Entry #7: "A Long Way Gone"

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2007.

Genre: Non-Fiction (Autobiography/Memoir)

To Learn More...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4yhPSQEzo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_Beah
http://www.nyc24.org/2006/newnewyorkers/childsoldier/index.html

Subjects & Themes: civil war; genocide; kidnapping, torture, murder, endless death; child soliers/children forced to kill; control; dictatorship; annhiliation; desolation & desperation; unspeakable horrors; adaptation & survival; huntering & gathering societies/tribal living; international relations; activism; rehibilitation; psychology; human development, family; forgiveness; perseverence; generosity; courage; compassion; finding one's voice; and, the ability to heal...

Reading Reaction: Where to begin? This is one of the most powerful literary experiences in recent memory. At heart, A Long Way Gone is truly an inspirational tale, and yet...It took me five starts only to determine that perhaps the audio route would be best. I just couldn't read the book (readerly immersion, for me, the utmost intimate), yet still, I sat, tears streaming down my face. Simply so raw, so simultaneously real and unreal. Nevertheless, I continued to listen, I would not turn away...I once visited the Holocaust Museum out in D.C. for much the same reason: Such stories must be heard, acknowledged, learned from, understood, even if only from afar. The continued perpetuation (and global ignorance) of such horror is enough to make an athiest pray for the existence of God, if only for the reassurance that there likewise exist the purgatories of hell for those content to create hell on earth.

Read A Likes (true tales of human atrocity--and survival):

1. Disguised: A Wartime Memoir by Rita De Clercq Zubli (2007).
2. Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children by Faith McDonnell (2007).
3. God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Day (2008).
4. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir (2002).
5. A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile by Agate Nesaule (1997).
6. When I was a Soldier by Valerie Zenatti (2007).

Related Reads (authentic voices of innocence lost):

1. Burn Journals by Brent Runyon (2005).
2. A Child Called "It:" One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer (1995).
3. Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2005).
4. Grief Girl: My True Story by Erin Vincent (2007).
5. Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses by Paula McLain (2004).
6. Running With Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs (2002).

Post Read Pick-Me-Up: Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive (you'll need it)

Entry #6: "The Professor's Daughter"

Sfar, Joann & Emmanuel Guibert. The Professor's Daughter. New York: First Second, 1997.

Genre: Graphic Novel (originally written in French)

Author Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joann_Sfar

Illustrator Info: http://lambiek.net/artists/g/guibert_emman.htm

Subjects & Themes: Egyptology; Victorian London; museums & mummies; archaeology & antiquity; cultural elitism, gender inequality, & social hierarchies; murder, madness, & mayhem; timeless (& unlikely) love; transformation; beating the odds; and, the living dead.

Reading Reaction: Thought the illustrations were pretty cool, alternating between panels of muted tones in black & white, and those that were colorfully vivid. As for the story, however, what can I say? Silly beyond compare. It wasn't what I expected at all (was hoping for something a bit more historically rich) with enlivening details of Ancient Egypt...Alas, The Profesor's Daughter, considered by many critics to be a modern classic within the genre, is pure fantastical escapism. If you've ever seen the movie, The Mummy, you get my drift. Such just doesn't suit my mood today.

Read-a-Likes (additional cheese, if you please,w/ a dash of (mostly) historic noir):

1. Dead High Yearbook by Ivan Velez (2007).
2. The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips (2004).
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005).
4. The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (2006).
5. Violin: A Novel by Anne Rice (1997).
6. Well Bred & Dead: A High Society Mystery (2007).

Related Reads (graphic novels for the slightly more aged reader):

1. A Contract with God by Will Eisner (2006).
2. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman (1993).
3. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (2004).
4. The Rabbit's Cat by Joann Sfar (2007).
5. Sardine in Outer Space by Joann Sfar & Emmanuel Guibert (2006).
6. Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar (2006).

Musical Accompaniment: Possum Kingdom by the Toadies (an intriguing enticement regarding the precarious promise of eternal life...)

Entry #5: "Blood Child"

"Truth is, I hate short story writing...Yet there is something seductive about writing short stories..." -- Octavia E. Butler

Butler, Octavia E. Blood Child and Other Stories. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995.

Genre: Science Fiction

Author's Website: http://www.sfwa.org/members/butler/

Butler's Obituary: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/260959_butlerobit26ww.html

Subjects & Themes: death & decay; chaos & control; dystopia; catastrophe; mutants; illness, genetic disease, & heredity; women & men/women vs. men; pregnancy; family; aging; loss; hopeless; drudgery; sense (or lack there of) of community; and, the ever present threat of annhilation.

Reading Reaction: A glimmer of intrigue, yet overall, pure displeasure (a fact about which I feel a little guilty, having only recently learned of the author's demise). For, try as I might, it seems inevitable that I will never acquire a taste for the realm of science fiction. I find it confusing & I simply can't muster enough inertia to decipher the message. Don't deny the author's talent--but I'll take a raw dose reality

Read a Likes (if bleak otherworldliness be your thing):

1. The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg (1998).
2. The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson (1989).
3. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1961).
4. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950).
5. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
6. The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood (1985).

Related Reads (more infamous sci fi)

1. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965).
2. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895).
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864).
4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985).
5. A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959).
6. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (1968).

Suggested Tunes: soundtrack from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Repeat only if necessary.

Entry #4: "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers"

"Shamelessly honest, sharp, poetic, and feminine. That's the starting point for my work."

-- Xiaolu Guo, essayist, author, poet, & filmaker

"Nothing in this book is true, except for the love between her

and him." --from A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Guo, Xiaolu. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

Genre: Contemporary International Fictional/Muticultural Romance

Author's Website: http://www.guoxiaolu.com/

Subjects & Themes: language & meaning; life & meaning; linguistics; dictionaries; diaries; inward journies & outward travels; exploration; cultural immersion; passion, propriety, & perseverence; individuality vs. selfishness; Ethnocentricism; art, exploration, & creativing; isolation, adaptation, & self-discovery; sense of family, the demands of love, heartbreak & longing; sex adn sexuality; abortion; aging; and, learning to let go.

Reading Reaction: Incredibly satisfied with having found an intellectually stimulating & reverently rendered read that urged me to "slow down, digest slowly". Sadly reminded of lost love, but to have, too, survived intact. Awed by perseverence of ESL speakers, especially those

whose native tongue so vastly differs from our own. Reaffirmed: A personal passion language-- despite its intricacy and inherently tenuous nature.

Read-a-Likes ("It's better to have loved & lost than never to have loved at all...")

1. Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000).
2. Cloud Mountain by Aimee E. Liu (1997).
3. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (1999).
4. Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (1999).
5. Loving Che by Ana Menbendez (2003).
6. Unburnable by Marie-Elena John (2006).

Related Reads (art, assimilation, &/or Chinese voice)

1. Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (2006).
2. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan (2001).
3. The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (2004).
4. Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Samantha Lan Chang (1998).
5. The Last Communist Virgin: Stories by Wang Ping (2007).
6. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (2005).

Suggested Background Music: Bach's Air on a G String (repeat, most definitely repeat).