Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: September 5, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):
"You coming?"
"Is it possible for a hug to peel back skin of time, the toughened and raw bits, the irritated and irritating dry spots, the parts that bleed?'

Review:
I'm sitting here with that uncomfortable feeling that you get when you want to cry, but you don't or maybe can't? Like something is sitting on your chest that you are not sure how to get rid of without a good ugly cry to relieve the tension but it won't come. I think I need more time with this book. I think I need to sit with it for a moment and try to process. What I really need is someone to talk to about it, but I'm going to attempt a review anyway. The book is about the cycle of gun violence in the narrator's life. The story unfolds as an elevator sinks down to each floor. The vast majority of the book, about 250 of the 306 pages, takes place over 1 minute 7 seconds.

The cover of my copy is riddled with medals: Newbury Honor, Coretta Scott King, Michael Printz, and the Walter Dean Myers Awards... all incredibly well-deserved. It's a novel-in-verse and can be read in one sitting, though it took me three. This is the first of Jason Reynolds' books that I've read and I knew very little about it when I picked it up. After I finished I read an interview with Reynolds who was asked why he chose to write in verse and he responded, "I need my young brothers who are living in these environments, I need the kids who are not living in these environments to have no excuses not to read the book... to know you can finish this in 45 minutes means the world to me, so that we can get more young people reading it and thinking and having discussion about what this book is actually about."

I don't want to give you any more information than that. Just read it.

Rebound by Kwame Alexander

Rebound by Kwame Alexander
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: September 3, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"It was the summer when Now and Laters cost a nickel and The Fantastic Four, a buck. When I met Harriet Tubman and the Harlem Globetrotters. It was the hottest summer after the coldest winter ever, when a storm shattered my home into a million pieces and soaring above the sorrow and grief seemed impossible. It was the summer of 1988, when basketball gave me wings and I had to learn how to rebound on the court. And off."

Review:
This book is the prequel to The Crossover and if you're considering reading it first, don't. I really enjoyed The Crossover, but the depth Rebound gave to both books make me fall in love with the Bell family. Rebound is about the summer of 1988, when Chuck Bell, dad of Filthy & JB from Crossover, was 12 years old. I'm not sure I've ever experienced a book that made other books good. In its own right it was a great story, but for me the impact of this book came from it giving me a greater understanding of The Crossover... but it had to be in this order. I'm not certain they would have had the impact they had on me if I had read them in reverse. These two books might be my favorite that I've read all year. Such beautiful beautiful family development. Such incredible lessons learned by characters and myself while reading. These are books I will come back to again and again.

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 13, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"There's this golden moment when the sun licks through the gauze fluttering at my window warming my eyes to open this golden moment when I'm not yet awake enough to remember that there are things I would rather forget."

Review:
While I thought I would relate to this story more due to my younger sister being hospitalized while we were younger, I wasn't disappointed despite my high expectations. It was a well done novel-in-verse that was a quick read about an important topic. I especially liked the references to places that I have been (tracing the steps of the ducklings in the public gardens and eating on Revere Beach after getting dinner at Kelly's). I was not expecting the author to be a local.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 12, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"Basketball Rule #5 When you stop playing your game you've already lost."

"Basketball Rule #8 Sometimes you have to lean back a little and fade away to get the best shot."

Review:
Books make me cry all the time because I am a giant baby. However, the ugly cry that this book produced was a new experience. I read it incredibly quickly and had difficulty putting it down to sleep last night. If all of Kwame Alexander's books are like this I will be reading them all. Phenomenal!

everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by Jomny Sun

everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by Jomny Sun
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: August 11, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"Hmm... Well I guess everybody tells me i am too small and too slow to make a diference in this world but i am makimg a diference in my own world and i hope that is enough"

"we will always be with u. we internalize traits we observe in others as a way to honor and remeber them. we are all living memorials"

Review:
Flipping adorable. Also incredibly deep. Also timely. Everything happens for a raisin.

Will come back to for inspiration again and again.

Salt by Nayyirah Waheed

Salt by Nayyirah Waheed
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: June 22, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"listen to my poems. but do not look for me. look for you. - you"

"i bleed every month. but do not die. how am i not magic. - the lie"

"you see your face. you see a flaw. how. if you are the only one who has this face. - the beauty construct"

"you not wanting me. was the beginning of me wanting myself. thank you. - the hurt"

Review:
What else to say, but to quote this book. Wow.

"If I write what you may feel but cannot say, it does not make me a poet. It makes me a bridge. And I am humbled and I am grateful to assist your heart in speaking."

"Some people when they hear your story. Contract. Others upon hearing your story. Expand. And this is how you know."

Thank you Ms. Waheed for being a bridge and helping me expand.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: June 25, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Favorite Quote(s):

"My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs."

"'You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,' she says now. 'You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.'" 

Review:
I think I might need to sit with this for a bit longer to write a worthy review. For now, I'm questioning so many things... like public education and my role in it. Are we providing students with the tools they need to for higher education or are we draining the curiosity out of them? 3/7ths of the Westovers have PhDs. I think there is something there to at least discuss. I'm also thinking about my interactions with my sister. We are very different people and have never experienced or interpreted a mutual event in our lives the same way. It's an incredibly lonely experience to be denied your own perspective, but it feels a bit like Tara has validated me on her journey to validate herself.

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: June 20, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"I hear them say go home, I hear them say f---ing immigrants, f---ng refugees. Are they really this arrogant? Do they not know that stability is like a lover with a sweet mouth upon your body one second; the next you are a tremor lying on the floor covered in rubble and old currency waiting for its return. All I can say is, I was once like you, the apathy, the pity, the ungrateful placement and now my home is the mouth of a shark, now my home is the barrel of a gun."

Review:
I picked up this book because I had read part of an included poem that had been circulating around social media. The poem is "Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre)." It turned out to be my favorite poem in the book. Though slightly misquoted (or perhaps it was paraphrased) on social media, the lines that get me the most read: "I hear them say go home, I hear them say f---ing immigrants, f---ng refugees. Are they really this arrogant? Do they not know that stability is like a lover with a sweet mouth upon your body one second; the next you are a tremor lying on the floor covered in rubble and old currency waiting for its return. All I can say is, I was once like you, the apathy, the pity, the ungrateful placement and now my home is the mouth of a shark, now my home is the barrel of a gun." This quote is incredibly timely for where we are as a country (the US). I think we use immigrants as scapegoats and spread hateful propaganda about who these people are and why they are coming to our country. I am particularly bothered by the hateful rhetoric directed at refugees who literally have no where else to go. I believe it's shameful and evil. However, I think this particular quote in this particular poem helps to shift the perspective of the privileged people who happened to be born here. At least I hope it does.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: April 20, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn't that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark."

"Burn it! Burn it. This is where the poems are,” I say, thumping a fist against my chest. “Will you burn me? Will you burn me, too?"

"And I think about all the things we could be if we were never told our bodies were not built for them."

Review:
Easy 5 stars. I've read ancient and modern books written in verse before, but I think all of them have been epic (like the whole book is one long poem). But not here. Acevedo writes a series of individual poems that all come together into one beautiful story. This was epic in a different way. Some of her poems are for tying the story together, but most are the beautiful kind with triple meanings and gorgeous metaphors and deep "wait-I-need-to-read-that-again" meaning. I was able to connect with it even though I'm not a teen or the child of immigrants or a poet. This is going in the "will reread over and over again" pile. Highly recommended.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: April 18, 2018
Format: Book
Favorite Quote(s):

"When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are."

Review:
The copy I have is the 25th anniversary edition and in the introduction Ms. Cisneros talks about her intentions for the book. She said she wanted you to be able to pick it up and read a story without feeling like you missed anything. Each chapter a being able to stand alone. Normally, I very much like this. I love short stories, but at first I felt it was too disconnected and I had difficulty imagining Esperanza's world. The more I read, the more there was to imagine and by the end I was surprised that she only lived on Mango street for one year because I had imagined an entire childhood there. Some of the chapters were short but left me with such a vivid image that I didn't need any more words. Others left me wondering and wishing there was more to it. Overall, I really liked the book, especially towards the end. I have favorite chapters that I will come back to again and again but I don't think I will ever reread the entire book.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished Reading: January 9, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Favorite Quote(s):

"The truth casts a shadow over the kitchen - people like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice."

Review:
Phenomenal! Should be assigned to all high school students and I'll recommend it at my high school. This is an important read that will broaden perspectives that sorely need to be broadened (white folks, I'm thinking of you). Starr is funny, relatable, and genuine. I'm especially a fan of her regular Harry Potter references. This is the first book of the 36 I'm going to read this year. I'm glad I chose such a powerful story to start with. I will reread for years.