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The Perfect Mother to Daughter Gift

November 17, 2010 in book review, gifts by Kim | 5 comments

My girlfriend Maria described opening up a cookbook her mother gave her years ago and reading the inscription.  Her mother suffers from dementia.  She said through sudden tears, ‘it had her voice.’  She hadn’t heard her mother’s true voice in many years, and won’t again.  I remembered that moment when I read a blurb about Prudent Advice – lessons for my baby daughter (a life list for every woman) by Jaime Morrison Curtis.  I believe the project started as a blog that Jaime wrote when her daughter was an infant, a list of what she wanted her to know written down as Jaime thought of it.  At first glance, the book is the type that I generally find by the bookstore cash register and might pick up as an impulse buy, then I had a flash of inspiration.  What if I used it as a vehicle for my voice?

Kelsey’s most beautifully wrapped present under the tree this year will be Prudent Advice with my comments written through out.  Where I agree with Jaime, such as item #7 “Make time for the art museum in every city you visit” or #21 “Pay attention to politics” I’ve scribbled “Completely agree” or “this author is a genius” or added a line of exclamation points.  Other places Jaime and I diverge, for #4 “When given the opportunity, wear a costume,” I wrote “couldn’t disagree more, if it’s a costume party, RSVP no.”  For the advice about dogs, I added “a dog will always be happy when you come home, teenagers, not so much.”  For other entries I wrote about her attributes, that she’s a great hugger or what colors her eyes look best with.  There are some places where I admitted I fell short and she should do better than me (writing thank you notes was one example).  I weave in family history, that I sang “Jesus Loves Me” to her every night when she was a baby or a reference to the subway train she didn’t want to rush to.  The author includes a few recipes, I’ll write in a couple of our family favorites on the back cover.

My daughter is 13 years old and I’m not sure how much more she really wants to hear my voice right now.  It occurs to me that this gift may be most valuable after I’m gone, but I’ve always been one who planned ahead.

It takes some time to complete this gift, I’m not through the book but I should make it for Christmas, or her birthday, or sweet sixteen, or graduation (middle school, high school or college).  There’s time.  For a picture of a section I’ve completed, click to the jump page. Read the rest of this entry »

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Green Book Campaign: Season of Suffering-Coming of Age in Occupied France

November 10, 2010 in book review, environment, history by Kim | 4 comments

The Green Books Campaign

This review is part of the Green Books campaign.Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on “green” books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

Season of Suffering-Coming of Age in Occupied France by Nicole H. Taflinger

Since this is Green Book Campaign Day, it’s appropriate to note that Washington State University Press published Season of Suffering on pH neutral, acid-free paper.  Taflinger’s memoir is perfect for a university press because it is more a memory document than a contemporary juicy tell-all.  It reads like a transcribed interview without the questions.  I picked this book because I have thought repeatedly about Nemirovsky’s telling of the German occupation of France in Suite Francaise.  Season of Suffering would be the type of book Nemirovsky, or any other author, could use as source material for a novel.

While there isn’t a story arc in the book apart from the dramatic historic events, Taflinger’s life experience is important.  Taflinger’s family wasn’t Jewish or bombed, it was an ordinary French Catholic family.  What was life like for ordinary non-Jewish French citizens?  Was there enough food?  Who was brave and who were collaborators?  (This was a question that frequently wasn’t answered until after the war.)  What did the citizens of Nancy know of the world outside their town?  Taflinger described a life of little food where electricity, coal, wood were all scarce and unreliable.

I found the period right after the occupation interesting.  Her father was a POW the entire war and the years of listening to German propaganda ruined him.  He returned more pro-German than pro-American or  Allied forces.  Despite being sent to a farm as slave labor for years, he walked home refusing all offers of assistance from American officers.  He believed his wife and child had an enjoyable life with German boyfriends while he was gone.  American readers have an awareness of PTSD and brainwashing from our own soldiers returning home from our current wars, this was a view of the WWII European experience. Reading Taflinger’s worry over her father’s life during the entire war, then the joy in seeing him alive, immediately followed by the shock of who he became was a heartbreaking aspect of the book.

Taflinger married an American officer, the first pilot to land in Nancy, a scene she describes vividly even including the size of his feet.  She relayed the populations mixed feelings about the Americans.  They were certainly heroic liberators initially greeted with hugs and kisses, but they also were dangerous.  She said no woman ever feared being raped by the German soldiers, but women could not safely walk alone while the Americans were in town, incidents of rape and overall bad behavior were too common.

Season of Suffering documents an important aspect of German occupation that will be useful for all of us who only experience it through history and novels.

Interested in reading Season of Suffering yourself?  Leave a comment with your e-mail by Sunday, November 28 at 11PM and I’ll pick one winner.

10 Activities for the Green Reader

Want to incorporate your green lifestyle with your reading habits?  Eco-Libris has 10 suggestions:

1. Check the reviews of books on the campaign’s list that look interesting to you and add your comments to their reviews.
2. Tweet the campaign (you can also follow it on twitter).
3. Post it in your Facebook status update and join the conversation on the campaign’s Facebook page.
4. Learn more about the green agenda of some of the participating publishers on Eco-Libris blog. Read the rest of this entry »

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Recommended Reading for England

November 7, 2010 in book review, recommended reading, travel, young adult by Kim | No comments

Reading novels about where I’m traveling adds another dimension to the trip.  The people who pass me on the street, the current news, the historical sights all take on a deeper meaning when I experience them in person and in a book concurrently.  Before our big family trip each year, I ask various booksellers for literary recommendations.  This year we spent two weeks in England and Wales, here’s what we read along the way:

Once and Future King by T.H. White – This is one of Claire’s favorite books and when I decided we would travel through the region of Arthurian legends, I knew it was time to read it.  I’m not a huge fantasy reader (love C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, but who doesn’t), yet I enjoy the Arthurian legend with all those handsome knights dashing around.  White’s take is deservedly one of the best for combining adventure with moral challenges and decisions, it is definitely my kind of fantasy.  Plus, I liked the mental torture of envisioning how Merlin lived backwards.

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart – When I read this series 20 years ago, I raced home from work, grabbed dinner, and spent the entire evening reading.  This time, I revisited the Arthur tales with Once and Future King and passed Stewart’s tale to my husband and daughter.  Keith loved The Crystal Cave and went on to read the entire series.  Kelsey kept asking “when is Arthur going to show up?”   At which point I remembered that this telling was from the Merlin angle, that Once and Future King is largely about Lancelot, and The Mists of Avalon about Morgan Le Fey.  Who writes from Arthur’s point of view?  After reading about the legends, we all got a kick out of standing in silence (required) around the well in which Arthur dropped the chalice.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Sussana Clarke – Staying in the fantasy genre with some historical fiction thrown in (think British magic meets the Napoleonic wars), I enticed Kyle with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  While he liked the book and was able to add historical tidbits when walking around London, he thought it was unnecessarily long.  My husband picked it up about halfway through the trip and realized at about page 200 that he liked it, but not enough to read another 400 pages.  If you love delving into a long book, my impression is that this one is great company for an overseas flight.  (Recommended by Idlewild Books)

Un Lun Dun by China Mielville- a fantasy book for Kelsey recommended by Idlewild Books, she read it multiple times.  Set in present day London, a different world is discovered by the heroine.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson – We have a family of Bryson fans, all lead by Kyle, and when I found a book about Bryson’s travel around Great Britain at Idlewild Books, I knew it would be a hit.  Little did I realize how much laughter it would add to our trip.  Both Kyle and Kelsey read the book in the backseat of our little rented car and we would hear bursts of gut splitting laughter.  As we traveled through some of the areas Bryson visited, the kids found the appropriate page and read what he wrote.  There is a mining city in Wales that I laughed all the way through.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith – a crossover YA book, I bought it for Kelsey and me.  Kelsey tried reading it several times, but it didn’t interest her.  Initially written in 1948 and recently republished, it isn’t the typical plot driven YA book.  It has an aura of romance and a clash of American and British youth, but the plot builds relatively quietly.  I enjoyed it but understood how today’s younger YA reader expects a book to move faster.  (Recommended by Between the Covers)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – We spent a couple of days in Bath and I couldn’t imagine visiting there and not knowing its Austen heritage.  I gave my husband  Northanger Abbey and possibly I should have remembered that it is Claire’s least favorite Austen.  He finished it, grumbling.  I’m not sure if he’ll ever read an Austen book again.  I did ask if he understood 18th century Bath better because of the book, were the Pump Room lunch or the walking the promenade enliven by the book?  I think his response was something along the line that Northanger Abbey kills more than it enlivens.  That being said, I love the book and felt I was walking around the city in Jane’s footsteps.

I read a slew of realistic novels that contained social commentary and/or an inside view of British life.  If I were to do it over again, I’d read them in the following order, that is Read the rest of this entry »

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Gin Phillips Speaks

November 1, 2010 in book review, Literary Event by Kim | No comments

If you liked The Help, then read The Well and the Mine.  Personally, I liked it better, it’s quietly thought provoking.  The book starts with a dramatic action, a woman drops a baby down a well, and all the characters struggle with the event.  These characters are ordinary people, very much like someone the reader knows. There isn’t a crusade, just regular people dealing with a terrible economy, racism, and a tragic event.  When I was reading it, the book I kept thinking about wasn’t The Help, but To Kill a Mockingbird.

Gin Phillips joined the Cafe Conversation at the Beverly Hills Literary Escape with Ethan Canin, David Ulin and Mona Simpson.  I wondered how she would do as a first time novelist with three authors who have traveled around the book tour block several times.  She more than held her own.  I heard her again at the Saturday historical fiction lunch with Tatjana Soli.  Here are a few of her comments:

  • Economic Similarity? Many consider the book timely (even before the Chilean miner crisis) because it is set in and was published during severe economic downturns. Phillips understands the connections people are making but described a much more frightening world in 1931.  The society her characters live in do not have a safety net.  There isn’t Social Security, disability, or Medicare.  If a miner was hurt or disabled the family was facing an abyss of suffering, many were quickly homeless and starved to death.  Occasionally the community could help, but the community couldn’t provide long term assistance.  Moreover, there wasn’t even a minimum wage or a limit on the number of hours in a working day.  Canin quipped “I saw a bumper sticker recently that said “Unions, the people who brought you weekends.”  Her characters lived in a much harsher world.
  • Racism.  The mines were the only place in Alabama where black and white men worked together.  Segregation was so strong that the two races rarely mixed which resulted in each race believing the stereotype of the other.  Working together complicated these racist opinions.  Phillips found from her own reading that frequently the South is depicted as a vast lynching ground under Jim Crow laws, or a character shows up akin to a modern day Bill Clinton.  Neither is realistic.   Read the rest of this entry »
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Verghese Speaks

October 12, 2010 in book review by Kim | 2 comments


What better way to kick off the Beverly Hills Literary Escape than a cozy conversation with Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone? Verghese genuine interest in discussing his book and medical practice left everyone spellbound.  Here are some highlights:

  • A Wandering Writer. Verghese wrote Cutting for Stone over a seven year period, a little bit every day.  He told me before the talk that he believes in the process of building one piece at a time.  He started with a mental picture of a nun in an operating room having a baby.  That was already shocking, yet he upped the drama by giving her twins.  He doesn’t write from an outline, but through experimentation.  That’s how he came upon Marion’s voice as the narrator, moving fairly seamlessly into, then out of, and then into again, first person.  He worked to combine the intimacy of first person with the omniscient knowledge of third person.  His model was the opening scene of The Tin Drum when the grandson tells how his grandmother was impregnated, but how would he have have known? [An excerpt of just this scene is in Wherever I Lie is Your Bed.]  About three quarters or approximately five years into the book, Verghese’s editor said it was time to end the experimenting and find the conclusion.  There were too many options and Verghese needed to narrow in on where the book was going.  In a state of anxiety, he flew to New York and free associated with his editor until he mapped out the remainder of the novel.
  • Size Matters. Initially, Sister Mary Joseph Praise’s story was to return at the end of the book with few hundred pages of text.  However, the author noticed that when people in bookstores pick up a long, large book, they tend to put it back.  He felt size matters and if a book is too long, it can discourage people from buying it.  I look at long books and think it’s more likely than not that the book needed a stronger editor.  I affirm his choice, this ending works.
  • Shiva. He didn’t want to give Shiva a clinical diagnosis, but as the reader suspects, Shiva has Asberger’s Syndrome.  At one point Verghese’s editor said “I can’t really see Shiva,” and he answered “precisely.”
  • Inquiring Minds Want to Know, What Does the Title Mean? His goal was for the title to be a bit mysterious, I’d say he accomplished it.  My mother read the book first and asked me as I was reading it, do you get the title?  My first thought went to sculpture, cutting marble/stone for a statute, so I kept looking for art references.  Don’t go that route, it took me nowhere.  Verghese explained that there is a line in the Hippocratic Oath that a doctor promises not to cut for stone.  In the olden days, people suffered from bladder/gallbladder/kidney stones that caused extreme pain and ultimately death.  Charlatans wandered the countryside cutting the stones out bringing immediate relief but also death from a hacked and germ infested procedure.  New doctors still promise to not perform these operations.  It’s a phrase that resonated with the author whenever he repeated the oath.  Cutting for Stone was always the title of the book.  The characters’ last names were initially Pickering until it occurred to Verghese that naming them Stone tied the title to the book.  He wonders if maybe the title was a little too mysterious.  Hmmm, maybe.
  • Reading. Verghese sees little difference between practicing medicine (which he does at Stanford) and writing, they stress observation of and curiosity about  humans and their stories.  Verghese tells his medical students, “If you aren’t reading novels, the imagination part of your brain will atrophy.” Of Human Bondage directed Verghese to medicine.  The main character, Philip, failed as an artist but viewed medicine as an opportunity to see humanity “in the rough.” Verghese felt that a few may have the natural talent to be an artist, but if one worked hard enough, a person could be a good doctor and that’s what he set Read the rest of this entry »
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