Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

     Not My Father’s Son is a memoir written by Alan Cumming, a well-known Scottish actor who has graced various forms of entertainment from film and television, to plays and Broadway.  When approached by the producers of the Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC), of course he fully threw himself into the show in hopes it would solve the family’s mystery that revolved around his maternal grandfather’s death. What was unforeseen was that a very similar path of finding out the man who was his grandfather, he was also figuring out the puzzling nature of his father. In a series of events that happened during the filming for the show, Alan had to confront his father and the painful memories of his past, in particular remembering the abuse he had suffered much of his life from his father. Being a successful person, it is hard to imagine the sort of pain that Alan has gone through in his younger years. In his book, the memories of his childhood and younger years are pa...

After seeing a trailer of the film adaptation a few weeks ago (which looks to be wonderful), I decided to give this novel a try. At 16, Claireece Precious Jones has had an unimaginable amount of awful things thrown at her in her short life. At age 12, she became pregnant by her father, giving birth to a daughter with Down's Syndrome. At 16, she is not only impregnated but also given HIV by her father. Precious is poor and illiterate and lives in Harlem with her insane and highly abusive mother. Despite all of these odds, Precious manages to find her way to an alternative school where a kind teacher named Blue Rain takes it upon herself to steer Precious into a better direction. Getting through this novel was difficult, not because of the language, but because of the endless amount of pity I felt towards this poor girl. Seriously, Precious goes through the ringer in this book and it only makes you want to root for her to succeed by the end. For more information about the upcoming f...

Sometimes you don't really need to write a lot to write a really good book. Case in point - Lalami's debut novel Hope and other Dangerous Pursuits . The fact that Lalami manages to evoke such sadness and hope in such a petite book speaks volumes for her talent. The novel focuses on 4 individuals who are trying to illegally cross the international waters from Morocco to Spain. What's different about this novel is that there are essentially only 8 chapters, a "before" and "after" for each character. All of the characters are trying to reach Spain in an effort to create a better life - whether they actually achieve that goal remains to be seen. Whether it's Halima, a mother trying desparately to escape her abusive husband, or Murad, who doesn't want to be the disappointment in the family, in the end, they all must accept the consequences of that fateful voyage to Spain. A quick read, but in this case, quality trumps quantity.