Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves meme is hosted by the Reading Reality blog. It was originally hosted by the Team Tynga's Reviews blog and now is solely hosted by Reading Reality.  

What books am I stacking my Kindle with this week?  Fire!!: the Zora Neale Hurston Story has been on my wishlist since it was published in 2017. Zora was an African American woman who challenged the norms of the early twentieth century society. While born in poverty to a Baptist family in Alabama in the 1890s, she was able to apply herself at school and attended Howard University as well as Barnard College, where she was the only black student. When she arrived in New York City during the height of the Harlem Renaissance she found herself among peers such as poet Langston Hughes. Zora became a noted folklorist and novelist. Her most well known book was Their Eyes Were Watching God. Despite her successes, Zora was continually having to accept maid jobs in order to support herself.

I think Fire is going to be a terrific read!

Can't Wait Wednesday

Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we are excited about that we have yet to read.  Generally, they are books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday hosted by the Breaking the Spine blog. 

Having perused the Drawn and Quarterly publisher site yesterday, I am anxiously awaiting my next payday so that I can purchase the newest book by cartoonist Guy DeLisle Factory Summers. The graphic novel was published in June 2021. The story is autobiographical and chronicles DeLisle's job at a pulp and paper factory in Montreal when he was sixteen years old. He worked 12 hour shifts in a hot, noisy building. DeLisle was one of the few young people working at the all male factory and only got the job because his father worked a white collar job on the upper floors of the building. His father worked 9 to 5 while his son had to work 12 hours at a time. On his day off DeLisle found refuge in his art and comics. 

I own every book Guy DeLisle has written.  He is primarily known for his travelogues to North Korea, China, Burma and Jerusalem where he followed his wife on her medical missions to these countries. They are pretty amusing as he is a househusband, taking care of the kids and home.  DeLisle won several awards for his book Jerusalem.

Pound for Pound

Underground MMA fighter Dani Libra fears nothing except her recurring blackouts that obscure her bloody past. She is an immigrant from Mexico but when her sister is kidnapped, Dani must return there in order to find her. In the process she must shine a light on the darkness in her mind from the blackouts and keep her demons at bay long enough to save her sister.

Pound for Pound is a fantastic crime thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Dani is a badass woman with a zest for winning. She gets herself involved in many violent fights in order to get what she wants.  Dani is a great character. Her blackouts are primarily obscuring a violent crossing into the U. S. from Mexico that was undertaken when she was young. Her parents passed away in the crossing and Dani and her sister were luckily adopted by a stranger. 

This emotion filled story is complimented by the artwork. The reader can see Dani's emotions when she tenses her face, arms and legs and also when she has tears and blood flowing out of her mouth after being struck. The punches during the fights are also accentuated by the drawings as well as with the words "crack," "ugh" and "whack." 

There is some politicking here on the issue of immigration from Mexico into the U. S. that I don't think added much to the story. The main point of the comic is to tell a crime story. With several villains in Mexico featuring in the plot, the reader picks up enough about the current thoughts on Mexican immigration that we do not need narrative or dialogue on the subject.

Pound for Pound is a great read!  5 out of 5 stars. 

Snow Angels

Snow Angels is a 10 part digital ebook by Jeff Lemire which is still continuing to be published. I have read Season One and Season Two of this post-apocalyptic story of survival in a harsh winter wilderness area. The area is called The Trench. It is an endless canyon carved into the ice where a few people have survived. However, the residents all know that something awful will happen if one of them leaves the trench. The inhabitants of the Trench do not know how they were settled there and they have survived by never leaving it. The plot follows the activities of two girls, Milliken, 12 and her younger sister Mae Mae. When their father took them on an overnight skate down the trench for a coming of age ritual to teach them how to fish in the frozen river and how to show respect to their gods, The Colden Ones, he woke up The Trench's deadly defender, the Snowman. During a fight with the Snowman, their father was killed and the girls found themselves on their own.

I found the plot to be mediocre. It was hard to maintain interest in the comic but because I paid for it, I was determined to finish it. While the setting was magnificent, I did not connect with any of the characters. Neither of the girls interested me.  The father was the most compelling character because he carried the secrets of The Trench.  I wanted to know what those secrets were but he did not tell most of the secrets himself. After his death, the girls wandered and eventually discovered what all of the secrets were but this came at the end of the story just about on the last page. There was no lead up to the discovery which could have created some suspense. It fell flat. The illustrations were good and reflected the icy conditions of this wilderness area.  Illustrator Jock added iciness to the pages of the comic by the use of dark, dreary blues that really looked like ice and complimented the setting.

These stories are either hit or miss.  This one was a miss for me. 2 out of 5 stars.