Book of the Day Roundup: December 30-January 3, 2025
R.U.R.
A Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Karel Čapek Sci-Fi Classic
Kateřina Čupová
Julie Nováková, translator
Rosarium Publishing
Hardcover $32.99 (264pp)
979-898661468-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Humanity’s experiments with artificial life backfire in the science fiction graphic novel R.U.R.
In search of a low-cost workforce, an island factory creates an AI that looks and acts like a human being and is capable of completing a variety of tasks. These robots don’t have the desire or will of humans, making them happy to serve their masters while asking little in return. The company’s director, Domin, guides Helena on a tour, sharing secrets of the robots’ origin and manufacture. As the robots become more like people, the humans face ethical quandaries and even their own extinction.
Expanding the scope of Karel Čapek’s original play, written over one hundred years ago, the book shows glimpses of the world outside the factory while maintaining the intimacy of the stage. The artwork enhances the drama: One scene portrays the humans on a stage, being watched by an audience of robots. It’s a figurative nod to the story’s origins, but also an important moment in Domin’s characterization. Impressionistic colors, including the robots’ distinctive yellow eyes, highlight the expert line work throughout.
R.U.R. is a thoughtful, satisfying graphic novel—a cautionary tale about humans who fail to see the complications of careless scientific advancement. The story earned a place in history by introducing the word robot, but more interesting are the relevant and thought-provoking ethical dilemmas its characters face regarding creation, freedom, and class structures.
PETER DABBENE (December 23, 2024)
Harbingers
What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy
Timothy J. Heaphy
Steerforth Press
Hardcover $30.00 (288pp)
978-1-58642-401-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Timothy J. Heaphy, the lead investigator for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack against democracy in the United States, shares important lessons from that experience in his fascinating, often disturbing political science expose Harbingers.
Heaphy earned his role after leading a similar investigation into the notorious 2017 white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Harbingers discusses both events in detail. Heaphy combed through hundreds of texts, emails, interviews, and other communications to trace the origins of the armed attacks and understand how law enforcement officials failed to anticipate their scopes and prevent disaster.
“Our investigation would create the definitive account of this seminal event in American history,” he explains, stressing the importance of following the facts wherever they led. The book doesn’t rehash all of the investigations’ findings, but it explains how investigators went about their work and focuses on some key aspects of both. It describes in detail how domestic terrorist groups organized online, taking advantage of weak content moderation policies and encrypted messaging apps. It also explains operational errors on the part of police and preparation steps that could have limited damage.
In terms of solutions, the book makes clear the importance of criminal and civil penalties for the perpetrators to deter future attacks. And it suggests a range of actions, from ways to better engage disaffected Americans in civic change to possible changes to Section 230, the part of the Communications Decency Law that limits the liability of social media platforms for content posted on them. Both findings and solutions are presented in a nonpartisan and straightforward manner that anyone interested in violence prevention should find useful.
At a time when political violence in the United States is becoming far too common, Harbingers offers important lessons about how it happens and what to do about it.
JEFF FLEISCHER (December 23, 2024)
Discover the Power of Laughter
Jump-Start Your Journey to Health and Joy
Sarah Routman
Rachael Siegelman
Matterhorn Press
Softcover $24.99 (288pp)
978-1-960889-28-7
In Discover the Power of Laughter, twin sisters Sarah Routman and Rachael Siegelman celebrate how a simple smile can be the first step in a healing technique that’s fun, portable, and best of all, free.
While recognizing that laughter is not considered an appropriate response when tragedy strikes or in the face of overwhelm, the book explores the anatomy of laughter with clarity, pointing to studies that suggest that maintaining humor and a curious, playful mindset in the midst of troubles increases one’s chances of survival. No jokes or humor are required to engage the body’s physiology in laughing and reap its benefits, though: It’s a skill that can be made the “first line of defense for sadness or pain” due to its ability to modify brain chemistry. Deep, sustained belly laughs are said to release “joy chemicals” in the body, expel carbon dioxide, and fill the lungs with fresh oxygen, while clapping stimulates the twenty-plus pressure points in the hands and fingers, marshaling the body’s organs and systems to work on behalf of health and well-being.
Blending science and fun into its step-by-step method, the book employs easy-to-learn exercises, creative games, and a friendly, encouraging tone to teach even play-resistant adults how to laugh for no reason other than to take advantage of laughter’s amazing benefits for the body, mind, and spirit. Among the many inspiring quotes in the book is spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh’s note that “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
Discover the Power of Laughter teaches accessible, life-changing, laughter-based techniques for enhancing one’s health and well-being.
KRISTINE MORRIS (December 23, 2024)
Finding Normal
Jen Doktorski
Fitzroy Books
Softcover $18.95 (186pp)
978-1-64603-563-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Laden with symbolism, Jen Doktorski’s heartrending novel Finding Normal follows two teenagers with disordered eating on a cross-country road trip.
Gemma is sick of living on the hospital’s eating disorder floor. Forced to do group therapy and choke down high-calorie snacks, all Gemma wants is normalcy. When a fellow patient, Lucas, offers to bust them both out of the hospital, she agrees. They set off on a road trip to visit all the towns in the United States named Normal and maybe find a new normal of their own.
Gemma is a brilliant narrator, equal parts witty, raw, and resilient. She sees symbolism everywhere, and the prose reflects her poetic bent. In one scene, Gemma marvels that Lucas’s presence awakens something fragile inside her, “like hummingbird eggs inside a thimble.” In another, she reflects on the “effortlessness” of pushing the “normal” setting button, perched between “delicate” and “heavy duty,” on a dryer. This motif of normalcy weaves throughout—a consistent thread tying together alternating moments of humor and heartbreak.
The plot is driven by Lucas and Gemma’s travels—both their literal trips to the various Normals and their symbolic progression toward mutual love and acceptance. Lucas is a winsome companion who softens Gemma’s edges. Their chemistry culminates in an intimate shower scene as Gemma at last lets herself be seen. And an orphaned baby raccoon picked up along the way is an outlet for Gemma to offer the care she withholds from herself. A near tragedy toward the story’s end propels Gemma to seek help and reconnect with her father. The resolution is triumphant without minimizing the ongoing challenges of recovery.
Two teenagers diagnosed with eating disorders guide each other toward healing and acceptance in the splendid novel Finding Normal.
VIVIAN TURNBULL (December 23, 2024)
Being Kind
How to Add More Meaning to Your Moments
Kobi Yamada
Charles Santoso, illustrator
Compendium
Hardcover $14.95 (48pp)
978-1-957891-39-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Dashes of color enliven intricate pencil drawings of a variety of fuzzy and feathered creatures in this picture book that explains big and small ways of choosing kindness. A sloth feeds baby birds berries with a pair of chopsticks alongside the instruction to “Give freely”; a parade of different animal friends comes with the advice, “Comparison is the opposite of being kind to yourself and others.” Actionable advice makes the complex concept age-appropriate in this bookshelf essential.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (December 23, 2024)
Kathy Young
