Take Care of Them Like My Own by Ala Stanford

TAKE CARE OF THEM LIKE MY OWN by Ala Stanford, pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors Consortium, deserves a wide readership. It is a fascinating tale, although there could be some triggering due to the discussions of child abuse. Stanford embraces her life story (subtitled “Faith, Fortitude, and a Surgeon's Fight for Health Justice”) and relates it in great detail. Clearly, Stanford confronted prejudice and discrimination throughout her pioneering and remarkable career. She comments on biases in the medical system, including a lack of “generational knowledge, kind of like generational wealth” and relates numerous shocking (to me) instances such as when a supervisor torpedoes Stanford’s chances at a future placement by outright lying about her. She is an accomplished, inspirational fighter, and I hope that many readers locate TAKE CARE OF THEM LIKE MY OWN. It is well-written and an engrossing read. Book Groups could consider promoting it with the newly published Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay

EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD by Randy Ribay (Patron Saints of Nothing, a National Book Award finalist) is told in multiple perspectives across four generations of a Filipino-American family. The earliest action takes place in 1930 Watsonville, California where Francisco, a recent immigrant, has to deal with violence, prejudice, and his disappointment at life in America. In 1965 Stockton, California, readers meet Emil, Francisco’s son, a dutiful student and hard-working employee at his aunt’s restaurant. He resents his labor organizer father and vows to make his own way. Then there is 1983 Denver, Colorado where Chris yearns to play football but can’t ever live up to the standards of his demanding father, Emil. Chris rebels as he discovers a love of history and pursues his own interests as a teacher. His son, named Enrique Lorenzo and called Enzo, grows up in 2020 Philadelphia, coping with anxiety, the pandemic, and continuing discrimination. Once again, Ribay offers so much to unpack – immigrant feelings, generational conflict, parenting styles, and plenty of anger. Students will relate to the stories of each of these characters as a young man and may be intrigued by the way the societal environment and the individual choices of each character impacts the next generation. The novel does flip back and forth between time periods and this may be difficult for some students, but EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD received multiple starred reviews, including from Booklist, Kirkus (“many heartwarming and heartbreaking moments offer deep insights into intergenerational patterns”), Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. The book contains a list of recommended resources, both print and online like Asian Mental Health Collective, Filipino American National Historical Society, Stop AAPI Hate, and United Farm Workers. Interested previewers can listen to an excerpt on the publisher’s website.

Disillusioned by Benjamin Herold

Described as “a powerful account of the intersection of race, housing, education, and injustice in America,” DISILLUSIONED by Benjamin Herold is the product of four years of thoughtful research and writing. Herold is a prolific journalist with a master’s degree in urban education and he brings that expertise to a study of five families, the suburbs where they live, and their schools. They are geographically and, to some extent, culturally, diverse:  the Becker family from Lucas, Texas, Robinsons from Gwinnett, Georgia, Adesina family from Evanston, Illinois, Smiths from Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, and Hernandez family from Compton, California. However, Herold points to commonalities: the history of “white flight” and “red-lining” discrimination; the dreams and pursuit of a better life; and the more recent reality of high taxes and fragile infrastructures, with a special emphasis on school districts. He skillfully employs personal anecdotes as well as surprising statistics. For example, he notes that for suburbs “white people went from 79% of the population in 1990 to just 55% three decades later.” Those demographic shifts are also outlined in a 2022 report from The Brookings Institution. DISILLUSIONED received a starred review from Kirkus (“ambitious narrative about the simmering inequities in American suburbs”) and this title appeared on The Washington Post’s list of “10 noteworthy books for January.” Herold’s own essay in Kappan Online provides an overview. Interested readers may also wish to turn to Dream Town by Laura Meckler, The Injustice of Place, or even Our Hidden Conversations by Michele Norris.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Story by James McBride

THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by award-wining author James McBride is a complex, difficult novel to describe, but one that deserves your attention. Here are some thoughts from the author’s interview on PBS NewsHour:

Encouraging writers to forget race and focus on humanity, McBride says, “Self-definition is the first step towards self-control. ... just appreciate everyone for who they are.” He develops rich characters in his latest novel which centers on Pottstown Pennsylvania’s Chicken Hill neighborhood where Moshe and Chona Ludlow integrated a theater and ran a grocery store although the community was mostly filled with Black residents, including de facto community leader Nate (the theater’s janitor) and his wife, Addie. A skeleton is found in 1972, but relevant events from 40 years earlier drive the mystery and McBride's empathetic social commentary about marginalized groups (Jews, Blacks, Italian immigrants) in America. THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE was a LibraryReads selection for August 2023 and received multiple starred reviews: Booklist (“Funny, tender, knockabout, gritty, and suspenseful”), Kirkus (“pitch-perfect dialogue”), Library Journal (“compellingly written, and not to be missed”), AND Publishers Weekly (“endlessly rich saga”). For additional perspective, especially about the novel’s rather slow pace, here is the New York Times review.

The House Party by Rita Cameron

THE HOUSE PARTY by Rita Cameron revolves around the very poor choices that unformed teenage minds make at times. Several high school students break into a new construction house and hold a party with drugs and booze and then some engage in sexual assault and ultimately cause over a hundred-thousand dollars damage when they wreck the house. That new home was a kind of last hope for Maja and Ted Jensen, transplants from New York who have not been successful at getting pregnant and struggle with their relationship. These are not minor crimes, but who gets blamed by local authorities? The kids with working class parents, with less privilege and less clout. Cameron does an excellent job of evoking emotion – the dread and fear, the embarrassment, the jealousy, the entitlement that lurks in this suburban Philadelphia community. Therefore, this novel was quite uncomfortable to read at times and it was difficult to empathize with the well-drawn, but basically selfish characters. THE HOUSE PARTY received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly (“Cameron does a stellar job at demonstrating how easily stereotyping and wealth can influence outcomes”).

Mysteries: The Guest List & The Voter File

School is out and that feels like time to totally relax and escape with a couple of absolutely great mystery thrillers.

THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley is a tantalizing mystery with an eerie, almost gothic setting on an island in the midst of a brewing storm AND a cast of characters with plenty of motives for murder. Foley, a best-selling author who lives in London, was recommended by Library Journal for “fans of Agatha Christie, Louise Penny, and Ruth Rendell [who] will absolutely love this book, which doesn't reveal its secrets until the very last page.”  I totally concur.

A scream of terror on the wedding night is relayed by an unnamed narrator, but past history and most events leading up to the wedding itself are cleverly told from the perspective of the wedding party (Jules, the bride, Olivia, her sister and bridesmaid, Johnno, the best man and school-mate to Will, the groom), the plus one (Hannah, married to Charlie, a childhood friend of Jules) and the wedding planner (Aoife, who is trying to make a go with her husband of holding weddings and parties on the island). Jules is a competitive, successful business woman and Will is an adventurous television star – two ambitious people who seemed well-matched, except why did Jules get that anonymous note encouraging her not to marry Will? What are the causes of dysfunctional and strained relationships between friends and family members? Who is in danger and why? A LibraryReads selection, Foley’s THE GUEST LIST is saturated with tension and secrets that kept me up and turning pages – enjoy!

THE VOTER FILE by David Pepper is book three in his Jack Sharpe series, but I enjoyed it so much, I wish I had started with the other two.  In this latest installment, Sharpe is contacted by a young campaign staffer, Tori Justice, who is trying to get a story published about voting patterns and irregularities.  He’s dismissive at first, but gradually they come to trust each other. Much of the action takes place in battleground states in the Midwest and action it is – kidnapping, car chases, cyber-espionage, with foreign agents and organized crime involvement.  Clearly, Pepper has produced an involved plot and there are plenty of twists for Tori, Jack, and Olivia (another reporter and former colleague) to unravel. THE VOTER FILE is an exciting and fun read filled with political allusions and economic implications. Pepper’s varied and relevant experience (elected Chairman of the Democratic Party of Ohio in 2015) means readers will be working to solve the mystery while also wondering just how much do political parties manipulate us based on what they know about our personal lives and opinions.