This week: the true story of the notorious Reno Gang, plus the biology of human behavior at its best and worst.
Salt Houses
Alyan blends joy with pain, frustration with elation, longing with boredom in this beautiful debut novel filled with the panoply of life. The frontispiece tells the whole story in microcosm with a family tree of the Palestinian Yacoub family, who, for most of the book, no longer lives in Palestine. One brother, Mustafa, is lost in the Six-Day War and the sisters, Alia and Widad, relocate to Kuwait while their mother, Salma, moves to Jordan. Later generations end up in France, America, and Lebanon. Alia, the young bride in 1963 in the first pages, is the family matriarch with Alzheimer’s as the book comes to a close. In 1977, her daughter, Souad, is a tantrum-throwing five-year-old in Kuwait City; by 1990, she is a student in Paris entering into an ill-considered marriage, then, 14 years later, a divorced mother of two, recently relocated from America to Beirut. Chapters focus on different family members as time and geography shift. These lives full of promise and loss will feel familiar to any reader; Alyan’s excellent storytelling and deft handling of the complex relationships ensures that readers will not soon forget the Yacoub family.
Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto
Buck is a California garden designer and aesthetic pruner who went to Japan for a three-month apprenticeship in Kyoto, working in some of Japan’s renowned gardens. Her memoir is a mix of gardening insight, cross-cultural observations, and personal development. Buck has as good an eye for cultural dissonance as she does for pines that need pruning. She is also unsparing in her self-observations, wrestling with her American ego in the context of another country’s work culture. The through line of her narrative is the slow development of her professional relationship with her crew boss, Nakaji, whose leadership style is primarily management by yelling. The changing nuances of her understanding of him are particularly engrossing and give the book a kind of literary skeleton. This is an absorbing read about the formative interplay of humans, cultures, and gardens.
The Notorious Reno Gang: The Wild Story of the West’s First Brotherhood of Thieves, Assassins, and Train Robbers
Evocative prose and rich historical context add depth and broad appeal to this captivating account of the men behind the first-ever robbery of a moving train, their wave of crimes in the 1860s, and their deaths at the hands of vigilantes. Many readers will be unfamiliar with the Reno brothers, but the mark they made on the small community of Seymour, Ind., is significant, Dickinson writes: “Like a boa constrictor, in the mid-19th century the Reno Gang encircled the town and squeezed tighter and tighter for several years until the gang’s activities seemed to threaten the very future of the community.” Dickinson (Falconer on the Edge) opens the story ominously, with a flash-forward as a gang of vigilantes breaks into the jail in a neighboring town in search of the Renos. She then recreates the lives of the Reno brothers, whose criminal careers were shaped by the traumas of the Civil War, which transformed them from “annoying petty thieves” into “the spiders at the center of a five-hundred-mile web of crime.” She thickens the stories with historical context about the changes that railroads brought to the country and the state of American currency at the time.
Real Friends
Hale’s childhood struggles with friends and family come to achingly poignant life in this candid graphic memoir. Over five chapters, readers follow a bookish and shy Hale from her earliest days in school through fifth grade, as she zealously guards her first friendship (“One good friend. My mom says that’s all anyone really needs”), negotiates forever-changing friendship politics, and tries to stay on the good side of her turbulent oldest sister. Hale makes her own flaws evident, and that fairness extends to the bullies in her life, who lash out brutally at times, but whose insecurities and sadness are just as clear. The carefully honed narration and dialogue give Pham plenty of room to work. Her digitally colored ink cartooning pulls substantial emotion out of everyday moments (such as Hale retreating to a playground shrub to cry, only to find another girl already there, doing the same) and the imagination-fueled games Hale was forever devising, presaging her writing career. It’s a wonderfully observed portrait of finding one’s place in your world. Ages 8–12.
Season of Crimson Blossoms
Ibrahim’s excellent first novel tells of the unlikely romance between a Muslim widow and a dope-dealing street tough amidst the troubles that each faces. When 55-year-old Binta Zubairu wakes to the smell of cockroaches, she knows that something terrible will happen to her; as the odor has always heralded disaster in the past. Her niece Fa’iza and granddaughter Ummi, who both live with her, are away at school when her home is robbed by a knife-wielding young man. Mysteriously, most of the stolen goods are returned a few days later and Binta’s assailant appears to apologize. When Hassan Babale, known as Reza, returns a third time, the two are overcome by their inexplicable desire and thus begins an illicit romance. Binta must also contend with the arrival of her daughter, Hureira, who has left her husband, and the increasingly erratic behavior of Fa’iza. Reza’s jobs for his senator boss escalate in danger. Throughout this tale set in the author’s native Nigeria, current and past violence taints the lives of these characters seeking solace where they can find it. Each feels longing and loss and must contend with the forces of propriety and duty to family.
The Leavers
Ko’s debut is a sweeping examination of family through the eyes of a single mother, a Chinese immigrant, and her U.S.-born son, whose separation haunts and defines their lives. Eleven-year-old Deming’s mother, Polly, suddenly disappears from the nail salon where she works, leaving him at the Bronx apartment they share with her boyfriend, Leon, Leon’s sister, and her 10-year-old son. Weeks later, Deming is handed over to a “new family”—white suburban college teachers Kay and Peter, who name him Daniel. But it hardly guarantees a storybook ending; Daniel fails in college and struggles to make it as a musician. And then he learns that his missing mother is alive. The narration is then taken over by Polly, who describes her journey to America as an unwed pregnant teenager, and the cramped living arrangements and low-paying jobs that finally take her and Deming to the Bronx. “It was a funny thing, forgiveness,” Deming finds. “You could spend years being angry with someone and then realize you no longer feel the same.” Ko’s stunning tale of love and loyalty—to family, to country—is a fresh and moving look at the immigrant experience in America, and is as timely as ever.
One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
Simultaneously uproarious and affecting, the personal essays in Buzzfeed contributor Koul’s debut explore the nuances of life as a first-generation Canadian with Indian parents, from phobias, guilt trips, and grudges to the drama of interracial dating. She provides insight into the experience of traveling to her parents’ homeland, undergoing the inverse of their assimilation, and the conflicting desire to maintain and amend cultural traditions (for example, she dislikes weeklong wedding celebrations with alcohol restrictions). She discerns the “shadism” of India’s caste system and its more benign cultural quirks, like every woman being given the title of “aunt” (“Mom, why do you have forty sisters? Was your mother a sea turtle?”). There is an occasional essay of sheer slapstick, as when Koul describes getting stuck inside a coveted garment in a boutique dressing room (“I flew too close to the sun with this skirt,” she remarks sadly), but she also reflects poignantly on race, sexism, and body image issues. She includes a surprisingly sympathetic judgment of misogynist internet trolls and a polemic against rape culture that contains the unfortunate phrase “the first time I was roofied.” The specifics of Koul’s life are unique, but the overarching theme of inheritance is universal, particularly the vacillation between struggling against becoming one’s parents and the begrudging acceptance that their ways might not be so bad. Koul’s deft humor is a fringe benefit.
The End of Eddy
In this excellent autobiographical novel, a middle school boy struggles to forge an identity in a French industrial town hostile in every way to his homosexuality. Beset on all sides by violent bullying, verbal ridicule, and a lack of familial support, Eddy Bellegueule has devoted himself, despite his high voice and effeminate mannerisms, to becoming a “tough guy” like his unemployed father. A series of heartbreaking setbacks occurs, including two failed relationships with women, which culminates with Eddy’s mother discovering him in a compromising sexual situation. The story finally leads to a powerful farewell scene between Eddy and his father, a momentary demonstration of devotion inextricable from the years of pain that the man has caused the boy. Already translated into 20 languages, this concise novel adroitly captures the downstream effects of reactionary rural culture, heightened by the rise of hard-right ideology and the destabilization of the working class in contemporary Europe, granting its reader an extraordinary portrait of trauma and escape.
Trinidad Noir: The Classics
To travel through the 19 works of poetry and prose in this remarkable anthology is to experience Trinidad and Tobago through a kaleidoscopic lens. The writings are grouped into four historically significant periods (“Leaving Colonialism,” “Facing Independence,” “Looking In,” and “Losing Control”). It’s an effective construct; the reader experiences island culture and history as a part of its time, formed by a pastiche of nationality, culture, and social class. Standouts abound. The central character in V.S. Naipul’s “Man-man” is a reputedly mad man in a community whose reactions to him move between bemused and violent. Harold Sonny Ladoo tells, in “The Quiet Peasant,” of an impoverished farmer who unwittingly digs his own grave. An island lilt and sharp humor spice Robert Antoni’s “Hindsight,” about a doctor confronting a singular medical condition. This is not a noir collection in the traditional crime-based sense. Instead, as noted in the introduction, the selections “direct attention to the violence of a society that has not quite settled accounts with the casualties of enslavement and indentureship.”
Ginny Moon
Ludwig’s excellent debut is both a unique coming-of-age tale and a powerful affirmation of the fragility and strength of families. We meet 14-year-old Ginny, who has autism, as she settles into life with a new “forever family” and unexpectedly reconnects with Gloria, the abusive, drug-addicted mother from whom she was taken away at the age of nine—and Rick, the father she never knew. The rediscovery unsettles the tentative bond Ginny’s forged with adoptive parents Maura and Brian, exacerbates the teen’s heartbreaking fears for the “baby doll” she left behind, and ultimately triggers a wildly heroic, secret plan to run away to Canada with Gloria and Rick. Ludwig brilliantly depicts the literal-minded and inventive Ginny—whose horrifying past and valiant hope for the future are slowly unveiled—and the alternately selfish, sympathetic, and compassionate adults who would do anything to get Ginny to choose their love. “I just wish someone would talk about what a delightful young lady she is,” a frustrated Rick says. “We’re trying to keep her apart from everything... but I think what she needs is to be closer to people.”
The Unruly City: Paris, London, and New York in the Age of Revolution
Rapport (1848: Year of Revolution), professor of history at the University of Glasgow, examines the political geography of dissent and revolution in three key Western cities, Paris, London, and New York, in the years 1763–1795. Of the three, Paris experienced the most extreme internal upheaval, and Rapport’s chapters on the French metropolis are his best. He shows, for example how certain neighborhoods, such as the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, became centers of political ferment and action. Rapport’s choice of New York is questionable, given that Boston was so significant in the American Revolution and New York was occupied by British troops from late 1776 to 1783. However, he shares insight on the nature of the popular uprising against the 1765 Stamp Act, a revolt against both the British and the city’s elites, and notes that, at the time of the Revolution, one-fifth of New York households “kept at least one slave.” Concerning London, Rapport shows that political activity was basically civil, excepting six days of anti-Catholic rioting in June 1780, and characterized as much by a “spontaneous tide of popular conservatism” in the city’s streets, coffee houses, and pubs as it was by reformist agitation. Rapport has combined academic scholarship with a well-paced, engaging writing style to produce an exceptional work of comparative late-18th-century political and urban history.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein’s comprehensive and engrossing book reveals just how the U.S. arrived at the “systematic racial segregation we find in metropolitan areas today,” focusing in particular on the role of government. While remaining cognizant of recent changes in legislation and implementation, Rothstein is keenly alert to the continuing effects of past practices. He leads the reader through Jim Crow laws, sundown towns, restrictive covenants, blockbusting, law enforcement complicity, and subprime loans. The book touches on the Federal Housing Administration and the creation of public housing projects, explaining how these were transformed into a “warehousing system for the poor.” Rothstein also notes the impact of Woodrow Wilson’s racist hiring policies, the New Deal–era Fair Labor Standards that excluded “industries in which African Americans predominated, like agriculture,” and the exclusion of African-American workers from the construction trades, making clear how directly government contributed to segregation in labor. And Rothstein shows exactly why a simplistic North/South polarization lacks substance, using copious examples from both regions. This compassionate and scholarly diagnosis of past policies and prescription for our current racial maladies shines a bright light on some shadowy spaces.
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Sapolsky (Monkeyluv), professor of biology at Stanford, looks at human behavior from myriad interrelated perspectives, endeavoring to explain humans’ strange and often contradictory behavior. He predominantly focuses on exploring “the biology of violence, aggression, and competition” through the lenses of neuroscience, anthropology, psychology, genetics, evolutionary biology, political science, and communication theory. Sapolsky takes complex ideas from the scientific literature, including his own research, and attempts to balance the pros and cons of every conclusion. He weaves science storytelling with humor to keep readers engaged while advancing his main point about the complexity and interconnectedness of all aspects of behavior. For Sapolsky, context is everything. For example, in discussing genetics he urges readers to “repeat the mantra: don’t ask what a gene does; ask what it does in a particular context.” Understanding such complexity can potentially lead toward a more just and peaceful society, Sapolsky says. He recognizes that this ambition may “seem hopeless” but argues that it is essential. Finally, he contends and demonstrates that “you don’t have to choose between being scientific and being compassionate.” Sapolsky’s big ideas deserve a wide audience and will likely shape thinking for some time.
5 Worlds: The Sand Warrior
In a dazzling interplanetary fantasy from the Siegel Brothers, artists Bouma, Rockefeller, and Sun bring to life the cultures, customs, and creatures of a lively new world that will easily appeal to fans of Naruto or Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oona Lee’s older sister, Jessa, was their planet’s most promising sand dancer before she disappeared; awkward Oona can’t even control the sand figures she summons. Their planet, Mon Domani, is beset by cascading environmental crises, and Oona and her classmates are meant to help light an ancient beacon that may bring the galaxy back into balance. But Toki, a rival moon, chooses this moment to attack. In the chaos, Oona finds two allies—An Tzu, a fiercely loyal thief from the planet’s slums, and Jax Amboy, a sports superstar—who recognize gifts in Oona that she doesn’t see. Explosions, attacks, and evildoing are relieved by neatly timed interludes in tranquil settings. The main characters share an unglamorous, pre- adolescent look, and the authors seize the opportunity to explore issues of race, class, and scarcity. Readers will be all too ready for the planned subsequent books. Ages 8–12.
Beyond the Bright Sea
Creating mystery and suspense in an unusual setting, Newbery Honor–winner Wolk (Wolf Hollow) spins an intriguing tale of an orphan determined to find her roots, set in the 1920s. As a baby, Crow was found in a boat washed up on a (fictional) Massachusetts island. Osh, the introverted painter who found her, named her and took her in. Since then, Crow has enjoyed a tranquil existence, except for being ostracized by those who believe she came from nearby Penikese Island, which housed lepers. When Crow, now 12, spots a fire across the water on Penikese, her curiosity is awakened. After persuading Osh and their friend Miss Maggie to investigate, she takes the first step in an emotional quest to discover who her parents were. Crow is a determined and dynamic heroine with a strong intuition, who pieces together the puzzle of her past while making profound realizations about the definition of family. Wolk’s economical prose clearly delineates Crow’s conflicting emotions and growing awareness, and readers will feel the love and loyalty that she, Osh, and Miss Maggie share. Ages 10–up.
