Julia's Reviews

The true story of 4 undocumented Mexican American teenagers from an under-funded, under-supported Phoenix high school are challenged by their brave teachers to enter a national, collegiate level robotics competition--and they win. (Don't worry, I'm not giving anything away; it wouldn't now be a Hollywood-produced movie if they'd lost.) Joshua Davis is a master storyteller who is interested in more than just the shiny success story of these amazing students. What does it mean when this kind of potential is squandered, even deported? Spare Parts is entertaining, inspiring, and funny, without a doubt--but it's also a thought-provoking look at the modern "American Dream" and the institutions and prejudices that decide who gets to have a chance at it.

If you know Miranda July's work--like her films, The Future and Me and You and Everyone We Know--you know she melds major quirkiness and slight surrealism in perfect synchronicity with charm and tenderness. These (really quite) short stories are quick whirlwinds that read speedily and stir up a bubbling of emotion with the purest, most human notions. July's magical way of simple, direct, brilliantly unique structure is on full display in these gem-like tidbits about what it feels like to be human, what we think when we're alone in our minds, and the bizarre daily reality of relating to others.

An un-special forty-something with an overactive inner dialogue houses the daughter of her bosses, a bombshell with terrible hygiene. At first impolite and then aggressive, their relationship morphs into a bizarre, transformative experiment that only July could make tender and funny. She prods our most sensitive notions about what it feels like to be an average weirdo.

As anyone who listens to The Mountain Goats knows, singer/songwriter Darnielle’s words are haunting and brilliant. Years after a disfiguring self-inflicted “accident,” another tragedy hits Sean, who runs a post-apocalyptic role-playing game through snail-mail. This stunning book is so quietly commanding, it’s like a whisper through a black tunnel.

This novel follows the adventures, lovers and mistakes of two sisters—ambitious, fickle Iris, and mature, practical Eva—through 1940s Hollywood, wealthy and working-class suburbs of New York, and Germany at the end of World War II. Bloom’s unpretentious, effortless writing is quick-paced yet profoundly moving, magical yet matter-of-fact.

Laird Hunt’s novel follows a woman who calls herself Ash and leaves her husband behind to fight in the Civil War. It’s been months since I finished the book, and it’s still shadowing me, hovering just behind my shoulder when I least expect it. Ash’s voice is haunting and lyrical and heartbreaking. This one of the best books of 2014.

As anyone who listens to the Mountain Goats knows, singer/songwriter John Darnielle’s words are haunting and brilliant, tragic but full of life. In Wolf in a White Van, years after a disfiguring self-inflicted “accident,” another tragedy hits Sean, who runs a post-apocalyptic role-playing game through snail-mail. Here’s his reflection on the power of imagination and desperation. What could be dark and heavy is empathic and gentle—but also brutal and unpitying. This stunning book is so devastatingly creative, so quietly commanding—like a puzzle fit together backward; like a sinister whisper through a pitch-black tunnel; like nothing you’ve ever read.

We all know texting while driving is dangerous. So why do we keep doing it? Could it be that we *can’t* stop the compulsion to stay connected; that we are so overstimulated by our social networks and so pressured to multitask that we are addicted and in collective denial? A Deadly Wandering is a riveting account of the fatal tragedy and subsequent seminal legal (and moral) battle that led to bans on texting while driving being signed into law. It links neuroscience research, legal undertakings, and narrative nonfiction—full of vivid, heartbreaking real-life “characters”—to expose and objectively question our modern glorification of multitasking and tech-connectedness. Richtel’s exceptional reporting will absolutely change the way you think about the devices that keep us online: You will close this book transformed. This is astonishing, moving, eye-opening stuff—and a crucial conversation as we grow frighteningly more and more attached to our devices. One of the most important books of our time.

The dramatic family life of this engaging, eccentric actor is probably know by very few. Not My Father’s Son exposes childhood wounds and universal themes—of family bonds, shame, anxiety and mental illness, and healing. Cumming asks (and answers, with satisfying closure) if we are inevitably trapped in—or blessed by—the patterns of our parents. He champions self-discovery through a touching journey into his heritage. And as we all know, he’s incredibly funny.

This is a timely, deeply personal biography of a bold, brilliant man who fought to overcome a culture of poverty, social injustice, drugs, and desperation. In unassuming and honest detail, Jeff Hobbs remembers his friend’s rough childhood in Newark, Rob’s accomplishments and talents in the Ivy League, and his murder. Fundamentally, this is an unbiased reflection of class and privilege inequality in America—a reality many of us don’t want to acknowledge.