Review by New York Times Review
SUBSTITUTE: Going to School With a Thousand Kids, by Nicholson Baker. (Blue Rider Press, $20.) Baker, a novelist, joined the corps of substitute teachers in a public school district in Maine. With each day of teaching a chapter, he offers modest policy proposals (less homework) and an ear attuned to the mundane rhythms of a school, resulting in what our reviewer, Garret Keizer, said "may be the most revealing depiction of the contemporary American classroom that we have to date." TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD, by Eowyn Ivey. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $16.99.) It's 1885 and Col. Henry T. Allen is leading an expedition into Alaska's uncharted, sublime wilderness. As our reviewer, Amy Greene, put it, "We often count on our artists to see the wild beauty our civilized eyes no longer can, to remind us, as Ivey does in her remarkable new book." MUSLIM GIRL: A Coming of Age, by Amani Al-Khatahtbeh. (Simon & Schuster, $15.) Growing up in New Jersey, the author was 9 years old at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and recounts in her memoir the racism and Islamophobia she and her family subsequently experienced: "It was like a curtain had been pulled back on my family, casting them into the spotlight, and revealing to them a world that seemed to have always been festering behind a thin veil." BLACK WATER, by Louise Doughty. (Picador, $16.) Hidden away in a Balinese town, John Harper, a contractor for a faceless European corporation, is waiting to be murdered. When he falls in love with Rita, a local woman, more of his story comes to light. Doughty's excellent thriller examines how early childhood traumas - and a personal history that echoes Indonesia's - help to explain how Harper became an instrument of Western economic and political power. A SQUARE MEAL: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe. (Harper, $15.99.) This evocative cultural history investigates how the experience of widespread hunger - roughly a quarter of Americans were undernourished - affects the United States' relationship to food today, including taste preferences and understanding of nutrition. LUCKY BOY, by Shanthi Sekaram. (Putnam, $16.) At 18, Soli made the journey from Mexico to Northern California as an undocumented immigrant; once she gives birth to her son, Ignacio, motherhood gives her life an organizing principle. But when she faces deportation, Soli and Ignacio's lives intersect with that of a wealthy Indian-American woman - who desperately wants a child - at a critical juncture.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ivey's highly anticipated second novel, following The Snow Child (2012), is again set in the wilds of her native Alaska. She portrays a fictional 1885 expedition, led by Colonel Allen Forrester of the U.S. Army, into the newly acquired Alaska Territory to map the area's rivers and gather information about the Native populations. By means of the colonel's journal entries and letters between him and his wife, Sophie, who remains at the Vancouver barracks, Ivey deftly draws the reader into the perils of the journey. Forrester is accompanied by only two other officers and a few Indian guides they enlist en route; their goal as they embark in February 1885 is to return to Vancouver before the next winter. Forrester describes the challenges he faces, in a late-nineteenth-century style Ivey captures perfectly, including traveling on rivers of ice, dodging huge ice boulders loosened by the spring thaw, re-routing around narrow canyons, and suffering near-starvation and gut-wrenching illnesses. Sophie is a strong character as well; a feminist who chafes at the social restrictions of the barracks, she teaches herself photography in her husband's absence. Ivey presents a compelling historical saga of survival.--Donovan, Deborah Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This tale of Alaskan adventure is really three interwoven stories in one: first, the 1885 diary of Col. Allen Forrester, who leads an expedition up the Wolverine River to explore the then-uncharted wilderness of Alaska; second, the simultaneous diary of his pregnant wife, Sophie, left in the Vancouver Barracks to await his return; and lastly, the modern-day framing story, told in letters between Walt, the grand-nephew of the colonel, and Josh, caretaker of an Alaska history museum, who Walt hopes will take the journals and other artifacts and create a museum exhibit around them. Reader Lakin's rendition of Sophie is the standout performance in this multiple-actor effort: her bright, lively, expressive voice perfectly conveys Sophie's intelligence, curiosity, and spunky spirit. Glouchevich has a gravelly voice that is well suited for Walt, and he varies his tone enough to differentiate him from Josh. As Forrester, Vandenheuvel sounds earnest and observant but he maintains the same calm, even, slightly whispery tone at all times, even when recounting moments of high danger and intensity on the expedition. This audiobook will appeal to those who enjoy stories of exploration or the tales of Jack London. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Walter Forrester, a self-described "stubborn old man" without living relatives, contacts Alaska museum curator Joshua Sloan with an offer to donate numerous effects of his great-uncle Lt. Col. Allen Forrester and Forrester's wife, Sophie. In 1885, Allen Forrester embarked on a formidable mission to chart the Wolverine River, leaving newly pregnant Sophie in Vancouver Barracks, WA. The colonel's notebooks reveal the expected life-threatening challenges-lack of food, potentially hostile Natives, invincible nature-but also his shock from experiencing inexplicable, otherworldly occurrences. Meanwhile, Sophie distances herself from the stifling army encampment society while waiting for baby and husband, turning to the still-new art of photography to engage her independent mind. Interwoven with Walter and Josh's developing epistolary exchange are the pioneering couple's journals and letters; additional newspaper articles, army documents, and official artifact descriptions add further illumination. Loosely based on Col. Henry Allen's 1885 expedition into Copper River, Ivey's superb narrative is aurally enhanced by an excellent triumvirate of narrators: John -Glouchevitch and Kiff Vandenheuvel take turns as 19th-century explorers and 21st-century correspondents, and Christine Lakin crisply embodies the spirited, ahead-of-her-time Sophie Forrester. VERDICT An outstanding follow-up to Ivey's Pulitzer finalist debut, The Snow Child, World is an essential, enlightening acquisition for all historical fiction collections. ["The personal nature and the immediacy of the writing puts the reader in the heart of the story, allowing one to become a participant rather than a mere observer": LJ Xpress Reviews 7/22/16 starred review of the Little, Brown hc; a 2016 LJ Top Ten Best Book.]-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
