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If you’re participating in the Books and Bites 2022 Reading Challenge, it’s time to wrap up your reading! On this episode of the podcast, we discuss the books we read for the twelfth and final prompt, read whatever you want.
Books and Bites
JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.
12_22 Books and Bites
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[00:00:00] Carrie: Welcome to the Books and Bites podcast. Each month we bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them. I'm Carrie Green and I'm here with my cohosts Michael Cunningham and Jacqueline Cooper.
[00:00:12] Michael: Hello.
[00:00:13] Jacqueline: Hi everyone.
[00:00:14] Carrie: Today we're talking about the 12th and final prompt in the 2022 Books and Bites Reading Challenge, to read whatever you want.
[00:00:23] Michael: Yay, [applause,
[00:00:24] Carrie: laughter] .
We are all excited about that. Maybe not so much of a challenge, but we're excited about that reward.
[00:00:32] Michael: Yes.
[00:00:32] Jacqueline: Mm. .
[00:00:34] Carrie: And remember that you can turn in your entry forms throughout the month of December, either in person at the library or online at jesspublib.org/books-bites. Another year down.
Jacqueline, you came in in July, was it? You figured?
[00:00:55] Jacqueline: Yes, July is when we started.
[00:00:57] Carrie: Okay, so you've got about six months under your belt. Yeah? So what was both of your favorite books that you read for the challenge this year?
[00:01:07] Michael: I'd say probably my favorites was actually the one in January Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy.
[00:01:15] Carrie: Mm-hmm. ,
[00:01:15] Michael: that's set in Appalachia, like Appalachian Noir. And this one I'm about to talk to today, She Rides Shotgun and then one for last month Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism.
[00:01:29] Carrie: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:30] Michael: was also. I, I thought was really awesome and probably, I would say that's probably one that was a little, I guess more outside my comfort zone cuz it, it is kind of a, I guess a darker subject in some regards.
But I guess where it focused on the language, I don't typically read
[00:01:49] Carrie: mm-hmm. ,
[00:01:49] Michael: that kind of thing.
[00:01:50] Carrie: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:51] Michael: so. .
[00:01:51] Carrie: Yeah. That one sounded really interesting to me.
[00:01:55] Jacqueline: Yeah, it was very, that was really cool.
[00:01:58] Carrie: How about you, Jacqueline?
[00:02:00] Jacqueline: I guess I really liked doing The Lost Sisters, the novella and, but I liked that author a lot, so that made it a little bit easier.
And actually the first one I did, The Siren. I think I'd read 'em a couple of times already, so it was a little, I felt more comfortable doing those. The nonfiction one, I felt The Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong. That was a little bit harder cuz it was nonfiction and I hadn't done a nonfiction review and I felt like I needed to do a little more research into how to write a nonfiction review and incorporate some other, other thoughts and stuff.
So I felt that was the hardest one.
[00:02:39] Carrie: Mm. I read a lot of really good books this year, so I'm having a hard time picking a favorite. But I really liked, also liked my novella, which was A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers, just because it was so hopeful, , and it's been such a rough few years and it was really like, it was hopeful, but it was also really smart and made you think about
things. So, so that was one of them. I also really liked Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo, and that was for our Black Joy prompt. And that was a book that I listened to on audio. And the audio book version was so good. The reader was just really, really did a good job of the accents and the voices. So that was another favorite.
[00:03:32] Jacqueline: I think that makes all the difference on who's reading it. . The first time I ever listened to a book on like a book on tape or audio book, the reader was just, I dunno if it was the accent or I didn't really care for it, so I didn't think I liked audio books. But then
[00:03:47] Carrie: mm-hmm. ,
[00:03:48] Jacqueline: since then, I've read others, listened to others of course, and
[00:03:51] Carrie: mm-hmm.
[00:03:52] Jacqueline: if you have a good voice actress or actor, it's really makes a difference.
[00:03:56] Carrie: Yeah.
[00:03:57] Michael: Yes.
[00:03:58] Carrie: One thing I like about the Libby app, is that you can do a little preview of the book before you check it out. So you know, if I, if I play a little preview of it and can tell on that, I'm not really gonna like this reader, I'll choose another one.
So we are working on planning out the 2023 Books and Bites challenge, and we're gonna change it up a little bit and do a Books and Bites bingo.
[00:04:30] Michael: Ooh.
[00:04:31] Jacqueline: Yeah. That's gonna be fun for people, I think.
[00:04:33] Carrie: Yep. And we're gonna have some, some stickers and an enamel pin for our finishers prize in addition to some drawings like we usually do.
So we're excited and we look forward to sharing more about that in January.
[00:05:00] Michael: Besides horror, I've really been enjoying crime fiction as of late, and some of the writers I follow on Twitter turn me on to, She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper. This book won the Edgar Award for Best first novel in a ALA Alex award in 2018. The Alex Awards, after looking it up, are given it 10 books each year.
They have special appeal to young adults, 12 to 18. So this one might be a good recommendation for older teens transitioning into adult fiction. This book is told from multiple points of view, but focuses mostly on two: nate McCluskey and his 11 year old daughter, Polly. Nate is a bad guy. He's just been released from prison, serving almost five years for robbery.
He hasn't seen or heard from his daughter Polly in years. That is until he shows up on the front steps of her school telling her she has to go with him now. Right before Nate was slated to be released, he was approached by the brother of the president of Arryan Steel, a white power prison gang, to be the outside guy to shuttle dope into the prison.
Nate turned him down, but things got violent and the president of Arryan Steel's brother wound up dead. So a green light was put out, not on, just on Nate's head, but also his ex-wives and his daughters. So Nate and Polly go on the run across California while being pursued by Arryan Steel and its associates
and not to mention the police. They come to realize that while she's a shy girl, who still finds comfort in a teddy bear that she takes everywhere with her, she's very much like him, and they start to form a bond that's forged in violence. They have the same gun fighter eyes and share a rage that simmers deep down.
Polly is forced to grow up quick. Nate teaches her like his brother Nick, the stick up king, who still lives in Nate's head, taught him: how to take a punch and pull off a heist. Nate, tired of the running and willing to do anything to save Polly comes up with a plan so desperate and crazy, there's only one way for it to end.
This is a quick and compulsive read coming in at just over 250 pages. Harper's harp, stripped down prose gives a gritty noir feel, especially with a LA, California setting. There's just something about crime novels in LA and the surrounding area.,I just really like. The supporting characters we meet like Detective Park are just as well written as the main protagonist and are more than your typical one dimensional stock characters.
The only complaint I had is I wished it was longer. I would've loved to have spent more time with Nate and Polly as they rip off White Power gangs. As Nate and Polly evade the Arryan Steel and Police, they enjoy a wide variety of foods around LA in the surrounding. One dish they come to enjoy as father and daughter are street tacos, which is typically comprised of a corn tortilla, meat, onion, and cilantro.
And just so happens we have a great taco place just down the street from the library, El Rancho Taqueria, that serves amazing street tacos. I highly recommend visiting if you're a taco lover like I am.
[00:07:50] Carrie: Yeah, I haven't been there yet, but I've heard good things. Have you been there?
[00:07:56] Jacqueline: No, not yet.
[00:07:57] Michael: Yeah.
Everybody raves about it.
[00:07:59] Carrie: Mm-hmm. . Yeah, we live near the area in Lexington where there's a lot of taco shops, so we tend to go there when we want tacos, but yeah, there's good tacos everywhere.
[00:08:09] Michael: Oh yeah. .
[00:08:11] Jacqueline: Mm-hmm. , the one in the Brannon Crossing there's a Mexican restaurant there.
[00:08:16] Carrie: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:17] Jacqueline: and their zucchini tacos are so yummy.
[00:08:21] Carrie: Hm.
[00:08:21] Jacqueline: They're,
[00:08:23] Michael: I've never had a zucchini taco.
[00:08:25] Jacqueline: You should try 'em. They're very good.
[00:08:27] Carrie: Thanks for the recommendation.
[00:08:29] Jacqueline: So maybe there'll be a sequel, Michael, since you liked the book so much.
[00:08:33] Michael: Yeah, it was a little open ended, so I could definitely see that.
[00:08:37] Jacqueline: You could see that happening? Mm-hmm.
[00:08:39] Michael: I would, yeah. It would be a great movie too.
[00:08:41] Jacqueline: Mm-hmm. ,
[00:08:41] Michael: I think.
[00:08:42] Jacqueline: It's violent, but it's not horror.
[00:08:45] Michael: Yeah. Yeah. I've been kind of branching out for this year's challenge. I've only read, I think four books that are, you know, that would be considered horror this year, so.
[00:08:58] Jacqueline: Well, that's good. That's good. You're broadening your horizons and everything.
even though horror's always good too.
[00:09:04] Michael: Special place in my heart. .
[00:09:06] Carrie: Yeah, that's all right. We all have our favorites, I think.
[00:09:10] Jacqueline: That's true. So true.
[00:09:12] Carrie: So my book is The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alammedine. The Wrong End of the Telescope, winner of the 2022 Penn Faulkner Award for fiction, is narrated by Mina Simpson, a Lebanese American doctor who spends her winter vacation on the Greek island of Lesbos, where she volunteers at the notorious Moria Refugee Camp at the request of her friend Emma, a nurse for an NGO.
Mina's trip stirs up memories of her own childhood by the sea in Lebanon. Mina left Lebanon to attend Harvard. After she came out as tran,. Her family cut contact with her. She and her brother Mazen have reconciled though, and he travels from Lebanon to volunteer with her at the camp. Thanks to an influx of vacationing European and American volunteers, Mina doesn't appear to be as needed at the camp as she expected.
However, she soon meets a Syrian family with even greater need than most. The family has only recently arrived and Samaya, the wife and mother has terminal cancer. Mina, Emma Maan and another aid worker. Rashid must do what they can to arrange care for Samaya, her husband and their three young daughters, they have their work cut out for them.
If you're not familiar with Moria, it was an actual camp that according to Wikipedia, Doctors Without Borders called "the worst refugee camp on Earth" and the Human Rights Watch called "an open air prison." The author is unsparing in his descriptions of the conditions of the camp and the traumas that the refugees face, but he is also careful to show their humanity.
These well-rounded characters are likely a result of the author's own experiences interviewing refugees--experiences, which appear to be fictionalized in the book. Mina addresses some of her chapters to an unnamed writer whom she meets in Lesbos, telling both of their stories at his request. Like Mina and Alammedine, he is Lebanese American and gay.
He came to Lesbos to interview refugees in Moria, but unlike previous interviews with asylum seekers facing similarly rough conditions, Moria causes him to break down. He is unable to continue his work, instead retreating to his hotel room. Mina's group gradually pulls him back into the world. Nina's engaging voice pulled me into the novel immediately and held my attention through all its strands.
The chapters are brief and lyrical. Although many of the characters and especially the refugees experience profound loss and trauma, the book resists becoming trauma porn. Samaiya and her family and the other refugees are incredibly resilient, and their story is told with humor, empathy, and a healthy dose of skepticism over the white savior motives of many of the volunteers.
Likewise, Mina and her friend Emma, who is also trans, resist stereotypes. While Mina does reflect on her own coming out, it is just one small part of her story. When Mina speaks of her connection to the writer, she often returns to food. "It is not just the land that binds us," she writes. "Not just the red earth, the fig tree, the lemon or the olive.
It's more than the city of Beirut, the surrounding mountains or the Mediterranean. You and I are bound together with the aroma of cardamom. And cloves. And saffron." Savor the aroma of cardamom with a cup of Cardamom Green Tea. And because Mina often gives the children living at Moria sweets, a batch of Crunchy Sesame Cookies.
Both recipes are from Rosewater and Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen by Maureen Abood. According to Abood, the cookies "are addictive because of their crunchy texture and nutty sesame flavor," and they go well with most teas.
[00:13:30] Michael: That does sound good. It sounds like that was kind of a heavy book.
[00:13:35] Carrie: Yeah, it was a heavy book, but you know, like I said, it never felt too heavy.
[00:13:41] Michael: Yeah.
[00:13:41] Carrie: It felt like it was well balanced because all of the characters, even the ones experiencing, you know, such horrible things, they kind of dealt with it through humor, and so that made it a little bit better, and they were just, just so well drawn as characters.
Nobody ever felt like, it never felt like there was just one aspect to... Their suffering was not the only aspect to their characters. There was much more to them, which I appreciated. And it was kind of a random read for me. I read a blog post by the author, and it was very funny and I was like, I have to read
I have to read something by this guy. And I checked out two of his books and I opened that one and it was just like, you know, the first page I was sucked in. You know how sometimes books do that? So
[00:14:40] Michael: I've never heard of that refugee camp before or even that situation.
[00:14:45] Carrie: Yeah. Well, I, I know I hadn't either.
But, apparently it was just really awful, this really awful place, and it burned down maybe in 2020. There was a fire and I mean, people were just packed into this camp, like couldn't, couldn't move. And there was a, you know, a fence around it. So it really was like a prison.
[00:15:15] Jacqueline: I remember reading about that, that people weren't allowed to leave and they weren't, they wouldn't, I dunno if this is the same, but they wouldn't let them go to the country,
one of the countries they were trying to, they wouldn't let them in.
[00:15:29] Michael: Mm geez.
[00:15:30] Jacqueline: And that's, that's scary. Some of these people, they're, they're fleeing for their lives because of war and
[00:15:37] Carrie: mm-hmm. .
Yeah, at the time there were refugees from all over at the camp, but the time that he's writing about it was mainly Syrian refugees fleeing from the conflict in Syria.
[00:15:55] Jacqueline: I don't know how people do it, like right now with Ukraine. I mean, how, what are they supposed to do, you know, if they don't leave, then they're gonna end up dead, but giving up everything. Can you imagine giving up your home and your way of life and all you have is a suitcase maybe?
[00:16:14] Michael: Yeah.
[00:16:17] Carrie: No. Yeah. It is hard to imagine.
[00:16:20] Jacqueline: Yeah. I can't, I can't imagine. My father actually was kind of a refugee. He, he left Iran on a donkey and across the, across the mountains. And he didn't leave like with a group, but it was still, he felt very alone. And cuz he left after a lot of people left because he was trying to, he didn't wanna leave without his mother and she couldn't, she wasn't able to leave.
So starting over, even for him and he got some money out was hard.
[00:16:51] Carrie: Mm-hmm. .
[00:16:52] Jacqueline: So I can't imagine having nothing and trying to start over.
[00:16:54] Carrie: Mm-hmm. .
And where did he. What country did he go to first?
[00:17:01] Jacqueline: Um, I,
[00:17:03] Carrie: you can't remember.
[00:17:03] Jacqueline: I can't remember. I'm sorry.
[00:17:04] Carrie: Oh, that's okay.
[00:17:05] Michael: Was that to get away from the Ayatollah?
[00:17:08] Jacqueline: Yes. To, yes.
To get away from Ayatollah.
[00:17:10] Michael: Geez.
[00:17:13] Jacqueline: Iranians are still struggling today. A lot of Iranian Americans and you know, cuz some of their families are still over there and they're still very much oppressed over there.
[00:17:24] Carrie: Oh yeah. Well there's been a whole lot of protests recently.
[00:17:28] Michael: Oh yes.
[00:17:29] Carrie: In Iran over, over the, the death of the young woman.
[00:17:36] Jacqueline: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. I got a text from a family member. You know, talking about it, it was. It's not good
[00:17:46] Michael: Wow. This, uh...
[00:17:49] Carrie: I hope that, I hope that Jacqueline's book is a little bit lighter cuz I've managed to bring us down haven't I,
[00:17:59] Michael: Jackie this is nothing like February where we were all read something really depressing stuff and it was just,
[00:18:06] Jacqueline: Mine isn't depressing.
[00:18:08] Carrie: Okay, good. [laughter]
We'll, we'll end on a lighter note then.
[00:18:12] Jacqueline: Okay.
The book I chose for this month's prompt is Veil of Winter by Melanie Dickerson. While looking for a fairytale retelling, I came across the Dericott tales. I was intrigued by the first book in the series, Court of Swans an account of the Wild Swans, and began reading her books. However, for this podcast, I did choose to read Veil of Winter, even though it's the third book in this series, because the story setting is in winter, and I thought it would be an excellent book for people to cozy up with by a fire under a warm blanket.
Veil of Winter is a book that can be read independently, even if you've not yet read the first two books. However, there will be a few spoilers for the first two books if you read the third book first, since the characters from the other books are mentioned in this book. Dickerson's thir book in the series, Veil of Winter,q is very loosely based on Sleeping Beauty.
In this tale, she weaves a wholesome Christian fairy tale romance complete with princesses and nights set in medieval Europe. I have not read a lot of Christian fiction, but I have read quite a few of Dickerson's books and her incorporation of religion is appropriate to the period. Both of the main characters and others in the book are Christian and look to their faith to guide them.
The characters pray to ask for guidance and help, especially when they struggle with diverse adversity during difficult times. This story follows two narrators, princess Elise and Sir Gerard. Princess Elise lives in a mountain castle near France. Her father, King Leonardo, wishes her to marry another king in a nearby kingdom, King Claude's nephew, Rodrigo, so that he can form an alliance with the kingdom.
However, King Claude is unscrupulous. He works his people in the mines from sunrise to well past sundown. Princess Elise worries that he will enslave her people and force them into the mines. She fears that the two kings are only thinking about their own wealth and not the welfare of the people living in her kingdom.
Since Elise is a woman, if she marries Rodrigo, he will be in charge of her kingdom after her father dies. Rather than marry and let King Claude mistreat her people, she plans to escape by taking a sleeping draught. Meanwhile, in England, Sir Gerard, a young knight, has a vision from God telling him to go to Elise and help her.
Gerard awakens Elise with a kiss and they begin their journey to find help for Princess Elise's people in the dead of winter. The main characters face a lot of difficult times with their very self serving family members. I thought this book did an excellent job of incorporating religious life with historical fiction.
Also, this story deals with many issues people face during the Middle Ages, particularly women and the poor. Elise's struggle to understand whether it was terrible to show any emotions or better to stifle them is a conflict that many teens and young people identify with as they face adulthood.
The main characters struggle with their feelings about each other as well and their place in the world. I like how Dickerson's male heroes have good morals and treat women respectively. This author does a great job of including relevant details and information about a character that informs their actions and contextualizes them in the story.
I would have liked to have seen Elise grow more self-confident through this story though. However, she is very loving and forgiving, almost to a fault, making her an unusual heroine. Unfortunately, her trusting nature and kindness almost gets her killed several times. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a romantic Christian
historical fiction novel. The main characters are pretty sweet, so I wanted to select something that would be warming and sweet for a book setting in the winter. So I decided to look for a warm cocoa drink with a hint of peppermint, and I found a recipe for a vegan peppermint drinking chocolate. And you can find a link to that on our website.
[00:22:27] Carrie: That recipe is from the Minimalist Baker?
[00:22:30] Jacqueline: It is, yes. It's a hard word to say. [laughter]. Thank you, Carrie
[00:22:38] Carrie: I like, I like her recipes. They're, there's quite a few that I use cuz they're, they're dairy free and. So that sounds really good. I'll, I'll have to check it out, but yeah, it sounds like a good book to cozy up with, with something hot.
[00:22:52] Jacqueline: Yeah, that's what I was thinking and I didn't realize there was a difference between drinking chocolate and hot chocolate.
[00:22:59] Carrie: Mm-hmm. ,
[00:22:59] Jacqueline: there's a big difference and I, this, the drinking chocolate is even sweeter and it's usually made with dark chocolates.
[00:23:06] Carrie: Thanks for listening to the Books and Bites podcast. For more information about the Books and Bites Reading Challenge, visit our website at jesspublib.org/books-bites. And don't forget to turn in your entry forms during the month of December, on our website or in person at the library. Our theme music is The Breakers by Scott Whiddonn from his album In Close Quarters with the Enemy.
Find out more about Scott and his music on his website, adoorforadesk.com.