Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill

Goodreads synopsis: Evalina Cassano’s life in an Italian-American family in 1941 is quiet and ordinary … until she falls in love with Taichi Hamasaki, the son of Japanese immigrants. Despite the scandal it would cause and the fact that interracial marriage is illegal in California, Evalina and Taichi vow they will find a way to be together. But anti-Japanese feelings erupt across the country after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Taichi and his family are forced to give up their farm and are incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp.

Degrading treatment at Manzanar Relocation Center is so difficult, Taichi doubts he will ever leave the camp alive. Treasured letters from Evalina are his sole connection to the outside world. Embracing the boldest action she can to help Taichi, Evalina begins to radically speak out at school and at home, shining a light on this dark and shameful racial injustice.

With their future together on the line, Evalina and Taichi can only hold true to their values and believe in their love against all odds to have any hope of making it back to one another.

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG. Some kissing, mentions of an illegitimate child, some bloodless shooting, racism, forced poor living conditions.

(spoilers below)

Thoughts: I really wish this book had only been Taichi's POV. I think that would have done a lot to fix many of the gripes I had with the book. Evalina's chapters feel kind of pointless. I think I get what the author was going for in writing her side too, but unfortunately it didn't come across very well.

Even though Taichi was literally in a internment camp, the stakes didn't really start feeling real until a couple chapters before the end. And then once things were finally starting to happen, they were over again. The complete skipping over most of Taichi's time in Manzanar felt like cheating and didn't help me feel like anything bad was actually going to happen to anyone. The one person who did die didn't even resonate with me because I couldn't remember who he was or what impact he had on Taichi's life.

There were a lot of things like that. Elements of the story that seemed like they should have had a bigger impact on the story than they actually did. Reading it felt rushed, like the author just wanted to summarize the bad things so she could happily reunite the characters again with a cursory mention of what they had been through because it was the premise of the book.

That being said, most of the chapters that do focus on Taichi and the camp were well done. And an important part of American history I don't think we should lose sight of. Germany wasn't the only place keeping its own people in camps where many died, just because of the color of their skin. I know the arguments for why the US was right in what they did, but it doesn't change what happened. Or how many people it hurt while trying to protect others.

The story really did have a lot of potential. But it seemed to be treated a little too lightly for the subject of the story itself, and that's where the main problems came in. It didn't give time for the weight of the story. Making it longer and focusing on what was going on around the characters more could have helped put the entire struggle in more perspective. Made it seem more heartbreaking and real. I didn't even have a problem with the idea of the romance, and that being a major conflict. Unfortunately that felt like the only conflict, which minimized everything else going on around the characters, as well as what their families and friends were suffering too.

It was a great idea of a story. The execution just fell shorter than I would have liked.



(As a side note, if you're looking for other stories about Japanese internment camps, Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata is worth checking out. It's a middle grade book, but it takes the camps seriously and shows their realty in a deep, age appropriate manner.)

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

Goodreads synopsis: Chesterton portrays Father Brown as a short, stumpy Roman Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human evil. "How in Tartarus," cried Flambeau, "did you ever hear of the spiked bracelet?" -- "Oh, one's little flock, you know!" said Father Brown, arching his eyebrows rather blankly. "When I was a curate in Hartlepool, there were three of them with spiked bracelets."Not long after he published Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton moved from London to Beaconsfield, and met Father O'Connor. O'Connor had a shrewd insight to the darker side of man's nature and a mild appearance to go with it--and together those came together to become Chesterton's unassuming Father Brown. Chesterton loved the character, and the magazines he wrote for loved the stories. The Innocence of Father Brown was the first collection of them, and it's a great lot of fun.

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG-13. Mild mention of a lady of ill repute, bodies, bloodless violence, a headless corpse and floating head, thoughts a suspect might have killed themselves.

Thoughts: Years ago a friend of mine recommended Father Brown to me. We shared a taste in stories and she really enjoyed them. Somehow though I was under the impression that they were novels, not collections of short stories. But that was nice, and made it easier to read.

That being said I probably read this book too fast. I think I would have been better served by slowing down and reading the stories slower than I did, taking the time to absorb everything that happened.

But I didn't do that. It was still enjoyable though. Short little mystery stories with an innocent looking but worldly wise priest who everyone automatically discounts? Sign me up.

I'm definitely going to try and read the next book slower. Hopefully understand more of what was going on. It should be fun.

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

(Spoilers for Scythe)

Goodreads synopsis: Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.

Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?

My rating: 4 stars.

(spoilers for Thunderhead)

Content warnings: PG-13. Some mild swearing, two different couples having implied sex, one of them more than once, "pleasure houses," characters die bloodlessly, some die repeatedly, a decapitated head is attached to another body, bodies are burned, quasi suicide without the actual consequences. 

Thoughts: I find it interesting that a book series about people who kill other people can have such depth on themes like the value of a human life, and the gravity of the end of a life. It's what I appreciate most about these books.

On that note, Rowan's whole beginning was tricky. On the one hand, I wanted to root for him. On the other there feels like there should have been a better way to do it. But it didn't feel like the book was saying he was exactly right, just presenting his actions as a natural conclusion from where he had come from. And that was nice, leaving the reader to still wrestle with the moral judgement of the character for themselves.

There were some things that actually caught me off guard, like what happened to Tyger/the resurrection of Goddard. It's rare that a book can surprise me quite that much, so props to Shusterman for that.

Then again there were a few content things that didn't exactly need to happen... It wasn't fully shown "on screen" but it was enough to be uncomfortable at the very least, and something to be aware of.

Although I think the book handles its subject matter well, the plain fact that the world is what it is in the first place can be a little uncomfortable. While the value and impact of life and its loss do effect the characters, and in a thought provoking difference of ways, the fact that the world sees it as necessary to unnaturally kill people at all isn't quite an idea I appreciate very much. While the book begs over population and a bare vestige of what humanity was for the scythes to exist, in the end reading about people learning and seeing it as their duty to kill others isn't something I would normally get behind.

But on the flip side, it can use that as a vehicle for larger discussions on life, its worth, and even purpose. It's not for everyone, but if you're willing to think deeply about the themes, it is an exciting way to spark those thoughts.

The Numbers Behind Numb3rs by Keith Devlin and Gary Lorden

Goodreads Synopsis: The companion to the hit CBS crime series Numb3rs presents the fascinating way mathematics is used to fight real-life crime

Using the popular CBS prime-time TV crime series Numb3rs as a springboard, Keith Devlin (known to millions of NPR listeners as the Math Guy on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon) and Gary Lorden (the principal math advisor to Numb3rs) explain real-life mathematical techniques used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to catch and convict criminals. From forensics to counterterrorism, the Riemann hypothesis to image enhancement, solving murders to beating casinos, Devlin and Lorden present compelling cases that illustrate how advanced mathematics can be used in state-of-the-art criminal investigations.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Content Warnings: PG. Talk of crimes of various kinds.

Thoughts: Numb3rs is one of my favorite shows, and I think it does a lot of things right as far as the writing goes. So I was curious how the math lined up, and this book was available.

When I picked it up from the library, I was surprised how thin it actually was. But that made it even more approachable, and I read it in less than a week, which I was not expecting. The book doesn't try to completely teach the math used in the show. It only gives a brief, easy to understand overview of what actually does work and why. I did appreciate that. I'm not a math person by any means, and anything too much more technical might have gone over my head, even though I would have tried to understand.

My favorite part was definitely the appendix in the end, giving a short summary of the maths used in each episode of the first three seasons of the show. And I appreciate how the writers weren't afraid to call B.S. on a couple episodes, or point out when Charlie's math did basically nothing and the cases were solved with normal investigation techniques.

If nothing else the show and the book both helped give me a little more appreciation for math, even if I still don't completely "get" it. The book is heavily dependent on watching the show though, so it's a good idea to read it after watching the first three seasons. But hey, it's entertainment with the excuse of education. :P 

Among the Imposters by Margret Peterson Haddix

(spoilers for Among the Hidden)

Goodreads Synopsis: Luke Garner is terrified.

Out of hiding for the first time in his life, he knows that any minute one of his new classmates at Hendricks School for Boys could discover his secret: that he's a third child passing as the recently deceased Lee Grant. And in a society where it's illegal for families to have more than two children, being a third child means certain death at the hands of the dreaded Population Police.

His first experience outside the safety of his home is bewildering. There's not a single window anywhere in the school; Luke can't tell his classmates apart (even as they subject him to brutal hazing); and the teachers seem oblivious to it all.

Desperate to fit in, Luke endures the confusion and teasing until he discovers an unlocked door to the outside, and a chance to understand what is really going on. But to take this chance -- to find out the secrets of Hendricks -- Luke will need to put aside his fears and discover a courage that a lifetime in hiding couldn't thwart.

Once again, best-selling author Margaret Peterson Haddix delights her fans with this spine-tingling account of an all-too-possible future. Among the Impostors is a worthy companion to Among the Hidden and a heart-stopping thriller in its own right.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Content Warnings: PG. Child swearing, the constant looming threat of death and torture to many of the young characters, a government willing to torture and kill these kids.

(spoilers below)

Thoughts: I've recently been rediscovering MPH and her incredible talent. I read Among the Hidden in August of last year and finally got my hands on the next several books in the series. It's one that I've wanted to read for over a decade, and even though I'm far past the intended audience of her works by now they're still amazing.

While it is a middle grade book and reads as fast as a middle grade book, it doesn't feel like a kid's book. It's a heavy story, with the looming threat of death, even torture, for Luke and many friends he makes along the way. And the story doesn't shy away from that. But it also isn't melodramatic about things either.

I appreciate the depiction of many of the adults in the story. I don't read enough middle grade to know, but I know I'm often dissatisfied in how YA adults are shown. In this book they're also keenly aware of what's going on (and those who aren't have understandable reasons not to be), as well as closely helping and protecting the kids. We need more story adults like Mr. Talbot.

Luke's grief was handled well. He didn't immediately get over it, and Jen continued to be a presence in his life. She had made such a big impact it would have been a shame if he had moved on too quickly.

And Luke himself is a precious bean and I love him. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Goodreads Synopsis: An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.

Until something goes wrong. . . .

In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: R. Swearing, lots of violence, and characters being torn apart, one of which is an infant.

(spoilers below)

Thoughts: I described it to a friend before finishing as "both super solid and mind numbingly stupid." And I think that still stands. The science and technobabble was actually kinda interesting. Usually I just skim that kind of stuff, but I thought the explanation for how the dinosaurs were cloned was worth reading.

But some of the more plot-related things made me want to bash my head against a wall. I get wanting to protect the dinos, and thinking the technology was infallible. To a point. But there got to be a point someone involved in the project has got to have common sense. Sure you have as little personnel as possible, but there's still a lot of people there. I remember the moment, (when it was said that management wouldn't allow one dilophosaurus to be killed in order to conduct an autopsy to protect others from their venom) that it got to be too much for me. The park was literally designed as a tourist attraction in order to make money. I think most people would realize it'd be worth the sacrifice of one artificially created dino to keep the rest of them from hurting/killing tourists, and likely resulting in a highly expensive lawsuit. Potentially even being forced to close the park. It's just unbelievable someone could be that dumb.

Then again Hammond didn't exactly strike me as the brightest bulb ever. But he definitely had others who were supposed to be "smart" helping him get the place going.

Anyway.

Once it got going it held my attention. Not that I really cared for most what happened. The characters were meh, and the plot felt more like "ooh, this should happen now, that'd be bad" versus an actual progression of cause and consequences. But it was fun for the sake of the dinosaurs, and all the speculation, not only from the book, but that I personally wandered into as a result of it.

It also touched on some interesting elements of playing god and perceived infallibility. I think it could have done those themes better, but I appreciate their inclusion nonetheless.

In general it was interesting but not fantastic. A pretty standard thriller, just with dinosaurs instead of crime rings or anything else. Which lent it a little more interest in the long run. They almost won it another star, but the imbecility of everyone else took that away again. But if you've got some time and like dinosaurs it might be worth a look through.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Goodreads Synopsis: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."


With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

My Rating: 2 stars.

Content Warnings: PG. Very mild occasional swearing, mild violence, some potential for depression triggering content.

(spoilers below)

Thoughts: This is a novella that I've heard a lot about, and I've wanted to read it for a long time. College classwork just made that happen now.

My first thought after finishing was "what the hell was that?" But that was my fault. From all that I had heard about Metamorphosis before reading it, I was expecting a much different kind of story, with very different themes than what it turned out being. I honestly would have done well to read a synopsis of it before jumping into it, just so I could realize what I was getting into wasn't what I had been led to believe it would be.

I did relate to Gregor, especially once I realized what the point sorta was. Even without that perspective, by the end I was noticing how much I could sympathize with things Gregor was feeling. So it had that going for it.

But then, that's not really an idea I feel should be presented the way this one was. In the end it seemed to present Gregor's death as a good thing, and that there was no hope for his life but to die. There was nothing redeeming about the end, and had it been done differently it could have been a well written ending in the least. Unfortunately, Gregor's (arguably self inflicted) death solved all the problems for everyone and they were all happy after that. An idea that I loathe.

Beyond that the writing was hard to get through. The style is obviously very old, with minimal paragraph breaks, even for dialogue, long arduous passages of describing every little thing, and a shambling pace that didn't make much sense. I don't mind books with slow narratives. But I don't like slogs, and Metamorphosis certainly was one.

All in all it was an interesting idea, but poorly executed, and with an ending that reinforced why the story was bad, rather than redeeming it in any way.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Goodreads synopsis: On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

My rating: 5 stars.

Content warnings: R. Military-esque swearing, brief talking about sex, mentions of sexual and non sexual nudity, war violence, torture, starvation, smoking, drinking, verbal abuse, theft, disturbing event involving a duck.

(spoilers below)

Thoughts: I have trouble getting through a lot of non fiction. The writing just tends to be dry, and not easy for me to read quickly, even if I'm really interested in the subject.

I got through Unbroken in three days.

Hillenbrand's writing is just so easy to read and understand. It's almost conversational, and it feels like a story, not some dry history text. This was my second time reading through it, and I was amazed at how much I actually remembered from the first time several years ago. I tend to forget a lot about books, especially if they're not well written, but this one really stuck in my mind.

The story itself, while at many times very rough to experience, is also very inspiring. And not only Louie's own war survival, but the bravery of others Hillenbrand doesn't neglect to mention, as well as Louie's post-war experiences. I'm very glad the author did include Louie's salvation, and how that impacted him.

Also, Louie is the kind of old person I want to be in the future. :P

(As a note, I have also seen the Unbroken movie that came out in 2014. It's hard to watch, even with many of the worst experiences from the book taken out. But I think it's very worthwhile, though I would recommend watching it after reading the book.
I also hope to see the second movie at some point, and may edit this review with that if I can find it somewhere. If anyone has seen it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, or both movies.)

A Wilted Willow by Julia Witmer

Goodreads Synopsis: Mira Miller has never forgotten the day the portal closed behind her as she was suddenly thrust back into her own world. She has never forgotten the friends she left behind or the fight she left unfinished. Will her desperate attempts to find her way back to Nother World succeed in reuniting her with the place and people she unwillingly abandoned?

Life for Cadmus Clark has never been the same since Mira disappeared. As his world grows ever darker, it becomes harder and harder to hold onto the final small threads of hope – hope that the evil which has taken over will ever be vanquished. Has the splendor of Nother World vanished forever?

Both Mira and Cadmus will fight for the return of the Nother World they loved. But can you ever really go back?

My Rating: 3 Stars

Content warnings: PG. Some bloodless violence, mostly involving shooting.

(spoilers below)

Thoughts: The story had a lot of potential. But being less than 100 pages, the story barely had time to develop the main character to the little extent that it did, much less anything else about it. It earned its third star based on the potential, had there been more time spent on development.

I really wanted to see more of just how being away effected Mira. The synopsis gave the impression that she would be away from Nother World for a significant portion of the book, but she makes it back within the second chapter, and it makes it hard to feel just how much being away effected her.

The first several chapters touched on several themes I would have loved to have seen played out, but after they were briefly spoken of they were ignored, and I was left feeling the story was rather empty without them.

At first I was okay with not having a very good idea of how the world worked, or even what Mira's role had been during her first stay in Nother World. But as the story went on it started becoming more important to understand what was going on in the world, and to know just why Mira was so important to their victory as a fifteen year old. Unfortunately, none of that was ever explained, and I ended up confused and disappointed that there was no good explanations for anything.

There wasn't enough time to get to know any of the characters, so by the time it got to the climax, I didn't actually care. One character betrayed them, but she may as well have been any of the other characters for as much as I knew about any of them. I wish I could say I felt sad, but I was just ready for it to be over with.

Despite all those issues, there was a lot of potential there. The idea of a character coming back to the world they left behind in a Narnian-esque portal fantasy story is one that really intrigued me. And the search to understand why she was pulled out of the world when she was, as well as seeing those left behind trying to pick up the pieces once they had lost are all things I would definitely read in other stories.

According to the bio in the back of the book, the author is only 16. I think she has a very good foundation for a much longer, richer story, if she would care to continue working and expanding on what she has here. And that would be a book I would love to read.