This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
This is another book I read because it was banned from school library shelves in my racist, radical right-wing rural Republican town, for "sexually explicit content and illustrations." It was not available in my local library, either, but I was able to borrow the e-book from another library.
This book is an introductory guide to LGBT life and issues for high school age and up. I'm no expert on these topics, and this senior adult learned some things from this book. Author Juno Dawson, who also writes fiction, originally identified as a gay man (James Dawson), but a year after the publication of this book in 2014, came out as a transgender woman. This updated second edition was published under her new name.
As for "sexually explicit illustrations"? They are black-and-white line drawings in a cartoon style by Spike Gerrell, funny and appropriate for the intended audience.
Books like this are needed in our school and public libraries, especially for questioning young people who may lack the loving support to learn about these issues elsewhere.
Sugar and Salt by Susan Wiggs
Sugar and Salt is mostly the story of Margot Salton (aka Margie Salinas), a barbeque master from Texas who is finding success with her own restaurant - called Salt - in San Francisco, until her past comes back to haunt her. It's also the story of Jerome Sugar, who operates the bakery Sugar next door to Salt, and sharing a kitchen, and Jerome's mother Ida, who came of age during the Vietnam War era.
Besides being not just one love story, but two, this book also pulls in so many relevant issues, especially pertaining to the harrowing Texas judicial and penal system (and before you ask - I grew up and live in Texas, although I was born in Chicago and I've also lived in Washington state).
I haven't read any of Susan Wiggs' books before, but now I am a fan. She doesn't hesitate to cover such topics as war protests, avoiding the draft, interracial romance and marriage, and adoption by nontraditional couples, as well as rape and abortion.
All of these topics, coupled with the recipes at the end of the book, would make this a great choice for book clubs.
My only gripes with the book are two minor ones. First, the blurb on the back of the advance reader edition (courtesy LibraryThing Early Reviewers), states that Jerome's last name is Barnes (not Sugar), and Ida is his grandmother (not mother). Either the blurb needs to be corrected, or the text does. Secondly, I don't like the cover. It's very pretty, but really doesn't reflect the content of the book, and between it and the current blurb, seems to imply this is a light, beach-read romance, when it (thankfully) is not.
Hawai'i Calls by Marjorie Nelson Matthews
In 1935, Sadira "Sadie" Schaeffer Doyle is the social columnist for little Carlisle, New York's newspaper. When her alcoholic husband loses yet another job, this time with the local mortuary his parents helped him establish, his partner finds him another job in Hawai'i - a place Sadira has longed to see thanks to the radio show "Hawaii Calls" - and they and their two sons move there for a fresh start.
Sadira writes about their early-1936 voyage (by ship from New York City) to Hawai'i for her upstate hometown paper. Not long after her arrival in Hawaii, she secures a similar position with the Honolulu paper. She hobnobs with celebrities and politicians, but her life isn't ideal.
The story is told in the alternating voices of Sadira and her oldest son, Lionel, who provides a different (and sometimes conflicting) view of life in Hawai'i for the family.
Author Marjorie Nelson Matthews based Sadira on her grandmother Zaida, who was a social/gossip columnist for a newspaper in Sodus, New York, as well as The Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In a blog post a year ago, she said that in a scrapbook of her grandmother's columns, "I recognized the wealth of descriptive information in them, especially about Hawai‘i during its 1930s heyday as playground to the rich and famous."
In this aspect, the novel really shines. The descriptions of people, places, parties, and events, both on the voyage and in Hawai'i, are vivid. I found the long voyage, with stops in Havana and Los Angeles, especially intriguing. Matthews also points out the difficulties the Japanese-Americans in Hawai'i had after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
I had more trouble with the characters of Sadira and Lionel. The boy clearly has some unexplained eccentricities (he seems somewhat OCD), but the lack of empathy from his mother at times is rather appalling. Matthews stated that she also drew from her father's memories, but I believe he is reflected in the younger son, Kenny, who is also artistic. (Matthews' father, Dick Nelson, provided the cover artwork.)
I understand that children like Lionel can be trying, but Sadira comes across as especially selfish and self-centered. Perhaps that is the author's intent, to show that her grandmother and her grandmother's life were not perfect, despite living in a seeming paradise. I did admire Sadira for her ability to remake herself as needed in order to survive. When World War II ends celebrity visits to the island and dries up material for her column, she finds another way to earn a living.
I'd still recommend this novel for its historical aspects and descriptions of life in Hawaii from 1936 through 1946. It was a good complement to Michener's Hawaii, which I finished the previous month.
Ribbons of Scarlet - by Kate Quinn, Laura Kamoie, Heather Webb, Stephanie Dray, Sophie Perinot, and E. Knight
Six female historical fiction authors - Kate Quinn, Laura Kamoie, Heather Webb, Stephanie Dray, Sophie Perinot, and E. (Eliza) Knight - collaborated on this novel of the French Revolution, with a forward by Allison Pataki (who was unavailable to collaborate). The book focuses on seven lesser-known women: Manon Roland, Princess Élisabeth (sister of King Louis XVI), Louise Audu, Charlotte Corday, Sophie de Grouchy Condorcet, Pauline Leon, and Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe.
The women represent various classes (royalty, aristocrats, commoners, peasants), so there are multiple views of the revolution. Each part (chapter) of the book was written by a different author, and is mainly in the voice of one of the characters (Pauline and Charlotte share one chapter). Characters appear in other chapters, however, which helps the book flow smoothly. The reader can follow the evolution of the revolution, through to and beyond its end.
The women represent various classes (royalty, aristocrats, commoners, peasants), so there are multiple views of the revolution. Each part (chapter) of the book was written by a different author, and is mainly in the voice of one of the characters (Pauline and Charlotte share one chapter). Characters appear in other chapters, however, which helps the book flow smoothly. The reader can follow the evolution of the revolution, through to and beyond its end.
Bonus materials for the book are available, and there's a great interview with the authors here. The Library of Congress has a great research guide about women of the French Revolution. Many of these authors have worked together and with other authors on similar collaborative historical novels in the "History 360 Presents" or "H-Team" series (of which this is the fifth), on topics like Pompeii, Troy, Odysseus, and Boudicca . I'm eager to read them all.
Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters by Jennifer Chiaverini - historical fiction
I won this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program back in April 2020, but never received a copy from the publisher (William Morrow). It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list (I've been an Early Reviewer since November 2007), so I checked my libraries and borrowed the e-book from one of my libraries.
Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters is another of Jennifer Chiaverini's books about Mary Todd Lincoln and people associated with her (Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, Mrs. Lincoln's Rival). Mary Todd Lincoln had sixteen siblings in all (twelve of whom survived to adulthood), but this book focuses on her three full sisters (elders Elizabeth Todd Edwards and Frances Todd Wallace, and younger Ann Todd Smith) as well as one of her five younger half-sisters (Emilie Todd Helm).
The book starts in 1875, when Elizabeth learns that Mary's oldest and only surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, has had her committed to a(n expensive) mental hospital. Mary convinces people visiting her to reach out to her sisters (from whom she's been estranged) to "rescue" her.
The book then alternates between the four sisters' viewpoints, as well as various times in the past and present, to depict Mary's childhood in Kentucky; her years with married sister Elizabeth in Springfield, Illinois, searching for a husband; her marriage to Lincoln and his rise to the presidency; and the years in the White House during the Civil War and the aftermath of his assassination.
The Civil War sharply divided Mary's Kentucky-based family. Elizabeth, Frances, Ann, and their husbands, long based in Springfield, supported the Union. Their three half-brothers fought for the Confederacy, as did Emilie's husband (he was a general killed in the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga). One full brother died in 1864 in Kentucky under mysterious circumstances; the other was a surgeon who served in a Confederate hospital in South Carolina. Her other four half-sisters were married to men who either fought for the Confederacy or sympathized with it.
Through her sisters, the reader learns how Mary - generally through her own actions - has become estranged. The sisters have different opinions about Mary's mental state, with Emilie perhaps the most sympathetic, having also lost her husband due to the war, and being a favorite of Lincoln - he called her "Little Sister." Elizabeth continues the motherly role she had as a child, being the oldest, taking Mary in when she manages to convince the hospital to release her. Frances and Ann wonder if Mary is acting out for the attention she's always craved.
Although Chiaverini provides some of her sources in her author's note, she doesn't clarify where she has deviated from fact to create her fiction, as so many other authors of historical fiction do. This book can stand alone from the other Mrs. Lincoln's books, but it would be helpful to read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker before this book. There are references in Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters to said dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley, as well as more examples of Mary Todd Lincoln's erratic behavior during and after her White House years.
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