Tag: blog

books, reading

Thankfulness, over San Luis Rey

k4books

In the United States, this was a week to be Thankful.  With so much going on in the world today, it is good that we stop and look to see where we have come from.

This is the case when a Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, witnesses The Bridge of San Luis Rey collapse in 1714, killing 5 people but saving himself from crossing at that exact moment. Believing his escape was based upon Divine Intervention of God, Brother Juniper strives to capture the fullness of each person’s lives that were lost to prove that he was saved by God. In doing this, he examines the relationship and choices of these individuals, one at a time.  The first to be examined is Doña María, the Marquesa de Montemayor. An old woman, described as ugly, is estranged and distant from her daughter, Clara, in Spain. Letters were the only way these two women could communicate to each other, because of the distance in spirit and in proximity.  Doña Maria takes on a companion, Pepita, who is not happy with her new role. She writes to the Abbess, from the convent she was at when chosen as a companion, of how miserable she is. Dona Maria finds this, and realizes that Pepita is brave in a way she is not, and the letters to Clara become more polished, so much so that they are studied in schools centuries later.

Estaban and Manuel, twins at the same convent that Pepita was at, also had a close relationship with the Abbess. She helped raise them, teaching them to be scribes, which led Manuel to meet and fall in love with Camila Perichole. Manuel, however, is cut on his leg, and while Estaban is following directions to clean it hourly, the pain makes Manuel curse his brother. After he dies from the infection, when asked which he was, he answered Manuel. The guilt and loss make him do crazy things, such as trying to kill himself. While he was not successful, he was on his way to buy a present for the Abbess when the bridge collapsed.

Lastly, Uncle Pio and Jamie, the confidant and son respectively of Camila Perichole, come down from the place she has hidden herself away after being scared by smallpox. Uncle Pio had hoped to bring the boy back to the world and prepare him for a future away from his mother.

As Brother Juniper examines each, ultimately making a “scorecard” for the souls that were lost.  He comes to no conclusion, but faithfully put his account to paper. It is found to be heresy, and both the book and the Franciscan are burned.

After the funerals for those that had fallen, Camila Perichole seeks out the Abbess to see how she can live without Uncle Pio and Jamie. She becomes a helper for the Abbess as she begins to let go of her grand hopes for continuity. Clara also returns and works with the Abbess.  The novel ends with the Abbess’s observation: “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

So on this thanksgiving weekend, the only meaning that remains is Love.

books, reading

The true self in life and in books

k4books

I spent this last week traveling for work, and I have not been away from the family that long ever. Happily, I returned to a standing home, with three humans happy to see me, and one dog that couldn’t lick me enough. I didn’t even see the dirty dishes and laundry that was waiting for me…..all week.  It is nice to be loved.

When I travel for work, there is a great opportunity for me to get some good reading in with little interruption, especially on a plane or in the hotel at night. This trip, while a long one, did not provide me with as much reading time as I expected, but it did provide my colleagues with much merriment at my passion for books.

See, my work team is located around the globe, and we were mostly together this week in Toronto (thank you to those that held down the fort on the home front). As we gathered in the office, we were able to chat casually about different things more easily than on the technology we have. A few of us somehow got on the topic of getting kids started right. I related my story of how we made our kids read 100 books to earn a WII, and the conversation kept going from there. At some point, I even shared a view of the excel workbook I maintain to track my reading. We laughed and went back to our work.

That evening, we were all out at a team dinner, and sitting at a long table. The people at my end of the table included some executives that oversee the global team, new employees and internal partners. We were a diverse group. Somehow we started talking about books – I did not start this  – as my colleagues begin to tease me. Over the next hour or so they are informed that I created a dashboard of my reading history (only back to 2011) like I do for work, explain how I choose the books, where I get them, and what format I prefer and more. Aside from feeling like the largest geek there (and I will fondly state that this was not an easy title because the whole team gave me a run for my money), we had an amazing time together. The best part was getting more recommendations for expanding my reading.

With suggestions for mysteries (thank you Fifi), fantasy (thank you Allison), logic (thank you Karl) and more, my TBR list continues to expand. I am so thankful for the support of my colleagues and friends in sharing this journey with me. There are so many new things to read that I know I will never run out of suggestions, so keep them coming!

On the flight home I was able to finish the book I started on my flight there. When you were older by Catherine Ryan Hyde’s story of a man that missed being in his office at the World Trade Center on Sept 11 because he got a call that his mother died. Great book for the plane, right? The story begins in the days after, working its way back to that phone call, and then back to the aftermath. Russell’s older brother Ben needed to be looked after, as he was not able to do so himself. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to the post-traumatic stress of seeing your office collapse, watching someone jump from the towers, and knowing that only you and one other from your entire office are still alive.  Russell meets and falls in love with an Egyptian baker in his small mid-western town, and the cultures clash, while emotions run high for all. The Arabic bashing that occurs due to fear, as well as facing the reality of being responsible for his brother, brings back all kinds of stress for Russell. Ultimately, this is a story of how to come to terms with the reality of what you have gone through, and being true to yourself and your humanity. Well done, not overly morbid, but too swift and nicely packaged an ending for my taste.

Off to update my dashboard, and add to my TBR list!

dashboard

books, reading

From Riyadh to Memphis

k4books

As the world gets busy preparing for holidays, I got busy to move more books off my TBR list.  The library came through and delivered me a book to check off a country on my armchair travel list – Saudi Arabia.  Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, translated by Marilyn Booth was a hit in the region, and I was excited to read about life from a woman’s point of view. The book, relating the quest for love by 4 women of Saudi, is told by an unnamed person writing emails to an email group. The names of the friends were changed, but the reality of the “lives” was shared by this third person.  I admit I was expecting anything but what I got. This book was related as though the emails were sent in 2004-2005. The lives of these women, while striving for love and self worth, are complex and rich. While the society does impact who and how they can be, they all take different paths to finding themselves and their own voices. And even if you don’t like which path they took, you are faced with the undisputed fact that they did all choose their own paths.

While I was reading this story of choosing paths, I was also reading Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.  In a different era, there was a horrible person that brokered babies, stealing them from poor parents and not providing safety or food properly, while doing the “good work” of finding homes for some children.  As the story is pieced together, the girls that are the focus are the “strong” ones – favorites of the fathers.  Both do their best to keep the family together, placing that above all else, until they are both faced with the fact that they need to put themselves first.  In doing so, they find a new peace.

In both cultures, across the span of time, the central characters don’t feel they have the ability to make a choice other than what their family wanted. And while the strong are the only ones left standing, the key to survival and happiness is always being true to who you are and who you want to be.

woman wearing hijab
Photo by Ambar Simpang on Pexels.com
books, reading, Uncategorized

End of Summer/Starting Anew

k4books

The days of summer are coming to an end. I live in a town that does not start school until after Labor Day, unlike so many other towns around us. That does mean we go later in June, and I am truly ok with this. Some traditions seem good to me, like only wear white anytime between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That one just seems practical – reflect the sun, less sloppy weather to get on the clothes, etc….

But I digress.  As the summer comes to an end, a new school year is upon us. New Year ideas and plans are fresh on my mind. My plans for this school year are all about setting up the study spaces differently, planning lunches ahead of time, updating the calendar of family activities in the hallway, and monitor screen time more aggressively.  No, I will not keep track of my success criteria on these.

As I reflect back on this year, I see my son growing taller than me (not necessarily a HUGE feat, but a milestone in itself). I see my daughter looking ahead, starting to plan for her own future, including driving lessons. I see my old friends continuing down the path of life, and know they were the right choice because after all these years, when we are together it is as if nothing has changed. And I see my dad, struggling with his physical decline, always with a smile and his motto – “I am doing the best I can with the tools I have left.” I see all this wonderful growth and community, and I want to keep going. That is a reason I started this journey with you.

And to continue this journey, I have decided to track the places I read. I set my aim to read from over 100 different cultures, with no timeline, at the outset. I searched the web for “around the world books”, and found a few interesting sites (taleaway and bookriot among them). I mapped my titles to countries and counted. From the list of 100 countries, I have read from 50 of them.  Shocking! Was this a goal I had without knowing it?

So what about the good old US of A? Have I read enough of my own country? Back to the web to collect information on the states I have read.  I have read books that are set in 37 of the 50 states and DC.  Amazement!!

These are all the more striking, since I have travelled physically to 9 countries and 26 states.  Thank goodness for books taking me travelling!

And so begins my “At Home Travel Log” to fill in the blanks for my New Year.  I will be doing this within my regular reading, so it will not be my only focus for book selection. I am stating this for no other reason than my TBR list is already in excess of 100 titles, and I continue my attempt to borrow most books I read from the public libraries.  Take a look at the lists, and let me know if you have any suggestions for the places I need to travel.