Walking in Two Worlds by Nancy M. Peterson

When I was young, there was a series of biographies I loved reading. Our teacher gave me extra credit for each one I read, and I thought I was really pulling one over on her because I was reading them purely for the entertainment value. I guess in the end, my teacher knew what she was doing - I was learning.

Walking in Two Worlds (Mixed-Blood Indian Women Seeking Their Path) gave me that same feeling all over again. A series of biographical stories, Peterson's book covers the lives of several mixed-blood Native American women. Each biography is compelling and inspiring, and full of descriptions of Native American life around the turn of the 20th century. This was a time in history when Native Americans were quickly losing their land, their freedom, and their identity. These women, born into a life torn between their two heritages, became the perfect fighters for what was being lost in tribal life.

Peterson's writing style is clear and easy to read, giving you the desire to learn even more of these courageous women and the struggle of their peoples. Walking in Two Worlds is a good book to read if you need a push to follow your dreams in the midst of opposition.

Published by Caxton Press.

Locke 1928 by Shawna Yang Ryan

Sometimes a book draws you in like a lucid dream. You smell, hear, touch; you see everything before your eyes but printed words on a page. This was the journey I took in Locke 1928, guided by the masterful storytelling of Shawna Yang Ryan. The pages are filled with Chinese folklore, moving flashbacks, and a vivid attention to detail. The narrow streets lined with Old West-style wooden buildings harbor lost souls, broken dreams, and the possibility of ghosts. When three Chinese women float to shore on a dilapidated boat after having been adrift at sea for over a month, the men of the town line up to woo them. The madame of the local brothel begins having visions she takes as a warning. The pastor's wife, the only "whitewoman" in town who isn't a prostitute, takes two of the women under her wing, and it could be a big mistake.

Locke 1928 reveals a real town in the Sacramento Delta very few Americans have heard of. The first town in America built by the Chinese for the Chinese, the city of Locke still exists today, and looks much the same as when it was first built in 1915. I was fascinated by the pictures on the city's website because Locke looks just as Ryan portrayed it in her writing. In fact, Ryan's seven years of obvious hard work on this book gives it such realism it feels as if she walked in the shoes of each and every character herself.

Locke 1928 is breathtakingly haunting. I've ingested the characters and will carry them with me, and for this reason, I am giving Ryan's first novel the carp(e) libris Goldfish Award. A completely moving work worth reading, without a doubt. If you have a to-be-read list, this one must be placed at the top.

Published by El Leon Literary Arts.

Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby

Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby is the tragic story of a Jordanian couple in the U.S., struggling with secrets that drive wedges between them. Set in the shadow of 9/11, this novel tells of two people caught in their knot of lies while getting tied up ever tighter in the misconceptions of others.

Once in a Promised Land is not a suspense or thriller, yet the reader will not be able to keep from reading faster, wanting to get up and yell warnings to the book's protagonists. The married couple of Jassim and Salwah become real people, with whom you wish you could be friends. I myself wanted so badly to give them my advice, and when I wasn't reading, I found myself wondering if they were able to undo the mess their lives had become.

Hallaby has a way of crafting sentences that gracefully dip into the spirit of an ancient Arab folktale. For a moment, you get a hint of where Salwah and Jassim are from before the writing style shifts back to contemporary America. It gives the reader a real sense of who these two people are and how they're caught between two worlds. With page-turner events and a strong cast of characters, Once in a Promised Land is a book you can definitely sink into.

Published by Beacon Press.

The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart

When I first started reading The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart (TSAR Publications), I immediately began wondering about the character Isabel. Why did she need someone to follow her home from work? Why did her house have large security gates around it, and why was someone supposed to watch for her at the window? Was she so important? But as I read further, I realized all the female characters were living the same way. No woman was leaving her house after dark without a male chaperon, and to do so meant admonishments from family and friends. Everyone had cell phones and checked in with each other constantly. Why? The answer was simple: They're women living in Cape Town, South Africa.

With a little research online, I was to learn The Writing Circle was not a strange and dark fairy tale, but a story based on the scary truth: South Africa has one of the highest levels of reported rape in the world. And when you consider a large percentage of rapes are never even reported, you have an even bigger problem that cannot be ignored.

Rozena Maart handles her characters with compassion and sensitivity, revealing the fear they live with daily and the memories they have to face when their writing group friend, Isabel, is raped in the driveway as they await her arrival. Each chapter gives a character a chance to speak in her own voice, every voice unique and richly layered. Their stories and how they deal with their friend's mental breakdown after the rape make this more than a book - it should be used as a tool to help loved ones of rape victims to understand the tragedy that continues to occur even after the rape has been committed.

The Writing Circle is a beautifully written, heartbreaking piece that will open your eyes to not only the issues of sexual assault, but to racism and biased viewpoints as well. Maart has written a novel with a greater purpose, one that will educate and enrich. If your book club is looking for a book to spark meaningful conversation and bring awareness to the group, no matter where you live, The Writing Circle will deliver that and more.

Notes from Nethers by Sandra Eugster

Ever wonder what it was like to live on a commune back in the days of "Make Love, Not War"? Sandra Eugster takes you on a journey to such a place in her honest and revealing memoir Notes from Nethers. Sandra grew up on a West Virginia commune founded by her mother in 1969. Sometimes funny, sometimes brutally honest, always interesting, Sandra shares her life openly, telling of the heartaches, culture shocks, and a diverse and unconventional "family" of commune members. Some of her three-dimensional characters flow in and out of the story as transient hippies, and others stay with the commune throughout the book.

Notes from Nethers (published by Academy Chicago Publishers) is a well-written memoir that, despite the many trials of growing up in a commune, is never self-pitying. The story line is easy to surround yourself in and flows seamlessly, weaving back and forth through past and present. The writing style is engaging and entertaining, giving the reader a chance to travel back in time and observe a curious world that most of us would otherwise hear only rumors and tall tales. Without her honesty, Sandra Eugster would have sacrificed a great story - a good lesson for any writer who wants to share their life in the pages of a book.

Yalo by Elias Khoury

Yalo, written by Elias Khoury and published by Archipelago Books, takes place in war-torn Beirut of the 1980's where the main character (Yalo) is accused of rape and is imprisoned and tortured. Forced to write his confession, he starts to sort through his twisted memories of childhood, life as a soldier, and the crimes he did or did not commit.

His confusing and painful life distorts his reality, and seeing through his eyes, the reader must sort out truth from delusion. I found myself initially disliking Yalo, then beginning to sympathize with him. Highly psychological, the story of Yalo explores the making of a social deviant and the price of growing up surrounded by war and violence. I'll have to admit Yalo was a difficult read for me - not because of the writing style, which is superior in its execution of the craft, but because of the dark and disturbing subject matter. It wasn't written to make you comfortable, and there is no sugar coating here. If you want to delve into the psychological effects of war, and if you wonder what goes through the mind of a tormented soul whose perception of reality has been greatly altered, you will find much worth and fascination in Yalo.

A Highly Placed Source by Michelle Dally

I've read some great books lately, and this next novel is certainly no exception. A Highly Placed Source by Michelle Dally was a fantastic read. John Irving-esque in style, it handles some pretty sensitive subject matter and pulls it off brilliantly. The story line is laugh-out-loud humor blended with sarcasm.

When I say this book is John Irving-esque, it is a high compliment indeed. I'm a longtime fan of all things Irving, and I think if he ever gets ahold of this book, he'll be jealous he didn't come up with the plot first. But don't be mistaken - Dally has her own unique voice, and it's very well developed. The characters are quirky and addictive, and the dialogue has great rhythm.

Here's the story line: Peter, a 12-year-old boy, asks God a question. A controversial question. Is it okay to - ahem - "wash the bird"? (If you don't know what that means, you'll have to read the book to find out. I am not going there.) God answers. When Peter's principal finds out, he suspends him for lying. In come the media, the politicians, the religious leaders. "A boy suspended for praying?" "A boy that hears directly from God?" And this, my friends, occurs in the first pages. The rest of the book gets even better, conquering the difficult topic of the difference between religion and spirituality.

Written in the omnipresent viewpoint (interesting, when one considers God is a major character), Dally pulls this trick off without a hitch. I've read omnipresent books that have you feeling like you're jumping all over, bounding in and out of the characters' heads. As a reader, I find it hard to attach to any one person in a book written in this style. But Dally does it so well, you might not even notice it's omnipresent. I personally can't imagine the book being written any other way.

Overall, I loved reading A Highly Placed Source. It's got humor, edge, controversy - and it makes you feel good. I finished the book wishing there were more, and I must say this is one reviewer who needed a tissue at the close. I'll be on the lookout for anything else coming from Michelle Dally, and I suggest you do the same.

I've decided to add a new twist to carp(e) libris, because I know some of you build lists of books to be read, and I'd like to help you out. For the books I review that really stand out, I'll be giving them the carp(e) libris Goldfish Award. You'll notice it under the picture of the book on the right. So here's to my first Goldfish Award! A Highly Placed Source, written by Michelle Dally and published by Ghost Road Press.

Boxing for Cuba by Guillermo Vincente Vidal

When I recently started carp(e) libris, I had a vision. I wanted to bring books to readers, unique pieces of literature hunted like gold from small presses who publish works as labors of love. I have found one of those books. Boxing for Cuba by Guillermo Vincente Vidal is exactly the kind of book I wanted to share when I began this blog. It's written courageously, from the heart, and in such an honest, strong style that I won't soon forget it.

Boxing for Cuba, published by Ghost Road Press, is the memoir of a man who left Cuba as a boy with Operation Peter Pan in 1961. Operation Peter Pan carried more than 14,000 Cuban children between the ages of 6 and 16 to America to save them from Fidel's regime. Unfortunately, with too few homes to accept all these children until their parents could hopefully someday join them, many, like Guillermo and his two brothers, ended up in orphanages. Through the pain and struggle of feeling abandoned when his parents sent him and his brothers away, to the reunion of his family only to find his mother and father fight just as viciously as before, Boxing for Cuba brings you an amazing memoir you won't be able to put down. The journey starts and ends with Cuba, taking you from the tropical home of Vidal and his family, to the U.S. where he grew to adulthood in Colorado, and finally circles back to an emotional visit to his homeland. It's a story of family history and of learning to be proud of who you are and where you come from. There's so much to be gleaned from this book, and anyone who reads it is sure to put it down feeling they've grown from it.

If ever a book gives the perfect example of why I adore the memoir, this is it.

The Silence of Parents by Susan Simpson Geroe

The Silence of Parents is the story of what happens when families keep secrets, in particular those of the holocaust. Ilona, the only child of holocaust survivors, struggles to grow up as part of the second generation, or "Second Gen". She finds her whole life shifted when her father makes a secret decision based on fears her parents hold but won't explain to her. In their love for her and an attempt to protect her from the evil they know exists in the world, their interference drastically changes the path of her life.

Published by Fithian Press, The Silence of Parents covers a side of the holocaust you rarely hear about. What happens to the children of holocaust survivors? How did they grow up in the hideous shadow of the past? What are their lives like as adults? Geroe's story tells it with an intricate plot that will pull you into the lives of Ilona's family and the love of her life, with whom she has been forced to separate.

I asked Susan Simpson Geroe a few questions about her book. Here is what she had to say:

carp(e) libris: You're a Second Gen just like your main character Ilona. How much of this book would you say is autobiographical?

Susan: Indeed, I am a Second Gen just like the main character in the book. Although not an autobiography, the way Ilona reacts to the world around her mirrors mine at various times in my life. The parts of the book that relate to living in post war Romania and the immigration process in the mid 1960s reflect reality. The love story and the characters are fiction, created to provide the backbone to the way I, as a Second Gen, feel about the world around me.

cl: One portion of the book shows interviews with some Second Gens who share their stories. Were these from real interviews?

Susan: The interviews were not conducted with separate individuals, although I've used some information that friends, or cousins shared with me. Again, the interviews provided means to express how I, as an adult today, came to terms with my feelings as a child, a teenager, a wife and mother while reflecting upon and accepting my life as a child of Holocaust survivors.

cl: If someone is a Second Gen, how would you suggest they find a support group?

Susan: In our days, I think the easiest way to find a support group for Second Gens is to search the Internet with key words such as Holocaust Survivors, Second Generation Survivors, or inquire at local synagogues, or Jewish institutions.

Thanks so much to Susan and Fithian Press! For more information, visit Fithian Press's website.

Gone and Back Again - Jonathon Scott Fuqua

Caley's parents are divorced. His father changes personalities like Mr. Rogers does sweater vests, and his mother has lost her attachment to Caley and his siblings after marrying an unsympathetic man. Gone and Back Again by Jonathon Scott Fuqua is a book that pulls at your heart with all too real scenes of life in a dysfunctional home.

Gone and Back Again, published by Soft Skull Press, shows the progression of Caley's family over a couple of years, and is cleverly written from the viewpoint of a growing boy. The story begins in the voice of an 11-year-old and subtly transforms to that of a preteen. Engaging dialogue, well-formed characters, and references to the time period of the '80s made this book worth the read.

Jonathon Scott Fuqua has written four young adult novels before publishing this adult novel. This would also be interesting to teens as well, even though there is some drug and alcohol use present in the book. But the subject matter is something that many kids have gone through and can relate too; ultimately, they may be able to gain some strength from Caley's story as he learns to deal with the depression and rebellion that often surfaces when a child is raised in difficult circumstances.

Overall, I felt the book got even stronger as it progressed, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for more Fuqua in the future.

"Tales of the Out and the Gone" by Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka is a controversial author and poet who has been a literary revolutionary for decades. His latest work, a collection of shorts called "Tales of the Out and the Gone" published by Akashic Books, spans almost 40 years of writing. Most of the stories in this book have never been published before.

In the introduction, Baraka explains the tales of the "Out" are stories out of the ordinary, whereas the tales of the "Gone" are even farther "Out", wilder, crazier deeper. Reading through the book, it is easy to follow the tide of his writings over the years, beginning with a more overtly political bent, flowing through to stories of suspense, some almost sci-fi. The tales taken from more recent years gave me a real brain stretch trying to digest sentences like, "Your songs stain your skin like the future candle of No." Much of the fascination I have in this book is the seeming oneness of all the stories together, while each one can stand alone easily with its own unique voice.

Overall, "The Tales of the Out and the Gone" is a collection of exquisite, rhythmic storytelling. If you're looking for an out of the ordinary reading experience, Amiri Baraka will give it to you, out and gone.

"The Shadow of the Shadows" by Paco Ignacio Taibo II

First published in Spanish as "Sombra de la Sombra", Paco Ignacio Taibo II's "The Shadow of the Shadow" was a book I knew I'd like from the first page. Published by Cinco Puntos Press, "The Shadow of the Shadow" is not your average mystery novel. With chapter titles such as "Death of a Trombonist" and "Look in His Socks", you know the book isn't short on humor. Set in lawless 1920's postrevolutionary Mexico City, this tall tale has you believing every impossible minute of it. The four main characters, avid domino players and best friends, find threads from a mystery continuously dropped in their laps, and eventually they must solve the series of crimes or lose their lives.

The most engaging elements of this book are its witty, clever voice and quirky characters. Even the background characters who drop in and out are people you wish you really knew (except for the gun-toting ones). The snappy banter between the four friends and their interaction with one another zings back and forth and keeps the pages turning. Add to that some old fashioned shotgun shootouts, and you've got yourself a book that's impossible to put down.

My favorite line from "The Shadow of the Shadows": "My only regret is that you were unconscious the last time we met." I'd love to quote that in casual conversation, but I hesitate to imagine an appropriate circumstance.