Two new books: After (Efaw) and No Choirboy (Kucklin)

Two amazing books just intersected in my reading: Susan Kucklin's No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row, and Amy Efaw's After. No Choirboy is non-fiction. Kucklin interviewed four young, incarcerated men who committed murder before they reached the age of 18, and one murder victim's family. She does an incredible job of interviewing them and putting together first person narratives straight out of what they say. She also includes photos she took. Kucklin is a fearless writer. She tackles incredibly difficult subjects and always does an amazing job. She has a great post up about her latest project on I.N.K. on the murder of Iqbal Masih.

After is the fictional account of 15 year old Devon who is in total denial that she is pregnant, gives birth on the bathroom floor, and stuffs her baby in a dumpster. The entire book takes place in just a few days as she is jailed and forced to confront her own actions. Amazingly well-researched, breathtakingly intense, and heartbreaking.

After is getting lots of well-deserved blog buzz right now, and Viking has set up a website for the book. I finished the book a week ago and can't get Devon out of my mind. I keep wondering how her life is going.... A testimony to the power of well-written fiction.

There are incredible themes in these two books around denial, taking responsibility, consequences and redemption. These books could really, really appeal to teens who aren't usually the least bit interested in reading.

Summer Project

It's been a busy summer in the garden. We decided to double the size of the orchard that is fenced in to keep the deer out. It's a project that requires many hands and strong backs, so we gathered up a bunch of our kids' friends. This is a group of hard-working young women and men who love to be outdoors, and who are interested in growing and eating real food. Most of them garden, and two of the women are heading to Vermont in a few months to start their own organic farm.

Several of our crew worked on the first fence a few years ago, and they feel a wonderful sense of ownership of their orchard.

With enough luck, manure, and TLC, there should be enough apples and pears and peaches and raspberries and garlic and onions for all of us. (Probably there is some equivalent here to "never count your chickens before they hatch," like "never count your garlic heads before they harden off.")

Tom did a bunch of layout prep work the weekend before, and then when the gang arrived the fence posts had to be set, the wire stretched and nailed down, and the gates built and installed. It sounds fairly simple, but it's hard work.

After the fence was up, we even got a few rows dug. I took a turn on the machine....also hard work. The machine wants to run and it's a job to keep up with it and stop it at the end of the row so it doesn't chew up the new fence. After a couple rows I headed back to the kitchen for my usual job: farm wife. After all, a crew like this has to be well-fed.

Last photo: the tired, victorious crew.