OFF THE BOOKS
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
In her debut novel, Off the Books, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, School of Japanese ’93 reimagines the great American road trip in an intriguing and unique way. Her main character, Mei, has dropped out of Dartmouth and is driving a limo for hire. Due to various circumstances, she ends up with a mysterious passenger, Henry, who tightly clutches a large, black suitcase and needs to get across the country. When Mei learns Henry’s secret, the trip takes on a dangerous and suspenseful twist with high moral stakes. Her journey becomes much more than four wheels on the road as she discovers the extent of her capabilities, learns to confront her past, and makes connections to her Chinese heritage. Frazier has created deeply drawn characters we care about, including Mei’s funny, wise, pot-smoking grandfather, and with humor and compassion, she takes us on a trip that’s not only geographical but cultural and emotional.
ONE TICK STOPPED THE CLOCK
Jennifer Crystal
In 1997, Jennifer Crystal ’00 walked confidently through the brush in the woods of the camp in Maine where she was a counselor. She soon developed a rash on her arm, but it went away a few days later. The implications of that rash, however, caused by a tick bite, lasted much longer. In her memoir, One Tick Stopped the Clock, Crystal recounts the chronic illnesses that have plagued her over the years, including not only Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses but Epstein-Barr virus and long-haul COVID-19. The experiences she has had, fighting for proper diagnoses and needing to prove that her symptoms were not psychosomatic but real evidence of deeper issues, form the essence of her journey. She makes the point that people everywhere can face disbelief by medical personnel about their illnesses when symptoms don’t fit a diagnostic algorithm. Her journey of perseverance and resilience has turned to one of advocacy and encouragement for others that many will find comforting and validating.
CATEGORY FIVE
Porter Fox
Porter Fox ’94 has warned us before about the effects of climate change—in his book The Last Winter, he laid out the dire implications of our shrinking winters and snowpacks in the Northern Hemisphere. Now he is back with another deeply researched and well-written book, this time about our oceans, titled Category Five: Superstorms and the Warming Oceans That Feed Them. He contends that the way to understand devastation being wrought by extreme weather events, from hurricanes to cyclones to heat waves and droughts, is to understand how oceans create weather. Learning from climate scientists and oceanographers, and the sailors who know the seas best, Fox delves into the issue by delivering the facts we need to know and recounting the efforts being made to build on our climate knowledge to advance potential solutions to the crisis. A natural storyteller, Fox uses his own personal sailing experiences and encounters with storms to turn what could be a technical discussion into a captivating as well as informative read.
SKYRIDERS
Polly Holyoke
The successful author of the award-winning Neptune trilogy, Polly Holyoke ’81 has turned her attention from the ocean to the sky with her new series, Skyriders. Known for creating children’s books full of exciting epic adventures, Holyoke does not disappoint with the two she has published so far in this new series. In the first book, 12-year-old Kiesandra and her winged horse, N’Rah, are thrown into the middle of conflict when fearsome chimerae, monsters from long ago, reappear to ravage a nearby village. Her uncle is the only one who knows how to fight them, but, badly injured, he relays his attack plan to Kiesandra and begs her to take it to the imperial army in the capital. Her time in the royal palace is fraught with challenges as she attempts to convince the army of her knowledge. Once again, Holyoke introduces a strong female character who knows how to use her wits and strengths to achieve what seems impossible, and the second book continues that compelling theme with the emperor trusting her to help him with a new challenge. Children will read the first two books and be clamoring for the third.
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