Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

Last Days of Night by Graham Moore is one of my favorite books of the year so far. It is historical fiction, primarily taking place about a decade prior to the start of the 20th century. The main characters are inventors and innovators: Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla, George Westinghouse and his lawyer, Paul Cravath.

Electric lights are new and just beginning to be adopted in businesses and homes across America.  As with many new technologies, there are competing delivery systems (think VHS and Beta, or even more contemporary examples like Apple, Microsoft, and Google). Last Days of Night is also a mystery/legal thriller, providing an interesting blend of science, history, business practices and the role of media as the electric “current wars” rage and the legal suits and counter-suits rapidly multiply.  

I especially liked how best-selling author Graham Moore started each chapter with a relevant quote*:

• I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work ~ Thomas Edison
• Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways … or because they’ve realized something that shoots a hole in how we’ve been thinking about a problem ~Steve Jobs
• Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana ~ Bill Gates

Honestly, I could envision students immediately relating events in the novel to today’s news, both in terms of finding parallels and due to the long-lasting impact of the main characters. In addition, students could look up past newspaper articles about these individuals, including singer Agnes Huntington who provides a bit of romance, in archived editions of The New York Times or The Chicago Tribune. Seeing those articles – sometimes on the front page of these national newspapers – should be intriguing. Plus, there are several documentaries available (such as this one about George Westinghouse).  I am recommending Last Days of Night by Graham Moore as a possible Junior Theme read and as an interdisciplinary study for science, business or IGSS.

Moore wrote an award-winning screenplay for The Imitation Game about Alan Turing and it has been reported that filming for Last Days of Night (starring Eddie Redmayne) will begin early in 2017. This novel was selected as an Amazon Best Book of August 2016.  Be sure to add it to your own “to read” list.  

* And another quote for those who know me:  “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” ~Albert Einstein 

ADDED on 8/29: article from New York Times about "G.E., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-up"

The Quilt Design Coloring Workbook by Thomas Knauer

I really liked Thomas Knauer’s The Quilt Design Coloring Workbook. This book offers a very interactive approach to quilt design, color theory and even art appreciation. There are numerous black and white “worksheets” for the reader to color, along with brief explanations and discussion from a well-known fabric and quilt designer. I wish I had his vision!

 

The Quilt Design Coloring Workbook is worth a look from art teachers and possibly for our makerspace materials. Turn to the amazon page to get more of a sense of the book’s content. 

All We Have Left by Wendy Mills

All We Have Left by Wendy Mills is a September 11 fictional story.  I will be honest and say that it took me a while to realize how this story is told in two different time periods: today and 2001.  The narrators are two young women. One is a contemporary high school student named Jesse whose brother, Travis, died in the World Trade Center collapse. The other narrator is teenaged Alia whose conflict with her parents and struggles with her Muslim culture resulted in her visit to the towers on that fateful day.

I liked the cover of All We Have Left but there is even more worth contemplating in the pages of Wendy Mills’ writing, especially as our nation reflects on terrorism across the globe. Mills says, “Hate is just fear. Fear that we are powerless, ugly small, nothing, so we hate people to make us feel better about ourselves, so we don’t have to be scared all the time.”

Even though they are separated in time, Alia and Jesse share a common experience of feeling alone, angry and misunderstood. Both girls face difficult choices and must try to understand relationships within their families and with their friends.  All We Have Left received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal, which said, “this outstanding, touching look at a national tragedy promotes healing and understanding and belongs in every library.” Find All We Have Left in our new library soon.

And, if you have younger children or students, encourage them to read the middle school book, Nine Ten by Nora Raleigh Baskin as the 15th anniversary approaches.

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Barkskins by Annie Proulx is massive (roughly 700 pages), but we have a little over two weeks until school starts so if you like historical fiction, grab a copy and start reading!  Proulx has crafted a story set across generations in a number of locations, including French Canada (New France in the 1700s), New Zealand and China.  Her characters are descendants of two barkskins (wood-cutters), Rene Sel and Charles Duquet. Sel marries a member of a local tribe and Duquet runs away to establish his own business. The consequences of their actions reverberate across 300 years in this epic novel.

Earlier this year, Proulx gave several interviews about her new book and her focus on forests and nature.  Here are links to the ones in The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal. The publisher also provides a Reading Group Guide. From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author, Barkskins has starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.