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Book of the Day Roundup: November 13-17, 2023
Gory Rory Fangface Needs a Kiss
Ziggy Hanaor
Ollie Silvester, illustrator
Cicada Books
Hardcover $16.99 (32pp)
978-1-80066-036-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A young wolf wakes up on the wrong side of the bed in this story for anyone who has ever had a bad day. A bad night’s sleep is just the beginning of Gory Rory Fangface’s troubles—his family is also out of cereal, he forgot his homework, and the internet is out. Rory’s mother offers a comforting kiss, but he refuses; shortly before bedtime, he relents—and finds that a little love can turn even the worst days around.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (October 27, 2023)
Red Harvest
The Terror Famine in Soviet Ukraine
Michael Cherkas
NBM
Hardcover $19.99 (144pp)
978-1-68112-320-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Red Harvest is a gripping historical graphic novel covering the oppression and starvation of Ukrainian farmers under Soviet rule.
Framed by the memories of Mykola, a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada, the book recounts Josef Stalin’s forced collectivization results, which resulted in the loss of farms, food, and family members. As Soviet influence permeated Ukrainian villages, neighbors and families turned on each other; some, like the husband of Mykola’s sister Nadya, were made responsible for reporting farmers who didn’t cooperate. Those who survived these circumstances were inspired to inform the world of their horrific experiences.
The book represents varied points of view: the farmers united against Soviet theft; communist true believers, who saw short-term hardships and sacrifices by peasants as necessary to bring about utopia; and those with no real loyalties except whatever advanced them personally. Poignant moments occur throughout, with several caused by Nadya’s shifting loyalties between her husband and her family.
Elements of Ukrainian culture that were subsumed by Soviet rule—including Kupala Night, in which people jump over fire and flowered wreaths are worn by unmarried women—wend in. And the scratchy pen-and-ink art style, which represents a full range of dynamic action and subtle facial expressions, befits the rough-hewn Ukrainian peasant setting.
Exposing some of the roots of Russo-Ukrainian hostilities, Red Harvest is a moving and enlightening historical graphic novel.
PETER DABBENE (October 27, 2023)
Tali Girls
Siamak Herawi
Sara Khalili, translator
Archipelago Books
Softcover $22.00 (390pp)
978-1-953861-66-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Afghani young adults face hazardous, uncertain futures in Siamak Herawi’s novel Tali Girls.
Kowsar was quite young when the government built a school in Tali, her village. Though she shows great academic promise, the Taliban ends her aspirations. They shut down the school; they compel local farmers to grow opium instead of their regular, less profitable crops.
As her peaceful village life crumbles, Kowsar struggles to change her fate. Meanwhile, Simin and Geesu, the girls she grew up with, fall prey to the treacherous forces closing in around them. In a rural society ruled by misogynistic extremists, their lives are marked by horrific violence of every kind.
Khodadad, a government official who’s more interested in finding a child bride and pushing his restrictive version of Islam than in providing his students with an education, plays a key role in destroying the girls’ lives. In a heartbreaking scene, the poor men of the village watch wealthy Khodadad take nine-year-old Simin away to abuse as he pleases. From there, emboldened, Khodadad’s sins outgrow the possibility of retribution at an exponential rate.
Even after learning Simin’s grisly fate, Kowsar clings to optimism for as long as she can, buoyed by her love for a kind boy and her dreams of higher education. Nevertheless, her love for Tali and its “rugged mountains” that “pity no one” sours with each new tragedy. The disappearances of her brother and best friend threaten to undo her completely.
Tali Girls is a harrowing novel about the brutal lives of women in a terrorist-controlled state. In the end, Kowsar’s fate remains an open question. This is, perhaps, the kindest possible conclusion to her story of futile struggle, crushed hopes, and relentless oppression.
EILEEN GONZALEZ (October 27, 2023)
The Final Days of Kobold Kody’s Frontier Exposition and Tonic Show
Eli Horowitz
Pink Narcissus Press
Softcover $15.00 (206pp)
978-1-939056-20-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Eli Horowitz’s rich, thoughtful fantasy novel The Final Days of Kobold Kody’s Frontier Exposition and Tonic Show, talented misfits navigate a magical world.
Melding elements of the Wild West with a land in which dragons, goblins, elves, and orcs roam, the story charts the fortunes of a ragtag crew of carnival performers, all of whom are on the run from dark pasts or tragic futures. The story’s linchpin is Andra, a fortune teller cursed to be despised by those whose fates she foretells. When she prophesies her death and the end of the circus, it sets off a chain of events that ensnares her, her huckster boss Kobold, and her fellow performers, including a “dragontamer,” a contortionist, a halfling, a gentle giant, a human pincushion, and a hot-tempered fire starter.
Differing striking performers narrate each chapter. As they struggle to eke out a living, an engrossing overview of the tyrannical kingdom in which they live is revealed. Here, those in power hoard magic for themselves. While the story is elegiac in tone, people’s interactions within it are both prickly and witty, and each locale the carnival visits is vibrant. Dark incidents, including genocide, appear alongside lyrical passages, including an origin story for a sun god that might be the key to Andra’s salvation and a moving visit to a mystical elven forest that gives one carnival member a path toward a happier future. And during the book’s intense final confrontation, when Andra faces the imperial sorcerer who first cursed her, all of the story’s threads come together in a satisfying fashion.
Philosophical and humane, The Final Days of Kobold Kody’s Frontier Exposition and Tonic Show is a magical fable about changing one’s destiny for the better.
HO LIN (October 27, 2023)
The Rebellious CEO
12 Leaders Who Did It Right
Ralph Nader
Melville House
Hardcover $29.99 (336pp)
978-1-68589-107-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Ralph Nader’s The Rebellious CEO profiles twelve executives for whom the greater good outweighed quick profits. These smart, flexible, independent thinkers instigated positive change and used their successes to leverage money and attention to good causes, in their own organizations and beyond.
These rebellious big bosses are introduced in dramatic contrast to typical practices (a one-time organizational chart from General Motors is referenced, with twenty-some levels of managers managing each other, that seems baroque in comparison). In their work, they took hands-on, anti-nonsense approaches; they were well-informed, independent thinkers who challenged the status quo in diverse fields, including food, travel, and investments.
Consumer advocacy is a recurring theme: Southwest’s telephone helplines are actually helpful; Patagonia clothing lasts; and employees are trusted with enough freedom to satisfy customers. Ecological responsibility is equally important: Anita Roddick at the Body Shop encouraged reusing containers and championed products made of renewable resources; Interface flooring leader Ray C. Anderson studied biomimicry, making a manufacturing plant more like an actual plant, achieving the company’s zero negative environmental impact goals while also turning a profit.
Many of these daring dozen are deceased, but their voices, and voices of the thinkers who influenced them, are made prominent thanks to passages from their writings and Nader’s own memories of them. Indeed, Nader recollects how he came to know these folks during his own career (and consumer law is a recurring topic), as with a snappy anecdote about pro-union foods impresario Jeno Paulucci meeting with Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
The Rebellious CEO celebrates twelve gutsy, ethical executives in memorable essays to challenge and inspire contemporary business leaders.
MEREDITH GRAHL COUNTS (October 27, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
