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The Hate U Give

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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Format: Book, eBook, Audiobook, eAudiobook.  Movie version available DVD or Blu-Ray
Who it’s for: Adults, Teens

Sixteen year old Starr is living a double life.  One Starr lives in a black, lower income neighborhood and feels like she doesn’t quite fit in.  The other Starr attends a private, mostly white school and feels like she can never quite be herself.
One night, Starr is riding in a car with her childhood friend Kahlil when they get stopped by police. After a short but tense exchange, Kahlil is fatally shot leaving Starr as the only witness.
A whirlwind of events send Starr’s two worlds crashing into each other so she is left with no choice but to find her voice and decide who her one true self is and what she stands for.

 

The audiobook was amazing and the movie was a very good adaptation of the book although they did have to condense some characters.  I read the book first and it helped to better understand some parts of the story that I might have missed otherwise.

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Still Standing

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Still Standing by Larry Hogan and Ellis Henican
Format: Book, eBook, eAudiobook
Who it’s for: Adults
What do you know about Governor Larry Hogan? You may have heard during his six years in office about crises like the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, managing the COVID-19 pandemic, and his personal battle with cancer. You may have read news stories about bipartisan agreements on economic and justice department reforms during his tenure. Now you can go behind those headlines and get the inside story in Larry Hogan’s recently released autobiography.
In an era of political divide, Larry Hogan offers a refreshing approach to practical problem solving that focuses on listening, being respectful, and working on the problem at hand for the benefit of the people rather than promoting a political party or agenda. We need more voices like this on the political landscape today.

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Born a Crime

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Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Format: Book and Audio Book on CD
Who it’s for: Adults, Teens (Young Readers version also available)

What is it like for your very existence to be against the law?  Although it might sound like a plot from a dystopian novel, this is the real life story of Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Trevor Noah’s crime at birth was that he had a black mother and white father at a time when the laws of South Africa made this a severely punishable offense.
Noah gives a frank, sometimes serious, sometimes funny account of growing up as a mixed race child in a racially stratified and oppressive society. We see through this collection of short stories all the particular challenges he had to face but we can also relate to those things that we all have in common growing up. Noah also takes the opportunity to explain the history of Apartheid laws and the underlying causes of racial unrest but does so in an engaging way that flows along with his entertaining stories.
The first story ends with his mom throwing him out of a moving bus when he was nine years old.  Don’t worry, it was really just to save his life and he obviously lived to tell about it! Check out this great collection of stories from a South African childhood.
This autobiography is now also available in a Young Readers adaptation which is essentially the same book but eliminates the occasional profanity found in the adult version. You can also choose the audio book format (available on CD) where you will be treated to Trevor Noah reading the stories to you himself!
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The Rent Collector

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The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults & Teens

How do you find hope when your life is in the dump? I’m talking literally about the people who lived in shacks at a municipal dump in Cambodia and spent their days picking recyclables out of the trash to get enough money for food. This real life story was told in a 2009 documentary called River of Victory.
The director’s father, Camron Wright, was so moved by the struggle of these people that he wrote this book, which is a fictional story woven around many of the characters and facts from the documentary. The author added in the gift of literacy to one character and examined how literature has transformative power for us no matter what our background is or what our life circumstances are.
The Rent Collector is a truly wonderful story that, like other great literature, will make you think about who your heroes are.
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Your Happiest You: the care & keeping of your mind and spirit

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Your Happiest You: the care & keeping of your mind and spirit by Judy Woodburn
Format: book
Who it’s for: Kids & Teens

Being happy is something we want for our kids but how can we help them get there?  This book is full of great insight and practical ideas about achieving happiness and is written in an inviting style that makes it very accessible to elementary and middle school age kids.

We teach our kids to take care of their bodies by eating right, exercising, and brushing their teeth so it makes sense to help them learn to take care of their mind and spirit at the same time.  With this book, kids can try out simple exercises to find internal calm, have better relationships with friends and family, enjoy the world around them, and think about how their attitude affects their feelings.

This book is published by American Girl Publishing so it is more geared toward girls but the concepts and advice apply to boys just as well.  Another wonderful book in this Care & Keeping of You series is Liking Herself which talks about developing good self-esteem.

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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Format: Book (also available in: Ebook, Audiobook, eAudiobook)
Who it’s for:  Teens, Adults

Eleanor is almost 30. She works in an office. Everything is completely fine.

Eleanor lives alone. She is considered to be strange. She has no family. She has no friends. She drinks two liters of vodka every weekend. OK, everything may not be completely fine.

How do you respond when asked: ‘How are you?’ Do you automatically say ‘Fine’? This story lets you give some thought to what might be going on behind the word ‘fine’ and explore social isolation.

Eleanor has a very quirky interpretation of the world around her and this first person narrative lets you see the world through her eyes.  Dry British humor and the other characters in the story make this a fun and interesting read.  Eleanor’s background is a bit murky and you get to discover her past along with her.

I read this for my book club and it led to a really great discussion.  There are plans to make it into a movie.

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