Book Buzz

KAREN CONNELLY

This memoir highlights the year Connelly spent living in a small town in northern Thailand. She was seventeen when she left for Thailand and the writing reflects this. It is not a mature work. But I enjoyed it for the insights into daily life of the Thai people, their language and their culture. When I was in Thailand I asked someone to teach me to count to ten. “Nung.” I repeated, “Nung” and the people howled with laughter. I couldn’t hear the tones of the language. The same word can have five or six meanings depending on the tone used in speech. I really never learned any Thai. But Karen lived with families and went to school with the young people. Immersion is the best way to learn a language. But of course it wasn’t easy learning the language and accepting the restraints of the culture. Being the only “farang” (foreigner) in the area she had little privacy. Being a woman she didn’t have the freedom and choices she was used to in Canada. The writing improves through out the book. She calls Thailand “the green country” and the inhabitants “the gentle people.”

What drew me to this book is some of Connelly’s other writing. The Lizard Cage is an excellent novel of modern Burma.

A good read if you are interested in Thailand and Asia.

RUPERT EVERETT

Everett’s autobiography is surprisingly well written for a Hollywood gossip rag. Having previously publish two or three novels he most certainly does have a way with words. His start was in an upper middle class English family which of course led to the brutality of boarding school. It was there Rupert got his first acting experience and made plans to attend acting school. He ended up being kicked out of acting school for being unruly. But that certainly has not hurt his career at all. Rupert is a shameless name dropper. It seems that he knows everyone in Hollywood. Light fare. I actually listened to an audio version that was abridged to 4.5 hours. At the time I was quite sick so listening was the best way to appreciate this book.

MICHEL TREMBLAY

I’ve been wanting to revisit this old friend ever since it was part of Canada Reads on CBC. I had forgotten what a challenging read it is. I had to map the author’s family tree – the characters in the book – to keep them straight. Tremblay said he wrote this novel and the next three in the series to tell his family how much he loved them. Beautiful. The novel takes place in one day. The Fat Woman is Tremblay’s mother pregnant with him. Welcome to the family.

I tried to included the family tree but the format is lost so I created a web page. Please take a look. Other character besides family are listed as well.

MARIATU KAMARA with SUSAN McCLELLAND

The Bite of the Mango is the true story of Mariatu Kamara, a girl born in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone, an impoverished country on the west coast of Africa, was in a horrific civil war while Mariatu was a child. Despite the poverty in her tiny rural village, Mariatu’s first few years are happy ones, filled with friends, games and chores.  Mariatu’s father has two wives, neither of whom seems very pleasant. Mariatu is given to an auntie to raise, which likely would have been a great idea had the village not been attacked by rebels. At the age of 12, Mariatu had her hands amputated by boy-rebel soldiers. She had been previously raped and impregnated by an older man in the village who wanted to marry her.

Despite the extreme pain and suffering Mariatu’s story is one of hope and redemption. She now lives in Toronto where she attends college. She also tours North America as a UNICEF Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

A must read.

TRAVELS IN SEARCH OF CANADA

WILL FERGUSON

Never would have thought I would read a travel book about Canada. But I enjoyed Ferguson’s ramblings. It’s part memoir, part comedy, part history as well as being a travel book. It turned out to be a great mix. I savored the stories from the places that I knew such as Thunder Bay and Moose Jaw as well as from the places that I had never visited such as “The Kingdom of Saguenay” and the “Republic of Madawaska.” Those are both parts of Canada.

Well worth the read.

MARY-ANNE KIRKBY

For people who have lived in the prairie provinces and have had some experiences of seeing and dealing with Hutterites (even if only buying their produce at Farmer’s Markets) this memoir is most provocative. Kirbey writes of loving her childhood in the colony. The freedom of the children to explore nature, to develop strong bonds of friendship and kinship. The book is rich with fascinating detail of daily hutterite life. One thing that I had not realised was how fluid a colony could be, with some people joining the brethren and some leaving.

At age ten Mary-Ann’s father decided to leave the colony and took his family with him. She was devastated leaving her friends and extended family. For the first time her sibling were her only play mates. For the first time the family cooked their own food and ate together. At the colony children ate separately from the adults. The father left because he had never been accepted and respected on the colony. Off the colony the entire family had to fight and change for acceptance and respect.

Well worth the read.

COMING OF AGE IN CHINA DURING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

MOYING LI

This moving memoir left me wondering where China would be today if the Cultural Revolution had not taken place. This heinous time left the country denuded of books, artifacts from the past and educated people. The only requirement for universities was to be peasant born. The Cultural Revolution left the people wounded, paranoid and poor. I’ve read fiction about this time in China but never a memoir. The memoir is more dynamic.

RANDY PAUSCH

AKA The Song of the Eternal Optimist

Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less time than you think. – Randy Pausch

Pausch’s lecture ”Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” was every bit as upbeat and inspirational as the man himself. Rather than focusing on dying, it was a speech about living, about achieving one’s dreams and enabling the dreams of others, about truly living each day as though it were your last. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given three to six months to live.

The book THE LAST LECTURE elaborates on the processes of writing the lecture, of his life and loves, of his out look on life and death.

It is a truly inspirering book.

AZAR NAFISI

From the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (which was a much better book) THINGS focuses on the relationship between the author and her distant mother. It does offer insights into Iranian culture such as why child abuse is rampant and the politic whirling behind the family stories. A good book that needs skimming.

MICHEL TREMBLAY

This revisiting of a favourite author started when The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant was nominated for Canada reads. Also I had recently seen Tremblay’s play For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again. First Quarter is the follow up book to Fat Woman. It is 10 years later. The family is still living together but not that successfully. It all takes place within a day. The last day of school before summer holiday. There is conflict between the sister-in-law and conflict between the children, the fat woman’s son (Tremblay) and his cousin Marcel. Marcel is a deeply troubled soul. Ten years old, epileptic and insane. Tremblay is a wonderful writer.

MY LIFE IN HOT PURSUIT OF THE WORLD’S MOST COVETED HANDBAG

MICHAEL TONELLO

Light, fluffy memoir about a man who makes his living buying Hermes brand name products from their stores at their outrages prices and selling them for more on e-bay and the internet. He had moved to Barcelona to work for a friend but when that fell through he had to find an other way to support himself. Fun.

CATHERINE SANDERSON

Sanderson’s autobiography is a story of escaping a decaying relationship by falling in love with another man she met through her blog Petite Anglaise. The author is a young English woman living in Paris; loving all things French. The first blog she ever read was Belle de Jour penned by a high-class call girl. Blogging caught her imagination and soon became her hobby if not her life. “Petite Anglaise” became a highly successful blog. She called her partner Mr. Frog and her daughter Tadpole. Her blogging community became a great source of support. She met “Lover” and discovered an intense loving relationship. He soon professed his loved and quickly suggested that they consider having a child together. But as time passed he came to discover that he was in love with Petite Anglaise not Sanderson herself. But how it all resolves? You need to read.

A good light read, especially for people interested in blogging.

DAVID SEDARIS

Sedaris’ writing is wildly popular and I can understand why. His writing is so crisp and clear and his sense of humour is so dry. I found myself laughing out loud in many places. His description of business class air travel took me back to the time I was bumped to first class with Bev on out flight to Hong Kong. And they apologized. His descriptions are so accurate. “The airline staff refer to the business-class section as “the ICU,” because the people there demand such constant attention.”

It is a fun light read. Try it.

The author is on the left, with his partner Hugh.

GUY DELISLE

Guy’s wife, Nadege, is a doctor with Doctors Without Boarders so this is not the first graphic novel that he has written about time spent in exotic locals. Burma has fascinated me since my visit in 1990. It it such a beautiful country, a jewel. Guy is at home in Rangoon with their son, trying to work despite the frequent lack of power. Nadege can only be in the field a week when she must then return to the capital to renew her passport. DWB in Burma is drowning in bureaucratic regulations. 

Though “Burma” is focused on Rangoon, it does open an interesting window into Burmese culture. Great read. I am looking forward to reading some of his past work and what he comes up with in the future. 

Bob Morris

A wonderful memoir of a man’s frustration of taking care of his 84 year old dad after Mom has died. His dad who he never got along all that well with before but who now needs him. Bob thinks that he has never gotten along with his dad because they are such opposites. But when he finally relaxes to the point that he can attract and maintain a lover his lover tells him that when I got you I knew I was getting your Dad. Well written and touching especially at the end. This one is an easy read. Enjoy.

JUDITH NIES
Both a memoir and piercing social commentary, “The Girl I Left Behind” recounts one woman’s journey toward independence and equality. It also evaluates the consequences of the feminist movement on the same women who made it happen–and on the daughters born in their wake. Nies wrote this book for her daughter who thought that the sixties were about sex, drugs and rock and roll. It needs some skimming in parts but is highly readable. Well worth the time.

Jill Bolte Taylor

A young brain scientist has a devastating stroke but decides to use that stroke as an opportunity to learn more about how the brain learns and heals. She describes the event and her subsequent lengthy recovery from a clinical and very personal point of view. What surprised me the most was the spiritual nature of the book. Her stroke damage the left side of the brain leaving the right side of the brain to flourish which left her in a state of spiritual bliss.
Jill Taylor credits her mother for her complete recovery, which took eight years, noting that stroke recovery can take much longer than we used to think was the case.

Quote:I have heard doctors say, “If you don’t have your abilities back by six months after your stroke, then you won’t get them back!” Believe me, this is not true. I noticed significant improvement in my brain’s ability to learn and function for eight full years post-stroke, at which point I decided my mind and body were totally recovered. Scientists are well aware that the brain has tremendous ability to change its connections based upon its incoming stimulation. This “plasticity” of the brain underlies its ability to recover lost function.

Very interesting, yet a light read. Highly recommended.

SHALOM AUSLANDER

“Consider the poor foreskin: an object of desire for a few, a matter of indifference for many and anathema to the Jews. Like bacon and lobster, it serves as the very definition of treif. Its rejection is the primordial sign of the Covenant.

Consider, then, Shalom Auslander. In his corrosively funny memoir, “Foreskin’s Lament,” he claims he is a foreskin: singled out, cut off and cast forth. In reality, he is something much more Jewish, almost essentially so. He’s an apikores, a heretic.”
JEWISH JOURNAL

Shalom was raised an orthodox jew. The first part of the book is him raging against god and his 600 and some rules as laid down in the Torah. Some parts of the book are laugh aloud funny. Shalom’s biggest problems is that he believes in god. But his god it the wrathful, punishing god of the old testament. This acerbic, sarcastic memoir is well worth the read.

STAN PERSKY

Essays by one of “Canada’s Premier intellectuals” to quote the Globe and Mail. Persky’s writings bridge 50 years from when he was  follower of the beats Kerouac and Ginsburg to gay activism to teaching philosophy in North Vancouver. His work is well written and well thought through. An interesting read but not for everybody.

MARINA NEMAT

There are many books being written by muslim women  about life under fundamentalist control. This memoir has an unusual twist – it is written by a Christian woman who was in high school when the Shah of Iran was replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini. She was 16 when she was arrested, tortured, imprisoned and almost executed. Makes an excellent read. It is a good tutorial on this part of our past that has so effected our present and future!

Brian