A year after the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, the students and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas share their stories of the shooting and its aftermath in Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories, edited by MSD teacher Sarah Lerner. The book is a collection of….
I watch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah frequently, so I’ve been interested in reading about his life for a while and I appreciate Trevor’s brand of comedy. I was mostly convinced to read Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood after I watched one of Trevor’s old stand-up comedy acts. It’s an amazing and hilarious read.
Lucy Knisley shares her experience as a bride in her graphic-novel memoir Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride. She shows how she fell in love with John, how her mother participated in wedding planning, and how difficult some her choices as a bride were. Mixed in the book are some facts about costs and traditions of weddings. Something New is an alright memoir, but the reader should not go into it with a critical mind toward weddings.
When Nicole J. Georges was sixteen, she adopted Beija, the shar-pei/corgi mix with a difficult disposition. For the next fifteen, sixteen years, Nicole and Beija live together and fight for each other through depression, heartbreak, and people’s carelessness about dogs’ needs. Nicole learns how to be responsible for and how to care for a pet. In Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home, they learn how to deal with each other’s needs.
The Language Learning Challenge had a theme last month of reading about the history of the region, culture, or our target language. My target language of focus for the month was Japanese, so I tried to find books about that culture. I’m going to change up what I would typically write as only a review… Continue reading Zen for Beginners by Judith Blackstone & Zoran Josipovic
Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, was published in 1997 and acknowledged Mineko Iwasaki as the real-life geisha that the author interviewed. After it was translated into Japanese, Iwasaki saw her name in print without permission and claims that Golden’s book misrepresents what it is to be a geisha. Iwasaki’s memoir tries to break the stereotypes perpetuated in Golden’s book.
After reading Hostage by Guy Delisle last year, I wanted to read more of his graphic novels, which brought me to Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea. This one focuses on the Delisle’s adventures while working at an animation studio in Pyongyang. He deals with corrections to animations, being followed everywhere, and seeing attractions and behaviors that glorify the leader of North Korea. This travel memoir gives an unsettling look at North Korea.
Here comes another YouTube author! Tyler Oakley writes about his life in this collection of essays. Binge includes stories of his relationships, his YouTube presence, and other experiences. After reading Dan and Phil’s first book, I saw Tyler Oakley’s Binge….
Trans Voices: Becoming Who You Are, by Declan Henry, compiles the words of trans individuals and explanations of issues. The book discusses everyday experiences, transitioning, treatments, surgeries, discrimination, and legal and healthcare issues. In this book, Henry attempts to educate the cisgender population about the lives and experiences of trans individuals to increase acceptance and understanding.
Do you remember the teen girls who created Tampon Run, the game where you run and throw tampons at enemies? If you don’t, you missed out on that awesome news in 2014. Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral, and Getting It Done follows Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser on their Tampon Run journey, self-discovery, and computer programming.
Cat on the Bookshelf 