West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Described as “witty, charming, and heartwarming” by Booklist, West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge is a work of historical fiction based on true events. The setting is 1938 and the title characters are quarantined in New York, having survived a hurricane at sea. Their destination is the San Diego Zoo and Rutledge imagines that journey (avoiding overpasses less than 12’ 8”) along the Southern route (called the Lee Highway) in the company of Old Man, Woodrow Wilson Nickel (“Woody”), and Augusta Red (she’s a young, adventurous photographer, hoping for a break with Life magazine). West with Giraffes is a coming-of-age story, a romance, and a travelogue. As they drive across the US (sometimes at a top speed of ten miles an hour due to the winding, hilly roads), Rutledge chronicles numerous encounters and those provide ample opportunity for reflection and commentary on honesty, good vs. evil, families, feminism, race relations, and poverty vs. privilege. This novel is highly recommended, although there are some very sad parts as all of the main human characters are hiding secrets. Interested readers should explore this absolutely wonderful Libguide with more background on the giraffes, the book, and the author. Enjoy!

A favorite passage:
In the years ahead, through the War and beyond, it was this quiet day moving through the unmoving land with Boy and Girl and the Old Man and Red that I returned to when I needed it most. Like the jolting joy of giraffes amid the traveling bird wave, its peace passed any understanding, any attempt at words. You only get a few of those in your whole life if you're lucky, and some only get one. If that be true, this was my one. When I remember it, I'm not eighteen in the memory. I am whatever age its comfort came to me, be it 33 or 103, and I am driving us all, through the timeless red desert, headed nowhere in particular, just someplace good. Together.

Reflecting on America: Chasing Hope and Tightrope

CHASING HOPE by Nicholas D. Kristof focuses on his life as a reporter and his almost forty years of working for The New York Times. Over that span, Kristof has informed the public about numerous crucial world events and still has important messages to share about the pursuit of truth and the need for compassion and action in support of others. Chapters in this lengthy text (roughly 480 pages) deal with difficult topics like the Tiananmen Square protests, the Yemeni civil war, and genocide in Sudan. Others profile lesser-known heroes, dissidents, and inspirational advocates. Commenting on Kristof’s reporting efforts, his publisher says, “Some of the risks he took while doing so make for hair-raising reading.” I concur and I think listening to the audiobook of CHASING HOPE would be fascinating – much like the tales of daring and courage which Admiral William McRaven shared in Sea Stories. Kristof weaves in interesting facts like, “My passports are huge, like paperback books, for I get extension after extension stapled in at overseas embassies. My last passport had 170 pages.” He turns to domestic issues and includes a chapter on covering Donald Trump (“I had never known an American politician so uneducated about policy, so self-absorbed and so deceitful…”) and another on campaigning to be the Governor of Oregon (“a chance to lift issues onto the agenda and generate political will for better policies”). Kristof describes how journalism has been transformed in the last half century and how public attitudes towards journalists have changed, too. Anyone who reads his pieces knows that his vision for journalistic storytelling has remained steadfast “not just as a technical craft but as one with an ethical mission: a better world.” Truly an act of hope.

TIGHTROPE by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn is subtitled “Americans Reaching for Hope.” The husband-and-wife team of Kristof and WuDunn are Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists and have written several books, including Half the Sky, together. TIGHTROPE refers to the precarious economic situation faced by lower- and middle-income Americans. Throughout, the authors reference many geographic areas of the US, but return frequently to Yamhill, Oregon where Kristof grew up and where his family has a farm. As the authors share stories of Krsitof’s high school classmates tied to addiction, drug abuse, and suicide, it also made me think of Our Kids by Robert Putnam, which, like his Bowling Alone (which Kristof and WuDunn reference), is another sociological look at changes in status and opportunity for Americans over time. Kristof’s TIGHTROPE, originally published in early 2020, shares its own sobering statistics as well: “about one-fourth of the kids who rode with Nick on the [local school] bus are dead from drugs, suicide, alcohol, obesity, reckless accidents, and other pathologies”). The authors stress that personal responsibility alone is not enough to facilitate a turnaround; this book is an effort to raise consciousness about our collective obligation, especially to today’s children. TIGHTROPE received a starred review from Booklist (“hard for readers to stop thinking about”).

Up for a quest, anyone?

Here are two new books which deal with quests and young and empowered female characters in magical, yet dystopian settings.  

REMOTE CONTROL by Nnedi Okorafor is a very exciting sci-fi read that was a LibraryReads selection for January 2021. The main character, envisioned on the cover, is a child named Fatima who develops a magical power so that whenever she touches mechanical or technological devices they “die.” Anger, too, causes her to glow green and sometimes kill people around her so there are several dark moments. Eventually, she becomes widely known as Sankofa, or the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. The story (also labeled Afrofuturism) involves a meandering journey across Ghana as she grows into being a teenager and learns to anticipate and control her “power.” There is an air of mystery and menace throughout and I quite liked the way Okorafor shifted the scenes with travelling and new characters, although the ending was a bit puzzling to me. Okorafor has won both Nebula and Hugo awards for her writing; REMOTE CONTROL received starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly who said, “Readers will be blown away.” 

A gentler, but sadly, slower adventure story is D (A TALE OF TWO WORLDS) by Michel Faber. I requested an advance reader copy based on its being termed a “sheer delight” by The Washington Post and because the premise (the letter d is disappearing or, isappearing, to be precise) seemed unique and appealing. I did like the fantastical elements – with cat-like characters named Droods (roos, of course) and an evil ruler called Gamp, both somewhat reminiscent of Star Wars stories. There is a sphinx called Nelly, who can change into a dog/og, and a young female protagonist named Dhikilo (Dicky/Icky), too, but she often seems overly naïve and conveniently lucky and their travels dragged a bit for me. D (A TALE OF TWO WORLDS) received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and seems more likely to work as a read-aloud (have fun with the missing “d’s”) for late elementary and/or early middle school students, fans of Pullman’s The Golden Compass or The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.