Hello Everyone and Welcome to my stop on Tour the World in 30 Books.

This blog tour is hosted by Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den in support of increasing access to more diverse books. The CCPL—a small, rural library in an area with a high poverty rate and a very homogeneous population, where people rarely have the means to travel or experience new perspectives. However, the library doesn’t believe that should stop people from learning more about the world around them, so they’re running a Diverse Book Drive through the month of September in an attempt to bring the rest of the world to the county instead. With a focus on MG and YA books, the CCPL aims to expose especially its young patrons to new and diverse perspectives and cultures.

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Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Kawaii Strong Washburn

Sharks in the Time of Saviors is so far my favorite book of 2020. The story was moving, the characters memorable and the language was oh so beautiful. This is a book that will stay with me a long time and I will return to many times over.

Here are the top 5 reasons why you should read this soul stirring book.

Importance of Place

The Hawaii in Sharks in the Time of Saviors is not a place filled with tourists but one of a family with roots extending through the generations. It is beautiful and lush but Washburn focuses on the value of tradition and the price paid for modernity.

Legend

Legend in Sharks in the Time of Saviors is both mystical and miraculous. It is part of the family’s heritage as well as their future. The book opens up on the night of Noa’s conception with a sighting of Hawaii’s Night Marchers. By the end of the first chapter Noa becomes a living legend when he falls into the sea and is delivered back to safety in the mouth of a shark. He goes on to perform miracles.

As the family hero Noa struggles to save the world without losing himself, while his siblings try to assert themselves to remind others that they still exist.

Family

Family plays an important role in the book. Washburn spends a lot of time with the siblings and how they adjust to their new familial roles after the tragedy. Throughout the book he uses rotating perspectives to amplify their different voices. The characters are drawn with such depth that even through their flaws each of them has the power to carve out the family’s existence and save the others.

Beautiful imagery

“I’d dream of what must have been Hawaiian gods. Women as large and distant as volcanoes, their skin dark like pregnant soil, dolphin-kind bodies thick and slick and full of joyful muscle. Their hair tangled and tumbled down into the trees until I couldn’t tell the vines from their locks and their eyes golden or blue or green without white and smoldering. Everywhere they touched the land, the land grew into them, skin blending with earth, until you couldn’t find where one ended and the other began.”

Faith

We can put our faith in the supernatural or in each other. Here, faith extends from the gods to family and to our connection to the land. Salvation comes in the form of returning home and melding the present with the traditions of the past.

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My Favorite Quote

“If a god is a thing that has absolute power over us, then in this world there are many. There are gods that we choose and gods that we can’t avoid; there are gods that we pray to and gods that prey on us; there are dreams that become gods and pasts that become gods and nightmares that do, as well. As I age I learn that there are more gods than I’ll ever know, and yet I have to watch for all of them, or else they can use me or I can lose them without even realizing it.”

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How Can You Help?

Casey County Public Library Wishlists

You may also purchase one of the books featured on this tour from the wishlists below. Hardbacks are preferred but not required.

• Amazon
• Book Depository
• Bookshop

(If you order something from the Book Shop wishlist, please DM @srbetler on Twitter or email sammie@thebookwyrmsden.com, because I don’t believe that site automatically removes books from the wish list.)

Need more ideas? The library has a general Amazon wish list with suggestions too.

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Blog Tour Schedule

Please take the time to visit these other stops on the tour. It’s a great way to show your support for this great cause and who knows you might just find your next great book love in the pages of these awesome books.

✦ September 1 ✦
Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den – Introduction, Paola Santiago and the River of Tears
Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads – Dating Makes Perfect

✦ September 2 ✦
Lauren @ Always Me – The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

✦ September 3 ✦
Toya @ The Reading Chemist – Felix Ever After

✦ September 4 ✦
Michelle @ Carry A Big Book – Sharks in the Time of Saviors

✦ September 5 ✦
Shenwei @ READING (AS)(I)AN (AM)ERICA – The Astonishing Color of After

✦ September 6 ✦
Maria @ A Daughter of Parchment and Paper – Patron Saints of Nothing

✦ September 7 ✦
Bri @ Bri’s Book Nook – True Friends (Carmen Browne)

✦ September 8 ✦
Bec @ bec&books – Lobizona
Jorie @ Jorie Loves A Story – diverse TTT

✦ September 9 ✦
Sienna @ Daydreaming Book Lover – Loveless

✦ September 10 ✦
Kerri @ Kerri McBookNerd – Raybearer

✦ September 11 ✦
Noly @ The Artsy Reader – The Name Jar

✦ September 12 ✦
Jacob @ The Writer’s Alley – Forest of Souls

✦ September 13 ✦
Keri @ Are You My Book – The Tea Dragon Society

✦ September 14 ✦
Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight – The Space Between Worlds

✦ September 15 ✦
Melissa @ Ramblings of a Jedi Librarian – Girl in Translation

✦ September 16 ✦
Livy @ Shelves of Starlight – Clap When You Land

✦ September 17 ✦
Crystal @ Lost in Storyland – American Born Chinese

✦ September 18 ✦
Lili @ Lili’s Blissful Pages – A Wish in the Dark

✦ September 19 ✦
Leslie @ Books Are The New Black – The Poppy War

✦ September 20 ✦
Noura @ The Perks of Being Noura – Love From A to Z

✦ September 21 ✦
Crini @ Crini’s – A Pale Light in the Black

✦ September 22 ✦
Rachelle @ Rae’s Reads and Reviews – Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

✦ September 23 ✦
Dini @ DiniPandaReads – Wicked As You Wish

✦ September 24 ✦
Madeline @ Mad’s Books – Spin the Dawn

✦ September 25 ✦
Tessa @ Narratess – Brace Yourself

✦ September 26 ✦
Kimberly @ My Bookish Bliss – Truly Madly Royally

✦ September 27 ✦
Rena @ Bookflirting 101 – Anna K: A Love Story

✦ September 28 ✦
Susan @ Novel Lives – Burn the Dark

✦ September 29 ✦
Arina @ The Bookwyrm’s Guide to the Galaxy – A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

✦ September 30 ✦
Maya @ Awesome Reads – Jackpot