Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks (2001)

Not exactly a joyousy book, but again a well researched historical novel about a town in England in 1665-66 that had the plague and quarantined itself from the rest of the world for a year until the epidemic was through. I have heard the plague mentioned when reading about history many times, but I somehow could not imagine the devastation, even when they said half or three quarters of the population died. This made it very real, personal, as each family loses members, maybe all, and what happens to those left behind, especially children. What happens when people filling certain roles in a town die? How does everyone cope?

I really appreciate it when an author explains where the idea came from and how much is real, how much has come from the author's imagination. Brooks provides her explanations in an afterward. Brooks visited the village of Eyam, which really did suffered the plague, and has quite a few books and plays written about the event, though she said there weren't many real facts, but quite a few anecdotes. I liked her comment: "William Styron once wrote that the historical novelist works best if fed on 'short rations' by the factual record." The voice of the novel is Anna, who is mentioned in a letter as: "My maid continues in health; which was a blessing..." Amazing that Brooks could take that brief mention and weave this elaborate tale of Anna's family, her miner husband who gets killed before the plague in a mining accident, her children, her work with the minister and his wife Elinor, etc. I really liked the way Anna and Elinor learned about herbs and their healing qualities, when the local wise woman and her apprentice were no longer available. And I enjoyed looking into the life of a small English village in the 17th century.

Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts (2008)

Two kids run away from Spearfish, South Dakota, after the woman they were living with dies in a Wal-Mart. They head to Las Vegas to find their father. Lutie is the 15 year old sister who has a foul mouth, shoplifts, but loves her 12 year old brother dearly and tries to provide for him. Fate is the brilliant little brother who loves books and facts and hangs out in libraries, when possible. I have to say at times it was hard to listen to their down and out life in Las Vegas, but you know that they will pull through and they do - someone helps them and takes them someplace where they can heal and find themselves.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (2005)

I have been avoiding this very popular young adult series, because I heard it was about vampires, and as I have stated before, they are not my favorites, though I seem to keep running into books about them. I decided I was going to wait when this first one of the series was available in the audio book store, and so there it was.

The story is set mostly in Forks, WA on the Olympic Peninsula. Since I was going to Seattle for a conference, and was going to have a day to see something, I was looking closely at maps of the area and found Forks. A friend suggested La Push as a good beach to go to, and the characters in the book go to the beach at La Push. Unfortunately both Forks and La Push were too far for me to visit, but I got close and got the feel for the dense, lush forests described in the book. I later went on Stephanie Meyer's site and found that she needed a very rainy part of the country for her setting and she had found Forks through Google. Love it!

The story itself starts out as a fairly typical teen story - girl goes to live with her father in Forks, so her mother can follow her current husband as he travels playing ball. I think Meyer did a good job of capturing the awkwardness of going to a new school and slowly making friends. But then she is drawn to a gorgeous boy who always sits with his siblings and seems to avoid her. They do become friends and I don't think I would be spoiling the plot to say she discovers he is a vampire - but one of the good kind, that doesn't drink human blood. It definitely makes for an interesting relationship. Other than the slow parts where she keeps harping on how beautiful he is and why would he want to spend time with her, I think it was engaging, and I might even read the rest of them.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (2007)

A very interesting historical novel from the point of view of Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress Mamah Cheney. Though Mamah was a real historical person, she is rarely mentioned, though she was a part of the famous architect's life during an important part of it. The author had to piece together Mamah's story from biographies of Wright, her work, occasional newspaper articles and archives. Since I have always loved Wright's work, it was wonderful to hear more about his philosophy, design style and buildings, especially the process of building Taliesin, which I still have yet to see. I have seen some of his houses in Chicago, Oak Park, and here in Kalamazoo. I enjoyed the love story too, the travels, the growth of feminism and Mamah learning Swedish to translate some important feminist works. I was interested in their thinking about marriage and divorce, I am sure that was very radical at that time, and in a sense, still is. The only part I had a hard time with was when Mamah chose Frank over her children, leaving them with their father. I liked hearing all the details of the era - the state of phone lines, use of cars, the craftsmen working on Taliesin, etc. Great read!

High Noon by Nora Roberts (2007)

It was a hard week, so I deserved a little guilty pleasure. I sat and just read one more of Roberts' thriller romances. This one has the heroine Pheobe be a hostage negotiator for the police. Interesting work - I never knew how they talk people down. Seems like they often don't get very far. Duncan is rich - won a major lottery ticket, but does good things with his money. Duncan has been adopted by a black family. More interesting characters like her mother, who is agoraphobic and won't leave the house. I also like the fact that Pheobe is divorced and has a daughter. Much more realistic of today's situations. Now if Roberts would only do more middle age romance.

Flotsam by David Wiesner (2006)

Just thought I'd check out a few of the latest Caldecott winners. When I started looking at this and found it had no words, and it was just a kid on the beach, I was disappointed, but then when he finds an old underwater camera and finds film inside which he has developed, I became fascinated. The imagination of Wiesner is just wonderful. Combining the real and fanciful. Like the octopus family sitting on living room furniture, but in the background you can see a moving truck upended, so the furniture could have fallen out of that.... Anyway, pure joy!

Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks (1998)

OK, I am on a Geraldine Brooks kick. This is her other non-fiction book which is her own story. Her father was an American musician, who chose to leave the US and live in Australia. Geraldine grew up in a suburb of Sydney, complaining about the dullness of her life, so she started looking for contacts with the rest of the world through pen pals in America, France and Israel. Later in life she looks these people up and sees how their lives had evolved. Somehow her search for life's answers speaks to me.

Rosetta Key by William Dietrich (2008)

I was not thrilled with the pace of adventure in this book. Seemed like Ethan Gage was constantly in mortal danger - in front of a firing squad, fleeing for his life, confronting a lion or crocodile, and I kept thinking - not again! Plus he was such a rogue - OK a fairly likable rogue, but still... What I did like was the snippet of history I got from this book. I picked it up, because it was about the Mideast, a part of the world that intrigues me again from Nine Parts of Desire. This takes place in 1798 and 1799, not too many years after the story of Marie Antoinette ends (a recent read), and it describes Napoleon invading Egypt and Palestine, before he became emperor of France. A quick check in the Wikipedia confirms the historical events - Napoleon's wiping out of thousands of people in Jaffa, but that he was unable to take Acre. The main character, Gage, is an American, looking for treasure and an ancient book. He is able to befriend and antagonize everybody - the French, the English, the local inhabitants, but in doing so, we see the story from all of their perspectives. The other intriguing historical piece is that Gage had worked with Ben Franklin, so he was always quoting Franklin, or asking himself what would Franklin do, and Gage was familiar with Franklin's experiments with electricity, which played a role in the novel. I also didn't realize that it was the French this long ago, who found the Rosetta Stone. That has always fascinated me, and it was the one thing I saw both times I was in London in 70's and a few years ago.

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (1968)

I seem to want to go back to some of the authors and books I really like in my youth. Though some of the stories seem dated, I still enjoyed this. I had forgotten this book is short stories, so I ran into the same problem I had with Pilgrims - listening to a series of short stories while driving around town makes for a jumble in my mind. I had forgotten how much Vonnegut leaned towards science fiction. He had various stories on the future. Some dealt with overpopulation - either many living in close quarters, or everyone's sex drive taken away, so people wouldn't procreate (in the title story). I do remember the one about the computer that fell in love and wrote love poems. I was a bit surprised about the Kennedy obsession, but then again, it was the 60's. Vonnegut obviously lived in the Cape Cod area, as that is featured in many stories. I think only one story is set in his version of Ithaca - from his Cornell days. Since I listened to this, I will have to wait until a copy is returned to the library to check it out and give more details on individual stories. I probably own a copy, but it's buried deep in the boxes I haven't unpacked since I moved into my parents house.

Nine Parts of Desire : the Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks (1995)

After an interesting phone conversation with a patron at work, I realized that Geraldine Brooks, the author of People of the Book, has written other books, and her first is this amazing non-fiction book about Islamic women. As a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, she had ample opportunity to interview and befriend women in Egypt, Jordon, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Eritrea, and other countries. She somehow pulls it all together in logical chapters about marriage, political power, education, work, the Queen (Noor of Jordan), etc.

This is the best explanation I have ever read and helps me understand the different levels of Islamic restrictions for women. Brooks is well versed in the Koran and the life of the prophet Mohamed, so she can show where different practices arose, and where they are inconsistent with the Koran or the prophet's life. I am in total awe or this woman, who being Jewish, took on wearing the coverings required by the women in each country. Ballsy woman. She was also able to explain the difference between the Shiites and Sunnis. Not that it makes logical sense, but at least I have some understanding now. I think my strongest gut reaction to the unfairness of the treatment of women arose from her stories about how Mohammed's revelations from God about women came in response to his own household situation. The multiple wives for the sake of alliances is still happening - reflecting the old European marriage patterns - like Marie Antoinette being an alliance between France and Austria. Of course, sometimes a new wife is taken to bear sons.

Though probably many men would enjoy total control over their women, I still don't understand why it has remained so ingrained in the Middle East culture. Though there are more liberal countries, seems that all Islamic women face more inequality than women in most other countries. Though some progress has been made (like outlawing clitoridectomies in hospitals of at least one country), there has been a conservative backlash in most of these countries. I would really like to read an update of how women have fared in the different countries in the 13 years since the book was published.