Book of the Day Roundup: February 28-March 4, 2022

The Book of Wanderers

Book Cover
Reyes Ramirez
University of Arizona Press
Softcover $16.95 (192pp)
978-0-8165-4327-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

Everyone is looking for something in Reyes Ramirez’s story collection The Book of Wanderers.

Across ten stories, each focal character is a wanderer in their own way. Some are searching for connection, as in “Ni Sabes, Tomás de la Paz.” Others are searching for forgiveness and redemption, as in “Xitali Zaragoza, Curandera” and “Lilia.” Still others are determined to find justice for themselves, their descendants, and others, as in “Ximena DeLuna v. The New Mars Territory,” which is written as a legal request for declaratory judgment and injunction. It lays out the early life of Mars’s first child, their eligibility for education, and the discriminatory practices undertaken by the government to deny the child their education.

In every other story, the language is peppered with a blend of Spanish and English that is easy to slip into, and is never translated. This technique is equal parts inviting and alienating. “Ximena DeLuna v. The New Mars Territory” is the only story to be written entirely in English, and formal English at that. Authoritative and accessible, it leaves no room for misunderstandings or misinterpretations; it lays out a cogent, logical case for the cessation of all discriminatory education practices.

The real issues present in this story are echoed in other stories, too, in particular in “An Adventure of Xuxa, La Última.” In a postapocalyptic world overrun by the living dead, there are still those who believe that white superiority is ordained by the heavens, and that it must be maintained through any means necessary. With care and empathy, on Earth or another planet, the collection provides commentary on personal and social issues that is resonant.

The Book of Wanderers is a powerful short story collection that is as devastating as it is hopeful.

DONTANá MCPHERSON-JOSEPH (February 22, 2022)

Hannibal

Rome’s Greatest Enemy

Book Cover
Philip Freeman
Pegasus Books
Hardcover $27.95 (240pp)
978-1-64313-871-8
Buy: Amazon

Roman historians have cast Hannibal Barca as a cruel, uncouth barbarian, but Philip Freeman’s panoramic biography Hannibal supplies evidence that the great Carthaginian military leader, whose strategic and tactical genius has been studied and emulated for centuries, was an educated statesman and diplomat, notable for his devotion to his country, family, and troops.

In the third century BCE, Carthage, a trading hub known for its sophistication and culture, struggled because of its attempt to buy peace with the Romans. Rome’s enormous appetite for silver led Hamilcar Barca, a legendary Carthaginian general, to Spain, where he took over Iberia’s rich silver mines. His eldest son, Hannibal, traveled with him; to do so, at nine, he had to vow eternal enmity toward Rome.

Freeman reveals that Carthage preferred negotiation and compromise to war. It had no army of its own and relied on mercenaries when needed. Meanwhile, Rome’s great war machine terrorized the world, slaughtering and enslaving people, razing cities, and cursing ruins. The book brings the horrors of ancient warfare to life, as armies with tens of thousands of men on each side, vast numbers of horses, and even elephants clashed in ruined landscapes. It also reveals that, despite his vow of enmity, Hannibal, unlike the Romans, was unafraid to show mercy and kindness.

The story of Hannibal leading his starving troops across the Alps in the dead of winter with battle elephants in tow is legendary, but is only one example of his uncanny ability to surprise his enemies with audacious strategies based not just on his enemy’s vulnerabilities, but on the weakness in his mind. Still, even the Romans, who both hated and feared him, admired Hannibal’s courage, brilliance, and humanity.

Hannibal is an epic biography of the military genius who nearly ended Rome’s imperial expansion.

KRISTINE MORRIS (February 22, 2022)

Chef’s Kiss

Book Cover
Jarrett Melendez
Danica Brine, illustrator
Oni Press
Softcover $14.99 (160pp)
978-1-62010-904-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

A young man is drawn to the culinary arts and a coworker in the romantic graphic novel Chef’s Kiss.

Ben, a recent college graduate with an English degree and aspirations of becoming a writer, is having difficulty finding work in his field. In need of money, he takes a job at a restaurant whose demanding chef presents a new cooking challenge each week. Ben begins to enjoy the job—in large part because of his attraction to a fellow employee, Liam. He also impresses his boss, showing ambition, creativity, and persistence. When Ben’s father arranges a job at a literary magazine, Ben is faced with a difficult choice: between writing and his parents’ approval on one side, and his new loves, cooking and Liam, on the other.

The book is infused with a cute, happy tone, even when its characters are navigating problems. It strays from reality to enhance that feeling in the form of a pig, Watson, who smokes cigarettes and whose taste buds make the decisions about which dishes (and chefs) pass muster at the restaurant. The light, tongue-in-cheek approach is appealing, as is the book’s excellent artwork, which captures the colors and textures of Ben’s culinary creations.

Chef’s Kiss is a sweet, funny graphic novel that shows that sometimes the best things in life are unplanned.

PETER DABBENE (February 22, 2022)

A Is for Bee

An Alphabet Book in Translation

Book Cover
Ellen Heck
Levine Querido
Hardcover $17.99 (40pp)
978-1-64614-127-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

This unconventional alphabet book teaches children their ABCs alongside respect for language diversity. Here, f is for butterfly—flutur in Albanian—and octopus starts with a ttako, from Japanese. Sixty-nine languages are represented in total, from Afrikaans to Zulu, and children and adults alike will come away with a new perspective on the alphabet. Bright illustrations add to the fun, with bold contrasts and intricate linework.

DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (February 22, 2022)

Roadside South

Book Cover
David Wharton
Steve Yarbrough, contributor
George F. Thompson Publishing
Hardcover $50.00 (184pp)
978-1-938086-82-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon

David Wharton’s evocative photographs capture defining aspects of the American South, documenting haunting farmlands and wild landscapes and edgy juxtapositions of human-made and natural details, both beautiful and ordinary, “off-kilter and occasionally funny.”

Wharton’s thoughtful commentary acknowledges the South’s complex, “retrograde” view of its history, as well as the enduring effects of racial inequity, poverty, and the removal of Native American people. His images depict this “gap between the ideal and the actual,” as with an ironic shot of a kudzu control sign in Mississippi, itself overrun by the relentless invasive. The boldness of the sun-bleached sign in Perry, Florida, advertising Gun World is diminished by peeling paint and adjacent weed-choked train tracks.

Wharton’s rich visual iconography is festooned with pigs, fake lawn deer, hand-lettered signs, churches, and abandoned vehicles. A singular sense of place forms; Wharton’s view of an eclectic rural Southern identity is conveyed with aplomb. Many of these black-and-white photographs highlight texture and play with strong shadows and light, as with images of hay, cotton bales, weathered armchairs, and a decapitated deer head viewed against stark empty fields and packed dirt lanes.

Mississippi native Steve Yarbrough’s concluding essay shares his dichotomous, nuanced appreciation for Southern culture, too, rhapsodizing about its neighborliness, insect “music,” tasty food, and vernacular architecture and rejecting its culture wars, evangelism, and “willful ignorance.”

Roadside South encapsulates a personal vision of the rural South; it is an engaging armchair road trip through the region’s unique byways.

RACHEL JAGARESKI (February 22, 2022)

Barbara Hodge

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