Long for this World - Sonya Chung

I was eleven, I think. The world had begun to seem an unpleasant and unstable place. Magic. Magic was everything. See, click, poof! That first real camera seemed the answer to everything, a revelation--like a crime with no punishment. The world was mine for the taking. From the beginning, I somehow knew: behind the lens, I had my footing. It was a place of instant solitude, and safe.

Looking back, it was probably best that my parents refused my pleas for a complex manual-focus Pentax until I was older. Those first few years I had one variable to work with: the frame. Within such parameters, your eyes begin to work hard. You learn to tilt your head, bend your knees, step back, look away then look again. You learn to scan. Pause. Wait--for the light to shift, the subject to turn, the wind to blow, your eyes to adjust until texture and dimension come into relief. You learn to always keep your eyes working when they are open, sometimes even when they are closed.

Sonya Chung's novel tells the story of a Korean family spread over the world that finds itself coming together. The book is complex and layered with the family members and the vastly different lives they have lived. The narrator is a photojournalist daughter who brings insights from around the world, including war photography in Bagdad. The characters are distinct and offer a wide range of emotions and experiences. An ambitious first book that deserves the praise it has received. Chung is an excellent writer.

The Christmas Pig - Kinky Friedman

He was a good king but he was in a bad mood. Christmas was only a month away and he still had not commissioned an artist to paint the traditional nativity scene to be unveiled at the conclusion of the midnight mass.

"I've crushed whole armies for not celebrating Christmas," complained the king to his chief advisor, Feinberg. "Now I can't even properly celebrate it myself. Is there not an artist left in the kingdom? Have they all been burned at the stake?"

"Nay, my liege," said Feinberg. "They certainly have not all been burned at the stake. Some of them have merely starved to death."

Loads of fun! Kinky tells a laugh out loud tale about Christmas that is original and captures the spirit of the holiday. I couldn't stop reading this quirky fable that is totally enjoyable. The humor is irreverant and yet the book has very tender moments. A king, a jester, a little boy, a nativity scene, and a talking pig...what more could you want for smiles and magical feelings at Christmas time. The book jacket notes that Kinky may become the next governor of Texas, which was probably less likely than this fable becoming real. He would have had my vote.

Fludd - Hilary Mantel

At this early point, the topography of the village of Fetherhoughton may repay consideration. So may the manners, customs, and dress of its inhabitants.
The village lay in a moorland, which ringed it on three sides. The surrounding hills, from the village streets, looked like the hunched and bristling back of a sleeping dog. Let sleeping dogs lie, was the attitude of the people; for they hated nature. They turned their faces in the fourth direction, to the road and the railway that ledt them to the black heart of the industrial north: to Manchester, to Wigan, to Liverpool. They were not townspeople; they had none of their curiosity. They were not country people; they could tell a cow from a sheep, but it was not their business. Cotton was their business, and had been for nearly a century. There were three mills, but there were no cogs and shawls; there was nothing picturesque.

Fresh, original and filled with humor--what more do you need in a book? Mantel is a very gifted writer who creates a magical tale. Whimsical characters fill a small English town with a new twist on every page. An unusual new priest with a mysterious background intrigues the parishioners. The search for meaning in life is expressed in a fable-like fashion. Most fun to read.

Callings - Carl Dennis

Earth Day

"Mother Earth" is her name in fables

But now we agree that the mothering

Needs to be done by the children

Whose reckless doings have aged her,

Creasing her brow, stooping her shoulders

As she's waited for them to return

From nights of drinking, from speeding

For thrills on icy roads...

Thoughtful and well-composed poems make this a pleasant book to read. The are deep, yet gently expressed. I loved the flow of the author's lines. Each poem is like opening a lovely package. The messages are varied and read like sound advice from a wise grandfather. Beautiful simplicity make a poetry book worth reading.

Othello - William Shakespeare

I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then, must you speak
Of one that lov'd not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu'd eyes
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their med'cinable gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him thus.

Othello, scene ii

It's Shakespeare's great Othello...what more need I say. I liked this version edited by Ross McDonald as it contains nice introductions to the the theater world of Shakespeare's time and the writing of Othello. The footnotes are set up in a manner that doesn't distract from reading text and give brief explanations of outdated English to assist the reader.

The Echo Maker - Richard Powers

He is awake, or someplace near it. His body drifts on and off. Possible that he himself is here straight through. Only he doesn't know it, when what his mind hooks to comes and goes.
Ideas hit him, or he hits them. A game always, scores pouring in, as standings change. Surrounded by people--seas of them--the crowd a huge changing thought. He never knew himself. Every single human a separate line in a play so large and slow no one can hear it.
Time is a yardstick for pain. And he's got all the time in the world. Sometimes he jerks up, remembering, desperate to go, fix, undo. Mostly he lies still, signals of gnats he would catch and kill. They scatter when he reaches for them.

Something wonderful: he could count to anything, even all these swarms, just by adding one. Covering debts, bets. Hovering up by the highest number. In a lookout tower on a hill. People could do anything. They don't know they're gods, that they live through even death. People might make a hospital where they could keep every possible life alive. And then someday, life might return the favor.

This is a book that challenges human identity to a level so deep it is often scary. Following a brain injury, a brother struggles to return to who he was while his sister struggles with the strangeness of losing someone who still lives. The book uses its characters to intellectually and ethically examine consciousness. It has many layers and covers a lot of ground, but held my attention throughout. It is a very emotional read that contains mysteries and poetic metaphors. I loved the authors use of migrating cranes in the Nebraska town to draw the reader into the larger question of life beyond the human mind. The author's writing is both beautiful and evocative while often reading like a poem. A greatly talented writer.