Heterick Summer Book Bingo 2019

In this comprehensive history of the Gulf of Mexico, Davis covers the story of "America's sea" from the Pleistocene to the twenty-first century. Significant as more than the site of tragic oil spills and hurricanes, the Gulf has historically been one of the world's most bounteous marine environments. Ultimately, Davis reminds us that amidst the ruin caused by recent assults, beauty awaits its return, as the Gulf is, and has always been, an ongoing story.

"Locking Up Our Own" explores the role that some African Americans played in escalating the "War on Crime" that has had such devastating impacts on their follow people of color. As Forman explains, many black mayors, judges, and police chiefs came to believe tough measures were needed to secure stability for black communities. Forman writes with compassion for both accused and accusers, creating an original view of the U.S. justice system as well as a moving portrait of the human beings caught in its coils.

Even in the most desolate areas of America, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America's vast inequality--and to people's determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell, so when Caesar tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to escape. However, in Whitehead's imagining, the Underground Railroad is no metaphor, but real tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil, and Cora's journey takes her through time as well as space. As Whitehead re-creates the terrors of the pre-Civil War era, he also weaves in the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. 

When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it little realized that among them was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist mastermind and soon the architect of an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East. In "Black Flags," Warrick shows how the zeal of this one man and the strategic mistakes of Presidents Bush and Obama led to the banner of ISIS being raised over huge swaths of Syria and Iraq.

With the pace and suspense of a thriller, "The Sympathizer" is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent and a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain, arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon. While building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles, he secretly reports back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. "The Sympathizer" is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions--times when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically decreased. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring a sixth extinction. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In "The Sixth Extinction," Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us, and traces the evolution of extinction as concept from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day.

At age 13, Theo Decker miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother and is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his new environment and tormented by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

Jennifer Egan's interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, a former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, along with the secrets of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. "A Visit from the Goon Squad" is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, and about the transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates.