Clean Getaway - Nic Stone

Scoob's grandma has a secret. Well she actually has a lot of them. Family secrets play a big part in this middle reader book about a road trip between a grandson and his grandma. Suspended from school for fighting and computer hacking, Scoob (William) is ready to get out from under his dad's disapproving looks and into his grandma's newly purchased RV.

Grandma soon tells Scoob that she's trying to recreate a trip she took in 1968 with his grandfather. A trip from Atlanta to Juarez, Mexico which was complicated by the fact that Scoob's grandmother is white and his grandfather was black. With the use of The Green Book - a travel companion for blacks trying to travel in the deep south - Scoob's grandparents made it most of the way but had to turn back. His grandmother is now determined to see the trip to its end, so long as Scoob's father doesn't get in the way and insist they come home. And when Grandma starts to get funny about tossing her phone, well, Scoob starts to get suspicious that there is more to Grandma than meets the eye.

The book was a great reminder that middle readers are starting to see their elders as full humans. They start to realize flaws in the grown ups around them. It's such a confusing and disorienting time in the life of an adolescent. Most children grow up and figure out a way to forgive their parents and elders for being flawed humans. Some can never let that go. It was great to see Scoob struggle with this issue. It was also a good way to build on the history of racism for kids who may be familiar through earlier picture books and other readings. The reader gets to watch Scoob create links between the racism his grandparents experienced and his own. 

4/5 Stars. 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - Lori Gottlieb

Do I need therapy? Does everyone need therapy? I'm not sure but I feel like I want to go to therapy after reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. I suppose we are all carrying around pain and hurt in our lives. Perhaps childhood trauma or adolescent trauma or adult trauma. Maybe we're carrying around all these things and a therapist is there to help carry that load.

Now really, the author chose her poignant and successful patients here. Maybe therapy doesn't work out for everyone. But there's real heartbreak in this book and it is a heavy read at times. But also hopeful. Whether its the standoffish oaf who tries so hard to push everyone away, the elderly woman dealing with her loneliness, the terminal patient facing impending death, the lonely woman making all the wrong partner choices, or the author herself who faces a devastating breakup- all their stories author insight into the depths of our despair to where hope and growth might lie.

The book is well laid out between the author's own experience and that of her patients. Each patient grows and works along with the author to meet their goals. The cadence is well written and the patients are revealed to the reader as they become known to the author - slowly and through the building of trust.

4/5 Stars. 

Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane

Generational trauma is a heavy lift. Emotionally, the tendrils of the trauma wrap around each participant and create outcomes as different as the individuals effected. In Ask Again, Yes, Keane delves into the ripple effects of such trauma with themes of abuse, addiction, abandonment, and violence. 

Beginning with Frances and Bryan, who are trainees together for the NYPD and partners at their very first assignment. Frances, serious and cautious approaches his job with a professional air and thoughtful contemplation. Bryan appears more rash. Talks of the pregnant girlfriend he must marry and searches out ways to stop for a pint of beer while walking the beat. 

Fast forward to their children. Frances' youngest, Kate and Bryan's only, Peter grow up the best of friends. Living next door to each other, they never grow close because something is certainly off about Peter's mother. She's distant and abrasive. And it's clear to the reader that she has some elements of mental health crisis probably not helped by her clearly absentee or alcoholic husband. 

Bryan is only interested in an easy fix for his wife and his issues. So once a disturbing incident happens at the grocery store involving Anne, his wife, he's reassured she's on medication and it's business as usual. But of course it's not.

And everyone being willing to let these things slide in the acceptable and neighborly silence has bad consequences, of course. Violence erupts and both Kate and Peter's families are never the same. But their affection for each other, which was just beginning to blossom into young romance is left interrupted and unfulfilled. As they find their way to each other, they are willing to take whatever broken parts of themselves are left. 

I liked the way that Peter and Kate's relationship serves as a central hub in the book. I liked how smart and independent Kate was, and how unwilling she was to let anyone else dictate the course of her life's events. Maybe the book felt a little overlong, but otherwise it was a good read. 

3.75/5 Stars. 

The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life - Brad Stulberg, Steve Magness

A decent book about channeling passion and energy in a positive direction. I appreciated the author's discussion about how passion, when focused on outcomes or external factors, can corrupt someone's motivation and lead to burn out, or more seriously, cheating and destruction of someone's character.

Passion Paradox discusses both sides of pursuing your passion and gives concrete tips on how to maybe not let it overtake and ruin you. And it does away with the notion that Passion leaves room for balance. It may actually do away with the notion of balance at all which was actually quite refreshing in a COVID environment when it seems everything needs to be done RIGHT NOW and I'm personally pulled in five different directions at any given moment.

Each chapter contains summary boxes with the most salient points and the distillation of all the words is helpful in trying to formulate a plan or an understanding for a path forward. The book is ultimately accessible without a lot of jargon and some real life examples of people who got it right, or got it wrong. 

3/5 Stars.  

The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal - Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Justin McElroy, Carey Pietsch

I finished this in one day. My page per day average soared. I finished and wanted to start all over again.

It's been a couple years since The Adventure Zone, Balance Arc finished its podcast and moved on. I'm still not over it. But as the feeling of the podcast grows more distant, these comics that cover the different arcs within the Balance show, become better. Because the show got better over time as the narrative deepened and the McElroy brothers (and dad) got more deeply into the characters they were creating.

Petals to the Metal is really where this all started to happen within the show. When Griffin McElroy took more control over where the story was going, and side characters who could have been throw- aways became fan favorites. This was the arc where Justin McElroy conjured Spirit Steed and instead of a horse, we got a fabulous, deep voiced binicorn Garyl. I mean, no one but the McElroy's could have pulled this off.

Petals to the Metal deepens the mystery of the red robes and the Bureau of Balance. It illuminates the characters but casts huge doubts over their mission and the narrative. It's an excellent turning point in the series. The only thing to regret is the next installments are not immediately available. And, naturally that since my 8 year old is now into graphic novels he mistook this for his own and we had to have a serious chat about the "F" word.

5/5 Duh. 

Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

I had this book wait-listed for a while at the library but can honestly say it was worth the wait. Red, White and Royal Blue is most shocking in the alternative 2019-2020 it presents. After Ellen Clermont is elected the first female president in 2016 (no one cares about a private e-mail server, says one of the characters, tongue-in-cheek - I could cry but I digress), her family occupies the white house in all their modern splendor. Ellen is divorced from Senator Oscar Diaz, and their two dazzling brilliant and beautiful children, 23 year old June and 21 year old Alex, work together with the daughter of the vice president to create The White House Trio.

What could be more wonderful than these PYTs? Well enter the devestatingly handsome second son of England's Princess and her James Bond movie star husband and voila, you have Henry. And, as it turns out, Henry and Alex get involved in a little enemies to lovers story and this could be trope-y and boring and saccharine. But it's NOT!! It's hilarious, and perfectly paced and just the right amount of schmaltz and edge.

I really fell for Henry and Alex. I liked watching their relationship turn a corner. I thought McQuiston dealt with the sexuality angle perfectly. There was quite a lot of detail regarding US and British politics and it was really all around perfect. I suddenly wanted to be 25 again and have that youthful energy and spirit. And I desperately wanted to live in a 2020 that had a Wimbledon and a DNC and international love scandal between the FSOTUS and a Prince, because the alternative, this current 2020, is just shit in comparison.

4 Stars. 

I Can Make This Promise - Christine Day

I really like thoughtful middle reader books that tackle hard issues. In I Can Make This Promise, Edie has always known she's different, because as someone who is half native, she is constantly asked "where she comes from." I can't imagine the kind of fatigue this puts on people merely for looking different. I like that the book starts with this premise. Of a kindergartner being reminded she looks different from everyone else, and from her teacher no less.

Fast forward to a twelve year old Edie, who is a budding artist with a couple of close friends and a desire to know more about her heritage. Unfortunately, the native side is tied up with her mom's own personal history. A history that involves adoption. Edie accidentally finds a box in the attic which contains some things pointing to her ancestry. She's reluctant to ask her parents about it, certain they are keeping secrets. She's egged on by a less than helpful friend who has some bad ideas about a summer movie project and some worse ideas about the kinds of things that you should keep from your parents.

This unfolds into some erratic behavior by Edie and an eventual resolution with her parents. This middle reader book helps the reader feel a little concerned for Edie but never truly scared regarding her parent's love for her. It's a good mix of independence but also reliance on those relationships which help explain new, more adult concepts. Including painful government practices that led to the removal of native children from their families.

Adult readers may find Edie a little too perfect of a child and her parent's motive a little too serving of the plot structure, but I think it's a great presentation for a middle reader.

4/5 Stars

Ploughshares Spring 2020 - Edited by Tracy K. Smith

This Spring 2020 Edition of Ploughshares really delivered on the poetry front. The crazy thing about poetry is how many different feelings and looks you can get in reading a handful of poems. Perhaps it seems like you could read them faster than a novel, but when you switch to a new poem you have to recalibrate your brain and expectations and feelings every time.

This edition had some great poems. Some of my favorites:

Beer Run by Jared Harel
Love Song with Contradictions by Ellen Kombiyil
Daughter by Danusha Lameris - "I always wanted a daughter, which is to say, I wanted a better self" wow.
Slither by Danusha Lameris - "That was when I knew I'd become a stranger to the world."
After the Funeral by Roger Reeves

As for Fiction
The West We Leave by Kailyn McCord was a post apocalyptic tale of an abandoned California following massive and sustaining earthquakes. I always love a good tale that imagines what will happen if the world completely changes.

Dead Horn by Kirstin Valdez Quade was a great story about a family coping in the aftermath of a parent's death and the way circumstances can bend familial roles when trying to account for an absence.

Plastic Knives by Koye Oyedeji was so intriguing in its development of the story about an elderly lady waiting for her caregiver to take her to the park, but gets a completely different unexpected visitor.

And finally, in Nonfiction

What Money Can't Buy by Dawn Lundy Martin about a back to school shopping trip between an aunt and her nieces. What is the role of a prosperous aunt to her nieces living in less than ideal circumstances? How much will one shopping trip change their outlook and expectations for life?

4/5 Stars.