What a great year 2014 is for fiction! I continue to be impressed with this years output. My 5 star streak continues with Laura McBride’s We Are Called to Rise.
I knew this had promise when my friend Alison called me up from her Floridian vacation spot to tell me it was the best thing she’s read in years. One of my best bookstore friends loved it also. Here’s why: it is amazing. Bashkim is one of the most endearing child narrators you will find anywhere ever. He is one of four voices used to tell the story: 1) Avis, mother of a soldier recently returned home from his third tour in Iraq 2) Roberta, a CASA volunteer (Court Appointed Special Advocate) 3) Luis, a wounded vet recovering from severe injury on his last tour of Iraq and 4) dear Bashkim, an 8-year-old child with an abusive Albanian father and so much worry it makes your heart hurt. All of this info is on the back flap, and reading the flap initially I was turned off. There are so many books about soldiers returned from war, about the horrors of the war on terror. I’ve read a few and that was enough. But this one is much different. It’s about Iraq without being about Iraq. I would compare it to the movie Crash, where all of the pieces come together in the most tragic way and you can’t help but be swept away. 5 great big stars.
Lit Picks. 
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