Search

Search only in certain items:

Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions
Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions
Valeria Luiselli | 2017 | Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A human portrait of child migrants
With the world being shaped by migration, this essay comes at a timely fashion. Exploring the nuances of this reality, Valeria Luiselli, a skilful and gifted Mexican writer knows the migratory experience first-hand having travelled across the globe. This compassionate, short book finds her in a head-on confrontation with daily reality.

Based on her experiences working as an interpreter for dozens of Central American child migrants, she speaks to those who risked their lives crossing Mexico to escape their fraught existence back home. To stay in the US, each must be vetted by the Citizenship and Immigration Services, a vast, impersonal bureaucracy. It's her job to help these kids, but in order to do so, they must answer 40 questions that will determine their fate.

The truth about the crossing may be much more brutal in reality, with 80% of women and girls who cross from Mexico to the US being raped, hence some of the children appear evasive when answering questions. But this book is fueled, in no small part, by Luiselli's bottles up shame and rage. She's aghast at the gap between American ideals and the way they actually treat undocumented children, yet her writing is measured and fair-minded.

Luiselli takes us inside the grand dream of migration, offering the valuable reminder that exceedingly few immigrants abandon their past and brave death to come to America for dark or nasty reasons. Fantastic read.
  
40x40

Merissa (13132 KP) rated Unlike Any Other by Ed Londergan in Books

May 18, 2022 (Updated Jun 19, 2023)  
Unlike Any Other by Ed Londergan
Unlike Any Other by Ed Londergan
Ed Londergan | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
UNLIKE ANY OTHER is the story of Bathsheba Spooner, the first woman to be executed in the new United States of America. You find out, through her eyes, what it was like to live a life of privilege, to be passed on in an arranged marriage, to have all her hopes and dreams dashed, to a point where murder is the only way out.

Bathsheba was brought up to speak her mind, to be strong-spirited. She had dreams of marrying a wealthy man from Boston and joining Society. So when she finds out her father has arranged a marriage to a local merchant, she's not happy but eventually agrees to it. Her marriage isn't a happy one, with Joshua frequenting the local taverns more than he does his home. That doesn't stop him from his conjugal rights though. When a young man, half of Bathsheba's age, stays at their home to recover from an illness, she feels the stirrings of desire she hasn't felt for a long time.

This was a well-written piece of history that I thoroughly enjoyed. I found out more about what it was like for the people of America at that time, as well as the Boston Tea Party! Bathsheba's options were so limited at a time when a woman's rights were close to zero. I do wonder why she didn't contact her brother but, at a time when the war was dividing families, I guess I'm not 100% surprised.

I would have liked to have heard a little from Ezra Ross but maybe there isn't enough written from his account to tell his story.

A historical fiction based on a true story that I have no hesitation in recommending.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 12, 2022
  
Fables: Volume 1: Legends in Exile
Fables: Volume 1: Legends in Exile
Bill Willingham | 2002 | Comics & Graphic Novels
8
7.3 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Ed. Note: this review was based on a re-reading, some years after the first reading.</i>

So, prior to writing this review, I wanted to peruse the reviews on here, to see what others said, reducing the risk of writing something already said. What I found were a number of 1-Star reviews, something I found to be quite surprising!

Not every comic (or book, for that matter) will necessarily start with an amazing first arc. It may be good, yes, but it could also be polished in spots. However, despite little things that could be better, the overall content should be seen as good enough to warrant reading the second story arc.

That is how I felt at the conclusion of this first volume, a mystery of sorts that also served to introduce us to a number of characters who go on to appear as series regulars. Sure, the dialogue was not perfect (really? Comparing it to Gaiman's SANDMAN? Like trying to compare RICK & MORTY to THE LAST UNICORN!), but I can safely say that the series matures, like a well-aged wine, and later issues are much, much better.

Long and short: it's an urban fantasy with the fables we grew up with. Go in without an judgments or comparisons, and you might be pleasantly surprised. Jus' sayin'..