Red Rising (Red Rising #1) by Pierce Brown

My friend Danielle insisted I read this. I am glad she did.

When I started it I was only 40ish pages in and I was gutted and angry and I couldn't imagine where this was going. I was solidly in the corner of Darrow and there was very little he could have done to lose me but with his mission I wondered if that resolve would be tested. I needn't have worried. While he isn't perfect he is guided by love and loyalty and when he makes mistakes he seems to learn from them. Only, unlike the teenagers we are used to and their mistakes when Darrow makes mistakes it often costs a life or lives.

Darrow is a Red. He works the mines of Mars as a Helldiver and he believes the history of how his people ended up there. When circumstances put in a place of learning the truth about the world he lives in and the world outside his mine shaft everything is shaken. What is revealed is what might on the surface seem obvious, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but it is so much more in the pages of Red Rising. Brown takes what could be considered a sub-genre of YA, the post apocalyptic, government run amok and blood thirsty in their desire to stay in control, and he makes it feel fresh. Maybe it is the setting (Mars for example), maybe it is the throwing in of the mythology of the Gods of Olympus, or maybe it is that he is talented.

Either way, what we have here is a story that is though provoking on the evils of class division, concentration of wealth and power, and revolution.

I feel like maybe a small warning needs to be given, it is violent in parts and the group we are following with Darrow are young by our standards even if in their world they are old enough to marry. Don't let their ages, Darrow is 16 in Earth years, when we met him, turn you off, it is actually important to the idea I believe Brown is putting forth, the young can make a difference, can be smart and make change in the world.


Like all first books in a multi-book story Red Rising has to lay the groundwork for what comes next. It does this well and without many stumbles. I'm looking forward to reading book 2, Golden Son. And as added bonus all three books of this trilogy have been published so if you like it, as I did and suspect you will, there's no long wait for the other installments.

(Finished March 20, 2017)    

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

In the story of Cora the Underground Railroad is really and underground railroad. Station masters and conductors and locomotives carry runaway slaves to the north and hoped for freedom.

Along the way Cora is our look into the world of what it looks, smells, tastes, and feels like to be owned. It is often violent, scary, ugly, and painful. Even in that Cora finds tiny moments of beauty that she uses to hold onto when she thinks she can't go on. And all along the way she is reminded of the words of her first station master encounter, "Look outside as you speed through, and you'll find the true face of America."

And that is the lesson if you will of The Underground Railroad. I won't spoil it for you and tell you what she sees. It is the kind of thing you have to experience.

Some of the questions I found myself thinking about were what does it mean to be free? Are there levels of freedom? What motivates people to do what they do, to act as they do, to think and believe what they do? How much is upbringing, how much is what we are born with, how much is when and where we are born and to whom we are born? What is our responsibility to each other and to those who will come after us? And what price should we pay for those who came before and the things they have done?  

Thought provoking. Well written. Gripping. Over before I wanted it to be but also not soon enough.

(Finished March 15, 2017)

Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark #1) by Veronica Roth

Veronica Roth has come back to familiar territory. As in the Divergent series (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3) Roth creates a new world where people are divided and war is coming.

In this universe, literally because the people in her story are scattered among planets and space ships, and figuratively, some people are fate favored. As it is explained here there are different versions of the future that oracles can see (choices people make can influence the future that comes to pass) but someone who is fate favored has their fate happen in every version of the future. There are also people with something called a current gift. It is something that can do thanks to a force called the current that is said to run through everything.


On Thuvhe, the planet where our main characters live, there are two groups, the Shotet and the Thuvhe.

The current leader of the Shotet group is Ryzek. He is cruel and trying to get out of the fate he has been told is his, to fall at the hands of a Thuvhe family. He uses his sister Cyra and her current gift to help him rule by fear.

Akos is a Thuvhe boy that Ryzek has kidnapped along with Akos' bother Eijeh. Eijeh is going to be an oracle like his mother and Ryzek thinks he can use this to change his fate.

Cyra doesn't want to be what her brother has turned her into. Akos wants to save his brother and get them both back home.

Can people from diametrically opposed groups come to like each other, to work together, to help and heal each other, or to love each other? Friendships, forgiveness, lies,  allegiances of blood and of connivence are al part of the story Roth tells.

It is really hard to review a book where spoilers are to be avoided so I will say that Carve The Mark is, as often happens with books that are the start of a series, a little slow to get started but it picks up and ends up being a good read. I will absolutely read the next book when ever it comes out.

(Finished March 12, 2017)

Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin

This book took me three full days and a few hours to read. I started it late on a Sunday night and ugly cried through the introduction before going to bed. I finished it very early on Thursday morning, pre-7AM. It is important to tell you this because the reason this book took me this long to read had zero to do with the length and everything to do with the emotional impact and the need to catch my breath.  I made the mistake of taking it with me to read in the waiting room while my teenager was in the dentist chair and ugly cried in public.
 My heart ached with every word I read for Sybrina and Tracy. I was overwhelmed with their open and honest sharing of how they felt and what they went through in the immediate aftermath of the brutal murder of their 17 year old son Trayvon. I was angry for them in how awfully the law enforcement officials and the legal system mishandled this case. I was furious all over again when I read the pages about the verdict, feeling again the shock and horror I felt on the day I watched Lisa Bloom talk about it as it happened on MSNBC.


I am going to suggest this book to every parent I know, every high school english teacher, every person interested in social justice, and every person who thinks we live in a post racial society. We all need to outraged and work for change. But if you are a white parent of white children you have a responsibility to parents of color or parents of children of color to step out from behind the privilege your skin affords you and speak out about the injustices parents of children of color face.

I tell you all this as the white mother of a young black man and young white boy. My oldest is 25 and is the child from my first marriage, an interracial marriage. And until the day I don't have to have two different conversations with my sons about how the world sees them and the rules they must follow I will shout this from the roof types. My oldest boy isn't worth less because he has black skin. My youngest boy isn't worth more because he has white skin.

READ THIS BOOK!!!

Thank you Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin for sharing your hearts with us.

(Finished March 9, 2017)

Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird

This book was used as the basis for the PBS Masterpiece series Victoria and watching season 1 made me want to read the source material.

Queen Victoria was stronger than she ever realized. Her mother and her mother's confidant Conroy, tried to run her life and then take control of her reign. This sheltered and what seems like an abusive upbringing helped shape her. She needed and wanted to be loved and cared for and her beloved Albert did that. He helped her be out from under her mother and Conroy's control. He loved her, without a doubt it is clear he did. But he was a man of his time and he wanted to be in charge, to be the ruler. And she gave much of her control over to him.

It is an interesting dynamic that seemed to repeat with many of the men in her life over the years. Her desire to be cared for and loved made her vulnerable.

Baird does a really good job at making the life of Victoria come to life on the pages of this substantial tome. She tells the story of the girl-Queen in such a way that you can feel the conflicts, the pain, the love, the life and losses of her very long reign.


Victoria was a strong woman in a power position during a time when women had no real power and so men struggled under her rule. She had her own opinions but would often be ignored or gone around by the men around her. Complicated would be an accurate description of her life. Her children and other protectors destroyed much of her personal writings/letters to protect her so piecing together her story was a true labor and isn't now and probably won't ever be complete. But this is a really interesting look into the incredible story of a young girl who so improbably became queen.

(Finished March 5, 2017)