Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

NOTES ON A NERVOUS PLANET is another excellent work by Matt Haig (Reasons to Stay Alive).  He returns to the discussion of mental health, but focuses on stepping away from technology and the frenetic pace of modern life. He says “we have to remember:

          There is no shame in not watching news.

          There is no shame in not going on Twitter.

          There is no shame in disconnecting.”

Haig offers numerous suggestions and writes in a calm, comforting voice. He parallels much of the work on stress management and technology addiction that we have been discussing (such as Twenge’s iGen). I particularly liked his poignant observations about education: “we are being taught a kind of reverse mindfulness. A kind of Future Studies where – via the guise of mathematics, or literature, or history, or computer programming, or French – we are being taught to think of a time different to the time we are in.  Exam time. Job time. When-we-are-grown-up-time.”

Noting that “it sometimes feels as if we have temporarily solved the problem of scarcity and replaced it with the problem of excess,” he also echoes comments in the recent New York Times article from Cal Newport on “Steve Jobs Never Wanted Us to Use our iPhones like This.” Throughout, Haig is courageous in confronting his (and readers’) anxiety: “Worry is a small, sweet word that sounds like you could keep an eye on it.” NOTES ON A NERVOUS PLANET is a very accessible text which asks some tough questions (“How do you stay human in a world of change?”) which Kirkus described as an “often wise and inspiring self-help title.”

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

I am in the midst of reading THE GILDED WOLVES by New York Times best-selling author Roshani Chokshi (Aru Shah and the End of Time).  Her newest title is a fantasy involving a band of thieves in 1889 Paris just before the Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) and official opening of the technologically innovative Eiffel Tower. Their leader is Séverin who is rich, powerful and a risk-taker.  He is joined by a gifted scientist and landscape artiste that he considers a brother, Tristan, plus Enrique who is an historian with identity issues, next, a math prodigy and arsonist named Zofia, and, finally, Laila, also called L’Enigme, who is very skilled at reading objects’ histories and is searching for her own. Many items in this story are “forged,” made to exhibit special powers and the thieves are trying to thwart the Order of Babel as they search for a “Horus Eye” so as to eventually regain Séverin’s birthright. Suspenseful, filled with puzzles, magic, and scheming, plus some romantic tension, THE GILDED WOLVES received multiple starred reviews (from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and YOYA). This is a complex and compelling story and its characters represent many mixed ethnicities; look for it on our shelves soon as both a print book and downloadable audio version.

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

THE PARAGON HOTEL by Lyndsay Faye is an exciting mystery and a fun read with serious undertones, described as “blending film noir and screwball comedy” by The Wall Street Journal. This new novel, set mostly in the Prohibition-era 1920s, revolves around Alice James (who is called Nobody for her ability to fade into the background).  It alternates between her life in New York’s Harlem, where she works for The Spider and his gang fighting the Clutched Hand and organized crime, and her escape to Portland, Oregon where she recovers from bullet wounds at The Paragon, the city’s Black owned and run hotel.   

On both coasts, readers meet Alice’s friends and associates, adopted families of a sort. These include childhood playmate Nicolo Benenati, Harry Chipchase (a corrupt cop), Blossom Fontaine (an African American singer), and do-gooder Evelina Vaughan (also wife of Portland’s Chief of Police), plus many more. On the West Coast, a little mulatto boy goes missing and the Klan is becoming increasingly active and brazen in their threatening actions. Alice sets out to help her friends and solve the disappearance while also reflecting on the actions which brought her to Portland.  Throughout, her voice is caustic and observant:

“The truth is, I’ve been shoving thoughts underwater like unwanted puppies.  When your world is emptied, you cling to strangers…”

“I remember fleeing New York, still adrift with the shock and clutching my carpetbag as if it were a tree limb midriver.”

And describing the teacher of the weekly Self-Betterment classes at The Paragon as “top drawer in a very tall bureau.”

As the author notes explain, Faye’s historical fiction is based on fact and she uses excerpts from local papers and period speeches to encourage readers to think about Oregon’s racist history, including the Klan’s slogan advocating America First.  For more on the Klan in this time period, especially in the northern states, see Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK. Definitely worth a read, THE PARAGON HOTEL received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal.