Recent Reads: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

What does one do when they are laid up from a recent knee surgery other than find a very thick book and be appreciative of the opportunity to read for hours without excuse.  I did just the thing after my ACL reconstructive surgery and savored every moment of The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.

The Luminaries is the recipient of the2013 Man Booker Prize, and an excellent story that follows the lives and the interconnectedness of several characters in the 1860’s New Zealand Gold Rush.  Scandal and theft run the line of the plot, as one might expect with the prospect of gold, but there is also love, or the convenience of, and the untidy mess that love between two people might bring. Only the moon knows how these people and their relationships might be connected through the turn of events, and, eventually, the reader does, too.

Catton captures the timeframe and place of the story remarkably, as well as the tone of each individual character’s expression through action and language.

Recent Reads: Gaining Daylight by Sara Loewen

I am a frequent reader of 49 Writers and it was from this site that I learned about Sarah Loewen, an Alaskan writer who was one of their featured writers in 2013.  I enjoyed the essays on writing that she contributed there and was intrigued to read her book, Gaining Daylight: Life on two Islands. 

Sarah has a way of pulling the reader into her life, her islands, her home.  In Gaining Daylight her essays focus on her life as a mother and a wife for part of the year on Kodiak Island, AK, and continue to follow her life at her family’s fishing site on Uyak Bay, a much more secluded location, where they travel for part of the year for her husband’s work as a commercial fisherman.   Her life revolves around these two places and includes going back and forth between a modern life and one that follows more old fashioned ways of living.

Since I have young children and work towards being a writer I was connected to her essays and her struggles with balancing the two on top of work, marriage, and some kind of leisure time. Plus both of our husbands do a lot of fishing, mine more with a fly rod. Composed in her essays about her life and her husband’s occupation as a commercial fisherman, Loewen writes about her connection to her natural world including the discomforts that can arise, even in a place one considers as home.  Amidst the history and stories about her life on her two islands is Loewen’s steady voice that causes one to pause and take a look at their surroundings, consider life in the past, and to appreciate each day as they move and change with the seasons.

 

 

 

 

Recent Reads: Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness as told to by Robert Specht

When I was young my mother would read the book Tisha on a yearly basis.  I too have read Tisha more than once, not as many times as mom did, as I never tire of the story of a young woman in the late 1920’s moving up to Alaska on her own to teach in Chicken, Alaska.  "Tisha" is how teacher sounds when the native Alaskans say the word.

The story is written by her grandson, but has the clear voice of Anne Hobbs throughout the book.  Besides dealing with the harsh elements of Alaskan winters, Anne also finds herself in the midst of long held prejudices between whites and native Alaskans in a tight-knit community. 

I find her story inspiring as someone so long ago, female no doubt, cannot sit aside and let the prejudice continue in her school room or in her personal life and relationships. 

Anne Hobbs has a strong spirit, a light heart, and a passion for justice and equality that guides her as she teaches the young children of Chicken, Alaska.  Each time I read the book I am encouraged by Anne’s ability to put aside what society sets as right, and instead follow her heart.

Recent Reads: Wade Davis- River Notes: A Natural and Human History of the Colorado

The book River Notes:A Natural and Human History of the Colorado by Wade Davis takes the reader on as a companion while Davis explores the Colorado River. Along with telling his own personal account of his experience of exploring the life giving river of the American Southwest, Davis also interweaves the political debate, scientific background, ecological prevalence, and historical perspectives that have followed the course of the river for years.  He touches on the natural beauty that surrounds the river, and provides detailed information on how and when man's relationship with the Colorado River began to become complicated and how it continues on to this day.

River Notes is an interesting, fascinating, and quick read.  Davis provides vivid descriptions of the landscape and touches on the relationships he develops with his guides.  In each detail of the book he conveys his appreciation of the river itself, along with his cconcern for the future and the existence of the Colorado River.

Recent Reads: Ted Kooser's poems, The Blizzard Voices

In the midst of the recent spring storms that have sent the landscape back to winter, I read TedKooser’s book of poems entitled The Blizzard Voices.

The poems portray what happened to the people who lived on the Great Plains when the blizzard of January 12, 1888 blew full force across the land.  Although the harrowing blizzard took place over one-hundred and twenty years ago, reading about their experiences in relation to the devastating storm made my own love/hate relationship with Wyoming springs seem quite trivial.  One man froze in between his horses, children were trapped in rural school houses with little food or heat bringing death to some, other people risked their own lives by going out in the storm to find food and blankets to keep others alive, and many froze to death within feet of their own homes.

Kooser reveals in his introduction that the voices of the poem are his, gathered over many years from conversations with family members, and listening to people when he was a boy as they remembered how they survived the 1888 blizzard.

Authentic and powerful in their telling, the poems express stories of individual lives and target the essence of human nature amongst a natural disaster: survival.  As I listen to the wind and watch the snow blow, I can almost hear the survivor’s voices- somewhat sad and reminiscent- but heard and remembered as their memory, once again, is stirred into the present.

Recent Reads: "Behind the Beautiful Forevers"

When you open the pages of the book that won the National Book Award for nonfiction “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in aMumbai Undercity” by Katherine Boo, you are directly taken to the slum of Mumbi named Annawadi.

The author follows the lives of particular Anawadians where corruption and unfortunate cycles of ill events happen to them as they try to work their way out of the slum.

Boo explains in her own words, “As every slumdweller knew, there were three main ways out of poverty: finding an entrepreneurial niche…politics and corruption, and education.”

Nowhere in the book are the author’s personal influences or thoughts or emotions on the situation of Annawadi influenced as the stories of these people’s lives are told.

The book reads, in some ways, like fiction; as the author writes in third person, not first which is very common, with close interpretations of the perspectives of situations and life in Annawadi.  As Boo says in the notes at the end of the book, she followed them very closely.  The following quote speaks not only of how the author interoperates the thoughts of the people in whom she is telling about, but also a glimpse at life in a slum.

“The forces of justice had finally come to Annawadi.  That the beneficiaries were horses was a source of bemusement to Sunil and the road boys.

They weren’t thinking about the uninvestigated deaths of Kalu and Sanjay. Annawadi boys broadly accepted the basic truths: that in a modernizing, increasingly prosperous city, their lives were embarrassments best confined to smalls spaces, and their deaths would matter not at all.  The boys were simply puzzled by the fuss, since they considered Robert’s horse the luckiest and most lovingly tended creatures in the slum.”

The book is an eye opening perspective on life in the slum, the sad and unfortunate circumstances for those who live there, and a look at how the corruption of the government is stuck in a very vicious cycle where only the wealthy capitalize and the poor stay very poor.  Being a part of the slumdwellers lives through the book it becomes clear how the corruption is just as prevalent in the lives of the poor, and one unfortunate decision can be twisted to a varying list of outcomes. 

From Boo’s notes:

“It is easy, from a safe distance, to overlook the fact that in under-cities governed by corruption, where exhausted people vie on scant terrain for very little, it is blisteringly hard to be good.  The astonishment is that some people are good and that many people try to be-all those invisible individuals who every day find themselves faced with dilemmas not unlike the one Abdul confronted, stone slab in hand, one July afternoon when his life exploded.  If the house is crooked and crumbling, and the land on which it sits uneven, is it possible to make anything lie straight?”

Many questions run through the readers mind as they learn about the Annawadians:  Will they ever be able to change their lives and get out of Annawadi? Will the corruption of the government ever be overturned?  Will there be self-destruction for those who sell out to politics?  Will these people ever have opportunities outside of the slum?

                The book ends for the reader, but the people of Annawadi carry on.  Hopefully perspectives of life in another part of the world will be enlightened and the stories of their existence not forgotten.

#8 Small Stone

A good book, where I can read and read and be so intrigued with the characters and the story line and the authors voice that I'll stay up late just to read and skip all other duties I have during the day, only happens here and there.  But when it does there is only the book, a lamp, a mug, a blanket and the world in which I enter.

Recent Reads: The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas

A neighbor down the road introduced me to this book. It was our first exchange, and she gave it to me with some hesitation, worried about what I liked to read and if I would like this particular book. She didn’t need to worry about me basing any type of bias towards the book or her; I love to read and enjoy being introduced to new authors.

Margaret Mascarenhas presents the reader to Irene Dos Santos via the voice of her girlhood best friend, Lily Martinez. Lily is older and reflecting on her friendship with Irene, and her disappearance. Lily is haunted by the mysterious loss, and cannot quite comprehend what exactly happened on a trip that the Martinez family took with their guest, Irene.

The book continues to explore that fateful day through various members of the family in their distinctive voice. Even the maid gets to share her side, along with a boy named Efrain who ends up having connections to the family.

The book is set in Venezuela and the storyline follows the political struggles of the time, folklore, and incorporates the story of the saint Maria Lionza.

Stories within stories, this book kept me captivated and interested in what really happened to Irene. In fact, I’m still deliberating about her disappearance. Discovering the struggles of the lives of the Martinez family and the Venezuelan people left me wanting to learn more about the culture and about the history of the mystical reference to the saint Maria Lionza. The author stays true to the voice of each character, making me wish certain ones could continue on in telling their own side.

Mascarenhas grew up in Venezuela. I feel reading international authors gives insight to a country’s language, although the books have been translated into English. Their use of clichés are far less than some American authors, and I enjoy reading how they formulate the words to convey their stories, culture, and views on life.

Recent Reads: Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison

Over the winter I have begun to read and write more poetry. I am very interested in form and have found that the best way to learn about it is to read more poems.

Unfortunately our library does not have too much to offer in poetry, nor do some of the book stores I go in desperately searching for modern poets' books. But searching through the poetry section in the library I did find one book by Ted Kooser, a modern poet I was somewhat familiar with, and happily took it home- that was almost a month ago.

I know that poems are meant to be read slowly and savored, only these poems I am letting stew. They are comforting to read, and worth reading over and over, as Ted Kooser displays an artistic construction of words describing the simplicity of life in complicated and frightening situations, finding strength and healing in the natural world, and enjoying each day for what it is.

Kooser, former US Poet Laureate, wrote this book over a series of postcards he would send to his friend as he recovered from cancer. Each day he would take a two mile walk and then record what he saw, felt and experienced on his walk down a country road in rural Nebraska. Some days he might intricately describe what he saw, where other days his despair might fall among his words even if the weather was sunny.

A round hay bale,
brown and blind, all shoulders,
huddled, bound tightly
by sky blue nylon twine.
Just so I awoke this morning,
wrapped in fear.

Oh red plastic flag on a stick
stuck into loose gravel,
driven over, snapped off,
propped up again and again,
give me your courage.
-Ted Kooser, November 29

Kooser finds distinguished ways to describe each day, and shares his soul and a bit of humanity as he relates how each day holds its own feelings and its own outlooks. His poems tell of the natural world around him and ease the soul with his truthful descriptions of life. I can certainly relate to many of his poems, and appreciate how he articulates the story in them to appreciate the simple details in our lives.

Recent Reads: Playing the Enemy by John Carlin

Not too long ago, after the kids story time, one of the librarians and I were discussing reading. She said while her kids were growing up there was a time where she didn't read. I wondered: how can you live a fullfilled life without reading; how could you miss out on years of reading, my list would be so incredibly long I would have to hide away somewhere to complete it all. I guess not everyone is a total bookworm like me, but even though I have small children I still take considerable time to read. I'm not about to miss out, but I do understand how time can slip away (even still, there is always time to read before bed, or wake up before your kids do- I'm not obsessed).

Now, I don't have a dishwasher which has led me to listening to Pandora, NPR, Jazz, seminars- you name it, anything I can find interesting on Internet radio- while I'm cleaning dishes, and how I have gone about reading this book, or listening, rather, since the library only had an audio version.

Of course, I went about the book all wrong. I watched the movie first- "Invictus"- which was based on the book "Playing the Enemy". However, if I had not watched the movie, I probably wouldn't have read the book- it's nonfiction, and I generally don't read nonfiction.

John Carlin tells the story of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment, his release, how he became elected, and how he used the game of rugby to join a nation full of racial and political unrest. Through interviews with Mandela, his followers, and members of the opposing political party, Carlin tells of Mandela's life in prison, how he overcame the anger and injustice of being imprisoned, and what he learned in prison that would help him to lead South Africa fairly during a time full of much turmoil.

I have been overcome with how a man who has seen so much injustice in his life could be so forgiving, and be strong enough to lead fairly and not try to make up for all of the injustices that happened to him and the people he came from.

The movie "Invictus" is good, too; and draws more on the humanity and drama of the situation- and makes me respect rugby players a whole lot more.

Either way, movie or book, it's a story worth paying attention to.

Recent reads: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

A sinus infection in the summer time leaves little time for fun, but I was able to take time to relax and finish reading Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Since the book was recommended by a friend, I decided to put it at the top of my list, instead of delving into the pile I already had waiting for me.

Shanghai Girls is an account of two sisters' lives in the 1930's. Like the title of the book, their lives are influenced by the town they live in- Shanghai. An easy life is soon turned to tragedy, as family lies threaten their way of living and the Japanese army forces their way into Shanghai. With nowhere to go, they leave their past, and look for a new life in America.

Best friends and sisters, the relationship between Pearl and May is continually challenged, leaving the reader left to wonder at the power of forgiveness.

I was very surprised at the unique voice the author portrays of the older sister- Pearl. For the entire book my thoughts paralleled the older sisters, until the very end when the author lets us hear what the younger sister has been thinking and feeling about the tragedies they have faced together.

Besides teaching about the powerful relationship between sisters, the author also touches on what it was like for the Chinese to become U.S. citizens during and after World War II. The author takes the reader on a journey through the prejudices and obstacles faced, some bringing more sorrow than can be imagined.

I am always excited to find a new author, and I will be looking to read more of Lisa See's books in the future.