What would you say if someone offered you $10,000 just to help sail a ship from the island of St. Croix to New York City? I’m willing to bet you’d probably say yes even if you never sailed before in your life. That’s some serious pocket change. Now, what if you found out there were drugs aboard? Still keen on deck duty? Reckless teenaged Jack Gantos decided that the risk was worth it. He was tired of dead end jobs and just reading about other people’s exciting lives, he wanted to live his own adventure. This sailing job sounded like just the ticket–for very little work, he’d have enough money to go to college and start his life as a writer…except the unbelievable happened–he got caught. Stuck in a medium-security prison with hardened criminals, Gantos turned to the one thing he knew he could count on to get him through–his writing. This is the story of his arrest and scary time behind bars where surprisingly, he learned the discipline needed to become the amazing author he is today.(and if you’ve never ever read any of his other books, this is a great one to start with) Don’t miss this Hole in One–it’s my favorite book of 2002.
Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
05.03
This Land was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie by Elizabeth Partridge
05.03
Of course, you’ve been singing the song around campfires and in school assemblies since kindergarten. But did you ever wonder about where those famous words originated from? Folksinger and songwriter Woody Guthrie wrote over 3,000 songs in his lifetime, including that famous one we all know by heart. Did you know that it actually started out as a protest song against “America the Beautiful”? Or that Guthrie was haunted all his life by what he believed to be a “fire curse” that killed several of his loved ones? Did you know that he lived the wandering life of a hobo, was married three times, helped orkers across the country set up unions, and inspired some of the greatest songwriters ever like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan? Or that he died with who knows how many songs left in him at age 55 from Huntington’s Disease? You didn’t? Well, I guess you’d better read Elizabeth Partridge’s amazing biography and discover, like I did, that all of today’s modern musical roads lead back to Woody.
Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho by Jon Katz
05.03
Jesse and Eric live in Idaho—a state not exactly known for setting the world on fire with its cutting edge technology. Yet here in the middle of nowhere, Jesse and Eric are consummate Doom-playing, Internet-obsessed, expert computer hackers. They’re geniuses when it comes to hardware—it’s just their software (or social skills) that needs a little work. Pop culture guru Katz follows these two self-proclaimed “geeks” as they try to break out of their dead end, strip-mall-working lives and into the big city doings of Chicago. It’s an enlightening trip full of revelations about computer culture, societal pressure to be “normal” (whatever THAT is!) and how the labels people wear (in this case, GEEK) never really tell the whole story.
Living at the Edge of the World by Tina S. and Jamie Pastor Bolnick
05.03
Life isn’t going too well for Tina S. Her family is living in a welfare hotel, and her mother’s new boyfriend is always giving her the evil eye. So when she meets the beautiful, doomed, drug-addicted April, it’s easy for her to shrug off her old life and join April and the other homeless teens who make Grand Central subway station in NYC their hang-out. Tina adores April, and wants to copy her every move, including April’s addiction to crack cocaine and scamming commuters for money. Soon, Tina can’t remember much of her life before the subway tunnels and crack dealers. Slowly, one painful step at a time, Tina fights her way back from jail, drugs and homelessness to becoming the kind of quality person she knows she is inside. A gritty, four-hanky read.
Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year by Esme Raji Codell
05.03
In what has got to be one of the funniest, and at the same time saddest memoirs ever, Esme Codell, (or“Madame Esme” as she likes to be called by her 5th graders) shares what it’s like to be a 24 year old, first-year, white teacher in an inner city, predominantly African American Chicago public school. Despite all her heroic efforts to teach kids in a fun and innovative way by hosting authors, making a fairy tale festival, and letting her worst kids learn how it feels to be her by letting them teach for a day, she is reprimanded, shunned, and generally told to fit the standard teacher mode or else! A book that will make you stand up and cheer, Educating Esme gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what a teaching life is REALLY like.
Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge
05.03
Photographer Dorothea Lange hit the road with her camera before it was fashionable to be a working woman and gave the world incredibly moving pictures of poverty in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, bread lines in the cities during the Great Depression, and barbed fences around the Japanese WWII internment camps. Author Elizabeth Partridge had the privilege of knowing Lange when she was a child (her father was Lange’s darkroom assistant) so she’s got some inside scoop, including a cool description of Thanksgiving dinner at Lange’s house. Definitely worth your time if you’re assigned ANOTHER biographical book report–not just because its really good, but because tons of photos keep the text to a minimum.
Martha Graham: A Dancer’s Life by Russell Freedman
05.03
In her day, Martha Graham was the DEAL. Paula Abdul and every other smooth-mover can thank Graham for paving the way for them way back in the1930′s and 40′s. She is known as the mother of modern dance, and she choreographed dances for over 70 years, right up until her death at age 96 in 1991. Not only was she a dance teacher to both Liza Minelli and Madonna,but she was also a wild woman who romanced young male dancers and broke every classical dance rule. Russell Freedman has filled this bio with stunning b&W photos that really give you a sense of how Martha Graham’s moves started a dance revolution. She was a rebel of the highest order and in the best sense of the word. You’ll want to read this one just for fun…
Red Scarf Girl: A Memior of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang
05.03
This is one of the best books I’ve ever come across, and I’m giving it a big pump-up here because I want it to be read. It’s hard for us living in the United States to imagine a society where too much intelligence is considered dangerous and being part of an upper-class family is a crime. But that is exactly how it was in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s in China. Ji-Li was a pre-teen when Chairman Mao came into power, and watched as the Communist Party attacked the upper class and exalted the lower class in an attempt to make everyone equal. Her life was lived in fear of the Red Guards, who searched upper class homes for signs of the “four olds”–old ideas, old customs, old culture and old habits. If they found any symbol of the four olds such as ceremonial robes or family heirlooms, it was destroyed and members of the family could be imprisoned. It was a frightening time, and even though Ji-Li tried to be a good Communist and embrace the ideals of Chairman Mao, she couldn’t forget her intelligence, her heritage, of the fact that her father was imprisoned just because his family owned land. You’ll definitely have a new appreciation for the freedom you have as an American teen of the 90′s after reading this powerful memoir.
Little X: Growing up in the Nation of Islam by Sonsyrea Tate
05.03
In the 1970′s, Sonsyrea Tate was a member of a family that belonged to the Nation of Islam. She didn’t go to public school, but instead attended a private Muslim school where her subjects included Arabic, history according to the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, the Nation’s Leader, and black pride. She liked how the Nation gave her and her family a sense of identity and worth as a people. But as she grew older, Sonsyrea grew dissatisfied with the Nation. She hated the way the women were forced to be subservient and wear restrictive clothing. She felt that her parents were hypocrites who disobeyed the Nation’s rules against drugs by smoking pot. Her eyewitness account of the corruption that went on behind the scenes of the Black Muslim movement caused her to make a permanent break with the Nation when she became a young adult. The feelings expressed in Sonsyrea’s story will probably remind you of feelings of disillusionment that you may have had about your parents or the religion you were brought up in. An absorbing first hand account of the Nation of Islam from the inside-out.
No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
05.03
Of course, no bio list from me, the rabid Doors fan, would be complete without the inclusion of the legend, the Lizard King, the bad boy to end all bad boys–Jim Morrison. Yes, the lead singer of the Doors had a very bad rep. as a drug-addicted alcoholic who publically exposed himself at concerts and ran around on his girlfriend. But author Danny Sugerman, who was part of the Doors entourage, also writes about the sensitive, wacky kid that Jim was. His I.Q. was off the charts and he read tons of philosophy and classical lit. in his teens that most people don’t even try to tackle until college. Sugerman also writes about the Jim Morrison who felt so distanced from his military parents that he told reporters during an interview that they were dead, even though at the time, they were very much alive. (Admit it, you’ve been tempted sometimes to do the same thing)This biography is also a good book about the 60′s and how the Doors music influenced and was influenced by the political and moral movements of that time. Now kids, I’m not endorsing Jim’s lifestyle in any way, shape or form. All I’m saying is that despite all his bad behavior, Jim Morrison was also a gifted poet and a voracious reader–one habit of his that I think would be great for you to pick up.