Tragically,
Shadid died this spring of an acute asthma attack, caused by a severe allergy
to horses, which he was forced to use trying to reach safety in Turkey while
covering the current crisis in Syria. A
well-known, Pulitzer-Prize-winning, Lebanese-American journalist, he was only
43 and this book was just about to be released.
As its subtitle says, it is “A
memoir of home, family, and a lost Middle East.” The book, covering the year between July 2006
and 2007, relates his rebuilding of the abandoned and war-scarred house that
his great-grandfather had built in Marjayoun, in what is now Lebanon. His first marriage has failed, and he has
taken a year off from the Washington Post
to reconstruct the house. It is also the
story of his family’s immigrant experience in the Oklahoma City area; of the
fall of the Ottoman Empire and redrawing of national borders in the Middle East
which has led to seemingly endless conflict in the area; and a meditation on what
he calls “the lost Levant” when Christians, Jews, Muslims, and several other
diverse peoples lived more successfully together. He
says “Gone was what had redeemed that long-ago Ottoman era, a Levant of many
ethnicities and faiths that managed to intersect before the vagaries of
nationalism. Myths had to be imagined to
join a certain people to a certain land that was so long shared. Pasts were created and destinies
claimed. The borders reinforced the
particulars of states with no ambition save the preservation of a petty despot’s
power, or a people’s chauvinism, or a clan’s fear, and cosmopolitan cities gradually
but irrevocably became national ones. In
the centuries that followed the fall of the Ottoman Empire, all those states
failed; none would quite capture the ambitions or demarcate the environments of
the diverse peoples that had lived there so long.” But parts of the book are very funny –
putting the house back together with the help of the contractor and workers he
found proved daunting. To read it is
also to understand the area a bit better.
And should you be as fascinated to see what the house became as I was,
there are a series of videos that were made during its reconstruction on
YouTube that are very interesting. How
sad that he and his second wife, who he married after the house was finished, and
his two children, were only able to share this house briefly. Inshallah,
they will continue to preserve it and his memory. 311 pp.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Entwined by Heather Dixon 472 pages
This is a "grown- up" version of the classic fairy tale about the twelve dancing princesses with dark undertones. Princess Azalea is charged with taking care of her younger siblings. Her father, the king, is mourning the death of his wife and keeps himself aloof from his children's needs. They feel trapped since they are supposed to be confined to the castle. So, when they are given an invitation to dance at a ball and are given a secret way out of the castle they grab the opportunity. The Keeper, who is the extender of the invitation, has a hidden agenda. Soon the nightly balls become a nightmare. The author of the book knows the world of courtly dance and weaves in a fantasy of dance to this tale. Entwined is "enchanting".
Alex Rider: Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz 402 Pages
Alex Rider does it again -- for the last time? The cover says:The final mission. Alex has been the only teen British spy. After each mission he is promised "retirement". After all, it would be a huge embarrassment if word got out that the British had to resort to using a teenage boy. Scorpia knows this and plans to use this weakness. As always the gadgetry and action is exciting; the pacing is fast and the locals, exotic. Horowitz sounds serious. A major character is killed off. Must reading for Alex fans.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The presidents club
Now this is my kind of book. A little "behind the scenes" politics that helps explain some history that you may already know. The relationships of presidents to the FORMER presidents is intriguing when you find out what they say about each other, who is the rogue who can't really be trusted on international missions, and how much they like each other. Most of us can understand that this is a difficult job but nobody understands it more than someone who has been in your shoes. I'm ready for this fraternity to go co-ed but still loved reading about the relationships from Hoover to Obama.
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Await your reply
This book started out with so much potential to be creepy, I almost put it down. The first chapter includes a young man getting his hand cut off by thugs and it seems to be going down hill quite quickly from there. Despite my original reservations, I stuck with it and ended up liking the book a lot. Many people who are pretending to be other people made it a little hard to follow at times and in the end you expect the big "reveal" but don't quite figure out what it will be. I listened to this on audio which made it difficult to back up and reconnect the dots but ended up being very satisfied with an interesting and twisty plot.
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Missed Connections
A fun book of illustrated "missed connections" which are messages on the internet from people who want to reconnect with other people that they don't really know but feel like they shared a connection somewhere. Lots are people who saw each other on the subway or maybe even exchanged some words but didn't get contact information. Blackall's drawings are delightful and this is a fun little book.
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Dead Boy Detectives/Jill Thompson
Rowland and Paine are two schoolboys who died almost a century apart. Now, due to a technicality, they're stuck on earth as ghosts, and making the most of their time before Death tracks them down. Now, they've been summoned to Chicago by the wealthy and beautiful Annika to track down her missing roommate at her prestigious all girls school.
As a rule, I'll read just about anything that claims to be a Sandman tie-in. I've also heard Neil Himself endorse Thompson's work, so I thought I'd give this a try. Unfortunately, this was a bit more of a stretch than I could manage. For those unfamiliar with Gaiman's epic comic series, Rowland and Paine only appear in one issue, but it's one of the creepiest issues in the entire run, and definitely one of the most memorable. Both attended the same boarding school, where they are tormented by bullies. In Paine's case, he was eventually murdered on campus; Rowland died almost a century later, killed by the ghosts of another set of bullies. Their story is dark and brutal and terrifying, so it's more than a little jarring to be thrust into a bright and bubbly, slapstick world of this manga. The tone was just too zany for me to reconcile with my main idea of these characters.
Some assembly required, by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott
Anne Lamott
famously chronicled her own foray into motherhood, single and in her thirties,
in Operating Instructions, the story
of her son Sam’s first year of life.
Now, at 19, Sam himself is becoming a father as his girlfriend, Amy, gives
birth to Jax. I enjoyed the first story,
but found myself considerably less charmed by this second generation tale. Although the book is meant to convey the
problems of the young couple (will they stay together? will Amy decamp from California to be with
her family in Chicago and take Jax away?), as well as the new grandmother’s
mixed feelings about both their tenuous situation and her own desire to control
their lives, I ended up being pretty sick of the whole group by the time Jax
turned one. And I got particularly tired
of Anne Lamott’s rather icky-poo relationship with Jesus, God, and whatever
other flaky spiritual advisors she finds.
272 pp.
The shoemaker’s daughter, by Adriana Trigiani
Needing a break from dystopias (Hunger
Games) and miserable childhoods (Why
be happy when you can be normal?), I was happy to immerse myself in a
little light reading by Adriana Trigiani.
She’s actually a fine writer, and her carefully researched history of
her family’s Italian immigrant experience adds considerable weight to many of
her novels, including this one. Enza and
Ciro grew up a few miles apart in villages high in the Italian Alps. Meeting briefly as teenagers, a spark is
immediately lit, but Enza is forced to immigrate to America with her father and
leaves without saying goodbye.
Ultimately (this is a romance after all) they reunite in America. This is not only their story, but the story
of many immigrants, and is, in fact, based on that of the author’s
grandparents. Enza sewing skills, and
her courage in the new country, lead her to an important job at the Met, where
Caruso becomes a friend. Meanwhile,
Ciro, after witnessing a priest’s indiscretion, is forced to flee the convent
where he and his brother have been raised after his father’s death and mother’s
breakdown. He also ends up in the New
York area. After learning the shoemaker’s
trade, and seeking more information about the death of his father in the iron
ore mines of northern Minnesota, Ciro ultimately settle in Chisholm MN. There are good times, and tragic ones as well
as world wars intrude on family life. An
engrossing read made more so for me because of the parts about the early
history of the Mesabi Range area where my mother grew up and we still visit
annually. 496 pp.
Why be happy when you can be normal?, by Jeanette Winterson
Another entry in
the miserable-childhood-memoir genre. And
Jeanette’s truly was. Calling her
adoptive mother “Mrs. Winterson” throughout the book, the author both conveys
the coldness of her upbringing and her attempts to distance herself from her
horrific childhood. Told from an early age that her parents “got the wrong crib”
when she was adopted; dragged to frightening church services; locked out of the
house for minor offenses; and otherwise abused, her survival is miraculous. Although
she grew up, despite her mother’s best efforts, to become an educated woman and
successful author (Oranges are the only
fruit, et. al.), her sense of self-worth remained fragile and she finally had
a serious mental breakdown in mid-life.
Not for the faint-of-heart. 224
pp.
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