Katherine Carlyle - Rupert Thomson

Thomson Rupert. Katherine Carlyle.

An intriguing blend of genres:  coming of age, mystery, with a dreamlike quality makes Katherine Carlyle a thought provoking addition to the New Adult genre. Several distinct issues have impacted Katherine's growth. She feels very aware of having been a test tube baby. She often reflects on how long it took her parents to decide to implant and have her. She lost her beloved mother to cancer at a very young age. She feels that her birth directly contributes to the development of this cancer. She feels distant from her father, a traveling news correspondent. She feels keenly his blame for her mother's loss. She is lost as the book begins and looking everywhere for signs that point her to where she belongs. Eavesdropping on an innocent conversation between strangers leads her to embark on a coming of age ish journey through Germany and into the furthest reaches of Russia,

Emotionally, this book challenged me.  I suffered with her and worried for her. Katherine takes chances that petrified this mom, but these chances lead her into the most amazing situations where she met the most interesting people. Some of them gave me the creeps, but what a testament to Thomson's ability to bring to life a large number of characters sometimes relatively quickly. While I was initially resistant to the seemingly  haphazard way Katherine set out on this journey, I soon became immersed in the experience. I love how Thomsom created pockets of warmth and liveliness in places that were cold and lonely. He forces Katherine into warmth when she is deliberately seeking isolation. The reader is taken right to the edge with Katherine.

Oddly, though at some level I resist  assigning genre,  I have been actively seeking books classified as new adult to try to more fully understand the genre. I love what this title does in terms of applying coming of age ideas for the twenty somethings. Katherine's journey is lyrical and darkly realistic all at once. I have not read Thomson before but will be reading him again.

The Work: My Search For a Life That Matters - Wes Moore

Moore, Wes. The Work: My Search For a Life That Matters. New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2014.

How do I find a life that matters? I don’t always know if my students are asking this question, but I surely think they should be. I have been fascinated by Moore since his first book The Other Wes Moore.  I was eager to add this newer work to my summer nonfiction reads. His thoughtful work does not disappoint.

Moore has quite an impressive resume: Rhodes Scholar, decorated war veteran, White House Fellows program.  His accomplishments in themselves are inspirational. The insights into his motivation are even more so.  He writes with passion about the aftermath of September 11, 2001.  He is honest about his desire to do something meaningful with his life, even if he doesn’t always know for sure what that might be.  He traces the influences of the mentors in his life, a coach, a commanding officer, and grandfather. Interspersed with his own life story are biographies of the people whom he admires. He includes the founder of the KIND company and the head of the Peace Corps.  Without fail, these are people who have overcome adversity to better serve the world in which we live.

I really, really liked this book.  I want my students to read it.  Having said that, I don’t anticipate the selling of this title to be an easy one.  I will market it to my advanced students first.  His successes and the premise of his first book will, perhaps, intrigue them.  The structure, with the alternating chapters about different people who do important work, will engage the students who might be overwhelmed by his reflection.  Students are more accustomed to reading sound bites now, and I believe the structure will create this illusion. I have students who aspire to change the world.  I will definitely be sharing this book with them. I will be hitting up my library search to seek similarly inspirational titles about people making a difference. The military angle is also exceptionally interesting to many of my students.  I have a variety of directions to go and am eager for the fall to choose one and get started!

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The Start of Me and You - Emery Lord

Lord, Emery. The Start of Me and You. New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.

Sigh. How can I not like a book that relies so much on references to Miss Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Paige Hancock fancies herself to be Elizabeth Bennett. (Don’t we all?) But nerdy Max suggests she is more of a Jane and persists in calling her Janie for much of the book. The stuff of which dreams are made.

But Paige isn’t necessarily ready to dream. She is a year out from the loss of her boyfriend in a drowning accident.  She still, however, is getting “the look” of pity from many who surround her. She still has nightmares of drowning herself.  The school year is new, and she creates a list, prepared to live the rest of her life.  She will be more social; she will try new things; she will find a way to date her secret crush; she will swim.  Paige works hard at her list, but she is not completely prepared for what life brings her - most notably her friendship with Max, cousin of the secret crush AND for her divorced parents to begin dating...each other AND the stroke of her beloved grandmother, already suffering from alzheimer’s.

I really like Paige and know my readers will too.  She has issues with her overprotective mother. She has her best girlfriends to see her through the dark times.  She thinks she loves one guy, and all the while she is (spoiler alert; not really...we see it!) falling in love with the other.  She experiences much of the real experiences that my students are experiencing each day. I like that her parents are present, and even in the struggle, they grow closer.  I like the relationship that Paige has with her grandmother - precious.  As noted, I love the literary allusions.  At one point Paige notes, “He’d handed me a new mind-set, wrapped in literary references.” She uses “book lover’s math” to calculate how many books a gift card will get her.

I will enjoy book talking this lovely coming of age story in the fall.  My readers will fall in love with the story and witness first hand how Paige finds her inner strength and changes her world.  I love that her story will give my girls hope to life to its fullest. I think I might do a "Starting Over" slide in my book talk and showcase some of these strong young protagonists.  Oh, and I love that maybe a reader or two might be encouraged to give Jane Austen a try. Just maybe.