Best books of 2017

An easy to use database (app) for finding best books by NPR. Use the filters on the left to narrow lists down:

https://apps.npr.org/best-books-2017/

The app features 374 books. 

Publisher's Weekly Top Ten,
https://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2017/top-10#book/book-10

Kirkus Review,
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/issue/best-of-2017/

Christmas Book Flood

In Iceland, there's a long tradition of giving books as gifts during the holidays. Iceland book gifting tradition is called "Jolabokaflod"
or "Christmas Book Flood." 

Each Icelander receives at least one book during the Christmas season. Gifts are typically opened on December 24th. Icelanders usually spend the night before Christmas reading.

This is what I want to do this year. No regular gifts. Just books. 

If you want to read more about Iceland, you may want to try these books:

Moss, Sarah. Names for the Sea.

https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/aldasigmunds/the-icelanders-and-their-big-love-of-books

Linchpin by Seth Godin

Seth Godwin urges us not to become cogs in a wheel. Those are not the kind of jobs that will last or that will bring satisfaction.

Instead, he urges employees to become linchpins--someone who brings something valuable and indispensable to the workplace. The employees which he also calls "artists" will be the the ones who will shape the future. 

Linchpins take an ordinary job and become innovators.

Godwin names several well-known linchpins: Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Richard Branson of Virgin.com but he also lists less well known ones, Anne Jackson Miller at flowerdust.net, Keith Johnson, a buyer at Anthropologie.

He explains why being good at what you do is not enough anymore. What employers need to be is more employees like Jay Parkinson, a medical innovator, Sasha Dichter, or Louis Monier who innovated their respective fields.

Though this is an older book, published in 2011. it's well worth reviewing at this time when many jobs are being replaced by automation. 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan Mcguire

The premise of Every Heart a Doorway is that the universe extends an invitation to certain children: a door to a new world. This new world, whether it be called Confection, or Prism, or Halls of the Dead is a magical place where the individual feels completely at home.

Some of these children are never seen again. Others are for whatever reason forced or told to return to real world for a short time. These children who have made this magical journey are heart-broken when they find themselves back in the real world

All of the students that end up at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children want desperately to find the door and the world that claimed them. 

Eleanor tells the parents of these children that she will offer group therapy and that she will shatter their delusions. Eleanor actually sees her school as a "way station." She wants nothing more than to help them find their door again, even if the odds are against it. 

Just as Nancy, a new student, learns to navigate her way around the school, the unthinkable happens. Her roommate, Sumi, is murdered, the body mutilated. 

Everyone suspect Jack (short for Jacqueline) because she has been to harsh world called the Moors. She and her twin sister were both in service to a Lord Vampire. 

When two more bodies appear, the magical fantasy becomes a mystery.

Seanan McGuire who also writes horror as Mira Grant blends genres in this slim, yet well-plotted fantasy.

Every Heart a Doorway won a Nebula award in 2016 for best novella as well as a Hugo award(2017)and Alex award (2017).

Penguin Random House debuts

Take a look at these exciting fictional debuts from Penguin Random House:


Debut Sampler
http://www.TinyURL.com/DebutSamplerFall17

Folk Healing

Some of the best fiction comes from Appalachia; most likely, because of their storytelling habits. I've always been fascinated by folk medicine, maybe because it is similar to what my ancestors did in Louisiana. One of my ancestors was a traiteur, or faith healer. Granted, this is different from folk healing practices in Appalachia, yet both relied on medicinal plants and faith. 

Lately,  its hard not to notice an explosion of taleneted Appalachian writers--authors like Amy Greene, Joni Agee, Ann Hite, Ron Rash, Wiley Cash, Robert Morgan, and Daniel Woodrell. 

These novels aren't simply set in Appalachia but are informed by the setting. These characters couldn't have lived anywhere else. In many cases, the folk  healing is a significant part of the story or other aspects of Appalachia--mining and its effects. 


Folk medicine:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40932250?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents


One of my favorite Appalachian novels, The River Wife. 
https://chantalreviews.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-river-wife-by-joni-agee.html

Soar by Joan Bauer

Listening to Joan Bauer speak about her latest middle grade novel, Soar, made me realize that I want to write hopeful novels as well.

Jeremiah in Soar faces a lot of adversity, a rocky start in life and a defective heart yet he pursues his dream of coaching a baseball team.

Bauer spoke about her days as a writer and how she got her first breakthrough after adversity--an injury that made her determined to write. She spoke of hearing the character's voice in her head. That character became the protagonist of Squashed, Bauer's first young adult book.

What the world needs, Bauer says, is more kindness and joy.

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (part 4)

Flora begins to have leadership problems with her crew when she accepts a man's place in the expedition for the money his sponsors can provide--Gilbert Ashbee.

Aniguin and her begin to drift apart after he returns from America. Armitage had taken him and a few other "eskimos" are tragically put on exhibit at the Natural History Museum.

This incident is reminiscent of events that actually occurred shortly after Robert Peary's 1897 expedition. Two books that chronicle the strange incident are Give Me Back My Father's Body: The Life of Minik and Minik: The New York Eskimo.

Aniguin does not seem to be based on Minik but some of the details are the same. In any event, the experience changes Aniguin as it had also changed Minik. 

Flora feels estranged from Aniguin when he returns to Greenland. Her old friend, Tateraq, has also changed. He leaves Flora to die on the ice.

At this time, there was intense competition to reach the Pole, so much so that some scientists were willing to fake their results. Real life fraudster, Frederick Cook, claimed to have reach the North Pole before Peary. 

His photographs and his story were later revealed to be hoaxes. Penney seems to base some of Armitage's chicanery on Cook or scientists like him. 

Armitage, of course, goes a step further by not only claiming to have made discoveries he never made. By destroying Jakob and Flora's records, he tries to obliterate their work.

Flora revels in the one thing Armitage cannot take away--her time with Jakob in the valley. Though this is a doomed love story, it is an incredibly rich look at at the life of two explorers who were willing to risk so much.

Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (Part 3)

In the last half of the novel, a novel primarily focused upon desire, Flora finds herself caught up in a love affair with Jakob. 

Their paths have crossed before. At Neqi, they felt a connection which resulted in a three year correspondence. 

In Jakob de Beyn, Flora finds and rejects the love of her life. She has a five-day affair with Jakob. Soon afterwards, when her husband becomes sick again with a paralytic stroke, Flora makes a choice. She refuses to see Jakob again. 

Here Flora resembles many of the Victorian and early twentieth century heroines literature so frequently portrays. There is a "price" she realizes she has to pay. She feels she owes a debt to her husband, Freddie, for funding her trip to the North.

Jakob, too, represses his desire for the illustrious "Snow Queen," as Flora is known. He chooses to become an engaged to a woman, Clara, who loves him as a friend. She is lesbian and will never desire him romantically.



(Part 2)
(Part 1)

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney, (Part 2)

This historical novel has an undeniable feminist bent. Flora gravitates towards a mentor who brings her to London and who helps her fulfill her long held desire to return to Ellesmere island. 

(photo by Noel Bauza, https://pixabay.com/en/users/Noel_Bauza-2019050/

Sadly, in order to secure funding she must make a marriage of convenience with a man who shares her interests but who does not love or cherish her. 

In becoming a "new woman" like her mentor, she has had to make some awful sacrifices. 

Flora marries Freddie, for one thing, whose influence and money help her return to the Arctic. Though Flora can continue pursuing her career, Freddie cruelly mistreats her.

Though Flora is a friend and advocate of the Inuit, she finds herself removing their mummified remains. Bringing Inuit remains to Europe would raise the importance of the expedition or so she thinks. 

(continued from Part 1)

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (Part 1)

If you want to read an astounding work of historical fiction with a feminist bent, read Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney.

What attracted me to this book, at first, was the story of a daughter accompanying her father on a polar expedition.

Somewhere I had heard that story before. Pictures of Robert Peary's daughter wrapped in furs came to mind.

Flora Mackie's story isn't based on Marie Peary's but some of the details match. The press made much of Marie Peary's allure. She became known world wide as the Snow Baby, as the Greenlanders called her.

In Stef Penney's novel Flora's story is sensationalized, too, except she is called the Snow Queen. Flora capitalizes on this to launch her return to the Arctic, a move her father does not support. 

(continued)

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The Royal Institute's Christmas Lectures

Initiated by Michael Faraday in 1826, the Royal Institute's Christmas Lectures on science continue to be produced in the present day. Many of the past episodes can be viewed on the web.

http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch

Learn many fascinating facts like we laugh. The 2017 lecture features "The Science of Laughter" with Sophie Scott. 

Scientific American has a wonderful article about Michael Faraday:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/christmas-with-faraday-the-chemical-history-of-a-candle/

Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West

This magical YA novel will have readers rooting for Bristal, an orphan raised by a cook. Bristal has a feisty, take-no-prisoners spirit that will resonate well with teens.

Even though she is kidnapped and forced into the Water, which has killed many, she refuses to lose hope.

Bristal chooses to work as an elicromancer after she is tested at the Water. Her mentor, Brack, gives her the choice which she accepts, even if there are many drawbacks. 

After training, she becomes a  a clandestine who can disguise herself as other people or animals. 

Her first assignment is to protect a princess but she soon finds herself taking the form of a boy and fighting with the Alliance against a group of rebel elicromancers.

Though being an elicromancer means forsaking love, she is taken with Anthony, the renegade Prince. 

Since she must save the lost duchess, create harmony among the warring kingdoms, and defeat Tamarice, Bristal knows she cannot allow herself to fall in love. 

Will love win out? 

Strange forces are at work throughout this novel. Bristal's past, her childhood in Poppleton, may be the key to helping her quell the evil uprising that threatens the kingdoms of Nissera, Calgoran, and Volarre.

Magic is strong but never underestimate the power of love.

Smart Clothes

Recently, Levis and Google have developed a Smart jacket that can connect to the Internet. The jacket is called a Commuter Trucker Jacket by Jaquard (https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/beazley-designs-of-the-year/fashion/levis-commuter-trucker-jacket-with-jacquard-by-google).

Those who wear the jacket can tap or swipe the jacket sleeve to access mobile services. The jacket can be washed (once the snap tag is removed).

Energy Action Month

October is Energy Action Month. 

What safe, renewable energy sources will be available to you in the future? Some researchers think that one day clothes--your T-shirt and jeans--may be able generate electricity. This electricity could be used to power devices e.g. cellphones. 

That sounds far-fetched but scientists at University of California at Berkeley have been working on this idea since 2010.
 
At the University of Georgia, Zhong Lin Wang and his team are trying to create a fabric that can harvest energy from the sun as well as motion.

Fabric that generates energy based on movement will use triboelectric nanogenerators. Fabric that generates solar energy would require photo anodes. 

Are we headed to a brave new world where our clothes will power our devices? 

More information about Energy Action Month for students and teachers can be found here,
 http://www.need.org/content.asp?contentid=175

http://www.energy.gov 

The Gracekeepers by Kristy Logan

The Gracekeepers by Kristy Logan is  a magical realistic novel that addresses rising sea levels--an event that will happen if the climate continues to change. 

After the sea levels have risen, colonies of people called "Damplings," permanently reside on ships. They are ostracized by "Landlockers" who trade with them but do not want to socialize with them.

A third more mysterious group of people, the
"Mer" people are forced to hide their existence. Landlockers kill "Mer" babies, who have gills or webbing between their fingers, out of fear. 

Logan pits one of these Mer people, Callanish, against the Landlocker culture that wishes to obliterate her kind. Logan also juxtaposes North, the "bear girl" from a dampling circus troupe, with Callanish.

This is a novel that expertly explores how prejudice, fear, and superstition can harm society.

Logan reserves her most biting criticism for her criticism of each group's religious affiliations. The Landlockers worship the World Tree, a kind of pagan worship, that involves processions. The damplings worship gods of the sea. 

Logan paints Christian "revivalist" ships, in a particularly gloomy light. She also decries the revivalist's image of a Virgin in blue robes.

Though there are few missteps, her overt distaste of religion, this is a captivating, powerful novel with intriguing characters that should not be missed.