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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!

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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!

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By bethany (dreadlock girl), August 28, 2009 12:05

The Visitor
Directed by Tom McCarthy
Indie Drama
PG 13 (for brief strong language)
103 Min.
April, 2007

Awards:
Best Music – 2008 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Associat
Best Original Screenplay – Tom McCarthy – 2008 San Diego Film Critics Association
Best Independent Film – 2008 National Board of Review
Best Director – 2008 Independent Spirit Awards

Go to The New York Times for the whole list of (tons) of awards The Visitor was nominated for as well as those which it received.

A grieving and bored-with-life professor (Richard Jenkins) is just getting by in life. He survives committing himself to nothing more than the minimum effort required to make it day by day- he eats, sleeps and works. When his boss sends him to represent a paper he co-authored he finds something waiting for him in his apartment. Unsure and very cautious he takes a full step forward, it is by mistake that he finds himself  with the hope of human relationships. The need for family, for a human bond will make the widowed professor Walter Vale assess the real value of all that he has and has lost- and needs to get back.

This flick is the type where while (and after) you watch it you just can’t imagine how it could have not been brought to your attention before. I only have the Netflix automated suggestions computer to thank that I have even seen it now. For me there are films, flicks and movies…those which you choose because you just want to veg and sit and watch- they aren’t really worth the time, but they are just filler in a busy day. And then there are movies like The Visitor, which I watched almost two weeks ago and still I am thinking about it, chewing it, loving it. The actors, (Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira and Hiam Abbass) although not really bigwigs, they did some of the best acting I have seen in a long time. Plot, acting and cinematography all work together to make The Visitor a flick worth its weight in books. Yes, this is a must see, period.

The Visitor is a story of  grief, of relationship, of family and the loss that is felt when people leave. Holes which we think can never be filled again. In truth that exact place cannot be perfectly matched. But because we fear moving on it is easy to be trapped in a place where our joy is limited- by no one else but ourselves. Choosing to live in the past so as not to forget, so as not to move on. Fear and love hold tight, only to be broken open when the grieving person allows for joy to come back in.

When life takes turns to drastically satisfy are we ready to jump with it, or is the choice  of ‘moving on’ just as hard as living  a life in mourning?

I have a new award, I think you will like it and I am honoured to give it to this flick before any other one, yes this movie is to cluck about!

This is The Visitor trailer, however I will caution you that if you already want to see it after the review that you NOT watch it….I wish I had expereienced the film for the first time while watching it. I feel like too much is given away in the trailer. But if you aren’t convinced yet, after my review….check out the trailer, then you will be won over completely. Promise.

If you are a Netflix customer, you can view The Visitor as a “watch instantly” flick, and really you should head over and do that right now.

Check out The Visitor links:

The Visitor on Rotten Tomatoes. com
The Visitor: Netflix
New York Times Critics’ Pick: The Visitor Review

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By bethany dreadlock girl, April 28, 2009 07:10

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sajie ( 戴思杰 )
International Fiction
208 Pages
published in 2000
Anchor Books

During China’s Cultural Revolution, books were banned, children of well-off parents were sent off alone to work in the rural communities, and the government held a fear of anything that did not blatantly support the movement. It was a time of darkness throughout the country, and where regulations and impediments became more important than all else. This is the time period of which Dai Sajie writes in his novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. A story of love, of jealousy, and of children becoming men and women in this critical time frame in China’s government.

In this novel, two city boys are sent to work in the fields in the country. While there they meet and fall for the tailor’s daughter, who proves to be the jewel to be had. This little seamstress, who is more beautiful than any of the other girls (at least in the opinion of her suitors).All three of them, the seamstress, Luo and Ma (the narrator) become so obsessed with reading these forbidden books that they are willing to risk it all, for they could be severely punished for their attempts at obtaining any book which is not governmental propaganda.

The longer I waited to review Balzac and the Little Seamstress, the more it sunk in, the more I just really did love it. I really did. I bought this a year ago, mostly because the cover completely captivated me and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. It was actually even better that I expected, and you had better believe that I had height expectations. The simple and yet stout style of Dai Sijie is perfect for the book. He has written a superb gem here, the inside of the book is even better than the outside! I loved the main characters, the writing was just right and the story/plot couldn’t have been any better. Seriously, it was just so good. Plus, it was about another country, and I love to read abroad!

If it could possibly get any better, it does. For all of us who are obsessed with books, it has a hidden special element of attraction. Can you even imagine if all books that were not written to glorify the current government were banned? What would become of us? I became completely entranced. This gets a full five chickens from me peeps, no doubt. So stop drooling over that beautiful cover and start drooling over the inside!

What would you do if books were banned? Can we even comprehend that here with all the freedoms we have?

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By bethany dreadlock girl, April 17, 2009 21:00

The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
256 pages
Literary fiction
Riverhead Books
March 2009

Living is very different when your life is under constant threat, when each time you leave the house you run, knowing you are observed and are very much a walking target. In these situations life takes on a whole value. What is important enough to actually put your life in their hands for? Then you wonder when it became an act of bravery to cross the threshold of your door. This is the everyday life, the new normal for those in Sarajevo during the siege. The Cellist of Sarajevo is a novel based on a non-fictional siege, and a non-fictional well known local cellist, Vase Smailovic a who played Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor for twenty-two days as a tribute to those who had been killed while standing in line waiting to buy bread. During this twenty-two day period not only is Sarajevo the cellist’s audience, but the audience extends far beyond the well guarded borders of even Sarajevo itself, the world is his audience.

In a nation that is being torn apart, what will make those in the city stop and see that there still is anything worth living for? Society is not buildings, it is not libraries, or community halls-those are the shells that societies leave behind, the remnants and evidence that the people were there working together. Society is a community, the relationships held between people, and an understanding of an acceptable way to treat one another. When that society is under attack, a new normal emerges for its civilians, a new acceptable way to interact with others which is more an instinct than an interaction. When society as we know it falls apart and there are no longer any rules to how we should act, it is from within us that our actions arise. Those actions will prove a person to be a man or woman of courage and heart, or a human who only lives to protect itself.

The Cellist plays, and it is not he that is the focus in this novel, but those he impacts, his audience. There are three main characters which the narrator follows on their daily routine and of which the reader learns their thoughts and fears. Music, as all forms of art, inspires people to continue on, to hope for a future in a better world, and even to remember the past. Every day during the twenty-two day tribute, the Cellist was giving an outdoor concert- the notes rising amongst the broken buildings, the burnt down libraries, and mending the dreams and hearts of the broken people. And yet, that is just the starting point of this novel- it is what those three characters do with the hope that has been given them that caries the musical notes beyond just the listeners who were inspired.

For me personally The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway was one of those books, the books that you think about, dream about and live in while you are reading them, and those that you can’t seem to let go of thinking about even when you have finished the last page. The writing of Steven Galloway is astonishing, it is human and beautiful. Even though he is writing about a very devastating time in history, his characters still find joy in the simple things of life. It may sound strange but Steven Galloway does an excellent job filtering in humor and lightness into this book. This allowed me to see that no matter how difficult of a place a person is in, there is still humor, because when the lightness and humor die that means all hope is lost. Both my husband and I read this and both loved it, if we both loved it that says a lot for the book, as we generally like very different books. I am granting The Cellist of Sarajevo my Stellar Five Chicken Book Award, and if you still haven’t figured it out from my review, yes it is THAT good.

This is the second book that I have read about the conflict in Sarajevo. I also read and reviewed Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic . Check that out too.

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By bethany dreadlock girl, March 28, 2009 02:44

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jaime Ford
304 pages
Fiction
Ballantine Books
(January 27, 2009)

In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jaime Ford creates not just a book about the issues surrounding the Japanese living in the US. during the relocation period of WWII, but he creates an entrancing and dynamic family and ethic relationship, by the end of which your nails will be bitten down to stubs. This is a novel, based on the historical facts of treatment of Japanese immigrants (including those of Japanese ancestry) who were living in the Seattle area during that period, but it would be so bland to let it lie there. Yes, it would, that is just the historical backdrop for a tale that is so much deeper, and more personable.

Henry, the son of Chinese immigrants befriends a lovely American girl of Japanese ancestry. Although she is a second generation American, and does not speak Japanese, she is the enemy not just to other Americans, but to Henry’s father as well. He grew up in China at war with Japan and holds on to incidences of mistreatment towards his own people in the hands of the Japanese against Keiko. Through years of stubbornness, dominion and silence Henry learns to find his own way of surviving, of thinking and feeling. He comes to the understanding that what is most important is that he look out for those he loves, no matter what.

The things that really allowed me to immerse myself in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet were the deep relationships, the strong writing of Jaime Ford, my love of all thins Japanese, that I am completely interested in history, that the book is based in the Northwestern United States (where I live), and the depth of the characters. I loved Henry, Keiko, Sheldon, Marty and well, I guess actually each of the characters, even the ones with bitterness and regret. I somehow felt like I understood their actions, their mindset and although not in agreement with them I could see through the words on the page to people of flesh and bone.

It is a love story in so many ways but not just a fleeting romantic love, but a love that stands the time it takes to reach it, and that spoke to me. It is the story of first love, and the story of a love that endures and is faithful, the story of love between father and son, mother and son. It never felt gushy to me, but I am a girl so hold that lightly. I don’t know…I guess you’ll just have to read it, and I really hope that you will because this was a STELLAR FIVE CHICKEN BOOK! I guess that means that Jaime Ford has to do a happy chicken dance?

Here are some pictures of posters that were plastered on all the walls in the Japanese section of Seattle in the 1940’s:

Newspapers showing headlines written during the displacement of the Japanese people:

Rounding them up and putting them on trains headed to ‘inland’ camps (supposedly for THEIR own protection!):

Trailer by Jaime Ford about his book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet:

Trailer on the historical background of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet:

Jamie Ford’s Website

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By bethany dreadlock girl, March 23, 2009 22:36

Anne of Avonlea
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
256 pages
Ages 9-12
Sterling (October 7, 2008)
first published in 1909

The second book in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Mud Montgomery, was just as spectacular and worthy of its classic status as the first. I am not a big believer in sequels, I know there are few occasions on which sequels work, but to me it seems they have more of a cult following than actual talent. Of course there are exceptions, but generally the story that needed to be told was told and people move on (or should move on) to different character entrancements. Anne of Green Gables left me no where near done learning about Anne Shirley nor Gilbert Blythe, I guess I am a cult member of the Anne club now. I love those two youngins!

In this book Anne starts out at 16 years old and she takes on the local school, she is just as hazardous as always and while she has grown out of the vain mischief that so surrounded her actions in Anne of Green Gables, she will still find ways to cause damage to property, people and well, just some good ‘ol time confusion. Oh, yes it is always an accident, and always more than entertaining to watch her try and fix the problems that she has caused.

In this book I never felt a pinch of annoyance with Anne as I did in the first one, she is much more mature and less dreamy and chattery. I did expect things to move quicker between her and Gilbert though, and was a little disappointed that it didn’t progress more rapidly. That is just the romantic in me though, the rest of me loves that they held off, I mean they are still really young when this book ends and it wouldn’t make any sense to move so fast, but still I wanted to gush.

Yes, this is another stellar performance by Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe and of course author Lucy Maud Montgomery! I loved the whole world of Green Gables and beyond that she created for me to inhabit as I read through Anne of Avonlea. I will no doubt pick up the next one when I go to the library. Yes this book takes the cake as a five star “On the Lowest Shelf Children’s Book Reviews” feature. Well worth the read! Careful though, you’ll get sucked in!

I have been interested in watching it on the screen, but I am a little confused with all the different versions out there. Can anyone help me who is a Anne fan? I would like to watch Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea on DVD or if possible online. Any hints or ideas? Are there good versions and bad ones?