Non-Fiction for the Summer

 How to Fight Racism by Jemar Tisby

As a student of Racial Reconciliation, I studied this book along with others in a small group setting.  The purpose was to hear from a Black activist author who could challenge us to take another step in understanding and doing something about racism in our own spheres.  His three basic steps?  Awareness (head), Relationships (heart), Commitment (hands). 

Tisby calls this the ARC of social justice.  In our discussions we determined where we each were in this ARC.  Since I have been involved in the awareness part for the past few years, my decision next is to figure out where I can be involved in relationships with other ethnic groups.  I must know other people who are from different cultures, different political views, different faiths.  When you become friends with those that look at the world differently, it is harder to judge their ethnicity with blanket statements or with dismissals or with historical biases. After reading the segment on commitment, my heart wants to put action to my feelings; so I am hoping to gather some facts about voting in the Kalamazoo area, and possibly plan a Voting Registration event before the 2022 election.

Blackout by Candace Owens

Encouraged by my brother to understand both sides of the Racism battle, I began this read concurrently with the Tisby book.  Both authors are black, both authors are Christians, both authors are firm in their beliefs concerning the history of black America.  But...they disagree on systemic racism, on politics, on welfare, on how the Blacks have been cheated by the promises of "the other side".  

Frankly, I was confused.  It re-affirmed that our country is extremely polarized.  Owens agrees that slavery was oppressive, but refuses to concede that our laws were enacted by white men with the goal of keeping whites in the power positions.  She believes that Black people should be able to dig out of their poverty by working harder, not living on welfare...just as she did. Her main objective in writing this book was to present to her Black brothers and sisters, the need to leave the Democratic party in order to be "saved" by the Republican platform.  What is more important to me than her goal is to admit that we all have different viewpoints, because of our various backgrounds and privileges, and we desperately must learn how to compromise, how to problem solve, and how to somehow merge the Left with the Right and meet somewhere in the middle.  To attack either side and refuse to budge doesn't help our country.  I think I enjoyed the Tisby book because it gave me more valuable insight on how to take part in change, not just to make a decision about which side is right or wrong.  Owens gives a convincing argument, but her tone bothers me.

June Reads

 Chasing North Star by Heidi McCrary

Five children growing up in a dysfunctional home.  Not very newsworthy today, however when it is about kids that you went to school with in the 1960's, it feels different...and sad. Alamo, Michigan is a tiny 4 stop sign town about seven miles from our home.  

Most of my best friends grew up there.  I recognized almost all of the favorite locations that the Phillips family frequented:  the Allegan County Fair, the Congregational Church where my husband served as pastor a few years back, Miller's grocery store, the gas station where the men gathered, the firehouse, the cemetery and even the rest area.  All of these familiar spots, yet never knowing the continual trauma that went on in this home due to the mother's mental illness. 

The author, in her debut autobiographical novel as the youngest sibling, brings us face to face with the turmoil and pain that was a normal part of their lives; but she also brings to light the love and protection that existed between her brothers and sisters who worked hard to shield one another from the abuse and rage that her mom exhibited.

I enjoyed this story even though it was a difficult read.  My takeaway is the familiar adage "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about."

The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand is well known for her light and breezy summer novels about life on Nantucket Island. 

This one delves into a murder mystery that happens at an exclusive summer home owned by the parents of the groom....on the morning of the wedding....to the Maid of Honor!!  I thoroughly enjoyed this very quick read.  Her format was the investigation and interrogation by the Chief of Police and the local detective of all the guests at the reception.  Of course, the reader learns the history of many quirky characters and the secrets that they keep from one another.  Hilderbrand does a great job, even in a murder story, with making me smile.  I also appreciate that she keeps her language clean, not needing to drop the F bomb at every turn of the page.  This kept me guessing and plotting, and I was even a bit surprised at the ending!  Kudos!!

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitan

Question:  How does a twelve year old boy move forward in his life as the lone survivor of an airplane crash that kills 191 people...especially when three of those victims were his family?  Answer:  Little by little with the support of people who desperately want him to heal.   

 Ann Napolitan crafts an unusual story.  One of my high anxiety moments is getting on a plane, but I choose to do it because my grandkiddos live in CA and it a necessity for me to see them!  So imagine my difficulty in opening the first chapter and realizing that the author will give us a "play by play" of the hours preceding the crash.  It took me a few days to pick this book back up, but it was a deeply worthwhile decision.  Not only does the reader get a glimpse into the lives of everyday people traveling to Los Angeles with hopes and dreams for their futures; but the singular story of Eddie trying to find his hopes and dreams again is heart wrenching as well as uplifting.

When Eddie wakes up in the sterile hospital room to see his stricken aunt and uncle, ready to step into their new parental roles (roles that will be an uphill, day by day struggle), he is numb with denial and pain.  Not wanting to move into their "nursery", a reminder of the many losses his aunt has suffered through miscarriages, Eddie chooses to find solace at the neighbor's home.  His sleeplessness can only be reversed on the sleeping bag of Shay's bedroom floor each evening.  Shay, also twelve, seems to be the one person who can allow Edward (renamed by his aunt) to be himself --and Shay definitely remains herself: brutally frank with questions about his brother Jordan, about the flight, about the "idiot" kids at school, about pushing him to move ahead when he is unsure.  Edward doesn't need to tiptoe around Shay as he does so many others, so their relationship gives some normalcy back to his upended life.

So many others step into Edward's world to fill in little pieces of his emptiness.  Compassionate Principal Arundhi offers a small job of fern-caring to Edward, not only sharing his joy in flora, but also knowing that Edward might find some peace in developing an interest in something.  Ever protective Uncle John eventually discovers ways to communicate better, bringing honesty and vulnerability into Edward's healing.  Patient therapist Dr. Mike offers small steps of counsel when Edward wonders why he continues to think about the crash on a daily basis after three years: "What happened is baked into your bones, Edward.  It lives under your skin.  It's not going away.  It's part of you and will be part of you every moment until you die.  What you've been working on, since the first time I met you, is learning to live with that."  Having experienced the deaths of my two sisters, this line deeply resonated with me.  As I muddled through several years of pain, this truth became firmly imbedded:   loss does not go away, it becomes a part of your story....but somehow, at some point, God gives the wisdom to learn to live with it.  

Juliane Diller had to learn this truth.  In 1971 she fell from a burning plane, still strapped to her seat, after lightening struck the wing.  This 17 year old had to summon the courage to find her way out of the Peruvian jungle on her own....the sole survivor of the 86 passenger crash. One victim was her mother, who sat right next to her as the plane descended.  Her story is also one of learning to live every day with her memories and loss...just like Edward.  

Sometimes truth is just as strange as fiction.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

 "The tale I am going to tell is of a summer long ago. Of killing and kidnapping and children pursued by demons of a thousand names. There will be courage in this story and cowardice. There will be love and betrayal. And, of course, there will be hope. In the end, isn't that what every good story is about?"

And so begins twelve year old Odie's powerful saga of adventure, of longings, of survival, of kindness, of evil, of friendship, of adversity, and of course, hope. In the summer of 1932, four desperate orphans race away from a place of terror and abuse, the Lincoln Indian School, set on the banks of the Gilead River in Minnesota.  Along with adventuresome Odie and his more sensible older brother Albert, they bring along their best friend Mose  as well as heartbroken little Emmy (who had recently lost her mother). As these self titled "Vagabonds" begin their journey, their sole purpose is in fleeing to the Mississippi River and heading south; not really having a clear purpose or destination, just to get away from the oppression they had been under and a deadly accident that had occurred. Literally running for their lives, none of the children have any idea what dangers they might encounter in that stolen canoe,  or if they have the fortitude to survive on their own.

After publishing "Ordinary Grace" in 2013, William Kent Krueger followed with a manuscript somewhat related to that novel which he entitled "This Tender Land".  However, after some consideration, he abandoned the project to begin again with a different concept. This extraordinary tale is the result of that re-write.  Kudos to this author who knew when to "abandon ship" and pick up the pieces in a different way.  It says something to me about Krueger and how he develops his characters to also "pick up the pieces" when they run into adversity.  Adversity shows up in many forms to these wanderers as America is digging out of the effects of the Great Depression.  They had already experienced it in the treatment of the Indian children being stolen away from their parents and sent to the orphanage.  The children also saw adversity in the many communities along the Mississippi, where tent cities had sprung up - Hoovervilles for the homeless.  They saw it in the anger and bitterness of many who turned to drink or crime, and the Vagabonds were  sometimes the recipients of that rage.  But they were  also the recipients of grace and love from strangers who had overcome adversity and chosen a different way to walk through it.  Some would call this the American Spirit.  Others refer to it as the grace and healing of God.

Any real adventure involves change when adversity hits and circumstances shift.  As the Vagabonds travel, their friendship with one another evolves.  They drift apart, then draw close.  They work together to formulate a plan to get to relatives in St. Louis.  They lean on one another, then open their circle and begin to trust others.  They take risks. They grow up.  Odie realizes this as he muses, "It began to feel to me as if what had been broken was coming together again, but I knew it would never be exactly the same.  With every turn of the river, we were changing, becoming different people, and for the first time I understood that the journey we were on wasn't just about getting to Saint Louis".  

Hoping we all have the ability to face our summer adventures from Odie's wise perspective!