35. "The Freedom Writers Diary" by Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers

Gruwell, Erin. The Freedom Writers Diary. New York: Broadway Books, 2009.
316 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

The Freedom Writers Diary is one of the most inspirational books I’ve ever read. It chronicles the lives of 150 students at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. At that time, Long Beach was plagued by poverty, drug trafficking, intimate partner violence, homelessness and gang violence.

Erin Gruwell, a first-time English teacher at Wilson, uses writing as a tool to empower her students—students living in the trenches of Long Beach’s “undeclared war.” This undeclared war is that of the gang violence and poverty the students must face daily.

Erin Gruwell is able to help transform her students’ lives using unorthodox teaching methods. She is able to break through boundaries created by racial tension and segregation and inspire her students to make a positive difference in the world. Gruwell used two main texts—Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo—to teach her students about the effects that intolerance can have on the world.

Despite the school administration’s lack of support, she is able to take her students on trips to places such as Washington D.C., and the Museum of Tolerance. The class also works together to bring in famous speakers like Miep Gies, the woman who sheltered Anne Frank and her family, and Zlata Filipovic, the author of Zlata’s Diary.

As an educator, I’m so impressed with Erin and moved by her students’ stories. It reminded me why I decided to become a teacher, and why I chose to work at the institution I do. It added new depth to my work. Reading the diary entries also made me appreciate my own life more. Things as simple as a cup of coffee are a treasure to me because The Freedom Writers Diary reminds me to always be cognizant of those less fortunate. I am also aware of how life can change in an instant and how one can go from rags to riches (or vice versa) in the blink of an eye.

I think that of all the books I have read this year, this book has had the greatest impact on me.

5 darts out of 5.
Bookshelf project status: KEEP

34. "Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives" by Ray A. Young Bear

Young Bear, Ray A. Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives. New York: Fire Keepers, 1992. Print

261 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives is an interesting collection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, prose, myth, and folk tales. It tells the story of Edgar Bearchild and his family’s lives on the Black Eagle Child settlement in Iowa.

The story is graphic, violent, sad, spiritual, and, at points, confusing. It can be difficult to tell what is truth, what is fiction, what is poetry, and what is prose. In one chapter, Edgar tells the story of when he and his friend used psychedelic drugs as part of a religious ceremony. Reading the text, I almost felt like I was tripping on the drugs myself. It truly pulled me into the narrator’s point of view.

I think to fully appreciate this book, I will have to read it more than once.

3 darts out of 5
Bookshelf Project Status: KEEP

33. "You Don't Have to Be Buddhist to Know Nothing" by Joan Konner

Konner, Joan. You Don’t Have to be Buddhist to Know Nothing: An Illustrious Collection of Thoughts on Naught. Prometheus Books, 2009. Print.
333 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

You Don’t Have to be Buddhist to Know Nothing is a collection of quotes about nothing from various famous individuals. The quotes are lifted out of context and are unconnected and, generally, have little to do with Buddhism as the title suggests.

Save yourself some time. Go to an online search engine and search the terms “nothing,” and “quote” and you’ll have this book. It is not worth the read and certainly not worth your money.

0 darts out of 5
Bookshelf Project Status: NONE (I don't own it).

32. "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" by August Wilson

Wilson, August. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. New York: Penguin Group, 1985. Print.
111 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a play written about Ma Rainey and her blues band. The first thing I questioned as I was reading it was is it really a play? Does this not cross into the genre of musical as well? The cover of the text is labeled “play” but music plays such an important role through the entire story that I think it could also be considered a musical. I love it when texts move across multiple genres!

Ma is in Chicago with her band recording an album. In the process of recording audience members are exposed to tension between various styles of Black identity. The dramatic ending leaves audience members with a vivid image of the turmoil and pain certain characters’ face in trying to “make something of themselves” in an unjust society that does not always function in their favor.

Ma Rainey is a powerful lead vocalist. The majority of her band members respect her authority. Slow Drag, the bass player, especially shows her respect: “Don’t nobody say when it come to Ma. She’s gonna do what she wants to do. Ma says what happens with her” (Wilson 1.1).

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom explores many topics one of them being the topic of art. What is art and art’s role in society? Ma Rainey states, “White folks don’t understand about the blues. They hear it come out, but they don’t know how it got there. They don’t understand that’s life’s way of talking. You don’t sing to feel better. You sing ‘cause that’s a way of understanding life” (Wilson 2.1).

The text also explores the blurry line between truth and fiction. In several instances, characters’ would tell the same story but in slightly different ways. This worked to illustrate the ways in which “truth” can be quite subjective.

3.5 darts out of 5

Bookshelf Project Status: DONATE (donated to a library)

31. "Pepperland" by Mark Delaney

Delaney, Mark. Pepperland. Atlanta: Peachtree, 2004.
181 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

Pepperland is about Star, as she calls herself, and her journey to healing from her mother’s death. Star and her mom were especially fond of the Beatles and John Lennon. Each chapter title is also the title of a Beatles song which was a creative move by Delaney. Star finds a letter that her mom wrote to John Lennon when she was a teenager and it becomes Star’s mission to deliver the letter to John Lennon herself when he performs in her hometown.

I had hesitations going into this novel but once I started, I couldn’t put it down. The characters are painted so delicately and accurately I felt like I knew them like I know one of my friends. I was hesitant because I often find that stories about healing end up being unrealistic and impossibly linear. I was very impressed with this text’s ability to realistically illustrate the way a young woman might go through the grieving process. Her process wasn’t linear, it was messy, and moving, and beautiful.

Delaney is very good at tackling complex ideas and translating it into something young adults can understand and access. For example, when approaching the idea of art as a healing tool, Delaney writes, “Every intuition tells me that great art, like Dooley’s has to peel away the outer layers, because it’s the only way to get to the places where we’re all the same” (Delaney 49). Here we have a complex idea laid out clearly for the reader.

This novel is an example excellent writing within a genre.

5 darts out of 5

30. "My Freshman Year" by Rebekah Nathan

Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005. Print.
168 pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

In My Freshman Year, Rebekah Nathan, a full time university professor, enrolls in a university and goes through a freshman year in order to complete an ethnography of freshman students at a typical American university.

What Nathan discovers was not shocking to me and was, in fact, quite reminiscent of my own experience as a freshman in college. Nathan noticed several patterns of behavior as well as common values among freshman at a university. Freshman, she concludes, generally value deviance, rebellion, freedom of choice, and “fun” with “fun” being defined in several different ways. Students now expect education to be entertaining and they also expect education to be something personal and individual. She writes that to the freshman she studied "community" is “personal networks of friends that some referred to as my ‘homeys.’ It was these small ego-centered groups that we the backbone of most students’ social experience in the university” (Nathan 55).

A point I found very interesting in her work was about the liminality of the university. Nathan writes, “Cross-culturally, rites of passage have universal characteristics marked by severance from one’s normal status, entrance into a ‘liminal’ state where normal rules of society are lifted, and finally reintegration into society within a new status. This jibes well with the nature of the undergraduate college experience. . .It is in the middle or ‘liminal’ state—the ambiguous place of being neither here nor there—that anthropologists see profoundly creative and transformative possibilities” (Nathan 146-47).

I thought that Nathan’s discussion of the university as a liminal space was the most important idea I took away from this text. Everything else she described, I already more or less knew and understood. Her discussion on liminality though, gives me a space, as a professor and as a former student, to navigate life in academia. Because the university is a liminal space, there is an abundance of opportunities to create change both within individuals and society at large. While I might not live long enough to see substantial or drastic changes, I know the potential is there.

3 darts out of 5

29. "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
291 Pages
Reviewed by J. d’Artagnan Love

The Ganguli family story is rich, colorful, and full of intricacies. It is also full of insecurities, heartbreak, and a sense of homelessness. The Ganguli family is always just a little out of place. Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli move to the United States from India to start a life together. Ashoke works as a professor while Ashima stays home and raises their two children, Gogol, and Sonia. The majority of the story is focused on Gogol’s life as he struggles to develop a sense of self.

The Namesake flows effortlessly. Transitions between anecdotes and storylines are smooth and nearly flawless. Lahiri’s prose is both simple and elegant. To tell the story, Lahiri relies on sensory descriptions—describing the colors, shapes, smells, tastes, and sounds of every scene. As a result, the characters are exquisitely developed and it was easy for me care about them. As a reader, it is important the characters have depth and are not just empty devices to keep the plot moving. The novel is a genealogy, a Ganguli family history.

I have an uncanny connection to this story. When I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, I too changed my name like Gogol does. I went through the same court procedure that Gogol did to become Nikhil. My new name was actually my original name—the name my mother wanted to name me when I was born—my “good” name, as the Ganguli family calls it. My mother named me something much simpler after nurses pressured her to saying that people would think the name she originally wanted was strange and difficult to pronounce. The name is strange and difficult to pronounce but it is mine, and I made it legally so just a few years ago.

Deeper questions and themes continue to emerge for me the more I reflect on this novel. I feel that in order to fully appreciate it, it will require more than one reading. This book is worth reading for its masterful portrait of an immigrant family trying to find their identity and place in the world.

4 darts out of 5