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By bethany (dreadlock girl), November 17, 2009 00:00

(I liked both covers for this book so I just HAD to include them!!)

Guernica
by Dave Boling
372 Pages
Literary Historical Fiction
Spanish Civil War
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
September 2009

This is the narrative of the Basque life through several generations. By starting out the novel showing the beauty and strength of the Basques it allows the reader to fall in love so that we care about the people when we dive into the historically accurate battle of Guernica. More than a battle it is a massacre, a test that Germany uses to figure out if these planes and weapons could cause total devastation. When the screams quiet and people crawl out into the light again they see the complete flattening of all they knew. And soon the one thing that they hate, the shooting in Guernica is what unites them. This common bond of humanity brings culture from the shattered buildings and the people out of their lonely homes.

I found this book to be incredibly historically accurate and loved that it filled in the human aspect of the whole conflict. I love history but more than history I love the social aspect of history (history’s impact on humans)  and I loved this book because it did just that, gave a face to the Basque nation and also a voice to their past. I have recently read several others on this time period and about this location which are amazing reads as well (links posted below). There is so much to learn from history, and so much that we just can’t bear to repeat. Spain during the civil war was destroyed, and then the dictator Franco brought even more horrors to the people.

Guernica Painting by Picasso

Dave Boling is accurate, intricate and completely detailed in his re-telling of this devastating time. Having lived in Spain I could feel the hardship as I read his words. The characters he created were to die for, they were versatile, lifelike and entirely relatable.

This is a great book, it made me cry and laugh and realize that after the valley of pain we are able to feel joy better than we could before. I highly recommend that you pick this one up for any history lovers, or anyone who wants to read an amazingly hopeful and insightful book about this dark time in Spain. Yes, it gets my highest praise Stellar Five Chicken Book Award -enjoy!

Two other books I have reviewed about the Spanish Civil War and the Basque Nation:
The Return
Plants Don’t Drink Coffee

Want to get your hands on Guernica by Dave Boling??

I am a Powell’s affiliate and I do receive a percentage of the sales of any book you buy using my links. Thank you!

Comments (2)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), September 23, 2009 05:47

Plants Don’t Drink Coffee
by Unai Elorriaga (in original Basque)
Translated by Amaia Gabantxo
208 Pages
Fiction
Archipelago Books
July 2009

In Plants Don’t Drink Coffee the reader follows the story of four very diverse yet intersecting people while enjoying a ride of lightheartedness and depth. Tomas a young boy with the desire above all else to be intelligent, is the star of this novel or maybe one of the stars. He is precocious and witty and incredibly funny to read. When reading his thoughts you can hear him saying these things in a pre-adolescent, high-pitched and non-stopping excited sort of way. There is a main story which unites all four people that is clever and has a mystery feel to it, or adventure.

This book for me was a complete success. Unai did everything right in his writing and the translation was incredible as well (by Amaia Gabantxo). It was one of those books where you feel the need to keep reading it through the chapter breaks, and every time you sit down you want to lap it up. Reading about the Basque culture was very interesting to me, as it is a people group that intrigues me in their strength and resourcefulness.

I took this with me on the plane on my trip to Spain and it was the perfect read to keep my attention all through the long hours of sleeplessness on the plane, and then to help me pass some of my jet lag mid-night reading sessions after we arrived. Plants Don’t Drink Coffee never failed to impress me, I loved most the honesty of the voice, the transparency of failures, the clever voice of a child and the witty actions of everyone. It is one of the best books I have read this year. Loved it.

It is my honour to bestow upon Plants Don’t Drink Coffee my ‘can’t cluck enough’ chicken award!

Comments (8)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), September 19, 2009 15:28

On our first stroll through Segovia, Spain:

Photo Spain Posts to Date:
Spain Through My Camera Lens
Our Conquest of Spain: Arrows and Sticks

I will try to post pictures here again, but I will be uploading them all to my flickr album España.

If you want to see our pictures of Spain in your google (or selected) reader sign up for the RSS for the España flickr album.

Comments (3)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), September 18, 2009 15:43

Through the fine skill of archery, we have conquered little kid step at a time the northern mountains of Spain: Los Picos de Europa. Our journey has taken us from Soto de Sajambre to Oseja de Sajambre by use of our somewhat faithful feet and our trusted silver steed (a huge Ford van). The sights have been incredible-too much to see and enjoy. The boys are loving every new adventure and are very good at taking things as they come, it has been  a very good trip so far!

Make sure to check back in soon for pictures of castles and aqueducts and the boys avidly eating it up!

Photo Spain Posts to Date:
Spain Through My Camera Lens

I will try to post pictures here again, but I will be uploading them all to my flickr album España.

If you want to see our pictures of Spain in your google (or selected) reader sign up for the RSS for the España flickr album.

Comments (8)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), September 15, 2009 02:57

We are in Spain for the next bit, some of you have begged for pictures, others have done nothing short of threatening me….either way I feel the love, thanks! We have loved every day so far, and we are headed to Segovia to see the sights there, the castle there is impressive and the aqueduct is insanely cool. Stay tuned, I hope to have pictures up of that soon….depending on internet connection. Until then, enjoy a little tidbit of our journey in photos.

I will try to post pictures here again, but I will be uploading them all to my flickr album España.

If you want to see our pictures of Spain in your google (or selected) reader sign up for the RSS for the España flickr album.

Comments (2)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), August 4, 2009 06:40

Our friends, the Bocks (they have known me since I was 5 years old!) are leading an amazing ministry in Spain and all throughout Europe known as On The Red Box: Proclaiming Christ on the Streets of Europe.

They gather and pray together and then use props to help the listeners remember and relate to the concept they hear. From my time in Spain I know that witnessing in this way is one of the most humbling things that one can do. You stand there and people who don’t even know what you are preaching yell at you as they walk past, they laugh at you and then you realize just how much you rely on approval, and on the common consensus being that you are cool. It always made me think of Jesus and how much more it would hurt him, because when He was being laughed at it was direct, when we are mocked it says in the Bible that they are persecuting Christ, not us.

I had only heard about On The Red Box since about 6 years ago, but since there are videos up I just had to share them too. It is powerful stuff, the word of God spoken in the streets.

There is something about standing there proclaiming Christ that makes your blood run quickly through your system. Fear, energy and the power of God all contribute to the adrenaline rush, but just as God said, where His word is preached it will not come back without bringing change.

In this next clip Ben Bock (the son of the man preaching above) who is a college freshman pours out his heart to the crowd. It says something about a ministry when the kids are fired up enough by the parents to walk the walk too. It is a testimony of God’s faithfulness.

The Mirror from RedBoxMadrid on Vimeo.

When you do street ministry, you realize more than ever just how people would really see you if you were wearing a billboard sign that said: I am a follower of Christ, redeemed and forgiven- not by what I have done or will ever do. ASK ME HOW. Maybe I should make a shirt out of that. I love how people all the way in Europe can stir me on, inspire me to be aim to be Christ seeking instead of self-seeking and how to really lay it all down.

Thank you to all the peeps at On The Red Box, you inspire me!

For more information go to: On the Red Box

All images in this post are Copyright ONTHEREDBOX 2009

Comments (15)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), July 9, 2009 13:25

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,
proclaim peace, bring glad tidings of good things,
proclaim salvation, and proclaim to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52: 7

When He says “Go”, pretty much all you can do is say, “sure”. I guess “No” would work too, if you had no fear of God or disobedience (think Jonah). God is calling us to move to Spain long term, to be missionaries, all we know now is that we need to be obedient, each little decision and step at a time. We are asking Jesus to call us out onto the water with him, to feel the faith within us swell when we are walking on the water, and then the second fear and dobut seep in His hand is there to catch us.

This is what our son Jackson (5 years old) had to say about Spain, the following conversation is what he said the first time we told him that we were moving to Spain for good:

b: God is telling us He wants us to go live in Spain and tell people about Jesus. We are going to live there and be missionaries for a long time.

j: (Huge smile) That is so nice of Him!

b: what do you mean?

j: I mean, we like Spain and it is so nice of Him to send us somewhere we already want to go! Isn’t that nice of Him?

It is more than nice of Him, we are honoured to be called, it is an honour to go, to be used, to get to live in a far away place, and get to sew seeds into the place where I grew up. Spain, it certainly is nice of God to let us go somewhere we want to go. Children and their blind faith–but maybe it is more than that, God spoke through a donkey didn’t He now?