An Unkindness of Ghosts

Rivers Solomon

A really fascinating space life novel in the vein of Dust and Across the Universe. We have a colony spaceship that is taking a group of people off to a new frontier (they are 300 years into their journey) and stuff is going wrong with the ship. What Solomon does here on the surface is to set up a social structure that pushes us to think about racism, segregation, and slavery. There are definite power differentials and the black/white division is the prime source of the antagonism between those without and those with power. Our protagonist is a young black girl who is an aspiring doctor (and is quite good at it), is probably quite autistic, and happens to be looking for her missing nuclear physicist mother who left her clues about what is going wrong with the ship. While this is not a book about race and racial relations, like in real life, the fact of race permeates all other aspects of the story, in often subtle ways that cannot be ignored, but don't really have to be paid attention to. This really is, for me, ideal science fiction. We are using the genre to initiate thinking about social issues and spark ideas about what change is necessary and possible.

3 stars (out of 4)

The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas

I loved this book. It is the story of Starr, a teenage black girl who lives two lives. One is her home life, the life of her upbringing and family. She lives in the neighbor hood, the bad part of town. Her dad is a former gang member who did 3 years in prison as a way to get out. The other life is her school life. Her parents sent Starr to a suburban, wealthy, private school after she witnessed her best friend being shot and killed as a 10 year old. Her two lives mean that Starr has developed two different personas, each appropriate for one of her lives. This story picks up with Starr as the witness (she was the passenger) when her best childhood friend is shot and killed by police in a 'routine' traffic stop. So not only do we get to navigate the current reality of police shooting and racial tension from the perspective of a young black woman, we also get her perspective on life, culture, and how to be a teenager. Thomas does a fabulous job with her storytelling and I feel enriched having read this.

4 stars (out of 4)

New Rating Scale

Lately, I am finding my Read - Wait - Skip rating system to be lacking. Specifically, almost everything is READ and I am not able to differentiate 'Read Now' from 'Read Sometime'. So moving forward, I am going to try a Star-system. And I will use a 4-star scale, just to make sure that I don't put everything in the 3-star/average category. Stars will fall out something like:

4-stars: Loved it. A book that I will remember, and will recommend to someone.
3-stars: Good book. Average plus. Well written and enjoyable. May have one or two extravagant passages, but not enough for the entire book to be promoted. This is my starting expectation for any book I bring home.
2-stars: OK. Average or below. Had some redeeming qualities, but basically forgettable.
1-star: Didn't like it, or didn't even finish it. Serious flaws or Not my cup of tea.

Happy Reading