This month’s selection just grabbed me. The cover shows obviously artistic illustration, always a plus for picture books. The concept is excellent. I like books with intelligence. Is that not what keeps people coming back to look again with picture books?

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

I want to mention this book, though I didn’t want to do a regular review. It is a book worth reading. Eli Pariser is the president and former executive director of the political organization MoveOn.org, in which five million members play an active part. The book is a warning about the trend of software giants towards personalizing user experience. This trend will change how the internet is used as a tool. It will become less of a learning experience, as websites serve up what is already familiar to us, unless we become much more active ourselves in searching for new things. An example that he uses often is Facebook, which already is choosing to hide some of our friends’ statuses without us having any idea about it or why. The purpose of the book is to bring awareness and encourage people to take action that will help them to not be directed into a narrow, stereotyped tunnel. Another concern regarding the personalization is the motivation behind it – commercializing the users’ data, which is trampling users’ rights and will obliterate privacy.

Book recommended for mature YA and adults.

This month’s selection is an autobiography by an excellent storyteller. It is a telling full of spirit and beauty, despite hard times. The author writes of his grandparents as much as he does his life. He writes of memories that played a part in his recognition of lost family heritage, a heritage that was there but hidden. The writing is deeply touching. Concepts considered evoke possibilities and questions about my own heritage.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

I am late posting this month, because my family was away on a two week trip. Somehow, I neglected to even think about books during our vacation. My good intentions flew out the window.

This month’s selection is a fictional account bringing to life details of the assimilation of young Native Americans into the European American culture. The artwork was the immediate draw for me, but the whole package is excellent.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

This month’s selection is another for younger readers. It is a sci fi novel in which a boy has a far out summer of scientific exploration. Time is manipulated, though not with specific intentions, and the boy is set for observation of life and the growth and development of living things – people, animals and plants.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

Seems like forever since I read a Pratchett book. There is no one like him for comedy. Took a while to get to this one. The wizards are not my favorites, plus sports are not my thing. But, as with every subject, you never know where Pratchett will go with it.

Slower getting started than usual, but I swear it must be Pratchett’s goal to be the most quotable author.

Ultra-Condensed

My selection this month is a comparison between two alphabet books by the same author. It’s been over 30 years since the 1st was published, but somehow I missed them when my kids were youngsters. Living in New England, I don’t know how it was possible to miss them.

1st review

2nd review

Current Pick and List of Previous

I rarely choose nonfiction for Book of the Month, but this is such a well thought out book and affirms much of what I have been thinking regarding the economy. It is a positive outlook, a plan of how to progress beyond our lingering funk. I believe it will resonate with many of the millennial generation and the one following. It can serve as a springboard for understanding the challenges with which we are faced and some steps that could lead us in a more stable direction.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

After reading a bio of Mary Harris Jones, I decided I wanted to make a crossword focusing on her amazing life, instead of doing a review. I’m hoping that some of the details will encourage people to read about her and the unions that improved the lives of generations of Americans.

I have been watching rights slip away from workers since the early 1990s. It is heartbreaking, because I know the struggle that people went through to achieve what we had. I’m talking about the misery of the conditions, the worry about survival financially while working, the risk of losing even those jobs,  the harassment and murdering of workers who protested, and the framing and imprisoning of those who tried to help. To think our people progressed so far and it is all being taken away so that extremely wealthy people can have more money and power. And mostly, our people seem to accept it. Read! Learn about the struggle to raise up our workers from the 1870s-1940s. Then, see if that doesn’t affect how or if you vote or act.

CROSSWORD

This month’s selection features a popular illustrator, but the main attraction for me is the theme. It is an animal book with attention to habitat and variety. The main theme is the necessity of water, and creativity and concern for those nearby are nice inclusions.

Also notice the publisher, which is one of my favorite small publishers. They also produced An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Aston and il by Sylvia Long, When Pigasso Met Mootisse  by Nina Laden, Private I. Guana by Nina Laden, the Amazing Animal series, All Mixed Up By Carin Berger, and Art Activity Packs by Mila Boutan. The publishers attraction for me is their nature, art and multicultural books. In browsing, I noticed other books I’ve seen and not reviewed and books I want to see, including some of the ABC books. I encourage you to browse their selection.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous