Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende (2008)

I was surprised to find Allende in the non-fiction section, so I thought it would be interesting to read her own story, as I wanted to understand having one foot in Chile and one in the U.S. It was amazing to read how open she was about her life, her family's joys and difficulties. The book is written as if to her daughter Paula, who died in the early 1990's. Allende has already published a book about Paula, but this is about the life of the family after Paula's death and her own struggles to keep going after the enormous grief. She lives in the San Francisco area with her husband, who seems to be a saint. I loved the way she kept pulling her family around her - even no longer family, like the widow of her daughter and his new wife, or her son's ex-wife and her new female partner, or her husband's granddaughter's adoptive parents - another lesbian couple. Allende realizes that at times she meddles too much in people's lives. I didn't believe she went looking for a wife for her son, and found one! She talks of writing, of family, friends, political situations, all with humor and insight.

I have enjoyed Allende's books, her novels Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, Inés of My Soul, Zorro, and novels for children, which I learned she had written for her grandchildren City of the Beasts and Kingdom of the Golden Dragon. (The first two I read before I started this blog.) So now I still have to read Aphrodite : A Memoir of the Senses, The House of the Spirits, Paula, My Invented Country : A Nostalgic Journey through Chile, The Infinite Plan, The Stories of Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows , and the last of the children's books - Forest of the Pygmies. All in good time, and I believe I will start with the first two.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (2008)

I don't think I will ever tire of reading good novels about books. Here's another. The main story that ties all the other together is about Hanna, a rare book preservationist, who gets the opportunity to examine and stabilize a 500 year old book, a Jewish Haggadah in Sarajeva. She finds small anomalies and things in the book that lead us to stories about the books travels over the years and through southern Europe. Each story is a heart wrenching one of the Jewish plight over the centuries.

The butterfly wing led to the story of how the book was saved during World War II and the harrowing destruction of the Jews by the Nazis. It also gives us a glimpse of Tito in his youth.

Each of these flash-backs into history not only tells the immediate story of the book itself, but gives a broad brush illustration of numerous people's lives - their lives, sorrows, families, lovers, castes, religious groups, which all end up affecting the fate of the book. For a while I couldn't understand what a doctor in Vienna in 1894, who discreetly treated STD's, had to do with the Haggedah. It turns out one of his patients was the one to rebind the Haggedah, and his illness influenced how he did that.

The wine stain leads to a priest, who worked as one of the main censors in Venice of 1609.

The minuscule crystals of sea salt lead to the story of the books creation in Spain of 1492, during the times of the Spanish inquisition and when all Jews were expelled from Spain.

The hair leads to the story of the creation of the illustrations, another very interesting peek into the history of Spain. May be another topic worth exploring. I now I've been fascinated by the story of the Moors in Spain, but I didn't realize what an interesting combination of Christians, Muslim and Jews have created Spanish history. One of the quotes I liked in this book was that the Christians made war, the Muslims build buildings and the Jews raised the funds. I still don't understand how Spain got to be such a huge empire. (Some of the other books I have read about Spain: The Spanish Bow, Zorro, Constant Princess (Katharine of Aragon was from Spain), and I am sure there are others.)

Some parts were hard to listen to - the torture, the killing, exile, etc. But then I had a sense of being privileged to get a glimpse of "what really happened" to the book, while the main character Hanna, just had a crumb of that history - the book had been in such and such a place because that is where this type of butterfly lives. I plan on buying this book for friends.

Zorro by Isabel Allende (2006)

Another wonderful book from Allende about 19th century California. The main characters go to Spain to be educated and land in New Orleans for a brief stay on their way back, so we see the situation in all three of these places. I've always liked the character of Zorro, and now Allende offered a detailed account of how this fictional character got to be the way he was, set in the a solid background of historical California, Spain, and New Orleans. The story is told by one of the characters in the book, and though I guessed about midway, she reveals herself only at the end. There is plenty of adventure and swash-buckling, but we learn where Zorro learned his fencing skills, his skills with horses, and his ability to climb all over the place (on a ship's rigging). It also explains the history of and Zorro's connection with his silent Indian friend. All in all, a fun read, with lots to learn. Wanting to read more about Spain at that time, and am trying to find more information on the pirate Jean Lefitte. Most of the books in our library are about the Jean Lefitte National Park.