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BOOK READING: Wahls is compelling voice for human rights

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“My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family” (Gotham Books, April 26,2012; 235 pages; $26) isn’t the most elegant, sophisticated book on the planet, but it’s methodical, intelligent and passionate.

Zach Wahls, the Iowa City college student whose three-minute speech to the Iowa House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 31, 2011, ignited a YouTube/media frenzy, has spent the past year speaking on the lecture circuit, developing several entrepreneurial ventures and writing his first book.

He says “My Two Moms” ultimately is designed to give courage to other children of same-sex couples. It serves a much greater purpose.

It’s really a primer on how to raise amazing children in a home filled with love, commitment and acceptance, despite the unspeakable obstacles of his birth mother’s debilitating illness, extended family skepticism and playground bullying.

The Eagle Scout builds each chapter around the primary tenets he learned through his many years with the Boy Scouts of America, dovetailed with the “Teaching Your Children Values” book chapters discussed daily around his family’s dinner table.

It’s a purposeful dichotomy, given the Boy Scouts’ national stance against homosexuality and the acceptance his family found on the local Scouting level every step of the way.

Whether or not your principles line up with his, he makes a compelling case for marriage equality. The state-champion debater fills every “what about” loophole. He’s heard them all.

The prose is heartfelt, the style naive. His use of parenthetical asides diminishes the punch of his points, and yet, those comments remind us that he is just 20 years old.

He is a powerful voice for gay rights, human rights, civil rights and constitutional rights, borne from experience and example. He does Iowa proud. Mostly, he does himself and his family proud.

 – Diana Nollen

BOOK READING

 

Book Talk: A truly chilling tale

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I couldn’t let winter end without telling you about “The Terror” by Dan Simmons. Did you think that the -20 degree days we had this year were scary? Well, make that -70 degrees and picture your food supply rotting while trying to avoid a terrible demise at the hands (claws?) of a vicious snow beast who hunts humans with specific glee. Oh, and imagine that you’re low on rum. That’s the fate of the men of the Terror and Erebus, a two-ship expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

The triumphant crew of the Erebus and Terror, led by Sir John Franklin, begins with high hopes of finding a short way to Asia via the yet-undiscovered Northwest Passage. The plan gets literally stuck, for years, when the ships are frozen in place. Sir John dies right away, and a lot of the book is told from the perspective of the his captain, Captain Crozier. The crew slowly dwindles away as the group scrapes and scratches across the Arctic, seeking rescue. War books and other stories of extreme human suffering tend to stick around in my head for a while, but “The Terror” takes it to a new level.

The psychological aspects are just as [insert favorite synonym for scary] as the outright gore. And what’s a good ol’ exploration book if cannibalism isn’t at least alluded to? The book was relentlessly scary. Simmons pens some amazing descriptions; the reader feels the cold, craves the rum and fears the beast, as if right there on the ship. Unlike a lot of other horror fiction, this book does not disappoint in the end. The message is one of caution against arrogance when dealing with nature. Work with it, don’t try to defeat it.

If you like your history fictional, frightening and with a twist of supernatural, check out “The Terror.” Read past dark at your own risk. Brrrrr.

– CAITLIN

*EDITOR’S NOTE: This week Caitlin and Natalie return to discussing books after sharing their favorite area book dealers with us throughout that last few weeks.