Well, I got busy with...stuff...and didn't write any posts for a couple of weeks, and now I have a pile of books, but no more energy than I started with. So let's just catch up with a riffle of reviews, yes?
I'm doing well with the Popol Vuh (which is FASCINATING) and only OK with my 20 Books of Summer. I mean, I'm currently reading books 14, 15, and 16 -- and one is a WIT title, with another upcoming -- but I have serious doubts that I can read the entire Ring of Bright Water trilogy by the end of the month, especially since I have three or four library books that are crying out for attention...so I'll probably change my list a bit. And now:
Summerbook #11: Harlequin's Millions, by Bohumil Hrabal. Hrabal's later novel is all about growing old. In a town "where time stands still," the local castle has been converted into an old folks' home. Our narrator, a woman who remains unnamed, wanders around the grounds and, in her mind, through her memories. Of course, even in this town, time does not stand still at all. Hrabal's trademark long, wandering sentences and comic outlook fit wonderfully, and I enjoyed this so much. (But I'm not sure: does the castle having once belonged to Count Špork sound as funny in Czech as it does in English? Is that a joke or not?)
At the castle, the music of Harlequin's Millions plays incessantly. I'd never heard of it, so I looked it up, and it's the score of a ballet, better known as Les Millions d'Arléquin or, in English, as Harlequinade. (That I've heard of!) The serenade piece, "Arlekinada," has long been popular and you can hear James Galway play it on the flute.
Summerbook #12: On Foot to the Golden Horn, by Jason Goodwin. It's 1990, and Jason Goodwin is dragging his girlfriend, Kate, and his more willing buddy, Mark, on a walking tour of Europe. The Iron Curtain is falling down, and they're going to hike from Poland to Istanbul! Kate thinks this sounds grim, but is game. (If anybody had offered to take me on this trip in 1990 I would have jumped at it, but I was 16 at the time so not all that smart.) They hike through Poland, the Slovakian part of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania before crossing to Turkey. Much of it is, in fact, on the grim side, but there are also amazingly hospitable people, beautiful scenery, and lots of history. And what a time to be exploring Eastern Europe! I was envious, but I'm not sure my stomach could have stood the food.
If you need to give up smoking, some of the descriptions of Romanian cigarettes will really help you out.
Summerbook #13: I'm Not Leaving, by Carl Wilkens. This is a first-hand account of the Rwandan genocide, told by one of the few Westerners to stay behind. Wilkens sent his wife and small children off to safety with the others, but they determined that he needed to stay behind and do what he could to help. Wilkens was mostly helpless to stop the violence, but he was able to sometimes truck needed water and other supplies around to various places where people were sheltering (usually orphanages). Sometimes he could take a child to a hospital to get care, and once he managed to convince a government official to call off some soldiers planning to wipe out an entire settlement. He must have felt horribly helpless the entire time, and his anger at the rest of the world, which mostly ignored the genocide, often comes through.
Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon, by Quincy D. Newell. This biography has been at the top of my TBR wishlist, and I finally got to read it in early summer. (I'm really late with this one!) Jane Manning James is well-known in the LDS world as an African-American woman who led her family members to join with the Mormons in Illinois in 1843. They were thrown off their steamboat, and had to walk much of the way -- literally barefoot in the snow. Jane lived with Joseph and Emma Smith and worked in their home. She emigrated to Utah with the rest of the church, and was a well-known personage until her death in 1908. For most of her life, Black church members were not allowed to have the priesthood or participate in temple ordinances, but Joseph Smith himself had offered to adopt her (by which he meant temple ordinances). She hadn't understood what he meant until after his death, and so once she was settled in Utah she started asking for that offer to be fulfilled. She asked for a long time, and she never quite got what she wanted, but she was able to do some things in the temple.
Newell writes a serious biography here, detailing everything known about Jane Manning James, and sometimes having to fill in a bit with (clearly labeled) guesswork. She explains the relevant historical background, but not at enormous length. It's an excellent biography, highly recommended to LDS readers or the curious.
 |
TSH cover I wish I had
|
The Hero From Otherwhere, by Jay Williams. One of those books I've heard of and meant to read forever, but it's practically unobtainable. It's a middle-grade/YA fantasy novel published in 1972. Jesse is the new kid in school, and Rich is his implacable enemy. They just hate each other. And then they are pulled into another world, where a professor/magician tells them that he summoned them to defeat Fenris, the wolf of destruction who has been loosed upon the world. If they fail, Fenris will eventually destroy all the worlds, so better get going, kids! Their quest is to find the three strands of the magic rope that kept the wolf imprisoned all these years, and to avoid the manipulations of the shape-shifting villain who let Fenris loose in the first place.
There are threads of Nordic and Celtic mythology in the story, but it's also a solid YA novel in its own right. I'm glad I finally tracked a copy down.
And here at the end of my looooong post, I just want to say -- California wildfires,
wildfires in the West generally, are no fun. For the past few weeks,
probably a lot of you (if you live in the US and east of me) have had
smoky skies, because there are fires everywhere. At least, it feels
like it. We have a big one east of here in the mountains; it started
pretty much where the 2018 Camp Fire did, and was again started by
PG&E lines, but it went the other way. The other day the fire
engulfed the little town of Greenville, and it still threatens Chester
and Quincy, along with the many little bitty places scattered around the
mountains. It's been very strange to have that going while
simultaneously having lovely clear skies, since the prevailing winds
have blown everything east. Today, though, it's horrible and smoky for
us too, and everything is grey and orange.
The book about the Rwandan genocide I'm going to add to my list. Have you read Shake Hands With The Devil by Romeo Dallaire? It was excellent. He was a Canadian military officer who led the peacekeeping forces. While the book is fascinating it is also sad and frustrating, a very bad illustration of human nature for the most part with some angels in between the pages. I highly recommend it.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, fires ...... Right at the beginning of summer the fires in B.C. were declared worse than the last two years combined. We had the town of Lytton burn to the ground and I know of people who have had to evacuate their houses in the Interior. In fact, I drove to Alberta last week and in one section of the highway there was a fire right beside the road and a helicopter dumping buckets of water on it. Scary. We have had an unprecedented hot and rainless summer which has not helped. But it looks like we might get a tiny bit of rain this weekend. Praying for it.