MONDAY BOOK LOVE (9/9/24 edition)

 

Monday Book Love is a catch-all for all of those events where you share your latest acquisitions, events like:

What are You Reading?

Stacking the Shelves and Sunday Post both with Reading Reality

Mailbox Monday (now defunct)

Books that I've gotten recently:

Demon Copperhead by Barabara Kingsolver

WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION A New York Times "Ten Best Books of 2022" • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller "Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient.” —Beth Macy, author of  Dopesick "May be the best novel of 2022. . . Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.” (Ron Charles, Washington Post) 

From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees,  a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story.  

Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test by Pepper Stetler

In a quest to advocate for her daughter, Pepper Stetler uncovers the dark history of the IQ that leads her to question what exactly we are measuring when we measure intelligence. When Pepper Stetler was told that her daughter, Louisa, who has Down Syndrome, would be regularly required to take IQ tests to secure support in school, she asked a simple why? In questioning the authority and relevance of the test, Stetler sets herself on a winding, often dark, investigation into how the IQ test came to be the irrefutable standard for measuring intelligence. The unsettling history causes Stetler to wonder what influence this test will have over her daughter’s future, and, if its genesis is so mired in eugenics, whether Louisa should be taking it at all.

So, what are we measuring when we try to measure “intelligence”? As she uncovers the history of IQ, exposing its roots in eugenics, racism, xenophobia, and ableism, Stetler realizes that the desire to quantify intelligence is closely tied to a desire to segregate society. She traces its legacy from inception to the present day, where schools and society have adopted the IQ as shorthand for an individual’s aptitude—in essence, their worth. Boldly, Stetler questions how this rigid definition of intelligence has influenced who society holds up as successful and, perhaps more importantly, what it is that we miss when we judge someone solely on their measured intelligence. 

Blending a mother’s love and dedication to her daughter with incisive historical and cultural analysis, A MEASURE OF INTELLIGENCE investigates the origins and influence of the IQ test on our modern education system, questions how we define and judge intelligence, challenges its flawed foundation, and argues for a fundamental reevaluation of how we understand an individual’s perceived potential.

Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson

“A delightful coming-of-age story set in Jamaica, amid heartbreak, hopefulness, and mirth.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake A winning debut novel about a young teenage girl in Jamaica determined to bake her way out of her dysfunctional family and into the opportunity of a lifetime. 

Pumkin Patterson is a thirteen-year-old girl living in a tiny two-room house in Kingston, Jamaica, with her grandmother (who wants to improve the family’s social standing), her Aunt Sophie (who dreams of a new life in Paris for her and Pumkin), and her mother Paulette (who’s rarely home). When Sophie is offered the chance to move to France for work, she seizes the opportunity and promises to send for her niece in one year’s time. All Pumkin has to do is pass her French entrance exam so she can attend school there. But when Pumkin’s grandmother dies, she’s left alone with her volatile mother, and as soon as her estranged father turns up—as lazy and conniving as ever—the household’s fortunes take a turn for the worse. Pumkin must somehow find a way to raise the money for her French exam, so she can free herself from her household and reunite with her beloved aunt in France. In a moment of ingenuity, she turns her passion for baking into a true business. Making batches of sweet potato pudding, coconut drops and chocolate cakes, Pumkin develops a booming trade—but when her school and her mother find out what she’s up to, everything she’s worked so hard for may slip through her fingers. . . 

Sweetness in the Skin is a funny and heartbreaking story about a young girl figuring out who she is, what she is capable of—and where she truly belongs.

The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar

The Daughters of Madurai is both a heartrending family story and a page-turning mystery about the secrets we must keep to protect those we love.

Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can’t produce a son—or worse, if she bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born and murdered. But Janani can’t forget the daughters she was never allowed to love.

Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret; one she’s been keeping from her parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill and she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai. Nila knows very little about where her family came from or who they left behind. What she’s about to learn will change her forever. 

While The Daughters of Madurai explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, it’s also a universal story about the bond between mothers and daughters, the strength of women, and the power of love in overcoming all obstacles.

Amrikan by Khushbu Shah

A vibrant debut cookbook that answers the question, “What is Indian food in America?” 

Khushbu Shah is tired of hearing the same myths about Indian it’s too spicy, it’s too complicated, it’s all curry. Growing up in Michigan with immigrant parents, Shah would help her mother craft delicious, simple Indian dishes from ingredients available in middle America―Bisquick, ketchup, and even peanut butter.  Amrikan (how Desis say “American”) is the story of Indian food in America, with Shah its energetic translator. When it comes to cooking in the diaspora, adaptation is key. Shah’s recipes perfect beloved staples like creamy upma and crispy dosas and introduce third-culture comfort food like Makhani Mac and Cheese and Mango Pie with a graham-cracker crust. And Shah makes it easy to dive in, equipping home chefs with numerous ways to use pantry staples like lentils and instant noodles. 

Packed with vivid color photographs,  Amrikan presents a deeply personal, comprehensive, and exciting guide to Indian American cooking. 100 color photos

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray

The extraordinary story of Jessie Redmon Fauset whose exhilarating world of friends, rivals, and passions all combined to create the magic that was the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian.

 

In 1919, as civil and social unrest grips the country, there is a little corner of America, a place called Harlem where something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere…in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is Jessie Redmon Fauset, the new literary editor of the preeminent Negro magazine The Crisis.

 

W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder and editor of The Crisis, has charged her with discovering young writers whose words will change the world. Jessie attacks the challenge with fervor, quickly finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives, the writers become notable and magazine subscriptions soar. Every Negro writer in the country wants their work published in the magazine now known for its groundbreaking poetry and short stories. 

 

Jessie’s rising star is shining bright…. but her relationship with W.E.B. could jeopardize all that she’s built. The man, considered by most to be the leader of Black America, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Their torrid and tumultuous affair is complicated by a secret desire that Jessie harbors — to someday, herself, become the editor of the magazine, a position that only W.E.B. Du Bois has held.

 

In the face of overwhelming sexism and racism, Jessie must balance her drive with her desires. However, as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall

WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTION

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, The New Republic, and the Financial Times.

Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing, heartbreaking day.

Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge.

In A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall—hailed for his “severe allergy to conventional wisdom” (Time)—offers an indelibly human portrait of the struggle over Israel/Palestine and a new understanding of the tragic history and reality of one of the most contested places on earth.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help us start anew.

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamt of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe―which makes it that much more surprising when the women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns uproariously, absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is a look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Good People: Stories From the Best of Humanity by Gabriel Reilich, Lucia Knell

For anyone who could use proof that the world is full of good people, this beautifully illustrated book features 101 stories of human decency from Upworthy, the beloved social media brand that reaches more than 100 million people per month.

This heartening book from Upworthy, the kindest place on the internet, offers respite to everyone navigating an increasingly turbulent world, both online and off. Filled with personal stories handpicked from millions of the brand’s impassioned followers, it reinforces the notion that humanity is fundamentally good.

Rippling with emotion, humor, and honesty, the tales collected here are mined from the community’s comment section in response to such questions as: What’s the kindest thing a stranger has ever done for you? Who’s the teacher who changed your life? When did the “little things” make a difference? Who was there for you when you needed it most? Each chapter is anchored by intimate long-form stories punctuated with lighthearted anecdotes and whimsical line drawings. Together, they provide a stirring testament to the complexity and resilience of the human spirit.

An inspiring counterbalance to today’s daunting news cycle, this timely book is a go-to resource for comfort and joy.

What I'm Reading:

What are you reading?