Gone Yesterday, Here Today

Hi there and happy Labor Day! In a time where the ideas of strength, prosperity and well-being are being re-written to apply only to some, not everyone, I hope you find on this occasion the chance to recognize and give tribute to your own contributions and achievements toward a better world. Tomorrow we can all return to sticking it to the man.

With summer drawing to a close (in case you were wondering if it does ever really do that here in Sicily, the answer is yes...but it retreats slowly, kindly, with compassion and understanding), I have just one short suggestion to add to your beach reading list.

I say beach reading, because though the category is very much open to interpretation and subject purely on taste, John Green books are not typically the type of story I would turn to unless I had a very strong reason– like the one I give below in my reading of A Fault in Our Stars. They're light and breezy, involving uncomplicated plots, somewhat stick-ish characterizations, all of which do a fine job of drawing the reader deeper into the story.

I read [A Fault in Our Stars] after my eldest daughter gushed over and over about it and I'm glad I did, but not for any real reason found in the book. Don't get me wrong it was all right. I enjoyed parts of the story and the characters seemed mostly very real to me, but like others who've commented I felt the dialogue was too much/ too heavy in parts (and in other parts dead on); I didn't care for the drunk Dutchman and his role; or fully understand the connection to Anne Frank (other than it was local). Pretty much, I think the back 1/3 of the book just wasn't as well written and developed as the first 2/3. 

Why I am glad I read it though is I believe Green did a very good job of injecting into the story (and thus into me, the reader) the yearning, heartbreaking, character-searching and angst-ridden soul of a teenager, offering a glimpse into the thoughts, aspirations and musings of my own precious teen. That's worth way more than any stars.

So we have some history, Green and I, for which I am profoundly grateful as it offered me a better understanding of and experience with someone very, very close and important to me, about a subject I personally thought just wasn't for me.

And really, you can't ask more of that from a book.

Everything is Tuberculous is different, as you can see from any of the comments written about it last spring when it was published:

• the Y.A. novelist describes the disease as a window into “the folly and brilliance and cruelty and compassion of humans.” – New York Times
• This highly readable call to action could not be more timely.– Kirkus Reviews
• The history of tuberculosis is the history of mankind – Science-based Medicine
• John Green Tackles An Injustice Called Tuberculosis — Forbes
• Finally, Bill Gates said of the book, "I don’t know anyone else who could turn a book about tuberculosis into a number one New York Times bestseller." You can read more of their in-depth and inspiring interview here.

I won't say more about it other than to echo my hopes that you'll follow my advice and read the book yourself. The story is one of urgency, written of this very moment, and woven in the same compelling manner that had such an impact on me years ago with A Fault in Our Stars, helping me to see into a problem of which I had no idea, and indeed, like many of you probably, thought had already been solved.

Discover more about Everything is Tuberculosus by John Green.

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Alla prossima!