Saturday, January 25, 2020
The Children's Blizzard
I drove across half the country with my daughter to be her roadtrip buddy. She was starting a four-month internship at a zoo and I got to be part of the beginning of her adventure. The Rockies were icy and slow-going at times, but we got there in three days. While waiting a few days in cold, snowy Minnesota before flying back, I read The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. I'm sure it was partly because it was the same time of year as that blizzard in 1888, but I was enthralled by this story, even when the author lingered perhaps too thoroughly on the weather nuances and perfect combination of circumstances that resulted in that killer storm. I liked how David Laskin filled out the characters and even did research to fill out the peripheral characters, sharing so much back story to really put that time period into context. We not only met people who survived and died in the storm, but we followed them from their countries of origin. I didn't save any quotes from the book, but the story certainly sticks with me.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
WARLIGHT
Michael Ondaatje is well known for The English Patient. His most recent book is Warlight. Set primarily in coastal England during World War II, Warlight immerses the reader in the life of foreign spy service through the eyes of the son left behind. We find him later trying to make sense of it all, a thoughtfully woven journey of self discovery.
Page 139: She was organized, ardently neat, whereas he was the rabbit's wild brother, leaving what looked like the path of an undressing hurricane wherever he went.
Page 217: Everyone has their own marriages, she thinks.
Page 232-3: What would it be like for him, she wondered, to leave her after this? Would it be like one of his historical anecdotes, where a small army departed a Carolingian border town with courtesy and silence, or would everything around them clatter with repercussions?
Page 275: If a wound is great you cannot turn it into something that is spoken, it can barely be written.
Page 284: We order our lives with barely held stories.
Page 139: She was organized, ardently neat, whereas he was the rabbit's wild brother, leaving what looked like the path of an undressing hurricane wherever he went.
Page 217: Everyone has their own marriages, she thinks.
Page 232-3: What would it be like for him, she wondered, to leave her after this? Would it be like one of his historical anecdotes, where a small army departed a Carolingian border town with courtesy and silence, or would everything around them clatter with repercussions?
Page 275: If a wound is great you cannot turn it into something that is spoken, it can barely be written.
Page 284: We order our lives with barely held stories.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Little Fires Everywhere
A lovely story by Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere is an engaging study of just about any mother/child situation you could think up. It sets up opposing forces, such as affluence vs. poverty, order/rules/decorum vs. chaos/free spiritedness/change, to name a few. But it doesn't force one over the other. It allows the complexity of difficult situations in which there is no clear right or wrong. Ng allows the reader to sympathize with all sides of an issue.
Yeah, I liked this book.
Page 7: The firemen said there were little fires everywhere," Lexie said. "Multiple points of origin. Possible use of accelerant. Not an accident."
Page 32: This was how Moody made a decision he would question for the rest of his life. ... If he had kept her to himself, perhaps the future might have been quite different.
Page 79: In the first week of school, after reading T.S. Eliot, she had tacked up signs on all the bulletin boards: I HAVE MEASURED OUT MY LIFE WITH COFFEE SPOONS and DO I DARE TO EAT A PEACH? and DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?
Page 88: She kept thinking of Mia's smile that day in the kitchen, the capability she saw there to delight in mischief, in breaking the rules.
Page 122: To a parent, your child wasn't just a person; your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all existed at once.
Page 160: She wondered which was the real world.
Page 161: All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control.
Page 239: Each time, faced with this impossible choice, she came to the same conclusion. I would never have let myself get into that situation, she told herself. I would have made better choices along the way.
Page 269: But the problem with rules, he reflected, was they implied a right and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time there were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on.
Page 304: Sex changed things, she realized - not just between you and the other person, but between you and everyone.
Page 306: "I don't want to. But we have to." Mia held out her hand. Pearl, for a moment, imagined herself transforming into a tree. Rooting herself so deeply on that spot that nothing could displace her. ... She took Mia's hand, and Pearl, uprooted, came free and followed her mother back to the car.
Page 310: She smelled, Mia thought suddenly, of home, as if home had never been a place, but had always been this little person who she'd carried alongside her.
Yeah, I liked this book.
Page 7: The firemen said there were little fires everywhere," Lexie said. "Multiple points of origin. Possible use of accelerant. Not an accident."
Page 32: This was how Moody made a decision he would question for the rest of his life. ... If he had kept her to himself, perhaps the future might have been quite different.
Page 79: In the first week of school, after reading T.S. Eliot, she had tacked up signs on all the bulletin boards: I HAVE MEASURED OUT MY LIFE WITH COFFEE SPOONS and DO I DARE TO EAT A PEACH? and DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?
Page 88: She kept thinking of Mia's smile that day in the kitchen, the capability she saw there to delight in mischief, in breaking the rules.
Page 122: To a parent, your child wasn't just a person; your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all existed at once.
Page 160: She wondered which was the real world.
Page 161: All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control.
Page 239: Each time, faced with this impossible choice, she came to the same conclusion. I would never have let myself get into that situation, she told herself. I would have made better choices along the way.
Page 269: But the problem with rules, he reflected, was they implied a right and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time there were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on.
Page 304: Sex changed things, she realized - not just between you and the other person, but between you and everyone.
Page 306: "I don't want to. But we have to." Mia held out her hand. Pearl, for a moment, imagined herself transforming into a tree. Rooting herself so deeply on that spot that nothing could displace her. ... She took Mia's hand, and Pearl, uprooted, came free and followed her mother back to the car.
Page 310: She smelled, Mia thought suddenly, of home, as if home had never been a place, but had always been this little person who she'd carried alongside her.
Friday, March 30, 2018
Born a Crime
I find Trevor Noah to be intelligent and reasonable, but most of all having a decidedly positive attitude. After reading his book Born A Crime and seeing him live in Portland, it's seems clear that his outlook and his joy is a personality trait that is at the core a choice and was modeled by his mother.
Born a Crime was a fresh read that I thoroughly enjoyed. It provided a new perspective that I found very accessible. Instead of writing down quotes, I noted a few page numbers to refer back to. So I'm reconstructing after-the-fact and picking a line or two out, when I would really like to quote the whole page (or three!). You'll have to find the book and read the section for yourself. Better yet, read the whole book.
Page 57: I was eleven years old, and it was like I was seeing my country for the first time. In the townships you don't see segregation, because everyone is black.
Page 75 - Ack, you just have to read the whole page! It gives an example of fundamental lack of logic of racism in general and of apartheid specifically.
Page 222: We live in a world where we don't see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another's pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place. But read the story of how he came to this conclusion!
On page 271 we see Trevor trying to understand the complexity of domestic violence situations.
Great book.
Born a Crime was a fresh read that I thoroughly enjoyed. It provided a new perspective that I found very accessible. Instead of writing down quotes, I noted a few page numbers to refer back to. So I'm reconstructing after-the-fact and picking a line or two out, when I would really like to quote the whole page (or three!). You'll have to find the book and read the section for yourself. Better yet, read the whole book.
Page 57: I was eleven years old, and it was like I was seeing my country for the first time. In the townships you don't see segregation, because everyone is black.
Page 75 - Ack, you just have to read the whole page! It gives an example of fundamental lack of logic of racism in general and of apartheid specifically.
Page 222: We live in a world where we don't see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another's pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place. But read the story of how he came to this conclusion!
On page 271 we see Trevor trying to understand the complexity of domestic violence situations.
Great book.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Milk and Honey
Rupi Kaur wrote this collection of poems, Milk and Honey and my daughter gave me a copy for Christmas. Rupi takes us through a journey split into four sections: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing. There were parts I grappled with, didn't entirely relate to - but her underlying honest emotion I found very relatable, especially towards the end. I read it in a day and didn't keep any quotes, but I skimmed over it and found a few short enough to celebrate here that I really liked (short being a criteria to some degree - for the sake of expedience.) You should check Kaur's work out. Her drawings are wonderful companions to her lovely words.
Page 47:
no it won't be love at first sight when we meet it will be love at first remembrance cause i've seen you in my mother's eyes when she tells me to marry the type of man i'd want to raise my son to be like
Page 151:
accept that you deserve more
than painful love
life is moving
the healthiest thing
for your heart is
to move with it
Page 160:
it takes grace
to remain kind
in cruel situations
Page 186:
how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you
Page 47:
no it won't be love at first sight when we meet it will be love at first remembrance cause i've seen you in my mother's eyes when she tells me to marry the type of man i'd want to raise my son to be like
Page 151:
accept that you deserve more
than painful love
life is moving
the healthiest thing
for your heart is
to move with it
Page 160:
it takes grace
to remain kind
in cruel situations
Page 186:
how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you
Monday, October 16, 2017
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry
I visited my best friend from high school, Carrie, over the summer. My son is her godson and he was to stay with her in Seattle to attend a jazz camp for a week. Carrie and I went to jazz camp together when we were kids, so it seemed especially appropriate. She lent me a wonderful book: My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry. Fredrik Backman, the author, originally wrote it in his native language, Swedish. There were some fun reminders of that throughout the story when the reader is informed that the protagonist spoke some phrases in English, like her favorite English phrase "No shit, Sherlock". Of course it's all in English for me and my English version.
I was initially skeptical that a seven-year-old (almost eight!) would be able to carry a story that would keep me interested, but I was definitely held rapt. Some favorite lines:
Page 11: Because all seven-year-olds deserve superhereoes.
Page 22: Elsa is the sort of child who learned early in life that it's easier to make your own way if you get to choose your own soundtrack.
Page 36: The room in the hospital smells as bad and feels as cold as hospital rooms tend to when it is barely above freezing outside and someone has hid beer bottles under her pillow and opened a window to try to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke.
Page 45: Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild's ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.
Page 66: They sit there in the sort of silent eternity that only mothers and daughters can build up between themselves.
Page 80: People who have never been hunted always seem to think there's a reason for it. "They wouldn't do it without a cause, would they?" As if that's how oppression works.
Page 150: Mum puts her hand on Elsa's hand and inhales deeply from the point where they are touching, as if trying to fill her lungs with Elsa. As mums do with daughters who grow up too fast.
Page 276: Elsa doesn't believe in Santa, but she has a lot of faith in people who do believe in him. She used to write letters to Santa every Christmas, not just wish lists but whole letters. They weren't very much about Christmas, mainly about politics. Because Elsa mostly felt that Santa wasn't involving himself enough in social questions, and believed he needed to be informed about that, in the midst of the floods of greedy letters that she knew he must be receiving from all the other children every year. Someone had to take a bit of responsibility.
Carrie got me hooked! I'm looking forward to reading Backman's A Man Called Ove. A great writer.
I was initially skeptical that a seven-year-old (almost eight!) would be able to carry a story that would keep me interested, but I was definitely held rapt. Some favorite lines:
Page 11: Because all seven-year-olds deserve superhereoes.
Page 22: Elsa is the sort of child who learned early in life that it's easier to make your own way if you get to choose your own soundtrack.
Page 36: The room in the hospital smells as bad and feels as cold as hospital rooms tend to when it is barely above freezing outside and someone has hid beer bottles under her pillow and opened a window to try to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke.
Page 45: Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild's ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.
Page 66: They sit there in the sort of silent eternity that only mothers and daughters can build up between themselves.
Page 80: People who have never been hunted always seem to think there's a reason for it. "They wouldn't do it without a cause, would they?" As if that's how oppression works.
Page 150: Mum puts her hand on Elsa's hand and inhales deeply from the point where they are touching, as if trying to fill her lungs with Elsa. As mums do with daughters who grow up too fast.
Page 276: Elsa doesn't believe in Santa, but she has a lot of faith in people who do believe in him. She used to write letters to Santa every Christmas, not just wish lists but whole letters. They weren't very much about Christmas, mainly about politics. Because Elsa mostly felt that Santa wasn't involving himself enough in social questions, and believed he needed to be informed about that, in the midst of the floods of greedy letters that she knew he must be receiving from all the other children every year. Someone had to take a bit of responsibility.
Carrie got me hooked! I'm looking forward to reading Backman's A Man Called Ove. A great writer.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Gwendy's Button Box
I went to the library the other day when I was waiting for my son, who was waiting for his turn in the barber's chair. I haven't read a Stephen King story in awhile and this book had a big sticker saying "Lucky Day" on it. So I felt lucky. Gwendy's Button Box was co-authored by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. I finished it the same day but I mused on it much longer. It was a quick and tidy ride through the problem of responsibility for world peace. I only kept one quote:
Pages 27-28: Gwendy has a thought (novel now in its adult implications, later to become a tiresome truth): secrets are a problem, maybe the biggest problem of all. They weigh on the mind and take up space in the world.
Pages 27-28: Gwendy has a thought (novel now in its adult implications, later to become a tiresome truth): secrets are a problem, maybe the biggest problem of all. They weigh on the mind and take up space in the world.
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