Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

This is a proclaimed biography that received many awards including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. This book is usually in the curriculum for 9th graders at most public schools. It is a statement piece which takes the reader through the life and experiences of an African American lawyer named Bryan Stevenson. He is the executive director and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. The base of this story is about the case of Walter McMillian, a man who was framed and accused for the murder of Ronda Morrison. This is based on a true story of a man named Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian in Monroeville, Alabama. I recommend reading this book and then exploring the case online. This story shows the passion and drive of a single person (Bryan Stevenson) which transforms the legal system. This book is filled with loss, hardship, and tears but it opens the eyes of the reader to the daily injustice being done. This book is especially impactful in this time period through the BLM movement and all the racial injustice/police brutality. People can only grow when their problems are called out and then fixed. This is what Bryan Stevenson does during this entire book. He has mountains of cases, and the reader gets a first look inside his mind through all of it. He aids underprivileged women, juveniles, and cases for those who can’t afford to be represented. He is the superhero of the story to countless lives. 

I recommend this book to everyone who is mature enough to understand what they are reading. Anyone who is 12 and up I feel like would benefit from reading this book. This book speaks about important and sensitive topics that do need to be addressed. Death penalty, police brutality, sexual harassment, rape, and violent crimes are all addressed. This is one of my all time favorite books because it is raw and it is important. I have never found a novel that included all problems in one. This book is written as a timeline progression and you find yourself loving the characters. If you are interested in social justice and even law, this book is an amazing way to research and learn more about the flaws to the system. I rate this book a 5 out of 5. I have no complaints other than I wish it never ended. I have never felt more convicted by a book and I hope you feel the same conviction. I recommend reading this book with a friend or discussing it to get the full benefit of this piece. If you enjoy this book I recommend reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee if you have not already. The connections between these books are so important to recognize especially in this generation. This book is truth, and truth is necessary for growth.

-Amy Cherian (Gum Spring Library)

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

In the eyes of younger Jeannette Walls, her dad was brilliant in ways that seemed unimaginable to anyone that didn’t know him. He was the man that made the adventure more than just a thought, but a possibility, and made a point to embrace life for what it was. However, as she grew up, Jeannette realizes that this was only the case when her father was sober, and drunken behaviors made him destructive. That seemed to happen more often than not. Her mother wanted to be free, but she couldn’t seem to be bothered with a family because of that. Jeannette always thought that all she needed was her father, but that soon evolved into the need to survive on her own with the rest of the Walls’s siblings. This biography revolves around the journey of Jeannette Walls and the dysfunctional life she lived with the Walls family before and after she moved to New York. 

This story is the way Walls reminisces about her childhood and gives the reader the view of how a person’s life seems more like a fairytale in the thoughts of a child, even when that isn’t the reality. What I liked most about this story was the conflicting events and thoughts the author held about her life, and how she shows the complexity of these kinds of situations. This book allows the reader to be put in the shoes of a story they didn’t know much about before reading, while also reevaluating what it means to be strong and resilient.  

-Siri M (Gum Spring Library)

*Look up trigger warnings before reading*