"The Sea Captain's Wife" by Beth Powning

 
  What a fabulous novel!  The writing is superb and the storyline is fascinating.  All about life and the complexity of relationships.
  Hmm...which cover do I prefer?





Whelan's Cove, New Brunswick
  Azuba Bradstock grew up by the ocean with a shipbuilder father, always dreaming of being on a ship, but when she married a sea captain, things did not turn out as she had expected.
  Her father had built her a house as a wedding surprise and she knew he wanted to keep her close to the family.  Also, one of her father's ships had sunk at sea with all aboard.  No survivors.
  Oh, yes, and also, by the time her husband was ready to leave again after a wonderful long vacation for the wedding, she was pregnant.
  And so, her husband Nathaniel, said, "You are my treasure,  I want you and my children to be safe on shore.  It is madness for me to take you with me."
  Well, she had a daughter and amused herself in caring for her, while Nathaniel visited every year or so.  Eventually, she had a miscarriage and, although she had a beautiful large home, a daughter, and family nearby, she was lonely and sad.
  It just happened that she also had a kind, thoughtful, young, single minister who visited her and took her for walks.  One day they got stranded on a flowerpot island when the tide came in- and the news got to her husband the next time he came home.
    And so, it was quickly decided that she and her daughter should accompany Nathaniel at sea.  That began a very interesting account of ocean travel- a terrifying trip around cape Horn, near starvation, witnessing a mass suicide at the Chincha Islands, mutiny on the ship, many wonderful but also many dangerous events.
  Beth Powning wrote a wonderful story that kept me engrossed for the second time.  I loved it!

Beth Powning

Space Travel

Don't know the title of that third book,
 but the top one is "How to Build Your Own Spaceship".

   This weekend our youngest grandson, Matthew, was visiting.  He is 17 and very interested in space travel.  He plans to be an engineer.  He brought his latest stash of library books. 

   I was most interested in this book by Buzz Aldrin.  The information on the flyleaf caught my attention:
"Can astronauts reach Mars by 2035?  Can the Earth, its moon and Phobos, a moon of Mars's, serve as hubs for the busy flow of passengers and cargo routinely traversing the inner solar system?
Can the world's powers work together and explore the planet that could be our best bet to support human life?
  Absolutely, says Buzz Aldrin, one of the first men to walk on the moon.  It is not only possible but vital to America's future to keep pushing the space frontier outward for the sake of exploration, science, development, commerce, and security."

I asked Matthew why we need to reach Mars (or any other planet).
His response:
   When a species is faced with extinction, it has three options:
1.) try to adapt
2.) leave and have a good chance of survival
3.) stay and die

  I definitely have been focussed on the first- worrying about plastic grocery bags and take-out coffee cups.  I think we should be cleaning up this planet.  I am not surprised that Matthew's generation is thinking differently.  However, Buzz Aldrin?  He is older than me.  And he writes about his vision for space exploration.
  Words from Buzz: "Dare to dream big". And that seems to be what Matthew is doing.  But he assures me that he will be the person putting the astronauts into the spacecraft and making sure their travel is safe.  (Of course, he said that to appease me, and it worked).  But in 2035, Matthew will be 34 years old and could very well be working on space travel.
  P.S. He also was re-reading the Harry Potter series.

"Starlight" by Richard Wagamese

   Richard Wagamese was an excellent storyteller and author.  You can read about his death here.  I was so sad about his death last year, and quite shocked when I saw this book in the library recently.  What a cover!
   I began reading and was immediately carried away with the story.  An abused woman and her young daughter are taken in by a farmer, who teaches both of them the ways of the indigenous people.
  This novel is advertised as "A profoundly moving novel about the redemptive power of love, mercy, and compassion- and the land's ability to heal us".
   There are two storylines. The farmer, his hired help, and the young mother and her daughter form an amazing bond as the farmer builds up the woman's sense of self-confidence and trust.  The second storyline concerns the abusive husband, who is furious about being left and is tracking her down.
  Both storylines have been building and there is about to be a collision of the two.  Oh, no!  There is no more story!  
   The author died at this point and I was shocked!  At first I could not believe that the story was published without a warning on the cover.  But, would I have read it otherwise?  
  This would definitely have been the best book I have ever read if it had been completed.  The sentences are stunning.  I wanted to read it out loud and savour every word.
  My feelings of disappointment have turned to gratitude.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read Richard Wagamese's last words.  They are amazing!

"This Is Not My Life"

  
   This memoir was written by  Diane Schoemperlen, an author, about her life between the years  2006-2012, when Diane was 51 and fell in love with a murderer who had spent 30 years in prison.
  
  She met Shane at St. Vincent de Paul, where hot meals were served.  He was brought there from the prison with an escort, to be the dishwasher.
   While Shane was spending time in prison, she had been living with her son and writing, traveling to book events, and doing the things that she enjoyed.
   When Diane told her friend that she was falling in love with Shane, her friend said, "How can you be so smart in your writing and so stupid in real life?"  And that is what the readers of this memoir felt as they read.  I certainly did.  Diane tried to explain, in great detail, how and why this happened.  She wrote the memoir ten years after meeting Shane and added immense detail!  Every thought, every emotion!  I tried to skim through the minutiae of her daily life, but had to backtrack because I really love Diane's writing.  Every sentence is stunning.  She makes such effort to help the reader make sense of the situation.  She realized that she had 'wanted to be wanted, needed to be needed'.  And Shane surely was 'needy'!
  At the beginning of the relationship, Shane told Diane that his happiest memories were of the times he and his second wife were reading together in the same room, not talking, just reading, and he'd never felt so peaceful in his entire life.  Diane wrote, "Perhaps this is all I really want: someone I can read with, not talking, not touching, not interacting, just reading separately but still together."
  But, of course, when they finally did get to live together, "the companionable literary silence" did not take place- anything but!
  She writes in detail about the prison system and is very critical of the Harper government's 'Tough on Crime' policies.

   Diane has written twelve books, mostly fiction.  Her writing is spectacular and I hope to find time to read one of her fiction stories.