Reviews and Comments

Jaw-droppingly prescient for a novel written 25 years ago. "Hunting for scapegoats is always popular in times of serious trouble," notes Butler in an interview in the afterword of this edition. "So is hunting for the great leader who will restore prosperity and stability... He turns his true believers - his thugs - loose on those he chooses as scapegoats and he looks around for an external enemy to use as an even bigger scapegoat and a diversion from the reality that he doesn't really know what to do. Because of him, innocent people lose their freedom, lose custody of their children, lose their lives."

Another book recommended to me by @leahlove@mastodon.world. My own academic path was actually rather light on literary study, so I'm interested to see what insights I can discover in this book.

Learning my way around the #Fediverse by sharing this update from #Bookwrym. Hopefully this is an appropriate way to do this.

At the beginning of 2022, I set a goal to read at least 20 books this year that had been banned or threatened in Texas libraries or schools. My 20th book in that #FReadom journey was the 10th Anniversary edition of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. newjimcrow.com/

After finishing Alexander's profound work, I went back and reread her updated preface to the new edition, in which she captures the urgency of how the business of mass incarceration has evolved through privatized "e-carceration" and immigration detention.

Then I came across this deep dive by @aaronlmorrison published last month by AP, with personal stories of the impact of the drug war & mass incarceration. But I needed the context of Alexander's book to truly understand the massive scale of the whole story. apnews.com/article/war-on-drugs-75e61c224de3a394235df80de7d70b70

The Grief Keeper, a sharp work of YA speculative fiction by Alexandra Villasante, was the 19th book in my 2022 #FReadom quest to read books threatened or banned in Texas libraries and schools. The novel revolves around an experiment with some very serious ethics problems, and I found myself worrying that YA readers might think such behavior actually represented real clinical research. But the history of research ethics invites scutiny, and I believe Villasante trusts her YA readers to wrestle with the power dynamics and what they mean.

More Happy Than Not by @AdamSilvera was my 18th book in my 2022 #FReadom project to read works banned or threatened in Texas libraries and schools. The novel explores one of the important messages of #Pride (and of #Juneteenth for that matter), namely, the dual message that Joy Is Essential, and Remembering Is Also Essential. The two may sometimes seem opposed, but we must find a balance that admits both - if we forego either, we can rob ourselves (and those we love) of the fullness of life. www.adamsilvera.com/more-happy-than-not-1

Continuing my 2022 #FReadom project to explore books banned or threatened in Texas libraries and schools. My 17th book was Lobizona, the terrific YA fantasy novel that launches Romina Garber's "Wolves of No World" series. rominagarber.com//books/lobizona/

In the world she has built for the Septimus, Garber does what great fantasy does best: holds up a mirror to our own reality that reflects back things that we may not have wanted to see, but that are absolutely true. That's why this one scares the antilibrarians.

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K Arnold was the 16th book in my 2022 #FReadom quest to read books that have been threatened or removed from Texas libraries and schools. As dads, we should fight for our daughters' access to meaningful stories like this. elanakarnold.com/book/what-girls-made/

After the horrific paroxysms of toxic masculinity Texas saw this week in Uvalde, there's no justifying telling kids to avert their eyes from the images of martyrs, virgins, saints, and realities of female growing up that Arnold captures in Nina's deeply truthful voice.

The 15th book in my 2022 #FReadom quest - to read works removed or threatened in Texas schools and libraries - was Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. www.nationalbook.org/books/caste-the-origins-of-our-discontents/

Among many other insights, I was especially struck by Chapter 14, in which Wilkerson presented examples of upper-caste people "overriding the rightful role of lower-caste parents & their children." We see this caste power play in the current spate of book bans, curriculum reviews, & "parental bills of rights" (which parents' rights?).

In my 2022 #FReadom reading list of books removed or threatened in Texas libraries and schools, my 14th read was the deeply affecting Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes. jewellparkerrhodes.com/children/books/ghost-boys/

While Ghost Boys is a very personal story about a police shooting of a young teen with a toy gun, Rhodes deftly avoids villianizing an individual - instead allowing the ghost boys to lift us readers to a different plane, to survey bigger, societal issues.

I just finished Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, the 13th book in my 2022 #FReadom reading list of books removed or threatened in Texas libraries and schools. I found Cal Stephanides to be a truly scintillating narrative voice for a fascinating story.

Eugenides offers rich, multithreaded explorations of Detroit, Greek-American family life, and other areas near his own experience. And he may lead some readers to reflect on the meaning of sex & gender, despite rooting the story overall in rather binary notions of gender.

But I believe the novel's insights on gender identity and intersex reality would have been deeper & more insightful had Eugenides actually spoken with intersex people when writing the novel. Sadly, he didn't - a disappointing missed opportunity. www.intersexinitiative.org/popculture/middlesex-faq.html

John Irving's The Cider House Rules was the 12th book in my 2022 #FReadom project to read books removed or threatened in Texas libraries and schools. After it appeared on the Krause list, North East ISD recommended its removal in favor of something more "updated."

I'll reserve judgment until I've read the proposed replacement, but the moral wrestling with the causes and effects of pregnancy, orphans and abortion are no more out-of-date in Irving's novel than in the Dickens and Brontë novels that were its orphans' bedtime stories.

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M Johnson was 11th in my 2022 #FReadom quest to read books removed or threatened in Texas schools and libraries. Johnson shows his young adult readers the utmost respect: that is, he tells them the truth. us.macmillan.com/books/9780374312718/allboysarentblue

Johnson tells his truth with no sugarcoating nor melodrama: even in a supportive family, finding & claiming one's true identity is a long, rocky climb. Enroute, one may experience violence & even abuse, but also deep love & rich beauty - sometimes where one least expects.