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Review: The Whole Language by Gregory Boyle

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The Whole Language by Gregory Boyle

The Whole Language
Gregory Boyle
Avid Reader Press
Published October 19, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Whole Language

Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang-intervention program in the world. Boyle’s new book, THE WHOLE LANGUAGE, follows the acclaimed bestsellers TATTOOS ON THE HEART, hailed as an “astounding literary and spiritual feat” (Publishers Weekly) that is “destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” (Los Angeles Times), and BARKING TO THE CHOIR, deemed “a beautiful and important and soul-transporting book” by Elizabeth Gilbert and declared by Ann Patchett to be “a book that shows what the platitudes of faith look like when they’re put into action.”

In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, THE WHOLE LANGUAGE shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. Boyle’s moving stories challenge our ideas about God and about people, providing a window into a world filled with fellowship, compassion, and fewer barriers. Bursting with encouragement, humor, and hope, THE WHOLE LANGUAGE invites us to treat others—and ourselves—with acceptance and tenderness.

My Review

Until maybe a couple months ago, I’d never read anything by Gregory Boyle. It only took a few pages of his story to get me completely hooked. I’ve never read anything that resonated so deeply or called me forward in faith and in love for others.

While this is a book anchored in Christian faith, the author is a mystic, so you’ll find quotes from the Bible, other Christian teachers, as well as Muslim poets and Buddhist teachers to illustrate a point. The theology is sometimes different than what I grew up with (I was raised in what would probably be described as an Evangelical/Fundamental Christian church), so that gave me some things to think about. On some things I immediately agreed with Fr. Boyle’s assessment, and on others, I’m kind of still letting those ideas percolate.

The book is truly about how to love others in a way that means forging a connection with them. Meeting them where they are and opening yourself up to learning from them rather than standing on a high perch thinking you’re there to simply help out or hand out.

It’s been really good reading all three of his books. I feel like this is or these are messages that I can’t possibly get enough of. I’m in a situation right now where my family is trying to support another family that’s going through something really rough. And I know how I would have acted in the past. Now, though, I’m acting with the lessons and values in TATTOOS ON THE HEART and THE WHOLE LANGUAGE bouncing around in my head and my heart. It doesn’t mean having no boundaries, but it has changed what I’m hoping to achieve (connection, relationship).

Conclusion

I have all three books as e-books and audio books. I suspect that I’ll be listening through them again going into the holidays. In case it’s not obvious, I absolutely recommend all three books (you don’t have to read them in order) to anyone who’s either a Christian figuring out how to have relationships and craft meaningful community, or anyone interested in the intersection between faith and social justice. If you’re interested in gang recovery programs, you don’t want to miss these books. Homeboy Industries is the largest and most successful gang intervention program in the world.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Fr. Boyle is a white man. He features stories of Latinx, Black and Asian gang members.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used regularly.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some brief mentions of sexual abuse and rape.

Spiritual Content
Fr. Boyle is a Jesuit priest and he shares his faith openly throughout the book. He considers himself a mystic Christian. The core of his message is about loving others no matter who they are or what they’ve done, and being able to see them as valuable and good.

Violent Content
Brief mentions of gang violence, domestic violence, and child abuse.

Drug Content
References to drug and alcohol use.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE WHOLE LANGUAGE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas
Balzer + Bray
Published on February 28, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Hate U Give

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

My Review
If you’re part of the YA community at all, chances are you’ve heard about or already read this book. It’s been on my list to read since before it came out, and I’ve finally managed to get a copy. Once I had THE HATE U GIVE in hand, it didn’t take me long to read it.

One powerful part of the story is the way it puts faces and names on an issue too often in the headlines. We see not only Starr, a young high school student with her whole life ahead of her, but also her loving family, and the community around her. And we see these elements not only for her but for Khalil, the boy killed by police, as well. We learn about his mistakes, but we also learn that those things aren’t the whole of who he is. We learn about why he made some of those choices, and it doesn’t make them less wrong, but it does make the truth more complicated.

One of the issues that comes up with regard to this book is how much profanity is included in the story. In a Twitter post, Angie Thomas talked about this issue, and said she hoped people would see the story and be moved by the importance of it rather than getting hung up on the language.

And while I absolutely appreciate what she’s saying—because the book does talk about a critical issue in an incredibly powerful way—I also understand that including so much strong language will prevent some people from reading the book and will give ground for some schools to opt not to carry it in their libraries. It may keep the story out of some of the hands of people who most need to read it. And I find that frustrating and sad.

I loved this story. It moved me. It made me connect with characters deeply. It made me realize that while I’ve been outraged and upset about police brutality, it’s been on an issue level—I’ve objected to ideas like racism and profiling and injustice. THE HATE U GIVE made me think about aspects I hadn’t faced or had only vaguely considered, made me think about the communities affected by police brutality and the friends and family members left behind. It made me see the victims as not simply blurbs in headlines, but as complex people. It showed the ripple effects of police brutality through a whole community.

Reading THE HATE U GIVE made me think about another story I’ve read called PIECING ME TOGETHER by Renee Watson. It also made me wonder what the novel would have looked like if it had been from Starr’s friend Kenya’s perspective. Her father is a local gang leader who abuses her mother. I don’t mean this as a criticism of the story at all. Telling it from Starr’s point-of-view really showed the tug-of-war in her life between the black community where she lived and the white community where she went to school, which was a powerful element. But I hope that someone tells Kenya’s story, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Starr and her family are black. Starr dates a white boy, but hasn’t told her dad yet. Her best friends at school are white and Asian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to making out, kissing between a boy and girl. Starr’s boyfriend asked her to have sex with him, but she refused, and was angry at him for even bringing it up. Later, she initiates some sexual contact (hand under clothes) but stops.

Spiritual Content
Starr’s family prays together on multiple occasions.

Violent Content
Starr hears gunshots at a party she’s attending and later learns someone was killed there. She witnesses police shoot her unarmed friend after pulling him over. Gang members threaten and attack a local business man and a young gang member. Starr doesn’t see the attacks, but does see the resulting injuries. Starr’s half-brother, Seven, worries about his mom, who continually lets a man live with her even though he beats her.

Protests turn violent. Protesters damage police cars, businesses, etc. Starr and her friends are upset and believe that only makes the conflict worse.

Drug Content
Teen drinking at the party Starr attends at the beginning of the book. She smells pot smoke there, too.

Review: The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

The Walled City
Ryan Graudin
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published on September 8, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Walled City
DAI, trying to escape a haunting past, traffics drugs for the most ruthless kingpin in the Walled City. But in order to find the key to his freedom, he needs help from someone with the power to be invisible….

JIN hides under the radar, afraid the wild street gangs will discover her biggest secret: Jin passes as a boy to stay safe. Still, every chance she gets, she searches for her lost sister….

MEI YEE has been trapped in a brothel for the past two years, dreaming of getting out while watching the girls who try fail one by one. She’s about to give up, when one day she sees an unexpected face at her window…..

My Review
You know how once in a while a book blows you away? This is one of those books for me. It wasn’t even one specific moment, it was like, the way all the pieces merged together as a story. I immediately connected with the characters. The setting intrigued me from even before I picked up the book. I’d heard Ryan Graudin speak at Read Up Greenville in 2016 and her description of the real place that inspired this story had me hooked. The real place, a stacked slum of a city, an area just over 6.5 acres, housed 33,000 people. Like… I can’t even get my head around that, really.

I think I read The Walled City in just over 24 hours, which is pretty unusual for me these days! It kept me on the edge of my seat. It made me hope harder than any book I’ve read this year. I loved it, and I would read it again, recommend it to others, shout it from the rooftops.

If you’re a fan of historical fiction, I think the fact that the setting is based on a real place will make this an interesting read. Fans of fast-paced contemporary stories will enjoy the quick-moving plot and high stakes. Softies like me will love the characters, especially as their relationships with each other develop and change them. Also, it has a great cat!

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
The story occurs in an area modeled after Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. Characters are Asian—some Cantonese and some Japanese names.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. I think Dai might be the only one who swears, and it’s not very often. More in the beginning and then a few times toward the end.

Romance/Sexual Content
Mei Yee has been sold into prostitution. A client visits her, but the details are vague and focus more on her emotional state and how she survives rather than description of the events between her and the man in her room. Those few scenes still feel pretty intense, though.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Men beat a prostitute who has tried to escape her traffickers. Boys gang up on another youth, intending to beat or stab her. At one point, a boy cuts a cat with his knife. A young man uses a gun to shoot at enemies. Again, it’s the intensity of the emotion associated with these scenes which makes them so intense, not so much any graphic descriptions of violence.

Drug Content
Traffickers use heroin to subdue a young woman and prey on her addiction to keep her helpless. They use the threat of injecting heroin to control other girls who fear being drugged and becoming addicted.

 

Review: The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , ,

The Radius of Us
Marie Marquardt
St. Martin’s Griffin
Available January 17, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Gretchen lives a small life. It started the night a man forced her to the ground and then told her to run, his own terror taking hold of her. Now she keeps to the small safe neighborhood surrounding her home, places where nothing bad can happen. And then she meets the boy who looks like him. Like the one who attacked her. When she meets Phoenix, though, she isn’t afraid. Something about the way he listens, the way he asks the right questions, the way he carries his own trauma and fear, makes her trust him. Soon she’s tangled up in his life and the desperate attempt to save him and his brother from death at the hand of gang members waiting for him back in Ilopango. To stay safe, he must be granted asylum in the US, a rare occurrence for El Salvadoran refugees.

On its face, this is a simple romance. Sad girl meets sadder boy. Both find that to love they must be brave and work toward healing. Underneath that simple story is a deeper, more heartrending one. This is the story of a boy whose home town gave him two choices: live by the gang or die by it. It’s the story of a small Atlanta suburb and the community thousands of miles from El Salvador still affected by the destruction of gang violence.

I feel like I’m not doing a very good job talking this book up because it’s such a serious topic. There are some light moments in which Phoenix and Gretchen joke around. At one point, she makes it her mission to find pupusas, a delicacy that Phoenix remembers from home and craves but can’t find in the US, and that whole adventure is fun and sweet. Phoenix meets a couple who own a tattoo shop (and also remove tattoos) and befriends them. Their quirky personalities brighten up several scenes, and they offer some timely wisdom.

This is a little darker than Marquardt’s first novel, but still definitely worth reading. It took me some time to acclimate to Phoenix’s voice, but other than that, I really enjoyed the story. Definitely add this one to your list if you’re looking for an unusual romance or book that explores social issues.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Phoenix and his brother are from El Salvador. He lives in the US during the story but vividly remembers events in his home in Ilopango.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. The sections from Phoenix’s point-of-view contain a lot more profanity than the sections from Gretchen’s point-of-view.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some scenes show kissing between a boy and girl. At one point the two fall asleep together fully clothed. They briefly discuss waiting to have sex.

Phoenix lives under the guardianship of an older lesbian couple. Phoenix mentions seeing them kiss a couple of times.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Gretchen remembers being attacked (not sexually). Phoenix recalls some brutal gang violence and bullying. One boy shoots another from a car.

Drug Content
Gretchen’s (still underage) college boyfriend orders a beer with dinner. No one checks his ID.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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