Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes is a novel that contains two parallel stories: one set in the period before and eventually including World War I and a contemporary story.
Elsa Pendleton travels with her husband, who is sent by the Royal Geographical Society, To Easter Island where she finds her passion collecting ethnographic information. Greer Farraday is a botanist who specializes in paleobotany and who goes to Easter Island to try to find out why the forests collapsed on the island.
The novel is filled with rich information about ethnography, epigraphy and paleobotany. Vanderbes shows the dogged, grueling work of a scholar that may be enlivened by discovery. However, this is conveyed through engrossing stories of the women and the island during their respective stays.
Who would enjoy this: This would be an excellent choice for book clubs and for readers who are interested in exotic places, anthropology and even readers of Jared Diamond.
Showing posts with label Rediscovering Gems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rediscovering Gems. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Rediscovering Gems: Swimming to Antarctica
The Summer Olympics are going on now and every day the newspapers have more stories about swimming. There are human interest stories about the swimmers, information about new suits and how those affect the swimmers cutting through the water and improved techniques used by swimmers. The focus on swimming made me think of Swimming To Antarctica by Lynne Cox as a book that should be re-discovered.
Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long Distance Swimmer was published in January 2004 and was written by Lynne Cox, a long distance swimmer who broke records by swimming the Cook Strait, the Bering Strait, the Cape of Good Hope and the Magellan Strait. Through her training she realizes that her body is unusually capable of withstanding extreme cold. She decides to swim a mile in the Antarctic Ocean, a swim conducted in 32 degree water, that she finishes but leaves her with some physical damage due to the extreme cold.
It is a story about discipline and sacrifice. Her commitment to long-distance swimming means that she spends much of her time in the water and is able to spend less time on in-land relationships. It reminds us that obsessions and talent have consequences, that the choices we make affect our lives and relationships.
Cox is matter-of-fact about the problems and focuses on the training, the swimming and all the auxiliary activities she needs to complete them. It is a terrific story and Cox is a terrific writer. She helps you understand why long-distance swimming is so important to her and she works to have the swims mean something to the world hoping that the swim through the Bering Strait will remind people how close in distance Russia and the US really are. Writers often say that they write because they have to, and this is a trait that is found throughout the creative professions. Cox shows that her talent and ability for long-distance swimming became something she had to do and in her book, she shares her successes as well as her challenges. Although this is about swimming, it is indeed a universal story.
Who would like this book: You certainly don't have to be a swimmer to enjoy this book. It is also a good tie-in to the Olympics. Further it is a good book to highlight the importance of discipline and the consequences (the good and bad) of following your dreams.
Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long Distance Swimmer was published in January 2004 and was written by Lynne Cox, a long distance swimmer who broke records by swimming the Cook Strait, the Bering Strait, the Cape of Good Hope and the Magellan Strait. Through her training she realizes that her body is unusually capable of withstanding extreme cold. She decides to swim a mile in the Antarctic Ocean, a swim conducted in 32 degree water, that she finishes but leaves her with some physical damage due to the extreme cold.
It is a story about discipline and sacrifice. Her commitment to long-distance swimming means that she spends much of her time in the water and is able to spend less time on in-land relationships. It reminds us that obsessions and talent have consequences, that the choices we make affect our lives and relationships.
Cox is matter-of-fact about the problems and focuses on the training, the swimming and all the auxiliary activities she needs to complete them. It is a terrific story and Cox is a terrific writer. She helps you understand why long-distance swimming is so important to her and she works to have the swims mean something to the world hoping that the swim through the Bering Strait will remind people how close in distance Russia and the US really are. Writers often say that they write because they have to, and this is a trait that is found throughout the creative professions. Cox shows that her talent and ability for long-distance swimming became something she had to do and in her book, she shares her successes as well as her challenges. Although this is about swimming, it is indeed a universal story.
Who would like this book: You certainly don't have to be a swimmer to enjoy this book. It is also a good tie-in to the Olympics. Further it is a good book to highlight the importance of discipline and the consequences (the good and bad) of following your dreams.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Rediscovering Gems: The Singular Pilgrim
The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground by Rosemary Mahoney was published in 2003. It was published around the same time as Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and it was not as popular. Mahoney details several pilgrimages, in Spain, in India, in Britain and in Ireland. It is a tale of walking, and more walking but embodies the classic religious or spiritual need to test the body and through that find faith or peace or in today's world, we may view this as a way to find oneself.
Beautifully written Mahoney struggles with her belief and the search for God. It is also a memoir describing the end of a relationship and her life as a writer. A simply wonderful book.
Who should read it: Readers who loved Eat, Pray Love and were drawn by its discussion of spirituality. The Singular Pilgrim focuses mostly on Christian pilgrimages but Mahoney does describe a pilgrimage by the Ganges.
Beautifully written Mahoney struggles with her belief and the search for God. It is also a memoir describing the end of a relationship and her life as a writer. A simply wonderful book.
Who should read it: Readers who loved Eat, Pray Love and were drawn by its discussion of spirituality. The Singular Pilgrim focuses mostly on Christian pilgrimages but Mahoney does describe a pilgrimage by the Ganges.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Rediscovering Gems: Random Family
Family sagas are popular and here is the twist with this one--it is a family saga and it is real. Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc was written after 10 years of studying a Bronx family. It centers on two young women, Jessica and Coco and follows them as they fall in love, get pregnant and start families. Jessica falls in love with a drug dealer and spends years in prison and to get away from the neighborhood and start fresh, Coco takes her family to Troy, NY.
LeBlanc does not preach or use statistics to make her case--she simply presents these lives as they happen. The women assume their own dignity but for many readers their lives will seem more like fiction than most novels because the women's experiences are so different from the lives of many readers and yet, they started off with many of the same dreams.
While there is much sadness in this book, LeBlanc's depiction of the family and their lives is engrossing, touching and well done. I started out wondering how she researched it but quickly fell into the story of their lives.
Who would like it: People who like family sagas, but more realistic ones. People who are interested in sociology and city life.
LeBlanc does not preach or use statistics to make her case--she simply presents these lives as they happen. The women assume their own dignity but for many readers their lives will seem more like fiction than most novels because the women's experiences are so different from the lives of many readers and yet, they started off with many of the same dreams.
While there is much sadness in this book, LeBlanc's depiction of the family and their lives is engrossing, touching and well done. I started out wondering how she researched it but quickly fell into the story of their lives.
Who would like it: People who like family sagas, but more realistic ones. People who are interested in sociology and city life.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Rediscovering Gems: The Lymond Chronicles
The first in the new Friday series, Rediscovering Gems, is the Lymond Chronicles. This is a series of books written by Dorothy Dunnett that follows Francis Crawford of Lymond in his adventures in 16th Century Europe and the Mediterranean. There are six books in the series: The Game of Kings, Queens's Play, Disorderly Knights, Pawn in Frankencense, The Ringed Castle and Checkmate. Clearly all use the imagery of chess and Lymond is a charismatic figure who is a patriot, a soldier of fortune, a poet and troubled man.
Dunnett is a superb author and she handles the sweeping history of the Lymond Chronicles with ease. Clearly the books are lovingly and exhaustively researched but the reader is in the hands of a wonderful storyteller so the history comes through as part of the story not like a lesson.
There are several reading guides available for this book including this site put together by Random House that includes images of all of the books, a history and reader's guide to the books.
Wikipedia has a terrific entry on the Lymond books which includes major characters, both historical and fictional, and a synopsis of each book.
Dunnett wrote another series, The House of Niccolo, that has a linkage to the Lymond Chronicles. A link to the family tree of the House of Niccolo is available through the Wikipedia link above. However, if you have not read the House of Niccolo you may find that the family trees gives away an important revelation in the final Niccolo book (I have not finished the Niccolo books so I have not yet checked out the family tree because I do not want the surprise to be spoiled.)
Who would like this gem: People who love history would love these books and the success of the Patrick O"Brian books and the rediscovery of the Horatio Hornblower books show that there is a readership who enjoy books that combine history with a sweeping story. And, Lymond is a wonderfully romantic creation and these books will appeal to those readers who enjoy a romantic figure at the heart of the story.
Dunnett is a superb author and she handles the sweeping history of the Lymond Chronicles with ease. Clearly the books are lovingly and exhaustively researched but the reader is in the hands of a wonderful storyteller so the history comes through as part of the story not like a lesson.
There are several reading guides available for this book including this site put together by Random House that includes images of all of the books, a history and reader's guide to the books.
Wikipedia has a terrific entry on the Lymond books which includes major characters, both historical and fictional, and a synopsis of each book.
Dunnett wrote another series, The House of Niccolo, that has a linkage to the Lymond Chronicles. A link to the family tree of the House of Niccolo is available through the Wikipedia link above. However, if you have not read the House of Niccolo you may find that the family trees gives away an important revelation in the final Niccolo book (I have not finished the Niccolo books so I have not yet checked out the family tree because I do not want the surprise to be spoiled.)
Who would like this gem: People who love history would love these books and the success of the Patrick O"Brian books and the rediscovery of the Horatio Hornblower books show that there is a readership who enjoy books that combine history with a sweeping story. And, Lymond is a wonderfully romantic creation and these books will appeal to those readers who enjoy a romantic figure at the heart of the story.
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