November 2008 - Page 2 of 3

book giveaway!

Win a free book and two handmade bookmarks!
This week\’s giveaway includes a copy of Kuki Gallmann\’s memoir I Dreamed of Africa and two bookmarks I made from my magazine scrap file, featuring lions and baobab trees in the sunset. This is a used book. It does have some wear from being read several times, and the front cover was creased when I acquired it. It\’s still in quite good shape, the pages inside are all clean. It\’s wonderfully illustrated by many plates of photographs, both color and black-and-white. While I\’ve read this book and enjoyed it, I haven\’t written about it yet, so here\’s an excerpt from the editorial review that serves as its description on Amazon:

This work by a native Italian woman who gave up a comfortable life in her homeland to pursue a dream to live in Kenya should appeal to readers who were enthralled with Isak Dinesen, Elspeth Huxley, and Beryl Markham… Gallman describes her move to Africa at the age of 25 with her husband Paolo and son Emanuele. Both Paolo and Emanuele meet violent deaths, but Gallmann is determined to stay with her newborn daughter in Kenya. She starts a ranch and a foundation to preserve African wildlife from poachers...

You can enter to win by leaving a comment here, until tuesday 11/25, when the winner will be chosen and announced. For an extra entry, blog about this giveaway and link back to this post (please let me know if you do so). If there\’s just three or four entrants, I\’ll pick a name out of a hat. If there\’s more, my daughter will throw them in the air like last time. Open to residents of US and Canada.

Tags: giveaways

The Iceberg Hermit

by Arthur Roth

About two hundred and fifty years ago, a young man named Allan Gordon quit his job as assistant in a tailor\’s shop and left Aberdeen, Scotland to go on a whaling voyage. He went on a few voyages, first as cabin boy then working as a sailor on the Anne Forbes, before the fateful accident in 1757. Allan was only seventeen when the ship struck an iceberg in the Arctic and overturned, becoming frozen into the ice. Allan was the only survivor.

He faced freezing temperatures, injuries, starvation and overwhelming loneliness. The mental strain alone must have been incredible, and several times Allan almost lost his will to continue struggling to live. When he adopted an orphaned polar bear cub (having killed its mother for meat), caring for it gave him a feeling of purpose and companionship. Resourceful and determined, Allan shouldered aside his fears and found ways to survive on his floating iceberg prison. After several years the iceberg finally neared land and Allan began trekking across the frozen landscape. He encountered a tribe of Eskimos who he thought were descendents of Vikings, and lived with them for some time. Seven years after disappearance of the Anne Forbes, Allan Gordon finally returned to Aberdeen. Hardly anyone believed his story. Many of the details Allan gave of his experience contradicted popular beliefs of the time about the Arctic. Yet as the author points out in his final chapter, when more was learned about those regions, a lot of the things Allan described were later proven to be quite possibly true.

Based on a true incident, The Iceberg Hermit is a fine adventure story describing survival against all odds, the growth of a young man into adulthood, and the friendship of a tame polar bear. The writing is more often than not simple, and I do wish more time had been spend describing Allan\’s period with the Eskimos (most of it is about the time on the iceberg) but it\’s a pretty good book.

Rating: 3/5 219 pages, 1974

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Historical Fiction, Juvenile Fic, Past Reads, Travel/Adventure

Bookmarks!

Buy my handmade bookmarks!
I just finished creating my first set of bookmarks, using artwork from my old sketchbooks. Drop by my Etsy shop and take a look! It\’s funny, I don\’t actually use bookmarks myself, preferring scraps of paper for taking notes to hold my place. But I love looking at beautiful bookmarks, and really enjoyed making these. So I\’m hoping someone else will want to own a few of these bookmarks, and in doing so help support my blog.

Now, what to do with all these magazine-scrap ones I made earlier? I\’m going to be including them in my giveaways soon. The first one goes up this tuesday (maybe even in combination with a book)!

Meme- Title ABC\’s

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Why am I awake and blogging at four am? Good question. My daughter is sick and I had to get up at three to check on her. Now I can\’t get back to sleep (husband snores pretty loud). So here we are. Well, KittyCat from Right Reads tagged me a few days ago for this alphabet meme I\’ve seen floating around forever. I was surprised how easy it was to come up with these titles! For every book listed here I easily thought of a few more, so maybe I\’ll do a second alphabet meme in the future. These are mostly old favorites (except for maybe Up the Down Staircase. It was good, but I wouldn\’t really call it a favorite. I couldn\’t think of another U title, though).

Amy\’s Eyes– Richard Kennedy
Bone People, The– Keri Hulme
Call It Sleep– Henry Roth
Dogsbody– Diana Wynne Jones
Edge of the Forest- Agnes Smith
Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
Grendel– John Gardner
Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The- Carson McCullers
I Will Call It Georgie\’s Blues- Suzanne Newton
Julie of the Wolves– Jean Craighead Geroge
Karen– Marie Killilea
Lastborn of Elvinwood, The- Linda Haldeman
My Friend Flicka– Mary O\’Hara
Neverending Story- Michael Ende
Once and Future King, The- T.H. White
Poisonwood Bible, The– Barbara Kingsolver
Q -?
Ratha\’s Creature– Clare Bell
Secret Garden, The- Frances Hodgson Burnett
Tam Lin– Pamela Dean
Up the Down Staircase- Bel Kaufman
Very Far Away From Anywhere Else- LeGuin
Wind in the Willows, The- Kenneth Graham
X – ?
Yearling, The– Marjorie Kinnea Rawlings
Zoo Where You\’re Fed to God, The– Michael Ventura

Tags: memes

Seabiscuit

An American Legend
by Laura Hillenbrand

Although I\’m fond of animals- horses among my favorites- I\’ve never been one to follow horse racing. I did love The Black Stallion film as a child, and enjoyed watching Seabiscuit on the big screen back when I lived in San Francisco. I had my doubts about actually reading the book (because seeing the movie first can ruin it for me), but Hillenbrand\’s direct writing style makes lively subject that could easily be dry and boring (and I\’ve tried and discarded several other books on horse racing). Seabiscuit: An American Legend tells the full story of how a little horse who didn\’t look like much became famous and inspired thousands of Americans during the 1930\’s. The book describes Seabiscuit\’s startling rise to fame: how he was trained, his quirks on the field, strengths and weaknesses, failures, injuries, medical treatments, and eventually his great success. Much more than just a story about a horse, it tells about the people who worked with Seabiscuit, what transpired to bring them together, and how avidly the public responded to him. At times the amount of names and facts could make my attention falter, but the story kept moving- interesting and full of details about the ractrack. I think besides learning about Seabiscuit\’s personality, I mostly enjoyed this plunge into the heart of the racing world. I also appreciated the afterward, in which the author describes her personal struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, and how the work of this book gave her contact with the world.

Rating: 3/5 399 pages, 2001

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Past Reads

The House of Sixty Fathers

by Meindert DeJong

This is one of those books I always heard the title of, when young, but never got around to reading until I was older. College, I think. I had no idea what I\’d find when I opened it. The House of Sixty Fathers is about a young Chinese boy named Tien Pao who lives in Hengyang during Japanese occupation in the late 1930\’s. While fleeing the Japanese army by boat, Tien Pao becomes separated from his family and ends up back behind enemy lines. His only companion is a pet pig (ridiculously named Glory of the Republic) who he has to keep from becoming someone\’s dinner (food being scarce) as well as trying to stay out of danger himself. Tien Pao goes through many adventures and frightfully close calls before finding a safe haven- with a bomb squad of American pilots (the sixty fathers of the title). While being nursed back to health in the American camp, Tien Pao hopes to find his family again, even though it seems utterly impossible…

The House of Sixty Fathers is a moving portrayal of a child\’s experience of wartime. It has plenty of historical information, presented in an unobtrusive manner which makes it easier to absorb. In spite of its many suspenseful moments, it still feels like a \”quiet\” book to me. The dialog flows easily, the prose is often lyrical, the illustrations by Maurice Sendak are lovely.

Rating: 3/5 189 pages, 1956

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Historical Fiction, Juvenile Fic, Past Reads

Nuts About Squirrels

A Guide to Co-Existing with- and Even Appreciating- Your Bushy-Tailed Friends
by Richard E. Mallery

When I first started reading this book, the constant humor really annoyed me and I thought I might not finish it. But then I picked up Solving Squirrel Problems, and some things in that book were even more irritating. So I came back to Nuts About Squirrels with a more open mind. This little volume is absolutely packed with information about squirrels. Mostly it talks about the hundreds of ways in which people try to stop squirrels from raiding birdfeeders (and pointing out why they all fail) but there\’s also info on squirrels in history, hilarious accidents squirrels have caused, anecdotes about people who become obsessed with chasing off squirrels, facts about different kinds of squirrels, instructions on how to feed squirrels (instead of persecute them) and a plethora of jokes featuring squirrels. In fact, the jokes are scattered so liberally throughout the book sometimes it was difficult to tell where the author was sharing factual tidbits or exaggerating for humor. In spite of how tedious it became to wade through the hyperboles and puns, I did learn a lot about squirrels. Some of the more interesting bits: early American colonists used to pay taxes with red squirrel tails, some squirrels gnaw on headstones, and there are a number of logging terms named after squirrels. If you\’re interested in squirrels at all, and want some laughs, this is a nice little book.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 168 pages, 2000

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads

feedback

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I have hardly read a book or blogged in several days, and this is why. I\’ve begun a new project. My husband has started bugging me lately about spending a few hours daily blogging when it doesn\’t bring any income. But I hate putting ads on my sidebar, so I\’ve decided to try something else. I\’m making bookmarks out of magazine clippings from my scrap file, and hope to sell them for few dollars each, to support my blog. Maybe make custom book covers, too. Only I don\’t know if anyone will be interested in purchasing such items. Do any of you sell handmade items on Etsy? I\’ve set up a simple shop but could really use some feedback or pointers. Thanks!

Here\’s a sample of what I\’ve made:

Briar Rose

by Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen\’s Briar Rose intertwines the story of Sleeping Beauty with that of the Holocaust. Its main character is Rebecca, who as a child always wanted to hear her grandmother\’s retellings of the fairy tale. On her deathbed, Gemma made a statement \”I am Briar Rose\” that haunts Rebecca. She\’s convinced that the story was not just a fairy tale, but a complex metaphor keeping alive the truth of her grandmother\’s past while masking its horror- that she was a Holocaust survivor. Rebecca sets off on a journey to Poland, seeking to uncover the secrets of Gemma\’s history- and finds out more than she ever expected.

Briar Rose is different than other Holocaust stories I\’ve read. Besides the fact that it is wrapped up in a fairy tale and rooted in a modern setting that pivots back into the past, it also tells of one of the less famous concentration camps- Chelmno (a short afterward explains the facts behind the story, particularly about Chelmno). Gemma is Jewish, but the book also features other groups of people who suffered from the Holocaust, namely homosexuals. I wish this book had been more memorable for me. There are other books by Jane Yolen which I read more than four years ago and still recall the storyline and characters clearly. This one is rather blurry in my mind. I remember mostly that it was very sad. Looking it over again today, I almost want to set down what I\’m currently reading and open Briar Rose. It\’s a book I really need to revisit for myself. I think this is one I would appreciate better as an adult.

Rating: 3/5 . 241 pages, 1992

Read more opinions at:
Melody\’s Reading Corner
Small World Reads

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Historical Fiction, Past Reads, Young Adult

Gingerbread

by Rachel Cohn

This is one of those books I picked up thinking it was something else. The title gave me the idea it was a fairytale in a modern setting, Hansel and Gretel perhaps. Nope. Gingerbread is about a spoiled, rebellious teen named Cyd from a wealthy family. She gets herself kicked out of boarding school and goes home to her mom, stepfather and half-siblings in San Francisco. They can\’t stand her sarcasm, tantrums and constant rule-breaking, so she gets sent to New York to her biological father. Cyd has been longing to meet him again. She still hangs onto a doll he gave her, which she named Gingerbread and has conversations with. Only of course, when she gets to New York, Cyd discovers her father isn\’t everything she remembers or expected. She has to do some growing up and realize that both sides of her family have their flaws and admirable qualities.

The dialog and slang in this book is sharp and quick-moving. Cyd\’s sarcastic observations on everything is pretty amusing. She thinks she\’s cooler than everybody. She wants to push people\’s buttons, do forbidden things and flaunt her bad-girl persona. What I really didn\’t get was that after getting pregnant and secretly having an abortion (which I would think is a traumatic experience) she doesn\’t wise up at all but keeps messing around with boys. I was a bit surprised at some of Cyd\’s attitudes, but maybe that\’s the whole point. It\’s a good, quick read if you want to get inside the head of a conflicted teenager who feels vulnerable but doesn\’t want to admit it.

Rating: 3/5 172 pages, 2002

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Past Reads, Young Adult

Month: November 2008

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