The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
26 Sep 2011
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Banned Books Week!
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![Arnold is American Indian who lives on a reservation. When he transfers to a primarily white, off-reservation school, he feels like he doesn't fit in anywhere—and his family and community seem to be falling apart. This story is part book, part comic, and all heart. [Image shows a cartoon boy holding a cartoon drawing of himself] Arnold is funny and resilient, and the comics are wonderful. Sometimes the sheer amount of tragedy can be over the top.](/assets/img/absolutelytrue.png)
Challenged for: "offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group."
I am never going to agree with reducing access to books, so I doubt you would find it worthwhile for me to nitpick each reason given for doing so. But I will say, it seems very backward to me that a book is challenged for "racism" not for promoting racism, but for depicting it being perpetrated against a character. Are we just supposed to pretend it doesn't exist?!
Good for: Many people have found this book extremely compelling. It has a good story about overcoming prejudice and hardship and finding a place to belong, and the fact that it is told in both prose and comics makes it a good pick for reluctant readers. But Alexie's other young adult novel, Flight, was more to my particular taste.
Americus, by M.K. Reed and Jonathan David Hill
21 Sep 2011
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In honor of Banned Books Week next week, a review of a graphic novel about fighting the banning of books.
![All Neil wants Is to sit at the library and read with his best friend. But right before the start of high school, his friend is sent to a military academy, and his friend’s mom tries to ban their favorite book series. Neil will have to start high school alone, and do what he can to keep the books on the shelves. [In the background, a woman yells at a woman behind a desk, while throwing ripped pages into the air. In the foreground, a boy reads a book while imagining a strangely dressed woman, a wolf, and a sky full of birds.] This funny graphic novel has great, well crafted characters, who have such full lives that they seem to have existed before the story and to go on after it. But the treatment of the book-banning characters goes beyond even simple stereotype to become an inflammatory, mean-spirited caricature.](/assets/img/americus.png)
Good for: Pre-teens and up, but only those who can recognize a mean caricature when they see it. I see myself as fundamentally opposed to the kind of people who ban books, but I still thought the book-banners were treated really poorly in this depiction. The book is great and funny, and the rest of the characters are crafted so lovingly and given such wonderful depth. Why couldn't the same be done for the "bad guys"?
Next Week is Banned Books Week!
21 Sep 2011
Next week is the annual Banned Books Week. As a MLIS-holding librarian and a voracious reader, the freedom to read is important to me. This year I'll be reviewing three books from the list of the 10 most challenged books of last year.
You can find out more about banned books week at bannedbooksweek.org. And here's a handy list of all the banned books I've reviewed. Do you have any favorite frequently banned or challenged books? What are you reading for banned books week?
Bossypants, by Tina Fey
15 Sep 2011
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![A memoir of Tina Fey's career in comedy—as a member of Second City, the head writer of Saturday Night Live, creator and star of 30 Rock, and Sarah Palin impersonator—and a little of the story of her life leading up to it. [Image is a drawing of Tina Fey (a woman with brown hair and glasses) with a clown nose.] More of a comedy book than a traditional memoir, this is a hilarious read.](/assets/img/bossypants.png)
Good for: Anyone looking for a laugh! This is not a deep, introspective memoir. Tina Fey isn't baring her soul here. But it is very, very funny, especially for people who are already fans of her work.
The Long Run, by Matt Long with Charles Butler
13 Sep 2011
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Whoa, everyone! This is my 50th illustrated book review!
![Matt Long, a New York City firefighter, one of nine children in a big Irish Catholic family, and Ironman athlete, was run over by a bus while riding his bike to work. The metal bike became enmeshed with his body. From being given an initial 5% chance to live, he required dozens of surgeries to survive. [Image shows a bus and a man on a bike on a collision course on a city street] This inspirational memoir of a heroic firefighter, his life before it was run off the road, and his struggle to run again will make you grateful for the functionality of your body, at whatever level. [Image shows a man with a hat on crutches] But the writing can be poor, especially the dialog.](/assets/img/longrun.png)
Good for: Someone in need of inspiration—whether to get through a personal struggle or just get up and finish that workout. This book made me feel completely lazy!
New page for banned and challenged books
10 Sep 2011
I'm reading a bunch of banned books right now in preparation for Banned Books Week at the end of the month! Banned Books Week is a great excuse to read new books and celebrate freedom from censorship. The ALA offers lists of banned and challenged classics and the most frequently challenged books, and I've made a handy list of all the banned books I've reviewed on this website, some for banned books week and some just in the course of regular reviews. Here's the list so far—I'll be adding three more during Banned Books Week this year. There's also a link to this page under "Bibliovermis stuff" in the footer.
The Two Kinds of Decay, by Sarah Manguso
08 Sep 2011
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![At 21, Sarah Manguso was stricken with a crippling autoimmune disease that would change her life forever. Manguso's descriptions of her symptoms, treatment, and memories of that time can be interesting. [Image shows the outline of a female human body with circulatory system in red.] But the writing style, with paragraphs split along seemingly random lines, is distracting and somewhat annoying. And Manguso, absorbed in herself, fails to give readers something to relate to.](/assets/img/twokindsofdecay.png)
Good for: People who like tales of painful adolescence, I suppose. I did not greatly enjoy this story; it didn't tell me why I should care. The only chapter I really found compelling was "The New Machine," which is two pages long and which you can read right here.
I usually try to stretch a little farther away from the cover image in my drawings, but given the subject matter this was really, really hard to illustrate in a way that wouldn't make certain people I know queasy!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
06 Sep 2011
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![Her cells have been cloned, and they defeated polio. [Image shows cell division] They were sent in a rocket to test the reaction of human cells to space flight. [Image shows an oversized cell in the window of a rocket] If all the cells that had ever been grown from her cell line were gathered together, they would weigh more than the Empire State Building. [Image shows a mass of cells on one side of a scale, outweighing the Empire State Building on the other side.] And she never even knew they were taken from her. Henrietta Lacks was an impoverished wife and mother when she developed cervical cancer at 30, in 1951—a cancer that would outlive her and have an eternal effect on medicine and science, and on her children and grandchildren. [Image shows a black and white drawing of a woman]](/assets/img/immortallifeofhenriettalacks.png)
Good for: Everybody (old enough to be interested). This book is excellent in so many ways: it draws you into its human story; it teaches you about science, biology, and medicine in easy language and with very little prior knowledge required; and it raises important, still-relevant ethical questions about medical scientific research and patent ownership.
Reading this book, I was totally amazed at what medical researchers used to get away with. Every 10 pages someone was doing something like in this xkcd comic, except they didn't have to get patient permission first!
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
31 Aug 2011
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![Music is what ties the stories in this book together. The world, art, [A band plays to a crowd] and business of music is woven throughout, [a man sits behind a desk with three gold records on the wall] creating a rich and intricate melody. [a boy and girl in pajamas sit and listen to music from headphones on computers] One chapter told entirely in PowerPoint slides charmed me immensely [This sentence is displayed on a series of slides showing charts and graphs]. But the last chapter, the author's version of the future, was not compelling.](/assets/img/visitfromthegoonsquad.png)
Good for: One part historical fiction, one part slice-of-life drama, and a very small part speculative fiction, this Pulitzer-prize-winning book is a crowd pleaser, but not an all-ages crowd (drug use, complicated sexual relationships, death). It's really good except for the very last chapter, which had me rolling my eyes a lot.
Moondogs, by Alexander Yates
25 Aug 2011
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![This book, set in the Philippines, ties together a number of disparate characters and storylines. I wanted to know more about a lot of the characters and stories that were just barely covered, and less about characters that were more fleshed out, but turned out to be kind of boring. In the end, it seemed like there were too many characters and scenarios for the author to really handle effectively. At times you wonder what these characters are doing in the same book at all. [A series of 5 circles show different groups of people: A man with a duffel bag, and woman, with their arms around each other. A family: a bearded white man, a white woman with a security badge, and two black children. A group of four men and a black dog: one man is horribly scarred, one is thin and has a beard, one is short and mustachioed, one has a pompadour and a handful of cards. Two men and a rooster. Two men with drinks, one handsome with good hair, the other shorter and chubbier, with glasses.]](/assets/img/moondogs.png)
Good for: People who like ensemble casts and magical realism. The sometimes brutal graphic violence—even by seemingly sympathetic characters—can be shocking and unpleasant, especially if you're not expecting it. So be forewarned.