The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson

Isn’t the cover absolutely beautiful for The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson?  It conveys so much of the Caribbean flavor of this story which is set in Barbados and centers on two sisters, Dionne (16) and Phaedra (10). Their mother, Avril, is struggling and has sent the girls away from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their grandmother, Hyacinth.  She is a midwife and local “wise woman” who exposes the sisters to family history and to another culture and way of thinking. The pace of the story, to me, is slow and thoughtful as this debut author movingly explores how both Dionne and Phaedra gradually come of age and learn to deal with loss and opportunity in different ways.

This is a story about love – for family and for people of different generations, for places, especially “home,” and for self. I first read an excerpt of The Star Side of Bird Hill in the Buzz Books promotional materials and I am grateful for an advance copy from the publisher who has an online book club kit.  The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, June 30th.  It received a starred review from Library Journal.  

The Six by Mark Alpert

I am looking forward to booktalking The Six by Mark Alpert, especially for fans of sci-fi and action-adventure.  This novel begins with the story of Adam Armstrong – a courageous teen who is battling muscular dystrophy, but expects to die soon.  His computer scientist Dad works for the government and is experimenting with artificial intelligence when his software “Sigma” breaks free and tries to take over the world.

Guess what?! Adam and other kids like him who are struggling with terminal diseases have a chance to store their brains in machines before their bodies die. These “Pioneers” need to master that ability and then defeat Sigma.  Maybe that sounds too unrealistic to you, but not with the writing of Mark Alpert, a journalist for Scientific American, who obviously understands many aspects of neuromorphic electronics technology and its implications. Still have doubts?  Look at recent news articles like this one about Google studying how machines can “dream” OR controlling machines with thinking like this from Voice of America. Setting this story in the near future, as Alpert does, adds to its excitement and suspense.

I think that The Six by Mark Alpert is likely to appear on future Abe Lincoln book lists and I hope that students and adults are as excited and curious about this novel as I am. Here is a link to a discussion guide for The Six which also received starred reviews from both Booklist and Voya.

If you are interested in a few other titles about Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, try these: the classic I, Robot by Asimov; Robopocalypse series by Wilson; soon-to-be published virtual world  Armada by Cline (Ready Player One) or Rise of the Robots by Ford and Not Impossible by Ebeling, two recent non-fiction works, both previewed on pbs this spring. An alternative – adding human intelligence to animals -- was deftly explored in Eva by Dickinson.  And NBCLearn recently posted Mysteries of the Brain - eight video segments about how we think, including one on brain-computer interface. 

Stir by Jessica Fechtor

For much of the weekend I have been reading Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor.  I would highly recommend this fascinating memoir which tells the story of a 28 year-old woman who almost dies from a brain aneurism. 

As her story begins, Jessica is a healthy graduate student planning to finish and defend a PhD dissertation.  She is recently married and looking forward to starting a family. Instead, her husband and family are called to her bedside as doctors contemplate brain surgery. That is an ordeal which she undergoes more than once due to complications.

Jessica spends a significant time in recovery, but the tone of her book is generally positive and hopeful.  She introduces us to “her people:” husband Eli, parents, siblings, step-mother, in-laws, grandmother and friends through stories about them and their recipes. Stir includes 27 recipes with notes and suggestions by Jessica for recreating these many comfort foods. They often include a “twist” like sweet potato curry latkes or whole wheat chocolate chip cookies.

Jessica’s story is amazingly inspirational and courageous so halfway through I decided to see what else I could learn about her.  I found the video that appears below (posted recently by her husband) and encourage you to watch it, but only after having read a good portion of Stir.  Her writing underscores how much we should all be grateful for food, family, friends, and faith.

 

You can also visit Jesica Fechtor’s blog at Sweet Amandine.com

For other Non-fiction writing with recipes try titles like Delancey by Molly Wizenberg.