Top 10 Challenged Books of 2021 are:

1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
3. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
8. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
10. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin

Audiobook Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Miranda Raison
Release Date: April 05, 2022
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. 

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo. 

Elizabeth Zott is a chemist working in an all-male lab in the 1960s. She’s highly intelligent and a great researcher but since she’s a woman, she’s overlooked and mistreated. One day, she meets her coworker, the Noble Prize-winning Calvin Evans. He loves her for her brain, not in spite of it. Then a lot of stuff that would be a spoiler happens and she finds herself the host of a cooking show called Supper at Six. Her cooking lessons are infused with chemistry and give bored housewives the mental stimulation they’ve been looking for. She knows that all women have the potential for greatness if given a chance.

I love books with characters who don’t follow social norms and make humorous observations about those who do, without realizing that what they are thinking is funny. Think Don Tillman in The Rosie Project or Bernadette in Where’d You Go, Bernadette – like them, Elizabeth refuses to do things just because that’s the way they have always been done and seems genuinely confused about why other people do them that way.

Lessons in Chemistry had humor for sure but it also had some heavy stuff. The way women were treated in the 1960s is not sugar coated. Some pretty horrible stuff happens to the women in the book. I listened to this book on a long drive and got myself pretty worked up! The narrator was amazing. If you’re able to listen to it, I think it will really add to the experience. She gave each character their own sound and there are a lot of characters. She nailed them all – from gross, blustery men to small children.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman

Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even with the cutthroat days of being Class Mom behind her, as a freshly minted mat mom of the Pioneer Middle School (PMS) wrestling team, Jen Dixon cannot catch a break.

This year, as her son joins the ranks of the PMS wrestlers, Jen faces mystifying new social dynamics with her trademark combination of reluctance and resigned acceptance. The sights and smells of her son’s wrestling matches are more than enough for her to deal with, but Jen also finds herself fully immersed in sports-mom competitiveness. These parents all seem perfectly unassuming until their kids start to wrestle, and then some become raging momsters.

Jen steels herself for the indignities of middle school life, but she cannot quite fathom the extents to which some kids (and moms) will go for the sweet taste of victory. Add to this some truly bizarre encounters with students from her spin class and deeper challenges managing her parents, and Jen has more gum than she can chew…and even her riotously funny one-liners might not get her through it this time.

I did it! I’m all caught up on the Class Mom series. And Max has caught up to my daughter – they are both in seventh grade now. Unlike my daughter, Max is on the wrestling team so Jen has a whole new group of moms to deal with – the Mat Moms. They all seem to take wrestling way more seriously than she does. Most of the moms are welcoming but one is downright mean.

In the meantime, Jen’s aging parents are becoming more of a handful and her adult daughters are trying to start a business. And Jen is still teaching spinning classes. One of her students is getting a little demanding. So as usual, Jen’s plate is full but it’s with all new problems so it feels fresh. There is a little bit of sadness in this book and also a point at which I wanted to shake Jen because she was being very unreasonable. I wasn’t expecting a Class Mom book to get me worked up!

Smells Like Tween Spirit was very satisfying but I hope that Laurie will write another one – I’d love to see what Jen gets up to when Max is in high school.

My reviews of the rest of the series:

Class Mom (Class Mom #1)
You’ve Been Volunteered (Class Mom#2)
Yoga Pant Nation (Class Mom #3)

Audiobook Review: Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair

Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair
Narrator: Selma Blair
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: May 17, 2022
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.   

Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.   

Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.   

Geez Louise – Selma Blair has had a hard life. The title of her book comes from that when she was an infant, her face supposedly looked scrunched up into an angry stare and everyone called her Mean Baby. It seems it became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

I didn’t know very much about her before reading her book. Really, all I knew is that she had been fairly recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She’s also a recovering alcoholic and was sexually assaulted several times. And her mom! She seemed like a very cold and often cruel woman. She constantly criticized Selma and said the most horrible things to her. Selma is the youngest of four girls and was a surprise baby. I don’t remember the exact quote but when Selma was a child, her mom said something to her to the effect of, “You know, I could have had an abortion but I didn’t.” And yet Selma loved her and was desperate for her approval.

The entire book was tough to listen to. Selma narrates it herself and chokes up at several points. And I don’t blame her. Her alcoholism is probably sprung in part from self-medicating not only to forget about her mother and other problems but also because she suffered from painful physical symptoms for years before she was finally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The book’s timeline was a little jumbled but that didn’t bother me too much. I knew from reading reviews before I read it that it wasn’t going to be a fun, tell-all Hollywood memoir. Know that and read it when you’re in the mood for something more serious. It’s very well-written. Selma studied writing before she became an actress and it shows. Recommended.