Staff Review: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

When I choose a book for the library book discussion I try to find something outside of my comfort zone. More often than not, I enjoy the book and it makes me more willing to venture outside of my normal reading habits. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, a biography, is one such example. Though I rarely read biographies, Born a Crime has become one my favorite books this year. 

Trevor Noah, the current host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, was born at the tail end of apartheid in South Africa. His mother is black and his father is white. At the time of Trevor's birth, the relationship between his parents was illegal so his birth was actually a crime. 

The stories told by Noah range from incredibly sad to very funny. As a comedian, Noah is able to infuse the sad stories with humor without taking away from the narrative. It is difficult to imagine that as a mixed-race child, Noah's mother wasn't allowed to do something as simple as walk with him to the park. Noah's father was largely absent from his life, leaving him to be raised by his mother and grandmother. To his black Xhosa relatives, Noah was white and white people are treated differently. By his own admission, Noah was a handful, because only his mother would discipline him.  It is clear throughout the book that his mother is quite a force to be reckoned with and though their relationship is, at times, complicated, Noah loves and respects her.

I didn't listen to the audio, but a co-worker told me it is wonderful. Noah is the narrator and I imagine hearing him tell the story of his upbringing, in his own voice, is quite powerful. If you are a fan of The Daily Show, you should read this book. If you've never watched The Daily Show (ahem...like me...ahem), this is still a powerful story of someone who never quite fit in, but didn't let that stop him from achieving his dreams. 

~Amy, Adult Services

Staff Review: We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

In 2015 I chose Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates as my best book of the year. It was a difficult book to read given that it tackles -- in a very personal way -- the race problem in America, a problem older than the country itself, its roots going back to the earliest colonial days. What impressed me so was Coates's intellectual vigor and how well he put it to use trying to make sense of the world he and his son inhabit as black males. He's a clear thinker and a clear writer. As brain food alone, the book was a pleasure.

His new book, We Were Eight Years in Power, is even tougher to read. The foundation of the book is a series of essays Coates wrote for The Atlantic magazine, where he is a national correspondent. These well-known essays cover such topics as the making of the first black president, the mass incarceration of blacks, and the strong case for reparations. The essays are strung together with new material, a series of memoir-like pieces relating Coates's thoughts and feelings each year of Obama's presidency, an event that buoyed him considerably, bringing hope for the future.

The book's final piece tackles the election of Donald Trump, a near-fatal blow to Coates's hope for Coates believes that Obama's successor is intent on negating the legacy of the country's first black president. By the time Trump is elected, within the book's trajectory, the reader has been educated on the real stories -- the truths -- of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the exclusion of millions of blacks from the provisions of the New Deal, and the horrific and intentionally broad scope of institutional racism. It was a painful education for me and I wondered why I had never known so much of it before.

Coates concludes his new work in a grim mood, but a hopeful ending would probably ring false. Many Americans aren't feeling very hopeful these days, which brings me to my only quibble with the book, which is Coates's reluctance to consider the enormous impact globalization, deregulation, outsourcing, inflation, automation, monopolistic practices, and a host of other economic and political factors have had on everyone, white, black, and every shade in between. There's an underlying presumption on his part that if you're white, the gravy train's still more or less available to you. Many would beg to differ. But this is indeed a quibble; the plight of whites is not Coates's topic. He does all of us a great and needed service by increasing our awareness of the hard lives of others and reducing at least some of our historical ignorance. Who knows what any of us might do differently if only we knew the whole truth?

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown - Audio book version

What a trilogy! Wow. It is dark. It is brutal. There are shameful deeds, shocking betrayals, and blood feuds. Wars and reconciliations. Violence and tenderness. This trilogy really covers all areas of human emotion. A friend says it's a cross between Game of Thrones and Hunger Games. I think it also has a dash of Divergent and tiny drop of Harry Potter in there as well. Pierce Brown has created a fascinating world with his Red Rising trilogy.

Darrow grows up as part of a slave race, the Reds. The thing is, they don't realize they are slaves. They think they are doing the hard labor of mining underground on Mars so future generations can come and terraform Mars and create a better future. What the Reds don't know is that they have been lied to.

Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates all three of these books. Reynolds does such a good job portraying the heart of Darrow, our main character, that he seems the perfect person to read these stories. Reynolds hails from Ireland with classical theater training. His strong Irish accent gives the story depth and character and it is pleasing to listen to.

One initial caveat: Reynolds takes on a haughty voice when he narrates the characters who are Golds (the all-powerful group in Darrow's world), "I do say! My good-man!" and to be honest, this threw me right out of the first book and I did not think I could listen if he did this voice continuously. Luckily, this annoyance fades and you get used to the portrayal. The haughtiness and genteelness make sense for the characters he is portraying - the Golds are nothing if not haughty. 

As the books progress, we find Darrow fighting against a whole society of people who would have him remain a slave and will die trying to keep the status quo. Which leads me to one of the things I am most impressed by with these books. This author really knows how people manipulate others to get what they want and how the minds of warlords might plan their strategies. As I listened, I kept being amazed at the ideas and logic the author created for his characters. This first book does spend a lot of time world-building, which can be get old, but then you are thrust into this amazing world suddenly. It keeps you guessing and you don't know who Darrow should trust or who will betray him.You have to hold on tight, it's quite an adventure. 

Once you have made it through this epic trilogy, be on the lookout for Iron Gold, a new book in the Red Rising Universe, considered to be book four of the Red Rising Saga. It is set to be released in January 2018. It begins ten years after the events of book three and is a start to a new trilogy. Hopefully, Carnegie-Stout will have the audio book soon after its release. It too will be narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds.

~Angie, Adult Services