Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!

I don't read a lot of political books, and I'm not the most conservative person around, but a friend recommended this Andrew Breitbart book so I picked it up. I have to say I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it.

For those of you who don't know, Breitbart was the new media activist who coined the term "Democrat-Media-Complex." He broke the Anthony Weiner sexting story. He brought down ACORN. Even if you don't share his political views, he tells an entertaining - and believable - story of how the media controls the news and only tells us the story that they want us to hear. He also gives a really nice history lesson about how and why the Democrat party has moved further to the left.

Do I believe everything in the book? Mostly. All books of this type are certainly influenced and, ahem, slanted by the author. But as a person who has first-hand experience of unions, higher education, and politics, I think he's mostly telling it like it is. I may be one of a handful of people who had actually read Saul Alinsky before reading this book, let alone ever heard of Alinsky.

Sadly, Breitbart died unexpectedly earlier this year, at the young age of 43. It's a shame, but hopefully there are others out there who will continue his work. Because what he was doing, to me, isn't about which side of the aisle you're on. It's about your right to get the real news, not the news that one side wants you to have.

Righteous Indignation

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

I'm still reading this really interesting biography of Andrew Jackson, but I realized it's been awhile since I posted so I thought I would write about it. Jackson was elected president in 1828 and served two terms, and this book concentrates pretty much entirely on those years, paying little attention to the rest of Jackson's life.

Jackson was our first "of the people" president. He was an orphan who grew up poor and he was a war hero. You could argue that he was the first really Republican president after Jefferson, one who believed in the sanctity of the union above all things. He was a strong-willed and strong-minded person with a deep love for his country and for God. It's an interesting story, particulary if you're into politics.

I had started reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, but I just couldn't get into it. I found the language very old-fashioned and just thought it was tiresome.

American Lion
The Age of Innocence

Away

Away is the story of Lillian Leyb, a young Jewish woman who flees to America in 1924 after her husband and parents are killed in a Russian pogrom. Once in America Lillian learns that the daughter she thought she lost may be alive, and she embarks on any number of adventures, including involvement with one of the most powerful men in the Yiddish theater and an African American prostitute in Seattle.

This is one of those books that I can't really say I loved, but I really wanted to see what happened to Lillian next, and how she survived it. It's not a pretty novel, and it doesn't make you feel very good about the human experience. That Lillian survives her adventures is truly a miracle. I would compare it to Winter's Bone for its stark and brutal portrayal of people and their lives.

Amy Bloom is an interesting writer, and I enjoyed her style once I got used to it. She uses language beautifully, and I enjoyed her humor and lack of sentimentality. And Lillian is a very interesting character, both strong and vulnerable; you really hope that everything works out for her in the end.

Away

Alias Grace

Sometimes (usually) with the Nook, library books that I want aren't readily available, I have to put holds on them because they only have 1 or 2 electronic copies. So I will search for ebooks that are available. That's how I came upon this Margaret Atwood novel that I never read, and I am really glad I did.

Atwood bases her novel on the very real Grace Marks, a 16-year-old servant girl convicted of murder in Canada in 1843 and sentenced to life in prison. It was a sensational story at the time, and Grace served nearly 30 years before being released from prison. Atwood turns Grace from a picture in an old newspaper to a living person, with all the complications most of us have (and some that are just strange enough that they could be true). She uses her formidable talent to create a character who is both sympathetic and untrustworthy, and altogether likeable.

Atwood also uses the novel as a commentary on the plight of women in the 19th century, and on the penal/asylum/service establishments they were often victimized by.

This was a really great read - as always, Atwood drew me in and kept me turning pages until the very end.

Alias Grace

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

I probably would not have picked up this novel if it hadn't been recommended by my friend Rita. I've never read anything by Tom Franklin, and I tend to read novels by women. But this story of the lives of two men in small-town Mississippi drew me in, and I just couldn't put it down until I learned what happened.

In 1982 Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood friends, despite their differences: Larry a poor, shy, outcast white boy; and Silas, a very poor, baseball star, black boy. But they had a connection, and enjoyed spending time together, until their parents found them out. Then Larry takes a girl out on a date and she never comes home, and he's branded a rapist and murderer, despite there being no evidence and him never serving any time. Silas, meanwhile, leaves to play baseball at Ole Miss.

Fast-forward 25 years, and Larry is the town outcast, labeled "Scary Larry" and living a life with no friends and very little human interaction. Silas has returned as the town constable. They both pretty much keep to themselves, until a local rich girl goes missing, a drug dealer is murdered, and Larry's past makes him once more a suspect.

Yes, the book is a murder mystery, but it's much more than that. It's about coming to terms with your past, and about being honest with yourself about who you are. It's about forgiveness, and redemption. And it's just a really good story about some really interesting characters. I definitely recommend it.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

The Kitchen House

I really enjoyed this novel by Kathleen Grissom, about a young Irish girl brought as an indentured servant to a Virginia plantation in the late 1700's, who is sent to work in the kitchen house with the plantation's slaves. It's a thoughtful, beautifully written, and at times disturbing story of an all-too-real era of our country's history.

Lavinia is only 7-years-old when she arrives at Tall Oaks plantation in southern Virginia, an orphan after both her parents die on the crossing from Ireland. Because her parents were to be indentured to Captain Pyke, he takes her home and sends her to work in the kitchen house with his illegitimate half-white daughter Belle. There, over time, Lavinia comes to view Belle, Mama Mae, Beattie, and Fanny as her family. Soon, however, Lavinia develops a relationship with Ms. Martha, the Captain's wife, and her life is altered dramatically.

By telling the story from both Lavinia's and Belle's perspectives, Grissom deftly shows us how two people can see the same events in different ways. I did find some of the events and action trite - several times I knew what was going to happen before it did. But this novel is really about the characters, and they really do drive the story forward. I wanted to know what was going to happen to them, and I couldn't put the book down until I found out.

The Kitchen House

Mockingjay

I have now completed the Hunger Games trilogy and I have to say, I'm glad it's over. This third book in the series takes us away from the arena of the games into a world at war. But the people making the war are the same people who made the games, so who better to know how to fight it than Katniss and the other remaining tributes?

After her dramatic rescue from the arena at the end of book two (and you definitely need to read the first two books to make sense of this one), Katniss finds herself in District 13, the district that supposedly was destroyed by the Capitol. There she finds an active group of rebels, including Haymitch and Gale, who need her as the symbol of the rebellion. But Katniss is so emotionally destroyed by her experiences in the games that she's not much interested in anything, let alone fighting a war, until something happens that changes her mind.

I don't want to give too much away. I will say that this book is hard - it's about war, and it's not pretty. Katniss learns the hard way that not all of the "good guys" are totally good, and that war makes good people do bad things.

Mockingjay