QUARTERLY WINTER 2020 | VOL. 63 NO. 1

Collecting, Preserving, and Celebrating Ohio Literature Winter 2020 1 Contents QUARTERLY WINTER 2020

features BOARD OF TRUSTEES HONORARY CHAIR Fran DeWine, Columbus 4 Toni Morrison: A Tribute ELECTED 8 A Conversation with Oge Mora President: Daniel Shuey, Westerville Vice-President: John Sullivan, Plain City Secretary: Geoffrey Smith, Columbus Treasurer: Jay Yurkiw, Columbus Book Reviews Gillian Berchowitz, Athens Daniel M. Best, Columbus 10 Nonfiction Rudine Sims Bishop, Columbus Helen F. Bolte, Columbus 12 Fiction Katie Brandt, Columbus Lisa Evans, Johnstown 16 Poetry Bryan Loar, Columbus Ellen McDevitt-Stredney, Columbus Mary Heather Munger, Ph.D., Perrysburg 18 Young Adult & Middle Grade Louise Musser, Delaware Claudia Plumley, Dublin 20 Children’s Cynthia Puckett, Columbus David Siders, Cincinnati Yolanda Danyi Szuch, Perrysburg Books and Events Jacquelyn L. Vaughan, Dublin Elizabeth A. “Betty” Weibel, Chagrin Falls

APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF OHIO 22 Book List Carl Denbow, Ph.D., Athens Carol Garner, Mount Vernon 45 Coming Soon Brian M. Perera, Columbus

TRUSTEES EMERITUS Francis Ott Allen, Cincinnati Ann Bowers, Bowling Green Christina Butler, Ph.D., Columbus James Hughes, Ph.D., Dayton Robert Webner, Columbus

OHIOANA STAFF Executive Director...... David Weaver Office Manager...... Kathryn Powers Library Specialist...... Courtney Brown Program Coordinator...... Morgan Peters

The Ohioana Quarterly (ISSN 0030-1248) is currently published four times a year by the Ohioana Library Association, 274 East First Avenue, Suite 300, Columbus, Ohio 43201. Individual subscriptions to the Ohioana Quarterly are available through membership in the Association; $35 of membership dues pays the required subscription. Single copy $6.50. U.S. postage paid at Columbus, Ohio. Send address changes to Ohioana Quarterly, 274 E. First Ave., Suite 300, Columbus, Ohio, 43201. Copyright © 2020 by the Ohioana Library Association. All rights reserved. Printed by PXPOHIO.

2 | Ohioana Quarterly From the Director

Dear Friends,

The year 2020.

It’s almost startling to say it. Not only a new year upon us, but a new decade. Seems like only yesterday everyone was in a panic about Y2K and how technology the world over would go dark. Of course, nothing happened. Was that really twenty years ago?

So many changes have happened in this first one-fifth of the 21st century. But one thing we’re glad has not changed – people seem to love to read as much as ever. In part it’s because of the wonderful new writers and illustrators who arrive on the scene every year. Many of them, we’re proud to say, are from Ohio. Like the gifted Oge Mora, whose debut picture book, Thank You, Omu!, has been named as Floyd’s Pick for 2020. You’ll meet Oge in this issue – a young talent in the early stages of what promises to be a fabulous career.

And speaking of fabulous careers, Ohio and Ohioana could not be prouder of any author as it is Toni Morrison – a giant not just of American literature, but world literature. After Toni passed away in August, it was my honor to introduce Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ wonderful film, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am at a special screening on the OSU campus. We pay tribute to this remarkable woman as the cover story of our winter Ohioana Quarterly. And how apropos that 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Toni’s first novel,The Bluest Eye.

Toni Morrison received many honors during her career, capped by the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ohioana is proud that the first of her literary prizes was the 1975 Ohioana Book Award forSula . She would go on to win more Ohioana Book Awards and, in 1988, our highest honor, the Ohioana Career Medal. It was an award close to her heart, as was her native state. As she said, “Ohio is paramount in so much of my work. My gratitude to you and fellow Ohioans is profound – not only for the award but for the gift to my imagination."

We thank you, Toni Morrison – for sharing your life and your gifts On the Cover Celebrating Toni Morrison with the world. Left: 1974 (Photograph by Jill Krementz) And thank all of you for sharing the love of books and reading in this Right: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I winter Ohioana Quarterly. Am, a Magnolia Pictures release. ©Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/ Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

David Weaver

Winter 2020 3 Toni Morrison: A Tribute

By Morgan Peters and David Weaver

Chloe Ardelia Wofford was born on February 18, 1931 teaching English at Texas Southern University in in the Lake Erie steel town of Lorain, Ohio. As Toni Houston. After teaching for nine years, she moved on Morrison, she would become one of the most prolific to working as an editor for a textbook division of the American writers of our time, and the first black woman of publisher Random House in Syracuse, New York. Two any nationality to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The years later she would become the first black female Ohioana Library has a long and proud association with editor at Random House in New York City, where she Toni Morrison, going back to 1975 when she won the first would play a vital role in recognizing Black literature literary award of her career – an Ohioana Book Award for and bringing it into the mainstream. her second novel, Sula. Morrison first began writing during her time at Howard Morrison’s books, many of which are set in and take University, but it wasn’t until 1970 at the age of thirty- inspiration from Ohio, have touched millions around nine that she published her first novel,The Bluest Eye. the world with their themes of race, gender, and identity. The Bluest Eye takes place in Morrison’s hometown When Morrison passed away on August 5, 2019, tributes poured in from around the world. In this piece we look back at her extraordinary career and the special place Ohio had in her work and her life and feature quotes from those who were touched and shaped by her words, including several from Morrison’s fellow Ohio writers.

The second of four children born to George and Ramah Wofford, “Toni” – as she was known from the age of twelve after she became a Catholic and took Anthony as her baptismal name – harbored a love of reading from a young age. Her first job was as a shelver at the Lorain Public Library, where she further cultivated her passion for literature. Morrison lived in Lorain until moving to Washington D.C. to attend Howard University. It was in D.C. that she encountered racial segregation in restaurants and on buses for the first time, experiences that would shape her life and work.

After graduating from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Morrison went on to earn a Master of Arts from Cornell University, and began Toni Morrison in her office at Random House, 1974. Photo by Jill Krementz.

4 | Ohioana Quarterly of Lorain, Ohio, and tells the story of a young African- American woman living in the 1940s who longs to have blue eyes. The main character in the novel is based on a childhood friend of Morrison’s, and many locations from around Lorain, including the lakeside Lake Shore Park, are mentioned and described with delicate affection. The setting comes alive with a level of attention that only a native could achieve. The book was published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston and met with moderate success, though due to its topics of racism, incest, and child molestation there would be numerous attempts to ban the book from libraries and schools.

Despite controversy surrounding the subject matter of The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison quickly found her stride as a writer. A few years later, she produced her second novel, Sula. Set again in Ohio, and a powerful story about the friendship of two black women, Sula won Morrison the first of her many prizes: the Ohioana Book Award in fiction. Morrison, unable to attend the award ceremony in Columbus, was represented by her mother, Ramah, who accepted the award on her daughter’s behalf. Morrison accepts the Ohioana Career Medal at the King Arts Complex, 1988. It was Morrison’s acclaimed third novel, Song of Solomon, that firmly established her as one of the great developed a lifelong love for her novels, reading them with authors of her time, winning her the prestigious National a highlighter in hand, notating her exquisite language. Book Critics Circle Award. It remains one of her most I re-read Song of Solomon in 2004 and found it even popular works, and would be a book that influenced a more riveting than the first time. The novel inspired my number of other aspiring writers. monologue, Ms. Morrison Speaks to Pilate from Song of Solomon, which was selected for the History in ACTion “I was in a fever dream about writing that year. It was Festival of New Plays in Dayton last September. And I 1977 and I’d recently finished college. In college I wrote enjoyed The Pieces I Am, the documentary that celebrates fictional short stories. A Toni Morrison novel came out the extraordinary literary life she lived! Toni Morrison that very year, Song of Solomon. After finishing it I was radiant.” phoned her publisher, believing they’d connect me with her. I wanted to tell her that her prose made me want to write. Chiquita Mullins Lee, Arts Learning Coordinator, Ohio Her secretary told me she didn’t take unsolicited phone Arts Council; Poet and Playwright, Pierce to the Soul calls. Silly me. I eventually found my calling in nonfiction Each new book (she would ultimately go on to publish writing. A few years ago while attending an anniversary eleven novels, seven works of non-fiction, two plays, event for Knopf authors – of which I am one, as was and three children’s books) pushed Morrison more into Morrison – I replayed that scene in my mind as I stood in the public eye and earned her recognition as a literary the New York Public Library listening to Morrison give master. In the early 1980s, Morrison decided to leave the the keynote address. She was both regal and earthy. She publishing industry to focus on writing while teaching at still makes me want to write.” the university level, ultimately becoming the Robert F. Wil Haygood, 2019 Ohioana Award Winner for Tigerland Goheen Chair of Humanities at Princeton University, a post she held from 1989 until her retirement in 2006. “I was in the Shrine of the Black Madonna Bookstore in Atlanta when the salesclerk suggested I read Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Since that time, I’ve

Winter 2020 5 In 1981, the same year as her fourth novel, Tar Baby was paramount in so much of my work. My gratitude to you published, Morrison made a trip back to her native Ohio and fellow Ohioans is profound – not only for the award for a special event. but for the gift to my imagination.”

“Toni Morrison was the guest speaker at the 1981 Ohio More accolades would come in the years that followed, Arts Council (OAC) Awards dinner as part of an OAC capped by the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. No black board meeting and conference in Cincinnati. In an female author before or since has won that honor. And interview Morrison did with Robert Fox, then writer- in 2012, Morrison received the Presidential Medal of in-residence at the OAC, Freedom from President Morrison said: “I love Barack Obama, who everything about books, had proclaimed Song of including the feel of the Solomon as his favorite paper, the pencil.” Fox went book by any author. on to say that Morrison, Morrison may have as an editor, introduced slowed down in her later us to authors such as Toni years, but she never Cade Bambara, Gayle stopped. Not long before Jones, and Alice Walker. her death, the acclaimed Even in 1981 Morrison documentary, Toni was worried about young Morrison: The Pieces people and their reading I Am, produced and habits, saying, “They directed by her friend know a lot, but they seem and portraitist Timothy to pick up their knowledge Greenfield-Sanders, from other sources than had its world premiere reading.” Toni Morrison Toni Morrison receives the Nobel Prize in Literature from King Carl at Robert Redford’s was a woman of the times – XVI Gustaf of Sweden in the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden on Sundance Film Festival. intuitive and reflective. As December 10, 1993. (Photo credit: Associated Press) we pay tribute to her global “Toni Morrison’s impacts impact, we are better people due to her influence, tenacity, as a novelist, essayist, and editor are immense and and the humanness of her words.” multi-generational. Her catalogue of work brims with imagination, truth, and stunning linguistic prowess. Donna S. Collins, Executive Director, Ohio Arts Council Her sentences are as urgent as they are refined, and they bring readers to unique junctions of thought, feeling, and Six years later came Morrison’s masterpiece, Beloved, reckoning with history. Morrison’s literary brilliance and the story of a freed slave who kills her child. It won commitment will continue to deepen our understanding of Morrison the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in fiction. The the world for centuries to come.” announcement of the Pulitzer came one day after the Ohioana Library announced it was giving Morrison its Marcus Jackson, 2019 Ohioana Award Winner for and the state’s highest recognition for an author – the Pardon My Heart Ohioana Career Medal. Though Morrison moved from Ohio after her childhood Ohioana presented the medal to Morrison at the King and lived there only briefly during her adulthood, she Arts Complex in July of that year as part of the Thurber clearly maintained an identity to her home state, and her House Literary Picnic Series. The Ohio Arts Council ties there remained strong. Ohio’s large impact on her is joined with Ohioana in sponsoring the event. Morrison apparent throughout her literary career. The Bluest Eye would say afterwards, “It is always a delight when one’s is not her only novel set in Ohio – Beloved takes place home state recognizes the value of one’s work. But it is in Cincinnati and follows a female slave who escapes an extraordinary pleasure to be honored for it. Ohio is to Ohio, and Sula is set in a mostly black neighborhood

6 | Ohioana Quarterly in Ohio called The Bottom. She drew on particular The Toni Morrison Society, founded in 1993, with more experiences from her childhood in Lorain throughout than six hundred members worldwide, is dedicated to her work. Morrison once described Ohio as, “a curious the study and appreciation of Morrison’s work. Since juxtaposition of what was ideal in this country and what 2012, the Society’s home has been the Oberlin College was base.” Library, located in Mudd Center on the campus, just eight miles from Morrison’s hometown. Oberlin is also Morrison’s impact on literature and popular culture the site of one of the benches placed by the Society as cannot be overstated. Her books have been read and part of the Bench by the Road Project, which helps to studied in schools and memorialize the lives of universities across the Africans who were enslaved. country. Above all, her A project that was deeply work has the ability personal to Morrison, it was to appeal and relate launched by the Society on to vast readership "Ohio is paramount her 75th birthday. with grace, sensitivity, and understanding. in so much Toni Morrison’s legacy Being able to provide is and will continue to be this experience is of my work." resounding throughout the part of what makes world – and it all began right her a noteworthy and here, in Ohio. She was in remarkable author. –Toni Morrison part shaped by the unique experiences of growing up in Ohioana is proud of its Ohio, and in turn her work association with Toni has carved and developed the Morrison over the years. state’s identity. Her accolades In addition to the 1988 and accomplishments are Career Medal and her 1975 prize for Sula, Morrison reflective of what a truly remarkable woman and writer also won the 1999 and 2004 Ohioana Awards in fiction she was, and she surely retains a special place in the for Paradise and Love respectively. In a 1999 poll, heart of Ohio. Ohioana readers selected Morrison as their favorite Ohio author of the twentieth century, and Beloved as their “In Toni Morrison we heard our stories – the beautiful favorite book. and the hard ones alike. Her command of language helped us to see ourselves a little clearer and inspired us to be Morrison has been honored across her home state. In better. I don’t know that a greater mind has ever existed 1995, after her Nobel Prize was awarded, the Lorain among writers. Her willingness to share that mind with Public Library officially opened the Toni Morrison us was truly among her greatest gifts. Reading her work, Reading Room. Toni Morrison herself attended the learning from it is how we repay that debt.” ribbon cutting ceremony and donated several of her books to be held in a special archive there. The reading Dr. Dana Williams, President, the Toni Morrison Society room attracts scholars and fans alike. Another attraction is her childhood home, still standing in Lorain at 2245 Special thanks to Donna S. Collins, Wil Haygood, Marcus Elyria Avenue. Jackson, Chiquita Mullins-Lee, and Dr. Dana Williams for their contributions to this tribute.

Winter 2020 7 A Conversation with Oge Mora by David Weaver

Q What inspired you to write Thank You, Omu? Thank You, Omu! first started as a class project A where I wanted to explore something lost but something also gained. When I thought about this concept, I was immediately reminded of childhood experiences with my late grandmother. The story soon became a celebration of her memory, gratitude, and food’s magical ability to bring families and communities together.

Were you surprised at the wonderful success and Q acclaim the book has received? Most definitely! When I was working on this book A my number one concern was doing justice to a story near and dear to my heart, but the experience of having it published and out in the world has been beyond Photo by Abigail Best anything I could have imagined. I am so grateful that my story has resonated with so many readers. Ohioana is pleased to introduce Floyd’s Pick for 2020: Thank You, Omu!, by author and illustrator Oge Mora. This was your first published book. Can you Mora both wrote and illustrated the book, which tells the Q describe what the process of writing and story of Omu, who cooks a stew and shares it with her publishing was like for you? neighbors; they show their gratitude by returning her generosity. Published by Little Brown Young Readers, Very nerve-wracking to be quite honest! I am a the book received the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe A bit of a perfectionist, but you learn pretty early on New Talent Illustrator Award, was a Caldecott Honor that that mindset isn’t the best suited for publishing. I Book, and was a finalist for the Ohioana Award in rewrote, resketched, recollaged so many things and when juvenile literature. A native of Columbus, Oge now lives it went to print, there were still so many things that I in Rhode Island. wanted to go back into and change! I’ve learned that all you can do is your very best with the time available and Thank You, Omu! was chosen as the 2020 Floyd’s Pick move forward. I learn so much over the process of every award winner by the advisory board of Choose to Read book I make and I’m certain it’ll be that way for life. Ohio. The award is given in memory of Floyd Dickman, a librarian and passionate advocate of children’s literature Can you tell us about your new book, Saturday, who passed away in 2015. Previous winners include Q which has just been published? Loren Long, Jennifer Maschari, Sally Derby, and last year’s recipient, Jacqueline Woodson. Since Ava’s mother works six days a week, A Saturday is a very special day for both of them. We were delighted to have the chance to speak recently They have a bunch of exciting plans for their day, but with Oge. alas, things don’t go according to plan. Despite their setbacks, Ava and her mother know what is most important to them – spending time together. If Thank

8 | Ohioana Quarterly You, Omu! is a book about gratitude, Saturday at its heart is a book about love.

Floyd Dickman was a passionate advocate for Q children’s literature. How does it make you feel seeing children learn to love reading from your books?

I have so much respect for Floyd's legacy. It’s A well known that every writer begins as a reader. I fell in love with reading as a child because there were librarians that read and recommended books to me. Books opened my eyes to the possibilities of the world and changed my life. For my own books to offer any of that to children today is an incredibly humbling thought.

Finally, we are proud to claim you as an Ohio Q writer and illustrator, which is what Ohioana is all about. Do you get back to Ohio often, and do you think of yourself as a Buckeye?

I’m a Buckeye born and raised. I lived in Columbus Oge Mora's newest book Saturday. A until I moved to Providence for college. I currently reside in Rhode Island, but I am often back to Ohio to visit my family and friends. No matter where I go, it will always be home.

Thank you, Oge . . . and congratulations!

Thank You, Omu! 2020 “Floyd's Pick”

In 2015, the Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) Advisory Council created a special honor to be given annually to one outstanding book of children's literature written by an Ohio author or illustrated by an Ohio illustrator. The honor is named for and presented in memory of children’s literature expert, advocate, and librarian Floyd Dickman. “Floyd's Pick” is selected by the CTRO Advisory Council in addition to the twenty titles in the biennial Choose to Read Ohio list.

The CTRO Advisory Council has chosen Thank You, Omu!, written and illustrated by Ohio native Oge Mora, as the 2020 “Floyd's Pick.” The book brings to life a heartwarming story of sharing and community in colorful cut-paper designs as luscious as Omu's stew, with an extra serving of love. Omu means "queen" in the native Igbo language of the author's parents; growing up, she used it to mean "grandma."

Winter 2020 9 Book Reviews

NONFICTION Abdurraqib takes us through what it is like to fall hard for a band, a song, a sound. This book is a true love letter Abdurraqib, Hanif. Go Ahead in the Rain: not only to one particular group, but to an entire genre. The author gets us to recognize our own similar loves Notes to a Tribe Called Quest. for bands, movies, or other cultural trends, and how they University of Texas Press (Austin, TX) 2019. PB $16.95. can be uniquely special at shaping certain times in our Familiarity with the music lives. This book made me yearn not just for what many of seminal rap group A consider the Golden Age of Rap, but also for that more Tribe Called Quest is not a innocent time, before jobs, bills, and other chains of prerequisite to enjoying this, adulthood. I am only a couple of years older than Hanif the third book by Columbus Abdurraqib, and I fell hard into a high-school era music poet and cultural critic Hanif nostalgia hole after I read this book. Abdurraqib. But if you are not a Go Ahead in the Rain was on the longlist for the fan before you start reading this National Book Award in 2019, and was a 2019 Kirkus excellent book, you probably Prize Nonfiction Nominee, as well. Read some of the will be when you finish it. The glowing reviews alongside the book itself, and you will story of Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, see why. This book has resonated not only with critics, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and but with countless people who have found their lives Jarobi White quickly pulled me in. Tribe formed in 1985, shaped by fandom. But it is also much deeper than that. so those of us who grew up with the MTV generation in Abdurraqib strikes the heart of human experience the 1980s and 1990s (back when they used to play actual by uniting us with feelings that every person can music videos) clearly remember the Queens group’s understand. “We are nothing if not for our histories, and jazz-influenced, socially conscious beats. so much of mine is tied up in the business of ghosts,” he In addition to the detailed critical biography writes, in a letter addressed to the mother of Phife Dawg, presented in Go Ahead in the Rain, we also get more who passed away in 2016. He speaks of loss, in the same of Abdurraqib’s signature personal stories. Some of letter: “I don’t want to burden anyone, but I consider what he tells us is heartbreaking, such as the story of anyone who has lost someone my kin, because I think the racist music teacher who claims Hanif was bad at we are all faced with the same question of how we go on. playing the trumpet simply because his lips were “too How we live the life that best reflects the people who big” (a ridiculous statement for which his irate father aren’t here and are still counting on us.” Yet Abdurraqib took the teacher to task by throwing album covers himself admits he is not a cynic, and while some of his featuring Louis Armstrong, Eric Dolphy, Wynton words and experiences are sad, they are hopeful too. He Marsalis, and other famous black trumpet players onto quotes Toni Morrison and delves into his experiences the man’s desk). He describes the halcyon days of the growing up African American in a very white Midwest 1990s cassette, listening to groups like De La Soul, suburb, and later progresses to discussions of the 2016 Wu-Tang Clan, and rappers like Dr. Dre and Snoop election. Abdurraqib never flinches or minces words. Dogg on his Walkman with his friends. Abdurraqib has His writing, through that signature hope, is direct and extremely eclectic music taste; indeed, you will find it a honest, lyrical and thought-provoking. A lot like the very rewarding experience to Google Abdurraqib’s own music and lyrics of A Tribe Called Quest. Spotify playlists as you read the book, particularly songs REVIEWED BY Courtney brown, ohioana's from A Tribe Called Quest’s second album, The Low End library specialist Theory (1991).

10 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK REVIEWS | NONFICTION

Grunenwald, Jill. Reading Behind Bars: A library, “but a correctional institution comes with a True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as lot of unique rules.” After three months, she wrote, “I admittedly still had no idea what the hell I was doing. a Prison Librarian. Mostly I was making it up as I went along.” Skyhorse Publishing (New York, NY) 2019. $25.99. Most of the prisoners were incarcerated for drug Jill Grunenwald got her job as a offenses as well as DUI convictions. They weren’t the prison librarian because an inmate more dangerous convicts in mid- or maximum-security was caught wearing panties prisons, but they were jailbirds, locked up because of belonging to her predecessor. breaking the law.

So, the minimum correction “Part of my job was to contribute to their collective facility for men in Grafton, Ohio, education and to prepare them for their eventual was in need of a new librarian, reentry into society,” Grunenwald wrote. The library naturally. Grunenwald described was also to provide a space for the inmates to go, “a herself as someone who had unique pocket of freedom within the confines of a always had “books in my blood,” prison.” In addition to spending time in the library to and had recently graduated read newspapers, consult legal texts, or to check out with a master’s degree in library a book, inmates told her that they came to the library science. Jobs were scarce after the 2008 recession, because it kept them out of trouble. though she and her new classmates in library school had been told there would be a plethora of jobs available There were seven hundred inmates, many of which upon graduation. When the only library job available came to the library often. The author wrote, “Every was behind bars, she joined the inmates locked in the single interaction with my service population was a slammer. The Joint. The Clink. The Big House. bomb waiting to detonate.”

The author’s book, Reading Behind Bars, is her account She had to be a disciplinarian, when necessary. She of what it was like to run the prison’s library for twenty- had authority, they didn’t. She wrote up reports on one months. She spent her days surrounded by inmates, them occasionally for non-acceptable behavior, such and even had a few of them work a few hours each week as “establishing,” when inmates tried to establish some in the library. Being a library porter was a choice job relationship with a prison employee other than the for inmates, and there was a long line of applications to employee-inmate way things worked. Grunenwald work with “Ms. G.” (During one confrontation with an had to write up two men for masturbating in the inmate, she told him that the “G” in her name stood for library, one while he was staring at her, an event which “Gangsta,” which quickly spread around and earned her understandably shook her up. some respect.) Despite the challenges of a prison employee, she did Imagine becoming a librarian, one of the gentlest of enjoy being a librarian there, though the library was not careers, and finding no place to work but inside a prison, as modern as the ones she was educated in, due to a lack where you had to pass a search inspection each day of access to computers. The books – roughly 8,000 of to get to your job, and as you left each evening. As an them – still were checked out using those old pockets in employee there, you were automatically suspect that the back of the book. There was no budget to buy more you would bring contraband in. “It wasn’t easy and it books or an updated computer system. was surreal knowing that there was a constant Threat The inmates read most of the same books that the Level I had always to be aware of.” If at the end of their general population read: James Patterson, John shifts, all persons inside were still alive and unharmed, Grisham, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Nora Roberts, employees considered they’d had a good day and J. D. Robb. They read fantasy and science fiction, “I felt like a fish out of water those first few weeks,” she historical fiction and romance. They read to remember wrote. She knew the fairly standard rules in a normal and forget.

Winter 2020 11 BOOK REVIEWS | NONFICTION & FICTION

One aspect of the prison job she hated: “I had to practice As a historian, Morrison looks at racism and the censorship, which with my whole heart I objected to.” place of the African American in American society. But she had been hired to uphold the prison’s rules. The She examines how literature describes and defines freedom we non-inmates have to read anything doesn’t roles within our society and across the last 250 years. hold in a prison. Such as books on bomb-making. Or Drawing examples from literature and history, she drills anything too sexually or violently graphic. The librarian down to the essence of society, class, and position. had a list of books that were forbidden inside, and all books coming in – often with inmates’ families with As a novelist, Morrison takes up her subject of the specifically requested books not available in the library “Other” and weaves it into her writings including – were searched for contraband. Beloved, A Mercy, and Paradise. She draws from historical events that include racism and “othering” I personally can attest to the effectiveness of that and builds fictional stories upon the framework of past search. At my Acorn Bookshop, we occasionally sent attitudes and events. books to prisoners on behalf of a family member or friend. One day, shortly after sending a hardback Unerringly, Morrison makes the reader think about mystery inside, two Columbus city cops came into the society today, the question of immigrants and migrants, store and told us that a book we’d sent to a prison was and the value of other cultures within American society. found to have cocaine sewn into the book’s spine. Their Ta-Nehisi Coates, novelist, National Book Award first task was to see if we were the offending party, but winner, and thinker, writes a glowing foreword, placing soon they cleared us, and later told us they never did find Morrison’s essays within a contemporary social and the woman who had used us. We were emphatically told political context. not to send any more books to any prison. Yes, sir! This slim volume will make you think, will encourage After twenty-one months, Grunenwald left to work in you to look at the world through other people’s eyes, and an academic library. She wrapped up her time there will help you recognize the significance of Morrison’s by writing, “Overall I liked it far more than I thought I writings, both historical and literary. May her memory would; I enjoyed working with the men." live on to challenge all of us to be better. REVIEWED BY George Cowmeadow Bauman, the REVIEWED BY Miriam Kahn, librarian, columbus, ohio longtime co-owner of the Acorn Bookshop in the Grandview Heights neighborhood of Columbus

Morrison, Toni. The Origin of Others. FICTION Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA) 2017. $23.95. Goble, Steve. A Bottle of Rum. Toni Morrison – novelist, historian, Robert F. Goheen Seventh Street Books (Amherst, NY) 2019. PB $15.95. Professor in the Humanities, Fair warning, ye rascals: Steve Goble’s A Bottle of Rum, Emerita, Princeton University, the third novel chronicling reluctant pirate Spider John winner of the Nobel Prize in Rush, catches nary a glimpse of the deep blue sea. Literature in 1993, National Book Critics Circle Award, and a The slap of waves against wooden hulls, the snap of Pulitzer Prize – brought together sail canvas in a freshening breeze, the crackling boom six of her Norton Lectures to of a twelve-pounder—nowhere to be found. You won’t challenge her readers. These talks, miss them, though. It’s abundantly clear from the first now essays, focus on the idea of handful of paragraphs: There be pirates here. the “Other,” concentrating on the political, social, and historical The reader quickly learns that Spider John is a pirate definitions and trends that differentiate one (desperately wanting to be a former pirate), a fugitive from another. from justice, and a homesick carpenter yearning for early eighteenth century New England. The author

12 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK REVIEWS | FICTION

won’t let Spider John go home Spider John and Odin seek Hob using brains, brawling, just yet, and the character’s knack and language as blue and salty as the briny deep. The for being in the wrong place at characters they encounter are a nightmare blend of the wrong time opens this novel’s dubious friends and pirates galore, dealing murder and treasure chest for readers. mayhem. Such a large cast could become a hindrance, but like the mystery authors he clearly loves, Goble Goble’s skillful weaving of knifes through the action with razor-sharp efficiency. backstory prevents new readers from becoming confused. That Odin’s role should not go unnoticed. Not only is he a said, you should own The Bloody reminder of the piracy that hangs over Spider John, he’s Black Flag and The Devil’s a rowdy, unscrupulous foil to SJ’s deductive reasoning. Wind and set your sights on the “You always have too much in your thoughts, Spider upcoming Pieces of Eight (and, I hope, the next dozen John,” Odin says. “It all gets tossed about, flotsam after that). drifting across your brain.”

Disclosure: Fellow Buckeye State native Goble and I Readers need not worry about flotsam on their brains have been close buddies since our paths converged in an from A Bottle of Rum. Ohio newsroom decades ago. I was and am attracted – – REVIEWED BY Tom Williams, Ohio native, writer, and by Goble’s integrity, work ethic, and vivid imagination. former editor of Marion and Delaware newspapers I am a Goble fanboy. Consequently, we yell and cuss as we support one another, as we did as he shared early Huber, Lee Anna. Penny for Your Secrets: versions of this novel. Luckily, he won all the important arguments – or, as friends do, I let him believe so. A Verity Kent Mystery. Kensington Books (New York, NY) 2019. PB $15.95. In A Bottle of Rum, Spider John and his entertainingly crude sidekick Odin discover perils that might not Penny for Your Secrets, a book of kill them as dramatically as an English broadside, but the Verity Kent mystery series, are just as deadly. The pirate slang that readers of this begins with a drunken party and a series have come to expect is still there, but doesn’t wife, Ada, issuing a death threat. detract from the pacing of the story, even if one has When Lord Rockham really to occasionally turn to the internet to interpret. My is murdered that night, Ada is favorite is “gobermouche.” (Nah, I had to look it up; shocked, especially when she is you can, too.) accused of the murder. She calls upon Verity Kent, a WWI Secret A tavern owner’s murder puts Spider John on the trail Service spy, to suss out the culprit. of his onetime shipmate and protégé Hob. (“A tavern is a At the same time, her friend Irene wonderful spot for smugglers and merchants to arrange asks Verity and her husband matters,” Spider John observes. “Aye,” Odin retorts. “But Sidney to look into the murder of her half-sister, it is a better place for getting drunk and minding your Esther Shaw. own [expletive] business.”) After much digging, the clues start pointing toward a Spider John follows clues to an apothecary shop (“… double murder, a smuggling ring, and other possible rose oil, poppy seeds … with just a touch of cow urine…”) deaths. Can it be true? What have they stumbled upon? and subsequently to an English madhouse that becomes Verity and Sidney draw on their Intelligence Service the chilling backdrop for the main part of the novel. and military contacts, asking for context and facts, even Although the author largely resists the temptation to a little background history. romp in the asylum’s horrific vibe, he succinctly makes it clear that the place is just as fearsome as the deck of Aside from the wonderful and intriguing cozy murder any pirate ship. (“Meat pies are my favorite … Meat used mystery set in 1919 London, you'll learn a lot more to be alive.”) about aristocratic society, the struggles soldiers had acclimating to peacetime, Shell Shock or today's PTSD,

Winter 2020 13 BOOK REVIEWS | FICTION

and the slow dissolution of rigid upper-crust society. not as cut-and-dried as he is used to, and he is hearing Many of these topics are discussed in PBS’ Downton the other side of a story that has been recited to him Abbey and in other books set in the aftermath of WWI. all his life. The result is a deeply moving, poetic and impactful coming-of-age story that contemplates the Anna Lee Huber tangles the plots, provides a host of unique pain in questioning beliefs you hold close, and aristocrats and members of the Intelligence Services, the bravery it takes to do so. and much more to delight fans of historical fiction and cozy mysteries alike. Huber provides plenty of back In Sadness is a White Bird, it’s not hard to step into story if this is your first exposure to the series. You'll Jonathan’s shoes and understand his conflicted also want to read Huber's Lady Darby mystery series set emotions. The novel is told as if Jonathan is addressing in 1830. Laith directly, and his vulnerability and affection for his friend come through acutely, creating an empathetic Reviewed by Miriam Kahn, Librarian, Columbus, OH bond between him and the reader even in his most flawed moments. Through careful prose, Rothman- Rothman-Zecher, Moriel. Sadness is a Zecher succeeds in creating a character that is familiar White Bird . in his teenage naivety and idealism, and whose growing Atria Books (New York, NY) 2018. HC $26.00. pains can be felt deeply as if they’re one’s own.

Despite spending a large part The questions Jonathan faces throughout the novel are of his youth in Pennsylvania, timely and important. The complexity of the Israeli- Jonathan feels a profound, Palestine conflict is handled expertly, as are Jonathan’s unwavering connection to feelings of being pulled one way by his friends and Israel where he was born. It’s another by his family, unsure if his own opinions and where his grandfather still lives feelings are valid. As his identity and reality become – a Salonican Jew who helped increasingly tangled, he moves toward a decision that establish the Jewish state – and he can change the course of his life. With writing that is feels an indescribable connection smooth and lyrical and impeccable pacing, Rothman- to the land. When his family Zecher writes with an impressive amount of control and moves back to Israel he savors seamlessly creates a story about love and longing, and his surroundings with every how sometimes there is a gap between what is expected moment, and feels at home in a way he never did in the of us and what is right. States. He views his upcoming eighteenth birthday REVIEWED BY Morgan Peters, program coordinator, and conscription as a way to solidify himself as an Ohioana Library Israeli, and he looks forward to it as a right of passage. He knows some of his military duties might include Scibona, Salvatore. The Volunteer. monitoring the Palestinian territories, a reality that Penguin Press (New York, NY) 2019. PB $28.00. he becomes increasingly uncomfortable with when he meets siblings Nimreen and Laith – the Arab-Isreali If you’re looking for your next beach book or waiting-at- twin daughter and son of his mother’s friend. The three the-airport fare, you might want to look elsewhere. of them form a bond that intensifies quickly in the months leading up to Jonathan’s military service, and It’s not that Salvatore Scibona’s The Volunteer can’t be as their friendship grows Jonathan feels his ideals and read in those places. It’s that you won’t want to leave beliefs begin to waver for the first time. this full meal of a book behind.

Moriel Rothman-Zecher’s debut novel explores the The author, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, is in fine form Isreali-Palestine conflict through the eyes of an with this novel. It should come as no surprise, as impressionable teenage boy who is devoted to and Scibona’s previous novel, The End, earned him a spot deeply proud of his Jewish heritage and home in Israel. as a finalist for the National Book Award and won the As the story progresses and Jonathan finds that he has Young Lions Fiction Award. a stake in both sides of the conflict, things are suddenly

14 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK REVIEWS | FICTION

Scibona’s prose accomplishes perfect note, invisible calculations precise as mortar the all-too-rare feat of being fire: the powder charge, the tube, the parabolic shot that understandable without struck its distant mark.” eschewing vibrant imagery. As wielded by the author, these two Ultimately, The Volunteer is larger than the sum of elements do not trip over one its parts – gritty, determined, romantic, and laced another, and as a result, the reader with brutality. The story’s competing elements come can sit back and enjoy the read. together and give the reader pause about the nature of He is a master of using the other family, a concept that, in Scibona’s capable hands, soars words—the ones that provide beyond shared DNA and dinner tables. perfect clarity without resorting REVIEWED BY Tom Williams, Ohio native, writer, and to a mundane description. (“The former editor of Marion and Delaware newspapers table was set for a meal such as people ate who never had to wash the dishes.” “The plum had detonated in Welsh-Huggins, Andrew, ed. Elroy’s teeth and spattered his shirt with juice.”) Columbus Noir. The Volunteer shifts back and forth between characters’ Akashic Books (Brooklyn, NY) 2020. PB $15.95. pasts and presents to explain its premise: A small boy, There’s a town full of dangerous speaking an unfamiliar language, is abandoned by his dames running shady deals father at an airport, with only the clothes he is wearing with the help of their unwitting and a pocketful of cash. (“He looked up at the agents dupes. In this dark city, there are behind the counter, stating his case imcomprehensibly, also good women gone bad, men while two hundred travelers watched, mesmerized, desperate for one more chance, waiting for Lufthansa 531 to Amsterdam. It might have and cops who look the other way. been Lithuanian.”) It’s gotta be NYC or the City of Despite this yo-yo technique—often used, often Angels, right? abused—the author clearly steers the reader through Wrong. Capital city Columbus, the life of military veteran and undercover operator Ohio, has a capital-N Noir heart. Vollie Frade. Scibona uses the back-and-forth to provide context and foreshadowing and rachet up tension. Noir began with Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese (“Within a week of his arrival in the country, Vollie was Falcon and the subsequent classic film adaptation picking shards of the head of a lance corporal off his starring Humphrey Bogart. In Noir, men and women shirt, a boy nearly his same age, and hair attached to the are equally agents of betrayal and have the potential shards that smelled of smoke and Brylcreem.”) for redemption – although frequently the female of the species etc. etc. etc. Noir is thick with moral ambiguity, The main character struggles throughout for control and dead-end alleyways that turn out to be traps rather of his life and understanding of his actions, and the than escape routes. author puts us right in his mind. At one point, he writes that Vollie is “watching his own life without him in it Andrew Welsh-Huggins, author of the Andy Hayes … All the home water had passed out of him. If a body mysteries published by Ohio University Press, has was mostly composed of its water, he was mostly some curated this Akashic Noir volume, a series that began foreigner now.” in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. The Noir series has since taken over not only the United States, but also the world There’s scarcely a page that doesn’t both titillate the with collections from Amsterdam to Zagreb and several readers’ senses and add to the comprehensive picture stops in between. that the author is creating. Scibona has his protagonist return from Vietnam, but makes it clear that Vietnam As you read the stories in Columbus Noir, you’ll see the is still within him. “The trombonist, with only the slide city in a different light. Yes, James Thurber said that and nothing to measure it by, hit note after uncanny Columbus was the sort of place where anything was

Winter 2020 15 BOOK REVIEWS | FICTION & POETRY

likely to happen. But Thurber wasn’t thinking of human poetry in the woods. Imagine trafficking, drug deals gone bad, marriages gone bad, hearing verse recited by water’s friendships gone bad; the whole gamut of just plain bad edge, near the intersection of steep and all within the borders of Franklin County. and flat trails, under a canopy of trees, so far off the grid that, apart Ohio’s capital city is more than a wide spot at the from poetry, the world is silent. intersection of I-70 and I-71, propped up by the I had the unique experience to insurance industry and a fanatical devotion to football. hear Borsenik read several poems No, this Columbus is a place where a man realizes he from Raga for What Comes Next in lost his faith in his fellow man long ago in Lee Martin’s this authentic manner. Borsenik “The Luckiest Man Alive,” a story of suffering brought frequently reads her works at just to the brink. Or where violence engenders more events in Northeast Ohio. If you punishment and heartache in Clintonville (no joke: get a chance to hear her live, I highly recommend it. Clintonville is not for sissies) in Tom Barlow’s “Honor Guard.” Economic anxiety finds its expression in the The author includes important background to the title’s bitter world of real estate – especially combustible key term at the beginning: “Raga: a melodic framework when sex gets tossed into the mix – in Kristen for improvisation” so the reader can understand the Lepionka’s “Gun People” and Craig McDonald’s overall concept. While every poem may stem from “Curb Appeal.” improvisation, each also has a foundation in the auditory sound. It is apparent the author wrote and Unsuspecting men don’t stand a chance, by the way. revised with a focused ear to having these poems be The wife in Mercedes King’s “An Agreeable Wife for a experienced aloud. Suitable Husband” is not to be trifled with despite her obedient exterior. And woe betide the newcomer, like Borsenik’s poetry book is divided into four sections, the protagonist in Nancy Zafris’ “Foreign Study.” with names after four instruments: Sitar, Shehnai, Bansuri, and Tabla. Each section works individually as In this volume are offerings by well-known Ohio writers, if it is a chapbook of related work, but the differences of multiple award winners, and skilled up-and-comers. the styles and lengths of poems combine in harmony as The mini-bios in the back will help you find out more if in an extended play record album. about this talented group. Be sure to look for their other works. Two key takeaways from this book of poetry are her ease with titles and her fearless line breaks. Both strengths After reading the collection, if you find yourself safe are demonstrated with “Train, Loud, Lonesome, Leaving in your suburban home on Sunday night with nothing Without Me.” I wonder if Borsenik kept in mind that a worse ahead than Monday morning, then thank your train’s sounds were the primary inspiration for rock n’ lucky stars. And whatever you do, don’t get cute. Crime roll, as the Rock Hall begins its general tour with this might pay, but cute never does. fact, before delving into the music. Either way, a train REVIEWED BY Leslie Birdwell Shortlidge, former is also a symbol for a journey, for going beyond one’s Ohioana Quarterly editor hometown. “Me? I’ll barefoot the rails / after they’ve cooled, // a balancing act of foolhardiness / and faith, caution left hanging // in the long morning, distant / POETRY whistle moonlighting as map” (p. 15). The final three stanzas dance an improvised song.

Borsenik, Dianne. Raga for What Another skill Borsenik demonstrates is her mastery Comes Next. within short poems. “Sonar Readings” contains only Stubborn Mule Press (Devil’s Elbow, MO) 2019. $15.00. forty-two words, but some skilled succinct lines. The favorites are unexpected images: “release voices / At this year’s Sun & Moon Festival in Yellow Springs, from tangled nets. / Earth’s blood is a hymn…” (p. 17). Dianne Borsenik was one of several poets reading her “Scapular,” another short poem mixes the abstract and

16 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK REVIEWS | POETRY

concrete, “Tension / cloaks the vertebrae, / worn like a over cords, 2x4s, / used coffee cups, concrete cores.” By commitment” (p. 31). the end of the poem she is learning how to respond to someone who “imitates your voice on the loudspeaker, Part III, the Bansuri section, stands out, as the longer / spraypaints Cunt on your Baker staging, / urinates poems mimic the way flute music drifts in unexpected in your hardhat.” The journey of a woman’s need to ways. The first poem, “Luminaria (Meditations Before connect was enlightening and heartbreaking. Kaddish),” is divided into ten sections and part IV stands out as one of the most vivid, and seems like a The female worker’s vulnerability was most apparent in mantra for how Borsenik sees life: to live without regret, Eisenberg’s poem about the two Joe Millers. A woman and to always stay present in the experience of the observes the blue-collar life of men and recognizes their moment: “When you hold the flame in your hand, you humanity and their dysfunction. I felt the frustration burn. There’s no turning back. There never was” (p. 39). between the development of a personal relationship with an individual and the complication of that REVIEWED BY Anne Rundle, poet and testing center coordinator at Columbus State CC relationship when that same individual associates with the group mentality.

Eisenberg, Susan. Stanley’s Girl. I haven’t read such vivid “work life” poems since Philip ILR Press (Ithaca, NY) 2018. PB $14.95. Levine. But lingering over Eisenberg’s poems is always a fear of death. That fear grows when Eisenberg writes Gunter-Seymour, Kari. Serving. poems about female Marines and army soldiers and Crisis Chronicles Press (Parma, OH) 2018. PB $7.00. moves closer to the powerful ending of Stanley’s Girl.

Two powerful and unique Ohio writers have published The lens of military life continues recent poetry books with perfect timing in a culture to focus in Gunter-Seymour’s hungry for thoughtful voices from marginalized Serving. Full disclosure, I am a communities. Their journeys in verse earn empathy military veteran and a military and pave an honorable path for sincere discernment. veteran recalled to active duty Susan Eisenberg’s Stanley’s Girl reflects on a woman’s after September 11, 2001. I was experience in the male-dominated construction also once a trash collector. I profession, while Kari Gunter-Seymour’s Serving have a respect and affection reflects on a mother’s fear and anguish over her son’s for Eisenberg’s poems if I can absence and experience from military deployment. assume, which I want to do, that What both these poets are able to accomplish in these blue-collar experiences are many of their poems is the ability to sneak up on their the poet’s personal experiences. readers. They start with nostalgia, sentiment, or benign Certainly Gunter-Seymour’s observation and slowly twist to an uncomfortable poems are also the first-hand experience of a mother. American horror. The situations are disturbing. Their However, Gunter-Seymour boldly pens poems that poems are chilling. imagine war and take a peak. I still can be stubborn about “can you write about it if you haven’t lived it?” Eisenberg infected me with the Gunter-Seymour can. These are some of the best chill right away with Stanley’s military poems, mother’s perspective or not, that I Girl’s early poems like “First have ever read. Serving should be mandatory reading Week Apprentice,” “Welcome,” for military personnel of all the branches and their “Guideposts,” and “Stanley’s families. The poems have the ability to delve into deep Girl.” In “Welcome,” for example, meaningful conversations of intimate connection. Eisenberg begins the poem with whimsical first day blunders: Serving begins with “Photo 1985,” which explores the “Everything you thought you knew images of the past that help define the bond between / must be relearned overnight. a mother and her son. The small book ends with “No / How to walk. / Walk, not trip, Word from Kandahar,” a poem that invited me to

Winter 2020 17 BOOK REVIEWS | POETRY, YOUNG ADULT & MIDDLE GRADE

understand that the picture, the image, the memory Kate Greystone reassures her children that their isn’t good enough anymore. Words are needed. Maybe a similarity to the kidnapped kids is a weird anomaly. She picture isn’t always worth a thousand words. And in that says her concern is merely for the family in Arizona. invitation, Gunter-Seymour reminds me of the power Being the oldest, Chess is the only sibling that can of poetry itself. No poem in both books encapsulated the remember their father’s death eight years ago. Now those importance of poetry more than in Gunter-Seymour’s memories of his mother’s face on that tragic day flash “After the Farm, the Apartment on Hope Drive:” “I back to him, lighting a spark of doubt. Enough doubt for flipped on the swag light / hanging over the kitchen table, him to eavesdrop on his mother’s phone call later. / sat down to notebook and pen, / waiting for the next words to come. / Turns out the danger in the writing, / Things don’t add up for logical and calculating daughter, Son, is that you will remember / all you’ve worked so hard Emma, either. She’s the middle child and she also has an to erase.” inkling they’re in the middle of something more awful than the kidnapping of three children. For both Eisenberg and Gunter-Seymour, their brave journey to live it and to write it not only sacrifices the Finn, the youngest, is just hungry. He’s not sure why the erasure of their pain, but also the readers’. Turns out, problem with those kids in Arizona had anything to do the writing is so strong in Stanley’s Girl and Serving that with why his afterschool snack wasn’t ready in Ohio. the danger in the reading is that you will remember – a The next morning an emergency business trip drags danger I was willing to experience if reading these books their mom out of town. Now Chess, Emma, and Finn find meant reconciliation and becoming a better person. themselves forced to trust the hospitality of a strange REVIEWED BY J.M. Green, Writer and Librarian at Xavier woman and her daughter, Natalie, the head of the Lip University Gloss Girls.

A trip back to the Greystone’s house leads to Finn’s YOUNG ADULT & MIDDLE GRADE discovery – Mom left her cellphone behind. Then they find her computers. As clues lead to clues, Natalie gains the Greystone kids’ confidence. Together, they Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The follow their suspicions that Mom’s business trip wasn’t Strangers (Greystone Secrets #1). business. The clues lead to a hidden room that spins, a Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY) 2019. HC $17.99. stash of cash, and a series of coded messages from Mom. As ciphers become clearer, the thread of the Greystone In Margaret Peterson Haddix’s The secret unwinds. The answer will shatter the siblings' Strangers, the first book in her new perceptions of reality and reveal the ripple effect of their Greystone Secrets series, three mother’s decisions on all their worlds. siblings must rise above the roles they play in their family to discover Written from the alternating perspectives of Finn, that the whole is greater than the Emma, and Chess, Haddix creates flawed and relatable sum of its parts in order to save characters for a wide readership. This also plants the their mother. reader fully inside the family dynamics of the Greystone kids – their frustrations and skepticisms, but ultimately An ordinary school day in Ohio their love for each other. By overlapping key scenes, ends with the usual race to the the multiple points of view masterfully create tension porch that happy-go-lucky Finn and suspense, allowing the reader to know something Greystone always wins, but life the other siblings do not. Unspoken and unanswered changes with the sliver of light allowed into the house thoughts floating in each character’s mind begs the with the opening of the door. Their family has a secret. A reader to ask their own “what if?” questions. secret their mother has woven into their world with the finest thread. When three children in Arizona that have Two criminal issues, the kidnapping and the possibility exactly the same names and birthdays as Chess, Emma, of domestic abuse, are dealt with in age-appropriate and Finn are kidnapped, that thread begins to unravel. sensitivity. The kidnapping is handled mainly through

18 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK REVIEWS | YOUNG ADULT & MIDDLE GRADE

the Greystones’s and Natalie's concern for the captive who just needs a little help to push through the pain and children’s welfare. Domestic abuse is shown only ends up addicted to the very pain killers that were meant through the need of women to find the courage to remove to help. It’s the small, seemingly harmless compromises themselves from the danger and reach out for assistance. that eventually add up and lead Mickey down a path that Nothing graphic. A reader with experience will be able to she swore she would never take – shooting up. fill in the blanks, but one without will still feel the perils. Heroine is a sober reminder of just how easily addiction Ultimately, The Strangers is a sci-fi/fantasy meetsYoung can happen and how quickly that addiction can lead to Sherlock Holmes page-turner. serious repercussions and even accidental death. There is no neat and tidy bow to end Mickey’s story just the REVIEWED BY Anthony Hoehn, father of a book- – devouring 9-year-old and SCBWI member uncertainty that faces addicts on their road to recovery and the hope that readers will be left with a newfound McGinnis, Mindy. Heroine. empathy for those struggling with addiction. HarperCollins (New York, NY) 2019. HC $17.99. REVIEWED BY Paula Geglein, Juvenile Selector for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and Reader of YA Books Mindy McGinnis has never been one to shy away from difficult topics, tackling the dark side of Miller, Brandon Marie. Robert E. Lee: The family and mental health in This Man, The Soldier, The Myth. Darkness Mine and sexual assault Calkins Creek (Honesdale, PA) 2019. HC $19.95. and vengeance in The Female of the Species. So, it should come as This book is a fascinating no surprise that in her latest YA biography of the most important novel, she turns her attention to Confederate General of the Civil the opioid crisis and the slippery War. It's an informative book slope of addiction with her for Northerners, for sadly, we're trademark unflinching honesty and educated about the Civil War compassion. from a Northern perspective and learn little about the Southern With Heroine, McGinnis introduces us to Mickey generals. Miller explores the Catalan, a high school softball star who’s got one goal for myths surrounding Lee, his her senior year: to win State and secure a college sports political and personal beliefs – scholarship. That is, until a car accident derails her plans particularly about slavery – his and leaves her with a hip injury that is described as a role in the military from his earliest days as a West “Barbie doll having her leg popped out of the socket.” Point Cadet to his leaderships as the General of the Determined to start the season despite the three screws Army of Northern Virginia, and most importantly, his embedded in her hip, she embarks on a brutal rehab accomplishments during peacetime as an engineer, schedule that she hopes will get her life back on course. surveyor, educator, and family man. However, as Mickey pushes herself to edge of her limits to speed up her recovery time, her seemingly temporary The centerpiece of this book, indeed the second half, is reliance on Oxy becomes less innocent: She finds herself all about Lee as General. A secondary theme of the book making riskier and riskier choices to get her next fix, is Lee's role in the US Army Corps of Engineers, his leading to an addiction to heroin that has devastating diligence in enhancing education at West Point and later consequences for her and those around her. at Washington (and Lee) College. His drive for military excellence makes him stand out among military men of I think where McGinnis succeeds is in giving the opioid the nineteenth century. epidemic a face that teen readers can relate to, not the strangers they see on TV or in the news. Mickey could be Opening with a series of chapters about Lee’s ancestry any high schooler – an athlete, a sister, a friend – anyone which describe his illustrious grandfather Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III, a Revolutionary War hero with feet

Winter 2020 19 BOOK REVIEWS | YOUNG ADULT, MIDDLE GRADE & CHILDREN'S

of clay, and equally his maternal grandmother Martha the prose is in turn both funny and poignant. Cal is a very Custis (Washington) and grandfather Daniel Parke believable teenager in today’s world and tells the story Custis, also of great renown. While shedding light on his with a narrative full of cultural references that make the heritage, Miller is careful to describe how Robert E. Lee story come alive and fill it with relevance. grew up with a strict moral code imbued by his mother and from the rigors of West Point. The novel shines the most in its characters. Cal is a well- meaning, ambitious, and highly intelligent protagonist Miller's writing is fluid and easily understandable, – though that doesn’t mean he’s without his flaws. His perfect for YA and adult readers curious about military tendency to be self-centered is a trait he must face in men and their role in the development and expansion of himself, particularly where it relates to his parents and the United States. Robert E. Lee: The Man, The Soldier, his best friend, Deb. Leon and Kat – the “Astrokids” The Myth was designed to enlighten and inform the who Cal befriends soon after moving to Houston – are curious reader and the nascent military history buff. also multi-dimensional, layered characters. The theme that returns time and again is one of self-growth and REVIEWED BY Miriam Kahn, Librarian, Columbus, OH acceptance – both in the teenaged characters and their relationships, as well as those of the adults. There is Stamper, Phil. The Gravity of Us. a great deal of introspection and maturity displayed Bloomsbury YA (London, UK) 2020. HC $17.99. as they learn about themselves and others, and this especially goes for the budding romance between Cal Life can be messy and difficult and Leon. when you’re seventeen-years- old, but luckily Cal seems The Gravity of Us is a refreshing and unique take on to have it all figured out. He the teen romance that manages to pack an impressive has a successful social media amount of story in a well-paced narrative that never following, a highly sought-after seems slow or bogged down despite how many balls are summer internship at Buzzfeed in the air. Besides the romance aspect, the novel also lined up, and his best friend offers an interesting and well-researched take on the lives just steps away in their future of the space program and an eventual mission to Brooklyn apartment building. Mars, as well as highlighting the importance of upkeep of As they spend their days scouring thrift shops to feed all relationships, romantic and otherwise. Cal’s cassette addiction, it seems as if his parent’s rocky REVIEWED BY Morgan Peters, program coordinator, relationship is Cal’s biggest challenge. That is, until his Ohioana Library pilot father is selected to train as the last astronaut for a highly publicized mission to Mars. Suddenly, Cal’s whole world is changing. He and his family must move CHILDREN’S to Houston, leaving everything they know behind in New York City. Cal is less than thrilled about the move. But when he meets Leon, another “Astrokid” living in Hoefler, Kate. Illus. by Sarah Jacoby. Houston due to his parent’s involvement in the mission, Rabbit and the Motorbike. he suddenly feels himself falling head over heels faster Chronicle Books (New York, NY) 2019. HC $17.99. than a shooting star. Rabbit and the Motorbike travels through the lives of two The Gravity of Us is a starry-eyed romance and a friends and shows how relationships leave their lasting charming, tender debut from Phil Stamper. Throughout mark even when their roads diverge. the novel, Cal deals with the kind of challenges that many teens face in high school – such as uncontrollable Rabbit’s friend, Dog, has a motorbike and rides off on changes, first love, and complicated friendships. Cal’s howling great adventures. Dreams of the rumbling versions of these common issues are intensified and road fill his nights. From the safety of his wheat field, accelerated, but the content doesn’t suffer any loss in Rabbit’s days are filled with the vivid tales Dog shares. relatability because of it. The dialogue is realistic, and Until the day Dog no longer comes. Only his motorbike

20 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK REVIEWS | CHILDREN'S

does. Rabbit tries to talk Houts, Michelle. Illus. by Bagram to the motorbike, but the Ibatoulline. Sea Glass Summer. only language it knows is the song of its motor and Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA) 2019. PB $16.99. the hum of traffic. Rabbit When Thomas begins the is scared. He misses his summer at his grandmother’s friend. Why would Dog seaside cottage, she gives leave him the motorbike? him a magnifying glass that He’s never been out of belonged to his grandfather. the wheat field. When the summer sun shines and the Thomas uses it to inspect open road calls, will Dog’s gift of his motorbike and the shells and tiny wonders on memories it carries be enough for Rabbit to answer and the beach, but a peculiar brave his own adventures? Time to put a paw on the green fragment captures kickstarter and find out. his attention the most. His Hoefler’s specific descriptions of Rabbit and Dog make grandmother explains that the characters real and relatable, while her open-ended the green piece is called “sea glass,” made from glass portions of the text allow for personal experience to be dropped in the sea long ago that turned smooth and brought in. The way both are woven together throughout cloudy from being tossed in the waves and sand. She the story pulls the reader/listener closer, allowing them tells him, “Your grandfather used to say that each piece to feel Rabbit’s struggle, fears, and most importantly, his of sea glass has a story all its own.” hopes after Dog is gone. Thomas spends the summer hunting for sea glass and The setting is active in showing how Rabbit views his stories from the past. Then the unthinkable happens: world and how he is drawn into it. The illustrations by his grandfather’s magnifying glass breaks and the pieces Sarah Jacoby work beautifully to express the contrasts. are swept into the ocean. But is it the end of his sea glass adventure, or the beginning of a new story? Although the death of Dog may deter some from wanting to read this book, Hoefler is ever so sensitive with the Sea Glass Summer is a heartwarming tale of family, writing for this scene. Dog is described as old and sick, history, and possibility. The past and present come then one day he stops coming to visit Rabbit. Death is together to tell the full story, alternating with each part never explicitly stated. of the tale. Thomas’ days searching along the beach at his grandmother’s side are shown with bright and colorful Like in life, we may lose those closest to our hearts, but illustrations. When history comes to life in Thomas’ their memories continue to shape our lives. In the same dreams, the illustrations take on a monotone palette way Ida, Always by Caron Levis handles life after loss, and the text becomes italicized and framed, giving these Rabbit and the Motorbike is a wonderful journey that sections the feeling as if one is peering into the past urges us to live and to share our love with others so they through a scrapbook or photo album. Together, the lively too may pass it on. present and muted past gives the reader a full picture of Thomas and his family, ending with a peek into the boy’s REVIEWED BY Anthony Hoehn, avid motorbike rider and SCBWI member future, too. Sea Glass Summer is a perfect book to explore the concepts of interconnectedness and generational bonds, encouraging the reader to imagine what stories the objects in their own lives might tell.

REVIEWED BY Kathryn Powers, Ohioana Library Office Manager and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Volunteer

Winter 2020 21 Book List

The following books were added discover this gentle mystery woman, been written about Ohio’s unique to Ohioana's collection between her small-town midwestern milieu, and beautiful environment. Author August and December, 2019. Look and how this haunting absence has Deborah Fleming, who has lived for them at your local library shaped his emotional life. in rural Ohio and cared for its or bookstore! land for decades, shares fourteen Driver, Cady. Extraordinary: interrelated essays, blending her Stories of Adopting Children own experiences with both scientific NONFICTION with Down Syndrome. JPV Press and literary research. Resurrection (Winesburg, OH) 2019. PB $19.95. of the Wild discusses both natural Banyas, Susan Grace. The Hillsboro Extraordinary: Stories of Adopting and human histories as it focuses Story: A Kaleidoscope History Children With Down Syndrome on the Allegheny Plateau and hill of an Integration Battle in My will introduce you to thirteen country in Ohio’s eastern counties. Hometown. Spuyten Duyvil families who said “YES!” to the These meditations delve into life (Brooklyn, NY) 2019. PB $18.00. most rewarding journey of their on Fleming’s farm, the impacts of The Hillsboro Story is set in the lives. Inside these pages, you will the mining and drilling industries, writer’s hometown, near the Mason catch a glimpse of the struggles, the fox hunting, homesteading families, Dixon Line, during a powerful successes, and the unspeakable joy the lives of agriculturalists Louis turning point in America, when they experienced as they welcomed Bromfield and John Chapman the Brown v. Board of Education a child with Down syndrome into (better known as Johnny decision in 1954 set the stage their forever family. It also includes Appleseed), and Ohio’s Amish for school integration. A single a statement of “We Believe…” listing community. Fleming finds that our childhood memory - a protest the many reasons that children with very concept of freedom must be outside her classroom window - Down syndrome are more alike redefined to include preservation opens into a multi-voiced tale that than different from a typical child. and respect for the natural world. brings to light the courageous people A Resource Guide will help you find Ultimately, Resurrection of the Wild who fought for integration and equal general information such as “How becomes a compelling argument protection in the early days of the to Adopt” and “Financial Assistance for the importance of ecological Civil Rights Movement, at a time Organizations.” If you’re not able to preservation in Ohio, and Fleming’s when Cold War tensions were at adopt but would like to help, there perspective will resonate with their peak. Anchored by the wisdom are resources in “Orphan Care” to readers both within and beyond this of real people who lived through guide you to what best suits your “forgotten” state’s borders. the experience, The Hillsboro Story situation. reveals what hides in the shadows Dorr, Christina, and Liz Deskins. of the culture, then and now, and the Fleming, Deborah. Resurrection of LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and deep nature of memory as a tool for the Wild: Meditations on Ohio’s Teens. ALA Editions (Chicago, IL) empowerment and healing. Natural Landscape. Kent State 2018. PB $45.00. University Press (Kent, OH) 2019. There is a rich and varied body of Cryer, Dan. Forgetting My Mother: HC $24.95. literature for lesbian, gay, bisexual, A Blues from the Heartland. An impassioned call for recognizing transgender, queer/questioning, Parafine Press (Cleveland, OH) 2019. and preserving the ecological asexual/allied and intersexed young PB $17.95. wonders of the Allegheny Plateau. people, which can function as a When journalist Dan Cryer was just Yosemite National Park, Louisiana’s mirror for LGBTQAI+ individuals eight, his mother unexpectedly died. bayou, the rocky coasts of New and as a window for others. This In their grief, he and his siblings England, the desert Southwest – resource for librarians who work shut out all memories of their America’s more dramatic locations with children and teens not only beloved Pauline. In this haunting are frequently celebrated for their surveys the best in LGBTQAI+ memoir, Cryer recreates his quest to natural beauty, but far less has lit but, just as importantly, offers

22 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | NONFICTION

guidance on how to share it in ways and escape from small-town small- captures our imagination; that that encourage understanding and mindedness. It is a searing and often causes us to want to howl at the acceptance among parents, school funny exploration of how women moon, or flit through the night like a administrators, and the wider first see themselves through the lens bat. Werewolves, vampires, demons, community. Helping to fill a gap in of a parent’s love, and of the ties that and other weird creatures appeal to serving this population, this guide bind us to our childhood heroes, who our animal nature, our “dark side,” gives school librarians, children’s, ultimately lead us to ask that most our desire to break free of the bonds and YA librarians the guidance and profound of questions: Is love really of society and proper behavior. tools they need to confidently share all you need? Real or imaginary, shapeshifters these books with the patrons they lurk deep in our psyches and support. Hunter, Bob. Players, Teams, and remain formidable cultural icons. Stadium Ghosts: Bob Hunter The myths, magic, and meaning Ford, Lyn, and Sherry Norfolk. on Sports. Ohio University Press surrounding shapeshifters are Speak Peace: Words of Wisdom, (Athens, OH) 2019. PB $24.95. brought vividly to life in John B. Work, & Wonder. Parkhurst In Players, Teams, and Stadium Kachuba’s compelling and original Brothers (Marion, MI) 2019. Ghosts, sportswriter Bob Hunter cultural history. Rituals in early PB $15.00. has assembled a Hall of Fame cultures worldwide seemingly Lyn Ford and Sherry Norfolk have collection of his best writing from allowed shamans, sorcerers, witches, studied social distrust, disturbance, the Columbus Dispatch. Fans will and wizards to transform at will into and dysfunction throughout their encounter some of the biggest names animals and back again. Today, there professional lives, which has led in sports and relive great moments are millions of people who believe them to compile this anthology of from games played by amateurs and that shapeshifters walk among us peacemaking tools, stories, and pros. They’ll encounter forgotten and may even be world leaders. interviews. players and teams that struggled. Featuring a fantastic and ghoulish Hunter shows us LeBron James array of examples from history, Hosier, Erin. Don’t Let Me Down: when he was a fifteen-year-old high literature, film, TV, and computer A Memoir. Atria Books (New York, school freshman, already capturing games, Shapeshifters explores our NY) 2019. HC $26.00. the world’s attention; twenty- secret desire to become something Erin Hosier’s coming-of-age was year-old Derek Jeter’s meteoric other than human. full of contradiction. Born into the rise through the minors, including turbulent 1970s, she was raised the Columbus Clippers; a strange Kasich, John. It’s Up to Us: Ten in rural Ohio by lapsed hippies encounter with Pete Rose hustling Little Ways We Can Bring About who traded 1960s rock ‘n’ roll for frozen pizzas; and the excitement Big Change. Hanover Square Press 1950s-era Christian hymns. Her of watching future WNBA star (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) 2019. mother’s newfound faith was Katie Smith dominate a Columbus HC $19.99. rooted in a desire to manage her Quest championship game. Hunter John Kasich has walked the husband’s mood swings, which could consistently uses a personal touch corridors of power both in politics, alternately fill the house with music to take readers beyond the final as a former leader of Congress, or with violence. All the while, Jack scores and the dazzle of lights. These governor of Ohio, presidential was larger than life to his adoring are the people behind the athletes. candidate, and in the private sector, daughter. Full of conflict, their They’re remembered for how they as an in-demand public speaker, complex relationship set the tone for played, but Hunter reminds us who best-selling author and a strategic three decades of Erin’s relationships they were. advisor to businesses and large non- with men; the Beatles provided the profits. Yet he’s seen that the most soundtrack. Jack bonded with Erin Kachuba, John. Shapeshifters: A powerful movements have started over their iconic songs, even as they History. Reaktion Books (London, from the bottom up. Rather than inspired her to question authority— UK) 2019. HC $22.50. waiting on Washington, the solutions both his and others’. Don’t Let Me There is something about a happen once we become leaders Down is about a brave girl trying to shapeshifter – a person who can in our own lives and communities. navigate family secrets and tragedies transform into an animal – that The strength and resilience of our

Winter 2020 23 BOOK LIST | NONFICTION

nation lies in each of us. That’s what She set out to get to the bottom incredible leadership, problem- this book is about. In It’s Up to Us, of her complicated relationship solving, and practical skills that Kasich shares the ten little ways we with honesty and confronted her are underutilized once they reach each can bring about big change. perennial fear of speaking the truth the civilian world, a detriment to Taken together, they chart a path for in social situations, among friends, both themselves and society. Well- each to follow as we look to live a life in the workplace, with her kids – intentioned Transition Assistance bigger than ourselves. Taken one- and finally, inside her complicated Programs and other support by-one, they can help to lift us from marriage. Blending her personal structures within the armed forces a place of outrage or complacency or journey with the latest research into often leave veterans fending for helplessness and move us closer to the psychology of deception, Would I themselves. And the mission-first our shared American dream. Lie to You? is a timely consideration culture of the military results in of the joys and pains of truth in a servicemembers focusing on their Ketteler, Judi. Would I Lie to You? world that seems committed active duty roles in the year leading The Amazing Power of Being to lying. up to their separation, leaving Honest in a World That Lies. them little time to adequately Citadel Press (New York, NY) 2020. Kuhlman, Nan. Nontraditional: prepare to join the civilian world. HC $26.00. Life Lessons from a Community Mission Transition guides military We all want the truth, don’t we? College. Annorlunda Books (San personnel through the entire In fact, we demand it. We divorce Diego, CA) 2020. PB $14.99. process of making a successful spouses who withhold it. We insist Nan Kuhlman reworked her move into civilian professional life. our children practice it. We’re hurt plans for her career – and her Each chapter includes advice from when our friends don’t divulge life – several times to support the other veterans, illustrations of key it. We’re incensed by politicians needs of her family. Then a chance concepts, summaries, and suggested who invent it. But when it comes encounter gives her another chance resources. to our own behavior, how often do to pursue her dream of teaching we transgress? Out of diplomacy, college students. Kuhlman begins Maciejunes, Nanette V., and M. kindness, sympathy, and privacy teaching writing classes at her local Melissa Wolfe, eds. Reflections: we don’t always tell the truth. Yet community college where many of The American Collection of the we often barely notice. So, what the students are “nontraditional” Columbus Museum of Art. The happens when we do notice? When - returning service members, laid Columbus Museum of Art/Ohio we truly focus on the decisions off factory workers, and a range of University Press (Columbus/Athens, we’re making around honesty? other people who never thought they OH) 2019. PB $55.00. When we view our entire life might be “college material.” In this Reflections: The American Collection through the lens of honesty? Award- collection of linked essays, Kuhlman of the Columbus Museum of Art adds winning journalist and New York introduces us to her students, the a novel and provocative element to Times contributor Judi Ketteler lessons she taught, and the lessons the library of art museum collection looked at her Facebook page and she learned along the way. catalogs. In the traditional manner, saw a content mother, a generous Reflections features selected friend and sister, a good daughter, Louis, Matthew J. Mission works – more than 125 – from the and a wife with a happy marriage. It Transition: Navigating the museum’s collection, accompanied wasn’t quite the whole story though. Opportunities and Obstacles by concise essays by scholars of In thinking about all the truths she to Your Post-Military Career. art who reflect on and respond wasn’t revealing, Judi realized that HarperCollins Leadership (New to the distinctive aspects of each the line between truth and deception York, NY) 2019. HC $27.99. work. To this customary approach, was beginning to blur. How often had Every year, about a quarter of a the editors have added what they she herself paltered, exaggerated, million veterans leave the military term intersections essays: an concealed, side-stepped, or spun – most of whom are grossly examination of a well-known work the truth? To answer that question, unprepared for the transition. These of art from the differing perspectives Judi started her “Honesty Journal.” servicemembers have developed of two authors – most of whom are

24 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | NONFICTION Book List not art historians. For instance, River of Doubt brings alive these popular entertainments of her acclaimed writer Joyce Carol extraordinary events in a powerful time. On her piano, she performed Oates provides her perspective on nonfiction narrative thriller that popular musical numbers, many George Bellows and is joined by happens to feature one of the most from the tradition of minstrelsy, and Laurie Bellows Booth, an objects famous Americans who ever lived. at theaters, she listened to famous conservator and the painter’s musicians, including Jenny Lind granddaughter. The book includes Money, Nicholas P. The Selfish and, likely, the Hutchinson Family ten of these compelling essays, Ape: Human Nature and Our Singers. In reading the Atlantic including contributions by such Path to Extinction. Reaktion Press Monthly, the Springfield Republican, authors as Adam Gopnik and Alan (London, UK) 2019. HC $20.00. and Harper’s, she kept up with the Trachtenberg. Weaving together stories of roiling conflicts over slavery and science and sociology, The Selfish took in current fiction and verse. Millard, Candice. The River of Ape offers a refreshing response And, she enjoyed the occasional Doubt: Thodore Roosevelt’s to common fantasies about the excursion to the traveling circus Darkest Journey. Anchor Books ascent of humanity. Rather than and appreciated the attractions (New York, NY) 2005. PB $17.00. imagining modern humans as a of the dime museum. Whatever The first book by multi-award species with godlike powers, or her aspirations were regarding winning author Candice Millard. Homo deus, Nicholas P. Money participation in a public arena, The River of Doubt – it is a black, recasts us as Homo narcissus – the rich world of popular culture uncharted tributary of the Amazon paragons of self-absorption. This offered Dickinson a view of both that snakes through one of the exhilarating story offers an immense the political and social struggles most treacherous jungles in the sweep of modern biology, leading of her time and the amusements of world. Indians armed with poison- readers from earth’s unexceptional her contemporaries. “Theatricals tipped arrows haunt its shadows; location in the cosmos to the of Day” explores how popular piranhas glide through its waters; story of our microbial origins and culture and entertainments are boulder-strewn rapids turn the the innerworkings of the human seen, heard, and felt in Dickinson’s river into a roiling cauldron. After body. It explores human genetics, writing. In accessible prose, his humiliating election defeat in reproduction, brain function, and Sandra Runzo proposes that the 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the aging, creating an enlightened view presence of popular entertainment most punishing physical challenge of man as a brilliantly inventive, yet in Dickinson’s life and work opens he could find, the first descent of an self-destructive animal. The Selfish our eyes to new dimensions of the unmapped, rapids-choked tributary Ape is a book about human biology, poems, illuminating the ways in of the Amazon. Together with his the intertwined characteristics which the poet was attentive to son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous of our greatness and failure, and strife and conflict, to amusement, explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva the way that we have plundered and to play. Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a the biosphere. Written in a highly feat so great that many at the time accessible style, it is a perfect read Stortz, Diane. Encountering God’s refused to believe it. In the process, for those interested in science, Heart for You: 365 Devotions from he changed the map of the western human history, sociology, and the Genesis Through Revelation. hemisphere forever. Along the way, environment. Bethany House (Minneapolis, MN) Roosevelt and his men faced an 2019. HC $17.99. unbelievable series of hardships, Runzo, Sandra. “Theatricals God put the Bible together for losing their canoes and supplies of Day”: Emily Dickinson and humans, and he wants them to to punishing whitewater rapids, Nineteenth-Century American understand and know him better. and enduring starvation, Indian Popular Culture. University of But sometimes one can get lost attack, disease, drowning, and a Massachusetts Press (Amherst, MA) in the details and miss the big murder within their own ranks. 2019. PB $27.95. picture. The Bible is more than Three men died, and Roosevelt was In her own private ways, Emily just a collection of wisdom, brought to the brink of suicide. The Dickinson participated in the instructions, and history. It’s one

Winter 2020 25 BOOK LIST | NONFICTION & ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN

unified story of the incredible love you think, and that there’s no other the Healing Power of Horses takes of God. Encountering God’s Heart therapy quite like pavement beneath readers into the world of therapeutic for You takes the reader on a daily your feet. riding and the little victories Debbie journey through the full narrative experiences as she learns to ride of Scripture in a year. And in the Thomson, Cindy. Celtic Song: again, teach others with disabilities process, it will draw the reader From the Traditions of Ireland, from her wheelchair, and develop nearer to God as they discover his Scotland, England, and Wales. 7th a new carriage driving program for love and compassion. It won’t cover & Cherry (Pensacola, FL) 2019. those who can’t ride. In time, a quiet every verse, or even every chapter, PB $8.99. and reserved woman would gain in the Bible, but by the time one The Celts have always been a people confidence, becoming a leader and is through, one will have a strong of songs. Stories, legends, and wise advocate for people with disabilities. grasp of what the Bible is all about. sayings were better remembered Reading Scripture isn’t just a way when put to music. While the ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN to collect information or check melodies may have faded, the something off a to-do list. This book wisdom of these songs still rises The Columbus Renaissance will attempt to bring the reader into from mountain, valley, and bog to Lookbook: A Look Back to Look God’s presence to better understand lift the spirit and encourage the Forward. Greater Columbus Arts the Bible’s story of love, sacrifice, modern wayfarer. While music has Council (Columbus, OH) 2019. and redemption as he draws them always been an integral part of the HC $35.00. to himself. lives of the people of the British Isles Columbus, Ohio celebrated the and the diaspora around the world, 100th anniversary of the Harlem Sweeney, Nita. Depression Hates a an exploration of why this is so has Renaissance with a vivacious Moving Target: How Running with seldom been explored. citywide celebration that touched My Dog Brought Me Back from the thousands of lives through art, Brink. Mango Publishing (Coral Weibel, Betty. Little Victories: A inspiration and collaboration. Gables, FL) 2019. PB $18.99. True Story of the Healing Power Experience the movement that It’s never too late to chase your of Horses. Brown Dog Books continues to sweep across this dreams. Before she discovered (Cleveland, OH) 2019. PB $19.99. city by purchasing the stunning running, Nita Sweeney was Debbie Gadus was fulfilling her commemorative lookbook. This forty-nine years old, chronically childhood dream of working in the 200-page book documents the depressed, occasionally manic, horse business and living on her own collective journey of our city through and unable to jog for more than 60 when the riding arena roof collapsed rich photography and compelling seconds at a time. Using exercise, on her and a young student during stories. The narrative carries the Nita discovered an inner strength an extreme winter snowstorm. reader from the early 20th century she didn’t know she possessed, Rescue workers dug her out, doctors all the way through our vision for the and with the help of her canine saved her life, and therapists guided future of African American creative companion, she found herself on her through rehab and into her expression in Columbus. the way to completing her first new life as a paraplegic living in marathon. In her memoir, Sweeney her parents’ home. This is the true Batchelor, Bob. The Bourbon King: shares how she overcame emotional inspirational story of how horses led The Life and Crimes of George and physical challenges to finish a young woman back to her dream, Remus, Prohibitions’s Evil Genius. the race and come back from the and how disability enabled her to Diversion Books (New York, NY) brink. There’s hope and help on the discover abilities she never knew she 2019. HC $27.99. track: Anyone who has struggled possessed. Debbie’s story intersects On the 100th anniversary of The with depression knows the ways with that of a small therapeutic Volstead Act comes the epic, the mind can defeat you. However, horseback riding center for disabled definitive story of the man who it is possible to transform yourself persons that would go on to become cracked the Prohibition system, with the power of running. You may one of the nation’s leading facilities. became one of the world’s richest learn that you can endure more than Little Victories: A True Story of criminal masterminds, and helped

26 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN

inspire The Great Gatsby. Love, the campaign, thousands of people the USS Missouri just five months murder, political intrigue, mountains – including naturalized voters, after his son was killed in Germany. of cash, and rivers of bourbon - the African Americans, women, men On the homefront, Goodyear tale of George Remus is a grand from various occupations, and young manufactured blimps used to hunt spectacle and a lens into the dark voters - traveled to Garfield’s home, down Nazi submarines, and noted heart of Prohibition. Yes, Congress listened to him speak, shook hands, Beacon Journal cartoonist Web gave teeth to Prohibition in October met his family, and were invited Brown pledged his talent and his 1919, but the law didn’t stop George inside. The press reported the pen to boosting morale at home and Remus from amassing a fortune that interactions across the country. Not abroad. Replete with more than one would be worth billions of dollars only did Garfield win, but he started hundred images, including many today. As one Jazz Age journalist a new campaign technique that then of Brown’s wartime drawings, this put it, “Remus was to bootlegging carried three other Republicans to thrilling account by local author Tim what Rockefeller was to oil.” Author the presidency. Benjamin Harrison Carroll recalls all that Akron gave Bob Batchelor breathes life into followed suit in 1888, and his crowds for freedom. the largest bootlegging operation dwarfed Garfield’s as Indianapolis in America – greater than that of exploded with hundreds of Grabowski, John J. Photographs by Al Capone – and a man considered thousands of visitors. Eight years Lauren R. Packini. Cleveland A to the best criminal defense lawyer of later, William McKinley ran the Z: An Essential Compendium for his era. Remus bought an empire of most famous front porch campaign Visitors and Residents Alike. Black distilleries on Kentucky’s “Bourbon from his hometown of Canton, Ohio, Squirrel Books (Kent, OH) 2019. Trail” and used his other profession, with around 750,000 Americans PB $29.95. as a pharmacist, to profit off legal traveling down those streets – Cities around the globe, whether loopholes. He spent millions including miners’ unions, women’s large or small, have characteristics bribing officials in the Harding suffrage groups, and Confederate that create a particular identity. So Administration, and he created a soldiers to their Union counterparts. what about Cleveland? What are its roaring lifestyle that epitomized Finally, Warren Harding continued nuances, its images? In addressing the Jazz Age over which he ruled. the tradition in 1920 and won by a that question, Cleveland A to Z is That is, before he came crashing 60 percent popular majority. Using not a typical city guide. Rather than down in one of the most sensational a technique very evident today, concentrating solely on the usual murder cases in American history: Republican campaign managers topics – landmarks, restaurants, a cheating wife, the G-man who quickly realized that merchandising shopping, and notable facts – this seduced her and put Remus in their candidate as a brand generated guide touches on deeper themes jail, and the plunder of a Bourbon much support. After Harding, related to Cleveland’s people, places, Empire. Remus murdered his wife presidential candidates began stories, and events. These seventy- in cold-blood and then shocked a to travel the country extensively two short articles reveal details nation winning his freedom based on themselves to speak personally to about the city’s rich history, while a condition he invented – temporary the American people. also hinting at the issues, attitudes, maniacal insanity. and even the quirks that define Carroll, Tim. World War II Akron. Cleveland’s character. Cleveland A Bourdon, Jeffrey Normand. From The History Press (Charleston, SC) to Z truly serves as an entry point Garfield to Harding: The Success 2019. PB $21.99. for a fuller exploration of the city’s of Midwestern Front Porch When World War II engulfed the history. Originally released as part Campaigns. Kent State University nation, the men and women of of the Western Reserve Historical Press (Kent, OH) 2019. HC $29.95. Akron dutifully played their part Society’s 150th anniversary In 1880, James Garfield decided in the epic struggle. Keyes Beech celebration, this book is evidence of to try something new: rather than ducked grenades as marines raised the Historical Society’s outstanding run the typical passive campaign the American flag at on Iwo Jima. and nationally significant for president, he would welcome Newspaper magnate John S. Knight collections. Almost every historical voters to his farm. By the end of watched the Japanese surrender on photo in this volume derives from

Winter 2020 27 BOOK LIST | ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN

the archives of the Society. Those all the fun and games, Ohio’s circus Jr. and Jarvis Landry lighting up collections represent a trust for the industry was serious business. As scoreboards together. But only real community – an essential service to competition intensified, advertising fans know the exact number of Joe students, scholars, family historians, wars erupted and acquisitions Thomas’ consecutive snaps streak, and old and new Clevelanders. began. Eventually, Ringling Brothers remember who the Browns were swallowed many of these circuses playing when Jerome Harrison Hanna, Eric. Fight to the End: A one by one, and they dropped out of rushed for 286 yards, or have barked True Story of Determination. memory. Author Conrade C. Hinds with the Dawg Pound. Featuring Warren Publishing (Charlotte, NC) brings this fascinating piece of traditions, records, and lore, this 2019. PB $15.95. Ohio show business back into the lively, detailed book explores the Ever since he was a kid growing spotlight. personalities, events, and facts every up in Youngstown, Ohio, Eric Cleveland Browns fan should know. Hanna knew he was born to play Heffron, Joe, and Jack Heffron. Whether you were there for the rise basketball. Despite setbacks and Classic Reds: The 50 Greatest of Bernie Kosar or are a more recent criticism from all angles, he never Games in Cincinnati Reds History. supporter of Baker Mayfield, these stopped practicing, always worked Black Squirrel Books (Kent, OH) are the 100 things every fan needs to improve his game, and learned 2019. PB $16.99. to know and do in their lifetime. about true focus and commitment Choosing the fifty greatest games Beat reporter Zac Jackson has along the way. In Fight to the End, is hard to do; ranking them is even collected every essential piece of Eric shares his journey from an harder. Now every Reds fan can Browns knowledge and trivia, as awkward nine-year-old basketball relive memories of baseball before well as must-do activities, and ranks hopeful; to a scrawny but promising and after the Big Red Machine, them all from 1 to 100, providing high school athlete; to a 6’7”, award- debate about these choices, or make an entertaining and easy-to-follow winning walk-on player for the Ohio a list of their own. Highlighting these checklist as you progress on your State University. Eric’s coming-of- moments is a unique way of telling way to fan superstardom. age story is one of perseverance, the great story of the Cincinnati dedication, and redefining glory Reds. While many fans will know Meyers, David, and Elise Meyers through the lens of college about Frank Robinson, Pete Rose, Walker. Historic Black Settlements basketball. Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez, of Ohio. The History Press how many will remember names (Charleston, SC) 2020. PB $23.99. Hinds, Conrade C. Lost Circuses like Bumpus, Bubbles, and Noodles, In the years leading up to the of Ohio. The History Press who each had their moments of Civil War, Ohio had more African (Charleston, SC) 2019. PB $21.99. glory in a Reds uniform? It’s easy for American settlements than any The nineteenth century was the players and moments to disappear other state. Owing to a common golden age of the circus in Ohio. in a history that spans 150 years, border with several slave states, it Before the Ringling brothers became but baseball roots run deep in Reds became a destination for people of synonymous with the American country. Classic Reds keeps those color seeking to separate themselves circus, Cincinnati’s John Robinson roots strong. from slavery. Despite these and the Sells brothers of Columbus communities having populations wowed audiences with stunning Jackson, Zac. 100 Things Browns that sometimes numbered in the equestrian feats and aerial exploits. Fans Should Know & Do Before hundreds, little is known about For good measure, the Sells brothers They Die. Triumph Books (Chicago, most of them, and by the beginning threw in a sharpshooting show with IL) 2019. PB $16.95. of the twentieth century, nearly all a young Ohio woman by the name of Most Browns fans have taken in had lost their ethnic identities as Annie Oakley. The Walter L. Main a game at FirstEnergy Stadium, the original settlers died off and Circus of Geneva and a number remember the way they felt when their descendants moved away. of smaller shows presented their it was announced that Cleveland Save for scattered cemeteries and own unique spectacles with exotic was getting back the Browns, and an occasional house or church, animals and daring acrobats. But for are psyched to see Odell Beckham they have all but been erased from

28 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN

Ohio’s landscape. Father-daughter western frontier. With its beautiful Ohio, over four decades. Firsthand coauthors David Meyers and Elise river valley reminiscent of Bavaria reminiscences from musicians, Meyers Walker piece together the and centuries-old entrepreneurial promoters, friends, and fans recount stories of more than forty of these spirit, Cincinnati has always offered arena shows featuring acts like Pink black settlements. a surprising variety of attractions, Floyd, The Clash, and Paul Simon as history, and dining. In the second well as the grungy corners of town Oler, Andy. Old-Fashioned edition of 100 Things to Do in where Joe Walsh, Patrick Carney, Modernism: Rural Masculinity Cincinnati Before You Die, you’ll Chrissie Hynde, and DEVO refined and Midwestern Literature. find the perfect guide to exploring their crafts. From back stages, hotel Louisiana State University Press everything with even more updated rooms, and the saloons of Kent, (Baton Rouge, LA) 2019. HC $45.00. choices for visitors to experience. readers will travel back in time to In Old-Fashioned Modernism, Andy Tap into the city’s German heritage the great rockin’ nights hosted in Oler explores how midwestern by sampling the food, drink, and this small town. More than just a literature produces specific even language of the old country at retrospective on performances that forms of regional modernity an authentic tavern, or learn about occurred in one midwestern college through male protagonists who the best places to find a real Belgian town, Prufer’s book illuminates a both fulfill and resist traditional waffle. Learn about the updates fascinating phenomenon: both up- American narratives of economic to the city’s prized Memorial Hall and-coming and major artists knew advancement, spatial experience, and the exciting events that are Kent was a place to play - fertile and gender roles. Focusing on revitalizing the Elm Streets arts ground for creativity, spontaneity, images of men from the rural corridor. Turn your gaze to the stars and innovation. From the formation Midwest who face the tensions with all the tips you’ll need to visit of Joe Walsh’s first band, The between agricultural production the Cincinnati Observatory. Enjoy Measles, and the creation of DEVO and mass industrialization, Oler the city’s many green spaces like the in Kent State University’s art examines novels by Sherwood Over-the-Rhine Parks, or time your department to original performances Anderson, William Cunningham, visit to coincide with an outdoor of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon Langston Hughes, Wright Morris, festival. Between all the music, craft and serendipitous collaborations and Dawn Powell, as well as the brewers, historic renovations, and like Emmylou Harris and Good poetry of Lorine Niedecker. By red bricks, Cincinnati will capture Company in the Water Street Saloon, reading literary representations the attention of any visitor who the influence of Kent’s music scene of the Midwest alongside artifacts relishes in discovery. And with has been powerful. of material culture from the local author and tour guide, Rick region, Old-Fashioned Modernism Pender, leading you, even long-time Rich, Marci. Looking Back demonstrates how midwestern residents will find fresh reminders at Elyria: A Midwest City at regionalism negotiates the anxieties of why they love it here. Grab a copy Midcentury. The History Press and dominant narratives of early- of this book, hop on the Cincinnati (Charleston, SC) 2019. PB $23.99. and mid-century rural masculinities Bell Connector streetcar, and don’t Brimming with postwar optimism by planting formal innovations in forget to have a three-way chili as and prosperity, mid-twentieth- the countryside and pitting nostalgic you explore the Queen City. century Elyria seemed like Camelot pastoralism against the byproducts and was, indeed, a brief passage on a of industrial modernity. Prufer, Jason. Small Town, Big beloved president’s campaign trail. Music: The Outsized Influence of You could visit the bears at Cascade Pender, Rick. 100 Things to Do in Kent, Ohio on the History of Rock Park and play on the slides. See a Cincinnati Before You Die: 2nd and Roll. Kent State University movie at the Capitol Theatre and Edition. Reedy Press (St. Louis, MO) Press (Kent, OH) 2019. HC $29.95. enjoy a cherry Coke at the Paradise, 2019. PB $16.00. Relying on oral histories, hundreds but wait until the party line is free Cincinnati has been intriguing of rare photographs, and original before calling your friends on your adventurers since its founding in music reviews, this book explores rotary telephone to make your plans. 1788 as the Gateway to America’s the countercultural fringes of Kent, Run an errand for Mom at Hales

Winter 2020 29 BOOK LIST | ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN

Market and then walk up to the old Roth, Mitchel P. Fire in the Big OH) 2019. HC $34.95. Reefy mansion to check out a book House: America’s Deadliest Prison Working as a photographer for at the library. Shop for your parents Disaster. Swallow Press (Athens, the Kent State University student at Merthe’s and Harry’s Men’s Wear, OH) 2019. HC $19.95. newspaper and yearbook, Howard then admire the groovy clothes at On April 21, 1930 – Easter Monday Ruffner was a college sophomore New Horizons East. Revisit your – some rags caught fire under the when the tragic shootings of May Elyria youth with this, your very Ohio Penitentiary’s dry and aging 4, 1970, occurred – a tragedy that own time-travel guide. Based on wooden roof, shortly after inmates left four students dead and nine her award-winning articles for the had returned to their locked cells others wounded. Asked to serve Chronicle-Telegram, author Marci after supper. In less than an hour, as a stringer for Life magazine Rich combines journalism, historical 320 men who came from all corners in the days leading up to May 4, research, and memoir to look back at of Prohibition-era America and from as student protests against the her hometown with love. as far away as Russia had succumbed Vietnam War intensified and to fire and smoke in what remains National Guard troops arrived Rieland, Thomas M. Sparks Flew: the deadliest prison disaster in on campus, Ruffner became a WOSU’s Century on the Air. United States history. Within 24 witness and documentarian to this Trillium (Columbus, OH) 2019. hours, moviegoers were watching important piece of history. Several HC $27.95. Pathé’s newsreel of the fire, and in of his photographs, including Wireless Morse code began a new less than a week, the first iteration of one that appeared on the cover of age of communications, magically the weepy ballad “Ohio Prison Fire” Life, are etched into our collective sending invisible waves through was released. The deaths brought consciousness when we think about the ether received at some distant urgent national and international civil unrest and the latter half of the place. Among the first universities to focus to the horrifying conditions 20th century. Here, in Moments of experiment in this unknown world of America’s prisons (at the time of Truth: A Photographer’s Experience was The Ohio State University, the fire, the Ohio Penitentiary was of Kent State 1970, Ruffner not only which became one of the first at almost three times its capacity). reproduces a collection of nearly educational broadcast stations and Yet, amid darkening world politics 150 of his photographs - many never a think tank for the future of public and the first years of the Great before published – but also offers service radio – pioneering radio Depression, the fire receded from a stirring narrative in which he audience research and serving as an public concern. In Fire in the revisits his work and attempts to innovative school of the air. Sparks Big House, Mitchel P. Roth does further examine these events and his Flew is a rich story of creative, justice to the lives of convicts and own experience of them. It is, indeed, tenacious men and women working guards and puts the conflagration an intensely personal journey that he in a new medium that commercial in the context of the rise of the invites us to share. enterprises soon dominated. At Big House prison model, local any moment in time, educational and state political machinations, Schloman, William D., and Barbara broadcasting could have failed if and American penal history and F. Schloman. A Century of Flight not for a few land-grant institutions reform efforts. The result is the first at Paton Field: The Story of Kent like The Ohio State University and comprehensive account of a tragedy State University’s Airport and prominent stations like WOSU whose circumstances - violent Flight Education. Kent State that supported the medium. Sparks unrest, overcrowding, poorly trained University Press (Kent, OH) 2019. Flew is the untold story, a century and underpaid guards, unsanitary HC $39.95. in the making, of one institution conditions, inadequate food – will be This detailed study explores the and one educational station that familiar to prison watchdogs today. hundred-year history of the longest- represent the roots of today’s public surviving public-use airport in broadcasting system. Ruffner, Howard. Moments Ohio. Intertwining the story of of Truth: A Photographer’s the airport’s development with Experience of Kent State 1970. the history of flight-education Kent State University Press (Kent, programs at the University, the

30 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | ABOUT OHIO/OHIOAN & FICTION

book highlights a vast cast of the brutal robbery and murder of University, killing four students characters and an examination of a man outside of a convenience and injuring nine. Standing thirty aviation’s development on the local store in Cleveland, Ohio. The yards in front of the Guard when level throughout the last century. prosecution’s case, which resulted they began firing, she escaped with What was once Stow Field, a small in a combined 106 years in prison her life. This uplifting journey airport in a rural community, stands for the three men, rested on the follows her from her years as a naïve at the center of this story. Kent more-than-questionable testimony Catholic schoolgirl through her time State’s participation in the federal of a pre-teen, Ed Vernon. The actual at Kent State to her development as government’s Civilian Pilot Training murderer was never found. Almost a journalist and mother. She heals Program in the years leading up to four decades later, Vernon recanted in the weeks following May 4, as World War II led to state funding for his testimony, and Wiley, Kwame, she awaits the birth of her baby. Her purchase of the airport and prepared and Rickey were released. But while due date nears but problems arise as the way for the creation of collegiate their exoneration may have ended her husband becomes increasingly aviation. This brought in Andrew one of American history’s most violent. Rejected by her family and Paton, who created the first flight- disgraceful miscarriages of justice, without societal protections against training curriculum and established the corruption and decay of the city marital abuse in place today, she is a vision for the role the airport could responsible for their imprisonment on her own. In an unexpected turn play in a university-run program. In remain on trial. Interweaving the of events, she is freed from danger, the period between the two World dramatic details of the case with only to have to learn to survive on Wars, Stow Field was also the site Cleveland’s history – one that, to her own. of aviation exhibits that drew as this day, is fraught with systemic many as 80,000 people, including discrimination and racial tension – FICTION the christening of Goodyear’s first Swenson reveals how this outrage helium blimp. As Kent State’s airport occurred and why. Good Kids, Batiuk, Tom. The Complete Funky is now enjoying both a new vitality Bad City is a work of astonishing Winkerbean Volume 9: 1996-1998. and long-awaited investment, empathy and insight: an immersive Black Squirrel Books (Kent, OH) William D. Schloman and Barbara F. exploration of race in America, the 2020. HC $45.00. Schloman place this in context with struggling Midwest, and how lost Funky Winkerbean, a newspaper the at-times-uncertain survival of lives can be recovered. staple since 1972, is one of the Kent State’s aviation program. few comic strips that allows its Tucker, Paula Stone. Surviving: characters to grow and age. With Stanforth, Sherry Cook, and Richard A Kent State Memoir. Sunbury this ninth volume, containing Hague, eds. Riparian: Poetry, Short Press (Mechanicsburg, PA) 2019. strips from 1996 through 1998, Prose, and Photographs Inspired PB $19.95. time continues to pass and events by the Ohio River. Dos Madres Press In a stunning parallel to our own take place that will forever alter the (Loveland, OH) 2019. PB $25.00. times, this memoir of the late Sixties lives of the core characters, even This anthology contains work by and early Seventies, Surviving: A as new characters take the stage 60 writers and photographers, Kent State Memoir, explores the with stories to tell. Tom Batiuk’s supported in part by the Ohio turbulent era of the War in Vietnam, narrative humor style now grows Arts Council. domestic violence, and a young to encompass such diverse events woman’s triumph in face of great as retirement, weddings, treatment Swenson, Kyle. Good Kids, Bad danger and great loss. In an era as of immigrants, dating abuse, and City: A Story of Race and Wrongful divisive as today’s, she witnessed post office bombings. Some of the Conviction in America. Picador one of the events that became a stories can be told over a cup of (New York, NY) 2019. HC $29. turning point in public sentiment coffee, while others require a full-on In the early 1970s, three African- toward the War in Vietnam. On May Roman feast. As the stories become American men, Wiley Bridgeman, 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen more universal, the humor in Funky Kwame Ajamu, and Rickey Jackson, fired on students protesting the continues to become an integral part were accused and convicted of invasion of Cambodia at Kent State of the ongoing narrative.

Winter 2020 31 BOOK LIST | FICTION

Boyd, Shawn. Raksasha: The a killer twist that isn’t in the script. named “Senator” Kipper Maris. Evolution of the Vampire, Book II. Unable to reach Elysian Island and Meanwhile, at a donut shop, a radio Tell-Tale Publishing Group (Swartz her co-workers, Kate is sure that narrator, who’s been forced to adopt Creek, MI) 2019. PB $20.00. someone wants her to stay away. Can the name Edward R. Murrow, reads What happens when monsters she stop a ruthless killer and uncover Wall’s story. He hates it. He wants collide? Sometimes a new the truth behind a deadly game? to change it. The problem: Murrow abomination is born. Our seven is a narrator, not a writer, and the brothers continue to use their gifts Erickson, Alex. Death by Café penalty for altering a manuscript to fight the spread of evil. They Mocha. Kensington Books (New is death. Luckily for Murrow, his are scattered, battling on several York, NY) 2019. PB $7.99. boss, “Senator” Kipper Maris, was fronts, trying to stem the tide of Krissy Hancock and her pals are recently murdered. So maybe no bloodsuckers moving across the land taking a coffee break– leaving their one will notice. Or maybe there’s and figure out how to deal with new bookstore-café in Pine Hills, Ohio, a reason for the rule. But you can’t opponents that are being created as and heading to a convention. But find out what’s in Pandora’s box until the evolution continues. this road trip will be more dangerous it’s opened, right? Who wants to see than they expected. Coffee lovers are what’s inside? Boyd, Shawn. Xiang Shi: The gathering from far and wide at the Evolution of the Vampire, Book I. hotel, and Krissy, Rita, and Vicki are Farkas, Andrew. Sunsphere. Tell-Tale Publishing Group (Swartz excited. But some of the attendees BlazeVOX[BOOKS] (Buffalo, NY) Creek, MI) 2018. PB $23.00. may need to switch to decaf, as a 2019. PB $16.00. In China 4th Century AD, a new public argument breaks out soon The Sunsphere is a 266-foot-tall evil is emerging in the war torn after they check in and then a flavor green truss structure topped by north. It strikes terror in the heart competition leads to bitter feelings. a gold glass sphere that was built of all those unfortunate enough to When the winner of the contest as the symbol of the 1982 World’s encounter it, even those who survive. is beaned with a carafe full of café Fair (also known as the Knoxville Seven brothers, Buddhist monks mocha, suspicions swirl – along with International Energy Exposition). with special gifts, are determined accusations of bribery. Was the dead Actually, the Sunsphere stands to stop the rise and dominion of man offering perks to the judges– or 6,520 feet tall and is composed of the bloodthirsty demon and his was something sinister going on in a black, cylindrical base capped minions. Witness the evolution of his personal life? This case is going by a miniature neutron star. Well, the ultimate predator. to keep Krissy up all night long. the Sunsphere Shot Tower, made entirely of brick, manufactures Ellis, Mary. Island of Last Resorts. Farkas, Andrew. The Big Red shot for shotguns. But then, the Severn House (London, UK) 2019. Herring. Kernpunkt Press Sunsphere is 1,000 feet tall and HC $28.99. (Hamilton, NY) 2019. PB $16.99. composed of a green tower and Kate Weller’s boss, Nate Price, has In this latest work by Andrew a pulsing orb of blue lightning. some exciting news: Julian Frazier, Farkas, the United States and Really, the Sunsphere is dilapidated, a friend of one of the agency’s the Soviet Union were allies, not covered in tarps, and likely to be torn wealthy clients, has invited the Nate enemies. The moon landing was a down soon. Or maybe, Sunsphere Price Investigations team and their hoax filmed by Stanley Kubrick. The Ziggurat is a massive conceptual partners on a trip of a lifetime to his Space Race and the Cold War were art installation constructed by home on Elysian Island, an exclusive diversions enacted to cover up the an underground organization retreat off the Georgian coast. But biggest secret ever kept. But Wallace called the KnoxVillains. Certainly, there’s a catch. Frazier has written Heath Orcuson (Wall to his friends) Sunsphere, a collection of nine his own murder mystery script, and has more immediate problems to formally innovative fictions, focuses the PIs must work out whodunnit. deal with. He’s just woken up in an on characters obsessed with ideas As they’re about to discover, though, apartment he’s never seen before. of energy and entropy, focuses on the murder Frazier wants them to There’s a dead body under his couch. characters who are trying to figure solve is a real cold case, and there’s It’s his girlfriend’s husband, a man out how to continue on in a world

32 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | FICTION

that is falling apart, who are trying But all that is about to change, unless and the priest who was working with to learn how to act in a world that a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat the Home Army goes into hiding is constantly changing. In the face and an irreverent, freewheeling in the church’s roof for six months of social collapse, some characters artificial intelligence can save the to avoid arrest. The novel begins find solace in the logic of puzzles, in city from a mysterious terrorist plot with the amazing true story of an the conventions of art, in outdated that threatens its very existence. American pilot who made a forced ideas of empire and romance, in Henry Thompson has dedicated landing in the village in 1944, told the lure of pop culture, in academia his life to improving America’s in three later chapters. List and his and politics. But at the core of this infrastructure as a proud employee crew found hidden letters addressed collection is a search for humanity, of the United States Municipal to America in the outhouse, and one even when the very atmosphere Survey. So when the agency comes of them was Anna’s letter. It was appears to demand the inhumane. under attack, he dutifully accepts undeliverable, and he kept it in his his unexpected mission to visit briefcase for forty-five years. Flower, Amanda. Matchmaking Metropolis looking for answers. Can Be Murder. Kensington Books But his plans to investigate quietly, Hess, Victor. Jesse Sings: Jesse’s (New York, NY) 2019. PB $7.99. quickly, and carefully are interrupted World Book 1. Victor Hess (Slidell, When widowed Millie Fisher by his new partner: a day-drinking LA) 2017. PB $10.95. moves back to her childhood home know-it-all named OWEN, who Eight-year old Jesse Hall and his of Harvest, Ohio, she notices one also turns out to be the projected pregnant mother move to the “Eden thing right away: the young Amish embodiment of the agency’s of America,” a small rural town in are bungling their courtships and supercomputer. Soon, Henry and Ohio, to escape an abusive father marrying the wrong people! A OWEN are fighting to save not only addicted to gambling and alcohol. quiltmaker by trade, Millie has their own lives and those of the city’s There, Jesse is bullied by the most nevertheless stitched together a few millions of inhabitants, but also the popular school kid, denied a church lives in her time, with truly romantic soul of Metropolis. experience by a self-righteous results. Her first mission? Her own preacher, and threatened with niece, widowed gardener Edith Gawell, Donna B. War and foster care by a well-meaning social Hochstetler, recently engaged to Resistance in the Wilderness: A worker. Can Jesse fulfill his dream rude, greedy Zeke Miller. Anyone can Novel of WWII Poland. Blendon of a normal family with his own see he’s not right for such a gentle Woods Press (Columbus, OH) 2019. parents and brothers and sisters? young woman – except Edith herself. PB $9.99. See a childhood romance grow with Pleased when she convinces the When the Germans invade their Lynn, a fatherless eight-year old bride-to-be to leave her betrothed Polish village in September 1939 to girl, and watch what he learns from before the wedding, Millie is later build the largest SS training camp the lovely Five and Dime clerk. How panicked to find Zeke in Edith’s outside of Germany, Anna, Jozef, does this all relate to a mummified greenhouse – as dead as a tulip in the and Stacia must work as forced corpse? middle of winter. To keep her niece laborers serving the Reich. Then, in out of prison – and to protect her 1943, Hitler moves his top-secret Hess, Victor. The Clock Tower own reputation – Millie will have to V-2 missile research project into Treasure: Jesse’s World piece together a patchwork of clues their wilderness area. With test Book 2. Brother Mockingbird to find a killer, before she becomes missiles exploding over their homes, (Diamondhead, MI) 2019. PB $15.99. the next name on his list. Anna, Jozef, her priest, and other The 1950’s was a time of new homes, villagers become partisans for the television, astronauts, new cars, and Fried, Seth. The Municipalists. underground Home Army. Just as rock and roll. It was also a time of Penguin Books (New York, NY) 2019. it appears the Germans are losing, nuclear threats and deadly polio. Out PB $16.00. Stacia finds herself inside the cattle of this challenging decade comes the In Metropolis, the gleaming city of car of a train headed to Ravensbrück, enchanting story of a ten-year-old tomorrow, the dream of the great a women’s concentration camp. The boy from the Midwest showing a American city has been achieved. rest of the village bursts into chaos, small town the meaning of toughness

Winter 2020 33 BOOK LIST | FICTION

and tenacity. The Shawnee Indian Huber, Anna Lee. Penny for Your worried – especially when Addison treasure was a myth, they said. Secrets: A Verity Kent Mystery. never makes it home and her friends Nowhere to be found, except in Kensington Books (New York, NY) and family demand to know where the legends and tall tales of the 2019. PB $15.95. she is. As the police begin to suspect region. Despite his polio, despite his The Great War may be over, but that something may have happened poverty, despite his fractured family, for many, there are still obstacles to her, and that Andrew is involved, Jesse Hall believes the stories and on the home front. Reconciling Roxane tracks Addison’s digital discovers irresistible clues in the with her estranged husband makes footprint as she goes deeper and courthouse clock tower. With each Verity sympathetic to her friend deeper into the events preceding her twist and turn, Jesse learns to Ada’s marital difficulties. Bourgeois- disappearance. Meanwhile, a cop is overcome all that life can throw at bred Ada, recently married to found dead on the opposite side of him. He leads his Boy Scout pal, his the Marquess of Rockham, is town, leading to a swirl of questions nineteen-year-old nurse, and the overwhelmed trying to navigate the surrounding a dance club whose local county historian in a quest for ways of the aristocracy. And when staff– which includes Addison – has the mythical treasure - a hunt that Lord Rockham is discovered shot suddenly gone AWOL. As Roxane yields a most unexpected discovery. through the heart with a bullet from struggles to distinguish the truth Ada’s revolver, Verity fears her friend from the stories people tell about Hieber, Leanna Renee. The Spectral has made a fatal blunder. While themselves online, it’s clear that the City. Rebel Base/Kensington Books striving to prove Ada’s innocence, mystery of Addison’s whereabouts is (New York, NY) 2018. PB $15.00. Verity is called upon for another just the beginning. Her name is Eve Whitby, gifted favor. The sister of a former Secret medium and spearhead of the Ghost Service colleague has been killed in Lindsey, Julie Anne. Apple Cider Precinct. When most women are what authorities believe was a home Slaying. Kensington Books (New traveling in a gilded society that invasion gone wrong. The victim’s York, NY) 2019. PB $7.99. promises only well-appointed war work – censoring letters sent Blossom Valley, West Virginia, marriage, the confident nineteen- by soldiers from the front – exposed is home to Smythe Orchards, year-old Eve navigates a social her to sensitive, disturbing material. Winnie and her Granny’s beloved circle that carries a different kind Verity begins to suspect these twenty-five-acre farm and family of chill. Working with the diligent two unlikely cases may be linked. business. But any way you slice it, it’s but skeptical Detective Horowitz, But as the connections deepen, struggling. That’s why they’re trying as well as a group of fellow psychics the consequences – not just for to drum up business with the “First and wayward ghosts, Eve holds her Verity, but for Britain – grow more Annual Christmas at the Orchard,” a own against detractors and threats menacing than she could good old-fashioned holiday festival to solve New York’s most disturbing have imagined. with enough delicious draw to satisfy crimes as only a medium of her apple-picking locals and cider- ability can. But as accustomed as Lepionka, Kristen. The Stories You loving tourists alike - until the whole Eve is to ghastly crimes and all Tell: A Roxane Weary Mystery. endeavor takes a sour turn when the matters of the uncanny, even she Minotaur Books (New York, NY) body of Nadine Cooper, Granny’s is unsettled by her department’s 2019. HC $26.99. long-time, grudge-holding nemesis, latest mystery. Her ghostly conduits A late-night phone call is never is found lodged in the apple press. are starting to disappear one by good news, especially when you’re Now, with Granny the number one one as though snatched away by Roxane Weary. This one is from her suspect, Winnie is hard-pressed to some evil force determined to upset brother Andrew, whose evening prove her innocence before the real the balance between two realms, was interrupted by an urgent visit killer delivers another murder. and most important – destroy the from Addison, a hip young DJ and Ghost Precinct forever. Now Eve one-time fling, who turns up at his Lutz, Anne Marie. Taylenor. Hydra must brave the darkness to find the apartment scared and begging to Publications (Goshen, KY) 2019. vanished souls. It’s her job to make use his phone. She leaves as quickly PB $14.99. sure no one is ever left for dead. as she appeared, but now Andrew is Jaena, a young priest, travels to

34 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | FICTION

isolated villages, blessing births and O’Connor, Varley. The Welsh Empowered by the legal system’s singing the souls of the departed to Fasting Girl. Bellevue Literary lack of accountability, a judge who her goddess. In one village she finds Press (New York, NY) 2019. offers a quiet and meager plea deal Wiel, a boy with the rare mage talent PB $16.99. to save face, Jim feels enabled to known as taylen that is linked to a Twelve-year-old Sarah Jacob was do whatever he wants to his family. fatal illness. Jaena takes Wiel to the the most famous of the Victorian With no one to keep Jim in check, city to try to save his life. Too late, fasting girls, who claimed to this cycle of sexual and physical she discovers she has delivered Wiel miraculously survive without food, abuse is rampant. It is up to Nikki, into the hands of the Mage Defender, serving as flashpoints between Tyler, and Ally to end the evil that is who rules by stealing the magic – and struggling religious, scientific, and devouring the Handler family. the lives – of children. Desperate to political factions. In this novel right the wrong she has done, Jaena based on Sarah’s life and premature Petrone, Susan. The Heebie-Jeebie races for aid to save Wiel and destroy death from what may be the first Girl. The Story Plant (Stamford, CT) the Mage Defender. At stake are the documented case of anorexia, an 2020. HC $22.95. lives of the last remaining taylenor American journalist, recovering Youngstown, Ohio, 1977. Between as well as Jaena’s own survival – and from her husband’s death in the the closing of the city’s largest steel the destruction of an ancient scourge Civil War, leaves her home and mill and the worst blizzard in more that has reawakened to threaten all children behind to travel to Wales, than 40 years, the table is set for the people of Cassahn. where she investigates Sarah’s remarkable change. Unemployed bizarre case by becoming the young steel worker Bobby Wayland is Meyers, David. Hello, I Must Be girl’s friend and confidante. Unable trying hard to help his family and Going: The Mostly True Story of an to prevent the girl’s tragic decline still pay for his wedding, but the only Imaginary Band. Black Opal Books while doctors, nurses, and a local solution he can think of involves (Dallas, OR) 2019. PB $13.99. priest keep watch, she documents breaking the law. On the other side The year was 1970 and Zack Black the curious family dynamic, the of town, a little girl named Hope is & the Blues Attack was poised to trial that convicted Sarah’s parents, keeping a big secret, one she won’t be the hottest band in America. and an era’s hysterical need to even share with her Great Uncle Joe Radio loved them, and everywhere both believe and destroy Sarah’s - she can make things move without they played seats were sold-out. seemingly miraculous power. The touching them. Watching over both But when stardom seemed within Welsh Fasting Girl delves into of them is the city herself, and she their grasp, they let it slip away. the complexities of a true story to has something to say and something Will Black thought that chapter of understand how a culture’s anxieties to do about all of this. his life was closed forever. He had led to the murder of a child. not been in touch with his former Selcer, David. The Old Stories. bandmates since he moved to New Patchen, Jacob Paul. At Daddy’s Biblio Publishing (Columbus, OH) York some forty years ago. But now a Hands: Courage Knows No Age. 2019. PB $12.95. mysterious woman has approached Black Rose Writing (Castroville, TX) The saga of righteous man Hyman him with an unusual request: will 2019. PB $16.95. Zeltzer. He didn’t immigrate through he help her carry out her husband’s In public, Jim Handler is a well- Ellis Island. His journey began on dying wish? Incredibly, Will finds respected, small-town hero, and a Russian battleship in the Pacific. himself tasked with putting the homicide detective who solved the His first job wasn’t in the New York Blues Attack back together to prove case of the Will’s Creek Massacre. sweatshops. It was laboring on the to the world, and themselves, that But at home, in the shadows, Jim’s Canadian Northern Railway from they still have what it takes. But to do childhood demons come alive to Edmonton to Quebec. Astride two so means that the one-time friends feast upon his family in the form worlds, assimilation was a problem. will have to confront the secrets and of sexual, physical, and mental But values learned early in his life lies that had contributed to their abuse. But his three teenage led him to amazing consequences. demise. Given a second chance, will children have had enough. They they make the same mistakes? have devised a plan for redemption.

Winter 2020 35 BOOK LIST | FICTION

Tassone, Don. Sampler: Fifty Short community. However, King George’s of the world’s greatest humorists” Stories. Adelaide Books (New York, son, Ali, is now caught up in the by Alistair Cooke (The Atlantic), NY) 2019. PB $19.60. criminal activities surrounding him. and “one of our great American Conventional wisdom holds that King George and Ali’s girlfriend, institutions” (Stanley Walker)— story collections should have a Monique, attempt to persuade Ali to and few works reveal Thurber’s theme. In this way, this book is leave the criminal life behind before genius as powerfully as his fables. unconventional. The fifty stories it is too late. Perennially entertaining and in this collection are wide-ranging. astutely satirical, Thurber pinpricks Some are serious, others light. Most Thompson, Chera, and NF Johnson. the idiosyncrasies of life with verbal are gentle, but a few are disquieting. A Time to Wander. Solstice frivolity, hilarious insights, political There are fantasy, spirituality and Publishing (Farmington, MI) 2019. shrewdness, and, of course, quirky, politics here. Many of these stories PB $15.95. quotable morals. Now, readers can are slices of life. Most are short. Two college kids on two different savor 85 fables by the twentieth All are an invitation to think roads. Save for the one they share. century’s preeminent humorist more deeply. An email exchange between former collected for the first time in a single college lovers takes them back to anthology. Here, Fables for Our Time, Taylor, Ali. The Chronicles of their college years at Kent State, Further Fables for Our Time, and WaterWorld After the Hough the 1970s. The Vietnam War is ten previously uncollected fables Riots. Rosedog Books (Pittsburgh, raging. Anti-war rallies hit the – illustrated by ten contemporary PA) 2018. PB $17.00. breaking point. It was a time of bell artists including Seymour Chwast, In Cleveland, Ohio, drugs, rape, bottoms, vinyl, incense, free love, Mark Ulriksen, Laurie Rosenwald, violence, and mayhem became a and travel by thumb. For Kris and and R. O. Blechman – are presented part of a neighborhood called Hough Lena, two strangers on two very in Collected Fables, a must-have for Heights. After the Hough riots in different paths, a thrown beer bottle readers of all ages. 1966 and 1968 and the assassination shatters the lives they have known, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, the bringing them together by chance. Vanek, John A. Miracles: A Father children of Hough were growing up Lena is attracted to Kris and his Jake Austin Mystery. Coffeetown experiencing the aftermath from a live-in-the-moment personality. Press (Kenmore, WA) 2019. society whose forefathers knocked When he invites her to join him on PB $16.95. down obstacles of those who were a winter break hitchhiking trip, she Father Jake Austin’s life is turned abused, neglected, discriminated, kicks aside her uptight attitude and upside down by three intersecting and hated due to the color of their accepts the adventure. The trip is plots that focus on the relationship skin. Now the next generation is harrowing at times, comical during between miracles and science, experiencing new obstacles which others, and poignant as Lena and the clash of facts and faith, and caused them to neglect the ones Kris learn about themselves and the inexplicable production of our leaders risked their lives to each other.The events that shape and unexpected miracles from disastrous put in place. Crime bosses Frank seal the fate of their relationship in events. As a priest, he counsels Burton, King George, and others unpredictable ways are revealed in a young couple whose baby is come up with a plan to get rich the authors’ female/male alternating in a coma but wonders whether from the negative environment perspectives. Inspired by true he is dealing with an accident of Hough. Consequently, two events, a Time to Wander is a magical or child abuse. When his sister undercover FBI agents mysteriously tale of freedom before the future is hospitalized with leukemia, disappear. King George realizes takes hold. he assumes the role of caregiver the criminal underworld activities for her child, as well as her bone will be threatened by the agents’ Thurber, James. Edited by Michael marrow donor. Newspaper reports disappearance and his past will J. Rosen. Collected Fables. of miracles at a nearby parish draw catch up with him if he did not stop. HarperPerennial Modern Classics Jake to St. Wenceslaus Church. King George decides to change (New York, NY) 2019. PB $15.99. When he arrives, he witnesses a his ways and give back to the James Thurber has been called “one statue weep blood, and his Bishop

36 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | FICTION

assigns the investigation to him. actor who’s leaving town in a matter never took place. Unfurling the With each challenge, his faith is of days...can he? history of Melody’s parents and tested. One thing is for certain, Jake grandparents to show how they all is not your conventional Catholic Woff, TG. Widow’s Run. Down & Out arrived at this moment, Woodson priest. Books (Lutz, FL) 2019. PB $16.95. considers not just their ambitions One night in Rome. One car. One and successes but also the costs, Welsh-Huggins, Andrew, ed. dead scientist. Italian police the tolls they’ve paid for striving to Columbus Noir. Akashic Books investigate, but in the end, all overcome expectations and escape (New York, NY) 2020. PB $15.95. they have are kind words for the the pull of history. As it explores Akashic Books continues its new widow. Months later, a video sexual desire and identity, ambition, award-winning series of original emerges challenging the facts. Had gentrification, education, class and noir anthologies, launched in 2004 he stepped into traffic, or was he status, and the life-altering facts of with Brooklyn Noir. Each book pushed? The widow returns to the parenthood, Red at the Bone most comprises all new stories, each one police, but they have little interest strikingly looks at the ways in which set in a distinct neighborhood or and no answers. Exit the widow. young people must so often make location within the respective city. long-lasting decisions about their Brand-new stories by: Lee Martin, Woodson, Jacqueline. Red at the lives – even before they have begun Robin Yocum, Kristen Lepionka, Bone. Riverhead Books (New York, to figure out who they are and what Craig McDonald, Chris Bournea, NY) 2019. HC $26.00. they want to be. Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Tom An unexpected teenage pregnancy Barlow, Mercedes King, Daniel pulls together two families from Wortman, Jennifer. This. This. This. Best, Laura Bickle, Yolonda Tonette different social classes, and exposes Is. Love. Love. Love. Stories. Split Sanders, Julia Keller, Khalid the private hopes, disappointments, Lip Press (Wyncote, PA) 2019. Moalim, and Nancy Zafris. and longings that can bind or divide PB $16.00. us from each other, from the New Thirteen stories, full-length and Winfrey, Kerry. Waiting for Tom York Times-bestselling and National flash, that explore love– sexual, Hanks. Jove (New York, NY) 2019. Book Award-winning author of platonic, filial, and beyond– in PB $15.00. Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl its gritty and beguiling forms. A Annie Cassidy dreams of being the Dreaming. Moving forward and small-town teenager pursues an next Nora Ephron. She spends her backward in time, Jacqueline eccentric pinball wizard after her days writing screenplays, rewatching Woodson’s new novel uncovers the grandfather’s move to her home Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for role that history and community shakes up her parents’ marriage; her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she have played in the experiences, a chronic depressive turns to a could just find her own Tom Hanks decisions, and relationships of these TV animal psychic in hopes of – a man who’s sweet, sensitive, and families, and in the life of the new mending her relationship with possibly owns a houseboat – her child. As the book opens in 2001, it her dog-loving dad; a middle-aged problems would disappear and her is the evening of sixteen-year-old recovering alcoholic goes back to life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks Melody’s coming of age ceremony college and becomes fixated on his is nowhere in sight. When a movie in her grandparents’ Brooklyn stern professor. Throughout the starts filming in her neighborhood brownstone. Watched lovingly by collection, as characters in various and Annie gets a job on set, it seems her relatives and friends, making stages of life try to navigate love, like a sign. Then Annie meets the her entrance to the music of Prince, they court obsession, madness, and lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky she wears a special custom-made transcendence. prankster who couldn’t be less like dress. But the event is not without Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet- poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, Young, John. When the Coin is in cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon that very dress was measured and the Air. Golden Antelope Press Annie finds herself sharing some sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s (Kirksville, MO) 2019. PB $19.95. classic rom-com moments with mother, for her own ceremony Like most boys, Jason Blake wants Drew. Her Tom Hanks can’t be an – a celebration that ultimately to please his father and older

Winter 2020 37 BOOK LIST | FICTION & POETRY

brother. But this erratic father the United States, including works craft a larger story. Post-youth and hyper-competitive brother by Edward Hopper, Andre Kertesz, and mid-epiphany, Partial Genius challenge beyond the norm. To find Herbert Bayer, Louise Nevelson, ponders the years spent waiting for his way, Jason tries on different Jerome Liebling, and Ben Shahn, as reconciliation of past wrongs, the roles: schoolyard bully, football well as paintings and photographs acknowledgment of former selves, player, actor, student. At 20, Jason by other artists from throughout and the desire to truly fit into one escapes his Midwest home and the United States. Poem and image landscape or another. seeks independence and adventure: inform each other, blending to first to Cape Cod, later in Europe. create a unique literary and visual Borsenik, Dianne, Juliet Cook, Puma Each adventure takes Jason farther experience. Perl, and Jeanette Powers. Heaven from his father and brother. Each We Haven’t Yet Dreamed. Stubborn brings him closer to finding himself. Arnold, Philip. The Natural History Mule Press (Devil’s Elbow, MO) When he returns home, the world of a Blade. Dos Madres Press 2019. PB $18.00. as he knew it explodes and Jason (Loveland, OH) 2019. PB $17.00. Dianne Borsenik, Juliet Cook, Puma risks all to protect his mother from The Natural History of a Blade Perl and Jeanette Powers all in one his violent father. The dramatic portrays a life among the space, you know magic is happening. and unforgettable course of events Appalachian Mountains of North This anthology features twenty- changes this family forever. Carolina. At a meeting place of three pages of poetry from each of landscape, language and memory, the these four radical femme poets. POETRY poems of this collection articulate liminal spaces – where animal and Burgess, Kathleen S. The Wonder Abbot, Steve, ed. Common Threads human, the wild and cultivated Cupboard. NightBallet Press 2019. Ohio Poetry Association roam and rustle. Broadly, the poems (Elyria, OH) 2019. PB $15.00. (Mansfield, OH) 2019. HC $10.00. explore the origins of the word blade, In The Wonder Cupboard, Published annually and edited by with meanings of leaf, blossom and Kathleen S. Burgess has written Steve Abbott, Common Threads is an sharp edge. From this approach – poems both filled, and filling, with OPA members-only journal and is new growth and old, the forms of wonder...”Why We Went to See one of the privileges of membership. nature and the tools by which we Madame Luminitsa,” “Marilyn’s The journal features poetry of OPA mark the natural world around us – Lips,” “I’m a pilgrim light needles members and contest winners, are the poems’ chief interests. This into space,” “Unearthing Earth Day.” such as those who win the Ides of debut work by Philip Arnold enacts Using skillful language to draw crisp, March and Ohio High School Poetry experiences within a wider pattern colorful sketches of time and place, contests. of ritual and lore, where older Burgess addresses a child’s thrilled rhythms may possibly enrich the reaction to a father’s wild driving, an Abbott, Steve. A Language the circulations of the present. F2 twister, Singer sewing machines, Image Speaks: Poems in Response bird-watching, going braless, to Visual Art. 11th Hour Press Biddinger, Mary. Partial Genius: pregnancy, sunflowers, a Chinese (Columbus, OH) 2019. PB $24.95. Prose Poems. Black Lawrence Press lantern festival, missing women, Using the approach of ekphrasis (Mt. Vernon, NY) 2019. PB $16.95. mass shootings, and quiet hikes – poetry responding to visual What happens when you finally through Southern Ohio beauty. art – this collection of forty-eight realize that you are really good, poems explores a range of responses but only at unremarkable things? Burroughs, John. Rattle & Numb: to paintings, photographs, and What value does memory hold Selected and New Poems, 1992- sculpture. Poems appear opposite when weighed against heavier 2019. Venetian Spider Press the images that inspired them, commodities such as money and (Cleveland, OH) 2019. HC $29.95. including high-quality color and time and conventional beauty? Rattle & Numb is the prestige edition black-and-white reproductions of The prose poems of Partial Genius of the poetry of John Burroughs, works from museums, galleries, build upon the form in a collective State of Ohio Beat Poet Laureate and private collections throughout narrative, working in unison to 2019-2021, and master of the

38 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | POETRY

expressive beat voice for which he an expert’s guide to teaching literary a novelist, historian, and literary has toured the US in his evangelism. translation. critic, he has returned to his first love. Night Moves in Ohio vividly Collins, Martha. Because What Else Hassler, David, Jessica Jewell, and captures his memories of growing Could I Do. University of Pittsburgh Stephanie Siciarz, eds. I Hear the up in Poland, Ohio, a suburb of Press (Pittsburgh, PA) 2019. World Sing: Italian and American mobbed-up Youngstown, the city at PB $17.00. Children Joined in Poetry. Kent the heart of the thriving Steel Valley Because What Else Could I Do is a State University Press (Kent, OH) but notorious as Little Chicago for sequence of fifty-five untitled short 2019. PB $19.95. its numerous gang-land bombings poems, almost all of them addressed When schoolchildren from Kent, (“Youngstown tune-ups”). Heath’s to the poet’s husband during the six Ohio, and Florence, Italy, were poems, by turns raunchy and months following his sudden and invited to express their thoughts poignant, evoke via his unblinking shocking death. Perhaps best known about “Where I’m From” in eye, ironic asides, and acute ear for for her historical explorations of poetry, the connections that the American idiom, the dangers and sociopolitical issues, Martha Collins emerged between these students delights of a by-gone era. did not originally intend to publish from different continents were these poems. But while they are remarkable. Their responses to this Kell, Charles. Cage of Lit Glass. intensely personal, they make use of prompt – “lo vengo da” in Italian Autumn House Press (Pittsburgh, all of her poetic attention and skills. – demonstrate the underlying PA) 2019. PB $16.95. Spare, fragmented, musical even in importance of home, families, the The debut poetry collection their most heartbreaking moments, natural world, and the creative of Charles Kell, Cage of Lit the poems allow the reader to share identities that children harbor Glass engages themes of death, both an intimate expression of the within them. The 40 poems in I incarceration, and family through poet’s grief and a moving record Hear the World Sing, printed in both a range of physical, emotional, and of her attempt to comprehend the English and Italian, are presented philosophical spaces. In startling events surrounding her loss. in three sections – “The Chirp of images of beauty and violence, Little Birds,” “Witness the River,” Kell creates a haunting world that Friebert, Stuart. A Double Life: In and “I Write to Grow a World” mirrors our individual and cultural Poetry and Translation. Pinyon – which explore and celebrate fears. Cage of Lit Glass follows Publishing (Montrose, CO) 2019. the commonalities between us. multiple individuals and points of PB $18.00. Anyone can be a poet, no matter view, all haunted by various states of As recounted in the memoir-essays the language one speaks or writes. unease and struggle that follow them and poignant late poems in A Double And by presenting each poem like specters as they navigate their Life, the distinguished co-founding in two languages, this collection world. Kell’s poems form blurred editor of Field and poet-translator, emphasizes how successfully narratives and playful experiments Stuart Friebert, has led the kind poetry transcends both physical and from our attempts to build lives of globe-trotting “double life” that linguistic boundaries, no matter the from despair. A tense and insightful makes for the stuff of legend. There age of the poet. collection, these works will follow are fabled meetings with the likes the reader long after the book is of Günter Grass in Berlin and Paul Heath, William. Night Moves finished. Celan in Paris (not to mention the in Ohio. Finishing Line Press stray run-in with secret police (Georgetown, KY) 2019. PB $14.99. Mash, Terri. A Cultured Girl. in Bucharest before the fall of When William Heath began writing Monday Creek Publishing (Butchtel, Ceausescu!). But Friebert also poetry in the 1960s, James Wright OH) 2019. PB $17.99. includes a sparkling homage to hailed him as “one of the most From Ohio, USA, Terri Mash his late colleague, the co-founder brilliantly accomplished and gifted finds joy living in the rural hills of of Umbra (with Langston Hughes young poets to appear in the United southeastern Ohio. Sitting on her and Alice Walker), Calvin Hernton. States in quite some time.” Now front porch, Terri writes of her The volume richly concludes with after an award-winning career as family, friends, horses, dogs, and

Winter 2020 39 BOOK LIST | POETRY & CHILDREN'S

more. She finds quiet time by the even if its most destructive forms, When someone dear is dealing with creek and under the pine canopy, love is the driving force behind all illness, it’s difficult to know what to nestled in the needles, where she behavior. do or say. The actor Vanessa Bayer remembers her past as she plans experienced this firsthand when she her future. A heartfelt poet and Weldon, Laura Grace. Blackbird: was treated for childhood leukemia. illustrator, Terri invites you into the Poems. Grayson Books (West In her first children’s book, she offers mind of A Cultured Girl. Hartford, CT) 2019. PB $15.95. gentle, reassuring advice that people This collection casts an of all ages will appreciate. Mullet, Robin, and Holli Rainwater. uncommonly bright glow. In clear The Curve of Her Arm. NightBallet language these poems explore Black, Patricia L.H. Illus. by Deborah Press (Elyria, OH) 2019. PB $15.00. themes of connection and healing Hayhurst. Twillaby Pond. Monday The Curve of Her Arm is a forty- through subjects as unusual as Creek Publishing (Buchtel, OH) page book containing thirty-three cow pastures, dictionaries, to-do 2019. HC $19.99. haiku and poems, Rainwater’s haiku lists, and astrophysics. Beauty A little wee pock and a water-blue appearing first, with Mullet’s parallel is revealed in what one reviewer pret sail off across Twillaby Pond on poems on the opposite pages. Each calls “sacraments of the ordinary.” a wind-blown leaf to more adventure form is introduced within the poem Perfect for poetry lovers and those than they expected – sailing through that explores it. who haven’t read a poem in years. a rainbow, meeting a whole new A portion of all book royalties will world of pond inhabitants they’d Schubert, Karen. Dear Youngstown. be donated to the Medina Raptor never even known about. Exhausted NightBallet Press (Elyria, OH) 2019. Center, a non-profit center in Ohio at the end of a long, long day and PB $15.00. which rescues, rehabilitates, and worried about how to get back In Dear Youngstown, poet Karen releases injured and orphaned birds. home they get assistance from an Schubert delves into stories meant unexpected source. to convey emotional truths about CHILDREN'S living in Youngstown, Ohio. From Burchwell, Erin M. Pip’s Path the opening poem, “Reading at the Ashman, Linda. Illus. by Jamey Through Lancaster, Ohio. Orange Old Ward Bakery” to the ending Christoph. Outside My Window. Frazer Press (Wilmington, OH) poem “After the New Yorker Eerdmans Books for Young Readers 2019. HC $19.99. Festival,” Schubert gently leads you (Grand Rapids, MI) 2018. HC $17.00. Follow Pip and Pepper as they through reminiscence and recall, Children living in different parts of seek adventure and excitement offers observation, appreciation, and the world see very different things in Lancaster, Ohio. Beautiful tribute to a city she clearly loves. when they gaze out of their windows. illustrations offer clues that One child looks out over a boulevard launch the curious reader into an Townsend, Ann. Dear Delinquent: lined with palm trees, another sees interactive scavenger hunt along Poems. Sarabande Books (Louisville, a train whistling past snow-capped with the characters. In the process, KY) 2019. PB $15.95. mountains, and another waves Pip steps out of his comfort zone to Is it possible for poetry to be to her father as he tends to their make new friends, and at the end simultaneously raw and elegant, garden. But while their lives may of the journey he finds a special direct and oblique, hurtful seem different, there’s something surprise. Children and grown-ups and consoling? Yes, says Dear important that they all share. This alike will enjoy seeing the familiar Delinquent, Ann Townsend’s new book will spark readers’ curiosity sites of our beautiful town. collection. “My heart presses my and imagination with its celebration ribcage like an octagon fist,” she of global diversity. The Gagnon Family. Illus. by Seth writes, taking on the persona of both Yoder. Cowboy Joel and the Wild betrayed and betrayer. Through Bayer, Vanessa. Illus. by Rosie Wild West. JPV Press (Winesburg, poems that masterfully recall the Butcher. How Do You Care for a OH) 2019. HC $17.95. styles of Sylvia Plath or Philip Very Sick Bear? Feiwel and Friends Cowboy Joel and Blackbeard find Larkin, Townsend convinces us that, (New York, NY) 2019. HC $16.99. themselves face to face with El

40 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | CHILDREN'S

Maton, the most feared desperado Houts, Michelle. Illus. by Bagram In this heartfelt and universal story, in the West. When El Maton mocks Ibatoulline. Sea Glass Summer. a mother and daughter look forward him for the way he looks, Joel Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA) to their special Saturday routine must confront his biggest fear; a 2019. HC $16.99. together every single week. But this tongue-slingin’ with the outlaw. One summer, a boy named Thomas Saturday, one thing after another Can Blackbeard convince Joel to do visits his grandmother at her seaside goes wrong--ruining storytime, salon it? Will Joel find the courage? Note cottage. She gives him a magnifying time, picnic time, and the puppet to Mom and Dad: Cowboy Joel will glass that once belonged to his show they’d been looking forward to teach your child that it’s not always grandfather, and with it Thomas going to all week. Mom is nearing a about punching the bully. It’s about explores the beach, turning grains of meltdown...until her loving daughter being confident in who God made sand into rocks and dark clamshells reminds her that being together them to be, and using those truths to into swirling mazes of black, gray, is the most important thing of all. fight the battle in their mind. and white. When his grandmother Author-artist Oge Mora’s highly shows him a piece of sea glass, anticipated follow up to Caldecott Gilbert, Frances. Illus. by Allison Thomas is transfixed. That night he Honor Thank You, Omu! features the Black. Go, Girls, Go! Beach Lane dreams of an old shipyard and the same magnificently radiant artwork Books (New York, NY) 2019. breaking of a bottle. Could the very and celebration of sharing so beloved HC $17.99. piece of sea glass on his nightstand in her debut picture book. Come along for a rollicking ride have come from that bottle? For the in this picture book celebration of rest of the summer, he searches for Mora, Oge. Thank You, Omu! Little, vehicles that puts girls in the driver’s more sea glass and hopes to have Brown and Company (New York, seat! Girls can race…and girls can dreams that will reveal more of NY) 2018. HC $18.99. fly. Girls can rocket way up high! the sea’s secrets. A stunning ode to Debut author-illustrator Oge Mora Piloting fire trucks, trains, tractors, stories and the seaside, this picture brings to life a heartwarming story of and more, the girls in this book are book invites readers to imagine the sharing and community in colorful on the go! Join them for an exuberant ocean of possibility that lives in cut-paper designs as luscious as journey that celebrates how girls can every small or forgotten treasure. Omu’s stew, with an extra serving do – and drive – anything. of love. An author’s note explains Johnston, Tony. Illus. by Emily Dove. that “Omu” (pronounced AH-moo) Guidroz, Rukhsanna. Illus. by Dinara Spencer and Vincent: The Jellyfish means “queen” in the Igbo language Mirtalipova. Leila in Saffron. Brothers. Simon & Schuster Books of her parents, but growing up, she Salaam Reads (New York, NY) 2019. for Young Readers (New York, NY) used it to mean “Grandma.” This HC $17.99. 2019. HC $17.99. book was inspired by the strong When Leila looks in the mirror, she Spencer and Vincent are jellyfish female role models in Mora’s life. doesn’t know if she likes what she brothers who live together in the sea, sees. But when her grandmother tells their wet and shining home. One Narh, Samuel. Illus. by Jo Loring- her the saffron beads on her scarf day a wave of superior magnitude Fisher. Maisie’s Scrapbook. Lantana suit her, she feels a tiny bit better. So, separates them! The brothers know Publishing (London, UK) 2019. Leila spends the rest of their family they have to do whatever it takes to HC $17.99. dinner night on the lookout for other find each other again. And they’ll As the seasons turn, Maisie rides her parts of her she does like. Follow need some help along the way. bull in and out of Dada’s tall tales. Leila’s journey as she uses her senses Sometimes friends can really make Her Mama wears linen and plays the of sight, smell, taste, and touch to a difference.Spencer and Vincent is viola. Her Dada wears kente cloth seek out the characteristics that a story of adventures and the bond and plays the marimba. They come make up her unique identity, and of family. from different places, but they hug finds reasons to feel proud of herself, her in the same way and they love her just as she is. Mora, Oge. Saturday. Little, Brown just the same. A joyful celebration of and Company (New York, NY) 2019. a mixed-race family and the love that HC $18.99. binds us all together.

Winter 2020 41 BOOK LIST | CHILDREN'S, MIDDLE GRADE & YOUNG ADULT

Parsons, Celeste, ed. Illus. by Hannah girl named Amani by her father, Chima, Cinda Williams. Sickles. Nelsonville from A to Z. follows her as she plays an evening Deathcaster: A Shattered Realms Stuart’s Opera House Arts Education game of hide-and-seek with friends Novel. HarperTeen (New York, NY) Program/Monday Creek Publishing at her apartment complex. The 2019. HC $18.99. (Nelsonville/Buchtel, OH) 2019. moon’s glow helps Amani find the In this indispensable conclusion HC $19.99. last hidden child, and seems almost to the New York Times bestselling This unique alphabet book explores like a partner to her in her game, Shattered Realms series, Warrior places in and around Nelsonville, as well as a spotlight pointing out Alyssa ana’Raisa would do anything a small town in southeastern Ohio. her beauty and strength. This is a to protect her home, the Fells, and Watercolors by local artist Hannah gorgeous bedtime read-aloud about her legacy, the Gray Wolf line. But Sickles and short poems by area joy and family, love and community, as a prisoner of Empress Celestine, writers provide an ideal introduction and most of all about feeling great in Lyss is forced to turn her fearsome to the town’s history and attractions. your own skin. talents as an army commander A perfect bookshelf addition for against her beloved homeland. readers of any age. MIDDLE GRADE & Refusal would swiftly lead to her YOUNG ADULT death, and her death would end the Tharp, Jason. Bunny Will Not Gray Wolf line. In Lyss’s absence, Ready-to-Read/Simon Fellsmarch Castle swarms with Smile! Bundy, Tamara. Pixie Pushes On. Spotlight (New York, NY) 2019. Nancy Paulsen Books (New York, intrigue, deception, and a primordial HC $17.99. NY) 2020. HC $16.99. threat. Destin Karn, a southern A bear named Big has a problem. Pixie’s defenses are up, and it’s spymaster with a hidden agenda of His friend Bunny will not smile, no wonder. She’s been uprooted, his own, might be the queendom’s no matter what Big tries, so Big the chickens seem to have it in for only hope of defeating the forces needs your help! With appealing her, and now her beloved sister, aligned against the Seven Realms...as comic-inspired speech bubbles and Charlotte, has been stricken with well as the enemies within the castle. interactive storytelling that prompts polio and whisked away into kids to do everything from turning quarantine. So it’s not surprising Daigneau, Jean. Code Cracking the page, to leaning in so Big can Pixie lashes out. But her habit of for Kids: Secret Communication whisper an idea, to making their Throughout History, with 21 Codes making snap judgements – and silliest silly face, beginning readers giving her classmates nicknames and Ciphers. Chicago Review Press will giggle their way through this like “Rotten Ricky” and “Big-Mouth (Chicago, IL) 2019. PB $16.99. Level 1 Ready-to-Read. Berta”–hasn’t won her any friends. People throughout history have At least life on the farm is getting written messages in code and Tharp, Jason. Kiwi Cannot Reach! better with the delivery of its ciphers to pass along closely Ready-to-Read/Simon Spotlight held, secret information. Today, newest resident – a runt baby lamb. (New York, NY) 2019. HC $17.99. Raising Buster takes patience and countries around the world enlist Kiwi sees a rope. He wants to pull cryptanalysts to intercept and crack understanding – and this slowing it, but he cannot reach! What will down helps Pixie put things in better messages to keep our world safe. happen next? Beginning readers perspective. So too does paying Code Cracking for Kids explores can help Kiwi by turning the pages, attention to her neighbors, and many aspects of cryptology, shaking the book, and more in this finding that with the war on, she’s including famous people who used interactive story from the author of not the only one missing someone. and invented codes and ciphers, Bunny Will Not Smile! As Pixie pushes past her own pain to such as Julius Caesar and Thomas become a bigger person, she’s finally Jefferson; codes used during wars, Zachariah, Abdul-Razak. Illus. by able to make friends; and to laugh including the Enigma machine, Keturah Bobo. The Night is Yours. about the fact that it is in places whose cracking helped the Allies Dial Books for Young Readers (New where she least expected it. gather critical information on York, NY) 2019. HC $17.99. German intelligence in World War This lyrical text, narrated to a young II; and work currently being done

42 | Ohioana Quarterly BOOK LIST | MIDDLE GRADE & YOUNG ADULT

by the government, such as in the she has an all-new body and some library’s most dangerous grimoire, National Security Agency. Readers all-new abilities. Abilities courtesy and Elisabeth is implicated in the also will learn about unsolved codes of the most fearsome predator ever crime. With no one to turn to but her and ciphers throughout history, to walk the Earth. sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel little-known codes used today, Thorn, and his mysterious demonic and devices used over the years McGinnis, Mindy. Be Not Far From servant, she finds herself entangled by governments and their spies to Me. Katherine Tegen Books (New in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not conceal information. Code Cracking York, NY) 2020. HC $18.99. only could the Great Libraries go for Kids includes hands-on activities Hatchet meets Wild in this up in flames, but the world along that allow kids to replicate early code harrowing YA survival story about a with them. As her alliance with devices, learn several different codes teenage girl’s attempt to endure the Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth and ciphers to encode and decode impossible, from the Edgar Award- starts to question everything she’s messages, and hide a secret message winning author of The Female of been taught - about sorcerers, about inside a hollow egg. the Species, Mindy McGinnis. The the libraries she loves, even about world is not tame. Ashley knows herself. For Elisabeth has a power Farquhar, Polly. Itch. Holiday House this truth deep in her bones, more she has never guessed, and a future (New York, NY) 2020. HC $17.99. at home with trees overhead than she could never have imagined. After a tornado tears the roof of the a roof. So when she goes hiking in school cafeteria, and Itch’s mother the Smokies with her friends for a Rubini, Julie K. Eye to Eye: Sports goes on a two-month business trip night of partying, the falling dark Journalist Christine Brennan. in China, Itch’s sixth grade year and creaking trees are second nature Ohio University Press (Athens, OH) begins badly – particularly because to her. But people are not tame 2019. PB $14.95. he can’t do fractions. At least he has either. And when Ashley catches Christine Brennan, the USA Today his job at the pheasant farm, and the her boyfriend with another girl, sports columnist, author, and guys at school and Sydney to hang drunken rage sends her running into commentator, uses her voice to out with when he’s not working. the night, stopped only by a nasty advocate for diversity and equality in But when trading school lunches fall into a ravine. Morning brings the the world of sports, and her wisdom goes wrong and Sydney gets rushed realization that she’s alone - and far to encourage future journalists. away in an ambulance, Itch thinks off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest Her passion for sports was sparked it’s his fault. When you suddenly and with nothing but the clothes by her dad, who encouraged her to don’t have any friends, would you on her back, Ashley must figure out participate in athletics and, as he do anything – even things that are how to survive with the red streak of said, “smell the game” – go watch wrong – to get them back? This novel infection creeping up her leg. baseball and football games together. by a debut author, set in the Ohio As a child, Christine wrote daily heartland, captures the issues and Rogerson, Margaret. Sorcery of entries in her diary and listened feelings of being in middle school Thorns. Margaret K. McElderry to play-by-play coverage on her in a warm, humorous, and above all, Books (New York, NY) 2019. radio. She pursued this love of recognizable, way. HC $17.99. words through journalism school All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has and applied her passion for sports Gleisser, Sheldon. Dianasaurus known that as long as she has known by reporting on them for various Rex. Hydra Publications (Goshen, anything. Raised as a foundling in newspapers. Since then, she has KY) 2019. PB $14.99. one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, portrayed the setbacks and triumphs Nothing is impossible. Elisabeth has grown up among the of athletes, all the while fighting Disintegration and re-integration tools of sorcery - magical grimoires her own battles for success - and of solid matter? Time Travel? Gene that whisper on shelves and rattle respect – as a female journalist. splicing? Not Science Fiction, not beneath iron chains. If provoked, From knocking down barriers in any more. The freakish terrorist they transform into grotesque NFL locker rooms to covering every incident should have killed sixteen- monsters of ink and leather. Then Olympics since 1984 to being the go- year-old Diana Dunphy. Instead, an act of sabotage releases the to commentator whenever scandal

Winter 2020 43 BOOK LIST | MIDDLE GRADE & YOUNG ADULT

occurs in the sports world, Christine resist sticking their snouts in and and too loud. The American movies Brennan has done it all. Eye to Eye helping, whether the High Council that Jude has always loved haven’t invites young readers to learn more wants it or not. quite prepared her for starting about this remarkable journalist school in the US - and her new label and perhaps to nurture their own Vogel, D.W. Superdungeon: The of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s dreams of investigating and telling Forgotten King. Future House never known before. But this life also important stories. Publishing (Provo, UT) 2019. brings unexpected surprises - there PB $16.95. are new friends, a whole new family, Shumaker, Heather. The Griffins Treffen Cedarbough has trained his and a school musical that Jude might of Castle Cary. Simon & Schuster whole life to protect the Fae Woods. just try out for. Maybe America, too, Books for Young Readers (New York, He knows what plants to eat and is a place where Jude can be seen as NY) 2019. HC $17.99. what plants will eat him. But most she really is. Siblings Meg, Will, and Ariel Griffin of all he knows that light magic in are off on an adventure! They the Woods comes from the great can’t wait to spend a week visiting and powerful Deeproot Tree. As their eccentric aunt and her giant, the newest member of the Rangers, tongue-drooling Newfoundland dog Treffen has vowed to protect the in England. But when they finally Tree with his life. When a deadly arrive, they’re faced with a few local attack comes too close to Treffen’s secrets that stir up more than a little home, he seeks guidance from the trouble. Add in some very peculiar elven elders and receives an ominous lights, strange new friends, a police prophecy directly from the Tree. chase and some stampeding sheep, An old enemy of the kingdom, the and the Griffin kids are in over their Forgotten King, plots to break free heads - literally. Apparently this of his ancient prison. And according town has a ghost problem and the to the prophecy, it’s up to Treffen to three children must race to solve stop this evil from escaping. With the mystery before the ghosts take the help of a pedestrian knight and something that doesn’t belong an adventuring princess, Treffen to them. confronts the darkness. But each battle brings them one step closer Tyler, Tara. Windy Hollow: Beast to the Lordship Downs, the heart World Series Book 3. Tara Tyler of all evil in the Woods, and to the Author Productions (Cincinnati, Forgotten King’s carefully laid trap. OH) 2019. PB $14.99. Deep into enemy territory, Treffen This summer, Gabe and his beast must choose between his sacred oath buddies fly across the Great Sea and the lives of his closest friends. for the wedding of the century: a dragon prince and a beautiful harpy. Warga, Jasmine. Other Words for Dragon weddings are adventures in Home. Balzer + Bray (New York, NY) themselves, but behind the scenes, 2019. HC $16.99. the High Council is delivering the Jude never thought she’d be leaving Revelation - to tell the rest of the her beloved older brother and father world: beasts and humans exist. behind, all the way across the ocean Though Professor Hardaway warns in Syria. But when things in her Gabe and his friends to stay out of it, hometown start becoming volatile, they overhear news of an evil human Jude and her mother are sent to live scientist and a vengeful were-ogre in Cincinnati with relatives. At first, experimenting on beasts. They can’t everything in America seems too fast

44 | Ohioana Quarterly Coming Soon

A Mile and a Half of Lines: Author Event: Astronaut The Write Stuff The Art of James Thurber Kathy Sullivan March 28, 2020 Through March 15, 2020 February 19, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Upper Arlington Main Library, Gramercy Books, Bexley Upper Arlington A special exhibition curated by Ohioana Award-winning author, Kathryn Sullivan, the first female The fifth annual day of information poet, and Thurber expert Michael J. astronaut to do a spacewalk, discusses and inspiration for writers will feature Rosen that showcases the drawings her debut memoir, Handprints on presentations and workshops by local of the Columbus native and beloved Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of authors as well as an expo of local humorist. For more information visit Invention, with COSI CEO Dr. Frederic publishers and literary organizations. www.columbusmuseum.org. Bertley. For more information, visit Registration is required, and space www.gramercybooksbexley.com/event/ fills up quickly. Reserve your spot astronaut-kathy-sullivan-conversation- beginning March 1, 2020 at cosi-ceo-frederic-bertley. https://write-stuff.eventbrite.com. Ohioana Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant Application deadline is January 31, 2020 Brews + Prose at Market Ohioana Book Festival Garden Brewery April 25, 2020 This annual competition awards March 3, 2020 10:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. $1,000 to an Ohio writer, age 30 or 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Columbus Metropolitan Library's younger, who has not yet published Market Garden Brewery, Cleveland Main Library, Columbus a book. For more information and an application, please visit www.ohioana. The March edition features 2016 Join us for the 14th annual Ohioana org/programs/ohioana-book-awards. Ohioana Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant Book Festival at the beautiful Main recipient Eliese Colette Goldbach in Library of Columbus Metropolitan the launch of her debut book, Rust: Library! The event features nearly 150 A Memoir of Steel and Grit. For more, authors, panel discussions, a book Ohioana Book Club visit www.brewsandprose.com. fair, special activities for children and February 19, 2020 teens, food trucks, and more. Free and 10:00 a.m. – noon open to the public. No ticket and no Ohioana Library, Columbus advance registration required. Columbus Noir For more information, visit March 3, 2020 The book for February is American www.ohioana.org. Duchess by New York Times and USA 7:30 – 9:00 p.m. Today best-selling author Karen Harper. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus If you would like to attend, please e-mail us at [email protected]. Author-editor Andrew Welsh-Huggins is joined by other contributors for the launch of the new mystery anthology, Columbus Noir, presented by Thurber House as part of the 2020 winter series of Evenings with Authors. For To list a literary event in the information and tickets, visit Ohioana Quarterly, contact us at www.thurberhouse.org. [email protected].

Winter 2020 45 Thank You!

The Ohioana Library wouldn’t be the unique organization it is without our many generous supporters. Listed below are those who have given from September 1, 2019 through November 30, 2019. Special thanks to Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio General Assembly for the state's ongoing support.

$10,000 and above Beverly McDonald 90th Anniversary Event in Harry C. Moores Foundation Karen Miller Cincinnati Catherine Cooper Montgomery Lawrence Blum $5,000 – 9,999 Zoe Dell Nutter William Burwinkel Hyde Park Lumber & Design Center Cathy Tilling David Cartmell The Myers Y. Cooper Co. Betty Weibel James Cissell Philip & Anne Cone $2,500 – 4,999 $50 – 99 Randy & Nancy Cooper The Columbus Foundation Nancy F. Rubenstein Dianne Dunkelman Greater Columbus Arts Council Evelyn Bachman Austin Garcia-Cooper The Ohio State University Libraries Kate Fox Ann Hagedorn & Marlay Price Martha Shaw Barb & Warren Harding III $1,000 – 2,499 Herbert Brown John & Estella Hassan Cover to Cover Books Mary Ellis Richard & Denice Hertlein Carol Garner & Otho Eyster Emily Foster Deborah Hill PNC Bank David Giffels Thomas Humes Cynthia Puckett Ann Hanning Mike & Brenda Judy Jacquelyn & James Vaughan Toni Harper Stewart Katz Margaret Wong & Associates Martha Howell Charlie LeBoeuf Jay Yurkiw Juliet Kostritsky Cynthia Mairose David Leach Stuart & Lindsay McLean $500 – 999 Fred Milligan John F. Michel Benesch Law Vicki Newell Holly Morey Honda of America Manufacturing, Brian Perera Dan & Deborah Motz Inc. Susan Schueller Betsy Newman Marilyn Shrude Buck & Patty Niehoff $250 – 499 Paul Watkins Peter & Betsy Niehoff Helen Bolte Susan Yutzey Jereme Ransick Dareth Gerlach Richard D. Reis Michelle Gubola $25 – 49 Emmy Rittenhouse Louise Musser Christina Butler Dale & Nancy Roe Ronald Stuckey Patricia Geiger Richard & Katherine Rosenthal Willis White Jr. Bruce Sherwood Thomas Schiff Leslie Shortlidge Joseph Schlimm $100 – 249 Peter Schwartz Stephen Badman In Memory of Ann McCrystal Dorothy Shell Suzy Biehl Sorosis Literary Club Kathleen Simon Mary Citino Peter & Sandra Stern Clayton Cormany In-Kind Donations Mike Stock Lynnette Halstead PXP Ohio Bob & Hope Taft Linda Ruth Hengst Mark Temming Rosemary Joyce Ginger Warner Lisa Klein Tom Westerfield Phyllis Knepper Christopher Young

46 | Ohioana Quarterly Why I Support Ohioana

Literature is a powerful thing.

That’s exactly why I see so much potential in Ohioana. I think of the mission as not just collecting, preserving, and celebrating Ohio’s literature, but also playing a significant role in moving the literary world forward. This is not to disregard or leave behind Ohioana’s ninety-year history of literary impact, programming, and award-winning authors. I just believe from here Ohioana is uniquely positioned to do even more.

I think of all the ways that reading can change the trajectory of a person’s life. How writing allows us to capture, process, and express the human experience. How sharing and celebrating stories can shift perspectives, spark discussions, and bring people together. How that first grant or award can give rise to the next literary greats. I think of what happens when literature is accessible and open to all.

Zora Neale Hurston once said, “Literature and other arts are supposed to hold up the mirror to nature. With only a fractional ‘exceptional’ and the ‘quaint’ portrayed, a true picture of life in America cannot be….these are the things that publishers and producers, as the accredited representatives of the American people, have not yet taken into consideration sufficiently.”

As a queer woman from rural Ohio, as a writer, and as a member of the Ohioana Board of Trustees, I think of this quote often. I imagine what can happen when literature reflects all of Ohio and I recognize that we still have a ways to go. As we connect Ohio readers and writers, my hope is that Ohioana can begin to show that truer picture of life in Ohio and move literature forward as we do.

Ellen McDevitt-Stredney

Yes, I want to support Ohio literature by making my tax-deductible contribution to Ohioana in the amount of:

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Please send your donation with this form to Ohioana Library Association, 274 E. First Ave., Suite 300, Columbus, OH 43201. You may also make your gift online at www.ohioana.org. All donors of $50 or more receive a print subscription to the Ohioana Quarterly, invitations to Ohioana events, and Ohioana's e-Newsletter. Questions? Call 614-466-3831 or email us at [email protected].

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Join us for the 14th annual Ohioana Book Festival, taking place Saturday, April 25, Save the from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Columbus Metropolitan Library's Main Library at 96 S. Date! Grant Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215. April 25, 2020 The festival will feature a book fair and book signings, panel discussions with your favorite authors, children’s and teen actives, food trucks, and more. We hope to see you there!