Book Club Pick: The Atomic Weight of Love

The Atomic Weight of Love
by Elizabeth J. Church
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
2016
333 pages
ISBN: 9781616204846
NOW available

#1 Indie Next Pick, May 2016

Reviews:


“Church's debut novel explores the relationship between sacrifice and love...Church's commentary on the American nuclear family, particularly the expectations placed on women, showcases iterations ranging from doting housewives and mothers who are content in their roles to the rebellious. Each sentence drives the plot further, exploring love's limits and its spoils. But it's Church's exploration of Meridian's role in her relationships that is the most gracefully executed feat of the novel. Meridian's voice is poignant, a mixture of poetry and observation...An elegant glimpse into the evolution of love and womanhood.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Oh, what a incandescent debut! From the atomic bomb tests at Los Alamos to the Vietnam War protests to the fascinating lives of crows, Church follows one extraordinary woman, who is brave to enough to challenge the times, take defiant wing, and chart her own extraordinary flight path. So engrossing, I couldn’t wait to read another page, and so alive, I never wanted the story to end.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You

My Review:

A  sweeping epic, The Atomic Weight of Love,  has everything a book needs: a strong woman who challenges herself and her times, the promise of passionate lifetime love, a trip across America, a husband (who is much older)  and  has top secret clearance during WWII, an intelligence and passion for living and work, and all the unanswered questions of life.

Meridian follows her scientist husband to Albuquerque where she will stay while he works on a secret government project in Los Alamos. Alden and his team are working on  a way to defeat the enemy: the atomic bomb. He cannot tell Meri what he's working on but he says, "It has the power to end the war...It also has the power to end life as we know it. It will change the world." Meri herself is a scientist, and as spouses, Alden and she have lengthy scientific discussions.  She is a brilliant student of ornithology and  just beginning  her labor of love: the study of crow behavior.

Putting her graduate studies on hold, Meri follows Alden back to Los Alamos after the war and feels defeated herself. She longs to finish her degree and do real work in her field and questions whether her work is less important than Alden's simply because she's a wife. She doesn't want to be like the other wives of Alden's colleagues and she refers to them as "fungible" (great word: look it up).

Meridian becomes a housewife and tries to fit in--throwing dinner parties, making special meals, trying to make friends with fungible women, but it's all not enough. She feels lost and trapped. She continues to observe crows in the canyon and one day is surprised to meet a young man, a soldier back from Viet Nam. Suddenly, everything changes for her.  Mari experiences true freedom for the first time in her life and it's exhilarating and it's frightening.

The Atomic Weight of Love is full of promises, those kept and those let go. Circumstances can change in a fleeting second and the weight of life's decisions and those we love influences the decisions we make. Meridian looks back not with remorse but with knowledge and love.

Recommended for adult readers and book clubs. This is not a feel good book. This is a book about real life and it's not uplifting but nonetheless an important read. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of women, like Meridian,  have encountered ties that bind, ties that choke, ties that kill.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Book Giveaway: Year of the Jungle

Year of the Jungle
by Suzanne Collins
2013


I have FIVE copies of this fantastic memoir from YA author Suzanne Collins. Collins draws from her childhood memories of her father going off to a war. She knows he is in the jungle and that he will return in a year--two abstract concepts to small child.

Anyone who has ever had a parent, sibling, son or daughter in active duty will love this book.

For your chance to win: Post a comment to the blog. Please include your first name, city, state and email. Deadline for posting is October 14 at noon MST. Winners will be chosen randomly by Randomizer. Winners will be notified by email on the 14th; please check your email that afternoon. Books will ship from Texas courtesy Scholastic.

This is a great book; don't miss your chance at winning a copy.
Good luck and start posting!
Pamela

Early Reader Pick: Year of the Jungle

Year of the Jungle
by Suzanne Collins
Illustrations by James Proimos
Scholastic Press
2013
40 pages

A New York Times Editors' Choice

“In this picture book, Collins sensitively examines the impact of war on the very young, using her own family history as a template."


--Publishers Weekly,STARRED REVIEW





“With a notable lack of patriotic rhetoric or clichés about bravery and honor, Collins holds firm to her childhood memories, creating a universal story for any child whose life is disrupted by war. Important and necessary ."

--Kirkus Reviews,STARRED REVIEW


“Collins’ unflinching first-person account details the fears and disappointments of the situation as a child would experience them. And where more realistic illustrations would feel overwrought and sentimental, Proimos’s flat, cartoony drawings, with their heavy lines and blocky shapes, are sturdy and sweet, reflecting a child’s clear-eyed innocence."

--Booklist,STARRED REVIEW


“But though post-traumatic stress disorder is often spoken of these days, the more subtle effects of war on the children of men and women serving abroad are less well known. ....While Sue is not able to formulate her feelings in words, James Proimos’s excellent illustrations capture her confusion....'Year of the Jungle” may take place in the late 1960s, but with more than 2.3 million Americans deployed abroad between 2001 and 2012, the mixture of anxiety, excitement, fear, boredom and confusion Sue experiences on the home front will be sadly familiar to many children. For them, Collins’s picture book may be a good tool to discuss the complex feelings war brings into a household ."

--The New York Times



A father goes to war, a child is at home wondering if she will ever see her father again. She knows the jungle is where her favorite cartoon character lives so it can't be that scary. They tell her Viet Nam is where her father is and he is going to be away for one year. The child is unsure how long a year is. Her father sends her postcards from the jungle and photos, too. Christmas comes and her father sends her Vietnamese doll. It's winter and snowing outside when she receives a birthday card, but her birthday isn't until summer. Her mother tells her the card is probably for Joanie, her sister, and that her father is "...busy and just got confused." The child worries that her father makes "...such a serious mistake"--he must be very busy and confused. Television news shows scare her; there are men dying in Viet Nam, and her mother rushes to turn off the t.v. After a long time, the father finally comes home, but he acts a little strange at first.

Like Suzanne Collins, my father fought in the Viet Nam War. In fact, he spent three tours there since he was a real adrenaline junkie. Each time he left, we saw my mom worry. We saw the news every night on television. We wondered why my dad was in the jungle. We wondered when he was coming home. He sent home movies to us. My dad standing by his tent, my dad on a boat traveling up a yellow brown river, monkeys fighting and rice paddies. My dad waving and flexing his muscles with his buddies and everyone smiling. My dad always came home, but thousands of young Americans didn't and their kids were forever scarred. Today, thousands more American children have a parent or sibling on active duty either at home or in a war zone. The impact of Year of the Jungle will be felt by any child who has experienced a loved one in combat.

Illustrations by James Proimos are light-hearted and even whimsical even when depicting a helicopter or tank. The story may be frightning and awful, the main character worried and lost, but the artwork takes the painful story of Viet Nam and makes it tangible even to very young children. When the father returns, the girl says, "...I stand in the doorway watching him. He stares into space. He is here but not here. He is back in the jungle."

Highly, highly recommended for everyone. This book should have a place in every library and on every book shelf. It is an important book and will likely begin conversations about war and military service.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the F & G from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Teen Pick: Okay For Now

Okay For Now
by Gary D. Schmidt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.
page count of the galley is 371; book page count not yet determined
Available April 5, 2011

Touching, gritty, funny, compelling, and sweet, Okay For Now is a poignant coming of age story set in small town America during the 1960s. The novel is narrated by "skinny delivery boy" Doug who reminds this reader of a younger Holden Caulfield, although Doug is not quite the snarky misanthrope, he has his moments and considers almost everyone a "chump." Doug dreams of baseball and his hero Joe Pepitone who once gave him a signed baseball jacket.

Besides baseball, Doug discovers his love of art when he sees a beautiful book on display at the town's library--a large building with intimidating marble steps. The book is a set of prints by American artist John Audubon. Many of the prints are missing having been sold off by the town council or given as gifts to various political friends. Doug starts to sketch each bird under the tutelege of the cataloging librarian Mr. Powell. Doug begins to understand that art has the magic power of taking someone far away--if you can dream it, you can paint it.

Doug's family life is nothing short of dysfunctional. Mom and Dad don't have a real relationship; his dad is always mad and hangs out too late with loser friend Ernie and hates his loser job at the loser mill. Doug's oldest brother is off in Viet Nam fighting the war. His other brother Chris is a bully.

School is not easy either. It seems the gym teacher has it in for him. One day, Doug meets a quirky girl named Lil, and through this chance meeting, he is hired to deliver for her father's deli business. Doug loves his Saturday job and meets several "characters" who help shape his life.

When brother Lucas comes home from Viet Nam, everything changes. Lucas comes home a shell of a man; he is now a blind paraplegic and hates himself and his plight. In one of the most disturbing scenarios in the book, war protesters yell at Lucas in his wheelchair saying it served him right he lost his legs, that they are glad he's blind, and they spit in his face. It's hard to remember that Americans could harbor that kind of hatred toward one of our own.

Doug is also funny. His hatred of poetry is hysterical; readers are sure to smile when he says he wants to punch Percy Bysshe Shelley in the nose! Doug is one determined delivery boy--he gets all the Audobon prints back into the book, makes amends with the gym teacher, gets his handicapped brother a job he loves, and helps Lil through her illness.

Okay For Now is well-written with believable characters and the captivating love that grows between Doug and Lil is heartfelt.

Highly, highly recommended grades 7-up.
No language, some adult situations.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the galley from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.