Deaf History Month is celebrated into April, so my reading theme for this month focused on Deaf, chronically ill, and disabled stories. My favorite read this month was a new release that fit this theme: True Biz by Sara Novič.
True Biz, which takes its name from a Deaf idiom meaning roughly ‘really’ or ‘seriously’, is set at the River Valley School for the Deaf, a residential Deaf school. Charlie is a new transfer student with cochlear implants who has been mainstreamed her entire life. She must adjust to a new school, new language, and new culture while simultaneously handling tension at home. Austin is a longtime student from a family that’s been Deaf for generations, a family now dealing with the fact that his baby sister is hearing. February, a CODA (child of Deaf adults) and River Valley’s headmistress, is juggling advocating for River Valley, caring for her aging mother, and holding her marriage together. True Biz traces how River Valley brings them together and changes all of them.
Novič, who is Deaf, inserts lessons on ASL and Deaf history into the narrative to allow the reader to learn about ASL and Deaf culture along with Charlie. Some of these inserts were familiar but most were not. I relished learning about a culture with which I have only a surface-level understanding and felt the lessons deepened the narrative. The dialogue lacked quotation marks, which I typically do not like, but in this case I found it really illustrated the silent world of the Deaf. Since ASL is a visual language, I also found the action very vivid and easy to visualize. Another unique feature was the inclusion of signing audio in the audiobook. In the audiobook, all the signed conversations are simultaneously voiced in English by the narrator and signed by the author, allowing the listener to hear the signed conversation.
I love how books allow readers to step into cultures and life experiences they can otherwise never experience firsthand. True Biz really brings Deaf culture and residential schools to life for hearing readers who may never experience life as a Deaf person. If you enjoyed CODA or Switched at Birth or are just interested in Deaf culture and history, True Biz is for you. But even if you count yourself among those for whom Deaf culture is not a particular area of interest, you’ll still find something to enjoy in the book’s excellent writing and engrossing story.
April’s reads and ratings (out of five stars)
Theme reads
- One for All, Lillie Lainoff: four and a half stars
- All the Right Reasons, Bethany Mangle: four and a half stars
- True Biz, Sara Novič: five stars
- Finding Balance, Kati Gardner: three and a half stars
- Not if I See You First, Eric Lindstrom: five stars
- You’re Welcome, Universe, Whitney Gardner: four stars
- The Frangipani Tree Mystery, Ovidia Yu: five stars
- Love from A to Z, S. K. Ali: four stars
- Poetry of the First World War, anthology (for National Poetry Month): five stars
Others
- The Book of Cold Cases, Simone St. James: four stars
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig (book club): four stars
- Miss Me With That, Rachel Lindsay: four stars
- The Match, Harlan Coben: four stars
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe: five stars
- Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School, Kendra James: four and a half stars
- Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li: five stars
- Little Men, Louisa May Alcott: four and a half stars
- The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri: three stars
- Four Treasures of the Sky, Jenny Tinghui Zhang: four stars
- Anatomy: A Love Story, Dana Schwartz: five stars
- This Rebel Heart, Katherine Locke: four and a half stars
- Bread and Wine, anthology: four stars
- Fool Me Once, Ashley Winstead: four and a half stars
Moriah Sharpe 