Scott Semegran's Blog, page 8

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Maus by Art Spiegelman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about Art Spiegelman’s relationship with his father, Vladek, who was a Holocaust survivor along with Spiegelman’s mother, Anja. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.”

I reread this brilliant graphic novel for the fourth time recently, having purchased a beautiful, hardcover edition in support of Art Spiegelman after a school board in Tennessee voted unanimously in January 2022 to ban this great book. Their reasons were nonsense, as the nudity in the book is nonsexual and the profanity is minimal. This graphic novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, the only graphic novel still to this day to have won this prestigious award. It is an affecting depiction of Art Spiegelman’s parents both surviving the Holocaust during World War II as well as Spiegelman’s relationship with his cantankerous father as he tries to dictate his father’s story before he’s too old and feeble to retell it. It is an artist’s memoir and a father’s biography about a marriage that survived one of the most horrific moments in history and a cartoon depiction of history all rolled into one. It even has moments of hilarity—if you can believe it—where Art and his father Vladek’s personality differences are so stark that it’s a wonder that Spiegelman ever finished creating this graphic novel. It has been on school library shelves since 1992. Banning it now is political garbage policy, a reflection of the fascist leanings of the current Republican Party. The news of banning this book has brought more notoriety and sales for this graphic novel; it became a bestseller for the first time in almost three decades and was on back-order the day I purchased it on January 30, 2022, as it should be. If there is one graphic novel or book about the Holocaust that you want on your family’s bookshelf, then this is the one.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.

Buy the hardcover on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780679406419

Austin Liti Limits Episode 36 with JENNY SHANK is Out Now

Austin Liti Limits Episode 36 with author JENNY SHANK is now available! Watch my interview with Jenny that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:

Jenny Shank on Austin Liti Limits from Larry Brill on Vimeo.

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott is a suspenseful literary novel of meta fiction and surrealism, all of which comments on racism towards Black people in America. This novel is the 2021 National Book Award Winner. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “In Jason Mott's Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since Mott's novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years.”

There’s a lot going on in Hell of a Book. One thread is a send-up of the literary establishment with an unnamed, bestselling Black author on a book tour which borders on farcical. We’re introduced to him running naked down a hotel hallway, escaping an angry husband who wants to wring the narrator’s throat for screwing around with his wife. Another thread is the depiction of an unbearably dark-skinned boy named Soot, called that by a bully from school. Soot’s parents love and protect him so much that its untenable, and Soot later witnesses his father killed by a White policeman. Another thread finds the narrator haunted by an apparition he calls the Kid, whose skin is also dark as night, just like Soot’s. The narrator and the Kid are connected by the burden of being Black in America. Are the Kid and Soot the same character? Is the Kid or Soot the narrator’s younger self?

Austin Liti Limits Episode 35 with DEESHA PHILYAW is Out Now

Austin Liti Limits Episode 35 with author DEESHA PHILYAW is now available! Watch my interview with Deesha that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:

Deesha Philyaw on Austin Liti Limits from Larry Brill on Vimeo.

Sparrow By Brian Kindall

Sparrow by Brian Kindall is a wondrous middle-grade novel of literary fiction with magical realism. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Timothy Sperling misses his mom and dad terribly. Left behind with his morose uncle while they're off on an expedition to avert an environmental crisis, the bird-boned boy would give anything to see them again. But when he spies a shooting star, instead of wishing to be reunited with his parents, he falters and asks for snow... only to conjure up a blizzard that won't quit! As a town that never sees winter is buried in mountains of white, Timothy teams up with a wise explorer to figure out how to stop the relentless frozen flakes. And with all the blame being shoveled on his family, the clever kid's connection to sparrows may be his one chance to pull the city out of its deep freeze. Can Timothy undo his fateful wish and bring back the sunshine?”

Timothy Sperling is a wide-eyed and frail boy, so slight that he’s like a bird. Appropriately nicknamed Sparrow, he gazes out of his bedroom window, dreaming of somehow reconnecting with his parents. His errant wish upon a falling star unleashes a blizzard on the town of Candela, the likes of which has never been seen before. Not even his miserly Uncle Morris the Morose believes it’s snowing, even though the flakes are falling in plain sight. Can Sparrow undo what he has wished for and save his town?

Twentymile by C. Matthew Smith

Twentymile by C. Matthew Smith is a thrilling novel of suspense with literary undertones. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “When wildlife biologist Alex Lowe is found dead inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it looks on the surface like a suicide. But Tsula Walker, Special Agent with the National Park Service's Investigative Services Branch and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, isn't so sure. Tsula's investigation will lead her deep into the park and face-to-face with a group of lethal men on a mission to reclaim a historic homestead. The encounter will irretrievably alter the lives of all involved and leave Tsula fighting for survival—not only from those who would do her harm, but from a looming winter storm that could prove just as deadly.”

Tsula Walker is an engaging protagonist who juggles a stressful work life with a complicated personal life. On the job, she chases poachers and land squatters. In her personal life, her mother is invested in the discovery of a sacred ancestral site of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians even though she suffers from the effects of terminal cancer. Tsula wants to stay on top of both, but antagonist Harlan Miles complicates her life. Harlan, his two sons, and a friend have reclaimed a cabin deep in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that once belonged to his great grandfather, but was believed to have been taken by the US Government as part of the national park a century before. When Harlan and his clan are discovered, they’re not giving up this “homestead” without a fight, leading to deadly results.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead—the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner—is a novel of literary fiction based in the crime world of 1960s Harlem, New York. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked. To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time… Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.”

Protagonist / anti-hero Ray Carney appears to be a legit furniture store owner to everyone in his life, even his wife, but his crooked cousin Freddie is always enticing Carney to dip his toes in the waters of the crime world. To the hoods of Harlem, Carney isn’t a legit businessman. He’s a “fence,” someone who appears to be legit but is really allowing petty crimes to filter through his furniture store. When his cousin convinces him to be a part of a heist of one of the fancier hotels in Harlem, Carney officially becomes a part of the crime world. His no-good cousin gets into hot water, threatening to bring Carney’s façade to light.

Austin Liti Limits Episode 33 with DEAN BAKOPOULOS is Out Now

Austin Liti Limits Episode 33 with author DEAN BAKOPOULOS is now available! Watch my interview with Dean that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:

Dean Bakopoulos Interview on Austin Liti Limits from Larry Brill on Vimeo.

Mixed Company by Jenny Shank

Mixed Company by Jenny Shank is a short story collection that is the winner of the 2020 George Garrett Fiction Prize. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “In Mixed Company Jenny Shank reveals moments of grace and connection between people of her hometown, Denver, through stories that contrast the city during its oil-bust era of economic troubles and court-ordered crosstown busing for racial desegregation with the burgeoning and gentrifying city of recent years. Characters find their initial perceptions and ideas overturned in these stories laced with humor, heart, and grit. Jenny Shank forges fiction out of the sparks that fly when diverse people encounter one another.”

This is a heartfelt, and often funny, collection of excellent short stories, a worthy selection for the George Garrett Fiction Prize. These fine stories standout: “L’homme de ma vie,” “Casa del Ray,” “Sexycana,” and “Local Honey.” Many of the stories feature diverse characters trying to love each other, or eventually clash with each other. Shank is a confident writer in both first- and third-person, but the first-person narrators sound especially assured. Most of the stories unfold in Denver, Colorado, a quirky setting in Shank’s hands, where these diverse characters are forced to contend with one another. Sometimes it works out; many times it doesn’t. But Shank is a worthy literary tour guide of this bustling melting pot near the Rocky Mountains.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9781680032611

Best Books of 2021

2021: what a year. The pandemic still rages on and the state of politics in the U.S. is... well, it’s a pile of stinking garbage. But I’m not going to get into that. Let’s talk about books! I read so many great works of fiction: novels, collections of short stories, and micro fiction. Yes, that’s a thing—a marvelous thing! Here is my list of the Best Books of 2021. Many of these were released in 2021. Some were released just prior to 2021, give or a take a year, or three. I have eclectic taste in books so their categories vary from humor to literary to thriller to microfiction. One thing is for sure: all of these books are great! Let's congratulate these stellar writers for their fantastic books.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

Trust Me by Richard Z. Santos

Summerlong by Dean Bakopoulos

Memorial by Bryan Washington

Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann

River, Sing Out by James Wade

A Burst of Gray: A Novel In 100-Word Stories by Ran Walker

Porno Valley by Philip Elliott

The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

Escape from Oblivia: One Man's Midlife Crisis Gone Primal by Brian Kindall

Sisters of the Undertow: A Novel by Johnnie Bernhard

Honorable Mention: If you read all of these wonderful books, then I offer up my 2021 Honorable Mentions. Another fun indie novel is Knock on Wood by Leslie Tall Manning. A fun indie short story collection is Walking The Wrong Way Home by Mandy Haynes. A non-fiction book that is very moving and very powerful is Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. I also read a ton of classic fiction, but the two classic novels I loved the most in 2021 are The Dog of the South by Charles Portis and All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: A Novel by Larry McMurtry; both novels are very funny and very unique. Oh! The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale is also a great literary, suspense / thriller novel from the early 2000s.

Support writers as well as indie bookstores this holiday. Find most of these books over on Bookshop.org at the following link:

https://bookshop.org/lists/books-featured-on-austin-liti-limits

I am grateful to have interviewed many of these fantastic writers on the web series I host along with my esteemed colleague Larry Brill (who has another great novel coming out, but not until 2022): Austin Liti Limits. Watch here:

https://austinlitilimits.com

Have a great holiday whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza. And may 2022 be a great year for books, writers, bookstores, and readers everywhere!

Take care,
Scott