June Books Read

Skin Hunger (YA 2007) Kathleen Duey
Skin Hunger (the first volume in a planned trilogy called A Resurrection of Magic) is narrated by two characters in alternating chapters. Sadina, who communicates with animals, keeps house for an intense, abusive scholar named Somiss, headmaster of a secret school (which is about as different from Hogwarts as you can imagine) where boys learn the forbidden art of magic or die trying. Sadina falls in love with Franklin, an instructor who teaches magic largely through food deprivation. One of Franklin’s students, Hahp (born generations after Sadima) narrates his experiences at the school as he struggles to learn the magic arts before he starves to death.

The connections between the two protagonists remain unclear for a long time, which might frustrate readers. Also many scenes seem to repeat themselves without revealing any new insights into this strange world where magic has been outlawed. Be warned that the book ends abruptly with no apparent resolution. Although two sequels are forthcoming, they will probably need to contain more action than this first volume. Yet even with these potential distractions, the story itself and the strangeness of it kept me reading. Duey has done a fine job of creating an unusual world with unusual rules and plenty of mystery and weirdness.

This is a complex book, but for readers who’ve read the Harry Potter books and are ready for something more challenging, Skin Hunger may be just what they’re looking for.





Brittle Innings (1994) - Michael Bishop
Recommended by my good friend Kelly, this is a wonderful novel about a minor league baseball team in the Deep South during World War II. There is an important (and very well done) speculative element that I won't spoil for you; you'll just have to read the book. But I will say that even without the speculative element, Brittle Innings would be a fine novel. This one may be hard to find, but it's worth the effort.







Kit's Wilderness (YA 1999) - David Almond
13-year-old Christopher Watson (nicknamed Kit) moves with his family to an old English mining town, only to discover that an ancestor with the same name died in the mines. So did the ancestors of several of the young people in the town. Kit discovers that many of these kids gather secretly to play the game of "Death." Kit tries to deal with the death around him, both past and present, and how to escape the drudgery and inevitability of life in a mining town.

The book is far richer (as well as darker) and more interesting than what I've just described. I really can't do justice to describing how good this challenging YA novel is. If you think all YA is formulaic and predictable, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by Kit's Wilderness.






Islam at the Crossroads: Understanding Its Beliefs, History, and Conflicts (NF 2002) - Paul A. Marshall, Roberta Green and Lela Gilbert
I wonder, almost seven years after the awful events of 9/11, how much Americans really know about Islam? On television we sometimes hear the talking heads spout generalizations about the religion and perhaps snippets from the Qur’an. I’m not sure what we read in newspapers and magazines is much more accurate. I can only speak for myself: I’m woefully ignorant of Islam, its history, practices and tenets. But I’m learning.

I picked up Islam at the Crossroads in the hopes that the slim volume would at least get me started in understanding the basics of Islam. At only 113 pages of text (and a few maps), the book certainly isn’t going to be a comprehensive study, but it is a pretty good starting point.

The book begins with a chapter entitled “What Muslims Believe,” which includes the five pillars (practices) of Islam, the six principles (beliefs), the three main types of Islam, and a brief examination between the beliefs of Christianity and Islam. Readers should understand that the examination of beliefs in particular is a general one. Christians (and maybe Muslims as well) will find many points of argument, but again, these are generalizations to give the reader a basis for understanding.

Few things are more important to a Muslim than history. It’s not pleasant to hear, but it’s probably true that the average Muslim knows a lot more about history than does the average Christian. The chapters “Islam’s Earliest Days” and “The Rise and Fall of the Ottomans” trace (again, in a very general way) the history of Islam, focusing on the most important names and places. (Yes, the names can be difficult to keep up with, but the number of them is far from overwhelming.)

“Islam in the Modern World” helps the reader understand the perspectives of moderate and radical Islam, the challenges facing the religion, and how world events in the last hundred years have shaped modern Islam. The authors also focus on how radical Islam is organized, financed and structured.

Islam at the Crossroads is a short, fascinating book that probably just scratches the surface of the Islamic religion. It’s not a perfect work, but as a brief introduction full of confusion and misunderstanding, I recommend it as a starting point.





Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal (YA 2007) - Mal Peet
One of my favorite YA reads of late, discussed here.











Willful Creatures: Stories (2005) - Aimee Bender
Enjoyable collection of stories of modern fantasy, surreal, sometimes a bit twisted, often hilarious, always entertaining. My favorite is "End of the Line" in which a man goes to a pet store, buys a little man in a cage, and does some pretty cruel things to him. Many of the stories reminded me a little of Kelly Link. If you like Link, you might like Bender.







Escape from the Deep: A Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew (NF 2008) - Alex Kershaw
For anyone who thinks that non-fiction is boring, read this and let me know if you still have that opinion. Discussed here.








Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth (NF 2008) - R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

I bought Culture Shift for two reasons: It deals, obviously, with cultural issues and contains a positive blurb by John Piper, one of my favorite Christian writers. My only regret in buying the book is its brevity. At only 160 pages, I felt like I’d been served a salad when I’d walked into a restaurant after a week of fasting.

Mohler begins the book by asking how Christians can remain faithful in a constantly changing culture. Like it or not, culture is inescapable, yet if Christians are to be effective as followers of Christ, we must understand the culture we live in.

Some of the cultural topics Mohler tackles include faith and politics, law, the Supreme Court and religion, terrorism, the War on Terror, education, science, dishonesty, abortion, natural disasters and character. In several instances, Mohler provides the reader with many scriptural references and in others he simply looks at the big picture in light of the general teachings of the Bible. You might not agree with everything that Mohler (president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) writes, but he certainly gives you plenty to think about.

Each of the book’s twenty chapters is fairly short, most ten pages or less. For anyone interested in a brief overview of Christian responses to cultural issues, this is the perfect length, but if you want a more in-depth treatment, you’ll have to look elsewhere. (Mohler does provide several titles of books, magazines and on-line resources.) If you have any interest at all in the Christian’s role in culture, you should pick up this book.




Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) - Philip K. Dick
Unless you've been living in a maze of subterranean tunnels for the past 30 or so years, you know that the film Blade Runner is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? But you may not be aware of the differences between the novel and the film. The general story line is the same: Decker, a bounty hunter, is busy tracking down six androids so dangerous they've been banned from Earth. But they're so much like humans, they're hard to detect. From that starting point on, however, a multitude of differences emerge between the book and the film. (Just the film by itself has several different versions, endings, etc., but that's another story for another time.)

You could probably write a dissertation (and maybe someone already has) on the differences between the novel and the film. I won't discuss them here, but if you've only seen the film, you owe it to yourself to experience the richness of the novel. It was hard for me to divorce my reading eye from the visual images from the film (which I've seen many times), but the reward is well worth the attempt. Highly recommended.

(And by the way, anyone who thinks that Philip K. Dick is not worthy to be included in the Library of America series because he wrote sf probably hasn't read Philip K. Dick.)


That's it for June. Get out there and read something.