Soul Eater, Vol. 1

Ohkubo, Atsushi. Soul Eater, Vol. 1. 2009. 208p. ISBN 9780759530010. Available in the graphic section of the library.

Shinigami-Sama is Death incarnate, and he employs many agents to harvest the souls of humans and monsters. Known as weapon meisters, these agents partner with living weapons to accomplish these goals. Maka is one such weapon meister, and her partner, named Soul Eater, is a powerful death scythe. At 99 souls already devoured, Soul Eater only needs to eat one more, that of a witch to complete his transformation into Death’s ultimate weapon. Unfortunately, the witch they encounter is not ready to lose her soul.

Black Star and his weapon, Tsubaki, have yet to collect even one soul, so Shinigami-Sama sends them on a delicate mission to capture a witch and her human bodyguard, whose soul is strong enough to be worth 99 normal souls. Unfortunately, Black Star is such a show off that collecting these two souls will prove tricky.

Finally, Death the Kid, Shinigami-Sama’s own son, fights with twin revolvers Liz and Patty, sisters, has a very unhealthy relationship with symmetry, which causes him all sorts of trouble.

The three of them must face off against the strange and deadly enemies of the underworld to complete Shinigami-Sama’s objectives, but their own interests and quirks are likely to undermine their abilities to do just that!

The story continues in Soul Eater 2.

Crows & Cards

Helgerson, Joseph. Crows & Cards. 2009. 348p. ISBN 9780618883950. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

In the 1830s on the bank of the Mississippi, Zebulon Crabtree is old enough to leave home and find himself a trade. At least, his parents think so. With many mouths to feed at home, they believe it’s time for the boy to go make something of himself. And since he’s afraid of water, of heights, of splinters, and of just about anything, Zeb is turning down every idea his father throws at him. Which is why Zeb finds himself on a riverboat on the Mississippi River heading south to St. Louis where he will be an apprentice to his uncle, who is a tanner. Being allergic to fur is just too bad for him.

Zeb doesn’t plan on following through with his parents’ plan, however. On board the boat he meets Chilly, a pure gentleman of the South. Hearing of Zeb’s unfortunate destiny, Chilly offers to take Zeb up as an apprentice in exchange for the $70 he was supposed to give to his uncle. Chilly is a gambler extraordinaire, and he tells Zeb he can introduce him to the life of the Brotherhood, a group that takes money from the rich and gives it to the poor orphans. Of course, none of that is true, but Zeb is enough of a rube to fall for it.

Soon Zeb finds himself the unwitting accomplice of a man bent on fleecing most of St. Louis in his gambling den. Zeb runs a telegraph, a wire that tells Chilly the cards his opponent has so that he can make the appropriate bets. But in this sea of denizens, Zeb also meets a slave cook who looks out for him, and old professor versed in the art of cheating, a con artist running a medicine show, as well as an ancient Indian chief and his pretty princess daughter. Though blind, the old man can see through the spirits, and Chilly is more than eager to try to win the gold crown he received from the King of Prussia. Zeb’s ride through St. Louis will be a memorable one!

This Is Just a Test

Rosenberg, Madelyn and Wendy Wan-Long Shang. This Is Just a Test. 2017. 244p. ISBN 978-1-338-03772-2. Available at FIC ROS on the library shelves.

As the only Chinese Jew he knows aside from his sister, David Da-Wei Horowitz feels very different from everyone else, especially as he’s preparing his bar mitzvah. David’s mother is Chinese, and her mother lives with them. David’s father is Jewish, and his mother lives a few blocks away from them in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Both grandmothers are always competing against each other to see who can cook the better dish, who can better care for the family, and who is loved more. David feels like a ping pong ball between the two of them, always trying to avoid offending either grandmother. Each grandmother endeavors to win David’s affection but rather successfully manage to embarrass him.

At school, David and best friend Hector are mostly ignored by the others, but when heartthrob Scott asks them to join his school trivia team, David jumps at the chance. He hopes to learn how to talk to the girl he likes, Kelli Ann. The three of them begin getting together to practice. Stressed about the upcoming school trivia tournament, David is also worried about his bar mitzvah, especially since both grandmothers are trying to plan it for him, and it has to top his cousin Jacob’s own celebration last year. However, looming larger in David’s mind is the possibility of nuclear annihilation. In this year 1983, both Americans and Soviets are facing each other in a Cold War, and each side has enough nuclear weapons to achieve mutually assured destruction. David is constantly worried that the bombs are about to fly, especially after watching a television special, The Day After. He decides to help Scott build a nuclear shelter in Scott’s back yard, where there will only be room for two, as Scott finds Hector weird. Can David reconcile his friends and manage to avoid dying of embarrassment at his bar mitzvah, or will the Soviets launch a nuclear attack and end it all?

The stress on children of living in the Cold War is palpable in this entertaining book. For other books representing life during the cold war, take a look either at A Night Divided, another historical book where an oppressive society, in this case East Germany, attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens and how a teenage girl fights back, or at The Enemy, taking place in the United States in the 1950s.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 327p. 665 mins. Available both at FIC TWA the library shelves as an eBook and an audiobook from Overdrive.

Huckleberry Finn enjoys experiencing adventures with Tom Sawyer, because he never knows what to expect. That’s also true of his father, the town drunk who is always looking for easy money. In their prior adventure together, Huck and Tom had earned the significant sum of $6,000 each. Huck’s money has been entrusted with the local judge, and he himself has been placed in the custody of the widow Douglas for the purpose of civilizing him.

Sprung from this dreary existence of Church and learning by Tom, Huck joins his merry gang and spends some time before being captured by his alcoholic father. Taken to a remote cabin until he gets the money for his dad, Huck manages to escape and fakes his own death. He lands on an island in the Mississippi River, only to stumble upon Jim, old slave to widow Douglas. As a runaway slave, Jim can expect punishment or death if he’s caught.

Huck and Jim soon engineer a plan. They will go down the river until the Ohio, then travel northeast until Jim reaches a free state. That morning, though, Huck and Jim notice a boat on the river using dynamite. They are looking for his body! Huck and Jim head down the river, and thus begins a series of adventures that will sorely try Huck and Jim, including escaping hustlers, springing Jim free from prison, bad weather, and memorable encounters as they head down the river.

A classic of American literature, Huck Finn remains controversial for its language use but reflects the era in which it was written. It also proves that despite more than 150 years between the time the book takes place and today, boys will continue to be boys!

Lair of Dreams

Bray, Libba. Lair of Dreams. Book 2 of the Diviners series. 2015. 613p. ISBN 978-0-316-12604-5. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

When Evie O’Neill and her friends solved the ritualistic murders that were taking place in New York City in 1926, she proclaimed to all who would listen that she was a Diviner, one of the folks who possess rare talents such as being able to divine the future, or, in her case, tell the past through holding an object. Her public announcement caused a rift between herself and her uncle Will, but led to her hiring for a radio show. As America’s Sweetheart Seer, Evie parties hard and manages to spend a few days in each hotel before being evicted for being loud, inconsiderate, or simply not the type of customer the place wants.

Meanwhile, things are still gloomy at the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult. Sam Lloyd is still searching for answers on Project Buffalo, and he’s convinced that Will knows more than he lets on. Jericho struggles with Evie’s rejection and Mabel’s obvious interest and is unsure of his next step as the only man-machine combination. Memphis continues to be tormented by his ability to heal while he watches his younger brother Isaiah develop his ability to predict the future.

Theta Knight and Henry DuBois IV pursue their musical careers, but Theta’s fear of losing control of a secret power she wields forces her to distance herself from her relationship with Memphis. Henry, for his part, continues to search for his lover. In a dream, he meets Chinatown resident Ling Chan, who, like him can travel in other people’s dreams. The daughter of a Chinese man and an Irish woman, Ling lost the partial use of her legs due to sickness and now must walk about on crutches. In her dreams, though, she does not have to.

A mysterious disease begins to spread through New York City, first in Chinatown, then elsewhere. People fall asleep, and cannot be woken up. Eventually, boils appear on their bodies and they die, seemingly burned from the inside out. In their dreams, both Henry and Ling encounter a Chinese girl coming to the United States to marry a rich husband in New York. As more and more people succumb to the sleeping sickness, the Diviners realize that this girl is somehow involved. In the shadows, a mysterious government agency is attempting to find all the Diviners. And in the background, the man with the black stovepipe pulls the strings. Can the Diviners stop the sleep sickness before it strikes one of them?

The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 3

Houoto, Aya. The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 3. 2013. 164p. ISBN 978-1-42157964-1. Available in the graphic section of the library.

Having brought four friends over to Momochi House for the the first time, Aoi has told Himari that one of them is in fact a spirit who is feeding fast on the energy of the House and will transform into a demon if not stopped. Himari must devise a plan to discover who it is without revealing that she is on to the soon-to-be demon. When she realizes that Torii cannot be seen by the others, Himari knows she has found her spirit. She quickly discovers that Torii was not alone, however, but was motivated by Kasha, a powerful Ayakashi who controls the black flames of death.

Himari manages to defeat Kasha, but not before he leaves a trap for Aoi. Now the Nue, Aoi is caught in Kasha’s dark webs, and it takes all of Himari’s power to finally defeat him. Aoi learns that he is now more Ayakashi than human, and the other side beacons.

One of the Nue’s jobs is to reseal the gates that keep demons imprisoned. In a bizarre ceremony, the Nue is invested by the spirit of the evil demon Soga. The demon proves too strong, however, and the Nue is unable to shake it off until Himari’s life is threatened. She is the key to his happiness and to his grounding in the human world. But will that be enough to keep him here?

The story continues in The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 4.

Come On In, America: The United States in World War I

Osborne, Linda Barrett. Come On In, America: The United States in World War I. 2017. 170p. ISBN 1-41972378-2. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Starting in the 1890s, the industrial and economic might of the United States began to exert itself. As the world powers collided in 1914, none of them could imagine how long and destructive the war would be. As it dragged on, however, both sides fighting in Europe, the Central Powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire against the Allies of Britain, France, Italy, and Russia, hoped to keep the United States out of the war. The Allies purchased war material from the Americans, but a majority of Americans did not want to get involved. With large immigrant populations coming from both sides, the country had divided loyalties.

With a British blockade of Germany, the Germans announced unrestricted submarine warfare. The sinking of the Lusitania with 1,200 casualties including over 120 American victims, moved the country ever so closer to war. Further submarine attacks were enough to trigger the United States’ entry in World War I on the side of the Allies, and the arrival of millions of men and equipment tipped the scale to an Allied victory.

But even while Americans were fighting for Democracy against Empires in Europe, there were battles to be fought here in the United States. Racism and segregation were still in effect and were viciously enforced. Women could not vote. Workers had few rights. Big businesses and banks were getting rich. When war was declared, people who did not agree immediately became suspect of being subversives and traitors. How could Americans reconcile themselves between the values they were fighting for and the way they lived at home?

This book explores not only the history of the United States’ entry and participation in World War I, but also the impact the war had at home on the country’s institutions, businesses, and people.

Great Teacher Onizuka: 14 Days in Shonan, vol. 3

Fujisawa, Toru. Great Teacher Onizuka: 14 Days in Shonan, vol. 3. 2012. 200p. ISBN 9781932234893. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

In Great Teacher Onizuka, Vol. 2, Onizuka managed to rescue Katsuragi from the group that had kidnapped her with the help of her police father and motorcycle gangs he was once affiliated with. Still at the White Swan, Katsuragi reconnects with her father, who has resigned his position with the police force to spend more time with her, and they take tentative steps toward normalized family relations. This success, however, is tempered by the fact that Shinomi, an old flame of his, also works at the White Swan. The two of them don’t reconnect at all, and Onizuka finds himself having to rebuild bridges in his very inadequate way.

Meanwhile, he’s also concerned about Seiya. Abused by his mother’s boyfriend, the middle schooler has acquired a gun and plans on shooting both of them. And in the background, the man who supervises the White Swan along with several other institutions and who is enamored with Ayame, the director of the White Swan, and he’s concerned that she will find Onizuka attractive. With both of these challenges in front of him, Onizuka is about to be even busier than he has been!

Nathan

Ouriou, Susan. Nathan. 2017. 151p. ISBN 978-0-88995-547-9. Available at FIC OUR on the library shelves.

Nathan’s life is changing. Grampa lost his wife last year to a heart attack, and his Alzheimer’s has progressed enough that he can’t live on his own anymore. Adam, the local bully, keeps on trying to hurt Nathan, and even steals his basketball. And, at ten, Nathan is once again heading back to school in the fall without a friend.

Despite his Alzheimer’s, Grampa brings to Nathan a connection to a heritage he didn’t know he had: Grampa’s mother was a member of the First Nations, but as an orphan she was placed in the Canadian residential school system where her culture and language were systematically eliminated. Kids’ heads were shaved, they couldn’t speak their language, and they were transported hundreds of miles away from home so they could never see their families. Nathan didn’t know any of this, and is happy to begin discovering where he came from.

Nathan also makes a new friend, who has just moved in the neighborhood. Max and Nathan have many things in common, one of which is being bullied by Adam who immediately begins chasing Max the first time he sees him. Max is also Jewish, and his people experienced the Holocaust. In a sense, both Nathan and Max’s ancestors suffered at the hands of people bent on exterminating them.

With Adam lurking and with Grampa getting worse, can Nathan learn enough about himself to develop the courage to stand up and be his own person?

It All Comes Down to This

English, Karen. It All Comes Down to This. 2017. 368p. ISBN 978-0-544-83957-1. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

In 1965, the Civil Rights movement is in full swing in the United States. The Civil Rights Act was just passed the year before, but Jim Crow laws remain on the books in much of the country. California is more free than most states, but even there being African-American is to be part of the struggle for equal rights. For twelve-year-old Sophie, however, these issues are nothing but background noise.

As a member of the only African-American family in her neighborhood, she will be entering 9th grade along with her best friend Jennifer, who also happens to be twelve also as well as white. Her older sister Lily, meanwhile, will be moving to Atlanta to attend Spelman College, a black college. Sophie will find herself alone with her mother, who owns an art gallery, and her father, who is lawyer. Sophie dreads the countdown to August.

A trio of sisters down the road from Sophie have a pool, but she cannot swim there as their parents forbid colored people. Sophie is often reminded that she is African-American, but she doesn’t see what race has to do with it. Interested in writing and acting, Sophie and Jennifer seize the chance to audition for a community play, but she knows she will be the only African-American kid to audition. She plans on memorizing not only her part but all of the play, just to get a fighting chance.

With her parents’ marriage falling apart and a mistress in the picture, Sophie finds herself spending more time alone with Mrs. Baylor, the new housekeeper. Lily, meanwhile, finds herself attracted to Nathan, Mrs. Baylor’s son, who’s blacker than night while Lily could almost pass as white. This attraction is frowned upon by their mother, through the bias that lighter skin is better.

As Sophie experiences racism and as the summer days slowly drain away, the racial tensions in Los Angeles near the boiling point. Can Sophie learn to cope with the cards she’s been dealt? For a boy’s perspective on a similar theme, read Armstrong & Charlie, taking place a decade later in Los Angeles.

Dangerous Lies

Fitzpatrick, Becca. Dangerous Lies. 2015. 416p. 616 mins. ISBN 978-1-48142492-9. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Stella has just moved to Thunder Basin, Nebraska. It is the middle of nowhere, with not much to do. She used to live in Philadelphia, but she can’t tell anyone. Stella is not her real name. She’s in the witness protection program because she saw a dangerous drug dealer and the head of the local cartel murder another dealer right in her house, in front of her drug-using mother. And that dealer then severely beat Reed, her boyfriend. With the dealer and his crew looking for her, the U.S. government is protecting them both in exchange for their testimonies. While in Thunder Basin, she will live with Carmina, a retired police chief, and cannot communicate with her boyfriend, nor reveal her true identity.

With nothing to do, Stella quickly finds a job at the local diner, and begins to meet new people, pretending to be a foster care kid from Tennessee. Stella also meets Carmina’s neighbor, nineteen-year-old Chet Falconer. Stella finds herself attracted to Chet, but since she doesn’t plan on being here very long she sees no need to become friendly with him. As days, then weeks pass, however, and Reed never communicates with her through their secret email account she accesses at the local public library, Stella becomes worried at the prospect that the dealer’s men found him. At the same time, her attraction to Chet continues to grow, and Stella feels torn between the two of them.

Meanwhile, local high school baseball captain and sure major league prospect Trigger, who also happens to be the town bully, has set his sights on Stella and makes her life miserable. Plus, he looks familiar to Stella, and he also looks like he recognizes her from somewhere. With Trigger lurking around her, drug dealers chasing her, and Chet’s dark secrets, danger is lurking everywhere. As she’s about to discover, dangerous lies could get her killed...

The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor

Schatzker, Mark. The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor. 2015. 259p. 498 mins. ISBN 9781476724218. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Older people often complain that the food they eat is bland and doesn’t taste like the food they used to eat when they were children. For the most part, they are right. Over the last one hundred years, humans have managed to tremendously increase the yield of food. Crops now produce five, ten, or sometimes twenty times the amount of food they did a few decades ago. Thanks to the green revolution, we are able to feed an ever increasing population. However, it comes with costs.

Eating chicken used to be an expensive proposition, but industrial processes now make chicken fatter quicker, all the while keeping the price cheap. However, much like the crops we eat, what has been lost in this industrialization and standardization is the taste these foods developed as they aged. To compensate for this, food companies developed flavoring compounds to ensure that the taste of any given product could be enhanced. The birth of the Dorito chip is symptomatic of this process. A perfectly good crunchy corn chip was made to taste like an entire taco, thus opening supermarket doors to this new product. But in the process our brains became tricked by these new flavors that are not related to the taste of the food.

In this book the author explores a growing gap between how the food taste (better and better) and the nutritional value it has (worse and worse). For examples, blueberry waffles in the frozen section of the grocery store contain no blueberries, yet the consumer is baited and switched to a product that taste just like blueberries, without the nutritional value of actually eating blueberries. Societies worldwide are experiencing this phenomena, which leads to higher rates of obesity and diseases.

Other countries have taken measures to address these issues, by banning flavoring, and by consumers being aware of the products they buy. Chicken is more flavorful in France because poultry is not grown on an industrial scale and is given more time to mature and acquire a taste. Italian pasta and heirloom vegetables continue to be the pride of specific regions and are jealously protected.

It is up to us, the consumer, to demand better tasting food grown through natural processes, and not enhanced by a flavor industry diminishing the nutritional value of food. Pair this book with The Omnivore’s Dilemma for a depressing yet hopeful overview of the whole food industry in the United States.

Johnny Tremain

Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain. 1987. 322p. ISBN 0440442508. Available at FIC FOR on the library shelves.

With the death of his mother, Johnny Tremain moves in with the Lapham family in Boston so he can become a silversmith apprentice with old Mr. Lapham. The Laphams had lost their children, but took care of their grandchildren, and they planned to marry Cilla and Johnny together so the business could stay in the family. But in 1773, at fourteen, Johnny is not really interested in Cilla. Of the three apprentices, he is the better one and he can craft silver as fine as Mr. Lapham in his heyday.

When Mr. Hancock requests a silver dish to match one Mr. Lapham made decades ago, Johnny agrees to make it. Filled with pride in his work and in his abilities, however, Johnny has been less than charitable towards the other apprentices, so Dove, one of them, decides to get even. During the manufacturing process Johnny burns his hand badly when molten silver pours on it, and he becomes crippled.

No longer able to work as an apprentice, Johnny is lost and doesn’t know what to do. The sin of pride has cost him everything. Eventually, Johnny meets Rab, another youth who secures work for him as a rider who delivers newspapers. In 1774 Boston, the colonists are railing against British authority and taxes being levied by the King. The entire city is divided between Patriots and Loyalists to the Crown, and crippled Johnny is able to maneuver between both sides though he supports the Patriots. As Johnny gets more involved with the Sons of Liberty and running messages for them, he re-evaluates his life, including his interest in Cilla. And when British troops depart Boston in the night, Johnny knows that this is the match that will light the powder keg and ignite the Revolution. Can Johnny make a significant contribution even though he is crippled?

The Disappearances

Murphy, Emily Bain. The Disappearances. 2017. 400p. ISBN 978-0-544-87936-2. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

It is 1942, and fifteen-year old Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has just died, and her father has just been drafted by the U.S. Navy to fight in the war. With no other relatives in the small town of Gardner, Connecticut, Aila and her younger brother Myles are sent to live with Mathilda and Malcolm Cliffton in another small town called Sterling a few hours away by train. Mathilda was Juliet’s best friend when they were growing up, and Aila vaguely recalls her coming to visit them when she was four with her son Will. Present at the funeral, she volunteered to house the children while their father was away.

Pulled away from everything, Aila is resentful of her mother’s death and her departure from everything she knows. Wanting a souvenir from her mother, she takes her old copy of Shakespeare’s complete works and discovers a ring and a message addressed to Stefen and hidden in the book. In the message Juliet tells Stefen she loves him. Aila has never heard of Stefen, but her mother always kept her childhood a secret.

Arriving in Sterling, Aila quickly discovers that all is not well. The town, along with two other villages, have lost several ordinary things present everywhere else. Titled the Disappearances, these elements have vanished one at a time, every seven years, over the last thirty five years. There are no smells in Sterling. No vivid colors. No stars in the sky. No dreams. No reflections in mirrors. And the next Disappearance is coming soon. The people of Sterling have developed variants, dust that can temporarily alleviate these missing things, but for the most part they do without.

The disappearances began on the day that Juliet was born, and she is known as a catalyst. Aila quickly realizes that the people in town feared and hated Juliet, for she was the only one who regained a Disappearance when she left the town. As Aila begins to investigate this mystery, she discovers that the Disappearances appear related to Shakespeare’s plays, and her mother had taken extensive notes in her book. The more she digs, however, the more she discovers information about her mother she did not know. She also begins to fall for handsome Will, who likes her as well.

But a powerful actor is bent on insuring that no one solves the Disappearances, for there is profit to be made selling variants. With the next Disappearance fast approaching, can Aila navigates small town politics and enemies before it is too late?

The City in the Roman Empire

Mackley, Daniel. The City in the Roman Empire. Part of the Life in the Roman Empire series. 2017. 80p. ISBN 978-1-5026-2259-4. Available at 307.76 MAC on the library shelves.

As the model for every city in the Roman Empire, Rome stood at the height of urban development not equalled until the Industrial Age. Roman cities had many features recognizable to a person living today, from fresh running water piped to fountains and baths throughout the city to paved roads and sewer systems. Restaurants and shops lined the streets, while large apartment complexes stretched up to seven stories in the sky. Entertainment facilities such as amphitheatres and arenas allowed the citizens to relax and enjoy themselves.

Without artificial lighting powerful enough to banish the night, most Romans awoke at dawn and were out and about until dusk, when the city became unsafe. The average Roman, who lived to be 27, worked in the morning and returned home for lunch, followed by an afternoon of entertainment at the baths, libraries, or in public places with friends. Men, women, and slaves all had leisure time build in their schedules. A myriad of public holidays ensured that the workweek was never too long.

Most citizens lived in apartments with no cooking facilities due to the risk of fire. They ate out, or enjoyed a meal of cold beans and bread. Dangers such as fire and natural disasters could wipe out cities in a manner of hours. The cost of living was high in Rome, and work could be hard to get. A prelude to the feudal system, most Romans had a patron that took care of them. In exchange they accomplished small tasks for them.

Though Roman life was hard, living in a city could provide significant enjoyment for its residents. It wasn’t until the growth of London and Paris in the 1700s that Rome’s population of over one million people was finally exceeded in the Western world.

Other titles in this series include The Countryside in the Roman Empire, Patricians in the Roman Empire, and Religion in the Roman Empire.