Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This is a book that I use in my AP class. I've been looking for an excuse to read it for a long time, as it's always sounded interesting. Tara Westover grew up in Idaho. Her parents were something of doomsday preparers, taking the religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to an extreme. They believed fervently in preparing for the End Times, stockpiling food, fuel, and other supplies, and making their best effort to go off grid. Westover's father also deeply mistrusted the U.S. government and what he called "the Medical Establishment." Even after horrendous accidents, the family rarely visited hospitals or saw doctors. Westover was also kept out of school. Things began to change for her once she started suffering horrific abuse from her older brother Shawn. After taking the ACT, and earning a scholarship to BYU, Westover started to realize that the world was so much wider than her father's. As she discovered herself, she lost her family, fin...

 My coworkers were all reading this, and I have to say that I'm fascinated by the royal family, so I gave into temptation and listened to this on Audible. Listening to the audio book was totally the way to go, since Prince Harry reads it himself. Spare  by Prince Harry is a heartbreaking memoir outlining Harry's treatment by the British tabloids. He outlines his experiences with the tabloids from the time his mother died until his departure from the royal family. This fascinating memoir gives an inside look into the workings of the royal family, and their relationships with the press. The memoir certainly makes it look as if all is not well in the house of Windsor, and attempts to set the record straight (from Harry's perspective) of what happened among the family members. Overall, I did enjoy this book. I loved the way Harry writes (and because I listened to it, the way he reads). I found his descriptions of events and places beautiful, and wish I could use it in AP! His p...

I read this novel for Battle of the Books, but I also wanted to read it. I keep trying Sepetys novels, thinking I'm really going to like them, and then finding myself disappointed. This novel was an exception. This is probably the best Sepetys novel I've read so far. I Must Betray You is the story of Romania behind the Iron Curtain. Christian Florescu is seventeen. His grandfather, an intellectual, questions the current regime, and Christian finds himself agreeing. Romanians are struggling; waiting in long lines hoping for food, spies everywhere, never knowing who's an informer and who isn't. Amidst these tensions, Christian is confronted by an agent of the secret police and blackmailed into informing on Dan Van Dorn, the son of the American Ambassador. Stuck between his beliefs and his fear, Christian does as he's told, hoping that he can dupe the agent. I loved this book, more than any other Sepetys novel I've read. While Sepetys excels at many things in her w...

I read this book to prepare for AP next year to use as one of my lit circle selections toward the end of the year. Just Mercy  details the case of Walter McMillian, a black man convicted of capital murder in Alabama in the late 1980s. The issue - Walter didn't commit the murder that prosecutors illegally pinned on him. The author, Bryan Stevenson, started a nonprofit in Alabama specifically to help people like Walter, and other death row inmates who had inadequate legal counsel when sentenced. As Stevenson outlines the many setbacks and the failures of the courts to listen to Walter's innocence, he also details other work that he did during the six years it took to secure Walter's release. Stevenson works with youth who were detained and sentenced to life in prison (even for non-homicide offenses), women, and other underrepresented populations who lack access to proper legal counsel and therefore end up in prison for far longer than they deserve to be. This book pleads with...

 This was another book club read for our team book club. I don't read much non-fiction, and I didn't know who Trevor Noah was before reading the book, but overall, I did end up enjoying this memoir. Trevor Noah, a successful South African comedian, tells the story of how in Apartheid South Africa, his birth was against the law. Noah explores his race and how that influenced his identity as well as the race of his mother, his father, and the rest of his family. He explores his relationships with his mother in particular, as she was central to his life, and ended up being shot in the head (but surviving) by his step father. Overall, this was a light-hearted take on the deep racial divides that existed in South Africa during Apartheid. I didn't know much about Apartheid going into the book, and I'm glad I was able to understand more of what South Africa was like during that time. Despite the serious topics that Noah touches on, domestic violence, abuse, race, the book does...