Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

 

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward was the next book on my TBR pile. I'd heard excellent things about this author, so I was excited to give it a try. I got started expecting a complex and meaningful story, and that is what I got, although I ended up having more mixed feelings on this book than I anticipated.

The story follows fifteen-year-old Esch and her family, a group that includes her father, her older brothers Randall and Skeetah, and her younger brother Junior. Her mother passed away at Junior's birth and her father is a heavy drinker. The kids mostly look after themselves and keep the household in enough order to avoid igniting their father's temper. They live in rural Mississippi and as the story begins, a powerful hurricane is on the way. Each member of the family spends the days leading up to it wrapped up in their own concerns. Randall is focused on basketball, hoping to perform well enough in his upcoming game to earn a scholarship for a camp. Skeetah is preoccupied with his beloved pit bull China, who just had a litter of puppies. Junior is trying to be a kid and wring some sort of fun out of the poverty his family lives in, and Esch has just realized that she is pregnant. While their father concentrates on preparing their house to withstand the approaching storm with an unusual amount of intensity, the children navigate their respective situations and look after one another the best they can. 

I have mixed feelings about this book. I recognize that is it a moving story that is skillfully written. It's one of those novels that feels very literary while you are reading it--like it could be considered a classic one day. The characters are each unique and complex and their relationships with each other convey a powerful message about the importance and strength of family bonds. Esch and her brothers have very little in the world aside from each other, and they protect each other fiercely. There were parts of the story that carried a lot of meaning and beauty, and the humanity of the characters shone through on every page. The ending, with the fierce hurricane and its aftermath, was especially powerful.

In spite of all this though, Ward's writing style is just not for me. This is a purely personal preference, as I do believe that she is truly a fantastic author and storyteller. What I didn't enjoy was her imagery. She goes into a lot of detail about bodily functions, smells, sweat, stains, dirt, blood, and gore. It was incredibly realistic and you definitely felt like you were right there with her in rural Mississippi. It's probably one of the most unflinchingly real novels I have ever read, but it also made me a little queasy. I prefer a bit of a softer style when it comes to the details of being a living, breathing, sweating, peeing human. Life is most definitely kind of gross though, so I can't blame Ward for being accurate.

Ultimately, Salvage the Bones is a very good novel with a lot of heartfelt things to say about love, loyalty, and family. It was not a special favorite for me, but I would not hesitate for an instant to recommend it to anyone who loves literary fiction or character-driven stories.   

2025 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 3/40

Clear the Shelves 2025: 3

Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro

 

For my next read, I decided to pick up a YA contemporary book that had been sitting on my shelf for a long time- Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro. I wasn't drawn to it for any particular reason aside from wanting to read from my own shelves and I had no memory of what it was about before I got started with it. I dove in ready for some contemporary YA goodness.

The plot follows high school junior named Moss Jeffries. He lives in Oakland, California with his mother. His father was tragically killed by the police when he was a young kid and he still struggles with his emotions and anxiety from this event. As his father was innocent of any wrong doing and the killing was a case of a series of errors made by the police, his death has become a symbol of the movement for police reform in his community. He is often recognized by the public and becomes the subject of a lot of unwanted attention from time to time. This only serves to increase his anxiety around both the public and the police. Luckily, he has a very close relationship with his mother and a good group of friends in place to support him.

Moss would like nothing more than to make it through high school like a typical kid, but that's a difficult prospect considering the state of his school. It is in desperate need of repairs and lacks the necessary funding for essentials like textbooks. What's more, there is a police officer stationed in the school that regularly bullies and intimidates students. It feels more like a prison than a place to learn and prepare for the future. These feelings get worse when the new school year begins and random locker checks are instituted. This further increases the amount of conflict between the officer and the students. After a few incidents that escalate into violence occur, Moss and his friends decide to band together to advocate for themselves. They plan a peaceful walkout to protest against the changes. However, the school is tipped off early about the protest and they increase the police presence on campus. When whole event ends in tragedy, Moss and his friends must find the strength and courage to keep fighting for their rights against an oppressive system that treats them as suspects instead of students.

I had somewhat mixed feelings about this book. It explores a lot of difficult topics related to mental health, grief, racism, policing, and protesting. Some aspects of these are handled very well, and others I felt were a bit heavy-handed. Starting with the positives, I liked Oshiro's writing in general. Moss felt like a very complex character. I liked how close he was with his mother and his friends, and the way his anxieties were portrayed felt genuine. He was the kind of character you root for while you're reading and want to see succeed. The representation throughout the book was good as well. A wide variety of genders, sexualities, cultural backgrounds, and family structures were present without being the complete focus of the story. The students and most of the adults throughout the text respected these differences. It was quite nice to see all sorts of people just being themselves. The story itself was consistently engaging too. I was invested in it and wanted to see how it would end all throughout my reading.

Most importantly, the discussions of systemic racism and the tactics commonly used to frame narratives about protesters and police were well done. Oshiro uses his story to explain how language and optics can become powerful weapons in the hands of authorities with a desire to maintain the status quo. Lawful assemblies can easily be turned into unruly riots and innocent victims turned into dangerous threats when the right words and images are presented to the public. The portrayal of trying to organize people and successfully protest an issue felt realistic. The characters found it extremely difficult to take any action without receiving threats, sabotage, or violence in return. One of the prevailing themes in the novel is the importance of showing bravery and perseverance to order to create change, and Oshiro got this message across successfully.

Where I thought the story was a bit weak was in the amount and degree of violence Moss and the other characters endured. Now, to be clear, I firmly believe that systemic racism and police brutality are real and important issues that need to be addressed and fixed. I also believe that everything Oshiro brought up in the course of the plot has a real-life example from somewhere in the United States to support it. However, it felt like the police in this story enacted all of the worst human rights violations possible within a few events. During the walkout, they use tear gas and pepper spray on students, beat them with batons, use sonic weapons on them, kick and punch them, hit the principal in the face with a baton, and even shoot and kill a student. During the final public protest of the novel, they use the methods I previously listed, plus use a vehicle-mounted weapon called a Silent Guardian that uses microwave rays to make people feel like they are on fire, hit Moss' mother across the face with a baton, break a reporter's arm, and shoot a tear gas canister directly into the face of a protester, killing her. Again, I am well aware that these things have happened in real life, but having all of them happening at once over the course of just a few weeks took me out of the story a little bit. However, I do have to consider that this novel is meant for young people, so perhaps being heavy-handed with the violence was a deliberate strategy to get the importance of these issues across to a teen audience. For an adult reader though, it did feel over the top.

Overall, I thought that Anger is a Gift was a good novel that fearlessly took on some very weighty themes. It is important for young people to interact with these ideas and consider how they play out in the real world. As Oshiro shows through his story, enacting change is hard and often very scary, but it is the only way to disrupt entrenched inequities and make the world a better place. This wasn't a special favorite for me, but it was an interesting and thought-provoking read that I am sure older teen audiences will love.

2025 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 2/40

Clear the Shelves 2025: 2

In Search of the Castaways by Jules Verne

2025 marks my ten year anniversary of starting off my reading with a Jules Verne novel. That feels crazy to me, but time flies I suppose. It still feels right to begin the year with a grand adventure, especially this year, as I am working to get back to reading like I used to again. As such, I picked up where I left off last year and continued my journey through the Extraordinary Voyages series with In Search of the Castaways. This is the fifth book in the series, coming in between From the Earth to the Moon and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, both of which I have read in previous years. I have long since run out of Jules Verne novels that I have heard of before, so I went into this one blind. As I read, I discovered that this book is actually three books in one, each detailing the adventures of the characters in different places around the world. That's why it's taken me so long to finish and write about it!

The story begins with the Scottish noble Lord Glenarvan and his new wife Helena enjoying their first voyage on their brand new pleasure yacht. In the course of their trip, Glenarvan and his crew catch a hammerhead shark and decide to examine its stomach contents to see if it ate anything interesting (and it is a mark of my familiarity with 19th century adventure novels that I didn't bat an eye at this). They end up finding a bottle in the shark's stomach with a message inside. The message is damaged, but the group manages to read enough of it to understand that a man named Captain Grant was shipwrecked a few years ago and has been taken captive, along with two of his fellow sailors. After doing a little detective work with ship registers and geography, they determine that he must be somewhere along the 37th parallel, likely in South America. Glenarvan takes this information to the English authorities right away, and runs an ad in the newspaper in an attempt to connect with Captain Grant's family. 

His efforts with the English come to nothing; they refuse to send a search party citing the expense and the unlikelihood of Grant still being alive. The newspaper ad, however, is more successful. Sixteen year old Mary Grant and her younger brother Robert turn up. They assumed their father was lost at sea years ago and are desperate for more information about what might have happened. Upon hearing that he may still be alive, but there is no one to help him, they fall into despair. Glenarvan and his wife, moved by the children's distress, decide to launch a search expedition for him themselves. They ready their yacht, assemble a crew, and all set sail together for South America.

Joining them on their journey are a colorful cast of worthy adventurers. John Mangles, the captain of the yacht, is an expert sailor that knows his business. His first mate, Tom Austin, is similarly experienced and helpful. Muscle and wisdom is provided by Major McNabbs, a military hero and cousin of Glenarvan. At fifty years of age, he is described as unflappable and even-tempered in the extreme. Nothing surprises him and he is able to endure anything. His bravery and athleticism are unmatched. This group is rounded out by the addition of a surprise guest - Jacques Paganel. Paganel is a famous French geographer that is always getting into mishaps, one of which is accidentally boarding Glenarvan's yacht instead of the steamer he was meant to get on. By the time he realizes his mistake, it is too late to turn back and he decides to just join the group and lend his geographical talents to their mission.

From there, the adventurers travel from one place to another on a search and rescue mission that spans several continents and thousands of miles. The first book details their adventures across South America, the second book sees them travel through Australia, and the third book chronicles their journey through New Zealand. On each leg of the journey they run across dangers like earthquakes, floods, and landslides. They also encounter dangers from other people, like escaped convicts and tribes of cannibals. Clues of Captain Grant's whereabouts are scarce and easily misinterpreted, and this keeps them constantly on the move, hoping each time that their most recent theory will be the correct one. Each time, the bravery and quick thinking of the group sees them through, although their journey takes a toll on their spirits. Eventually, their travels lead them to a little known island in the Pacific where the mystery of Captain Grant will finally be revealed.

This novel was a little different as it did not contain any science fiction elements. It is purely a geographical journey with a lot of information about the different terrains, animals, and people of each continent they visit. As is usual with a Jules Verne novel, his information is factual for the time period. Also as is usual, his depiction of the indigenous peoples of each area are certainly outdated and reflective of the attitudes of the time period. This is, unfortunately, an inescapable part of reading a lot of older novels. To Verne's credit, however, there are positive depictions of native people included as well. In particular, their adventures in South America bring them into contact with a man named Thalcave, whose knowledge and abilities are an integral part of the group's survival. He was definitely one of the more interesting characters.

I did enjoy the story overall, but it definitely started to feel a bit long by the third book. There's only so much geographical information one can absorb over the course of a story without getting bored. Luckily, there were enough story elements included to keep things engaging for me, but all the adventuring and danger did get repetitive. I would not say that this is a must-read novel, but it does have that classic Jules Verne feel to it. So, if old school adventures are your thing, this might be a enjoyable reading experience for you. I would place this novel in the middle of the pack if I were to rank all the Verne novels I have read so far. Even so, it was a fun way to start the year off. I'm looking forward to what will come next now that I can read more again!

2025 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 1/40

Clear the Shelves 2025: 1

Reading Resolutions: 2025

 

Happy 2025! It would be an understatement to say that I'm feeling excited about reading this year. With my degree finally finished I can get back to being my bookish self from now on. I'm hoping to get back to reading and blogging like I used to, so I'm setting my goals a little bit higher than I have in the past few years. That being said, I know I have to take my time easing back into the swing of things. I'm still mainly going to focus on reading books from my shelves. I'm really hoping to clear off some shelf space this year because I have a whole lot of hobbies and I need the room!

My Goodreads goal for this year will be 40 books. This is more than my goal of 30 from last year, but not outrageously higher. I'm interested to see how quickly (or not) I can reach this.

My other reading goal will be to read books from my own shelves. I still have an absolutely insane number of unread books in my TBR pile and I want to continue chipping away at the stack. Last year I did manage to read 24 of them, so this year my goal will be to beat that. I will keep track of my progress here.

So those are my modest goals for 2025 as I attempt to rediscover my reading self. I'm looking forward to getting back to some familiar territory. I feel like a stranger to myself these days. It's time to come back home.

Clear the Shelves 2025

 

Once again, I will be trying to read books from my own shelves in 2025. I'm hoping for big numbers this year! I at least want to beat my total of 24 from last year. I will keep a list of everything I read in this post:

1.