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Reading Wednesday

    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee

    September 28, 2022
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    I have read a few books about the frightening authoritarian regime of North Korea. I particularly loved this true story of one young girls decision to escape and the harrowing details her escape entailed. Here is my book review The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee.

    Described as ruthless and secretive, the dictatorship of North Korea tries to make both the outside world and it’s own citizens believe it is a powerful utopian society. But it is far from it. The brutal regime creates a world where it’s citizens starve or work themselves to death. A life where illegal activity is a norm just to feed your family. A secretive and terrifying life where citizens just disappear never to be seen again.

    At age seventeen Hyeonseo decides to leave her mother and brother and cross the river to China. Her first thought is she would go just for a few days and then cross back. But it will be twelve years before she sees her family again.

    Through it all she lives a secretive life trying to avoid extradition and starvation. Eventually she meets a man who she is initially afraid to be honest with. But he is encouraging to her and she finally decides to leave China and make her way to South Korea and claim asylum.

    Eventually she will undertake a harrowing journey to save her mother and brother. It is all a miracle really, and something few people would attempt.

    Well written and easy to read, I enjoyed this story of this brave girl. I think you will too. Thank you for reading my book review The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee.

    ****Four stars for The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee

    See last week book review Booth by Karen Joy Fowler.

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    Book Review Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

    September 21, 2022
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    Like the author, I am often intrigued to learn the backstory and family history of people who kill. Why do they kill and what skeletons in their closet could possibly cause such violence. Fowler creates a remarkable novel of both facts and fiction about the family of the infamous John Wilkes Booth. Here is my book review Booth by Karen Joy Fowler.

    The Booth Family

    You are half way through this novel before John Wilkes Booth is even born. Though he will be a character in this book, the real story is much, much broader. Fowler looks at the instability of patriarch Junious Brutus Booth, the sad and sorrowful life of Mary his wife and their ten children.

    The story, though told from the view point of most of the individual family members, is notably narrated by eldest sister of Wilkes, Rosemary or Rose. Surprisingly, Fowler has the least amount of information to draw from in history about Rose. So most of the details about her invalid and spinster life is fictional. But as the eldest sister, she makes a perfect guide to chronicle her unique and tragic family.

    Family Ties

    If John Wilkes Booth was crazy, he came by it through his mercurial father. The siblings often in competition, both feared and loved their father, who was absent for long periods due to his life as a Shakespearean actor. Three of the brothers; Junius, Edwin and John would all become actors with Edwin being considered one of the premier actors of the era.

    The trials and tribulations of this family make a great story, long before anyone shoots Lincoln. Extreme poverty to wealth and prosperity are combined with unfathomable loss of of children and property, alcoholism and rivalry, illegitimate accusations, polygamy, egos and family love and regret. It’s all there to taunt the remaining family after Wilkes pulls the trigger.

    This is a fantastic novel about characters lost in history due to the vitriol that surrounds the most famous of them. Thank you for reading my book review Booth by Karen Joy Fowler.

    *****Five stars for Booth by Karen Joy Fowler.

    Read last week’s book review Horse by Geraldine Brooks

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    Book Review Horse by Geraldine Brooks

    September 14, 2022
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    Yes this book is about a horse. In fact a real historical horse. But it is about so very much more. At the heart of this book, it is a story about racism in America past and present. I really loved it. Here is my book review Horse by Geraldine Brooks.

    Personally I am not a horse person, and the horse portrayed in this book called Lexington is not an animal I was familiar with. But if you are a horse person you might be aware of the historical lineage of Lexington. That in itself was a fascinating part of this book, but not the most fascinating to me.

    This beautiful novel follows three different storylines all connected to the Horse. First we meet Jarret in 1850 Kentucky. A Negro slave who becomes the groom to a bay foal. This relationship will form the base of the novel and follow Lexington and Jarrett and their owners through record-setting races, unimaginable profits and into the US Civil War.

    Next we meet Martha Jackson a New York City art gallery owner whose mother was an accomplished equestrian but died after a mishap on a horse. Martha becomes enamored with a painting that seems so familiar and yet how could it be?

    Finally, Washington DC 2019. Pre-pandemic and we meet Nigerian born Theo an art historian and Jess an Australian born scientist at the Smithsonian. Jess and Theo are unexpectedly thrown together when Theo finds a piece of artwork in a rubbish pile.

    I really enjoyed Brooks’ ability to connect multiple story lines to Horse – Lexington – both through amazing historical research as well as brilliant fictional development to build the plot. Throughout the book you will find both real life historical figures entwined with fictional ones, both human and equine.

    Using a thoroughbred horse to teach us lessons in racism is a brilliant play by Geraldine Brooks. I loved it. And learned a lot. Thank you for reading my book review Horse by Geraldine Brooks.

    *****Five stars for Horse by Geraldine Brooks

    Read last week’s book review Bewilderment by Richard Powers here https://myfabfiftieslife.com/book-review-bewilderment-by-richard-powers/

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    Book Review Bewilderment by Richard Powers

    September 7, 2022
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    My first time reading Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Powers. His latest novel was definitely bewildering. Here is my book review Bewilderment by Richard Powers.

    Astrobiologist Theo is raising his unusual son Robin alone, after the somewhat mysterious death of his activist and biologist wife. The near future world they inhabit is a complex planet suffering from devastating climate change, ecological demise, and a tyrannical and egotistical President. Hmmm. Where have we heard this before?

    Robin is a troubled but talented boy, trying to understand the death of his mother, while worrying incessantly about the expiring planet. Theo decides to enroll Robin in an experimental treatment to help the angry child. The treatment is neurofeedback using corded memory patterns from his dead mother.

    The treatment turns Robin around, and in fact brings out his artistic and intellectual genius. Until the spiraling world means budget cuts and Robin no longer can receive the treatment. The boy begins to slip.

    This story has multiple themes of love and commitment, both to family and the planet and how choices and ignorance can kill not just the earth, but families, futures and everything we take for granted.

    It was truly bewildering. Thanks for reading my book review Bewilderment by Richard Powers.

    See last week’s book review French Braid by Anne Tyler.

    ****Four stars for Bewilderment.

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    Book Review French Braid by Anne Tyler

    August 31, 2022
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    I seem to have falling into a series of novels about dysfunctional families. This book is totally in that category. I’m still processing this weird family as I write this book review French Braid by Anne Tyler.

    dys·func·tion·al

    /ˌdisˈfəNG(k)SH(ə)nl/

    Learn to pronounce

    adjective

    1. not operating normally or properly.”the telephones are dysfunctional”
      • deviating from the norms of social behavior in a way regarded as bad.”an emotionally dysfunctional businessman”

    I tried to like this book but I struggled through it. I’ve read a lot of books about families with issues, but this one was just plain weird. We are introduced to the Garrett family in the 1950’s. Mother Mercy and Father Robin seem initially to be happily married but there is an underlying current in Mercy that is driving her to be an artist.

    Teenage daughters Alice (sensible) and Lily (boy crazy) are polar opposites and clearly don’t like each other. Alice watches out for little brother David, who seems to have some mental issues of his own. Early on in the book I liked Alice for stepping in as a mother figure for the young boy. But as Alice matures and starts her own family she is controlling and demanding and I don’t like her anymore.

    As David becomes a man he extricates himself almost entirely from his family. At the same time Mercy decides to get an apartment to use as a “studio” but slowly extricates herself from the family home and her husband Robin. Robin, sad and lonely refuses to acknowledge Mercy has left him and goes on living as if nothing has changed.

    It’s a sad and cruel and heartbreaking tale of a family, like many families, who hide their real truths, find fault in each other and grow apart, often with regret.

    Tyler, who won a Pultizer for her novel A Spool of Blue Thread did not hit it for me in French Braid. I tried but didn’t love it. I hope you enjoyed my Book Review French Braid by Anne Tyler.

    **Two Stars for French Braid by Anne Tyler.

    See last week’s book review The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky

    History on the Half Shell

    August 24, 2022
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    Mark Kurlansky is a journalist who has worked as a correspondent all over the world. He also has written numerous books with vast and interesting themes. My husband read his book Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (published 1997). And then we both read Salt: A World History (published 2002. Fascinating. And now we found this book, while perusing the gift shop at the tenement museum in New York City. Here is my book review The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky.

    Why Oysters?

    Even if you aren’t a fan of oysters on your plate, you might still enjoy how this unique book takes the reader through hundreds of years of region we know today as New York City. The history of the shellfish is a marvelous vehicle to use to tell a historical tale.

    When the Dutch arrived the 1600’s the oyster was something they fed on both out of love and need. But long before, the Native’s also ate the mollusk, though more for enjoyment than sustenance as it takes a lot of oysters to create enough calories to sustain a man.

    As the city grew, so did the piles of left over shells, and it took more than a hundred years before any kinds of conservation efforts began. Of course the early settlers did not understand the important role the oysters played as a filtration system for clean water. By the time environmental awareness began in the 20th century the Hudson River and New York Harbor were a polluted mess and the oysters were gone.

    Delicious and Educational

    Kurlansky creates a book filled with cultural, culinary, religious, theatrical and historical information, including some fun recipes, as he guides the reading through the Big Oyster – History on the Half Shell.

    ****Four stars for The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky.

    See last week’s review of The Codebreaker by Walter Isaacson.

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    Reading Wednesday

    Book Review The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

    August 17, 2022
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    Jennifer Doudna is The Codebreaker. Walter Isaacson is the renowned author who can take her story and put it in lay terms we all can understand. Here is my book review The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson.

    The full title of this book is The Code Breaker Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race. My friend who is a librarian recommended this book to me. I listened to it on audible on a road trip. Though I might have gotten lost if I had been reading instead of listening to this book, which takes the reader through a fascinating history of gene editing. But I loved it as an audible book. Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Prize winner, along with a wide cast of other characters, are the brilliant and captivating scientists whose work has thrown open the door to gene editing.

    The decades of research and discoveries Doudna and her team, and many more teams around the world have done leading up to the current pandemic, were instrumental in developing tests for Covid. Their work will continue to impact the human race forever.

    Isaacon, whose list of books about intriguing people includes Steve Jobs, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, da Vinci and others, is a talented and compelling writer. His knack for taking a difficult and deep subject and creating words and voices that are understandable and engrossing for the average person is remarkable. Everyone can learn something from The Code Breaker while realizing the human side of beguiling and competitive scientific developments.

    I learned so much from this book.

    *****Five stars for The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Code Breaker by Walter Issacson.

    Read last week’s book review Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

    Check out our Reading Year In Review here for 15 of my favorite books of the past year.

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