"Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert

Moloka'i
   This wonderful novel chronicles the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890's and is deported to the island of Moloka'i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa.
   Rachel Kalama marries Kenji Utagawa, a fellow leprosy victim whose illness brings shame on his Japanese family.  They have a daughter that they must give up for adoption.  But Rachel connects with this daughter Ruth, after Kenji dies while trying to stop a soldier beating up the soldier's girlfriend.
   There are many fascinating characters in this novel- Sister Mary Catharine for one.  She is tortured by her parents' suicides and Rachel saves her when she attempts suicide.
Catharine: "I used to wonder, why did God give children leprosy.  Now I believe: God doesn't give anyone leprosy.  He give us, if we choose to use it, the spirit to live with leprosy, and with the imminence of death.  Because it is in our own mortality that we are most Divine."

   This book was recommended to me by Evelyn Heggie at Fairview Nursing Home when I was delivering books to her.  Evelyn has now passed on.  I will never forget her continued passion for books as she approached her 100th birthday.

   Because I loved Moloka'i so much, I searched for another book by Alan Brennert. 
   This book was fun but not as heart-wrenching.

   In 1914, 17-year-old Regrettable arrives in Hawaii with other girls as 'picture brides'. Of course, the pictures are 'doctored' both by the girls and the guys.  All the brides are disappointed in what they find, but still they are married immediately on stepping off the ship from Korea.
   And so, the story follows Regrettable's life- and her name does describe her life!
   Regrettable had been taught to read and hopes for an education.  But her husband lives in poverty, working in sugar cane.  He drinks, gambles, and beats her.  She leaves him (in Korea the penalty for leaving would be hanging) and sews for prostitutes until she divorces and remarries.
The picture brides stay connected as they each try to make a good life.
The beginning of the novel was fascinating but it lagged in the middle and got bogged down toward the end.

Pauline Johnson

One of my book clubs decided to discuss an author instead of a book this month.

Pauline Johnson
And so, I read a biography written by Betty Keller.
It focused on Pauline's travels as a recitalist. 
  Her father had died and she never married, 
so she used this means to support herself and her mother.

Pauline was born in 1861 at Chiefswood, near Brantford.  Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother was from a family of Quakers in England.  Although their marriage was opposed by both families, they were acknowledged as a leading Canadian family. They entertained guests such as Alexander Graham Bell, Homer Watson, Horatio Hale, and Lady and Lord Dufferin.

Her touring stories were interesting.  Remember, this was 1907!

p. 110  "On the chautauqua/lyceum tour circuit, performers have to be hardy.  They are hired for ten weeks of performance and are so tightly scheduled that they must travel steadily from town to town, delivering one or sometimes two performances before catching the train to the next performance stop.  They sleep on trains, catnap on park benches, and eat bean suppers in camp kitchens.  The show goes on whether it pours rain or blows a tornado; many of the campgrounds in the wet summer of 1907 are ankle-deep in soupy mud."
Sometimes there was a bridge out and they had to wait until it was repaired.  Lots of problems with the railway in 1907.
This tour was through the U.S. and Pauline was irate about her billing- "American Indian".  She was bitter about the U.S.'s treatment of the Mohawk after the War of Independence.  She was staunchly in favour of the British and thought anything American was inferior.
Pauline had difficulty paying her bills and often had to call on friends.  When she became sick, she
retired to Vancouver, where she depended greatly on the help of friends.
Pauline died from breast cancer in 1913 at age 51.
Her ashes were buried in Stanley Park where a marker has been placed.

Bad books?

I bought these three books when I was considering my series on "Why I Love to Read".  They were not as helpful as I expected.  So I used my own ideas.
1.) Harold Bloom's book "How to Read and Why" was not helpful.  He has written more than twenty books and he lives in a scholarly world of literature that I barely visit.

2.) The foreword in "The Book Lovers Companion" made me think.  It reads, "Life's too short to read bad books.  There really should be a word for that particular resentment you feel after ploughing through hundreds of pages that didn't pay off.  A single reliable book recommendation can spare you hours of annoyance, impatience and disgust." So 200 books are suggested to relieve that problem.
But, in the last paragraph of the foreword, the editor Lionel Shriver says, "I spotted three or four selections included here that I couldn't bear".  Didn't he just explain why this doesn't work???
One person's annoyance is another person's pleasure!  I am constantly amazed that our interests are so varied.  I just recently gave an impassioned plea for my favourite book "The Poisonwood Bible".  But it is definitely not a favourite for others.  And this makes a real problem for recommending books.

3.) "Why I Read" by Wendy Lesser. page 4: "The kind of pleasure you can get from reading is like no other in the world.  People even get pleasure out of reading bad books, and I deplore this, but that is only because those books are not to my taste.  You will deplore some of the works I hold up as models in this book, and that is not only sensible, but inevitable.  Because reading is such an individual act, the pleasures we derive from literature- even which books we are willing to call 'literature'- will not be identical.  That is as it should be.  Reading can result in boredom or transcendence, rage or enthusiasm, depression or hilarity, empathy or contempt, depending on who you are and what the book is and how your life is shaping up at the moment you encounter it.  This effect will be particular to each person, and it will change over time, just as the person changes over time- and the richer and more complicated that book is, the more this will be true."

  I thought about doing a series on "bad books" but I'm sure that I will  anger some people when I mention their favourite in my list.  Bad books - ponder that!

The Clan of the Cave Bear

my old copy, my new copy

This book was published in 1980 and I read it soon after that.  I was really drawn into this novel about prehistoric times.

Ayla, a little five-year-old Cro-Magnon child is the sole survivor of a tribe that were wiped out by an earthquake. She wandered aimlessly, naked and unable to feed herself, for several days. Having been attacked and nearly killed by a cave lion and suffering from starvation, exhaustion, and infection of her wounds, she collapsed, on the verge of death.

She is taken in by a tribe of Neanderthal.  How fascinating!

I was so engrossed in this book, I continued to read other books in the series as they were published.  And, I also began to record the series on tape.  My sister-in-law had ALS and was paralyzed.  She lived at a distance so I thought this would be a way to help to entertain her.  I found out later that the tapes were put on to calm her to settle for sleep at night.  And, looking back, I can see that it could have put her to sleep.  The description is exhaustive but beautiful!

Example:

"The land was unbelievably rich, and man only an insignificant fraction of the multifarious life that lived and died in that cold, ancient Eden.  Born too raw, without superior natural endowments for it-save one, his oversize brain- he was the weakest of the hunters.  But for all his apparent vulnerability, lacking fang or claw or swift leg or leaping strength, the two-legged hunter had gained the repect of his four-legged competitors."

The role of women is described in this passage: "In the beginning Ayla just followed Iza around and watched while they skinned animals, cured hides, stretched thongs cut in one spiral piece from a single hide, wove baskets, mats, or nets, gouged bowls our of logs, gathered wild foods, prepared meals, preserved meats and plant food for winter, and responded to the wishes of any man who called upon them to perform a service."

I find this book mesmerizing!  I am reading it for the third time- aloud this time as we take advantage of the good weather to take day trips.
I would love to read through the whole series- six books!  But they are long, descriptive books and take hours to complete.  We may complete one book this summer.  I know that the second book in the series has less plot and more description, but I would love to get to the later books that I have not read. The last book was just published in 2011- after a nine year wait.  So it seems like a good idea to re-read the series, in order to fully appreciate the last book.

1980  The Clan of the Cave Bear

1982  The Valley of Horses

1985  The Mammoth Hunter

1990  The Plains of Passage

2002  The Shelters of Stone

2011  The Land of Painted Caves

This series was a major undertaking!  The author began research in 1977. Thirty-four years of work on this series!   It was no surprise to learn that the author belongs to MENSA.

Restoration series

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

modern technology

We spent three days in Lancaster, Pennsylvania recently and visited both an Amish farm and a very modern farm.  While watching the automated system, I wondered aloud what would happen in a blackout.  A fellow traveler told me about the Restoration Series by Terri Blackstock.  I read the first book-"Last Light" about a major blackout.  Nothing is operating- electricity, water, stores, planes, cars.

 "The fast lane has come to a screeching halt and we don't have any skills to get us through this".
The parents attempted to help the neighbourhood, as they worked out their Christian faith.  Do we look after out own family- or share with those in worse situations? This author writes only Christian fiction.
The three children had no idea how to cope, and the 22-year-old was the worst.  She just whined and complained, because she was expecting to begin 'the good life' in Washington, D.C.

But who did have the skills?  the Amish.  However....

"The Amish were not impacted by the outage since they aren't dependent on technology, but they were the victims of burglaries."
Since this novel took place in Birmingham, Alabama, everyone had a gun- including the teenagers.  So people were being killed- for food, bicycles, and other essentials.  It was anarchy!

I don't plan to read the other three books, but I do wonder about the series title- Restoration.
Is it referring to the restoration of technology?
Or the more spiritual restoration of the family?
Or both?
And....how would we manage in a blackout?

Sue Monk Kidd

I have read these other books by Sue Monk Kidd:

I loved this book!

1964- peach farm in south Carolina

   Lily Owens was four when she accidently shot her mother (while her parents were fighting).  Her father was cruel and eventually Lily ran away with Rosaleen, the black maid.  Lily had three items that had belonged to her mother- gloves, a picture of her mother, and a picture of a black Madonna with printing on the back- Tiburon.  So they headed for Tiburon, saw the black Madonna on a jar of honey and found out where it was made. 

  Lily and Rosaleen were taken in by the calendar sisters- August, May, June, April.  August had been Lily's mother's nanny.  This household of women nurtured Lily as she was able to come to terms with her life.

  Marvellous descriptive writing!  Couldn't put it down!

"This is the last thing I remember with perfect crispness- her breath floating down to me like a tiny parachute, collapsing without a trace among the piles of shoes."

"Dragonflies darted back and forth like they were stitching up the air."

Strong, nurturing black women in the time of segregation.  Beautiful story!

 This novel takes place on Egret Island, off the coast of South Carolina.

  Jessie was 42, and unsatisfied with her life. 

Page 1: "I lived molded to the smallest space possible, my days the size of little beads that passed without passion through my fingers". 

  Well, she found passion!

  On this beautiful island, she fell in love with Brother Andrew. "The affair impregnated her with life"-  "I had the sense of being out on the furthest frontier of myself.  It was a surprisingly beautiful outpost".

Andrew told Jessie, ""We'll be damned and we'll be saved- both".  And, in fact, Jessie discovered 'a solitude of being' - through the relationship and the paintings she made.

   Fabulous language!  Wonderful characters!

But, in fact, Jessie did return to her husband."There would be no grand absolution, only forgiveness meted out in these precious sips.  It would well up from Hugh's heart in spoonfuls and he would feed it to me.  And it would be enough". 

  Just a story about an affair, but the language, metaphors and symbolism swept me out to sea!

 This book is a mother/daughter memoir- set in Greece and France.  Ann, the daughter, is depressed about not being accepted to the University program that she applied for.  Sue, the mother,  is upset about the loss of the close relationship she had with her daughter and is also struggling with her own aging process.  

  Sue is obsessed with another mother/daughter relationship - Demeter and Persephone.  "I have come to believe it's really about that aperture opening,  It's the channel where the souls of a mother and a daughter open and flow as two separate souls, woman to woman.  It is, I know now, a place created through necessary loss and necessary search, and a reinvention of the whole relationship."

  This book took 8 years to write and was about 'the sacred feminine'.  It lost me!

  My daughter, Kathy, and I both read this book and laughed about the comparison of this mother/daughter trip to Greece and our trip to Newfoundland. Sue and her daughter were completely wrapped up in self-analysis and the angst of relationship.  

  This book seemed so serious, while we just enjoyed the country, sang and laughed as we drove across Newfoundland with my other daughters and granddaughter.

  Sue Monk Kidd was born in Georgia and received her B.S degree (nursing) from Texas Christian University.  She worked as a nurse and a nursing instructor.  She married Sanford (Sandy) who graduated in theology and they had 2 children.

  She began writing- mostly in guidepost magazine.  She wrote two spiritual memoirs, then took a turn into feminist theology.

This book chronicles her journey from Christian tradition to sacred Feminism.

  The author was strongly influenced by the teaching 'second in creation, first to sin'.  She recognized the wound that women carry when they feel inferior and secondary.  She needed to re-image Deity.  She discovered that before the Hebrew religion, people worshipped the Supreme Being in the form of a female Deity- the Great Goddess.  She found a new inner authority as a woman and a connection to the natural world.

  I didn't relate to this book, perhaps because I have never felt inferior or secondary because of being a  woman.

   Sue Monk Kidd is a very self-reflective woman who writes great fiction!

Whoops!

In my blog on "The Invention of Wings", I made a significant mistake.  And my daughter caught it!  Way to go, Kathy!  John usually edits my blog before I publish it, but he hadn't read the book, so wouldn't catch this error.
Sarah's slave was not 'Helpful', but 'Handful'.  There is a big, big difference.

Also, Kathy responded to the thought about the title.
Her thoughts:
**********************************************************************************************************

The title has to do with the relationship between Handful, her mom, and her mom's mom... and the ability to fly away and to be free from whatever holds you down.  She talked about the bones on her back one day growing into wings.  It was based on an African folk tale but I can't remember if it was real or part of the story that was created for the novel.

Also, it's about every character's desire to grow their own wings and escape from the societal constraints of that time.  Everyone, the slave owners and the slaves, both the women and the men in this book were unhappy with the way their roles forced them to be/live.

And she connects the title to the quilting story lines with the flying geese blocks and images.

************************************************************************************************************

Kathy got me started on this blog and I'm happy that she keeps me honest!  Thanks, Kathy!

Her blog is http://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/

The Invention of Wings

Sue Monk Kidd

  I have been following this author for some time.  So I was excited when Oprah chose her new book for her book club.

"The Invention of Wings"

I am always interested in a novel about slavery.  I have no idea why this topic fascinates me so much.  I know that there will be a great deal of pain.  But there is so much emotion in these books. This particular book was missing the exquisite language of Sue Monk Kidd's other books, but has a great plot and interesting characters.  I was surprised to learn at the end that the sisters in the novel were real people.

Sarah and Angelina Grimke were born into Charleston aristocracy.  They were always opposed to slavery in spite of the fact that Sarah's present from her parents for her 11th birthday was a 10-year-old slave, called "Helpful".

Much is known about Sarah and Angelina as they moved north to Philadelphia and joined the Quakers.  The sisters began speaking around the country, but their message became too extreme for the Quakers, who wanted them to stay with an abolition theme.  However, they felt strongly about feminism and, basically, spoke for freedom for all.

  They were involved with the American Anti-Slavery Society but were radicals in that circle also.

  I was interested in their connection with John Greenleaf Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  I googled for information about each of these fellows and their involvement in the abolitionist movement.  Interesting!

 There isn't as much information about the slave that was given to Sarah, so the author needed to invent a story for her.  The whole story is told by alternating narrators- Sarah and Helpful.  This certainly gives different points of view.

  At the end of the novel, the author explains how much of the story is based on fact and what is invented.

  Speaking of invention....what about the title?

  "Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you?" (Diane Setterfield in "The Thirteenth Tale")

   This is what I experienced after reading "The Invention of Wings".  I was unable to connect with any of the other books on my pile.  Penny would say that I have a 'book hangover'.  I want to think about this book a while longer......

Women in flight

Joyce Spring

   Our local library book club enjoyed listening to Joyce Spring talk about the female pilots that she has researched while writing her non-fiction books: "Daring Lady Flyers: Canadian Women in the Early Years of Aviation", and "The Sky's the Limit: Canadian Women Bush Pilots".  Joyce is working on the final book of the trilogy and the book club was cheering her on to finish.  They even envisioned a documentary of Canadian women in Flight.

  I really enjoyed reading about women such as Olive Stark. In 1912, she was the first woman airplane passenger in Canada.  She sat beside her husband on the lower wing of his 'Curtiss'. The plane was a mass of wire and bamboo.  Her feet were dangling and she only had the wire rigging to hang onto.

Madge Graham

Madge Graham, in 1919, navigated for her husband as they flew at tree-top level from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to Grand’Mère, Quebec.  The noise from the engine made conversation impossible so Madge rigged up a miniature clothes-line to send messages. The 800 mile trip took five days and nine hours to complete with crowds greeting them at every stop.  But not everyone was impressed.  Admiral Byrd (the first man to fly the Pole) declared, "Flying seaplanes over land is suicide and taking a woman along is criminal."


  Certainly the flights were experimental and dangerous, but women continued their interest in flight and soon were taking off on their own. And now many women are qualified commercial pilots as well as bush pilots and military pilots.  Even the Snowbirds have a female wing commander.

  Joyce gave us an interesting look at women's role in aviation, but also the history of flight in Canada.  We were fascinated!

The Rosie Project

   I just finished reading this book and discovered that there are
many different covers.  The book was just published last year.  It was written in Australia. 
  The English covers are interesting, but there are other covers in different languages.

We will be discussing this book in an upcoming book club, so I won't comment on it now, but it is very popular and funny.

World Book Day

World Book Day was organized by UNESCO in 1995 to promote reading and publishing.  It began on April 23, 1995 and is celebrated every year on April 23.

Since I had written a series on "Why I Love to read", I was interested in this information, put out by the National Reading Campaign.

On the right is an 'infographic'.  It tells us that "Readers Save the World!"

"Reading is good for you! On average readers have better physical health, empathy and mental health."  Wow!

"Reading for as little as 6 minutes can reduce stress by 60%, slow heart beat, ease muscle tension and alter your state of mind!"  Wow!

I didn't include these reasons for reading in my series.

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I was fascinated to see how Moose Jaw responded to world Book Day. They were declared

 Reading Town Canada.

Many, many activities were planned over the week of May 3-10 this year.  The students were doing a reading flash mob at City Hall.  That sounds fun!
Heres' another activity:
Blind Date with a Canadian Book: Didn’t your mother tell you not to judge a book by its cover? Moose Javians (that’s actually what they call themselves!) who stop into the popular cafe 23 Main Street can pick up a book wrapped in plain paper. On the house! There will be some hints about the book’s content written on the paper, but it will otherwise be a completely blind date with a Canadian book.

But my favourite:

Ceremonial Walk & Read

Robert Sawyer's short story, "The Stanley Cup Caper" was posted on the windows throughout the town. The mayor led a ceremonial walk along the main street to begin the special week.

Moose Jaw is a great town with 47 fascinating murals painted on the buildings.  I would love to have been there for World Book Week and see Robert Sawyer's words posted throughout the town.

The silent Wife

The Silent Wife

   This book is called a psychological thriller.  It certainly contains a lot of psychology, since the protagonist is a psychotherapist.  However, it didn't appear to be a thriller.  The language and feel of the book lacked suspense. In fact, the ending is announced on the second page: "a few short months are all it will take to make a killer out of her." Perhaps it could be called a psychological drama.

A.S.A. Harrison

   I read it on a three- day bus trip.  It kept my interest in spite of all the chatter and other bus distractions.
   There was considerable psychological theory- Freud and Adler, in particular.  Both Jodi, the protagonist, and her "husband" of 20 years had serious issues from their childhood and it seems that they were just playing out their parents' mistakes.
  There were some surprises, but also some dead ends.  Rather interesting and gets better on reflection.


The author, Susan Harrison died of cancer, at 65, before the book was published. She lived in Toronto.
 
 

Amish fiction

Wanda Brunstetter is familiar with the Amish community although she is not a part of it.  She has written a ton of Amish literature- adult fiction (series or stand-alone), novellas, cookbooks, devotionals, photography, children's books.
Her fiction series centre on Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
I just returned from that area and was very interested to see one of Wanda's books made into a stage musical.
My reaction- bizarre!
The plot is bizarre- Emma Yoder, a widow, decides to offer quilting lessons.  She gets six replies- three men and three women!  The men are: a widower with a baby, a biker fresh from jail, and an angry hen-pecked husband.  The women are: a disillusioned minister's wife, a sulky, goth teenager, and a bossy wife.
The presentation is bizarre!
They constantly break out into song, with Emma joining in on all the dance moves!  Bizarre!
Also, they added a scene about the war.  The young father was a school teacher in the book, but in the play he was a soldier.  So there were weird flashbacks.  Very unsettling and unnecessary to the plot.
The Amish are peace-loving and that addition was bizarre!
I love the Amish and feel that they are an important and wonderful  part of Pennsylvania.  I was trying to decide if this musical was making fun of the Amish.  It was unsettling!  Bizarre!
My daughter, a quilter, did not like the book - too far-fetched.  I thought it was-bizarre!
Wanda's books are all simple, easy-to-read, with God solving everyone's problems before the final page.
I prefer the real stories of the Amish.  There are many road-side stands run by Amish people in Lancaster county, and they are often willing to engage in conversation.  I admire them greatly.

Wanda Brustetter has a great following.  Amish fiction is becoming extremely popular.  Many women are  entering this field, with names like Amy, Cindy, Linda, Laura, Suzanne, Tricia, Jody, Beth.  No men!
My favourite and perhaps one of the 'originals' is Beverly Lewis.  She has written over 80 books.

The cast of "half-Stitched"

The musical is called "Half-Stitched" and is presented in a bare basement room, with folding chairs, in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky

I greatly enjoyed Nancy Horan's novel about Frank Lloyd Wright, "Loving Frank", and was sure that Robert Louis Stevenson's life would be just as fascinating in Horan's new book, "Under the Wide and Starry Sky".

The connecting theme between the two books turned out to be the women who loved these men. Both Mamah Cheney and Fanny Osbourne fell so deeply in love with these men that they gave up everything, including their children.
Fanny Osbourne was married with three children when she fell in love with Stevenson. She left her home in San Francisco to live with him in France.  When her youngest son died, she returned to the U.S.A. to try to put her marriage back together, but when she sent a message to Stevenson "I'm lost and sick- need you", he dropped everything in Scotland and traveled to California- almost dying in the process.  When he arrived she was healthy and still married.  He wandered off and nearly died.
However, eventually they married and traveled the world to find a healthy climate for his fragile health.
They finally settled in Samoa, where they built a huge house and brought all their fine furniture (including a piano), paintings and china.  That is where Stevenson died at 44.

                                              

                                                                            Robert Louis Stevenson. 1850–1894

Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie:

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:

Here he lies where he long'd to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

Photo

Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, an American, married Robert Louis Stevenson in 1880.CrI was prepared to love this book, but it took a long time to really get involved in the book.  I considered quitting often.  By about page 150, I began to get so involved that I didn't want to put it down.

I expected to love this book, but really struggled through the first 150 pages.  At that point I became totally engrossed and didn't want to put it down. But the book is long and by page 400, I was again losing interest.
Much of the story seemed improbable but I know that the author had many resources to rely on and tried to pack all the details into the story.
It is often mentioned that they had no money, but they traveled constantly- England, Scotland, U.S.A., Switzerland, France.  They lived in fine hotels and rented private ships.  They were looking for a good climate for Louis' poor health.
There is great detail about his writing and the reactions of his friends in the literary community.  I think overall, my problem with the book is that too much was jammed into it.
Stevenson's most famous writings were: "Treasure Island", "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde". and "Kidnapped".  He also wrote "A Child's Garden of Verses".

The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay, To keep me happy all the day. And sometimes for an hour or so I watched my leaden soldiers go, With different uniforms and drills, Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; And sometimes sent my ships in fleets All up and down among the sheets; Or brought my trees and houses out, And planted cities all about. I was the giant great and still That sits upon the pillow-hill, And sees before him, dale and plain, The pleasant land of counterpane.

   

A Life Well Used

I belong to Wordsmith.org and every morning, an e-mail arrives with the word of the day and lots of talk about 'words and their meanings'.  There is also a quote for the day.  Recently the quote was:
"As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death" (Leonardo de Vinci)

Well, this morning I made my monthly visit to a near-by nursing home,  delivering books for the public library. Many of the people are in their last days and sometimes the visit seems sad.  But I have discovered a lady that really makes the visit interesting. I would like to have her picture, but I wouldn't ask because she wouldn't understand why I wanted to take her picture.  Well,  perhaps she understands much more than I thought!  She was reading "The Case Against Darwin" by James Perloff.  She has always questioned the theory of evolution and found this book very much to her liking.  However, she also is planning to read a book that favours the theory of evolution.  She is interested in reading both sides of the argument. Imagine- at 90!
I felt so connected to this lady.  She actually doesn't need books from the library because her family buy every book she mentions.  And she reads magazines to keep up-to-date on books that are hot off the press.
And so, we had a lovely 'book chat' about what she's reading/what I'm reading.  What a delight!

I also deliver books to a retirement home that has a very different atmosphere.  These residents are active and healthy.  One resident attends (and leads) a book club.  A few months ago she told me about the book that she was preparing to discuss: "The Kitchen House" by Kathleen Grissom.

So I decided to read the book.
It is a long book, following three generations on a plantation beginning in 1791, when Lavinia McCarter, aged 7, is taken to the plantation because her parents had died on the ship from Ireland.
Although it was difficult to get into the book, I was totally involved after a few chapters.  I loved the description of the routines in the lives of those in 'the big house' and those in the 'kitchen house'.
The climax was chaotic and every time it seemed that things couldn't get any worse, they did!
Reading the book was a large investment of time and I would have liked it to be better edited, with a more satisfying ending.

When I returned to the retirement home the next time, the resident was delighted that I had read the book and she went to her room for her notes and we sat and chatted about the book.  Delightful!

Another well spent day!

Biographies

I am reading "Too close to the Falls", a memoir written by a psychologist, of her early years in Lewiston, New York.  It surprises me that the author can remember so many details of childhood events.  Can she really remember conversations from many, many years ago, when she was a very young child?  Could she really read proficiently at four and help with pharmacy deliveries?

I realize that there is often a question about the truth in biographies.  Certainly time changes incidents of your childhood.  And, of course, two people remember the very same incident in different ways.
However, I always enjoy both biographies and autobiographies, realizing that there is fiction in both.

James Fry was publicly humiliated when the details of his autobiography "A Million Little Pieces" turned out to have some fictional aspects.  But there was great emotion in the book and I felt that I understood addiction better after reading that book.  Perhaps the fictional aspects were what kept me engrossed.  The introduction was fascinating:
"The young man came to the Old Man seeking counsel.
I broke something, Old Man.  How badly is it broken?
It's in a million little pieces.
I'm afraid I can't help you.
Why?
There's nothing you can do.
Why?
It can't be fixed.
Why?
It's broken beyond repair.  It's in a million little pieces."

The author was an alcoholic, drug addict and criminal.  He began drinking at ten (football games, parents' parties).  He smoked pot at 12 .  He blacked out at 14 - coke, acid, crystal meth at 15, etc.
He talks about "The Fury" that he has always felt- never connecting with his parents.
There are no sentences or paragraphs - free style writing. It was compelling!
I learned a lot about addiction and didn't worry whether every detail was completely accurate.

"The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" by Terry Ryan was a light and interesting biography.

The subtitle is: "How my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less".

In 1953, with 10 children to support, Leo Ryan worked in a machine shop making $90.00 a week and spending $30.00 of that on beer.  His wife, Evelyn, wrote poetry and jingles to supplement that.

When they were being evicted, she won $5.000. and bought a house.  She also won a 5 minute grocery shopping spree. ($411.44 worth of food).
"Her delight in living rose out of bed with her every day.  It was the one thing Dad couldn't drink away."
When Evelyn died, all 10 children returned to the family home and reminisced about their mother's resilience and creativity.



"An island to someone who has never left it is the world". 

"The land is more important than the country".
I have enjoyed reading Wayne Johnston's fiction stories that are set in Newfoundland and I enjoyed reading this biography of his family.  The men are the main characters- Wayne, his father Art, and grandfather Charlie.  I still remember, years after reading the book, the descriptions of travelling with horse and buggy in the winter.  Sometimes the driver fell asleep and the horses found their own way home.
There are interesting descriptions of the forge and blacksmithing during Charlie's life. Art was an inspector for the Department of Fisheries and made some interesting trips. The train trip across Newfoundland (Art and Wayne) described some of the geography as well as introducing mummers.

George Dawson was featured on one of Oprah's shows.  He learned to read at 98.  He was studying for his GED at age 103 when he died.

Dawson was born in 1898 in Texas.  He saw lynchings and feared the Ku Klux Klan.  He travelled until he married and had seven children.  He always helped them with their homework even though he couldn't read. He also drove a car until he needed to take a test, so had to give up driving.A man came to his door and invited him to attend an adult education program.  I enjoyed Dawson's memories and also his attitude.  He was hard-working and honest.


Quote: “Things will be all right. People need to hear that. Life is good, just as it is. There isn’t anything I would change about my life.”—George Dawson
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I have recorded 63 biographies and autobiographies that I have read.  Several of these are about a spiritual search.  Others are appreciated for the sense of time and place, such as "Lemon Swamp and Other Places: a Carolina memoir".  Mamie Fields, born in 1888 in Charlston, had collected a lot of writing over the years and her granddaughter helped her work on the book for 8 years, with the publication accomplished when Mamie was 95.

I really enjoy biographies in any form.  "Loving Frank" (Frank Lloyd Wright) was great and I am planning to read Nancy Horan's latest book "Under the Wide and Starry Sky"- a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson.