Summer Cannibals

I was hoping for an easy breezy summer read, the kind of escape you can get into by the pool.
Melanie Hobson's first novel wasn't exactly that. We were "tricked" with a pleasant beginning, an idyllic description of the large family house. But then we meet David in chapter 2.  

There is so much hostility in the Blackford family, it's a dominant part of each personality.
David is an outright asshole. He's "resigned" to women: is forever lamenting over how hurt he is that he had three daughters, and figured getting married would mean regular sex. Certainly not in the least, he's abusive he to his wife. Other snippets into his far from redeeming personality include his insulting views on Africans, and how he looks down on the modest homes on his street. So yeah, there was nothing likable about main character David. 

Margaret is unhappy with David, who she thinks is always trying to best and outmaneuver her. She resents how deeply he sleeps, as she sleeps very little. And no wonder, for Margaret has a disturbing secret. Her life is filled with betrayal and cruelty. She has a lukewarm, often curt manner with her children. She is a victim, but her twisted relationship with her husband comes to a head after a garden tour gone awry. Hobson delves into her troubled psyche to reveal why she does what she does.
Her choice of cake that she's constantly making that weekend is interesting. Fruitcake, particularly in the summer, isn't what most people crave. Margaret seems to makes it out of obligation, just like how it's eaten.  

Daughter Jax has a perfect family that others envy, but she is intent on hurting her husband. Her quest to be unfaithful to him gives her a spoiled and ungrateful image. 

Pitiful pregnant Pippa is disillusioned with motherhood and her all male home. She too was a victim, taken advantage of in her vulnerable teens.  

Eldest daughter Georgina tries to keep it all together. She's the stable one. But as with most responsible types, she puts up a good front. 

I couldn't find anything redeeming about any of the family members, although I did get satisfaction and relief in how it ended for Margaret and Pippa.
I'm glad I read Summer Cannibals, for the simple fact of being grateful that I didn't live in such a household! 

I received Summer Cannibals in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara 

Lands of Lost Borders

Travel writer Kate Harris, with her childhood friend and fellow adventurer Mel Yule took on a tremendous challenge of cycling across the Silk Road. Harris documents their triumphs and pitfalls in her vivid, captivating memoir Lands of Lost Borders.   

Just the thought of traveling such treacherous terrain and cold wet conditions as they did on bicycles makes me legs feel weak. But unable to go to Mars, her true goal, Harris chose the Silk Road. 
  
It was wonderful to hear that total strangers treated them like long lost family and took them in for a night. 
When they stayed with a Turkish family, they went with them to a  tween birthday party. It was interesting how they don't generally say the word no, considering it blunt & dismissive. 

Harris contemplated "how we long our whole lives for things we've never known, places we've never been, abstractions that come alive to us in unexpected ways. What does the Silk Road have to do with Mars, except everything? Perhaps the great task of modern explorers is not to conquer, but to connect, to reveal how any given thing leads to another: the red planet to the Silk Road, bicycles to the moon, a modern Georgian highway back in time to the Ujarma Fortress." 

There was plenty of humour and confusion on their trip, like the misunderstanding of the meaning of words. A Georgian protected areas official mistook endangered animals with dangerous animals. When Mel explained she meant species at risk, he assured them, no, you aren't at risk! A restaurant owner who gave them tea, also spoke to them at length, but they didn't understand a word of what he told them. 
Harris figured a great way to train / bulk up for her one year biking the Silk Road was with baklava.  

I particularly enjoyed her detailed description of the Kazakhstan train trip. The friendliness of the Kazakhs was felt, how they shared their meal, which included a goat's head; children happily played in the aisles, and no one went to sleep; and the cramped stifling sleep bunk. 

The photographs were lovely, and gave me a useful sense of the vastness of the land they traveled on. 

Mountains and lakes and rivers are the oldest kinds of borders, Harris said, and the only she fully respects.  "The problem with borders, I was beginning to realize, isn't that they are monstrous, offensive, and unnatural constructions. The problem with borders is the same problem with evil that Hannah Arendt identified:  their banality. We subconsciously accept them as part of the landscape - at least those of us privileged by them, granted meaningful passports - because they articulate our deepest, least exalted desires, for prestige and permanence, order and security, always at the cost of someone or something else. Borders reinforce the idea of the alien, the Other, stories separate and distinct from ourselves. But would such fictions continue to stand if most of us didn't agree with them, or at least quietly benefit from the inequalities they bolster? The barbed wire begins here, inside us, cutting through our very core."  

I received Lands of Lost Borders in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara 

Tiger Tiger

Johanna Skibsrud's latest collection of 14 short stories gives us glimpses into the not-so-ordinary lives of a child to a senior, and everyone in between. 

I liked how she told the soldier's story in A Horse, A Vine. It came out very easily and naturally, his thoughts fast and literal. 

The Weatherman too, comes off in the same manner. His sort of stream of consciousness dialogue takes us through his suicidal thoughts over the mundaneness that is is career, and life. 

In The Last Frontier - her take on reality TV - we discover when people aren't interested anymore, you're literally on your own. In this case, the show takes places on Mars. That's a scary thought.

Skibsrud explores how a "super human" suffers in The Remember. Does a data bank have feelings? What else are they to do with all the knowledge that's pumped into them? Of course a range of flip flopping emotions ensues.

A lot of regular people facing not so regular situations in Tiger Tiger. 

I received Tiger Tiger in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara 

The Measure of my Powers

This memoir of food, misery and Paris was mouth watering, delightfully descriptive, and poignant.
In her Eggplant Bharta chapter, author Jackie Kai Ellis shares how she was brought up with outspoken women who's opinions she took on rather than her own. Her parents were always busy managing the household, so she was conscious of not being a burden. She makes an introspective observation that from this, she learned how to not speak, and after awhile, forgot to speak entirely.  

Her sad marriage to G was the constant melancholy tune throughout The Measure of my Powers. There were several heart wrenching moments detailed, with her back and forth thoughts in the Tell Me I'm Beautiful chapter bringing it all together. It's the rationalization, followed by coming to terms with what's been going on, the understanding that your spouse would rather play mind games than give you what you need and want. 

Something wonderful to read was how Ellis overcame a painful eating disorder by travelling to Paris. It was refreshing to read her honesty about not enjoying the restaurants in Paris at first. She went to the touristy spots, and it wasn't until she discovered the markets that she had good food. 

Some miscellaneous things that also stood out: her discovery that it's not the destination, but the journey. We all are in such a hurry to find happiness, but not enjoying the now moments. 

I cheered for her for making the elusive croissant. That takes dedication, and perhaps some obsessiveness, to keep at it, and perfect the difficult recipe. 

I totally relate to needing a career that satisfies. The desire to do good and provide joy is strong. 

While the recipes sounded delectable, and the photographs were lovely, for me, they were not the focal point of the book. It was Ellis' lovely descriptions of ingredients and meals that I found memorable. She takes such care when describing food, just like she must with her cooking. I felt happy for her reading how much pleasure she gets from creating and eating her dishes. 

I received The Measure of my Powers  in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara

Ranger Games

I wasn't sure what to expect from Ranger Games - I'm anti war and not into the military, so would I even be interested? 
It turns out Ranger Games was a compelling story about a regular guy next door who always wanted to serve his country, but got caught up in participating in a crime which he wasn't fully aware of. 
We've all watched soldiers movies so we think we know what basic training is... but Alex Blum, through his cousin author Ben Blum, explains in detail not only about the pain inflicted upon recruits bodies, but their minds. It was painful to read because what happens to these young men is not far fetched, but easy to imagine. The body heals, but it's the psychological trauma that lasts and is so difficult to get past. 

In Ranger Games, we are shown what it takes to make a soldier. Alex said Basic Training and Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP) made him into a mindless follower. After the fourth week, he said he could feel his mind shut down. He no longer had an opinion, and couldn't tell right from wrong or understand emotions. He did everything his superiors asked of him because he was taught to trust and obey. This brainwashing that he describes is what makes a good soldier. No objective, independent thinking, just a blind follower. From all this, you can believe Alex didn't have the sense to comprehend they were actually robbing a bank. 

In his interviews with the mastermind of the bank robbery Luke Elliott Sommer, it felt like he was putting on a performance, being a character in a movie. Such was his wild personality. I can see a Ranger Games film in the near future. 

Interesting was psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen's lack of empathy theory Zero-Positive for those with Asperger's syndrome. He says they can't read emotions well but feel badly when told they hurt others - which could be remorse. It was something Blum contemplated in his theorizing about Elliott. 

While what lead to the crime was intriguing to read about, this book was too long, and Blum often goes into too much detail.

In this decade + long process from the crime to the researching, interviewing and writing of the book, Blum's attitude towards Alex shifts. He always defended Alex, but began doubting him towards the end. It ended up sounding like a long journey for him, a look into family, truth and fiction. 

I received Ranger Games in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara

Heart Berries

Terese Marie Mailhot's cathartic memoir Heart Berries gives us a rare type of introspection from a young writer. Her words are real, raw and riveting.  

Much like the style of the book itself, I've noted some interesting snippets. 

About white people: "White people are brutally awkward, even you." Mailhot wrote when referring to boyfriend Casey listening to a Spanish radio station to "immerse himself in the language."  

"You ruined me with a touch. It was different than exploitation." Also Casey. 

She described a blond mutt that looked like a white woman's dog as "the type of dog that was meant to be roadkill, but rescue missions for stupid dogs interfered with the natural world." 

She and her mother found an eagle carcass with it's feathers plucked, and her mother's comment was "White men." 
"Feathers are a gift and flexible protein. Mom out down tobacco and ran her fingers over its exposed parts. She told me the salmon run was coming, and this bird would have wanted for nothing. She wanted me to see the deficit white people leave." 

With pain, she explains why she was near tears over poor service from a server. She doesn't tell Casey how she & her mom were always disregarded by white waitresses and heckled by men.  

Her mother didn't foster self esteem in herself so she couldn't teach it to her daughter. She thinks "self esteem is a white invention to further separate one person from another. It asks people to assess their values and implies people have worth. It seems like identity capitalism." 

When she didn't understand a group counselor saying to forgive isn't for the perpetrator, but for one's self.  "In white culture, forgiveness is synonymous with letting go. In my culture, I believe we carry pain until we can reconcile with it through ceremony. Pain is not framed like a problem with a solution. I don't even know that white people see transcendence the way we do. I'm not sure that their dichotomies apply to me." 

About poverty: "The strange thing about poverty is that maintaining a level of desperation and lack of integrity keeps the checks rolling in." She caught hell when she was a child for lying and telling someone who called from the unemployment office that her mother was at work. 

About Paul Simon: "I began to suspect they were flirting when I went with my Mom to the library to look up if Paul Simon had a wife. I didn't want Paul Simon to be my father. I saw an album cover once. He wore turtlenecks. He was pasty. He had beady eyes." 

About love:  "I realized that love can be mediocre and a safe comfort, or it can be unhinged and hurtful. Either seemed like a good life."  

She "wondered if falling in love looked like a crisis to an observer." Said about a man she was with but didn't like, and didn't want to be distracted from the man she wanted to be with. 

About reality: "...having the baby didn't make things better."

I received Heart Berries in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara

The Seasons of my Mother

Actress Marcia Gay Harden wanted her creative mother's legacy to be about her travels and ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), not the Alzheimer's that has taken over her life. So she wrote a lovely memoir for and about her mother, with some of her own childhood experiences and start in Hollywood mixed in. 

The details that Gay Harden remembers from growing up are impressive: the precise outfits her mother wore; conversations they had, down to exact dialogue; and every single flower used in all those arrangements.  

A curiosity about The Seasons of my Mother is why there were no pictures. I wished I could see examples of Beverly's ikebana. I imagine though she chose to rely on memory and let her descriptions bring the arrangements to life. It certainly worked for the climb to a New York City apartment rooftop she and her mother took. I could visualize the beautiful star filled night sky arrangement her mom created through her well written description.  
I enjoyed learning about her family's sweet tradition of creating Mad Day bouquets and delivering "anonymously" to neighbours. 

Beverly loves sunshine, smiles, and joy - essentially the good things in life, Gay Harden says. When she then mentions that their homes always had many night lights, I found that to be interesting, it's her mother's way of getting some light in the darkness. This book is surely the brightness against the darkness that is Alzheimer's.

Her army wife description helped me see it from their, (her mother's) point of view, and understand all the change, flexibility and adapting they must do. 

The way she explained her feelings, I could understand the let down she felt over bringing her mom instead of a boyfriend who just dumped her to New Zealand. 
Totally relatable is how bad moods of, as in her example, her dad, affect the household. Also, her realization that in frustrating, tense situations, her mom didn't remain quiet because she was timid, but she was practicing self control. That's big right there. 

The life lesson she learned from her mother, to stand still and appreciate beauty, is something we all could stand to remember and practice. 

Gay Harden has an enviable, close relationship with her mother, and it was nice to read about some of their cherished moments together. 

I received The Seasons of my Mother in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara