Just. One. Book.

Margaret at the blog Throwing Chanclas recently shared the plight of a school in her neighborhood:

The local junior/senior high school has not been able to purchase new books since the 90s. Some of the "check outs" for old books are in the 1980s. There are no books by people of color in the library. Hardly any books by women are in the few book cases except your standard Austen and Lee. It's an uninviting place. There hasn't been a librarian for nearly a decade. And volunteers weren't allowed. The last eight years students couldn't even check out books.

But all that is changing now.

Margaret is now collecting books for the library. Let's help out! You can donate books via their Amazon wishlist or by sending books directly to the address below. For more informaion, please email Margaret and visit her blog.

Greenville High School/Indian Valley Academy
Library Project Attn: Margaret Garcia
117 Grand Street
Greenville, CA 95947

If sending during the month of July, when school is closed, please send to:

Library Project/Margaret Garcia
PO Box 585
Greenville, CA 95947

Boys Among Men: How the Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution by Jonathan Abrams

"Moses Malone’s leap from high school did not immediately change professional basketball’s landscape. In a hierarchy of natural progression, players starred in high school and made their names in college before graduating to the pros. Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby jumped to the NBA from high school a year after Malone’s decision. Malone joined the NBA in 1976, when the league absorbed much of the ABA, and carved out a Hall of Fame career. But Dawkins and Willoughby provided cautionary tales for different reasons as to why teenagers, both physically and mentally, were not prepared for the NBA’s rigors.

"That thought persisted until a lanky teenager named Kevin Garnett reopened the dormant door in 1995. The game had been transformed by the time of Garnett’s arrival. Players commanded millions in salary, a large jump from $130,000—the average salary of an NBA player in 1976. Malone’s decision ultimately birthed the route into the NBA for one of the game’s greatest group of players, from Garnett to Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard. They grew into stardom, while quickly advancing from their proms to playing against grown men whose paychecks accounted for how they fed their families."

Over the past two decades, some of these players succeeded. Others who chose this path managed to carve out lengthy but not especially noteworthy careers, while a few became synonymous with the word bust. Jonathan Abrams' Boys Among Men: How the Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution takes a close look at the sometimes triumphant, sometimes sketchy, and sometimes tragic stories of players and their varying experiences. Based on interviews with players, coaches, agents, scouts, front office personnel, and others close the the game, Abrams gives fans a close up look at the prep-to-pro players and the behind the scenes maneuvering that surrounded them during the decade-plus, 1995 to 2006, that changed the NBA.

As someone who is not much of a basketball fan and is picky about the sports books I read, I have to say, this book was fascinating. Abrams, who previously wrote for newspapers and the late, great Grantland--a stint that also gave us the definitive oral history of the Malice at the Palace--here profiles a group of phenomenal athletes. But he never loses sight of the fact that in spite of their abilities, these young men were still all too human.

Book Info
Boys Among Men: How the Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution by Jonathan Abrams
Adult Nonfiction
Published 2016 by Random House
Hardcover ISBN: 9780804139250

The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

Steve knows that there is something wrong with the baby. The baby is sick. Really sick. Deep down sick. They don't know if he is going to make it sick. His parents don't want to talk about it with him, but he sees the trips to the hospital, hears bits and pieces from his parents conversations, and most of all - the haggard look of his parents. Steve's concern starts to grow, especially as he has dreams about the wasps building their nest outside the baby's window. The Queen claims to be able to help, but at what cost?

Oppel has written a wonderful and thoughtful book with terrific illustrations by Jon Klassen. I highly recommend for those who enjoy slightly dark and disturbing tales.

Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo by Brian Falkner

How would dinosaurs have affected the course of history assuming they had managed to survive and coexist with man? This is the premise of this great new YA novel by Brian Falkner set in early nineteenth century Europe.

Here by Richard McGuire

Fifteen years in the making, the graphic novel Here is unlike anything I've ever read.

After hearing tales from people who've been watching this masterpiece unfold through RAW magazine, I'm jealous that I only discovered it in its more complete form.

It's somewhat difficult to describe, and at first you might think to yourself "What is this thing?" Especially if you're like me and used to a more conventional graphic novel format.

Fixed on one viewpoint, in a corner of a room, Here depicts what has happened in that little corner throughout the ages. On one page we might see 1957, surrounding it we might see 1893, then on the next panel we might see 300,000,000 BCE.

Confused? Don't be, once you get into it, you will be hooked.

EXQUISITE CORPSE by Pénélope Bagieu

The tagline for this one reads "Dying to be an author", and it only makes sense once you hit the ending, pretty much.

With the title of Exquisite Corpse, I had partially anticipated a collaboratively written manuscript, since the term "exquisite corpse" or "exquisite cadaver" is applied to stories that are compiled in sequence by a variety of authors, usually using some particular rule or rules that have been agreed upon. This book is really and truly not that, and yet the title makes complete sense. I would, however, have to spoil the ending for you, and I prefer not to.

The North Water by Ian McGuire

“Flensing” refers to the stripping of blubber from a whale. The word occurs frequently in Ian McGuire’s brutal and powerful novel The North Water. Flensing is also an apt description of the experience of reading this historical work, set in the dying days of the nineteenth-century whaling boom. McGuire cleanses nothing from his description of the odors, fluids, and fetid reality of life both on and off the whaling ship Volunteer. No one—neither reader nor any of the characters—leaves this novel clean, physically or morally. If the publishers seek a blurb for the paperback edition, I offer this: “A viscous read.”

The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity

Eugene Linden has written several books and articles about animal intelligence and environmental issues. This sequel to his The Parrot's Lament discusses scientific concepts and interesting puzzles related to animal intelligence. He has interesting tales of clever octopuses, orangutan escape artists, and penguins mimicking scientists in Antarctica. Observations of empathy, deception, and cooperation led Linden to focus, in The Octopus and the Orangutan, "on what intelligence does." I have not read The Parrot's Lament yet, but I probably will.

On the occasion in question, the little orangutan (named Siti) was trying to eat a coconut, an arduous process that involved chewing off the husk and then poking a finger through one of the "eyes" to get at the milk and meat. After chewing and poking through one eye, the little orang got tired and handed the coconut to an Indonesian named Nian. Russon was observing the scene and saw several split remains of coconut scattered around, suggesting that the assistant had cut open coconuts with his machete for the young orangutan on previous occasions.

This was a no-no, since the animals would not have access to room service in the wild. With Russon present, the assistant was not going to risk breaking the rules and sheepishly handed the coconut back to the young female. The young orang made another half-hearted try and then handed it back to the assistant. He handed it back to Siti.

The Raven Cycle Concludes

Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series of YA fantasy books concludes with the fourth book in the series, The Raven King. The Raven Cycle opened with The Raven Boys (GLW review) and was followed by The Dream Theives (GLW review) and Blue, Lily, Lily, Blue (GLW review). Put together they represent an epic achievement in young adult fantasy literature.

A quick synopsis is difficult, not only because The Raven King comes at the end of the series, but because the whole Raven Cycle is so rich and so strange. Blue Sargent is a high school kid who lives with her mother, a psychic and several other women psychics who do readings and other supernatural services for ctizens in the town of Henrietta, VA. Blue isn't psychic herself but she tends to amplify the psychic abilities of those around her. She's been told lots of things by her mother and the other psychic women. For one: don't hang around with Raven Boys--the name given to students at Aglionby, the exclusive all boys boarding school in town. For another: Blue is told if she kisses her true love, he will die. These are good psychics and Blue is pretty convinced that they are right.

So, of course, she starts hanging out with a group of Raven boys and inevitably falls in love with one of them.

CHARACTER, DRIVEN by David Lubar

A book written in the first person narrative style indicates that the story is being told by one of the characters in the book.  In most such stories, readers know that the author is telling the story by voicing the characters thoughts.  CHARACTER, DRIVEN by David Lubar had me feeling differently.  Cliff tells the story, and I had a definite feeling that Cliff frequently surprised author David Lubar with the direction of his thoughts.  This novel feels as if it was literally "character driven."

Maybe I'm wrong about what I wrote in the paragraph above, but having given writing assignments to my high school students encouraging them to let the character take over, and having experienced the phenomenon when working on my own writing, I have to wonder if Lubar felt pulled through this story by Cliff himself.